Suggestions

This is what GR has indicated is the purpose of this board

"This board is for you to add your suggestions for changes you would like to see made to Genes Reunited."

Unfortunately not everyone posting on the board seems to have realised that. Whilst the original poster may have indeed made a suggestion that they feel could be beneficial, a lot of original posts have evolved into long threads by the addition of comments made by other members either agreeing, disagreeing or going off at a tangent. There have also been instances of posts made by members who have obviously misinterpreted "Suggestions" believing that it was a board on which to ask for suggestions as to how to trace an ancestor.

To help avoid confusion might I recommend two changes to the board itself.

a) That its title be changed to "Suggestion Box" which I feel may be more appropriate and the boards actual purpose be more clearly understood.

b) That the board be operated in a similar manner to the Find Living Relatives board where only the initial post is visible and adding to the initial post is not permitted. The benefit of that would be that when GR does check the board its staff will be able to check the suggestion made more easily and make a decision whether or not to take it on board.

If any member does agree with a suggestion already made by someone else they will still have the option of making the same suggestion themselves. If the same suggestion is made by several different members then it is a clearer gauge of the depth of feeling of your membership about the matter.

All very well Jonesey but as it has been proved , nobody from GR is reading or responding to any of it, on here or FB.. what will having a suggestion box do for us if it's being ignored.?

The boards seem to have ground to a halt , so what's changed apart from our new profiles ? Must say you're looking very sage-like !

Just adding this to remind myself not to add anything to this thread lest it "devolve".

I couldn't agree with you more, Jonesey. A suggestion box, no responses allowed. It's no wonder that GR hasn't done much to respond to suggestions when each suggestion has as many as 20 responses. Reading through this whole suggestion board is like having to read "War & Peace"

I think your suggestions are very good Jonesey and deserve to be implemented.

I also think that GR "will" be reading this board and that some of the suggestions may be implemented whenever they do another update to the site. If a business has a "suggestion box" they certainly don't reply to everyone who drops a suggestion into it. They just act on any worthwhile suggestions as and when they can.

Kath. x

Oh well.

I think the site staff/management are perfectly capable of reading the initial post in a thread and discerning what the suggestion being made is.

I also think that if I were the staff/management of a site like this I would want to know what other paying users' views of any suggestion was.

I could suggest, oh, that this site make everybody who uses it pay fees, no more free memberships. That suggestion would obviously carry weight equal to any other suggestion. Just because I made it. The site staff/management would have no need or desire to know what other users thought of it.

MY suggestion is that the site staff/management show some sign of life and let users know that they are reading and considering the suggestions and the views expressed on those suggestions.

The suggestion threads would then be much less likely to "devolve".

As this one now has.

Oops.

The site staff/management need to know that they have created a state of near chaos -- they have succeeded, through their publicity campaign associated with their new pet project the finding families television show, in turning this site into a bulletin board for the violation of the privacy of people who don't use it and don't even know it exists, where long-time, long-paying, long-contributing users feel even more disregarded and disrespected than under the previous régime.

That's what the site staff/management need to do.

The SITE has devolved. Whether suggestion threads do is entirely beside the point.

Jonesey I disagree with not being able to respond to a suggestion made because this way they can be discussed by members and give a better balance of opinion. If this was in a bulletin board format if anyone disagreed with the suggestion they would have to add a thread saying I disagree with post (date and time) by (board name) before even expressing an opinion and would be very disjointed

I think GR should respond to some of the suggestions and interact with it's members on this site