General Chat

Now this site has new owners...
I was wondering if you was asked by them, what you would do to make this site a better place/site to use, What would be the first thing you would do to make this site better?

Please try to use this thread in a nice constructive way.

News to me too - I thought the proposed sale was abandoned

Mmmm.... me too.... thought it had been referred to the Monopolies commission or something.... if it has been sold it has all been kept very low key.......

Love

Daff xxx

ITV has been given the provisional go ahead for its £25 million sale of Friends Reunited to Brightsolid Group after monopoly concerns were dismissed.

Last November, the Office of Fair Trading asked the Competition Commission to investigate the proposed sale over fears that it would create an overly dominant player in the online genealogy market.

Friends Reunited and Brightsolid - which owns the websites Findmypast.com and 1911census.com - are two of three biggest online genealogy providers in the UK.

However, the Commission said that the tie-up poses "no threat to customers of online genealogy services" because there is limited overlap between Brightsolid and Friends Reunited. It also noted that market leader Ancestry.co.uk will still provide strong competition for the two firms.

"We found that while there is a degree of overlap in the activities of the two companies, it is small and their business models are different, and in the absence of the merger would be likely to remain so," said inquiry chair Laura Carstensen.

"After the merger another website, Ancestry.co.uk, will remain the largest supplier in this market and its presence, along with potential entry by new suppliers and the alternatives provided by free sites, will ensure that the merged company faces strong competition - preventing it from raising prices or worsening the service it provides.

"In fact, the merger could potentially benefit amateur family historians as the merged company will be better equipped to compete directly with Ancestry.co.uk, leading to more innovation and improvements in the market."

The commission's ruling also noted that around 2m people access genealogy sites each month, which is considerably more than the traffic to the National Archives service.

ITV paid £120m in 2005 to acquire Friends Reunited, along with its sister site Genes Reunited, but it confirmed the cut-price sale last August.

The Competition Commission intends to publish its final report on the sale by April 16, but will continue to accept any comments on the provisional finding until March 11.






So back to the question
What would you do if asked, to make this site a better site?
What would you like to changed or added to the site to make it friendlyer and better for what the site is ment to be?

Ahhhhhh.....I must have been far too busy enjoying myself and missed that little snippet.

So, where was it reported? Not as part of the main news feeds... probably some obscure little media site.

As I said.... they kept that a low profile.....

And I like it as it is. And... define exactly what the site is meant to be????

Why does everyone always want to change things?

I don't deal with change very easily these days... it takes me too long to re-learn how to use things.

I like it just how it is... with very few exceptions, and they are not printable, nor friendly.

They are fiddling with the site as I type..... I can always tell... I can't see my reply box, it just disappeared on me.

THAT is down to fiddling around with what wasn't broke!!

Bah Humbug.

Love

Daff xxx

Well, if ever they ask me - I'll tell them ..........................

Oh.... and let's split a few hairs here.... it is still provisional.... final details have not yet been settled, and there is still time for the apple cart to be overturned... by the looks of it.... so not a fait accompli yet, then.

Still don't want to change anything much

Love

Daff xxx

Daff, just as an aside, are you using Internet Explorer 8? If so, THAT is the problem with the reply box, not the site.

Look at your address bar at the top, there will be three buttons, one with a red X, one with the two green arrows to refresh your screen, and a third looking like a sheet of paper torn in half. Hover your cursor over it and the word 'compatibility' should appear. Press that.

That's all there is to it....you reply box should be back to normal...and it is sooooo annoying isn't it.

McAnne's Gahan-Crazy and Daff thank you for your input it's been noted.

mmm change,

well emoticons on the chat boards woudn't go amiss at times.

May be some of the boards giving a wider range as in trying to find having counties and countries aswell as just surnames. Nothing worse than trawling thro 100's of threads having to check all threads just to find that they are wrong county or even country. But thats just me.

Hi UZZI
You make a couple of good points there. Thank you

Incidently ..

Brightsolid plans to merge Genes Reunited, a fast-growing part of the Friends business, with its family history sites, Find My Past and 1911 Census.

The Commission found that the merger could actually lead to increased competition by providing a larger rival to market leader Ancestry.co.uk.


In a rare intervention, the National Archives lent its support to the merger, as a way to provide a stronger UK competitor to Ancestry, which is based in the US.

The Competion Commision meets on 16th April with their decision.

I think we are going to be finding a lot of changes mainly in the costings !

While i agree with some of what you say, All i was asking on this thread was what members on here would do to make the site better if they was given the chance to do so. i.e.
would they add something this site does not have at the moment?
would they change or tweek something it does have?
would they maybe perhaps like to see a fairer treatment of it's members,
anything they would like to see or do with the site that might make it a better site then it is. Im not saying it's not a nice site, just would like to know what other members would do in the view of other members to make the site better in other members views. Thats all.

Regards
5EXY

1,name change take 24 hrs to impimpliment
2,show who is online
3,no trees with only one or two names

Hi all

Me I would whack the price up to stop multiple accounts. That way you know who is who.

DL

What would be a good idea is to give users the option to make their tree public to view to all members, (like Ancestry). making sure all living relatives are hidden. This would stop wasted messages and the frustration of non replies.

Also the block user option(again like Ancestry) to stop people sending you messages


DL

I don't think I'd bother changing anything now. I use Ancestry for my trees these days.

And I was answering you, 5EXY, that is all..... and mirroring your tone.

Not nice, was it?

Darklord... I think you have a very good point there.... hadn't thought of that... and you too, Dizzi... if name changes had to be agreed to by admin, as on other sites I belong to, there would be greatly reduced problems.

And agree with the emoticoms to an extent, but I do find sites where loads of pics, emotes etc are used, very distracting, and I often lose the text in the images.

Love

Daff xxx

Have to agree with Uggers. I now use Ancestry for my tree(although my old one is still here), I find their site more user friendly.

DL

It is isn't it, Darklord?

I hadn't really thought in terms of for the chat boards - it can't be that difficult to force people to only have one account - at least two sites I use regularly only permit you one account from one IP (if that's the right letters:)) address. Although I have two accounts on here cos I have two trees:)