Suggestions

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

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

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.)

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.

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.

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!

Pamela


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


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



sylvia

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

Have you ever clicked on the star in the top left hand corner where it says Help Clinic ?

I suppose it is'nt obvious as something to click on really, but it does give some idea how to use the boards

jax

Thanks for that Jax. It's just that I've noticed the same names cropping up time and again (yours being one of them). I don't know what GR would do without you all as you obviously put in a lot of time and effort.

I don't often reply to requests for help but didn't want to be butting in so to speak if there was already a group set up.

By the way, on the subject of "specials"....there is an old Marie Lloyd song entitled "My Old Man (said follow the van". The last line goes like this.....

"and you can't trust a special like the old time copper when you can't find your way home".

Pamela -- a few months back, the management tried something new. We figure it was well-intentioned, but it was a bomb.

They set up the "Help Clinic" and selected 10 members, gave them gold stars to recognize members' contributions to the board (they meant to recognize *all* members), gave them free access to a lot of records, and made the board for them to reply to questions only.

This was very frustrating for other members, for several reasons, one being the fact that it's *teamwork* that is so often the reason for our successes here.

Tree searches are for each member to do for themself -- search trees here, find someone who looks related, make private contact.

The boards are open to all, and while many users (who haven't familiarized themselves with the boards) have the impression that their posts will be seen and answered by related people, the fact is that this very seldom happens.

It's all us loiterers and wastrels, lurking around the boards waiting to pounce on something that will amuse us more than whatever we oughter be doing, who almost always reply, and more often than not find the answers sought.

The frustration you're hearing now is from people a bit exasperated with the inability of inexperienced users to figure out where to post things. Specific search/lookup questions keep getting posted on "General Chat" -- and the thing there is that a lot of the regular helpers on the real help boards never read the Chat board, so the person asking loses out on the available expertise, and also there may not be so many weather eyes on the watch for privacy violations and such.

I never understood why people posted such requests on "Tips" or "Records Office" myself, except that the site did seem to have divided up on what I saw as kind of cliquey lines. I tended to stick to "Trying to Find", myself, where things were usually more fun.

The same thing is happening on "Genealogy Chat" now -- it's plainly for people to talk about *genealogy*, not about their own particular family history. That's what "Find Ancestors" is for.

The problem, once again, is that the function of the boards is not specified.

There's a brief description in the general Community listings of the boards, but nothing at the top of each board, except "Find Ancestors", that shows what it's for or how to use it.

And the very name of "Find Ancestors" is chasing people from there over to "Find Living Relative", even when what they're looking for is unknown descendants of people born in the 1800s. Total waste of time to post there, where no one can come onto the thread and help them.


Good intentions every time on the management's part, to my mind (and I was initially thrilled with this reorganization), but the follow-through just doesn't quite cut it.

There is not a specific group of people (helpers) as such anyone who wants to help can.

Some help more than others

Sylvia mentioned the Help clinc which started last november but was axed shortly afterwards

jax

When I joined GR, I don't recall being told that there would be a specific group of people (helpers) who would answer my queries. I was led to believe that by posting a request, another GR member (whoever that might be) would possibly answer my query/help with a look up etc. etc.

I imagined the boards to operate in a similar way to tree searches in that a member could post a request and someone/anyone with the answer might reply if they had the knowledge or time to find out.

In that way, an individual request would be thrown open for anyone to pick it up. Is this not the case?

Everyone who uses these boards could be a "helper" if that is what they wanted to do.

jax

That's why the 'helpers' need guidelines. If no one answered wrongly placed messages, then posters might stop and think.

Forgive my naivety but I thought the "help" option was for technical problems with the site or if I wished to raise a query specifically with the organisers who set up the site in the first place.

As to the replies to requests for genealogy help, are you saying that there is a specific group of people who have been asked to act as advisors? I notice that some people's names crop up more than others when requests for information are answered but assumed that these were very kind and knowledgeable folk who perhaps had a bit of time on their hands.

I don't wish to denegrate anyone....I'm just trying to understand the set up.

Many times I have posted 'if you post this on the find ancestors board, (Or previously Records) one of the regular volunteer helpers will quickly come to your assistance'. type messages and immediately somebody has offered assistance so I don't bother any more.

Heh, now, I think Pamela did say: the more experienced users could adopt the role of "specials"?

Not get appointed, just self-appoint. ;)

The first thing that came to my mind was when I was on a committee with some senior cops in the Attorney General's office here, and how those cops hated special constables!

I think that's what we've tried to do, as some have said -- post the link to the duplicate thread, or the directions to the right board ... but when others don't follow suit, or we ourselves just think Sigh, all right, let's get on with it ... it falls through.



a facility for submitting a "wrong board" review request, with the thread promptly moved to the right board

and

clear, obvious instructions on each board stating what it is for and how to use it

are what is needed.

It is not just new people that post their look up there. Some have been posting a few years.

I could name one person that has probably posted over 100 look up requests when it was Tips and is still continuing on genealogy chat...dont know why maybe this person has never ventured past that board?? or was told in the past from someone on the chat board to "Post on Tips"

Recently I saw a look up post on chat and someone said" you will get more help if you post this on Tips"...or words to that effect



jax

As far as the Help Clinic was concerned, it was not an attempt to reduce the number of helpers chipping in .......... so far as I know, no-one has ever complained about several helpers working together on a thread to solve a problem.

The problem with the Living Relatives Board, apart from the showing of information on living people, is that we have no idea what anyone else has found ......... so are threads getting answers from 1, 10 or 20 people? All the same information, or different?


The Help Clinic was a somewhat ill-conceived idea to provide an obvious thread where people could ask questions.


I speak as one of the very first to be approached to be a "special advisor" ................ and eventually turned it down after an exchange of several emails showed me how badly conceived the plan was. In successive emails, I was offered free membership in GR for a year, free access to records on FMP, and finally to SP


The best thing about this site is the help provided on the Boards, and the best thing about the help provided is the way in which helpers will work together to provide information, bouncing ideas and theories off each other to break down brick walls ...... using information obtained from every site you might imagine.


Those special helpers were limited to using GR records, plus FP and SP. NO other sites could be used or even referenced


After most of the ones asked to be "specials" had turned down the offer, GR opened it up to volunteers.

At least one of them admitted volunteering because they wanted access to SP for their own research. Another "volunteer" had very limited experience, and indeed demonstrated very little knowledge of research as evidenced by postings.

The end result was what had been feared by those approached earlier ................... 10 people with the title "special" were considered to be truly special and different, much more experienced than anyone else on the boards. But at the same time they could not provide the right kind of help.


They could not access Australian records, nor direct anyone to sites that would help. Same thing applied to US records, passenger lists, IGI, etc etc

If you remember, the Help Clinic basically degenerated into a thread for people wanting look-ups on SP to save themselves the cost of pay-per-view .................... which affected the money received by that site!


I know of several helpers who would pm someone awho had asked a question after seeing postings by 2 or 3 "specials" saying that they couldn't help with the question.



It really is completely impractical to designate a few people as "special" with no basis on which to do that, when all are helpers simply volunteering to help and are paying the same subscription to the site as everyone else.



sylvia