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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 1998-12 > 0912731460


From: Pat Frykberg <>
Subject: Re: PLACING INFORMATION ON THE WEB
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 13:31:00 +1300


Points taken, Greg. And I may add I have been won over.
The best thing next to finding a relative on a list like this, is the
exchange of ideas.
How else could I have learned so much? Broadened my outlook..
thanks
Pat

Greg Harper wrote
>In similar vein, I've read of several horror stories where genealogists have
>sent a new contact large amounts of information only to find it later being
>passed off as the contacts' own research (without acknowledgement). Galling
>in the extreme BUT:
>(i) more contacts by far will respect and acknowledge the help, so let's not
>clam up because a minority have no integrity or honesty (aka thieves);
>(ii) by refusing to share our data, we lose the help and information we
>might gain from others, so we will lose out as well;
>(iii) the data we have aren't actually diminished in their value to us
>because some-one else has passed them off as their own work; indeed, we
>don't really own the data themselves as they lie in public records, etc. for
>all to find if they so wish;
>(iv) if we publish our data (on the Web, in a book, as a deposit in a FHS or
>SoG file, etc.) we can at least point to our "priority date" to establish
>our own credentials if we so wish, as Delia points out.
>So I'm willing to take the risk, and all my data are freely available to
>others. If you wish to rip me off, may you sleep uneasily in your bed for
>the rest of your days!
>

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Pat Frykberg <>

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