Genealogy Chat

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.....!

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.

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.

Hawkwind

I have a free membership in my friends name with a current email address. I created it especially for GR. This email is also linked to my current one so that I wont miss anything. I check the email daily expecting notification for any mail to date I have received none. I logged onto the account yesterday to do a little research and discovered that I had mail from a member requesting details about the tree. This had been sent on the 22 October so this lead me to believe that free members don't receive notification of mail.

Barbara

Barbara, if you want to test the system, PM me with the "free members" GR name, I'll send a message to yours and that at the same time. You can then do the pepsi challenge.

Bob

Barbara/Hawkwind
I had free membership,for some years. i now have subscribed. i always got notification of messages when mine was free. Still hoping for replies to some of my messages .Pity really, as would have filled a gap on my tree, as I know that the people I have sent to are related (Name very uncommon)
pauline

English Bob

I have PM you the details

Cheers Barbara

When I joined GR in 2004 I contacted a member who shared the same name interest.

I waited for a reply and eventually I got one via another name/member. The original person I contacted could not reply to me because he was no longer a paid member.
So it seemed he had received my message but couldnt reply back.
I know free members could not add to the community boards

I dont know if this has changed but if it has then there is no advantage of paying if free members have the same access as paid members

Barbara, I have received your message and was notified in my Orange web mail account at 6.53pm.

Also a "white envelope" was posted next to my messages box on GR.

I will try and find the name you sent me and post a message to the "free member".

Added 7.30pm this message has now been sent.

I have added this to the thread for all to see.

Bob

I have discovered there is a problem with the email address for the free account. I logged on again to the free membership with a screen from GR asking me to confirm the email address as they have been having problems contacting me.

I have therefore sent a message from my main email address to the account set up for GR to discover it is not working properly and not receiving messages. I will look into this further.

But at least we know for definite that free members are receiving notification from GR.

Thank you to Bob for helping me test the system.

My pleasure, I am sure most members would have volunteered to help.

Good hunting, Bob

Glad to hear that you two have confirmed that Free Members do receive emails from GR. I was sure that was the case.

PS see thread from Carter re the absence of replies.....!

i have not been on genes for awhile and when i logged on today i found i had pages of messges in my inbox. i am sure people will think how rude of her not to answer her messages just a sorry no connection would have been sufficient.i have one person sending the same request on a daily basis. i apologise to everyone but my husband has been in a coma in intensive care and that is why i have never replied. he is still very poorly and i am on here now to fill in the time before i go to see him i neeeded a distraction. so please dont think too harshly of people who dont answer you messages there could be a good reson for that
cheers linda

Carter.

Im so sorry to hear about your husband. I hope he makes a speedy recovery.
I know what you mean about needing a distraction. When my husband was terminally ill 2 years ago and I was his caregiver coming onto GR was a big help and took my mind off our problems for a time.


Margaret

Linda

I am so sorry to hear about your husband.I do hope that he contineus to improve and will soon be out and about
xxxxx



sylvia