There’s several genealogy websites.  Most if not all have a forum where kin can look for kin.  But kin has to know the site & forum exist.  Then kin has to understand search features or if the site don’t have a search feature then read through a bunch of other people’s stuff to get to anything possibly related to them.  If there is anything it’s usually a year old or so.  Now what?  You can try to get at your possible kin’s contact info & hope it’s still good.  Or you can reply & hope they come back to read it.

It’s the same thing for “family groups”.  People have to be members of a site & stumble across it to know it exists.  Then they have to join it too if not to read then to reply.

I’m also seeing several family trees & several family sites for the same surname.  All people are doing is scattering their energies & confusing others.  Also all they’re doing is sharing the same guesstimates, errors & typos.  Even if people recorded things & even if these things were not destroyed in some way they’re not gospels.  And there’s also not a lot online…not even at Ancestry.com.  The only way it’s going to get online is if a volunteer puts it there.  And we don’t have countless volunteers just yet.

In too many of these old genealogy books I’m seeing where families had organizations or associations to not only pay for things like fixing up family cemeteries but also organize the family together.  And that was back in the old days before we had huge families spread out all over the country & the net to reach them with.    We need family orgs/associations today more then we ever did.

Families with the same surname need one tree, one discussion forum/family repository & one family site for stories.  Once a family has these things they should tell their whole family.  Also if they were a member of a genealogy site/forum & were searching for kin they should post the links to these “main family sites” & attract others to them.

The more you add to a site & the more you link to a site the higher it goes in the search engine lists which means the more people you attract.  In other words you can be on page 1 or 2 rather then page 50 which no one will ever get to.  That’s why it’s important if you join a site you use it.  Sitting on the member’s list don’t do the site owner or the family any good.

Also after hours of searching I’ve found the recently deceased.  The thing is I believe their  next of kin & I have talked.  I should’ve already known when they died & where they were buried.  Again there’s not too many volunteers but there are people who charge a small fee to look things up for you.  I don’t blame ‘em a bit.  But I can’t afford this service.  People who can shouldn’t have to when there’s next of kin who could so easily fill in some blanks.  So again it’s very important if people join sites they actually use them.

What’s the best software to use?  If WordPress had a social community plugin that was more like a plugin & less like it’s own software & if they had a truly working forum plugin & if they had a working invite plugin it would be.  It still is the best software for stories.  You can even include mini photo galleries with the stories…or audio/video files.   So you have to have the tree & forum/repository separate.  You’d have to have the tree separate regardless.

Tree/social community software combined hasn’t been invented yet.  You can get social community software but it won’t work on a cheap shared server.  And it’s not the proper software.  You need a tree for stats but also to block living people from public.  You need a blog for pioneer stories/pics.  And you need a forum where you can discuss things, post questions & also upload attachments & if it has a photo gallery upload pics.  In other words…the family repository.  It requires 3 softwares.  But if all family webmasters combine & all family members use them it’s better then multiple sites spreading the same errors all over the web for the very same surname.

At least this is my point of view.

You learn the computer operating system by reading help files &/or buying a book. You learn computer software programs the same way. You learn online software programs the same way. If you can’t learn by reading then sometimes there’s video tutorials. You could pay to take classes. If you can’t afford that you have to invite a friend with experience over.

When it comes to online software programs (that you can register for & login to) most if not all have help files. They also have help forums. If you read the help files & are still lost then you use the help forum. Search it & if you don’t find an answer to your question post your question. When you do this it gives all members a chance to help you (answer your question) & when the question’s answered it helps more then just you.

What you do not do is contact total strangers personally & expect them to teach you anything via email, instant messenger or private message. It’s not possible, it’s not their job & it’s rude.

No…offering money doesn’t help. Pay a little extra & go get a real teacher who’s set up to teach you. This is not the TV via another medium. These are web pages which are like regular pages except they’re on the web.  Writing isn’t always required…but reading is almost always required.  If reading’s not your cup of tea then the net’s not the best place for you.

I also had another contact form plugin & there’s either a robot or a human that thinks it’s cute to send me junk. Now we got a new contact form. It collects the info I need to ban/report/etc.

When I find a good invite plugin plus a plugin so we can either block profiles/email addresses or at least block email addresses with either private messages &/or contact forms…the forum will be back. Or I may link to an external forum & never allow registration to this site.

Until then feel free to read the articles/tutorials & check out the links.

Software testing can also be stated as the process of validating and verifying that a software program/application/product:

1. meets the business and technical requirements that guided its design and development;
2. works as expected; and
3. can be implemented with the same characteristics.

Software testing, depending on the testing method employed, can be implemented at any time in the development process. However, most of the test effort occurs after the requirements have been defined and the coding process has been completed. As such, the methodology of the test is governed by the software development methodology adopted.

Different software development models will focus the test effort at different points in the development process. Newer development models, such as Agile, often employ test driven development and place an increased portion of the testing in the hands of the developer, before it reaches a formal team of testers. In a more traditional model, most of the test execution occurs after the requirements have been defined and the coding process has been completed.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.[1] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

A CMS may support the following features:

* identification of all key users and their content management roles;
* the ability to assign roles and responsibilities to different content categories or types;
* definition of workflow tasks for collaborative creation, often coupled with event messaging so that content managers are alerted to changes in content (For example, a content creator submits a story, which is published only after the copy editor revises it and the editor-in-chief approves it.);
* the ability to track and manage multiple versions of a single instance of content;
* the ability to capture content (e.g. scanning);
* the ability to publish the content to a repository to support access to the content (Increasingly, the repository is an inherent part of the system, and incorporates enterprise search and retrieval.);
* separation of content’s semantic layer from its layout (For example, the CMS may automatically set the color, fonts, or emphasis of text.).

There are three main categories of CMS, with their respective domains of use:

* Enterprise CMS
* Web CMS
* Component CMS“

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system

People participating in an Internet forum can build bonds with each other and interest groups will easily form around a topic’s discussion, subjects dealt within or around sections in the forum.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion_forum

Domain names are managed under a hierarchy headed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which manages the top of the DNS tree by administrating the data in the root nameservers.

IANA also operates the .int registry for intergovernmental organizations, the .arpa zone for protocol administration purposes, and other critical zones such as root-servers.net.

IANA delegates all other domain name authority to other domain name registries such as VeriSign.

Country code top-level domains (ccTLD) are delegated by IANA to national registries such as DENIC in Germany, or Nominet in the United Kingdom.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registration

A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecommerce