Genealogy Chat

Barbara,

As far as I know Free Members will receive emails (to their registered email address) when someone sends them a message. Where did you get the impression that wasn't the case?

Here is the relevant paragraph from the T's and C's

"c) receive email messages sent by Standard and Gold Members. These will be sent to your registered email address and can be viewed in the Message Centre on the Genes Reunited Service."

Whether they choose to do anything is another matter.

I have just discovered that free members do not get notified of messages. I have a free account which I use to research my friends tree and naively thought that GR would contact me as they do with my subscription. I know I should have read the information about being a free member. But it did lead me then to maybe there are other free members who are waiting for responses to their trees. Maybe they had once subscribed and so expected notification as had been the norm.

Perhaps GR could send a newsletter reminding all free members that they will not received notification and that there maybe post waiting. They could then ask for a response to indicate whether or not the email is still active and if no response then place an indicator next to the persons name so that we know we are unlikely to get at response.

Bob,

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea to have a clear out, but I can't see it happening.

I know all about dormant accounts from when I worked in banking, but it was always a manual job when it came to any decision making.

Given the sheer numbers, any GR 'solution' would have to be an automated one. But, can you see them spending money on such a 'solution'? Why would they if there is no payback for them.

Barbara,

I fully agree, why put your tree on here? However I'm telling it as it is. Many many do just that. My son has a small tree on here, plus details on Friends Reu, , as do many of his friends, but I bet very few log in on a regular basis.

I have a contact who admits she only logs in once a year, just to see if there have been any messages. I suppose she has other priorities in life.

Sylvia,

I'm trying to remember but I think there was a blanket request for suggestions posted on the boards, with a link for you to reply to, but it was in the days before stickies and it soon disappeared down the list.




Better get back to answering messages before I get accused of ignoring them.....!

Sylvia and Barbara, I think you made very valid comments.

Quoting Hawkwind: “So whilst is sound like a good idea to delete inactive members, how do you decide the criteria without stepping on too many toes? I know of several family members who have trees on here and would probably be classed as inactive, but would not be too happy if you were to delete their accounts“.

Can I use an analogy? If a currency becomes redundant and out of date, you then cannot use it, so it becomes worthless. Surely this is a comparison to some of the GR database.

A solution: As I am in business, some of the accounts I have open for suppliers do not get used for months on end. The wise merchant will often canvas me to see if I still use the account, want to keep it open for the future and requests an update on address communication methods.

Surely a blanket GR e mail questionnaire to all members, lapsed. active, current, free or whatever, with similar requests at the date of membership renewal would help start a clean up.

This instead of just renewing all redundant and maliciously added material from dead accounts back to the database........oh, but then GR may not be able to claim such impressive numbers of names.

Hawkwind

I'm glad to hear that!!


I'd only ever heard that GR had consulted with members ...... never actually had anyone say that they had participated, which of coruse is why I said "allegedly".


It would be interesting to know how they chose the participants ............. there certainly wasn't a blanket invitation to all members, either via the boards or by email, for either of the changes.

Hastening to add, that I am not jealous .......... just interested.



sylvia

Hawkwind

Please explain what is the point of having a tree on the site when you are not visiting to pick up your mail. Surely if you are still interested in researching your family tree then you will still be looking for contacts to help verify your information. To me it is a complete and utter waste of time for members to contact other members who have not visited the site for years or have changed email address and not updated their account. But then again if they visited the site they would see that they have mail and could then respond.

I just think of all the wasted time I have spent sending messages which have remained unopened which must be because that person has left the site for one reason or another. If GR cannot contact them no one can and to me this totally defeats the object of the site. If I leave the site I will be deleting my tree and taking it with me.

I understand about have a free membership as well as a subscription because you can put two trees on to aid research but not if you do not respond to contacts

Picking up on Sylvias comment

"the first allegedly had used input from "some" members"

I can say first hand there was no question of it being alleged it was fact - I made about ten recommendations in all if I remember correctly, of which all but one was implemented - that was to do with the ability to create folders to store your messages in.

The big problem with that first update was that there were far too many bugs which took several months to resolve, and created a lot of bad feeling amongst certain members.

For the last major update, members were invited to beta test the site and provide feedback. Again I did provide feedback, but I wonder how many never bothered.

Again I see there is mention of lapsed or expired memberships. There is no such concept on GR.

A Member who chooses not to renew their subscription simply reverts to being a Free Member, and whilst they can no longer initiate messages or view trees, they can happily respond to messages and enquiries sent to them.

I bet if GR were prepared to admit, there are far far more Free Members on the site than there are Standard Members.

So whilst is sound like a good idea to delete inactive members, how do you decide the criteria without stepping on too many toes? I know of several family members who have trees on here and would probably be classed as inactive, but would not be too happy if you were to delete their accounts.

I have a Free membership which I use from time to time. That is probably inactive at the present time but I wouldn't want GR to delete it just because I haven't logged in for a while.

Yes there are some thing that could be done to help. Last Logged in is probably easy and cheap to implement, but a lot more thought is needed before advocating wholesale deletions.

Pauline


teh biggest problem of all is to get the GR technies and powers-that-be to listen to you.


They do NOT read postings on the boards, so don't expect a respnse to a Suggestion Page, other than a way of getting us the members to post suggestions.

Then someone would have to send that in to GR through the Contact Us button down at the bottom of the page.

And, as I said in my last posting .............. those of us who made suggestions about the last site changes were told that it was "no go" ..... and this was despite trhe fact that we were having major problems.



as you may guess, I'm a pessimist where GR and its parent company are concerned!



sylvia

I have opened a "hornet nest" with my "Moan".There are some good sugestions here. How/Who do we get to look at them ??????
i think the theory that people change thier e-mail address, is maybe one big problem. The "profile" is a good idea. I use a non geo site that does this, also shows who's on line at any one time, but that may be dufficult on GR, as it is probably a lot of people worldwide.My other site is Uk and ex-pats mainly.COULD DO WITH A SUGESTION PAGE???
pauline

I once wondered if there should be a "dot system" so that, if you clicked on a name to send someone a message, you would see (for instance) a red dot if the person had posted on the message boards/logged in/sent messages to others in the last day, an orange one if they had done so in the past week, a yellow one for activity during the last 30 days, green for 6 months, blue for 12 months etc, so that anyone contacting another person would know how likely it was that they were still using the site (eg. orange or yellow dots might apply to people who could be on holiday).

But I have seen another idea on a couple of sites (not genealogy based) where you can see a member's profile page and it will tell you what date they joined and what date they last logged in. Maybe if Genes did something like that, people would be able to assess the chances of getting a reply and be able to decide whether to send a message or not from that information?

GR depends on the member to send in information re change of email address, or death .......... you just change from paid to unpaid member by not paying your subscription.

If that information is not sent in ........... they have absolutely no means of contacting a member.

As a member since 2003, I can tell you that there have been 2 makeovers in that time ........... the first allegedly had used input from "some" members, the second came out of the blue earlier this year.

As far as I am concerned, neither of those changes answered the complaints that we the user have about the site

............ in fact those of us who complained about the second change were told in no uncertain terms that "the best site designers" had been employed and no changes would be made!


You also have to remember that the Friends Reunited family, which includes GR, was sold earlier this summer to the company that owns the Beano comics ......... and also owns findmypast.

so that means GR and FMP are in the hands of the same company, as long as the government agency has approved the sale.


What will that mean for GR?



sylvia

For some time I have been advocating that GR cuts out the redundant information from its database, especially spoof trees, the multitude of Mickey Mouse and other foolishly added names. It won’t happen.

The community forums have been a great help to me over the years, it is such a shame that even some active members won’t enter into the spirit of research discussion even after receiving and opening polite and informative messages.

Good hunting, Bob

A few days ago (after finding the sent messages feature) I went through all my sent messages to see the ones which hadn't been opened. There were quite a few, some going back to 2006!

So a sent another message to each of them. Hoping for a few to respond (just incase first messages had been deleted by mistake). So far, none have responded. I will give it to the end of the week and then will assume that they are no-longer members and delete them all from my contacts.

It is a shame that GR cannot via membership records update us as to whether a member is current or lapsed, perhaps by putting an astrix next to the current members' names, and deleting it again if they have let their membership expire. This way, when we see their names listed, we would know that we may not get a reply even if GR are delivering our messages.

Hi again Guys and Girls, I agree that the site could do with and update, it could be a much better site, and would I believe generate more revenue for the owners. There are so many sites available now, but a lot of us stay with GR, as is a VERY Friendly site.Would be nice to be able to download ones tree to a disk for instance, straight from the screen.Keep it simple please you programers, as i think a lot of users are retired people, with out a lot of computer expertise (Like Me) Lets hope the BOSS looks at this!!!
Pauline

I'm with piglets pal. If GR contacted all members who have not accessed the site say within the last couple of years and removed the trees which have no responses from the members this will make it more efficient. What is the point of keeping trees on the site when the members don't revisit the site. It is wasting everyones time. Nobody can gain access to their research. They are just floating in cyber space no use to anyone.

I am with you Jim - but unfortunately Libraries do get rid of books that are no longer read and it is very annoying when you find a good author and only there more recent books are at the library. Especially if it is a series.

Hi Pauline
I was thinking of putting a moan on here too.
I sent a message to a member on here on the 17th, I got a sort of reply quite quickly a automated request to view my tree!! which I granted. I know it was perhaps being a little silly.
I haven't heard another thing!!
There was only one Enid V born that year, there is a good chance she was my Grandmother's sister. Sooo close!!

I have sent the note below and three other messages to a member, they all have been opened but I have never received a reply. Disappointing, as I had hoped that I was as polite as could be.

New message to T***a,
“Hello, I just checked my message pages and noted that the old messages I sent have been opened. I had presumed that you were not actively using GR, but I did persist in sending repeat notes and even a tree request.
I hope you are well and please excuse me for writing to you, I have been researching for over five years and finding that you have a common name interest was quite exciting. This especially as in all this time I have only ever had one 'near' relative contact.
I do not keep a tree on GR, but have a research one on Ancestry and the main reference tree with Tribalpages.
If I can be of any help with your research, please do not hesitate to contact me, either through GR or my private e mail [email protected] best regards, Bob Cooke”

Should we go to our libraries and throw away all the books that have not been borrowed?
These trees that have not been accessed for a while may,in years to come,prove invaluable.

I have a neighbour with a tree on here but she no longer has the internet.
I have a niece with a tree who no longer has a computer.
When Bright Solid bought the site a newspaper report said that there were just over a million paying members and falling.
Is it a bit like gym membership,pay your annual sub. but never use it.