Genealogy Chat

Yes, on the whole I agree with the gist of this thread. Just because the question that you personally asked has been answered, it does not mean that the information will not be of use to someone else. I found a 3rd cousin, and absolutely loads of new information, because someone had posted a thread on here asking for suggestions as to where someone might have disappeared to. The name was not an unusual one (hence my own difficulty in sorting the wheat from the chaff on the censuses), but the details given by the poster fitted what I knew of the person he was asking about, so I PMed him, and we eventually demonstrated that it was the same person. It has helped us both tremendously. But if he had wiped the thread as soon as he had received the obvious answers, I would never have seen it and the contact would have been unlikely to have been made by other means. Most of us have other things we are forced to do with our lives apart from reading the boards all day, so it is helpful if threads are left on so that we have a chance to read them when we finally get the chance. I have learned so much from simply reading the answers to other peoples queries - even ones specific to them. Please, everyone, unless there are pressing reasons for removing a thread, let it lie. Tina

When I joined this site I asked about etiquette as I had never used a forum before. Many of my replies suggested threads should be deleted, once an answer had been received and you had thanked the person. I was totally paranoid, thinking I would be in some sort of trouble if I left something on here for more than five mins!!! I know better now, but I expect you will find these are newbies asking things, in the main, and maybe they are under the same impression I began with? Merry

Well ranted Andrew. I can empathise. :-) Keith

Perhaps that's true. But if you then delete the thread, how does the person who's answered your question know that they have? And it seems discourteous, like snatching something out of someone's hands. Or it's like going round your neighbour's house to give them some misdelivered mail and them just shutting the door in your face without even a word. And this site is supposedly to help people who are distantly related to get in contact with each other. One of the first things that I did when I joined up here was to have a search through the message boards for some of the names that I was interested in. Obviously there's only a slim chance that I'd turn anything up even without anything being deleted, but as I say, that's supposedly what this place is for! If this was a volunteer-based community, then I could perhaps understand it, but it's run by a commercial entity, we don't have to worry about Fred's server getting clogged up or whatever. Oh, well. At least I got a bit of my rant out!

it does depend on the Q , doesn't it? what would be the point in leaving something like ''what county is so and so in''.... if its answered, that is the end of it. the chances of someone needing to know the same info are so very slight, aren't they??

I don't think that it is right when people post threads and then delete them.~unless they made a mistake! As they don't know if others have gone off looking and they come back thinking 'Am I going mad where is it?!' and then 'What a waste of time'. Posts should be left because they sometimes can help other people that view them.. Yes Andrew it rather annoys me too.. Zoe

Well, if people are deleting threads because their question's been answered, then that's just plain weird! IMHO, etc.

well, actually if someone asks a Q ,i think when it is answered they are quite entitled to delete it if they choose.

Andrew I do sympathise, especially when I find additional info to help someone and the thread has gone. On the other hand, perhaps the thread deleters think they are doing a service by de-cluttering the boards and they think that the thread has served its purpose. But I would say that a thread that's served its purpose can still be retrieved to help answer later queries. It will drop off the first page if its not needed, but anyone can use the search button facility, or topic originator order to find it again if its not been deleted. nell

Once again someone's deleted a thread that I'd posted to, and I'm getting a bit p*ssed off about it. I don't know if it's the thread originators doing it, or the server has got some sort of bug, but it doesn't exactly inspire me to contribute anything if what I write is going to disappear! I have never come across an internet forum before where this sort of thing happens, other than when administrators have had to deal with offensive language and so forth; given the innocuous nature of the threads that I've read or posted to, I find it hard to believe that's what's been going on here. If people are yanking threads that others have posted to, please stop doing it! IMO, it's discourteous to the other people here, whether they've actually posted to the thread themselves or merely would have read it. Answers to person X's question can be of use to person Y, even if the issue is about a totally unrelated individual. Perhaps I'm going to be in a minority of one on this, but I feel the point has to be made. A. Gwilliam