From merope@Radix.Net Mon Aug 27 13:01:56 2001 Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 13:01:55 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 8/27/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: Just when you think you've heard it all...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Sunday 26 August 2001: Holly Timm suggests that Joe's motion is premature and should accompany the Board's final decision on the matter. She notes "we have a promise of sufficient time to consider the situation and our options and to get the opinion of the project as a whole as it is from them we would have to raise the funds should we decide to purchase. I have no problem recommending that CC's make all their links go to .org which is and should be our main domain." She suggests amending Motion 01-25 to read: "I move that a letter (email) be composed and sent to the membership via the project lists explaining the situation without any emotional editorial and recommending that while the board explores the options available, assuring them that we have time available, members check their links and change them to .org, which is and should be our main url, and send us comments." Joe agrees to the amendment, as does his second, Richard Harrison. Joy Fisher also thinks Motion 01-25 is a "bit premature" and suggests starting a pledge drive to see if the project can even raise sufficient funds. She is willing to collect pledges and has posted them to this webpage: http://www.us-genealogy.net/domain-pledges.html [so far they have a whopping $25]. She asks that all pledges be sent to her directly [jfisher@ucla.edu] and reminds pledgers that it is not a tax-deductible donation. She also suggests that members use only the usgenweb.org or usgenweb.net domains. Teri Pettit asks Joe to clarify what "cease all use" of the usgenweb.com domain means. She wonders specifically if posting a notice at that URL that redirects users to the usgenweb.org domain would violate the spirit of his motion. Joe replies that he meant the "current use which leads to our front door", but recommends that she look at Holly's suggested amendment. Tim Stowell pops in to give a brief synopsis of the events surrounding the current attempt to fill Ken Short's not-yet-officially-empty Board seat. He says "On the evening of 1 July 2001, Ken Short wrote the Board that he was resigning from the Advisory Board effective immediately...On 20 July 2001, I asked the Board to give him more time to reconsider his decision. I asked them if he said no-way, then the process of replacement could begin. I also said if we'd not heard from him one way or the other by August 31st that the new board could take up the matter. On 18 August 2001, I heard from Ken...he stated that his decision was final AND he asks that the Board appoint a replacement for him. On 22 August 2001, I asked the Board to do just that." [And they say nothing ever happens on BOARD-EXEC.] Tim notes that some Board members want to wait until the new Board is seated to handle the appointment, others want to do it prior to the new Board being seated, and asks "Was I wrong in asking the AB to follow the Bylaws mandated rules of replacement?" [Tim honestly seems to feel that throwing the word "bylaws" into something numerous times will have the effect of amending them to fit his interpretation of them. The bylaws that are currently posted on the USGenWeb home page do not specify any sort of time frame for appointments or which version of the Board should make them.] Richard suggests putting the warning notice on a usgenweb.org page and directing to that from the usgenweb.com URL. Teri notes that since the motion has been amended, her suggestion is now moot. === The Project Speaks Corner: Here's a sampling of comments from around the project regarding the ongoing attempt by Dale and Bridget Schneider to sell the project its own domain name for a substantial profit. Most of the are from the State Coordinator's list; there's been a lot of talk on the CC lists, but not a lot of one-way-or-the-other opinions [except for mine]: "This is why people no longer want to volunteer. Hundreds of volunteers donated thousands of hours to make this site a success, and now the "owners" are going to cash in on the hard work of others! I say let them sell it to a porn site! This is extortion!" Suzanne Leonard "What a mercenary %$*&%& ('scuse my French)" -Derek Hartshorn "THIS is why people get (are) disgusted with the USGEBNWEB! Instead of cussing out Doc who has done one heck of a lot for the USGenWeb, maybe we'd better figure out a way to buy the domain. Or let it go to someone else. I'm sure I don't give a ____ anymore." ---Carol "The choice is very simple - Buy the Domain name...If we do not buy the domain name then we will be putting ANOTHER nail in our coffin. Identity is EVERYTHING and that domain name IS our identity!...The big "worry" is that a porn site will get it, well how about if another genealogy organization buys it!...Pay the money and be thankful that Doc didn't sell it to Ancestry.com for full value." ---Glenn Geisheimer "I agree with Glenn...Buy the domain name. Folks, the domain name is ours for $50 per State. That's less than a dollar a county for some states (a little more for others). IMHO, it's the right thing to do." ---Valorie "I agree with Glenn, too. When spread out it's a small price to pay to maintain consistency that is difficult for the genealogy community to maintain in the first place. And Glenn is also right in that identity is all you have on the internet." ---Heather Jones DeGeorge "It doesn't matter if we think it is right or not. The name should be bought while it is available." ---Edward Hayden "...my thought is that we would be better off to cut our losses, raise some money, pay the man, and use this as a learning experience, making sure that the first priority of the new board is to get the national USGenWeb "possessions" (the domains, the service mark, the digital library, etc.) CLEARLY designated as such, so that this sort of thing can never happen again." ---Carol C-H "Regardless of whether he carried it under his arm during a Typhoon and saved it instead of his own pet, should no more give him the right to become a profiteer from this Project than say, You or me...Dale knows he accepted the responsibility for obtaining and keeping that domain for USGW and he accepted someone else's money to do so. If he wants his own money back, then I see no problem with that. But to use these tactics to try and get a good price for himself is not right...We shouldn't have to buy what is suppose to have belonged to the Project to begin with." ---Ron Eason "While some may have preferred for him to simply GIVE it to the Project, I don't find anything evil in offering to sell it to the Project. And, as Bridget noted, if he fails to renew the registration, then it *will* go up for grabs and we've seen the results when some well-known domains got bought up by porn sites." ---Leigh Compton "The way I understand it, Doc secured the domain name FOR the Project. Not to own it himself...The UsGenWeb name is an implied Service Mark for The USGenWeb Project, an entity now for more than five years. What Doc has now done is place himself in the category of a cybersquatter, by the current definition by WIPO." ---Keith Giddeon Now, for my two cents worth. I don't think a penny should go to Dale, and I am tired of hearing about what a great favor he's done us by registering the domain every year. If it were such a hardship, I am sure that the project would have gladly taken it off his hands. The fact is that the domain has more or less been left in his care because the Project was _assured_ numerous times by people like St. Megan and Linda Lewis that it was safe there and would always be safe there. We were told he'd hand over the domain [not sell it] when the USGW incorporated as a non-profit. Well, we have not incorporated as a non-profit and he's breaking his word and making his friends and supporters look like saps in the process. The last NC that even suggested that the Project should try to gain control of the domain was hounded out of office with accusations she was trying to hand it over to the Dills. Well, you know, for the last three years we have heard nothing but rumors about how the Dills and their evil friends were going to profit off of USGW and that is all they were: rumors. There was never _any_ evidence that the Dills [and Dale, originally] wanted to do anything but help the project become solvent and stable. Yes, maybe this is because they were stopped by Linda and her brave freedom fighters before they were able to implement their nefarious schemes. But still, there has never been any hard evidence of _any_ attempt by _anyone_ to profit off of USGenWeb. Until now, and look who it turns out to be. The very person who has been keeping our domain "safe" for us all this time. If _anyone_ else were doing this, certain people [namely Linda] would be screaming bloody murder over it, but she's been strangely subdued on this one. She actually seems to prefer talking about the Dills yet again, when its actually her great good friend who is trying to profit off the Project. Of course, she was instrumental in getting that domain returned to Dale; I imagine she'd rather people not remember that right about now. So why reward Dale? Because he's our friend? Threatening us with selling out to a pornographer is hardly something a friend would do. Because he's earned it? How? By sending in $70 every couple of years? We didn't ask him to do it and if we'd ever thought he'd give up the domain [remember, we knew his terms, or thought we did] I am sure the Project would have paid for the domain in a heartbeat. Because he has us over a barrel? Well, I see no evidence we are in such a bad position. It wouldn't be great to lose the domain, but it would hardly be a disaster. We lost it once before and stopped using it and I don't recall all this impassioned talk of protecting our identity at any cost. We just kissed it goodbye and moved on. We can do that again, and should, if Dale and Bridget pursue this course. We have a choice here: give in and fork over the money or draw a line and refuse to pay anything to people who would break their word to and threaten this project. For me the choice, although not simple, is clear. === "The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right." ---William Safire This has been your Daily Board Show. 5 more days. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Thu Aug 30 13:29:32 2001 Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:29:31 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 8/30/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: Later than you think...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Wednesday 29 August 2001: Tim Stowell calls a vote on Motion 01-25. Thus far, 11 Board members have voted yes [and this motion has passed]. === Playing Favorites Corner: For some obscure reason, Our Esteemed But Apparently Not Very Busy National Coordinator, has selected eight "web sites that portray and exemplify the goals of the Project." [He doesn't give us his criteria for his selections, however]. For what its worth, here they are: NE Region: First place - Wisconsin - http://www.rootsweb.com/~wigenweb/ Runner up - Vermont - http://www.rootsquest.com/~usgwvtus/ NW Region: First place - Colorado - http://www.rootsweb.com/~cogenweb/comain.htm Runner up - Iowa - http://IAGenWeb.org/ SW Region: First place - Kansas - http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/index.html Runner up - Texas - http://www.rootsweb.com/~txgenweb/ SE Region: First place - Delaware - http://www.rootsweb.com/~degenweb/ Runner up - Maryland - http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdgenweb/ [and no, I don't know the reason for this little exercise. Maybe Our Tim is just feeing benevolent, maybe he's just trying to make himself relevant in the waning days of his adminstration.] === "People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing." ---Walter H. Judd This has been your Daily Board Show. Two more days. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Fri Aug 31 18:04:11 2001 Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 18:04:10 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 8/31/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: The times they are a changin'...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Thursday 30 August 2001: Voting on Motion 01-25 proceeds. Thus far, 14 Board members have voted yes. === "Live dangerously. Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius. ---Friedrich Nietzsche This has been your Daily Board Show. Last day. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.