GENBRIT-L Archives

Archiver > GENBRIT > 1999-01 > 0915720851


From: Roy Stockdill< >
Subject: To: Liz, Barney and Eve. (was Re: Do As I Say etc)
Date: 7 Jan 1999 06:54:11 -0800


John Pimental writes.....

>> My involvement in the public lime light began with taking soc.roots
which
was gated to Roots-L, and reorganized it as a member of a group of several
people to what is now known as soc.genealogy hierarchy (s.g.*).
Following the creation of the these original seven groups, there were
mailing lists to basically provide support for. For a while, I was the list

maintainer of GENCMP-L, co-list maintainer of GENMSC-L and co-list
maintainer
of GEN-ADMIN (a private list for the list maintainers, moderators, and
system
admins). I have been involved in the general list maintainence of the
genealogy lists from Georgia Tech, to Apple Computer (eWorld) to RootsWeb
where the lists are now housed.
For a change of pace I went off to be a Usenet Group Mentor and in that

function assisted nearly every newsgroup proponent presenting a newgroup in

the soc.genealogy heirarchy get their proposal through the system in pretty

much the fashion they wanted it.
Let's take for example: s.g.uk+ireland (this is the group which when
later
reorganized, by the same proponent John Woodgate, became this group,
s.g.britain). After the first seven s.g.* groups an additional three were
presented (s.g.uk+ireland, marketplace, and italian). The uk+ireland had a
difficult time passing through the Usenet system, because the Group-Advice
folks wanted the group called s.g.uk-ireland. This was interpreted by the
proponent and others as uk less ireland, and was not desired. I presented
an
argument to the group-advice folks which won the "permission" to go ahead
and
present the group for a vote. This set a precedent which allowed
s.g.australia+nz to then pass through without hinderance.<<

WELL, thank you very much for that enlightenment, which is appreciated.
However, such an impressive CV and obvious knowledge of the rules of
newsgroup charters, etc, doesn't seem to me to justify pedantic moans
against people who give more help between them than 90% of the rest of the
membership of this list put together, and who have collectively probably
forgotten more about genealogy than many will ever know. Minor quibbles
about "advertising" in a signature are really very small beer when set
against the overall background of value they bring to the group and the
substantial contribution they make to our greater knowledge.

Rules are not meant to be applied strictly according to the book - that is
for petty bureaucrats with no imagination. Rules are meant to be general
guidelines and interpreted with common sense in the context of the overall
facts.

That's all I want to say, now or ever again on this subject, and I repeat
my plea - can we please DROP it once and for all and get on with something
more important!

Roy in Hertfordshire UK
The Stockdill Family History Society (Guild of One-Name Studies, FedFHS)
STOCKDILL PREST YELLOW BOLTON WORSNOP
GIBSON MIDGLEY BRACEWELL BRADLEY MOODY in Yorkshire North & West
Ridings
MEAD YOUNG in Somerset, Wiltshire & Gloucestershire
Web page of the Stockdill Family History Society:-
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roystock
”Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does he will tell you.
If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Sydney Smith (scholar and humorist
1771-1845)

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