Suggestions

I agree,


.............. it is becoming another "general" board.




sylvia

The other alternative is for GR to actually start responding to threads on here, and actually DO something about the suggestions and reports of problems.


The repsonses by Ryan and Aaron last week really just amounted to the usual, long used suggestion ......

"Please contact [email protected] with details of your problem."


Many of them are problems that we have been reporting for months and even years!



I have threads in My Threads regarding problems dating back to at least November 2010



sylvia

Hi Estelle

1). Our support have access to your registrations and details of your PC are sent to us when you contact us, for example which internet browser you are using.

Normally I would agree with you but as my problem has been on an Ipad and I am unable to use GR on it then the possibility of your team learning anything from my query would be difficult.

I quite agree with having the name of the board changed. There are more moans on here than suggestions.

May I also suggest that there is a standardised quote to impart on posters when they fall foul of the purists. ( some of whom I might add are guilty of that which they ask others to refrain from doing ) Some of the phrasing smacks of bullying especially as those imparting the requests to post elsewhere have no legal juristiction so- to speak.

All people need to do to find the right board is to click on any of the boards and immediately underneathon it explains quite clearly what the board is for.
Sadly many just do not bother to read and just add threads merrily in their ignorance. And then get very upset when they are pointed in the right direction by others trying to be helpful.

Maybe Suggestions could be changed to Improvements and Enhancements

Maybe not, we would probablyget queries about Boob enhancements!!!! ;-)

PP

:-D :-D :-D



Maybe change the title to "Suggestions for Improvements"

I mean, Phil Moirs did suggest something along those lines weeks ago .......... along with code words to add to the title .........

............... ENH - Enhancement; BUG - bugs in system reports; CMT - Comments; and, QST - Questions.

Although I think none of us were quite sure whether we were to add the code word, or whether GR would do that.


OR .....................


............ maybe just getting responses from GR would help! Then w would not have to keep finding ways of getting our message through to them re problems in the functioning of the site.

I just plain fail to see why I have to keep changing MY browser to get the site to work!

Why should Mozilla Firefox work today, but not tomorrow?? And why should I then have to go to IE, which wouldn't work today, but will tomorrow? :-S :-S




sylvia


edited once

If everyone on this board were to go to the correct board I doubt there would be many threads/posts. There are only so many enhancements that could possibly be made to a web site and only so many suggestions. It stands to reason that once these are either pointed out or discussed there is little else to say except in repetition.

Most so called 'suggestions' I have read. whether genuine or not, have taken the form of gripes.These gripes have been put into many forms, not least that of sarcasm, rudeness, and innuendos, sometimes at other members but mostly at GR.

This board, as on others, is also full to the brim with posts not relevant to the title, but only certain people seem to be 'asked to post elsewhere'. Some of those doing the asking are also making the same 'mistake' by posting on the 'offending threads' enabling them to chat away to their hearts content about the misplaced query/statement or nothing in particular, giving the impression that it is ok to post a similar query on the board.

I am truly amazed that they do not seem to realize their faux pas whilst chatting away on threads that are obviously gripes and not 'suggestions for enhancement' whilst taking time out to ask another poster to post on another board, albeit politely. Or is it one rule for them and another for others? I certainly hope it is the former.

It is no wonder that others are confused as to where to post or perhaps, eventually, do not care.

There is no visible leadership and only lip service to most of our genuine queries when the official route is taken and some of those who think they are being helpful come across so sharply that they scare off members.

This board, in my opinion, is just to allow us all to think that our existence has been acknowledged. It is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

If anyone disagrees, please feel free to list any enhancements that have either been useful or actually work. They do not need our input on a separate board. They can read all our moans everywhere else on GR.

All in my opinion of course :-)

To be fair, GR have never said that they will respond to postings on the Suggestions Board, in fact the Heading at the top says just that.

"This board is for you to add your suggestions for changes you would like to see made to Genes Reunited. We will be unable to respond to each post individually, but we will be checking the suggestions regularly and taking your suggestions on board."

Having worked with IT development and support for 20 years before I retired, I can also say from experience, that the phrase "taking your suggestions on board" does not actually mean they will be implemented. In practice, it means they will be considered, but only a small handful then go through to development.

Unfortunately, real suggestions on here are now few and far between and when someone does make a sensible one, they are often shot down by those who only want to gripe about the site.

Personally I don't think there are that many problems with the site. The biggest one as far as I know is the "time out" issue affecting those members who have large amounts of data linked to their profile, i.e. massive trees, thousands of messages, lots of postings etc.

Unfortunately unlike a programming error, it is not simple to fix, it only affects certain members, those who don't have these massive amounts of data are oblivious to the problem. Neither does it show up in test environments which typically only have small datasets to play with.

That said, and given that the majority of complaints, albeit from a handful of members, relate to this single issue of performance, it would be good for GR to provide regular updates as to the progress they are making in resolving the problem, but realistically, it isn't going to be sorted overnight.

I will go along with most of that IGP apart from the fact I do not have masses of data and my tree on here is non existent.

I posted on here because everyone else was and my problems with the site are huge, at least others are able to actually get on here. Not so with me.

I was fully aware of the meaning of the heading. Since 2003 I have gone by the rules on this site but cannot understand this one rule for some and not for others.

I have sat by and suffered in silence. Ipad users should be taken into account. Why should I, or anyone, go on chat to moan about it when all the moaners about the system are on this board with some of the biggest offenders of the meaning of the boardname actually asking others to post elsewhere.


My suggestion to GR would be this.

Delete all posts on the Suggestion board except those that are valid. This shouldn't take long as there are not many suggestions to enhance the site on here.

Devise a way to filter

Do something about the compatibility of the site with Ipads.

Compose a standard phrase to advise those on the incorrect board/s of their error.


EDIT:

I was in the process of answering Lyndsey as to why I didnt think a Problem board would be allowed when low and behold the site threw me off.....I have had to write this here because I now do not seem to have an answer button......Hmmm! should I be paranoid

Well I looked for somewhere to post my recent post (which I eventually put under suggestions) and didn't really know where to post so I think it would be a good idea to have a problems board.

It takes so long for the customer service team to get back to you once you've sent your problem in, I was rather hoping for a suggestion from another member ...

Reply is back

Hi Lyndsey

I doubt that any company would want to advertise the fact that their product was faulty. The adverts show sweet and light. A problems board would advertise in glaring headlines the fact that all was not so rosy.

It seems to be a case of

Problems?.....What Problems?

The piddly little heading at the top of this board is so easy overlooked,especially to a newer member,all thats really seen from drop down or left side menu is,,,,,,,Suggestions.....

Now some could take that as,,,,,,asking for suggestions to their query to do with reseaching of a brick wall.


I suggested ( only a limpt suggestion)o Ryan that the headings on all boards be highlighted or eye catching displayed in such a way that there would be far less confusion to a newer member or those with eye problems that it would encourage them to read the headings..

Suewiv~~~er,,,,no dont answer that.

Personally GR I would just remove this board totally, it is not used by anyone (including me and GR) in the manner intended.

Just stick a VERY big notice up somewhere "ALL technical problems contact X at GR" and pay the poor so and so a huge wage for dealing with them. :-D

Best suggestion I have seen yet Rose :-D

Just so that you aware that this board is not totally ignored. I have been fairly tied up with getting other bits and pieces working on Genes, and have fallen silent over the last few weeks.

Ryan and I are looking at the Boards/Community aspect of Genes at the moment, and we will be trawling the whole Suggestions board threads for comments, suggestions, gripes, etc. Not saying we can solve every problem, but make sure we try and get things right going forward.

And names of boards is a start ;-)

Thanks for all comments so far.

Could the team go back to altering thread titles with the codes that the team suggested and perhaps add another couple of codes. That at least would show the team have looked at the thread.

Unfortunately this does no work
"Just stick a VERY big notice up somewhere "ALL technical problems contact X at GR" and pay the poor so and so a huge wage for dealing with them"

The stock answer is what browser etc are you using and then no feedback.

Thank you, Phil


good to get an update!

Bugs and fixes, I thought Phil said was the purpose for this board.

Nudge