* Rootsweb is still down

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annejay55
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Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

I have just discovered that Roots-web is still down, after a lengthy period with an even lengthening blog on the subject.

Can anyone advise if our FHUG mailing list complete with all correspondence will be able to be accessed once things return to normal?

When it was working was it searchable?

I am in the the process of cleaning out email and am considering ditching my FHUG emails as I never really re-read them and I thought I could view them on the Rootsweb list if I needed to do that in the future, hence the question.

I do realize that I may have to ask Rootsweb but thought I would approach you in the first instance.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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PeterR
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by PeterR »

Ther is some helpful information here: info:mailing_list|> FHU Mailing List
Peter Richmond (researching Richmond, Bulman, Martin, Driscoll, Baxter, Hall, Dales, Tyrer)
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tatewise
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by tatewise »

Hi Anne,
The first thing to clarify is that the FHUG (this website) and the [FHU] Mailing List are quite separate.
See info:mailing_list|> FHU Mailing List for details, and where there are links to its search features.
So yes, you can delete the Emails and search for them later, providing you can remember the key details.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Russell
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by Russell »

There is an important caveat to deleting old emails from any source, on the presumption that you can download them again later.

In this case, Ancestry say "We are doing a deep analysis of RootsWeb, its design and how we might be able to help the community enhance the site and its services. It is our desire to continue to host these tools for the community with appropriate safeguards in place."

Note the word desire - it is not a cast iron commitment to keep the service running - they may decide that it will cost too much to retain.

As storage is now so cheap, I suggest that the emails are copied to a separate file and retained for future use. If Ancestry pull the plug - or even if they have a system failure (unlikely, but then I am a pessimist ;) ) the data may just not be there to search online.

Over the years I've read numerous tales of woe from people who had accounts with now closed isp's who lost years of valuable data because everything was stored by the isp and there was no incentive for it to be still available after closure.
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annejay55
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

Thank you to all of you who offered this advice.

Mike and Peter: While I knew that the website and list were separate I did not realize you could search Rootsweb from the FHUG site, when the Rootsweb site is working, of course.

Russel: Like you, I have decided to be cautious, as I had read hoards of the blog last night and as we are unsure what is to happen I will delete nothing yet and may try sending mail from one google account to another instead.

Thank you for all your very quick replies and your support. It has been very helpful.
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by tatewise »

Anne, you are not searching Rootsweb directly from FHUG but following links to the Rootsweb internal search feature.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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annejay55
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

Thanks, Mike for the clarification.
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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jmurphy
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by jmurphy »

Just to clarify what others have already posted --

The system which runs the RootsWeb mailing lists is apparently still working for some lists. I am still getting mail from the lists I belong to, including FHU-L, for which I received some messages yesterday.

However, since the main site is down, we can't get to the archiver, the part of RootsWeb which allows one to read the older messages, which is linked to in FHUG's Knowledge Base. You can see on the KB page that this is so by the current error message:
Recent Posts

An error occurred while fetching this feed: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/r ... -USERS.rss
Using View the Archives or Search the Archives from the FHUG KB page times out, resulting in the error
The server at archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com is taking too long to respond.
Some of the content seems to have been captured by the Internet Archive and can be read by the Wayback Machine, but coverage seems to be spotty. https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ar ... IAN-USERS/*

If you have any individual messages you don't want to lose, such as a post from Mike explaining how to backup your settings before moving FH to a new computer, it's best to save those and put them in a safe place, instead of relying on FHU-L to always be there. Even in times when everything is working well, stuff can happen, like a construction crew cutting lines in your neighborhood, removing your access to the Internet.

You can also try searching via Google, then using what's in the preview to inform your Wayback Machine search, or seeing if Google has a cached copy.
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annejay55
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

I want to thank everyone for all their help, it is very much appreciated.

Sorry I have been so long in replying but I have been trying to resolve my difficulties.

I had never heard of a 'way back machine' and for all the other info I have been reading more on the Fhug website.

As part of this mail exercise: I also tried to transfer mail from one Gmail account to another Gmail account without success and through reading their forum guidance: the Google experts appear only to answer queries of a specific nature for which there appears to be very specific answers, leaving those who have difficulties to talk among themselves and without a solution. It was comforting to know that I am not alone with the problem. I have succeeded in taking down mail from one of the accounts and sorted that out. Regarding FHU: I will now tackle the Gmail account with 5418 FHU emails to a specific folder in Outlook and make a PST file of that folder before deleting the folder and its contents in Outlook and I will be happy with that. I fully realize that this is not a 'Google Forum' and I am happy to be getting some success at last.

Again thank you for everything.

All good wishes, Anne
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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DavidNewton
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by DavidNewton »

*Somewhat off topic* can I suggest the free MailStore Home
https://www.mailstore.com/en/products/mailstore-home/
as an easy to use email archiving solution.

I have no connection with MailStore other than as a satisfied user and Moderators feel free to delete this post if you wish.

David
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annejay55
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

Thank you David for your very quick reply.

It looks a very good program but I doubt if it is for me but I appreciate your helpfulness.

Many thanks for everything.
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by Russell »

Anne

If you still need/want to transfer emails between Gmail accounts, wrap a cold towel around your head and take a look at https://www.lifewire.com/move-or-copy-m ... er-1171948
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by David2416 »

There is an update on http://rootsweb.com/ posted Jan 9, 2018 which I have copied here for information:-

RootsWeb is currently unavailable

We have been in the process of improving the site throughout 2017, and as a result of an issue we recently became aware of, we have taken the site offline while we work to resolve it. We take the security of our contributors and our viewers seriously. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but protecting our users’ personal information is our top priority.

Update: January 9, 2018

We have spent the last few weeks reviewing the functionality on RootsWeb and have created a plan to bring many of your contributions back online over the next few months. As we stated before, our first priority is security, and ensuring that every part of RootsWeb meets our stringent security standards. Our next priority is getting you, the users of RootsWeb and its services, access to your content.

Right now, the best way for us to meet both goals is to begin bringing portions of RootsWeb back online in a read-only state. This means you will have access to content, but you will not be able to load new content in these sections. While this may not be ideal, it is the best way for us to protect RootsWeb users while also providing the ability to use the content you value. This is an interim step while we continue to evaluate the potential for bringing more of the RootsWeb services back online in a more complete manner.

Here’s our current plan:

Hosted Web Sites: Soon we will begin bringing Hosted Web Sites back online. We will start with a few hundred and then add more over time, giving us a chance to scan the content.

Family Trees/WorldConnect: Family Trees or WorldConnect allows you to upload a GEDCOM file and publish it for others to see. It is currently being reviewed by our software engineers and security team and we plan on having a read-only, searchable version up in the next few weeks. The ability to upload new GEDCOM files will be available in the coming months.

Mailing Lists: Mailing Lists have been functioning as normal, but the archives have been unavailable. We plan to make the archives available to you once we have WorldConnect available to you in a readable version.

We will be making decisions about other functionality over time.

We appreciate your patience as we bring the different pieces of RootsWeb back online in a secure manner. You, our contributors and viewers, are what has made RootsWeb the vibrant free genealogy community it is.

The RootsWeb Team
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by jmurphy »

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annejay55
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

Sorry for being so long in getting back to you to say thankyou’s!

Thank you to David2416 for his update on this Rootsweb site problem – now there is another update: Rootsweb is really down now, here is the latest from the website:

“We have been in the process of improving the site throughout 2017, and as a result of an issue we recently became aware of, we have taken the site offline while we work to resolve it. We take the security of our contributors and our viewers seriously. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but protecting our users’ personal information is our top priority.
Update: January 25, 2018
We have taken the RootsWeb Mail system offline for the next few weeks so that we can upgrade the Mailman system. Mailman is the software which runs the mailing lists. While the system is down, you will not be able to send or receive email. We thank you for your patience.”

I could not sign-in today! (but it could be temporary!)

Thank you to Russel for the cold wet towel job: I had actually read this article and thought I might need a ‘dram’ to sustain me but the problem I had with it was that you had to open a new Gmail account and I was trying to merge 2 existing ones back then, I even wrote to them for advice but they did not reply. However I have, forwarded a few emails to me at another email, Control A then copied/pasted into a Word document all the links to my watching history on YouTube and ditched the rest and all is well. Since then I deleted the empty account – so I am sorted at this stage at present and very grateful for all your help and support.

Thank you to J Murphy for the articles from the Legal Genealogist (I had never heard of them, what’s new?) Both very interesting articles and also the comments from the public. It is good we are not alone, we are all concerned of the future of the Rootsweb problem – Time will tell – what happens in the end!

Finally I thank the moderators for their patience as we deviated away from what is genealogical – that has proved a great help and I am ‘on my way’ now. (Till I get stuck again! :D )

Thank you one and all.
All good wishes, Anne
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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annejay55
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by annejay55 »

This email arrived this morning: probably we all got it: the latest update:

Dear RootsWeb Mailing List Member,

We'd like to provide you with an update on the RootsWeb mailing list service.

We are on track to bring the mailing lists back online by the end of this month. The mailing list archives will be up and running with current emails in them. We are in the process of importing the old archives into the new system which will take some time.

We appreciate your patience as we continue upgrading the systems that run the RootsWeb mailing lists. We know how much value this service provides to our members.

Updates on our progress will continue to be posted on the RootsWeb homepage: http://www.rootsweb.com

Thank you for sticking with us as we work to make these systems more secure and reliable for the future.

The RootsWeb Team
All good wishes, Anne > On Windows 10 ~ FH 5.0.11 ~
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by E Wilcock »

But there is no news yet about our websites hosted by Rootsweb.
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by jmurphy »

Anne Gillespie Mitchell sent out a notice on one of the RootsWeb mailing lists I subscribe to. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

From today's update:
Update: March 6, 2018

We have some good news on our progress to bring RootsWeb back online. As of today, the RootsWeb mailing lists are now available to use, meaning you can now send and receive email on RootsWeb email lists just like you used to in the past. In addition to making the site more secure, we’ve upgraded our backend system to provide an easier-to-use interface to manage your email list subscriptions.

To get started managing your subscriptions, go to Setting Up My New Mailman Login and if you are an administrator you will find more info at Setting Up My New Mailman Admin Login.

As of today, any email that is sent will go directly into a new archive. We are in the process of importing the old archives into the new archives and due to the massive amount of content, that process will take time. We will continue to update you on the progress when we can.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to bring these features back online.
I have created a login on the new Mailman interface and see that there is an option to download the entire archive in mbox format. It's a great pity we couldn't have done this with the older messages, but it will be a nice feature going forward.


Setting up my new Mailman Login: http://home.rootsweb.ancestry.com/listindexes/setupmail
Setting up my new Mailman Admin Login: http://home.rootsweb.ancestry.com/listi ... setupadmin
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by BillH »

Thanks for letting us know. For me at least the https://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com web site is almost unusable as it is so slow.
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Re: Rootsweb is still down

Post by AdrianBruce »

BillH wrote:... almost unusable as it is so slow.
It is unusable for me...
504 Gateway Time-out
Presumably it hasn't yet been scaled up beyond a workload equivalent to the test team....

Tell a lie - we've dialled through the Gateway this time....
Adrian
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