Friday, March 19, 2010

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge 11

This week's challenge has created a delima for me. I want to participate in all of the challenges, that's my goal. However, I want to keep my blog on a positive note and not give negative or bad reviews. On the other hand, my blog is my blog and I should feel free to say what I think about subjects. Are you curious now as to what the challenge is and why I'm making a big deal of this?

Week 11: Read the back posts from the Transitional Genealogists Forum (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM/). This is a message board for genealogists who are taking the steps needed to become professional genealogists. Even if you aren’t interested in that goal, you will benefit from the questions and answers provided on this excellent discussion list. If you have a genealogy blog, write about a question or subject from this board that was helpful for you.

I was a subscriber to the Transitional Genealogists Form (TGF) for several months. I was a "lurker" hoping to pick up on a few tips that would give my research a little more polish. I am not to the point that I am even considering becoming a professional...I just want to KNOW what the pros know!

First thing, the TGF is in the old-fashioned mailing list format. You can also sign up to receive the digest version, which is what I did. I received multiple posts to the mailing list in one email, rather than an email every time somebody posted. The digest is extremely cluttered and hard to follow sometimes. The subject lines do not always make sense, some leave the email they are replying to in their reply and I notice that a lot of listers do not sign their email. So, right off the bat I did not like the TGF due to this format.

Secondly, things were going along somewhat well on the list until a person voiced an opinion on genealogy education and certifications. You've heard the term "then all hell broke loose"? That quote describes my opinion of what followed. Emails became very opinionated, divisive and rude to the point of ridiculous. At that point I decided I would unsubscribe and look for information in other areas.

I understand that people have very deep opinions on education, certifications and accreditation in genealogy. I too have a very definite opinion on this subject, however, I'm not going to cut my nose off to spite my face. The genealogy community needs to get along and work together to promote all avenues of education in this subject. Getting on a soap box and preaching "my way or the highway" is not the way to do this.

1 comment:

  1. Jenna, I agree with you. I have unsubscribed from numerous listserves in the librarian profession because they tend to be dominated by rather opinionated people, the format makes threads hard to follow, etc. I think the idea of the 52 Weeks challenges is just to expose us all to some different tools and sources we may have not used before. Some people may find this particular tool useful; we just didn't.

    ReplyDelete