Is this forum facility adequate for our Phelps discussions and comments?

[Doug Phelps]

Is this facility what we want?  Weaknesses?  Advantages?  Rather be somewhere else?  What is YOUR opinion?

[Brian Phelps]

This forum may be perfectly adequate for most needs. I can see a couple of disadvantages -- it doesn't turn up in search engines, so most users, unless they know where to look or find a link to it someplace, won't find it. Second, from what little I've seen thus far, the forum does not appear configured to prevent non-registered users (like me) from posting just anything. My previous (Rootsweb) guestbook got spammed very heavily, which is why I abandoned it. I'm not sure if this is possible with the forum or not.

Brian Phelps
http://family.phelpsinc.com
Phelps Family in America.

[sailingdeacon]

Other considerations:  Do we actually desire ALL Phelps researchers to be active on this board  - or do we want to attempt to limit it to those seriously discussing their ancestry as it relates to Y-DNA?   Presently the web site appears to attrract rather serious and meticulous researchers, not those willing to serf the web for undocumented information.  On the other hand, we all very much want to attract new Y-DNA tests, so we do want new folks.   To accomplish both needs, should we have a board where membership is by authorization only?

[wlphelps]

NO!

[M. David Phelps]

This forum (all things considered) should probably stay focused on the DNA topic. If Brian finds a manageable tool and/or service and is willing, I'll do what I can to support him. He and I have shared quite a bit over the years and I have found him a pleasure to work with.

MDP

[Graham Phelps]

I think that the forum should stay focused on DNA.

ghp

[btphelps]

I agree, there is an advantage is keeping this forum focused on DNA-related topics.

[Doug Phelps]

A few others have commented via email.? I am hearing a desire to keep it simple and to keep the forum related to dna discussions - of course related to all Phelps male ancestries.? It also appears you would rather this board not get into involved detail about ancestries in general.? However of course it should be used to resolve paper trail disagreements when dna matches are found.

I have revised the link to the forum from our 6 pages of the Phelps Project.? I have made an attempt to reduce the confusion of the inherent navigation of the forum.? Please try going to the main and other pages and see what you think.

As to the other issues:

1.? Privacy of email addresses:? ?While google searches web sites to put in its indexes, it does not hit our forum.? That's good in that spam spiders probably wont see any email addresses in the forum and we do not get junk comments.? On the other hand, new users do not see our forum. To address the google issue, Brian and I are putting a link to the forum on our two web pages which will cause google spiders to put the forum - or at least a pointer to the main pages -? in its indexes.? We'll have to take our chances with spammers and junk commenters,? but I think we will be ok.? But we may need to force registrations.
 
2.? When you register or reply you have the option of hidden email addresses.? That prevents anyone from emailing you and should protect from potential spammers.? ?

3.? ?When you post anything, you should click the option to be told of a reply.? It would be nice if you would write your p-nn kit number

One way to keep this board dna oriented is to require a registration; I would register all the dna tested members plus any others who have been recommended.? (Many folks find registration overly complex).? Clearly there are guests who are somewhat of passerbyers who post and who really have no intention of dna testing.
 SO do we want to force registration on this board ?? I am leaning that way.

[Jack Phelps]

Like I said, let's keep it as simple as we can.   I have no opposition to registering, but I can tell you, it took me a good while to figure out how to post an answer to this message.   The other good option is that the people from FTDNA are handy for quick answers.

Marilyn Phelps

[Virginia]

I'm in agreement with the leaning toward keeping this forum focused on yDNA.  There are other forums that serve traditional research conversations.  I'm also leaning toward the required registration, albeit I was one of those thwarted by the current registration procedure (Terry very kindly and swiftly fixed this for me).  It would be nice if there was some way to automatically become registered if you submit yDNA test results.

Thinking a little further, I've used some forums where you can log in as "guest" with a provided password that is posted publicly on the initial page (frequently the password is also "guest" and if it is presented in an image file, spam spiders can't see it).  Doing something like this would allow the unsure but seriously intrigued visitors to read the forum and possibly post questions but it would be hard for a spam engine to figure out this route.  It would not block deviants from posting but they would at least have to be human.

Also, as far as using the forum as a 'marketing' tool to get new people interested, my feeling is that the DNA web pages do a more compelling job in that regard than a forum would, especially if we eventually post research breakthrough stories.  As I said above, access to the forum may be useful to the small population that is really on the fence about going forward but I'm having a hard time imagining broad (and serious) interest otherwise - but please jump in if you disagree.

Virginia Phelps

[Doug Phelps]

 FTDNA, the testing company, unfortunately is not actually involved with this forum or even the 6 pages I maintain here at World Families Network.  FTDNA allows me to log on at their site and nicely retrieve all the dna information of our Phelps members, plus some other neat tools.  I then have to copy/manipulate it over here on the 6 pages and the forum.  So there is no automatic connection at all.  FTDNA does however have a relationship with World Families Network whose site this is.   

FTDNA offers to us a totally different set of pages, mostly automatic.  It seems the pages are much less tailorable, but they do look very nice. I think we probably have a better facility here than the alternative of going  with pages provided by FTYDNA.  However, theirs is continually improving.  The approach of FTDNA is for individuals to upload gedcom files and communicate with one another individually - rather than for the admin to post the ancestries as I have done here.   Here is a good sample to look at:  www.familytreedna.com/public/Phillips-America

Our present forum and 6 basic pages were set up by Terry Barton's son who has been in Iraq. The Bartons provide us this free facilityi.  His son should be back soon and hopefully things will improve.

There is a very good chance I will attempt to move to the primary pages of FTDNA yet link to our forum and a page or two we now have.  I will be testing thisl

As to the problem with registering and posting, I am in sympathy with you and so is Terry. Actually, my detailed instructions today I hope are a little better than what we had  before. I made "improvements" today with some explicit instructions - albeit messy.  Terry has no solultion anytime soon.