I am a volunteer administrator at Rootsweb. There are thousands of us. It is our job to take a mail list or a message board and look over it. There's not much to the job, and it can be fun, enjoyable and satisfying. If you're not doing it, and you're interested, consider doing it.
What does it mean to look over a message board? You make certain the posts do not violate the 'Acceptable Use Policy', and that they are on-topic. You can move a post to another board if it would be on-topic there, or you can delete a post if it violates the rules. Those rules are obvious—no pornography, no insulting language, etc.
For a mail list the rules are more or less the same. You subscribe or unsubscribe subscribers whenever they, for whatever reason, cannot do so themselves. A few administrators choose to subscribe or unsubscribe everybody. You deal with the bounces—if a list subscriber's mail is bouncing (perhaps his mailbox is full, or the address is no longer good) you find out about it. You are supposed to promote the list, make it known that it exists, at times you start discussions, and, at times, end a discussion. There are a few rules, or guidelines here, not much.
I administer, presently, three surname mail-lists, two specialized genealogy mail-lists, and eight surname message boards. The boards were originally at Ancestry.com, and the mail lists at Rootsweb.com. Rootsweb was then bought by Ancestry, and all the boards at Ancestry were duplicated on the Rootsweb servers. You can see the same message boards—all the same postings—and you can "administer" the boards at either Ancestry or at Rootsweb. The only difference is that each has their own distinctive type face, format or style.
Lastly, a few words, which I agree with fully, written by Valorie Zimmerman, a follow list administrator:
RootsWeb was founded in 1996 by Dr. Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson.
Due to their foresight, expertise and financial contributions, we're all
here enjoying one or many of the mailing lists and other marvelous
services to genealogists which reside here at RootsWeb. We are
fortunate, indeed, to have all this genealogy at our disposal. To find
out more about what else is available, go to
Rootsweb.com
and
explore a bit. If you are not yet a contributor to RootsWeb,
consider volunteering. Your efforts added to that of any others can help
sustain and nourish this wonderful resource.
Share Your Research
.
The three boards that correspond to my three surname lists are "gatewayed" to
their respective lists. That means that once a post is made to the board, it
is immediately posted on the surname list of the same name. I do not have the
THOMSEN, OP DEN GRAEFF or the HALTERMAN mail lists, but the Thomsen and Op den Graeff boards are also "gatewayed" to their Lists.
The Halterman board is not. There are no HALTEMAN or SCHWENKFELDER Lists, but there
is
a
Schwenkfelder Descendants List. And there is no Rootsweb message board for Danish Roots---but there is one at Yahoo!
The Message Boards:
HALTEMAN [H435] Message Board at Rootsweb.com
HALTEMAN Message Board at Ancestry.com
HALDEMAN [H435] Message Board at Rootsweb.com
HALDEMAN Message Board at Ancestry.com
HALTERMAN [H435] Message Board at Rootsweb.com
HALTERMAN Message Board at Ancestry.com
WOLFRAM [W416] Message Board at Rootsweb.com
WOLFRAM Message Board at Ancestry.com
WOLFRUM [W416] Message Board at Rootsweb.com
WOLFRUM Message Board at Ancestry.com
THOMSEN [T535] Message Board at Rootsweb.com
THOMSEN Message Board at Ancestry.com
SCHWENKFELDER Message Board at Rootsweb.com
SCHWENKFELDER Message Board at Ancestry.com
OPDENGRAEFF Message Board at Rootsweb.com
OPDENGRAEFF Message Board at Ancestry.com
The Mail Lists:
Wolfram |
Haldeman |
Wolfrum |
Schwenkfelder Descendants |
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About this Site Friday, 03-Sep-2004 02:28:10 MDT