General Chat

Used to be so good but a contact I had today was the first for a year and thats with over a 1000 names on my tree. Hotmail is there in name only, does it ever work? Even the contact messages now are 'Can I please look at your tree'. not even a hint as to who or why they want to look at. Also fine if you are English on this site but the Scottish facilities are useless or non existent. Will probably save my tree and depart at the next renewal. :-P

Alan, I hate those "can I look at your tree" messages. I have a large tree and have started ignoring them if they have not opened their tree to me.

So now there will probably be more coming on chat to say that nobody opend their tree to them. And I feel a bit sorry for them - the rude inquiry is, I believe, now the default one. :-(

Hi Alan.
While the site might not be perfect, to be fair, the lack of contacts can't be blamed on Genes - it's just chance that people do or do not have a family tree on here. I assume you have gone searching for matches yourself?
And it's up to the individual to send a polite message.
Genes has its strengths - apart from finding contacts, the support and advice from other members can be invaluable. In that respect no other site quite matches it in my view. It's best used in conjunction with other sites - none of them have everything but together they offer a wealth of information .
Jan

I found when I still had a tree on here that after about 1 year the hot matches became more and more bizarre. I do believe that after the initial rush of matches when you first start that they will die off as the matches will often pop up several times. And without adding lots of new people, there will be less likely matches for you to try.

Found using the search facility for myself far more productive.

Also since the search criteria was changed last year, this reduced immensely the amout of hot matches anyone would get, now the match has to be far more precise.

Well, the older members (me included) have always called them 'Not Matches' for obvious reasons ;-)

re the "Request to View Your Tree" - see my thread on the subject. Estelle has promised to get rid of this default message :-)

re Not Matches. I have over 19,000 names on my GR tree (more on my own software), last time I had a HotMatch, there was ONE name on the list, I think it was John Robertson 1830 Scotland. :-(

My lot are on Ancestry and staying there!
(waits for the RR)

lmao so funny - maybe just maybe some of the messages are auto generated

I got one of the automated "can I see your tree" messages this morning.

Obviously the person had searched all trees and found a possible connection.

I wrote back asking who they were looking for and it turns out that we do have a connection - glad I replied.

The problem is that, If they are a new person and don't know any different, they would think that the automated message is the way to go.

Perhaps, instead of the automated message, GR could have a tip in the box on how to compose an acceptable message?

I have always written to other members originally stating simply that I am looking for XX (born XX), son/daughter of XX and XX and, if applicable, married to XX.

I then ask if they can tell from this information whether we have a match or not.

Any connection is then established.


I remember once getting a message that simply stated -

"Can I see your tree because you have my nan in it"

Still makes me smile.........

I got a message ~ "Who did your John Smith marry?" :-D

;-)

Good one, Scozz!

lol Lynski ~ I started counting my John Smiths, gave up after 200

btw, I didn't reply to that message :-(

Genes were at one time telling us not to open our trees unless we had a match!
I received the 'can I look at your tree' a few weeks ago, so I wrote back and said that it was a policy on Genes to say who you are looking for!!!! oops didn't know then that was the message on the 'reply' box!!!