Blog Status

I have been toying with a family website for about a year.

I had one about ten years ago and found it to be so limiting and visited by so few people that it wasn't worth the effort. Now with upgrades I have been able to add over 5,600 family related pictures and our family tree. I have at least another 5,000 pictures to add. I have also begun to move my stories to that site. It is a private site.

I hadn't decided what to do about this site. Last week one of the stories on my private site was one I knew I wanted family to know, but not one I would have printed here. I also have some pictures that relatives don't mind other family members looking at, but they don't want them "on the internet".

So, I shall put some stories here in the future, but most of my work will be on the private site.

Also, I found that some of my stories and pictures were being copied to other sites without any reference to where they came from. Now I know some family members have web sites that they put big warnings on about their copyrights. They also use software that keeps you from copying any of their pictures. Their pictures which are YOUR pictures if you are family. From what I have read there is a copyright on any of the stories or things you write about on your own websites.

I am torn. I want to share the stories and pictures that I have of the family. If I could block the ones who don't share from downloading or copying things, I would. However, I think if you take the words that someone has written or a picture that they have taken themselves, you should at least ask their permission or give the source of the picture/story. I mean how hard is it to say here is blah blah blah and it came from www.ifoundthishere.com.

I have also been told that I am hard to contact. My email has been in a bunch of these stories. It is karenchat@aol.com. However, there is a place to make a comment after every story. ALL comments come to me. I mean for goodness sake, it is a blog. Who do they think is going to see the comments that are made on MY blog?

I did change the settings so that I see the comments before they are printed, but I have never -- to this date-- not approved a comment. I have even added comments that someone wanted to make but could not add for themselves.

So, I will leave it here. Do you want to continue to see stories and pictures here or should they all be private at a site you must log into?

I have met and gathered other information because of some contacts that were made here. I have had some folks write because of a story and been able to give them more information about their family. I want to share, but I, too, feel some ownership in the way I present things on the family.