CAALAMED-L Archives

From: George Rushton <>
Subject: [CAALAMED] SundayCoffee@topica.com
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 14:50:32 -0800 (PST)

Found this on another list, do not know anything
about, but it looks interesting.

George

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 07:41:50 -0700
From: Colleen Pustola <>
Reply-To:
To:



Today's topics include:

1. Welcome to new subscribers
2. A continuation from last week's Coffee re: scams
a. Genealogy Developments ~ is it
familydiscovery.com?
b. GedLink


TO OUR NEWEST SUBSCRIBERS ~~

I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those of
you who joined us
this past week. We are very glad to have you and hope
you'll stay and
remain a part of us. This is not a discussion group,
but a read-only
service. If you would like to make any comments
regarding this Coffee
or any others, you are welcome to send them to me at
<>.

Please share this Coffee with your genealogy friends
and relatives and
invite them to join us, as well. To subscribe to this
newsletter all
they need to do is send a blank email to
<>.

A CONTINUATION FROM LAST WEEK'S COFFEE re: SCAMS

I covered the subject regarding scams last week and
was supposed to
have
discussed two other subjects today (see, it's right
here on my
calendar!). However, I've received so many messages
regarding
Genealogy
Developments and Gedlink that I decided I'd better
cover both in depth.
It seems that each enterprise has begun a publicity
campaign and
everyone is wondering, "is it a scam?" Here's the
lowdown on each:

a. GENEALOGY DEVELOPMENTS ~ IS IT
FAMILYDISCOVERY.COM?

"This is a new commercial enterprise!"

No, it isn't. This has all the trappings of Family
Discovery using a
new alias; same ploy as before ~ just with a new
wrapping. Avoid them
like you would any of Family Discovery's other
"enterprises."

Tender newbies, if you didn't follow up on the links I
gave you last
week, then you still don't know and most definitely
need to read this:

The subject of Family Discovery is NOT new and yes,
they are rip-offs.
This is an old subject among those of us who have been
doing online
genealogy for at least the last two years. The
storyline changes a
little, but the players are all the same, and you
should be made
aware...

Family Discovery, et al links their pages to free
Rootsweb
<http://www.rootsweb.com>; sites and archive pages,
GenWeb sites, and
privately owned sites by way of frames ... sites on
which all the
information is already free. Unless the attached site
has some sort of
identifier on each page, you the viewer, will not
realize that you're
viewing free pages and *paying* for the "privilege" of
doing so!
Family
Discovery is doing this without permission and are
currently under
investigation by at least two states' attorneys.

Genealogy Developments advertises, "Currently we
provide easy access to
over 900 million records." Of course they can say
something like that!
Think about all the free sites there are to link to!
We are here for
your convenience as a researcher. (I'd like to know
who COUNTED all
those records that they can say something like that,
by the way!) Then
they go on to say, "We are working on a very large
scale SEARCH ENGINE
that will search billions upon billions of genealogy
records." [my
capitals]

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
Genealogy Developments is
advertising precisely what Family Discovery, et al
does ... a search
engine, and it's always "planned to be up and running
within the next
month."
<http://www.genealogydevelopments.com/records.html>;

Please, heed this warning. A new ad has begun to
circulate under the
name of <GenealogyDevelopments.com>. Visit their site
<http://www.genealogydevelopments.com>;, have a good
look around ... do
you see a contact address? No? There's a good clue
for you to realize
that something isn't up to what it reports itself to
be. (It doesn't
really make a difference because even if there was one
your messages
would not be answered.)

Now, while I'm at it, you need to know the other
aliases so you're not
taken in. Following is a list of sites associated
with Family
Discovery
domain owners in one way or another:

genealogydevelopments.com
familydiscovery.com
genealogyfinders.com
genealogyfinders.net
aboent.com
genseeker.com
genseekers.com
genealogy-express.com

Most of the above sites bill themselves as "the most
comprehensive easy
to use collection of online records ever compiled," or
something close
to it. Of course it is, if they link to every free
website they can
find! Save your money and do the search yourself!
You DO NOT need to
pay for a service that is already free if you know
where to look. If
you need assistance, send a message to the list and
state in the top
line of your message that you're a newbie needing
help; you'll probably
get more than you can handle! :)

Gene Olson has has been a chronic thorn (yeaay!) in
the side of the
owners of the above sites to the point of having a
death threat put
against him! At first he focused strictly on
FamilyDiscovery.com in an
attempt to get them prosecuted. He has since
refocused his Anti-Family
Discovery Web Site and broadened its scope. It now
includes any
company
that uses illegal or unethical business practices.
You newbies to
online genealogy would be wise to go to his site and
read up on this
company so you won't be ripped off. Click on the
following link and
you'll be taken directly to his site:
<http://www.compuright.net/badbusiness/>;. Gene's
email address is
<>.

Another site has taken over where Gene Olson left off.
The website,
Census Diggins, which I gave you a link to last week
<http://www.censusdiggins.com/familydiscovery.html>;
has messages online
from quite a few people who have stepped forward to
tell you of their
dealings with Family Discovery and some of their
aliases. If you
haven't done it already, it would be in your best
interests to check it
out, if only for a quick look.

Just please, remember the above list of aliases.
These people will
take
your money, giving you little to nothing in return,
and from their past
history will not answer any of your messages. Hide
your wallet,
checkbook, credit card, and run! :)

b. GEDLINK

*EVERYONE* seems to be wondering about GedLink. Are
they a scam, or
what? Does anybody know anything? Well, I have to
honestly say, I
don't know if they're a scam. However, I DO know a
few things which I
now report here:

We DO know that GedLink is in the middle of a major
publicity campaign
because mention of their messages is popping up all
over the lists.

I've been doing a little investigating on GedLink
because I've received
so many messages asking about the site. They ask you
to register (not
a
problem), and you have to download a trial version of
their program
(free) to link up with others. The premise here is to
be able to allow
others to view your data at the same time you're
viewing theirs.

What they don't tell you until about four pages into
the site, at the
end of registration, is that they want you to become a
member for
$19/year which allows them "to develop, maintain and
constantly upgrade
the system and gives you access to the FULL version,
allowing you to
request family trees." Until you pay, you can't
access the promised
features.

One of GedLink's designers said in an online message,
"The GedLink
Software can be freely used. With GedLink, you can
search for names,
issue requests, and send messages without becoming a
paying member. We
don't want to write that the user has to pay for
GedLink before the
registration, in order not to frighten him before he
has first used the
Software, and we think it's not necessary, because
there is no cost
involved for the basic features the user expects
(search, requests...)
.
On the second hand, it's true that we want to offer
more features to
paying members, as soon as we end the test phase, but
GedLink shall
always stay satisfying and useful for simple users who
don't want to
pay."

Further down the same message the Gedlink designers
says, "let me try
to
reassure you a little about our company. "Infoduc"
exists since 1994.
Its main product was a French shareware for genealogy,
called "Win
Genealogic," until we decided 1999 to "go internet".
We created
"notrefamille.com", a still flourishing web based
service for the
family, including genealogical tools. We signed some
partnerships with
important French portals like "Wanadoo" (France
Telecom) and "AOL
France", where our genealogical tools, including
GedLink, will soon be
available. They can be presently seen on voila.fr
(which belongs to
France Telecom)." I checked and they are indeed seen
on the following
site:

http://noms.voila.fr/s/f1/welcome/default.asp

Most of the people I've read receiving posts from this
project were
apprehensive and backed out before they were charged.
They have already
learned an important lesson: do NOT download software,
or register with
a company, unless they tell you up front whether
money's involved and
if
so, how much. When in doubt, do your own investigation
and see what
others are saying about it.

This next message is from someone on one of my lists:
"I use Gedlink
and
I recommend that you invest in Norton Internet
Security. Gedlink works
on you sharing a directory (in your computer) with
your gedcom file in
it which you would need to update everytime you made
changes. I have
asked Gedlink on several ocassions about security with
this method of
sharing and what keeps someone from hacking into other
areas of your
hard drive. On their FAQ page
<http://www.gedlink.com/web/en/support/faq.asp>;.
Nothing addresses
security, Gedlink has tried to assure me that their
software prevents
this....sure just as Microsoft prevented those from
accessing Outlook
and most recently Windows XP."

At this point I need to reiterate ~ I am not saying
Gedlink is a scam.
I've found no negative messages about them after doing
a major Web
search ~ the nearest negativity being that in the last
paragraph.
People I've
contacted have not heard anything negative. I'm
willing to give
GedLink
a temporary benefit of the doubt, but I won't be
giving them my money.
I really don't get warm and fuzzy feelings from a
company that buries
their fees, not divulging them until you're already
registered and they
have your email address.

How do you protect yourself? Apply to your Internet
dealings the same
good sense you try to use in everything else you do.
However, on the
Web
you need to be more than just a little skeptical. As
others have said,
"Keep an open mind, but don't let your brain fall
out!"

Family ... it's what we're all about.

I so enjoyed spending this time with you today. Thank
you for sharing
it with me. I wish each of you a week filled with
health,
productivity,
fun, and above all, filled with love and inner peace.



)
(
)
_.-~~-.
(@'--'/. Colleen
('``.__.'`)
`..____.'

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• [CAALAMED] SundayCoffee@topica.com by George Rushton <>