General Chat

Hi. Over the weekend I was chatting to my brother, and amongst other things I mentioned GR. I said it's a good site, and there are lovely people on there, to which he replied that he and other friends had looked on GR with a view to becoming members, only to see arguments and vicious stuff going on. Needless to say, they didn't join. Since then, he's been told by others that it's like that a lot of the time. So it now appears that this site has a bad reputation.

I don't know if GR themselves are interested, but I think they need to look hard at things here. I wonder how many potential members have been put off.
x

By the way, I'm off in a minute, so am not staying for long this morning. "See" you later.
x

I already know this, which is a shame.

pnp

Now that is a puzzle to me Glenys.

Surely first and foremost this is a genealogy site and I would assume that anyone who joins does so for that purpose.

Surely if you wanted to just chat you would find a site more suitable and not so expensive.

There is no obligation to take part on any board unless you want to.

Jean x.

Edited to say if I was not still doing my family tree I would not renew my membership to this site. The General and Chat Boards are just incidental to the site as a whole.

my brother was a member ..5 years ago ..he told me then there was trouble among some.. he deleted himself 2 years ago...i watched the boards for awhile seen quite a lot of unkind words said ...

I can well believe it,with some deliberately setting out to ruin the reputation of GR. But the staff are as much to blame as they won't ban members IP...which other forums are able to do so.

It's a shame but as much as a minority of members spoiling the site, ITV have done it themselves too.

Remember the banner ad fiasco last year when there were malicious auto downloads coming off some banner ads, and how GR denied it? It was complicated, but the auto download worked through certain IP addresses, and GR's own was immune, so they could not replicate the problem. We all got emails saying it was us, and we were using the wrong browser or something wrong with our systems.

Eventually, they did realise it was them and got it sorted out, but a qualified tech team would have know this anyway, which tells me a lot.

Anyway, my point is, I have seen a couple of forums recently talking about those very problems on here, and how it has put off a few members from joining.

So it's not JUST the arguments on here, which go on other forums too, sometimes more visciously than anything we ever see on here...but the poor management of a cheap, outdated system and lousy support.

I was just about to say something along the same lines Jean
I joined to do my tree
I still do it
But it took me a long time to use the boards
The help given with your tree on this site is fantastic,the people willing to help do so in their own time
I dont see as these boards ,Chat and Gen ,have any bearing on the reason for people joining this site .
It has thousands of members,only a small portion use the boards
As a helpful genealogy site,it is very good

Edit.
As a pc illiterate,I cant comment on the tech side of GR

I joined for the genealogy.........then stumbled onto the tips and records boards long before I came anywhere near chat and General boards......I doubt I'd pay my subs just for the chat aspect alone tbh...and...although I don't keep my tree on here I DO still use this site to find my own hotmatches.......and very successfully too !!!

I don't know of one site where there isn't arguing and politics involved somewhere..........and GR at it's worst is tame compared to some I've seen.......

I'm surprised that arguments on the chat boards would stop a budding genealogist from joining though .......... because the tips and records boards are second to none and there's very little of that going on there.......and it's generally the first stop for newbies board wise xx

I agree Muffy
I had a lot of help and advice from very friendly people there
Never came near Chat and Gen boards

Great site worth evey penny.

catchthecat Today at 10:15 Request review
I always thought you actually had to join before you could access the boards, so how come people could read the boards before deciding to become members?

I didn't think they could either..............maybe non paying members can.

Anyway if that is the case it wouldn't put me off joining to help with my tree, I would just avoid the boards where I saw trouble brewing.

you can read the boards without being signed in as a member, but you can't post.xx

I joined to do research and build my tree, for myself and cousins, etc who wanted to know who our ancestors may have been. I have made some wondeful connections that way thru GR. Have solved many mysteries, tho not all, and satisfied my own 'need to know', which is ongoing!

The boards for Gen and Chat have always been secondary to that, and I think that anyone genuinely interested in genealogy would feel the same.

Having said that, I had a great night, last night, on Grumpy Granny's thread, re. China (not the country) and if Mo is still reading, I got totally sloshed on all that brandy going around and fell off my chair, which is why I suddenly disappeared!

Meri

Thanks Rose..............I tried logging out, but it wouldn't let me do anything without signing in again.

I couldn't read the boards when I wasn't a member.....had to join again.....then pay to be able to post or PM

Kitty,If you sign out and then go to where it says "site map" under where to sign up...it will take you to the boards, click and read :))

Hello again; just read through everyone's posts, and agree with everyone.

When I was talking to bro., he'd been thinking of joining primarily for genealogy, he'd also mentioned this hobby to his friends, hence them looking on here too.

It's when they saw the boards and saw some of the stuff that went on on here, that they were put off.

Which is a shame, because as I said, there are some lovely - and helpful - members on here. Oh well.
x

Meri
serves you right for nicking our brandy
lol

Oh thats a pity. He should not be put off.
I hope he realised that the same names spring up usually when there is trouble. Well a few anyway.
Maybe he should look in again while...things are quiet.

Marion

Good idea, Marion. I'll suggest that to him.
x