Genealogy Chat

Well pardon me for offending everyone! My point is only that of the hundreds of thousands that have registered with this site, only a proportion are seriously involved in tracing their ancestors. They may not reply for many reasons, and that they cannot be bothered is only one of these. Had it not occurred to you that: > some people may have registered with an e-mail address that they do not check often or that has since been deleted? > some people may not want to reply if they think that skeletons in the family closet might be unleashed? >some people may not want to reply for WHATEVER reason. This is a free country and this is an open-access site and no one has the right to dictate how people should participate when we are talking about people's privacy. I understand that people may be disheartened when people fail to reply to their mail, but what did we all do before Genes Connected? If a lead fails, look for a new one and remind yourselves genealogy always was a journey of blind alleys, dead ends and red herrings. I hope that makes my view clearer. No disrespect intended - I just can't help feeling that the fascistic 'YOU MUST REPLY' approach will drive people away from here faster than you can say 'sixth cousin twice removed'. :) Peace.