General Chat

Please note that the de-brief posted earlier, was my opinion and may differ from that of other participants.

We probably all had different priorities if the opportunity arose to ask questions rather than sticking to the script.

Thanks wisechild :-D

Not at all Island.
Just an observation about some of the posts that went before.
As for Major Barney, I think he´s a periodic visitor in most households.

Who's Major Barney?
I hope your post wasn't in response to mine wisechild :-0

Don´t think this question was meant to turn into a major barney.
I was under the impression that John was just wondering why GR didn´t post a similar feedback to the one that DeTecTive has given us.
Must admit I had wondered myself why we had heard nothing.
I would have thought that once the volunteers had been selected, Genes would have said so & posted the date that the event was going to take place.
I certainly have no axe to grind here as there was never any possibility that I could volunteer because I live abroad, as do many members, but that doesn´t mean we have no interest in the outcome.

The invitation to the GR office was offered to all in June via the announcements board.

Emails were sent out to some members in August to try out the beta version - the tree was the same as on the site so feedback for that was not required through the beta.
Board use and paid membership had no bearing on who was invited - they seem to have been truly random.

That's a good point. We tend to forget that GR isn't our 'Club'.

Its a for-profit organistation and must answer to it shareholders. Assuming DC Thomson, the over all owners are listed on the Stock exchange, how about buying the minumum amount of shares possible, and turning up at the Annual General Meeting? :-D

John, I can vouch for Lynda being one of the first members on Genes Connected.

Unfortunately, when Genes Connected was sold the site incurred problems by bad site management by the new owners.

This is an ongoing problem with all subsequent owners whose most pressing aim is profit unlike the original Genes Connected site where Genealogy was paramount.

Sorry Lynda. Just looked at joining date on Nov 2007 and 490 posts Don't feel superior or inferior anyway, just a bit touchy when people say I moan and have no interest in site improvements. I think they are moaning old **** , but have always been too polite to say.

I remember having a peep at a thread when the green flock wallpaper debate was at its height and could not believe the spitefulness and pettiness. And endless moans, and moans about moans. Have always found green restful, even when it looks like inside of a house of ill repute.

Think there used to be many brilliant members of Genes. I think I used to be one (above average and acceptable, anyway). Even once got a starred PM to tell me how good the team thought my tree was.:-D :-D And I am quite proud of what I have achieved, mainly on Genes.

But my light has dimmed in last 6 weeks and has now more or less gone out.

Best of luck with your longlife bulbs. :-D

Actually John, I have been a member since 2002, I joined on the first day of GR, which was then Genes Connected started, Stephen Pankhurst, member number 1, started the site, his wife was the inventor.

As for you being an active & brilliant member, that's up to other members to decide. Others may have a very different opinion, as to how they see you.

Linda Think many have either given up like me doing any family history pro tem or have found a site that suits them better.

After over 30 years of family history, this fiasco has made me take a rest for a whole year - and quite enjoying the freedom of not searching for relatives for myself and others. Cancelled my A*** subs and various others - freeing up significant spending power. No longer driving round and searching graveyards.

Many of my contacts lost interest weeks ago - hence so few posts anywhere. But we need Genes to tell us the facts, otherwise you will say I am making it up. No idea why someone like me should make it up. I have been on Genes twice as long as you, for example and have a huge tree and huge contact list. It has been my favourite and most visited site till July 2012.

Had I realised not everybody was asked to view the new layout I would have gone to London. But would it have made a scrap of difference? Doubt it very much. Too late now anyway - Genes have lost it. Need to build up a totally new customer base. New people who ask for help with reading a census on the Quizzes and Games board, new people who ask questions during their free trail then disappear into the ether for ever. End of moan. :-( :-(

Sylvia I can only comment on what I have seen in last 6 weeks. Phil made and Announcement on 9th Aug about screen brightness or similar. Estelle has commented a couple of times and started 3 threads on Suggestions Board.

Don't think Phil has appeared to contribute at all since 9th Aug. It seems to be keen and knowledgeable members who are helping with the tree technical problems.

I was always taught you are only as good as your last project. So however good he or the others have been in the past is no longer important. They are judged on what they have done these last few weeks and what they plan to do in near future. By us and by parent company.

John

You do NOT know Phil if that is what you think!!


He is a very responsive guy, who has been extremely helpful in the past.


I'm guessing that he had chance to read only a very few threads ........ and that was the thread where he felt he just HAD to reply.

Sylvia Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I had hardly ever looked at any other part of the site in June, and would not have put myself forward. It was only when old tree finally went that I felt more confident and postive about saying my little piece :-D

These boards seem to have got rapidly quieter these last 6 weeks. Could not keep up with them at first - now am having a nap whilst I wait for someone else to post. Probably Phil Moir thought his contribution on Suggestions would not be noticed - but hardly anything else of significance has happened today :-( :-(

John


you are very new to the Community Boards, even though you have been a member for a long time.


Unfortunately, there was a lot going on at the time ............. and it has not been unknown for people who announce they were attending a meeting with GR staff, or answering a survey ............... to be lambasted on the Boards.


so it is not news to any of those of us who have been around for longer than you ON THE BOARDS that someone would keep quiet.



In full disclosure .................... I was one of the ones who received an email inviting me to test run the Beta version, as posted by DET.

I did take the opportunity offered ............... but I was more concerned with the appearance and functioning of the Community Boards, and concentrated on that, even after updates to the tree were made during the second week of testing.


I know many people who received that email ................. and it seemed to make no difference as to whether you used the tree or not, or were very active on the Boards.


The only thing about those of us who have been active for years ................. and who have been in communication with GR via email over many years regarding the effectiveness of the site, is that GR would know that the email addresses they had for us were active.



I've asked before, but never got an answer .............

............ it would be interesting to know how many members have changed their email address since they joined GR AND remembered to notify GR of the change.



John, I've just noticed that you said ..............

"I just remember getting an invitation like all of us in June. But took no real notice till I finally could not use old tree layout which was beginning of August."




Then you have no real basis on which to complain, if you were offered the chance to test run the Beta version, and ignored it. That is your fault. You would have had a chance to have an input at the very beginning.


Tut tut

Suspect we all want this site to be successful, Lynda. I have been a very active and brilliant member for far longer than you - so no closet to come out of. Never even moaned before once till 7 weeks ago, except in private now and again.

We are all in this together. If it is ever sorted, it will be by the majority of active members having respect for opinions of everybody else. That applies to both of us. So I have never attacked you or tried to push you back to the goals, and you have never had any need to stand in the goal whilst I wing a fast free kick at you.

I just remember getting an invitation like all of us in June. But took no real notice till I finally could not use old tree layout which was beginning of August.

Many thanks as ever Detective. That was very informative. :-D :-D

Exactly! Thats probably why many attendees didn't announce it to the world. Other than the Greeneyed monster, at the time any admission could have resulted in unwanted attention ;-)

Not defensive at all John, just honest

Det, you're brave coming out of the closet, be careful, very careful :-D

(Coming out of the closet)

I was another one who 'volunteered' and was given an appointment despite stating that I didn't at that time use the record search facility on GR.

As Lynda says, it was one interviewee with Estelle, Phil Moir and for a short period, Chris the Product Developer.
I was asked to log into my account, but on the pre-release site which was more or less as we have it now. The Beta tree version had been circulated a few days before so that wan't new to me. I'd already had the opportunity to play around with it.

Estelle had a series of questions about personal usage and the reaction to the pre-release site.

I'd asked a number of GR friends for questions to raise on their behalf. The debrief to them was as follows

***********************

Estelle met me and took me up to a meeting room. The GR team make up about ¼ of the workers in the Brightsolid building. They also have a number of home workers, possibly those who deal with RR’s. Phil Moir was also present as was another man whose name I’ve forgotten.

They are thinking of introducing a ‘profile page’ per individual, but care needs to be taken not to have it too cluttered.
There would be a timeline, list of close relatives, list of attached or uploaded documents and a map showing where events took place. I think the latter could be discarded.

They are intending to remove the dark green bar where you can currently find search trees etc. This particular item would now be under the general ‘search’ button.

Selected people who have provided feedback on previous versions have been given log in details to a Beta version by email invitation. The layout is the mainly the same as the one I was using today.

As planned, I took a list of points raised. Although the opportunity didn’t arise to cover them all, some notes are listed below.

• Last time potential contact logged on to be looked into. They did suggest last time site used rather than logged on, and potentially remove trees where no activity has taken place by the member after a number of years.

• Active moderation of LRB –recognised that some action needs to be taken. There is a suggestion that paying members might wish to be involved with moderation of the whole site in exchange for credits.

• Consistency of removal of RR and quote offending post to poster – Recent training should improve consistency. Suggest of C&P of offending post might be considered.

• Difficulty printing trees –supposedly fixed as long as tree has fewer than 600 people

• Bring boards to the notice of new members – raised but not a lot they can do

• Fix problems identified on Suggestions – please use ‘contact us’. All problems logged and passed on to Phil

• Remove ‘discussions’ from Home Page – resurrecting long dormant threads – point raised. This also comes under the de-clutter discussion

• De-clutter home page – discussed. I suggested getting rid of the ‘See Winston Churchill on 1911 census’ or what ever slide show. Even Phil agreed it moved too quickly to focus

• Remember average age of user - clarity and easy of use - stressed

• Remember average age of user - clarity and easy of use - stressed

• Remove default ‘view my tree’ when messaging – discussed. There are plans to be able to allow partial access to trees and whether to include photos ie they can see basic tree but not photos.

There wasn't the opportunity to work into the conversation some of the other queries raised.
***********************

Although the £50 receipted travel expenses wouldn't have covered the cost of travel from some of the more distant UK places, it would have gone a reasonable way to suppliment the cost if someone wanted a cheap day out in London.

Why so defensive, Lynda? I do not think you committed any crime at all - honest.

My contention (only a guess) is these one hour slots and comments made by perhaps three people formed the basis of the announcement on 2nd Aug that we have had "good feedback" and are addressing certain issues.

It would have been more effective probably to have picked 20 members at total random and travelled to them in Canada, Australia or wherever. Forking out a couple of hundred pounds to fairly local and quite interested members is not really the best way of gaining customer feedback for such a pivotal decision.

But just MHO. :-) :-)