Wednesday 8 July 2009

Talking Scot forum offline

The Talking Scot forum has been offline for over a day now, with no indication as to when it will reappear, but if you are in need of a genealogical natter or some good advice, there are a few other forums you can turn to in the meantime.

The Rootschat forum is one of the best on the internet, covering the whole of the British Isles, with a fantastic Scottish section, and can be located at
www.rootschat.com.

More specifically dedicated to Scotland is the ScotFamTree forum, located at
http://scotfamtree.11.forumer.com/. There are various tiers of membership, but the most basic is free, and lots of useful advice waiting to be shared.

There are several genealogy magazine forums around, but two of the busiest are those for
Your Family Tree and Practical Family History/Family Tree Magazine, both dealing with Scottish queries as well as others from south of the border and overseas.

Finally, several Scottish family history societies operate their own forums. One of the best is that of the Scottish Genealogy Society at www.yabbers.com/phpbb/scotsgen.html , whilst many regional forums can be found by consulting the relevant society's website, a list of which appears at the Scottish Association of Family History Societies' site at http://www.safhs.org.uk/.

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional genealogical problem solving and research


11 comments:

  1. TalkingScot will be back up and running in the very near future. Seems as though the host site is down and they're working out the technical difficulty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I received this comment on this thread and initially rejected it - however, after a few minutes reflection I have decided to publish it in full:

    "Chris,

    I'm a member of TalkingScot and as such, have been following the posts on the Rootschat forum for updates. Needless to say, I've also read the posts made by you on the Rootschat thread and the other forums that you have seen fit to provide links to. I could be wrong but it appears to me that you have some kind of vendetta going with TalkingScot, whatever it is, your responses appear to me to be extremely unprofessional in nature. I have both Scottish and Irish ancestry that need the services of a professional researcher and had intended to hire you, alas, I have been put off by your unprofessional conduct during these past few weeks and therefore will seek the services of another company. I will also make sure to spread the word that you might not be the professional that you purport yourself to be on your blog and website.

    "I used to enjoy reading your very informative blog and also enjoyed reading your occasional posts on different forums, but I no longer do.

    "You don't seem to have given much thought to those of us who might well have become future paying clientele...sadly, you have lost my future business.

    "Not a smart move on your part!"

    Since TalkingScot went down a week ago, I have posted constant updates on the developing situation with its restoration. As well as updates on this blog, I have also made the following posts on the Rootschat and Your Family Tree forums:

    Talking Scot forum closes down? (8 JUL 09) - with updates on the site
    http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/2009/07/talking-scot-forum-closes-down.html

    Talking Scot update (12 JUL 09)
    http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/2009/07/talking-scot-update.html

    Rootschat
    http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,392427.0.html

    Your Family Tree
    http://forum.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=10950
    and
    http://forum.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=10982

    Balancing the story of TS this week have been additional posts concerning the recent revamp of the ScotsFamTree forum and the newly established Aois community at the Canadian based Electric Scotland website. I have also mentioned that whilst TS is down, many other forums are also available, including Rootschat, variosu FHS sites and the SGS site.

    I can only imagine that this poster, who has chosen to post anonymously, is annoyed at me posting about other discussion forums, but I am afraid that I cannot apologise for that, as they have as much right to publicity as TS has! The SGNE blog will continue to provide news on ALL stories that are of interest to those researching their Scottish family history. As has been posted in my continued updates on several forums, the new TS site is already partially up and running and when it is back online, I will of course make an announcement on this site.

    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chris, if it's any consolation I don't believe you have any vendetta against TS. You were only updating other sites as to the progress being made on talkingscots new site.

    I have no respect for anyone who posts anonymously......cowardly.

    Ina

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Ina. I've not actually rejected any comments on this site in the past (other than deliberate spam posts!), hence why I rapidly changed my mind on this one. I'm happy to receive comments good or bad - I may or may not be many things, but I'd hate to be seen as anti-democratic and curtailing the freedom of speech!

    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  5. does that poster anonymous not realise we live in a democracy? I read you blog all the time and you always give an unbiased view of all the genealogy going on. ts should find out who that is and ban them. I've just reregistered with them soI hopeI don't come across that nasty person.and yes, cowardly is a good description of anonymous.
    Ryan

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for that Ryan, and for the kind words on the blog.

    I should add that I don't believe that this post in any way reflects the TS admin group's views, who have been very helpful in providing updates to the developing situation with their site's restoration.

    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really don't know what the annoymous poster has against other sites, does he/she not realise that TS members are also members on other sites.
    To decry of your services for this reason is very immature.
    I for one have found this blog to be the best for keeping us up to date on things from books to venues and in no way ever have I found it to be bias towards one group or another.

    Geo

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks George, I guess I can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time! So the best bet is to muddle on as normal and hope for the best! lol :)

    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  9. Shame anonymous has not taken the trouble as a member of Talking Scot to see the many posts on Talking Scot by Chris Paton helping folk and guiding them to useful links! also post on Rootschat linking to the archived version of Talking Scot
    seems to me anonymous owes you an apology

    Looking forward to Talking Scot being back with us again soon as its one of the very best forums for Scottish Family History regards to all Lesley Fiedler

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Lesley,

    Looks like it may be in with a chance of coming back at its original .com address, as this is now showing as a "holding page for www.talkinscot.com", and one of the mods has posted on Rootschat to say there is happy news on its way.

    Chris

    ReplyDelete