-The Volunteer's Tale-

Shortly thereafter, Steve noticed that he was no longer receiving mail from ANY of the dozen or so Rootsweb lists he is subscribed to and could no longer post to the lists he owned or to any Rootsweb list, including his required state mailing list. In order to post to the lists he managed, he had to resubscribe using other email addresses, and as soon as he made posts, those email addresses were blocked as well. He also found that his passwords and configuration files were changed. His initial feeling was that Ken was trying to get back at him and he tried to contact Brian Leverich to find out was was going on.

Attempts to reach Mr. Leverich were not successful and in a few days, following some questions from list subscribers, Rootsweb staff member Tim Pierce posted to Steve's lists "I unsubscribed and blocked [Steve] from RootsWeb" and accused him publicly of threatening to mailbomb Rootsweb. In a later message to the lists he stated, "We'll find someone to manage [Steve's] lists for the time being until permanent replacements can be found. You folks shouldn't experience any problems because of this incident." This public accusation of threatened felonious behavior, which was sent to his own mailing lists, was the first indication Steve received from any Rootsweb staff that he was suspended. Steve strongly denies this accusation and says it is due to a misunderstanding. Steve states he was informed by Ken that Rootsweb could not determine the nature of the problems he was having with his lists, unless Rootsweb could see the actual error messages. When he sent an email begging them to at least try and solve the problem and indicating he was going to start forwarding them the error messages, Rootsweb chose to interpret this as a threat to mailbomb its servers and locked him out of the mailing lists, changing his passwords and telling his subscribers they would find them a new listowner.

Shortly thereafter, Tim Pierce sent Steve a list of the conditions under which Steve might be allowed to have lists back, a notice of his banning, and a threat of legal action:

"In the meantime, until further notice, you're not authorized to use any RootsWeb services (post to mailing lists, use search engines, and so on). Bear in mind that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (18 USC Section 1030)^*empowers us to take civil or even criminal action to protect our systems, so please don't push it."

In an attempt to get some assistance, Steve contacted his State Coordinator, who is also a USGenWeb Project Advisory Board member. The State Coordinator responded by posting publicly that it was his opinion that the matter was between Rootsweb and Steve and further discussion of it on the state mailing list was not appropriate.

Steve subsequently spent a great deal of time on the phone with Rootsweb staffer Michelle and also corresponded with her extensively by email. She convinced him to make no further public comments until she could speak with Brian and Tim to see if the issues could be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, and Steve agreed to make no statements for a few days. He was assured that Tim or Brian would contact him and that they would also not comment publicly until they had spoken. Unfortunately, neither Brian nor Tim felt obligated to honor the promise made by their co-worker, although Steve did, and both made posts to various mailing lists, including a USGenWeb Project state mailing list, again publicly accusing Steve of threatening to mailbomb Rootsweb and including threats to Steve's many supporters on his lists.

Brian Leverich's message to the USGW Project state mailing list was made in response to a list member, who posted a brief message in support of Steve that contained the following: "I have corresponded with [Steve] in the past and found him to be a compatent member of our organization, both [X]XGenWeb and USGW. If RW help can be so easily upset and "ban" a compatent list owner, what the heck is the next move???" Mr. Leverich's response to this post, again made on a USGW Project state mailing list, accused the supporter of "playing hate games" and included the threat to tamper with any of his email that passed through Rootsweb's servers.

Steve's contact at the Rootsweb Help Desk, Michelle (of whose professionalism and kindness he speaks very highly) then informed him that their arrangement was solely between them and she could not speak for Mr. Leverich or Mr. Pierce. She also warned him not to continue to use aliases to post to his own or to other lists, but to honor the ban imposed by the apparently very young Tim Pierce.

Michelle apparently made every effort to assist Steve in working things out, but as of this writing, Steve has not been contacted by either Tim or Brian and is no longer interested in keeping his lists at Rootsweb: "I do not want my lists back. I am through with Rootsweb. But I want my subscribers list from both lists and I want my two lists; [named deleted] shut down completely. They do not belong to Brian or Rootsweb, they were created, developed and maintained by me and I want my subscribers and I will move the lists elsewhere." He also demands an apology from Tim Pierce and a retraction of the very publicly made charge that he threatened to mailbomb Rootsweb. He is considering consulting an attorney. He is also, unfortunately, considering leaving the USGenWeb Project as well.

^* A full version of this law may be viewed in the Daily Board Show of 6 January 1999. It does not appear to be relevant to Steve's situation, but I am not a lawyer.