New Management at the R-P312 and Subclades Project

[rms2]

Rick Arnold and I began the R-P312 and Subclades Project back in 2008, soon after P312/S116 was discovered. Rick dropped out a year or two later. Now I am passing the baton on to a new Group Administrator, Henry Zenker. I will stay on, at least for awhile, as a co-administrator, but Henry will be running the project.

I administer several other projects, and my main interest is R-L21 and its subclades. As a consequence, P312 was getting short shrift. The R-P312 and Subclades Project is very large, as is the R-L21 Plus Project. Between the two of them, I was constantly snowed under with emails from members and outside enquirers. It was just too much. I am not a retired person, so my time is limited. So, passing the R-P312 and Subclades Project on to Henry is good for me and good for the project and its members, who will be better served.

[alan trowel hands.]

Well on behalf of the hobby community thanks for your time running that project. I think as it keeps subdividing into subclade on subclade its going to get very complex.

[Jdean]

Ditto

[Matt Winters]

Thanks for all your good work, Rich.

[rms2]

Thanks, gentlemen.

[rms2]

Well on behalf of the hobby community thanks for your time running that project. I think as it keeps subdividing into subclade on subclade its going to get very complex.

I think that complexity is probably going to render projects like R-P312 and Subclades obsolete as the SNP river rushes on and leaves them hopelessly upstream.

Remember the old R1b Project? It's still there, and most of us are still members of it, but what a monstrous, many-tentacled kraken that must be to manage!

[razyn]

I think that complexity is probably going to render projects like R-P312 and Subclades obsolete as the SNP river rushes on and leaves them hopelessly upstream.

Yet it was decided at some corporate level at FTDNA that they didn't wish to "proliferate" haplogroup projects at lower levels, as new SNPs are discovered.  This was a little prior to the annual meeting in Houston last November; e.g. they wouldn't let John Mancha start a Z196 Project.  (Which by now might be in a turf war with a new DF27 Project.)  As far as I've heard, they still have that policy.  Our not having group leverage or advocacy has made it hard for persons with legitimate research interest (in refining the phylogeny with newer subclades) to make our voices heard at the lab.

I agree with the others who have expressed appreciation of all the extra work you have done in recent months -- setting up subgroups for some Z series SNPs, shuffling DF27 into the existing deck, etc.  And that's just the part I've been watching -- I know L21 has also been pretty busy, and probably others.  DF19 and L238 have begun making waves.  It can only get worse.

And I wish Henry well... can hardly wait to start annoying him, instead of you.

[rms2]

I'm not sure what the reason for the fear of proliferation is. There doesn't seem to be a corresponding fear of the proliferation of surname projects, so I don't get it. Don't haplogroup projects help sell SNP and other y-dna tests? (Disclaimer: I get no money or other forms of remuneration from Family Tree DNA.)

I know I have sold truckloads of single SNP, Deep Clade, and str tests for FTDNA over the years as a consequence of my work with first the R-P312 and Subclades Project, then the R-L21 Plus Project and the Bretagne and Normandy projects. Lately I have even influenced a number of people to buy the Family Finder test. From time to time, when guys have written me expressing despair over SNPs to test, I have even steered them toward mtDNA testing.

So, it seems to me an active haplogroup project is a money maker for FTDNA.

[gtc]

Yet it was decided at some corporate level at FTDNA that they didn't wish to "proliferate" haplogroup projects at lower levels, as new SNPs are discovered.  

There was some discussion of this policy on the old DNA-Forums, especially in relation to U106. As I recall, an agreement was reached with FTDNA at the behest of the U106 admins that no new projects be allowed below U106. IIRC the reason was to avoid a proliferation of small sub-projects.