Sojourn Through Time...
~ Five Tips for Effective Queries ~
- 1. Use an effective subject line...
If you're on a bulletin board for the surname Hatfield, don't make your query subject Looking for Hatfields. Duh! So are the other thousand people out there, and they assume that if you are incapable of writing a good subject line there isn't much likelihood of anything in the body of the message being worthwhile either.Provide enough information so a person can quickly decide if the email may be relevant to them. Something like: Calvin, Campbell Co, TN, 1824-1860. Putting Calvin's last name in the subject line is probably redundant. We're on the Hatfield bulletin board, after all. If you were on the Campbell County mail list your subject line for the same query might read: Calvin HATFIELD, 1824-1860.
- 2. DON'T CAPITALIZE EVERYTHING...
On the Internet, all caps is equivalent to shouting. At best, it is considered bad form. At worst, it is considered downright rude. Make proper grammatical use of capitalization. The only exception is to go ahead and capitalize surnames - it makes them stand out. Ultimately, if you want to guarantee that I never read your post, go ahead and use all caps.
- 3. Be succinct...
Don't ask for the world in a single query. SMITH, any time, anywhere just doesn't cut it. If you want to know where Rachel Smith's husband Joseph Hatfield died, I'll probably take the time to tell you. If I don't know exactly what you're looking for I probably won't bother trying to guess.
- 4. Snip, snip, snip...
Another example of bad form occurs when you reply to someone else's query by clicking the reply button, typing your response, then clicking the send button without trimming the original message. It is appropriate to snip irrelevant information out of a message you are responding to. Only leave enough of the original writer's text so that it becomes clear what you are commenting on. In most cases this will be a single line or two.Why does this matter? Because every single character in every single transmission over the Internet takes up space. The bigger the file being sent, the more space (bandwidth) that is used up. If everyone snipped their replies and thought carefully about what they were sending, the Internet would become overtaxed far less often, and information would move quicker for everyone.
It never ceases to amaze me how someone will respond to a 1,000 line query (itself a major problem) by sending the entire query back along with their own comment "Yea, I agree."
- 5. Trash the surname signature files...
It might seem like a good idea to always include a list of surnames you are searching for along with your signature every time you send a query. After all, someone may spot a familiar surname, or better yet, a pattern of multiple surnames. However, it turns out that this isn't such a great idea, because it tends to undermine the ability of genealogical search engines to work effectively. Think about it. Suppose your name is Judy Davis, and along with your signature you always include the tag line...searching for HATFIELD, SMITH, JONES and WALLACE.Now suppose I go to Rootsweb and program their system to notify me whenever Davis HATFIELD is mentioned in a mail list somewhere. Guess what? Every single post you make to any of the 6,000 Rootsweb mail lists gets flagged and sent to me, even though none of them have anything to do with my ancestor. If everybody did this, the search capabilities on Rootsweb and other sites would become useless.
If you take these tips to heart every time you send an email or post to a news group or a bulletin board, everybody will be better off. The Internet will run smoother, people will receive less irrelevant junk, they will pay more attention to your queries, and they will understand exactly what you are looking for. And in the end, you are much more likely to be successful in your search!
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© Mike Curtis, 1999
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8 December 2000
mcurtis@familysojourn.com