MyopicVicar (short-sighted clergyman!) is an open-source genealogy record database and search engine. It powers the FreeREG database of parish registers, the FreeCEN database of census records, the next version of FreeBMD database of Civil Registration indexes and other Genealogical applications.
There was an interesting discussion on the radio this morning about having websites advertisement free by subscription. And my family use COSI for our diaries and it has this option. Advertisement are more obtrusive (I don't really notice ours) but you can turn this off by subscribing. It is an annual subscription but is not very much.
May I suggest that we consider it for our websites. This does not go against us being free because a researcher can always have that option. It should encourage advertisers as we could make the advertisements more obvious.
There is also another benefit in that the researcher will have to register and we then have a more personal contact with them. This is what we suggest in V1.7, although at present it is not to be chargeable. I am sure that serious researchers do not mind paying a nominal fee for our service, but the option to search for free must always be there.
May I suggest that we have a debate about this so that the basis can be programmed should we ever want or need to go down this route.
EricD
There was an interesting discussion on the radio this morning about having websites advertisement free by subscription. And my family use COSI for our diaries and it has this option. Advertisement are more obtrusive (I don't really notice ours) but you can turn this off by subscribing. It is an annual subscription but is not very much. May I suggest that we consider it for our websites. This does not go against us being free because a researcher can always have that option. It should encourage advertisers as we could make the advertisements more obvious. There is also another benefit in that the researcher will have to register and we then have a more personal contact with them. This is what we suggest in V1.7, although at present it is not to be chargeable. I am sure that serious researchers do not mind paying a nominal fee for our service, but the option to search for free must always be there. May I suggest that we have a debate about this so that the basis can be programmed should we ever want or need to go down this route. EricD