Email Lists & Message Boards
UPDATE 02-23-2020
As of March 2nd, 2020 RootsWeb (Ancestry.com) is shutting down all mail list functionality. The hand writing has been on the wall for some time now and my continued efforts to have both the SOUTH and COPE lists reactivated have been, to put it nicely, blown off by the Ancestry.com staff. They say the archives will remain available, but in reality, how long we can't begin to guess.Unfortunately, in the process of setting up new mail list on my leased server I have been informed the company I lease from really doesn't want me to do that because mail lists can quickly consume a web server's memory and hard drive space. I completely understand this and suspect that is ultimately why the 20+ year old lists on RootsWeb are being shut down. That and the fact people have been losing interest in mail lists.
I am currently exploring options on hosting new mail lists. The reality is a web server devoted to hosting mail lists is not inexpensive, and therein lies the biggest hurdle to get over. If you have ideas on getting these lists back online please contact me. Please monitor this page for updates on this situation.
UPDATE 09-13-2018
After numerous attempts to try and satisfy the Ancestry.com support staff who are handling problems with the newly re-launched mail lists, I have yet to be able to satisfy them that I have been the original owner and sponsor of the COPE and SOUTH-SURNAME mail lists from the beginning. They are so far unwilling to accept any forwarded email from decades ago that would prove I was receiving email from their servers as the list owner. For the moment there may be NO alrenative but to start new lists for both names on my server. I don't have time right now but hopefully soon. Please monitor this page for updates on this situation.SOUTH-SURNAME and COPE Email Lists
Some time back Rootsweb was purchased by Ancestry.com. At some point during this past year (possibly in Nov.) Ancestry decided to pull the plug on the Rootsweb name list service. You may have noticed it's been a while since you received anything from a Rootsweb list. This is why. They did NOT announce this to list owners and only recently have I found out. Fortunately I still had access to all list subscribers but NOT the volume of list archives for the purpose of saving. A little over a week ago they took down all free hosted web sites as well insisting it is due to a security issue. They didn't warn owners about this move either and we no longer have access in any way to those files.
Fortunately several years ago I secured the kentuckyroots.org domain. I started with posting the entire web site from rootsweb and eventually phased out the rootsweb site.
Fortunately the company I contract to host kentuckyroots.org allows and runs the same mailing list software rootsweb used. I am presently going through the steps to set up both a COPE and SOUTH list so that our mutual research can continue to be shared in the manner we're accustomed.
What I need from you is if you would like the email lists to continue PLEASE contact me to express your interest. Tell me which list you'd like to see continue and make sure I have your current email address as I'm finding many of those subscribed to the lists are no longer current.
If there's not enough interest in continuing the lists I will save my time and cash. If the interest is there I will finalize the set-up, and subscribe those who are interested and send out more details on where and how to use the new lists.
If you have any questions or concerns about it please include that when you contact me and I will share those and the answers with the group. Also if you know of any other email lists that have started in the mean time please share that as well and I will pass that along. There's no need to duplicate efforts and we should all hopefully be using the same resources for our research.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this.
Kindest Regards,
Scott Hampton