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Forum Regular
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| 1:58:43 PM - Fri, Jul 6th 2012 |
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This is just an idea to toss around:
I made a post a while ago about how we have become a resource for people seeking patient/staff information. I haven't kept any actual numbers but it seems like we get at least 1-2 requests per week.
Now I know in the past I loved to dig around for info about state hospitals, and I know there are people here that are more than happy to use thier time and resources to help out when they can. I has been an enigma to me as to how all these people are finding our site for this purpose. Either way maybe it could be used to our advantage.
I know we've had some issues over the last few months were we are at our limit and people are having trouble accessing the forum. Prehaps we could charge these people using us as a information resourse some nominal fee. When people make these requests it does take members time and effort to do the research, I know everyone here is happy to do it for free, but if this extra traffic is slowing the site down them maybe we should think about it.
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Just Got Here
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| 2:40:01 PM - Fri, Jul 6th 2012 |
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Hi
I placed a post note regarding my great aunt. I truly have no idea how to access the records for this precious (to me anyway) information. I can certainly understand the effort and knowledge this would entail and I would happily donate or pay an appropriate fee for this research…….thoughts?
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M-Explorer Forum:Admin, Forum:Mod, bureaucrat, checkuser, sysop
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Forum Veteran
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| 4:21:42 PM - Fri, Jul 6th 2012 |
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Well to be quite honest, the idea of donations has come up before.
First off, where we are now is paid up for over a year and a half. The thing is that cost of a better server isn't cheep. We're talking on the level of over a thousand dollars a year. Currently we're paying only two hundred dollars every two years.
Also, another thing to take into account is the amount of active people with accounts. There's not a lot of active editors here. Many people have accounts, but only a relatively few actually edit the wiki and/or participate in the forum. Plus, no offense to anonymous editors out there, but that source of donations is very hit or miss.
Finally, the issue with people donating money for services comes with multiple issues. First, the people doing any sort of research help are doing it completely out of their kindness of their hearts and on their free time. The vast majority have real jobs and do this sort of thing when they have free time. So they are unable to respond in the type of fashion those who might pay would like. On top of that they rarely have the time to go digging through an archives at a drop of a hat.
Plus, the sort of genealogical information that is asked often is very hard for a researcher, who is not a family member, to do. One of the big things people who ask for help forget, is that the vast majority of the time the only people who can access the records they want are the very people asking the questions in the first place. (I.E. family members are only allowed to look at family records. Even then that's only after jumping through lots of hoops.) All we are able to do is point them in the right direction. Yet, the requester themselves will still have to do a lot of the hard work. Most people don't want to pay for that. At the most they may donate a few bucks here or there. But if they have to do the work themselves, they most likely won't donate anything to us.
So for now, unless we see a huge increase in active editors (I'm talking about seeing more then twenty people actively participating.) donations are sort of out of the picture. This doesn't mean we can't do it later on, just not at the moment.
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Forum Regular
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| 4:35:23 PM - Fri, Jul 6th 2012 |
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| .....like I said it was just a thought.
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M-Explorer Forum:Admin, Forum:Mod, bureaucrat, checkuser, sysop
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| 4:46:02 PM - Fri, Jul 6th 2012 |
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Oh no, it was a great thought and something Thomas and I would love to do. It's just not feasable right now.
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Forum Veteran
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| 3:32:22 AM - Sat, Jul 7th 2012 |
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| Pretty much what M-Explorer said. You can hire a professional genealogist to research for you, it can be anywhere from $500-$2,000 from what I've seen. But as M points out, the records that people are looking for here, a professional couldn't access in most cases. I know our cemetery group gets about 5-10 requests per week and we can do much other then check what is publicly available, and it is very time consuming. On top of that, most records that are available, are still on microfilm and not digitized etc. The donations aren't a bad idea, but maybe something to keep in mind for later on.
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Forum Regular
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| 1:53:22 PM - Mon, Jul 9th 2012 |
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| That being said, maybe you can find an expert genealogist to partner with the site. The site gets a referral fee for any revenue the researcher makes from people referred by asylum projects. Even if it's 10 dollars a person that would help make the site at least self sustaining.
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M-Explorer Forum:Admin, Forum:Mod, bureaucrat, checkuser, sysop
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| 6:11:28 PM - Mon, Jul 9th 2012 |
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Quote:Evilavatar Mon 9th 9:53 amThat being said, maybe you can find an expert genealogist to partner with the site. The site gets a referral fee for any revenue the researcher makes from people referred by asylum projects. Even if it's 10 dollars a person that would help make the site at least self sustaining.
While on the face of it it's a good sounding idea. However just as Squad mentioned, the type of genealogical requests we get here, a professional couldn't do much more then we could. They would run into the exact same roadblocks (IE: the HIPPA laws) we would ourselves. In the end, the requester themselves would have to do a lot of work. Which would mean: why would they want to hire a professional for a significant amount of money for something they would need to do themselves. Plus, with that a professional wouldn't get a lot of paying jobs from us and as a result we wouldn't get a lot of referral fees.
I'm not above referring people to professional genealogists if its for something that a professional could truly help out with.
Bottom line, we don't get normal genealogical requests here. The most help we (and a professional) could offer is the exact same as a everyone else: just point the way and offer advice.
Edit: let me reiterate, I'm not against sending people to a professional genealogist if I think they can help. It's just I'm not expectting them to help any more then we can. Which sadly isn't as much as people would like.
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Edited On 7:14:35 PM - Mon, Jul 9th 2012 by M-Explorer
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