General Chat

It's good that someone is increasing their posting rate as at present the number of postings seems to be dropping off. I hardly ever looked at General Chat a few months ago, but now there is so little of interest on Genealogical Chat that I look here more often.

KenSE

This thread seems to have got a lot of comment. Perhaps thread getting past sell-by date now and, with Estelle's new thread on "Suggestions", should be put to bed soon, I think. I sometimes forget I was the OP of this thread.

And someone (some s.....e..) R&R'd me at the beginning. It made not a scrap of difference as all the views (pro and anti new tree) could still clearly be seen.They had their reasons for trying to R&R me, and I wish them no harm.

But identification of the culprit and surgical removal of finger nails slowly would be appropriate. :-D ;-)

No new contribution for quite a few hours. Will remove this thread soon, as I think there is now an opportunity to vent our opinions on new threads in "Suggestions" that Estelle has started.

Started it because Genes were claiming we were happy with new tree on 2ns August announcement. And I hated it. And thought I might be the only one who hated it and enjoyed a good moan.

John the new threads on the suggestions board are not for venting opinions or discussing the new site, they are for adding suggestions only.

I know one or two have posted non suggestions, we will have to wait to see if GR remove them. Meanwhile I would say don't delete this thread of yours.

Thanks, KenSE. Doubt many of us are that disciplined. If we make a suggestion, it rarely stops there and our opinion follows.

I think Estelle would have known she would get similar opinions on her "suggestions" boards to those here on this thread. One or two have said they have put their advice and opinions on her threads temporaily, but note they are still there a couple of days later.

I truly think this is an emergency for Genes and all us members. Whatever we have enjoyed doing all these years is possibly about to stop. Yet hardly anyone can be bothered to give their "constructive" opinions about the way forward on these officiial suggestion boards- just moan at anyone who does not agree with their personal opinion.

I find it particularly frustrating, being 100% right all the time ;-)

I had not realized how few members read these threads.312 have clicked on this thread in 3 weeks and that includes free members.Not a good sign.
Now what is 312 as a % of 12plus million?







5

Thelma, I think 312 is about 97% of 12 million. But maths not one of my many fabulous strengths.

No, I am also surprised how few seem to care. Particularly suprising to me is how few have contributed to Estelle's 3 new threads on Community. I know it is only a couple of days since they started, but both threads I started (this and Wales Genealogy) had loads of posts within that time frame.

And, brilliant as I am, I cannot change anything for you. But Estelle can. And I believe Estelle and her team will. But she needs input from at least 10 million of us 12+ million members - not just 24 as at now.

"I had not realized how few members read these threads.312 have clicked on this thread in 3 weeks and that includes free members.Not a good sign.
Now what is 312 as a % of 12plus million?

- if the alleged number of members is accurate, then very few members read the boards and even fewer post on them; also, one does not have to be a member of this public site in order to read the boards.

- 312 as a % of 12plus million?: miniscule :)

John, it isn't really surprising that few have contributed to the new suggestions threads as most of the regular contributors have already sent in their suggestions over the last year or so.

Also, as someone pointed out on one of those threads, these suggestions shouldn't be implemented without some sort of discussion, which doesn't seem to be allowed at the moment.

I know you think that to bring back the old tree is an easy option but it probably isn't that simple. I suspect (but don't know) that the underlying database that was recently common to both the old and new trees, has been extended (for the new facilities) so that it is no longer compatible with the old tree. If that is the case then there would have to be a lot of rework on the old tree to get it to work

The ultimate reversion to the old tree only as it was, would mean that all those who had used the new tree would find data being lost and there would be just as much uproar over that.

I have always said the the number of members quoted was not an accurate number because it quotes the total number of those who have registered from the date the site was founded and that most have left the site over time through one reason or another

as for why their are so little response to Estelle on the suggestions board i think Ken is right and just last night one lady who has been a member for 7 years said this in a reply about the suggestions

Perhaps one of the silent majority with nothing to add?...I read all the boards and threads more or less every day however I have no suggestions to make.

I have no problems with GR...even though I am IT illiterate I have had no problems with the new tree and I have just enjoyed the site as a whole since I joined

Roy

Here is an analogy. There are 1 million regular churchgoers. Don't know how many were "regular" today, but not many in my local chapel.

But I remember a local village chapel near Towcester in Northants (Greens Norton) being threatened with closure 20 years ago. Five were attending regularly. Over a hundred turned up for the closure meeting, and the Minister had to keep it open. As far as I know, it still operates today.

Apathy is a growing problem in this country. My sister was a suffragette, yet many young women do not even bother to register their vote.

A lot of us who have been members of Jeans for many years have hardly ever been interested in "Community". It was clear about 4 weeks ago that a lot of "newbies" to community threads had come on, like me, because they could not understand new tree and even hated it.

We have consistently been attacked as people who know nothing, people who are constant moaners. Not by a huge number, but a significant inner clique who seem to think they own Genes Reunited. How many times have we been told that Genes wil not listen to comments on these threads? How many times have we been told that Genes will not reverse their decision to rest the tree? Unless they are on teh Genes Board of Directors, how do they know any more than me or any of the other 12 million members?

The old tree was finally removed just over 3 weeks ago. How many new relatives have been added to trees since. My guess is about 13 individuals across the 12 million members.

If it is less that 20 in total as I suspect, I will personally volunteer to go to all of their houses and re-insert these relatives on the old tree for them. To save them from the inconvenience of putting them back on themselves. Then we can start building our trees again and seeing if we have any possible matches. And be able once again to look at details on one page and possibly a photo on each of our records.

And the idea that it is a waste of time contributing to Estelle's threads is strange, even if you duplicate what you have said in a pm to her. Heavens, there is still more traffic on this thread than on the official threads. And I am a Basic Member who can make nothing much happen - Estelle most certainly can.

So my parting shot is just this - if Genes are kind enough to respond with three Suggestions boards, make your suggestions there.

If I was a member of the Genes team and had had the number of suggestions received so far on their official Suggestions threads, I would assume that everyone was happy with the new layout. 12 million members - about 60 who can be bothered to respond.

Yes, I know some will have written privately. But why not cut and paste and repeat your thoughts. If worth saying once, worth saying twice. Better out than in. And don't worry if it an opinion rather than a suggestion. And don't worry if you put it on the wrong thread either.

At least there have been more opinions on this thread than the official Genes thread that prevented our views. Bright and solid opinions.

But it seems plainly ridiculous to me that, a month after the last announcement saying there had been good feedback, Genes still refuse to acknowledge unrest amongst the moaning element of their troops.

And, boy - have we moaned :-D :-D

"Thank you for taking the time to send us your feedback on the new design. There has been a lot of positive feedback, but we have also identified that lots of members, particularly those who spend a lot of time on the boards, are finding the background a bit too bright."

This was posted on the General Chat board on 2nd August (30 days ago). And a similar post began a thread on Blogs with "our members think......"

Despite 30 days of a fairly constant stream of confusion, despair, anger, sadness, the official position of Genes has not changed in any way. There is absolutely no recognition that we are not all happy with these changes.

I pasted and copied this two days after it appeared because I thought that we should be able to reply to the Genes thread rather than just view it. We should be able to tell them if we thought they had mistaken our thrill at their new and exciting changes. I never ever belived that, 4 weeks later, they would still have not accepted how unhappy so many members are with all this excitement.

Can't follow the two top threads on this Board. One about our Christmas parties. One about the New Look Site - Feedback So Far

My computer says there have been no posts yet on either thread. Obvioulsy there must have been loads on both threads as they are always top of the pile. Would sks please give me an idea of what is being discussed on both threads?

John, those threads are locked threads that Genes has stickied. i.e.they stay at the top of the list and no one can add to them. See the list of Icons on the left of the page below Tools.

You can always bring your thread to the top of the other threads by making a nudge post. Don't overuse that facility though or it will make you unpopular.

Wow John - you just can't let this go can you? If Genes have made their decision and will not - or cannot - change back to the old tree then you need to move on.

Well said Sue :-)

Sue and Wend My problem is a simple one. Officially they say feedback has been good. They have maintained that for over 4 weeks now. There has been some slight criticism of the new layout in certain quarters.

I am as fed up as you about banging on like this. In almost every respect, I feel I am on the same side as you. I want to get on with my life. But I won't stop until they recognise that the feedback is not all good.and communicate that to us members.

That would take them 30 seconds. So far, we have waited for a whole calendar month since they posted this apparent thread that we cannnot even comment about.

KenSE Much appreciate that explanation. I wondered how they had done it. More than that, I wondered why they had posted it on a chat thread if they did not want us to chat about it.

What about people like me John? I like the new tree and I'm not the only one.