Suggestions

Well....I have never noticed that before! The only thing I have clicked on is the question mark (top right) which then reveals:

The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Since I joined GR I have found the board headings (both old and new)fairly straightforward but agree wholeheartedly with everyone's comments about incorrect postings and can understand their frustrations.

When I very first became a member, I thought I would just have a look at the individual boards out of interest to see what sort of things people were posting. I remember feeling very confused as among all the requests for help in finding ancestor soandso (at that time it was called Trying to Find), there would be a question along the lines of "did anyone see suchandsuch a programme on TV last night?"

It does seem a little better now by comparison but I can imagine the sighs, grunts, shrieks, etc. when you find yet another misplaced request.

Just when you think you've got the message across, I expect another lot of newbies will come along and this conversation will once again get nudged to the top of the list.

However frustrating it may get, please please take it from one whom you have helped.....you are doing a great job and your efforts are much appreciated.

That goes to everyone! Thank you and goodnight

Pamela


Thank you so much for that so appreciative posting, thanking us.


It makes everyhting worthwhile when we see such a nice appeciation.



sylvia

Indeed!

And never hestitate to jump into a thread when you feel like it. The wilder the theory the better, in my own opinion. ;)

A tip that jax can confirm: stick around late at night if you can, to get a chance to work on questions without a bunch of other people being there first.

At least that used to work. These days, so much traffic is being diverted to the useless "Find Living Relatives" board that it's pretty slim pickings!

Just in case a case in point was needed:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/ancestors/thread/1268776

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1268777

But there's no problem with search requests being posted on the Genealogy Chat board ... and the likely result is not duplicate posts and wasted effort ...

Not intending to single out any individual. Just offering an example of the SYSTEMIC problem here.

I have just received a request to view my tree. The name of the requestor rang a bell but not in connection to my family. I then realised that it was someone who had posted a "Finding Ancestor" request on the wrong board and to whom I had replied, directing him to the correct one.

Needless to say I have replied, asking him what relationship he has to me and why he wants to view my tree.

You'll get used to that, Pamela. We old hands have received hundreds of those over the years.

Easiest to start out doing what we have all ended up doing:

Ignore them! ;)

Seriously. If you do reply, the person probably won't have a clue what you're talking about anyhow ...

(If somebody really wants to contact me about a possible connection, I expect a whole lot more than a peremptory PM wanting to see my tree.)

Pamela


I think we have all had a version of that!


lots of people think that if you are helping, then you must be connected to th family.



sylvia

Its ok Pamela you will not have to allow them to view your tree but you will soon recieve access the theirs whether you want it or not :D

jax

As long as we're nudging our own threads ...

This isn't especially a "development" problem -- but it could be fixed as easily as the emoticon code problem, I'd say.



Back in the fall I had correspondence with KS at brightsolid about the lack of guidance for new users in a form/place that they would actually see it.

She agreed that instructions needed to be presented more prominently, i.e. on the page a user sees when they click to start a thread on a board.

Within a relatively short time, this innovation was completed. The instructions that can now be read (but never are) in the pinned post on the Ancestors board were presented to users above the text box for composing a post to start a thread.

When the board reorg came, that feature was eliminated.

Why?

The only result has been fewer new users with any clue about how to use the board. Nobody reads the pinned post before posting. People may not have read the instructions stuck under their nose when they appeared on the post composition page, but they could hardly claim that they didn't *see* them, for instance as an excuse for posting the same thing three times.

What earthly purpose does it serve to give users *less* guidance?


The thing is that this needs to be done on *every* board.

Clicking to start a post on the General Chat board should produce instructions that say that the board is *not* for family history help.

Clicking to start a post on the Suggestions board should produce instructions that say that the board is *not* for family history help.

Clicking to start a post on the Success Stories board should produce instructions that say that the board is *not* for family history help.

>>> And Clicking to start a post on the Genealogy Chat board should produce instructions that say that the board is *not* for lookup requests, it is for discussions *about genealogy* -- it is *not* for pursuing your own family history, it is for tips about doing family history in general.



If this is not done

*** the problem of duplicated requests across multiple boards ***

and the rancorous climate that this produces

when the "helpers" who are the backbone of these discussion boards

have their time and goodwill abused

will simply continue.


And whose interests is that in??


It is in the interests of *everyone* -- new users, old hands and the site management -- that it be made clear to all users what the boards are for and how to use them.

Surely.

Nudging for Ginny who is wondering why the Genealogy Chat board has turned into another look-up request board.

;-)

And in the hope of some attention from the site management ...

And Phil is considering the "move thread" possibility!

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/suggestions/thread/1269981

And the battles about where threads belong continue on the board.

We have just had a longtime user instructing a new member who has posted on General Chat *and* Genealogy Chat *and* Find Ancestors -- all improperly because the posts contain personal info about someone born in the 1940s who is very likely living in any event -- to just go right ahead and post where he likes. And insulting someone who pointed out that this is ill-advised.

I might start requesting review of posts that advise other users to break the rules ...

Even where users are aware of the no-duplicates rule, they misinterpret it to mean no two threads the same on a single board ... a post on every board is just fine ...

(Someone with 3 threads about the same thing, on 3 different boards, has said this today on General Chat. And was told by another member that this was just fine, which member then proceeded to insult another member, one whose record on these boards is stellar, for requesting that the duplicates be deleted.)

Please. Please sort this out. Once and for all.

Please find a way of making it clear to all posters, new and old alike, what the no-duplicates rule means, and what boards are appropriate for which types of posts.

And as back-up, provide for reporting of posts for being on the wrong board, in response to which they could be moved to the right board.

In the case of duplicates (which is the real potential and actual problem with wrong-board posting), there needs to be a facility to merge threads as well, to eliminate the duplication.

I'm sick of being insulted by users who, for the most part in these cases, don't spend their own time helping on the help boards, but think it is their business to direct personal attacks at those who do and who are affected by the multiple-post / wrong-board situations.

We have now posted a stickied notice at the top of the Genealogy Chat board as you have suggested with details of what this board is for.

It would be nice to add a hyperlink to it, but I can't (yet - I have taken note of this). :-)

Thank you for the recommendation.
Phil - Genes developer

Well woo hoo! Things are moving apace around here! ;-)

Here's yr link:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1270268

which works like a hyperlink for those of us with the latest firefox: block, right-click, open in new tab.

In part:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the Genealogy chat message board. This is
where you can come and chat with other members
about all things related to family history and researching.

Please do not post your look-up requests on this board
as they will be removed. If you have a look-up request
please post it on either the Find Ancestors message board
or the Find Living Relatives message board.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If this keeps up, I may just renew my subscription after all! :-D

Brilliant, things are moving at a pace,

Janey you can't leave now with all the changes, you don't want to pay the higher premium to rejoin ;-)

Lets hope it works

Who is going to remove them? because someone is bound to rush to the posters aid within a minute of posting

I see the "police" comment has gone, but why has my post mentioning the 3 threads and stating that Genaelogy chat is not the place to post a look up ect gone?

jax

It would be good if the advice was attached to the Add Topic button because it would be more likely to be read. Even if it just a synopsis of the stickied thread

Yes, we need to add something to the Add Topic page as well based on the board you have selected. This has been logged too.

Yes, yes, instructions on the "Add Topic" page; things will be getting better all the time. But imagine how tired my legs are getting from pedalling in place! That got done last fall on TTF, then undone ...


Phil ... cuzz ... and this is my thread so I can hijack if it I like ...

[edited out surname that Phil and I share ;-)] of London? Yes, but from where originally? They come from Cornwall, they do. One of my grx ... 4? ... grmothers was a Cornwall one.

I'm legendary (at least in my own mind) for finding cousins for the rest of the world and its cousins, but none for me.

Could we be? ;-)

I'm deleting what I was going to put here and sending Phil a PM instead. Hope he gets PMs. ... You may not know how much personal info you've disclosed here, Phil, and it may concern you almost as much as it does me.

At last , about time too !!