Suggestions

This was posted the other day, on a thread on this Board ................. New tree vs Old Tree ......... and it seems to have been passed over by most people


(Note:-- I have edited the original post to make it a little easier to read)


Stephen 17 Sep 2012 22:46

well I must say the old tree was a world beater for simplicity.

I have had no end of arguments with GR and I have even told their team leader he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot; in fact I don't think he could organise a piss-up in a brewery.

today, 17/09/2012, they told me they have no intention of going back to the old tree
as they have erased it.

stephen.

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



that seems to be a pretty definitive answer!





sylvia

Well certain people in GRU may think the old tree has been erased. Most IT organisations have a centralised backup system which goes back several years. This kind of backup is there for legal reasons. I doubt if BrightSolid and its subsidiaries are any exception.

It is probably correct that the old tree code is no longer on their servers. The new tree is quite a lot different from the old one in the way that it is implemented and so reversion is not a practical possibility whether there is an archive copy of the old tree or not.

The firm who wrote the code for ITV under contract will have retained a copy.

Rollo Do you think these recent problems (threads disappearing mysteriously, threads all dated February 2012 when they were August 2012 threads, Search facility not working) may be an indicator they are improving new layout currently.

I do hope before they make any more changes they do it in a business like manner.

If I return to my tree next year, I am hoping to find something a lot more user friendly.

Presumably someone could buy the erased version at a knock down price and set up a new company. I feel sure more were using old layout in July than new layout, but facts from Genes are like drawing hen's teeth - particularly when off message.

"Presumably someone could buy the erased version at a knock down price and set up a new company."

No, it is copyright. I rather doubt that BS would do this lol. There are plenty of alternatives, some charge, some don't. I have had a look at most of them and warts n all GRU is the best budget package for people with a UK focus. Genes is a good US site but it does not allow GED export which is a big downer.

"I feel sure more were using old layout in July than new layout, but facts from Genes are like drawing hen's teeth - particularly when off message."

Well it helps if you know where to look. It appears that the makeover has been commercially successful which may be one reason you do not see many replies to please for the old tree from GRU.

Only a very small percentage of users have ever spent much time on the boards, inc people with census subs. The main exceptions were (a) "Find Ancestors" aka free lookups on Ancestry which has dropped a lot of traffic since the brakes were applied to this and (b) the General Chat which has lost many of its members to Facebook.

The best off line free FH program is GRAMPS which works fine with GRU via GED. GRAMPS has an excellent user group but does demand some effort to get to know how to use it.

Many thanks Rollo. Very useful info.

Incidentally, GRU did have an open day in July. I did vaguely know about it. Have started a thread today to ask who went and what happened. It is on Chat. One or two at least attended but seem a bit nervous about telling the rest of us.

Can somebody please show the original post - I can't find it. Would like to read the actual words for myself. Hate the arrogance of somebody saying they have edited somebodies post. If it was me I'd be spitting feathers. :-(

Polite thread - no spitting please.

Was the original post not a PM? Sylvia very kindly has precised important points for us. Think we all understand the word "erased" and that was the first time any of us had heard Genes use language different to we have "removed" tree or we have "retired" tree :-( :-(

This is the thread address for the quote

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/suggestions/thread/1304632?page=1

Copied and pasted without adding line breaks, it reads as

Stephen Report 17 Sep 2012 22:46

well I must say the old tree was a world beater for simplicity. I have had no end of arguments with GR and I have even told their team leader he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot; in fact I don't think he could organise a piss-up in a brewery.
today 17/09/2012. they told me they have no intention of going back to the old tree
as they have erased it.
stephen.

I was one of those who got an invite but I didn't go. No point - by that time the makeover was pretty well complete and it was really a non event. The beta had been running for some time generating plenty of noise, the un lamented slider and plenty of serious bugs which survived into the release.

GRU are not exactly realistic with their expenses either - fifty quid instead of a day's fees plus travel does not really cut it. Not so bad I guess if you can speak English, live nr Shoreditch and have a bus pass.

The trouble with the old tree was that it was written in Flash. That made plenty of sense at the time but with the passing of Flash as a development tool GRU really did not have much choice but to move to a more modern platform i.e. html5. They are also correct in saying that some things e.g. cousin marriages were impossible with the old code base. The trouble is that the new tree code is also very tricky, hence all the bugs and the continued non-event of "new and exciting features". fwiw my guess is that they have made the classic IT mistake of coding according to the skills of the in house staff rather than working out the best approach and then hiring people who could implement it.

The errors with threads etc are basic sloppiness. This sort of thing is usually indicative of poor project management rather than poor programming. It is endemic in the software industry and has caused any amount of loss general mayhem and tragedy. GRU's makeover and Apple's new maps app are pretty harmless instances.

Try here to see an every day tale of project managers and software engineers:
http://www.dilbert.com

So now we are all stuck, in the thick of it.

FWIW .........


As DET's post shows ............. I did not edit that post by removing ANYTHING

I just put in line breaks to separate the different thoughts expressed by Stephen


I guess I should apologise to NanaSue as I so offended her sensibilities.


I did give the title of the thread ...............and said it was on THIS Board .............. presuming that people were capable enough to go and find it, especially as it was near the top of the Board :-)



FWIW ..............

......... anyone who edits anything, be it an email, pm, post or article, by omitting any part of it SHOULD indicate that something is missing by a series of "dots"

For example ..................

"anyone who edits anything .................. by omitting any part of it SHOULD indicate ............"



and I am an excellent editor in real life .............. and I do do that, even here on GR.



sylvia