Suggestions

30 reviews and listed in date order if you read them all then the picture is clear

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews83373.html#Reviews

Roy

good grief


that's terrible!


You can see how the site has deteriorated over the last 3-4 years just from the reviews.


GR really needs to read this, and to pay attention to it!


sylvia

Has to be said though that a few of those reviews are negative for reasons that suggest the person did not check out the site before parting with their money... one complaint being that they can't see trees without the owners permission.

Judging from the FB page for Ancestry there are plenty of complaints about access, transcriptions, subscriptions etc for most large genealogy sites.... and to be fair, people who are dis-satisfied are more likely to go and write a review than those who are happy with the service ( whoever it's with).

That doesn't excuse all the faults though, which as we know are many and varied ;-)

OOOAAAH!

Maybe GR will sit up and take notice!

It might inspire them to actually DO SOMETHING!

Sorry, I was dreaming............... ;-)

They will only take notice if they actually read the boards.

Did anyone notice how there was a sudden change in tone round about May 2011??

Did notice that point Sylvia.

I was going to make a comment on the last poster as they were complaining about not being able to see other members trees without be invited.

I was going to point out all the bitching that goes on with Ancestry about people "stealing photos" etc and all the incorrect trees. But then I thought what's the point as it will probably go over their head anyway.

I was thinking of emailing the link to Estelle and see what she has to say about the reviews.

Good idea, Gai!

ha! Go on Gai........ we'd all love to see Estelle's response :-D

Well that was a very interesting read.

And GR really do need to read, from the early positive to the later less so!!!

What did amaze me was that someone said they only joined becasued it was cheap. What do they expect!!!!! Cheap is not necessarily good.

Too many people think this is a cheap hobby (or try to make it so) it is not.

And does no one do any reasearch before joining any site? You would not call in a builder etc. without checking work they had previously done and then looking at the price.

Oh well :-\

I have sent the link to Estelle but just checked my emails and there hasn't been a response.

Just so that you know we are aware. I am not proud that we are still failing to meet everyone's expectations of the site, and we are working extremely hard to resolve the situation. We are trying to focus on two aspects, making sure the basics are right, but also introduce new features. Today's release was focused on search (for BMD and Census) and I will be posting a blog this evening about it. I know many of you will see this as just trying to catch up with some of the other sites, but it is a step in the right direction.

Thank you for keeping us aware of our need to improve.

PS My fullest apologies for my absence from the boards for too long. I will becoming more active again.

Thanks Phil for the reply.

Take heart at times the other sites have their own problems, so you aren't alone.

For me the disappointing factor with GR was the fact I could find my great grandfather on the census and then GR changed where they census records came from and he was no longer there. I emailed and emailed and no one took any notice, so lucky I saved a copy to my computer.

Then there is the ongoing problem that I can't email GR from my main email address which Sylvia has the same problem that just can't seem to be solved.

Gai

Thank you Phil, for the update.


Lots of things ARE much better for me than they were a month ago

......... I don't have to keep signing in .......... only about twice a week now

......... I can open My Threads ........ it only takes about 40 seconds, and I only get the Error message one in a blue moon ........... which is loads better than every time

......... I have been able to open my Sent Messages


I don't use the tree, so can't say anything about that. I do understand that there are still major problems with the new tree.


As Gai says, I still cannot use my main email address to communicate with GR .................. it's a pain to have to use that other one ................. but that seems unsolvable.


so ........... many thanks for what you have done!




sylvia

must have been sat on by the objects of review 'cos it now returns a 404 site not found

:-P

Just tried the link i never got any error it still works for me :-P



Roy

My security software was blocking this review site for some reason ...

It looks rather as if somebody planted about half a dozen very similar posts praising the site. I wonder who would do that?

My subs run out next week. Given the general decrepitude of the site which has the look and feel of Miss Havelocks mansion I don't think I shall renew, just join the lurkers.

New members who are lured into this site by sponsored tv shows will soon be enraged as they try and use the now-not-very-new tree. The very least they could do is to set the old tree as default.

fwiw they now have new T&C which should be read, if only for the many contradictory terms and weasel words.

Virgin cable internet is pretty good (though it is best to use yr own router). Their tv is not so hot. Rang them yesterday thinking to swap to Sky ... oh don't go they cried we'll send you a new HD box with all the gizmos ... free.

I wonder what customer retention features Phil Moire is dreaming up? Access to Scottish census ? Posting for free (avail on rootschat or even gru via FB) ? Multiple trees ? Half price platinum for 6 months ? Fix bugs (too many to list?) Real time customer support over the net? Real photos & vids ? Properly implemented privacy without overcooking it ( eg assume anybody over 110 probably departed) ? Plant a stake through the phantom RR ?

The naff LR board and FB suggest the chosen path which is to do whatever is needed to bring in more advertising. Churn and poor delivery hardly matter in that context. I would not be at all surprised if many of GRu users were also customers of such paragons of customer support as 3, TalkTalk, FitnessFirst, nPower and the AA.

Scottish records? Don't make me laugh.

There's some "rule" about Scottish records only being available via Scotland's People.

Bright Solid own Scotland's People, so what's the problem?

I don't use ANY records on GR. I use the tree (old one) and the boards. IMHO the tree and the boards are the BASICS.

The basics should be fixed before any fancy new stuff is even considered.

Customer Support? They claim they don't have time to answer every email, so we get the generic response. That just makes me send another email, so what's the point? I've had some decent responses recently, but only because I was persistent.

Fed up reading "I cannot recreate your problem" - especially when I've posted the problem and other members agree with me.

I didn't have to sign in this morning, so that's an improvement.

Only saw one Error Message yesterday (why are they usually when I send a contact/reply message?)

I have a ww Ay membership. It has full Scottish census and other record transcriptions but not the images of course as these seem to be reserved to Sp as you say.

Ay def does not have much of an active scene on its discussion boards.
However chat between people sharing trees on Ay is pretty good and of course very well informed. The Ay trees are increasingly by invitation only. Some of the public trees are really wild ..

RootsWeb is nicely put together but also slow (slow as in slow rate of postings, the site itself is quick and not buggy).

There is a renegade site of ex GRu members which is fairly good.

So people hang on here for the boards but they are shrivelling .... even the "General" chat is a shadow of it once was though as plagued with hassles as ever.

None of the other sites in the UK or USA (inc BS) seem to have anything like the level of broken functionality as Gru. For most people the tree is the core function and it is broken regardless of which version you use. Hardly surprising then that board postings are way down if the core function is broken.

Is it still worth about £ 75 / half year? I doubt it. Anyway I have a week to think about it. 6 months ago I renewed, hopeful. Misplaced optimism. Will the site even exist end 2012? Who knows.

I am sure that they want to fix it. The problem is that the hodge podge of javascript and flash is beyond what can be maintained (thank you IGP).

The "new" versions is just a rearrangement of the same Flash/javascript mess so it cannot be maintained either (pls note IGP). The extreme difficulty in making robust changes has been all too obvious. Now there is a stable, if broken product, FUD says no more changes, even to fix things.

Apple has already withdrawn Flash support. The next version of IE (10) will do the same as will Android in favour of html5 and H264. Adobe have repositioned Flash for a niche market and are doing well selling expensive hml5 tool kits. Ay has great apps for iOS and Android and soon Win8.

That leaves Gru paddling a canoe to nowhere with a broken paddle and a weir up ahead ...

I like the Genealogist best of the UK sites and it is terrific for pre 1837. The downside is that it is poor at world wide stuff and my lot had (and still have) itchy feet. AyWW fits the bill very well.

My own 2c would be that the whole site will fold at some point into FB & Twitter once BS have worked out the ads revenue business model. A total rewrite of Gru not using Flash would be far too expensive.

.Times are hard in Dundee and I cannot see Gru getting eternal bail outs.

At the end of the day I guess what bugs me the most is not the bugs and other functional hassles but the sheer bloody minded refusal of GRu, its developers and support staff to enter into any kind of meaningful relationship with their customers. As with any other business over the last 100 years it is a fatal error.

Mea culpa from PM that they have screwed up and then repeating the bad behaviour is hardly convincing. :-P

:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(

FUD? As in Elmer? :-D