Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone,
I do hope you are all well.

I am doing some research into member to member messaging and would really appreciate your help.

Please could you let me know what you like and don’t like about the Genes contact centre?
Is there anything you would like to see as part of the messaging system?

Please post your replies below.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Estelle

Good Lord, someone from admin! :-)

LOL sorry Estelle the shock might be too much for some of us of more advanced years ;-)

The messaging system works reasonably well, I do wish the rest of the facilities did also.

Specifically the Advanced Search but that issue is never addressed, even when a response to it is asked for by email. Quick search is inadequate for anything.

Some other things to consider,
The lack of anything updated on home page.
The 'success ' board which is still carrying as header a 'story of the month' from 2 years ago. ( ok that's nit picking perhaps...but it does indicate a lack of attention to the site, gives rise to people thinking no one cares.


I'm sure someone will come up with some replies on topic. other than the recent failure of the system to bring up 'sent' messages' which seems to have been fixed I don't have a problem with them.

:-D Nice to see you here :-)

LOL Rose.

I have just picked myself up from the floor after seeing your post Estelle.

I was only saying to hubby yesterday that the last post on Announcements was August last year and the last on Success was June last year.

I don't think there is much wrong with the messaging service although it would be nice to have some idea of when a person was last active (last post added to the boards etc.) just so you know whether or not to expect a reply.

Time would be better spent either encouraging the so called "millions of members" to use the community boards - although I doubt there are that many members. Alternatively why not roll Genes and Findmypast into one and have the same low subscription price of GR for using the community boards and messaging service and the higher price for doing that AND using Findmypast's records. That way we would only need to deal with one website.

I don't know of any of the regular contributors who use the community boards who actually use the records on Genes - most use Findmypast or Ancestry.

Nice to see you posting nevertheless Estelle.

Kath. x

How nice to see you, Estelle!!


I have no problems with the messaging system .............. although you will undoubtedly get many people complaining that they do not get replies to messages sent!

I know many of us spend time telling members that you cannot force people to respond to pms if they don't want to, or if GR has no means of contacting them (eg, different email address, dead, or lost interest).

One thing you might do is consider removing the option of using that automatic Open Your Tree, or Share Your Tree ................ most of the long time members simply ignore pms that arrive with only that. I want to know WHY someone thinks they are connected to me .......... and that automatic option just seems plain rude, used by someone too lazy to explain or name collecting. Plus, like many others, I will NEVER open my tree without knowing exactly why.


On a different issue, it would be nice to know just what is happening, or possibly going to happen at GR. We seem to be abandoned ...............

Rarely see posts from any staff.

Usually takes at least 3 working days to get a response to an email, and usually no response at all to attempts to contact support through the site.

RR'd posts stay that way for days on end.



But .............. it is nice to see you posting on here again :-D

Good to see you on the GR boards again Estelle :-D

Messaging system -

Some way of knowing when the person its being sent to was last active on the site. Obviously it may not be when they last logged in as many people never actually log out, but perhaps when they last added to their tree, accessed records or posted on the boards?

Allow hyperlinks within the message.

Only the first message in a 'conversation' allow you to attach more than image etc. Could this not be extended to additional exchanges?

Alter the way a married female's surname is displayed - is she Mary Brown or (Mrs) Mary Jones? Consistency please.

Hi everyone,

as I said on my other post, it's really lovely seeing so many familiar names. Thank you very much for your feedback, which has been really useful.

I am afraid I don't work for Genes, so I'm not in a position to discuss any of the other issues you raise, but I can certainly make a note of them and pass them on.

I do hope you are all well.

Kind regards,

Estelle

I sent many messages to others that have names that I am interested in and never seem to get a reply perhaps like Ancestry you could note when a member last logged on - so if say it was over a year ago not to bother contacting them.

Lesley ...........


that has been suggested over and over again, but many members never log out :-)


Have you checked to see if your messages have even been opened??

Some members chose not to have contact, they want only to use the site to build their tree for free.

The only problem with messaging is lack of replies to messages sent. GR could stop free membership of people not using the website. Maybe GR could send an automatic email to free members every year for them to confirm their continued interest in using website. If they do not reply then their membership could be deleted.

Jenny

Jenpen ..............

why stop free members ............... GR was built on free members, that's how the site began. The tree building aspect was why many members joined.

Estelle -
although you don't work for GR (what a pity!), if you are passing on a note of our issues to them, please can you ask them to read and act on the suggestions made in the last few pages of this thread:
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/suggestions/thread/1308919

Nobody in admin replies, and no suggestions are acted on, so we have largely given up making suggestions, as it seems a waste of time.

Many thanks!

As for your research into the messaging system - as has been said, it's one area of GR which does actually seem to work most of the time, unlike other things.

Hello, Estelle, Advisor with a yellow star :)

Ditto above.
Re the messaging system, the technical people were told ages ago about there seemingly being four unread messages for me - though I cannot see them - the matter was investigated, and I was told that nothing can be done about this quirk in the site, the issue cannot be resolved.

Well you can see we all love to see you on here even if you don't work for GR.

Regarding messages, I too had one that seemed to be never opened but somehow I managed to get rid of it.

Otherwise I really like the message system. I will probably not be renewing as my membership cost will be double what I have paid for the last couple of years. No 28 day notification as in GR T & Cs either but as you are not working for GR I shan't go on about it.

The one thing I really like about the message system is I can still message all my contacts at any time. I know I cannot initiate a message but just need to bring up the person I want and reply to an old message and we can start all over again and the recipient can change the title of the messages. It is a great system and if you are going to initiate it elsewhere as in FMP or whatever. It is a good system and works with exception to Joy's mystery envelopes. I see favouritism there she has four and most of us only ever have one or two in the system of never never land.

Keep smiling Estelle.

Cheers Persie

Hi Estelle,

When searching for a missing family member I have often sent multiple messages to people who have a similar person in their tree. It's really annoying to have to type the same polite request ( hate the automatic request ) numerous times. A system for copying the same message to multiple members would be really useful.

Totally agree with all the above comments re unanswered/unopened messages - an indication of when they last visited the site ( as Ancestry manages to do ), or even ceased being a member, would save a lot of wasted requests.

Good luck!

Sue

Estelle - I can't see the current attachment limits, but I presume they're the same as they initially were, viz: 3 MB per single attachment with a max of 15 MB per message.

I find the former quite restrictive. Now one occasionally comes across bigger images, e.g., the FS image associated with
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH34-4WB
is 3.76 MB - I've got another copy of this image labelled
USC-1920-004964272-00653.jpg
which looks like an FMP/GR image label, and it's 5.64 MB in size.

Also, if I'm sending a dozen English census images, they're well below the 15 MB limit, but the easiest way to do this is to zip them on my PC, and send one 9 MB zipped file. In fact, I find attaching 12 files such a pain that I always ask for the receipient's real email addy, and send them zipped as a regular email attachment.

I appreciate GR might want to limit the size of traffic, so I've no comment on the 15 MB limit - I just don't like the additional limitation on individual file sizes.

Also, I think GR ought to retain the file names the sender gives to attachments.

Other than these glitches in the attachment system, I think the messaging system is well planned, and performs as I would hope for.

Something I don't understand, Estelle, is the fact that you say that you don't work for Genes Reunited but you are doing reseach on the Genes contact centre. For whom are you doing this research?

Estelle now works for Findmypast which is in the same group as Genes.

Kath. x

Cornish Susie - Just highlight your entire message, copy it (via right-clicking on it, say) and paste it into the next message - again by right-clicking on it, maybe changing the recipient - then send it and paste again into the third, fourth,..., ninety-ninth message, and similarly send them

Thanks mgnv - would never have found that in a million years, but then I'm far more into pencil and paper than computers!

Sue