FAQ

Question 1

I was looking for YDNA-Warehouse. Why am I here?

The site operated as YDNA-Warehouse ceased operations on due to run costs associated with file storage. The original warehouse was built on a fixed-cost, unlimited storage hosting platform. When that provider changed the terms, the site was moved to AWS S3 as the trendline for costs was decreasing at a rate similar to the growth in capacity needed for storing the raw data. This kept the run costs in-line up until 2020. Recent global political forces made it difficult to ensure funding of the original warehouse, so we made the decision to end that project. All the community-submitted data and user data were removed permanently.

While YDNA-Warehouse has been an important resource for the community, we encourage you to continue your genealogical and research journeys through other platforms and tools in the field of Y-DNA and genetic research. Do keep this site in mind as you explore other options, since we will eventually provide a more robust and flexible analysis toolset for the community.

Question 2

What is Decoding-Us.com?

Currently, Decoding-Us.com is a website that aims to provide a platform to gather and share information about genetic sequencing for the genealogical and genetic research community. The initial focus is on building a federated platform for the analysis of publicly available academic WGS data. We are providing alternative Y and Mitochondrial DNA trees and related information to support the research community.

We are also designing an ambitious application built on AT Protocol's PDS that will allow researchers to collaborate on genealogical and genetic research. This application will provide a platform for researchers to share information about their haplogroups, ancestral populations, and existing matching networks. There is a very early Alpha version of a tool set to provide common analysis reports that can eventually indexed by the federation to recreate a more robust form of data sharing. Decoding-Us.com Tools

The shift to a federated platform allows us to provide a more robust and flexible analysis toolset for the community without a centralized infrastructure for file hosting and analysis. This paradigm moves us closer to the citizen science paradigm explored by Seti@Home and other distributed compute projects from the past decades. Spreading these costs solves the primary problem associated with the YDNA-Warehouse project, while opening the possibility of a whole genome toolset for the community.

We also make the source code available for this site for anyone who is interested in contributing to the project. Decoding-Us.com Source Code

Question 3

Why the Dot Com Domain?

The domain was chosen to reflect an eventual need to commercialize portions of the site to achieve the ability to self-support the costs of the Application View. We are considering a few options:

Paid PDS Hosting We would provide the hosting for user's data and analysis reports. A paid user could migrate their data to a different provider if they wanted to.
Advertising or Industry Sponsorships The modern web is full of advertising to provide free services. We may partner with other companies to provide advertising or sponsorship services relevant to the site. This may be complicated by our anti-Cookie philosophy and tracking policies.

Question 4

Can I upload my Big Y, WGS, etc?

No! We are not currently accepting uploads of any kind. We are currently working on a more robust and flexible analysis toolset for the community that runs on their personal computing devices. This will allow users total control of their own data with an ability to share relevant information with other users in the federated network. See FAQ 2 for more information.

We are exploring the capabilities of the AT Protocol PDS to provide a more robust and flexible analysis toolset for the community. This will allow users to share relevant information with other users in the federated network.

Frequently Asked Questions