Genealogy Chat

Mel

Thank you very much for that

:))

sylvia

Genes state that replies will be received within 5 days..........it can be within 5 seconds most of the time!!


There are at least 11 people who have not returned to their threads on the Clinic board. I know this is a hobby horse of mine but, could it be because they don't know how to???? I know what I think.....(and can prove for much of the time). Cx.


ps. Sylvia, without you and the rest of the brilliant helpers on here, this site would not be worth joining.

HELP CLINIC IS BEING REMOVED,AS PER A POST ON GENES FACEBOOK PAGE !!

Lol, lol, lol...

Chris :)

Cynthia

I do not post as a helper.

I do look at the threads.

I use this site as another means of getting matches of which some have produced some very good results. I joined the site primarliy for this reason and yes it has been worth joining.

It is strange the number of threads that have mushroomed over the past 2 to 3 week primarily in relation to the Help Clinic. To me a clear indication that it was never going to be given a fair chance of succeeding.
People appear to have made up their minds as to its success or failure before it was launched.

I agree with Tony.

The main reason why I subscribe to the site is to match up with other members. To that end I have nearly 300 contacts with whom we share relations in our respective trees.

The dialogues on the message boards this past week or so have been getting rather tedious. There seems to be a relatively small handful of members on a mission.

Tony,

I agree that this site is super for producing matches and I have been grateful for that. My tree is now more or less as large as I wish it to be on here and I have around 70 strong contacts with whom I share a relationship. I do not wish to have contact with too many peripheral relationships.


However, now that I have reached that stage, I find that it is the boards and the members thereon which keep my interest moving. I enjoy helping others and have made some very good friends as I have done so.


The other 9,930 in my contact list are mostly comprised of members whom I have helped by advising them how to find their thread again.


As far as the Help Clinic is concerned, I honestly feel that the new owners of GR have not taken enough time to consider how these boards work and, in their eagerness to improve things have, unwittingly, created an atmosphere of unrest which could have been avoided. I understand about updating things occasionally, but feel too much was done too soon.

I would like to see the Community boards and the help available thereon, taking a more prominent position on the Home Page....along with clear guidelines of how to use them!

Cx

I agree Sylvia.
What they have done now with Help Clinic is just right I think...but does need to be on the Home page...

Cynthia

There were/are a core a element who were never going to accept or allow such a board to exist even before it's inception. Under that climate it was never going to be given the chance to succeed

Whatever ones feelings were/are about the Help Clinic we shoud have at least done the courtesy of allowing it a few months to evolve or die. In my mind there has been no judgement, only pre-judgement. That was clear as people took pops at it from day one.

Although I do not agree with the need for a Help Clinic for the reasons given that adequate information is available on other boards, I think Genes are wrong to pull this board because of feedback from what is probably a minority of members. They have not taken into account the majority who have not complained and have continued getting on with their research in the normal manner.

Tony

Now we can only add info by typing it out....no more C&P

So there are going to be countless errors..................and where will that take people who think the info given is accurate?

And I just tried to delete some bookmarks.........that can't be done, either, it seems. I got the wrecthed white 'site error' page

I can see the end of GR............sooner rather than later...........unless they get their act together and return the site to the way it was prior to November 18th

Tony

As you have said that you never give help to anyone, I don't think you are in a position to realise how utterly frustrating this past week has been for those who are generous enough to do so

Let me test the no C&P
1901 England Census
about Reginald Cave
Name: Reginald Cave
Age: 13
Estimated birth year: abt 1888
Relation: Son
Father's name: Edward Cave
Mother's name: Sarah Cave
Gender: Male
Where born: East Harnham, Wiltshire, England

Civil Parish: East Harnham
Ecclesiastical parish: East Harnham
County/Island: Wiltshire
Country: England

Street address:

Occupation:

Condition as to marriage:

Education:

Employment status: View image

Registration district: Salisbury
Sub-registration district: Salisbury
ED, institution, or vessel: 14
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 69
Household Members: Name Age
Edward Cave 51
Sarah Cave 44
Agnes Cave 15
Reginald Cave 13
Mary Cave 11
Lily Cave 8
Fred Cade 2

fair enough..you've made a point.

However, i was remarking on another thread about the fact that I couldn't submit freebmd and IGI info (nor even send it by PM)......and the following was posted..........

did you try to paste the info Flick?

That seems to be causing the problem. Ok if type the info out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.i wouldn't worry to tough about Sat nav.......her & her old man often go out their way to try & make people look stupid......

The only thing is..it don't work

Help - where has the help clinic gone, please? I click on it and there is a paragraph by the powers that be, but nothing else.

Yet I click on my bookmarks and my two threads in the help clinic still exist.

Boy, and I thought Christmas shopping was tiring, though enjoyable of course:-)

btw Chris Ho - had croque monsieur for lunch today.


PS I copied and pasted yesterday.

This is one of them

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/help_clinic/thread/1249600

Can only I and the clinic helpers who posted in it find it again?

Ach... Joy me dear.
Just C&P the whole lot and put it on another board.
Sorted...;)

Fanny.

So Help Clinic seems to have gone - with a page directing people to the other boards.


Regarding it's inception, maybe I'm seeing something that isn't really there, but .....
GR gets taken over by Brightsolid. They see that the boards are full of people doing lookups on the records held on their other site (FMP) and their main rivals (Anc), against both's T's+C's. So they decide to try to stop it by formalising the arrangment by allowing a small number to do lookups, and only on their own records. In one swoop this reduced the breech of copyright (or whatever it would be called) on their own records and takes away the risk of their rivals suing them for allowing same to theirs.
Conspiracy Theory No.1 ;-)

Flick

"As you have said that you never give help to anyone, I don't think you are in a position to realise how utterly frustrating this past week has been for those who are generous enough to do so"

I am aware of the frustrations being experienced by the likes of you and others. It's nothing new. The Help Clinic has only added to those frustrations.

I read the boards and see these frustrations on a regular basis. To some degree I understand those frustrations but may not neccessarlly agree with the way some go about resolving them. I personally believe that at times it becomes a bit over ethusiastic.

I do not beleive I need to be a helper to understand and express a view on this. Infact, I think stepping back from these frustations allows me to see a more balanced view.

Tony: "It is strange the number of threads that have mushroomed over the past 2 to 3 week primarily in relation to the Help Clinic. To me a clear indication that it was never going to be given a fair chance of succeeding. "

You can call it a "clear indication" of whatever you like.

What it actually was, was a clear indication that people who knew what they were talking about had a whole host of excellent reasons for thinking this Help Clinic, with its starred "advisors",was a bad idea. I summarized them in my post on the FB site.

And what we now have is a clear indication that we were right -- not just the fact that it has been eliminated, but the obvious fact that it wasn't working during its brief life. Not just because of the frustration it caused among members excluded from it, but because of the characteristics of the board itself: the limited resources that could be used in response to queries, and the limited person-power available to respond, and the most important missing ingredient: the teamwork.

What we also have a clear indication of now is that the new management *is* better than the old management. I was hopeful of this when the new management adopted my proposal to post clear instructions and guidance in front of posters' faces when they "Add Topic". The decision to do that, and the implementation of the decision, were lightning quick by any standard.

And the decision to rid us of the Help Clinic -- and replace it with more even more guidance for new posters -- has been even quicker, and I think it's terrific. My optimism about the new regime has returned.

The C&P problem -- I would bet that those having it are using IE. Copying in IE imports formatting. Copying in Firefox doesn't.

Although ... what I C&Ped from FB was from IE ... On that note, here's what I just posted there:

My faith has been restored!

When the new management took over, I submitted a proposal that guidance for new users be presented to them, in such a way that they could not avoid it, when they clicked on "Add Topic" on a help board. I'd done this two months earlier and got no reply.

Amazingly, this time I got a personal rep...ly, agreeing that this was a good idea, and just over a month from when I wrote, the guidance -- "How to get a fast and accurate response" -- was up and running on the help boards. All during the time when new management was finding its feet.

I do think the "Help Clinic" was a sincere effort to do what the old management had simply never done -- recognize that the paying users of the site are its strength; we are the ones, working as a team, who reply to the dozens of requests f...or help posted every day. It just wasn't well thought out, and it had the opposite effect for everyone involved of what had been intended.

And now, another even quicker response -- it's gone. And in its place, even more guidance about how to use the site to best advantage (and without causing disruption).

My initial optimism has been vindicated. I'm impressed and pleased.

Now if they will only fix my broken inbox, and rid us of the "surname board" filter nonsense and broken URLs ... ;)



It did import the "..."s where the "see more" would have been, so my theory may still stand.