EOGN.COM Adds a Discussion Forum

I have now added a Discussion Forum to the www.eogn.com web site. It is in operation right now but is almost empty. Here is your chance to post one of the earliest messages.

The EOGN Discussion Forum is available now at http://www.eogn.com/forum. You can also reach it by clicking on "Discussion Forum" in the menu near the upper right of most of the web pages here at http://www.eogn.com.

The EOGN Discussion Forum is available FREE of charge to everyone. In fact, everyone may read messages in the forum without registering. However, in order to post a new message or to reply to an existing message, you must register first. Registration is free, and you are never asked for a credit card number. As always, I will never share your registration information with any vendors.

I elected to go to a registration-required system in order to cut down on spamming. You must be a registered user with a verifiable address before you can post messages. Of course, any spam-like messages that do get posted will be deleted.

To register, go to http://www.eogn.com/forum and click on REGISTER near the upper left corner. You will be asked for a user name and a password. You can use most any user name you wish so long as nobody else is already using it. You will also have to supply a valid e-mail address, which is NOT visible to other users. (Forum administrators can see your e-mail address, however.)

A registration confirmation message will be sent to the e-mail address you supplied. Once you receive the message a few seconds later, click on the link in that e-mail message. You will instantly have full read/write access to this message forum and will be a full member.

I plan on keeping the Discussion Forum in operation for ninety days, then reviewing its operation. If the forum provides a positive contribution to the genealogy community, I'll continue its operation. However, if after ninety days or at any time in the future it has degenerated into a general "complaints board" with constant bashing of vendors and similar non-productive messages, I'll delete it.

Welcome to the EOGN Discussion Forum! If you have suggestions for improvements, please post them in the "Messages About This Message Forum" section at http://www.eogn.com/forum.

Thank you.

Comments

[Mike]

Dick,

I would like to suggest another forum under the category "websites" be one for the USGenWeb. There needs to be a venue to discuss that project where the project does not control/censor the discussion. Your forums would be a good place. Similarly it will be good to have a place to discuss the main commercial sites where they don't control the discussion (although Ancestry does no seem to censor negative comments overly much).

Mike

P.S.

Maybe you have answered this before, but why does trying to post a comment to your blog result in security system errors/notifications regarding XSS? Surely you can do something about that.

[geneladyMO]

Already posted a Missouri state entry.

Thanks, Dick!

[Martin Boseman]

Man, what incredibly America-centric. Every American province and not even every other country.

[Dick Eastman]

---> I would like to suggest another forum under the category "websites" be one for the USGenWeb.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mike. My comment is to start posting messages there. If we have a demonstrated need for a new section, we will create a new section. We probably won't add any new sections until AFTER a number of messages have been posted that obviously need a new section.

The "we" refers to two of us. I have already added one other forum administrator and expect to add more.

Thanks again.

[Dick Eastman]

---> Every American province and not even every other country.

My suggestion is to start posting messages there. If we have a demonstrated need for a new section, we will create a new section. We probably won't add any new sections until AFTER a number of messages have been posted that obviously need a new section.

To take an example: if nobody ever posts messages about Macedonian genealogy, we won't create a section for Macedonian topics. However, if we get a number of such messages, we will create a Macedonian section. By a "number," I mean we will probably ignore one or two messages. However, if we see a dozen or so such messages over time posted by a number of people, that clearly demonstrates a need.

Thanks.

- Dick Eastman

[Eileen Souza]

I am trying to register with the new discussion forum but I do not receive my activation email. The registration window has a check box "Allow users to email you?." I did not check this. In the Help, this box is supposed to say "Hide email address from public?. The Help says if I have a problem registering I should click on the "User Info" button to fix my registration data but there is no User Info button that I can find on the discussion forum site. I think I am not getting the email (I've tried four times already, monitoring my spam folder) because I did not check the Allow box but there is no way for me to fix it.

[Martin Boseman]

--> If we have a demonstrated need for a new section, we will create a new section.

...but you threw many countries together, and created sections for every American province anyway.

[Mike]

Dick,

Thanks for the reply and that makes sense.

One other thing though. Which is whether the state/province forums are going to be used for queries? It seems like there are enough venues for that on the net already, and that it might be nice to be able to use such geographical forums for discussion of sources, repositories, etc. instead, and which usually gets choked by the sea of queries and obit postings in other forums.

Mike

[Dick Eastman]

The sections that were created were based on my "best guess" as to what would be popular. I fully expect to add and delete sections as time goes by, based upon whatever topics people are interested in.

For instance, if all of a sudden a number of people start posting messages about Madagascar ancestry, it will be obvious that we need to create a new section just for Madagascar genealogy.

Likewise, if one of the sections that I created in the beginning proves to have very few messages ever posted to that section, it becomes a candidate for removal.

The forum administrator's menu allows me to add or delete sections within a few seconds.

- Dick Eastman

[Dick Eastman]

---> I am trying to register with the new discussion forum but I do not receive my activation email.

Your e-mail provider is blocking those messages. use a different e-mail address if you have one, such as Gmail. That will work.

Those e-mail messages get sent within 2 or 3 seconds when you go through the registration process. We have had more than 200 people sign up successfully in the past 18 hours so obviously it is working for them.

Two other people have reported problems similar to yours: not receiving the e-mail messages. However, when they switched to Gmail or Yahoo accounts, everything worked within seconds.

- Dick Eastman

[Dick Eastman]

---> ...but you threw many countries together, and created sections for every American province anyway.

Yes. That was deliberate.

My guess is that we will get many messages about all the U.S. states and Canadian provinces and the U.K. I am also guessing that we will get fewer messages about South American countries, African countries, Caribbean island nations, etc. Therefore, the initial configuration was deliberately slanted to those that I think will generate the most messages. If experience proves otherwise, it only takes a few seconds to make a change. I am sure there will be some changes after we get a bit of experience although I cannot yet predict what changes will be needed.

- Dick Eastman

[Linda S]

I did not receive an e-mail confirmation either. I don't have trouble with other websites, just this one. Is there a way to fix this? I don't especially want to sign up with another account, as then I will probably not end up remembering to use the new forum with it! Thanks.

[amy]

I'm not getting the activation e-mail either. I checked the spam folders. Is the e-mail sent from a different address than the EOGN newsletter uses? I receive my newsletters daily without a problem.

[Dick Eastman]

---> Is the e-mail sent from a different address than the EOGN newsletter uses?

Yes. The Discussion Forum sign-up e-mail messages are sent from eogn.com. The Plus Edition newsletters get sent from dundee.net and the Standard Edition e-mail alerts get sent from FeedBlitz.com.

So far, I know that verizon.com is blocking the sign-up messages plus I have had one report from a person using a compuserve.com address. I don't yet know if CompuServe is actually blocking it or if it is a different problem.

- Dick Eastman

[Eileen Souza]

I do have verizon.net. It is my only email address. I get all my other email from eogn.com. I have checked my verizon mail and they are not putting it in the spam folder or any of the folders. It appears that it is not even getting to my mailbox.

[Dick Eastman]

---> I did not receive an e-mail confirmation either. I don't have trouble with other websites, just this one. Is there a way to fix this?

Only by contacting Verizon. They are the only ones who can change what reaches your in-box.

[LindaS]

Hmmm... I don't have Verizon. I have Comcast. Haven't had trouble signing up with any other forums before.

[LindaS]

So do I just tell Comcast to allow messages from eogn.com? Please advise. Thank you!

[Dick Eastman]

The confirmation e-mails ALWAYS get sent from the forum software within 2 to 3 seconds. However, spam filters at the receiving mail server may block them. We do know that Verizon is blocking them. I don't know about Comcast but I would be suspicious.

Unfortunately, we have no control over Comcast's mail servers.

Use another e-mail account. We know that GMail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail all work well. So do most other mail providers, but not all of them do.

[Peter Ford]

You said: However, if after ninety days or at any time in the future it has degenerated into a general "complaints board" with constant bashing of vendors .....

Dick, you are infamously pro-vendor, but I will still ask you to think about this and be sensible: the "bashing" of vendors is one of the most things on your board. It tell me which products to avoid...