Some unfortunate newbie unknowingly threw up the Bat Signal when she asked a simple question in the Help Forum. As usual the same Flying Monkeys swarmed her with the usual arrogant, nasty answers. They succeeded in driving her off the boards but then a few pages later 2 more unsuspecting newbies made statements/asked questions. Wait for it...wait...in 5,4,3,2,1 and cue the Flying Monkeys. The same people are back quoting FAQs, jumping around with their skirts over their heads trying to get attention from JIM TIPTON and the admins. "Look at me, look at me! I know the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary reason for Find A Grave! I obviously have a lot of time on my hands because I add thousands of Memorials, make me an Admin toooooo!!" It is actually hilarious to watch them try to outdo each other. These Hoarders (see Flying Monkeys) constantly whip themselves into a frenzy, usually it is kick started by someone mentioning that some people are "in it for the numbers ", Bat Signal goes up. From there the Hoarders steer the discussion to how virtually everyone (except them of course) on FindAGrave is there to fill in their family tree or somehow try and beat the system (Eye Roll). They go on for pages about the Photo thieves (don't post them if you don't want anyone taking them duh) , "Ploppers", "The Gimme Grabbers" "Dupers" "Name Collectors" and on and on…and on…and on but do not call THEM Hoarders. They are NOT Hoarders, oh no siree, they are simply adding data to a Grave Registration site because that's how JIM TIPTON (say his name with reverence, like they do, cause, ya know, you just never know when he could single you out and reward you with the coveted admin position but I digress…) intended the site to be when he first created it. (Viagra was intended to be a High Blood Pressure med, but I am fairly certain the primary reason has been superseded by the Secondary and Tertiary reasons, wouldn't you agree?) Maybe one of the Hoarders can plead with JIM TIPTON to disable pictures, linking and biographical information for each memorial since that is what is drawing the Game Grabbers, well I'm pretty sure they think of themselves as family or the very least descendants, but the Horders view them as thieves, just trying to steal one of their precious numbers….or photos. The Hoarders must be exhausted, constantly on the watch for anyone who might try to mess with their Hoard. If they weren't Hoarders they would always transfer to a family member "outside of guidelines" and if the original memorial was deleted after the transfer and resubmitted by said family member just to screw them out of the credit, so what? Apparently this happens to them ALL THE TIME. The idea is to register the grave right? It shouldn't matter who gets the credit. Apparently, it does because the Hoarders spend hours in the Forums seeking validation from each other by discussing ad nauseum the people who "won't take no for an answer" and "refuse to play by the rules". Their obsession with those who "refuse to play by the rules" is particularly ironic since not long ago there was a thread about certain cemeteries that will not allow pictures of headstones to be taken. Apparently the Hoarders are not going to "take no for an answer" they all went on about the clever ways to take pictures without the staff catching you, hilarity ensued when they took turns describing how sneaky they were in getting the picture of said head stone, good times. Fortunately the Hoarders have a double standard for themselves, they "refused to play by the rules" of the cemetery and were able to jack up their photo numbers too. Say it with me …H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y
This is a scam. I made a credit card "donation" to Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, only to discover on closer reading that Razoo is the internet version of a scam boiler room.
Stay away!!
Razoo is a scam- plain and simple they are a for-profit company who pay geeks like me to get them to appear first in google for charity searches. They then accept donations on behalf of the charities (they get them from a national database) but they never ask the charity if they can do this- because they don't have to if you read the fine print, they money doesn't go the the charity that you are looking at or want to help, it goes to a new little charity caled the "Razoo Foundation".
Let me repeat, any money goes to a foundation that they set up, and if you are good at lawyer speak you can read their terms and notice that they do not have to donate your money to any charity if they don't want to, thy can do what they please it is just their "normal practice" to screw people and charities out of their hard earned money. I wish more american's were smart enough to realize this conflict of interest that is going on and never donate money through this sketchy website.
For proof read their public documens, They took in 15 million from donors in 2012 but only gave out 13 million way more than their advertised 2.9 percent, they took the rest and spent some else ware and saved some because they can, for now. Let's do something about this.
I agree that many people are competing in a game to achieve numbers a member that goes by the name of MONKEY MOM. Is copying a on line local cemetery database to boost her numbers.
That is how most of them get high numbers. Taking false credit for the work of others rather than go out and do their own local cemeteries. This lady does not live in the state nor has she stepped foot in front of a stone in my state. I know because she is using my son as a number and wont delete it she would rather torment a mother who lost a child then lose a number....Transfers though have nothing to do with their number count even if they transfer they still have the same amount of numbers that they copied from other peoples work and death indexes.
It does however have everything to do with CONTROL!!!!! which goes hand in hand with policing ancestry trees for people using grave photos
When a member of findagrave refuses to transfer a memorial in which they are NOT related to the deceased that proves that they are only in it for the numbers.
They can deny it all they like, but the ones that post *** like "blah, we adhere to the 4 generations, blah, of the bada....well that only means they didn't create the memorial out of any concern for the family.
They are denying the wishes of the family, the family by the way that has LOST someone. The family that had to bury a loved one. The family that grieves and mourns.
These creeps that say "we do a lot of work to go out and volunteer out time and blah, blah, blah"....and then refuse to transfer - are cold, calculating, soulless individuals that that don't give two shites how anyone feels. Karma is big momma though, and she always collects!
Jim Tipton does prey on the charitable Not only that his administrators abuse the photo volunteer system by deleting pictures. he Fosters an environment for abusers to prey on the vulnerable sick really.
No one ever stated the *** is non-profit. They do not ever say this, it is free.
Why do you expect someone to work and do what they do for free?
Most sites charge an arm and leg and do very little. You go out and survey and photo a cemetery and see how hard it is.
If, on other hand, it is like twitter then it\'s cooler. twitter doesn\'t own your tweets, doesn\'t want to own them and can\'t take the entire body of tweets and all the accounts and sell them to someone. (At least as far as I know)
I would have a concern with the business model if it was like Ariana Huffington's, the Huffington Post: everyone writes for free (one even won a Pulitzer Prize this year) and Ariana makes a mint.
She was razed bad for it at this years Washington's Correspondents Dinner.
Is Findagrave the owner of every last thing uploaded to their site? If so, that is becoming an extremely valuable database that they can sell or leverage. Until the advent of the internet, I never heard of people working for free for for-profit companies like they do now.
If each photographer owns their photos, and each poster owns their posts, then that's a different story. findagrave then earns on advertising only.
Wow, I had no idea how these collectors worked. I found my family's grave and sent a thank you note to the person who photographed and posted it, thinking she was just a volunteer who had contributed a bunch of local gravesites where she lived.
So, if I wanted to provide extra information to post on that entry i would have to either do it through her or get her to give it up?
Do these collectors make money somehow? Is that why some of them do it?
Transfers are where a family member contacts the collector and says, Hi, I want to manage my family's entry on findagrave? And what is happening is some of these collectors are saying no? How twisted!
Well, luckily, at the moment, I am glad that someone else is busy doing the work and am not planning in the near future to ask for a transfer.
Otherwise, right now, the site has been remarkably valuable in some genealogical research I am doing on my family. It's truly amazing how many records are up and posted.
I had never even heard of Razoo until now. By looking at their website, I don't see any connection to Find A Grave.
It must well exceed six degrees. It seems to be a place for a group in need of funding can streamline the giving process.
Find A Grave is provided free of charge to users whether they contribute or not. You can look at graves til the cows come home and never pay a cent.
Technology and bandwidth cost money and with 80 million memorials, I bet it isn't cheap. By offering pay-per-click advertising, it keeps it free to the consumer. If you choose to sponsor a memorial, you remove the ads from that memorial and your five bucks offsets the loss of pay-per-click revenue. I am afraid you misunderstand the definition of extortion.
You are not having money taken unlawfully by any stretch of the imagination.
If you click, you pay nothing. If you voluntarily sponsor, you do so by choice because you want the ads removed.