Genealogy Chat

Idiot question: why do all the URLs on this site have parts of the address in (parentheses) with instructions to us to remove the parentheses? This seems; well barmy. Happy hunting in 2005, Stephen http(.)(//)(www)(.)(tarling)(.)(net)(/) remove the ()!!!

You only have to use brackets for (.)com and (.)co(.)uk URLS as .net, .org etc are not censored. The brackets need only be placed around the full stop directly preceding those censored endings, not throughout the URL.

It's only needed preceding a word beginning with *co addresses with org don't need it, or all the other parts of the address don't need it, just anything beginning with *co. ps I dont use( ) * is quicker Christine

OK Jim in Soton; try http://www.ancestry.com/ that's without the ()

THANKS all: I guess my underlying question is why GR are so petty as to try to censor what we (subscribers - the people who pay) want to write here; especially when they must know we just get round their stupid rules anyway? Why do they do it - is it some high-minded morality or some bizarre attempt to stop us using other web sites or sending E-mails??!! This ridiculous censorship both offends me and infringe's my rights! (see the "Important Note:" which appears when you add message!). Good luck to all in 2005, Stephen.

I thought I'd just test GR's censorship algorithm (skip this individual message if you're not a pedant!): ancestry(.)com without () is ancestry.com ancestry(.)co.uk without () is ancestry.co.uk BT Y a h o o without the spaces is BT Yahoo ancestry(.)net without () is ancestry.net http://www(.)ancestry(.)com/ without () is http://www.ancestry.com/ genesreunited(.)com without () is genesreunited.com [yes: they censor their own website name!] http://freebmd.rootsweb(.)com/ without () is http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ Will it fail to censor the 1901 website address: http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Society of genealogists? http://www.sog.org.uk/ preceeding sentence(.)Comic stupidity without the () appears as preceeding sentence.Comic stupidity What about the Cobalt County Commanding Officer written (Co) (Co) (Co) without () appears as: Co Co Co Or the company co-operative carry-over (co) (co) (co) ?? which without () appears as: co co co Or the communist commander (com) (com) ? which without () appears as: com com How strange: you can have (Co) - without the () of course - at the end of a sentence / sequence but not in the middle but you can't have (co) or (com) - without the () of course - anywhere at all! Testing this hypothesis: Ending in (Co) we get Co Ending in (co) we get co Ending in (com) we get com Ending in (CO) we get CO (Co) in the middle and Co appears. (co) in the middle and co appears. (com) in the middle and com appears. (CO) in the middle and CO appears Ending in "dot"(com) we get .com Ending in "dot"(co)"dot"uk we get .co.uk "dot" without "" marks in the middle of a sentence appears as dot but at the end of a sentence it appears as dot commercial at sign appears as: @ testing E-mail addresses: mickey "dot" mouse "at" disney "dot" *com mickey "dot" mouse "at" disney "dot"com mickey "dot" mouse "at" disney "dot"(com) mickey "dot" mouse "at" disney "dot" (com) change "dot" for . and you get: mickey.mouse "at" disney.com change "at" for commercial at-sign and you get: mickey "dot" mouse@disney "dot" (com) write an ordinary E-mail address and you get: [email protected] If it censors Y a h o o or h o t m a i l which without spaces is: Yahoo or hotmail Then does it censor g o o g l e without spaces: google a l t a v i s t a without spaces: altavista t e l e w e s t without spaces telewest m i c r o s o f t without spaces microsoft ooh: if I was y a h o o or h o t m a i l I'd sue them! I am tempted to try the odd slightly rude word, but I won't!

Ok this one's even more ridiculous: Try writing the word "dot" in a sentence without the quote marks!! E.g. I need to write: remember to "dot" your i's - NOT: remember to dot your i's . (the second example has that censored word in it but without the quotes). Crazy or what? And the commercial at symbol is impossible to reproduce on here! Pathetic, GR! By the way, it's not just Y A H O O - our mindless censors at GR take exception to H O T M A I L too...

Thnaks Richard Platell, Yes: utterly pathetic. What is the least painful way to pass on an E-mail address? Stephen: stephen "at" tarling.net

So with thanks to Christine in Edinburgh, Glitter Baby and Richard Platell the rules seems to be: 1) if (co) or (com) without () appears in the middle of any sequence or "dot"(co)... or "dot"(com) appears at the end of a sequence then remove it, along with anything following contiguously until the next space; 2) if y a h o o or h o t m a i l appears without spaces remove it! 3) if the word "dot" appears (without quotation marks or similar) in the middle of a sequence then remove it; 4) if a commercial at sign appears at all: remove it and anything contiguously joined with it; 5) if anything looking like an E-mail address appears (with dots or at-signs) remove it; 6) if you can make a message less readable by randomly removing spaces, paragraphs, carriage returns, line feeds, tabs, or full stops: then do so. Has anyone found any other arbitrary censorship rules here? Has anyone worked out how GR removes tabs, carriage returns etc. when it concatenates messages (and why, oh why, do that??)

Thanks for the laugh Stephen! I became more and more hysterical as I read your long message!!! To be hoped your name is not the short form of Dorothy! At least we know how to get round it - but I agree we shouldn't have to do it. Anne

hanks for asking the question, I was wondering that for ages. I'm now gong to test it out so ignore the next bit www dot com www.tribalpages.com yahoo messenger hotmail

weird, it does take half the words out

Stephen, brilliant stuff! Here's another for you. If you post a thread and include " " in the title, no-one is able to reply to it! E.g. If your thread title is Does anyone have "1881 Scottish census?" No-one cannot reply to it. Just another of GR's quirks. Christine

I've found that when you have a "dot" you don't have to surround it with either " or ( ) or {} or [] you just have to put a * or other symbol BEFORE the "dot" - afterwards doesn't matter. Crazy I know. Oh and as i'm always forgetting, if you begin a new thread, make it a short message or say "see below" and type a longer one as a reply to your original thread, as for some reason GR ignores all the paragraphs in the original thread, but puts them in when you reply. nell

Oh and another is ...if you reply to a thread with say a long address or a row of xxxxxxxxxx taking up a whole line with no spaces, your message will cause the thread to slip down the board and it will appear as though there is a blank page. You have to scroll down to see it! Christine

Oooh, just remembered another one - you can write the word "at", but you can't enclose it in parentheses! Try to put ( at ) without the spaces!!!

Thanks all: this really is hysterical. There honestly is a woman in the USA called Dorothy (Com) who always used to be known as (Dot) (Com) and if she was researching here she would be looking for: Dot Com So rule 3 should be amended to read: 3) if the word "dot appears (without a quotation mark or similar immediately in front of it) in the middle of a sequence then remove it; And we have to add the following additonal rules (carrying on from the ones above): 7. If you post a thread and include " " in the title, no-one is able to reply to it. 8. If the word at appears in adjacent parentheses ( at ) but withOUT the spaces either side of, then ( at ) is deleted. 9. If you write a long continuous sequence of characters without spaces an entire Page Down is added so that the page looks completely blank unless you scroll down a long way. 10. In the first message of a thread rule 6. is to be applied with extra gusto. Rule 6 is the one: 6) if you can make a message less readable by randomly removing spaces, paragraphs, carriage returns, line feeds, tabs, or full stops: then do so. WOW: who thinks up this stuff and why? Has anyone ever got an answer from GR on any of these absurdities? AND there's a whole different set of obscuring rules and censorship covering when you send a message to someone - Rule 6 is ALWAYS applied with extra vigour, so that if you have nicely set out columns listing Sergeant Smith of Stanley Street in Saint James; followed by Stan St. John of Spencer Street, in Saint Stephen; you end up with: Sgt Smith Stanley St St James Stan St John Spencer St St Stephen Really: don't go there. I am not kidding you - as sure as my grandmother's name is Dorothy - also known as:

Stephen! That's even worse! By the way, with the ( at ) and "dot" censorship rule, not only the offending word is deleted but also the word immediately following it, whatever that might be. Only one more word, though - not the whole sentence! I just wish that GR would put their effort into sorting out the problems with trees, name-searches, messaging etc rather than waste their time (and our money) with this nonsense.

Stephen, Yes it is pathetic. if you want to pass on your e mail address to someone you can if you send them a direct message. Ann Glos

Really Richard? So the well know Eastenders character Dorothy Cotton is usually known as: Dot Cotton [yes I really did type (Dot) Cotton but without the () above!] Right here we go again, testing this hypothesis: "We were ( at ) lunch in a Michelin starred restaurant" would read: We were (at) lunch in a Michelin starred restaurant. "GenesReunited (dot) not a useless site" would read GenesReunited dot not a useless site.