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Proposed COGenWeb Guidelines


Original page is at: www.rootsweb.com/~cogenweb/ccinfo/cogw-rules.htm


I have made some page format changes and text case changes without noting the revisions.

Deleted original text is struck out. My additions are in blue. My comments are red.



USGenWeb Volunteers in COGenWeb
Definitions & Requirements


The word Volunteer means many thing to many people, and is used in many different cases to mean something other than the standard definition found in the dictionary. In this case, within the USGenWeb and COGenWeb Projects, it means we "agree" to coordinate information for the County and Town pages we have opted to host, with the only gratuity being the satisfaction of helping others.


Many of us are coordinating counties and towns we have connections to with our own family searches. Which is fine! I started out that way, and I'm sure many others have too, and many more to come will also.

When you volunteer to coordinate a County page for any of the State Projects within the USGenWeb, you do so knowing it is for the USGenWeb Projects, and the many visitors to that County page. The USGenWeb does have certain requirements that have to be on your County pages. States can, and do, impose additional requirements and guidelines. To volunteer to coordinate a County or Town in the COGenWeb, it must be with the understanding that you adhere to these requirements and guidelines.


Town and other local page coordinators must understand that they are also required to meet any published requirements for those pages established by the COGenWeb County Coordinator. Local page coordinators that find the County Coordinator rules too restrictive may appeal them to the COGenWeb State Coordinator or Assistant State Coordinator.


All COGenWeb project page coordinators (county, local and special projects) are voting members of the COGenWeb. COGenWeb coordinators are free to publish their pages on a host of their choice.


USGenWeb Requirements are at http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/countypage.html


Please pay very close attention to the

COGenWeb basic requirements
for County and Local Pages


State Mail List (The official State Mail List) The List is a closed one, which means the SC (or Asst.. SC) will have to subscribe you to the list. If you do not get your welcome message from rootsweb.com in your e-mail within the first couple of days, please e-mail the State Coordinator, (or the Asst. SC) and remind them.


Limits on Counties Pages


No, the map is not all in Green. While that is an aim we all have, that cannot be uppermost. I do not believe just getting the county pages'on line', but just sitting there, is what any of us really want. I realize that, at this time, 1 county site per coordinator is not possible, nor feasible. However, no more than *4 counties sites (*with 5 being the absolute top) will have to be the limit. So, the policy of the COGenWeb, for adopting counties and local pages are as follows.

  1. New Coordinators - 1 county or town to begin with. Only after a reasonable length of time can there be any additional adoptions. The only exception to this would be if they have Counties in other States, and are familiar with HTML and the USGenWeb.
  2. Additional Adoptions - To be considered only if the Coordinator is established in the COGenWeb. No one coordinator will have more than 4 counties county or town sites. 5 will be considered only on a case to case basis.

Graphics will have to be in the standard formats, .gif, .jpg (.jpeg), that all browsers can view them.

County COGenWeb Site Content


Many of us came to these pages, this State, or the USGenWeb, looking for our ancestors. Sometimes we are lucky enough to be able to adopt the very County location we are/were searching in. It is understandable that we would want to further our search for our own ancestors while coordinating that very county or town. However, please keep yours down to a low roar, and let others have a chance to find their ancestors, or submit their data too.


We welcome members of the Historical and/or Genealogical Societies that wish to host a county or town in the COGenWeb Project. I have no objections to the Societies being noted on the pages, and even your Societies Logo (if you have one) being placed on the main page, just not as the predominant Logo. This is the COGenWeb Project, which is part of the USGenWeb Project, and that must be first and foremost.

Main Page Requirements:


COGenWeb Logo


COGenWeb Logo must be at the top of the main page of your a County page and located somewhere on the town main page at least. Optional COGenWeb Logos can be found on the Reception Committee page.


USGenWeb Logo


USGenWeb Logo must be located on your main page. Optional Logos for this (2 different sizes, and the pillow Logo) are also found on the Reception Committee page


Town pages may be required to display a county logo as part of the COGenWeb County Coordinators guidelines.


Also, there is the optional Colorado outline map which you can get and color in your County with your program for such download and modify as required for use on your pages.


County Coordinator's Email must be on the main page.
You should be courteous, quick to respond and assist your visitors to the best of your ability. You aren't required to do research for your visitors but you do need to point them in the direction of finding answers.


A method of contacting the SC or ASC (my email addy written out) from county pages and the County Coordinator from Town and other Local pages.
(this is a strongly suggested from USGenWeb, not just my personal preference)


no money requests posted (no unnecessary advertisements--if you are on GeoCities or some other server that requires an ad on it, I am NOT talking about them! they are considered necessary) (also, if you have someone that does research, and charges a fee for services, please make sure there is a notation that the person is an independent researcher and not affiliated with USGW or COGenWeb.) We may place a note on our pages concerning donating to the server for providing the space, etc of our pages. But lets be tactful about it.
Paragraph moved to prohibitions from main page requirements.

COGenWeb Site Requirements

Required County Links
COGenWeb - http://www.cogenweb.com/
Town or other local coordinators pages.
USGenWeb - http://www.usgenweb.org
Required Town and local site Links
XX COGenWeb County home page -
COGenWeb - http://www.cogenweb.com/
Note: I would like to move the requirements to link two levels up to the strongly suggested section leaving only a fixed requirement to link one level up and one level down.
Strongly Suggested Links
COGenWeb County Index page - ../cotable.htm
USGenWeb Archives State Index - http://www.usgwarchives.org/usfiles.htm
COGenWeb Archives Index - http://www.usgwarchives.org/co/cofiles.htm
Colorado Grave Stone Project - http://www.cogenweb.com/cemetery/colorado.html
Optional Links
Colorado Places by County - http://www.cogenweb.com/coplaces/
Colorado County Evolution - http://www.cudenver.edu/~dstanwyc/cocounties.html
The Colorado Migration Project - http://history.sloco.net/COMig/
Colorado Photo Project - http://www.cogenweb.com/photos/
COKids Project - http://www.rootsweb.com/~cokids/
Colorado Military Pages - http://www.cogenweb.com/military/
Guidelines for Archives Submission - http://www.usgwarchives.org/co/guidelns.htm
WorldGenWeb - http://www.worldgenweb.org/

Query Page


There must be a query page, and linked as such. A clearly worded link to view a 'Query', and a clearly worded message (usually e-mail) to post a 'Query'. (If people don't know where to post a query, or where to view them, they can't get much benefit from the site).


All posted queries must be dated. (This would help everyone, especially the visitor.)


Local and town coordinators may satisfy the "must have a query page" requirement by linking to the existing County query pages.

Other COGenWeb Requirements


All pages - Link all pages in your site to your index page.


Updates:


Your County pages need to be updated at least monthly, and noted so at the bottom of your pages (this page last updated). Though it would be very acceptable if they were updated weekly. We would hope the queries would be that frequent anyway. Even a very slow county gets at least one per month. If there are more than one per month, I would hope they would be posted as soon as possible. I realize some have other things to do besides sit at their computer working in the county pages. (Like making a living, to feed those hungry mouths - pay the bills - housekeeping (ugh!) cooking, hey .. they gotta eat that food you worked to buy..little things, you know…<gg>) I don't believe any of us can say we don't have even 1 hour per week to do our updating.


Your pages should be reviewed frequently (at least monthly) and updated as required. Queries should be posted as soon as possible after they are received but in no case less than weekly. While there is no requirement to upload new pages simply to change the "this page last updated" date, some date trail must be left on the pages to indicate to visitors, County and State Coordinators that the site has not been abandoned. Perhaps the simplest way to satisfy the monthly review and update rule is to keep a "what's new" page with a running log of site page updates and reviews.


COGenWeb sites that have not had a recorded review and whose coordinators have not answered a monthly roll call on the COGenWeb mailing list in a 90 day period may be declared to abandoned, all links to the pages removed and placed for adoptions by new coordinators.


Page Evaluation-Sweeps:


As new county When initial COGenWeb site pages are put up they will be checked by the County, State Coordinator or Assistant State Coordinator for the required elements and to be sure your links work. We will let you know when they have visited your page. If there are any problems with links or if any of the required elements missing. We let you know so you can make any changes or corrections that are needed. Post a message to the Colorado County Coordinators mail list or to the State Coordinator when your pages are ready


We will also periodically check the County and Town pages for the same types of problems. When we do we will send you and email to let you know what needs to be fixed. If the problems are not corrected in a reasonable time frame, you will be contacted again.


Prohibitions


Non-Profit


The USGenWeb Projects, of which the COGenWeb Project is a part of, is a Non-Profit entity. In other words we put this information up for FREE access by all, 24 hrs. a day, and 7 days a week. No one will be charged for any of the efforts by the Coordinators, as hosts to a county or town in the COGenWeb Project. If you should come across one that is charging for access to page, I would like to know about it.


No money requests posted (no unnecessary advertisements--if you are on GeoCities or some other server that requires an ad on it, I am NOT talking about them! they are considered necessary) (also, if you have someone that does research, and charges a fee for services, please make sure there is a notation that the person is an independent researcher and not affiliated with USGW or COGenWeb.) We may place a note on our pages concerning donating to the server for providing the space, etc of our pages. But lets be tactful about it.
Most of this paragraph moved intact from requirements section.


Copyright Infringement


Our goal is to provide free information but we must do it legally. No matter how tempting it is to upload useful data to our county pages, we must avoid copyright infringement. Copyright is ownership of the author, creator or publisher of a given work. Copyright gives the owner the right to benefit from his/her labor.


To avoid copyright infringement, follow these four basic rules:

  1. Anything dated 1923 and after is protected by copyright. There are no exceptions.
  2. Only facts and public domain material can be freely shared.
  3. Any use of a work that diminishes its market value constitutes copyright infringement.
  4. Obtain written authorization from the copyright holder to avoid committing copyright infringement.

USGenWeb Copyright Policy is at http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.html


Profanity, pornography and political icons and statements on one of our pages.


I think this is self-explanatory.



Foooter
Thank you for visiting the COGenWeb Project!

State Coordinator;


Assistant State Coordinator;


Colorado GenWeb Webmaster

Please tell me why and what page you are writing me about, copying the URL and pasting it into your email will help even more.

Information last updated Monday, 05-May-2008 04:21:08 MDT

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