Tom MacGregor speaks of me in this fashion - One such individual made that perfectly clear when she returned to the Fife Board after a self-imposed exile. Did it not occur to him that he was the reason for my self imposed exile. I was dismayed that new and old rootschatters were spending time & money to assist someone who wanted no assistance. I thought if he was ignored, he would stop publishing his family names - but no - if no-one responded to his posts Tom Macgregor replied to himself - in one instance 25 posts without another RootsChatter showing any interest. Eventually I decided the 25% of my roots embedded in Fife deserved better than to be buried under a tonne of coloured names from the IGI.
In the name of all that is good about RootsChat and noting that the moderators have decided to let this thread stay, I will try, yet again, to explain to Tom MacGregor (and I will hope that he will read the explanation), what is a genealogy message board on the internet, and how it differs from a blog. This may help him realise why threads started by him tend to become distrupted, when other threads on the Fife board, and on all the other Scottish boards, sail along very happily.
Folks use genealogy message boards to help each other with their research. They do this because they enjoy it, because many of us have roots scattered around the world & may have no access to needed information. We don't usually expect to find living relatives on a message board, but on rare occasions this happens. We do often find folks who live near or know about our areas of interest. We also find many experienced internet researchers who can point us into directions where what we want may be found.
What we don't find on message boards are folks publishing their family history, so they can tell other researchers the names of every person they have found in their years of research. This is what people publish on their own internet site, or on a Blog. Both of these types of internet sites, allow one to talk about whatever you want, without any interference from anyone.
If an initial query on a time, place or name receives no response, you accept that for the moment, no-one knows. If you receive a short response telling you where to look - you say thanks - and move on. If perchance a number of people join in the discussion, all adding detail you could never have found yourself - that is the true joy of a message board. What you don't do, is ignore some replies, disparage some replies, and then tell the other folks, who looked in many places to help - oh by the way, my neighbours in Fife shared this with me years ago!
When Tom Macgregor started publishing his family history in a colourful and detailed manner, most rootschatters with an interest in Scotland thought he was looking for assistance & spent time and money providing him with information. It was revealed, however, that Tom already had 99.9% of the information required and was either confused about the aims of RootsChat or simply wanted a place to tell the world about his research. I initially gave him the benefit of the doubt - but as he has continued to overpower the Fife board with names and questions to which he knew the answer - I came to believe the only thing he wanted to do was preach. This meant he flooded the fife board with information of no interest or use to other researchers & those who were seriously looking for help in Fife had their messages lost within his sea of posts.
Sadly this current thread has confirmed my thoughts. Those who made suggestions as to where/how to look for the information requested were disparaged, and the very kind researcher who provided the detail From Caledonian Mercury 8 March 1849 has to see the following response
Oh, incidentally, the individual who was drowned on the "Mary" off Bass Rock situated in the Firth of Forth, was John HEUGH.
So yet again, a question was asked, Rootschatters searched for answers, provided replies, and Mr MacGregor then announced he knew the answer.
A message board is not the place where one says
Let me make it clear that I wished to share with other researchers much of the information that members of my family and I had taken the trouble to accumulate
Other researchers do not want or need the detail of your family members - they are usually searching for their own. If you would like to share skills on HOW to research deaths at sea - fabulous, but this shouldn't include a rhetorical question (that some think is genuine) nor detail of birth marriage children etc.
In summary - the KISS definitions
Genealogy Message boards are for interaction with others and helping each other with research
Blogs and Web sites are for family history publications
Retorical questions are an insult to other posters
If Tom Macgregor wants to join in discussions on RootsChat & help others research their families - wonderful - if he wants to force his family names into every thread in which he participates, other rootschatters are likely to continue to ask WHY
Trish
