Suggestions

I stand corrected.

Bright Solid took over the management of Scotland's People.

Soon after they took over, the prices went up.

Don't like to think of ANY company having a monopoly

wonder what the Competitions Board will think????



That would put ALL the major genealogical sites in the UK in the hands of the same company.


It took the Board about 18 months to decide that having 3 of the sites under BS was not against competition.

:-0 :-0 :-0


had not seen that, Ken!!



VERY interesting!

Interesting to see on the internet that Ancestry.com is looking for buyers and Brightsolid has been mentioned as a possible buyer. :-|

Also I noticed on page 1 that Joy posted the gr address - from this you can see just how small an outfit it is here in London 38-41 (room numbers) now I have street viewed this address and those 4 rooms will be quite small. This explains to me just how the problems can occur a large business being run by minimal staff levels (we think less than 15) in 4 small rooms.

Talk about Bright Solid being cheapskate.

I think that rather than constantly moaning at the GR staff we should really be moaning and contacting Bright Solid and asking where the money they earn from us is being spent - 'cos it ain't on database upkeep, staff etc.

PP you are correct "enabled by bright solid" the web site and its records are owned by the Scottish government as indicated in its web address

© Crown copyright and copyright bright solid ltd: Genealogy, family history and family tree information.

A partnership between the National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon enabled by bright solid

in 2009 brightsolid won a three-year deal to (manage) the hugely-successful family history site, ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk

Other brightsolid sites

Findmypast
Findmypast Ireland
Findmypast Australia
1911census.co.uk
ancestorsonboard.com
Censusrecords.com
Friends Reunited
brightsolid also hosts scotlandspeople.gov.uk



Roy

I thought Scotlands People was owned by the Scottish Gov. and run with/by Bright Solid?

Scozz, Scotlands people is not owned by bright solid

but just for you

try this http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/tree/default.aspx

Don't no how long the link will last?

Roy

I'm thinking about all the money I've spent at Scotland's People, which is owned by Bright Solid.

What else do they own?

If Bright Solid employed more staff to work on the product of genes reunited, surely the increased number in the team would be empowered to make the site work more efficiently? And the staff would have more time to think about the wording in their emails to helpers

Ongoing errors and appalling lack of speed, experienced by some, are all very disappointing. :-(

From Phil 12 December "I would be very keen to get some feedback from those that have suffered the most, and also hear about any areas that still appear to be causing issue."

- certainly will do. Hope you have had a nice holiday.

It could be a small percentage of members affected by the issues, or a large percentage; only you, Phil, and other members of your team would know that as you see the logged errors. I am aware that we that post on the boards are a very small percentage of the millions of members.

Thank you Phil

Thank you Phil

Well can't say fairer than that!
And yes the site does seem to be responding much faster.

Personally, I have had very few problems using IE8 on XP. I suppose my biggest niggle has been that during the last couple of weeks, every time I quit explorer after having been into Genes, I get errors about Explorer not shutting down properly. There are a few problems with my tree not dispaying as it used to as well but nothing much to worry about.
I am sure the fixes will come.

Jeremy

EDIT:
Now removed comment that Internet Explorer seemed to be behaving itself. As of 15.30 GMT Monday the shutdown errors are back again

We have just completed the first phase of an exercise to rid the site of some of the most common faults and performance issues. This work has been going on for about 10 days now, including upgrading servers (newer versions of Windows), upgrading components, changing baseline code, adding extra configuration on the database.

This work did involve changes to the site over the last week or so, but the end result from a technical position is that we appear to be running far better than we have for a while.

There are still some issues that we are working on and we have two more releases planned before Christmas to address these, some Message Centre bugs and give a little extra.

My thanks to the team that came in to work on this, which included Toby, Duncan, Phil (another one) and Martin.

I would be very keen to get some feedback from those that have suffered the most, and also hear about any areas that still appear to be causing issue.

My thanks also to members for their patience over the last 12 months while we have battled through so many issues.

Phil

In the same way that Ancestry has the same transcriptions as FreeBMD, GR may well have the same transcriptions as FMP for certain records.

However, as far as I know, members are not directed to "another site" as has been suggested on here in the past.

On the other issue, surely GR has it's own management, independent from the parent company. No different to other organizations.

Inspector Green Pen:
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1281462
http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/latesep11news.htm
"Genes Reunited have replaced their census data since I last reviewed the site - they now have the same transcriptions as at findmypast (previously the censuses were provided to Genes Reunited by S&N, owners of The Genealogist)."

"As it is, even for the expensive subs, all that happens is that the member is transferred to another site, because Genes don´t actually hold the records themselves."

That statement is not correct.

Estelle confirmed a few months ago that GR do in fact host the records themselves. It is not the same database as, say, FMP, even though it might have been sourced from there in the first instance. GR records are maintained independently of any other site.

Phil has also intimated the same when he advised that when corrections are sent to GR, the team endeavour to make the same corrections on all the other databases BS manage, and vice versa.

Like Sylvia, I don´t wish to appear cynical, but feel that GR are subtly trying to do away with basic membership & encourage us all to take out the more expensive subs.
They have clearly bitten off more than they can chew since the introduction of records to the site. It was fine when we were all basic members & using other sites for research.
As it is, even for the expensive subs, all that happens is that the member is transferred to another site, because Genes don´t actually hold the records themselves.
A large number of the people who have either left or not renewed were basic members & because of this, the site has lost many helpful & experienced members.
I can´t see any other reason for allowing the site to deteriorate as it has done over the past couple of years.

..................... maybe that is why BS is NOT spending any money on GR?



I'm becoming even more convinced that there is a plot ............. and GR will not be around in, say, 2 years ................. it will either have been shut down, or rolled over into fmp


all of which, of course, is against what the British Competion Board (whatever the correct name is) ordered last year.



One other thing I note, is that most of the people posting on the various threads on this board, and complaining about the poor quality of service, are names that I recognise as being Helpers on the other boards.


The helpers are one of the reasons why GR has the good reputation that they do have, and GR does publicize themselves by saying what good help can be obtained on the Community Boards, provided by their volunteer helpers




but if we are all being driven away in frustration at poor service from GR .......... ????????????????????????????




sylvia