Genealogy Chat

The following notice has been stickied on Chat, General and Success boards ........ but not on Records, Tips or TTF.


This is just the first part of the notice .................. I have actually emailed them to ask why they did not also post on the "research" boards.

Please do go and read the whole notice. I am posting this on all 3 boards .......... yes, I am posting duplicate posts!!!!!!



Earn £60 - take part in our market research study Genes 06/07/2010 16:54:53 0
We are currently organising some market research discussions to explore how we could make GenesReunited even better and your opinion is important to us, so we’d very much like you to take part.

Each discussion will include approximately 8 Genes Reunited members, led by a trained researcher and they are taking place in the late afternoon & evening in West London (near Hammersmith tube station) on Tuesday 27th July for 2 hours. In appreciation of your time, we are offering £60.00 for taking part.


etc etc etc



UPDATE p.3 ....................... a link to do the survey



sylvia

I have just emailed Support asking the following questions


I have several questions about this:-

1. Why was it not also stickied on Records, Tips and TTF?? Many people go only on these 3 boards and not on the ones on which you have stickied it. You have thus eliminated a large number of people who might be interested in attending. Was that deliberate??

2. Are you serious in that 16 members will be the ONLY members that you invite to participate?? SIXTEEN, out of the million or so active members (let alone the 11 million or so that have been members according to the accumulated membership numbers).

3. How may OVERSEAS members contribute to the discussion?? Are we to be "disenfranchised" from participating because we live outside the UK?? What about members in parts of the UK who could not easily get to London? You're happy enough to take our money, happy enough to have us helping other members ............ but not happy to have us taking part in discussions on how you might further change the site?

3. Some people are upset at the implication that the discussion groups are to be led by "trained researchers" ...... as if the members on here are not worth anything.

I will be interested to hear your response!




oooops .... just noticed I had two number 3's!!!!



sylvia

I did put a thhread on this board earlier but nobody had commented Sylvia.

Hi Ann

Sorry I didn't see yours


maybe no-one on here is interested .

..... but I still think people who don't go on Chat, General of Success should also have been told about the project



sylvia

Ann I never saw your thread either

I agree wholehearted with your email Sylvia. GR obviously do not value the contributions of it's members in making this site as good as it is. Don't they realise that some of it's members are excellent researchers to the extent that they could be professionals

Don't they realise that they have already an excellent forum to canvass it's members by using the boards to discuss proposes improvements?

They have obviously not thought this through

Have sent this to the email address given:


My opinion is that it would be more useful if the questions that would be asked in the research were sent to each paid and unpaid member. Otherwise, I really do not think that there will be a balanced result.

The site has members worldwide; therefore it would, I feel, be unfair to solely concentrate on members based in or near the capital of England.

well said sylvia i fully agree with you

please post gr response

although i expect it will say ( nothing )
sally w

Good thinkingI Sylvia. Like Joy, have already emailed the address given and added my thoughts......mainly about the lack of clear guidelines for usage and the fact that the fantastic volunteer researchers are the main reason for the 'success' of this site.

Naturally, I consider you to be one of those fantastic, volunteer researchers :))


Cx

I'm writing as someone who used to be a market researcher, back in the days when it was all knocking on doors and walking the streets with a clipboard. To get a proper cross- section we would have quotas, of age, sex, occupation and other special requirements of the client - sometimes in order to get a perfect balance they would be "interlocking quotas", i.e. there had to be one of each type in each section of the quota. This is obviously well, managed in all the surveys done on line these days -they can close each section of the quota as it is filled (e.g. when they have the quota of men over sixty in managerial jobs.)

It should be possible to draw up a suitably balanced requirement to get a proper cross-section of genealogical researchers - including rural and distant areas and overseas, and send a questionnaire to all members of GR and keep it open untill they get a substantial and balanced feed back.

Even here in the UK it seems to be London centred - how many of us here in the north could get to Hammersmith for a short evening meeting?

Also a former Market Researcher ( and Mystery Shopper) I agree with you Elizabeth.

This sounds like a very amateurish exercise.

FannyByGaslight has a thread on this on TTF


............. she's posting names of people who say they have been accepted

The thread she is getting the information from is on Chat, headed London Ladies
www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=1230147

one person has posted that she herself was accepted ... then asked to provide 3 other names!



The sad thing is that many of the people who psot on General and/or Chat very rarely post on here ....... and many of the people who post on the research boards very rarely post on the other boards.




sylvia

Chat Board
Topic £60 take part in our Market Research Study

we are currently organizing some market resear.....


General Board
Topic £60 take part in our Market Research Study

has your research taken you on an exiti.......

Hmmm which one shall I read

Have to agree on the distance issue. I'm up in the north west and I read that post. I'd have willingly got in touch with them until I saw it was centred in London. Getting there wouldn't be a problem (there is a Preston-Euston train) but the phrasing of the message sounded to me like, "If you're not in the London area, we won't consider you".

Good point on the "trained researchers" thing, too, Sylvia.

Here is the reply I got from GR today ....... as per usual!!!


Dear Sylvia

Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your feedback

Inevitably, we do receive a lot of feedback and suggestions from our members but please be assured that your email will be individually read by our Management team and that ALL member feedback is taken into account when deciding on future website development.

Thanks again for your views.

Best regards,


Alex S
Genes Support Team




doesn't say much does it??



sylvia

It is not only those in the North who can't get there. If you notice the times it is difficult for anybody who doesn't want to be travelling late in the evening except those living very near to London. It certainly rules out those of us living in the West/Midlands, the train service from Gloucester is expensive and a long journey.

I live in the UK but could not get there for an evening meeting.


Also not easy for anyone not living in the UK.

Ann, Joy


In my email to GR, I did state that people living in other parts of the UK would be unable to attend ........ and were just as disenfanchised as those of us living overseas




Please email either GR or that research group address with your concerns .............. if we bombard them with complaints about their methods there might be a bit more of a response




sylvia

I sent mine to the research group address; I think a standard reply would have been received from the former.

I have just responded to the email from Alex as follows. Of course, I can't now expect a reply until at least Monday!



Hi Alex

Thank you for your response

Members are actually posting on whether or not they have been accepted for the survey sessions. So far, they are all from one small sub-group of GR members ............ not a very satisfactory method of obtaining information, and not acceptable under any standards of market surveying!

One suggestion has been made:-

GR has an email address for every member of GR ........ so why not send a short questionnaire to each member, asking for feedback?

Then, contact a smaller number of those members who have responded and ask more detailed questions ..... selecting the names by ballot

Then set up survey groups in different parts of the UK ....... and invite more contributions from overseas members.


Best regards





sylvia

Methinks those that have said they have been accepted are posting in jest :-)