General Chat

Frank, I didn't read it that IGP was calling your post negative (he'll be able to confirm or deny it himself) just that there were some negative posts (which I agree with). I'm not saying that people can't voice their opinion but I was quite shocked in the way that it was done in some instances.

The fact that people posted a lot of Scottish lookups was partly because it was deliberately encouraged by people posting on the boards. Also some people who were quite critical of the board were using it to look up these records too (which of course is their right).

I think there was a concerted effort by some to try and shut the boards down in it's current format.

Well, the help clinic page is still here -

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/help_clinic/

and people that have already posted in it can do again but one can no longer ask questions. I really hope that the volunteers will be allowed the free access that they had been granted to certain sites because it was not their fault that the clinic closed.

I was vocal about the introduction of the Advisors not through any disrespect to the volunteers but because in my opinion it created a hierarchy amongst the volunteers

The criteria for selecting the volunteers was flawed also especially were you had to have more than 100 people in your tree. There was no mention of it being proven and as the majority of trees are unproven and in some cases entire works of fiction this was no guarantee that the Advisors were good at what they do.

I also objected to the email advertising their expert star advisors which I found to be an insult to all the volunteers who have selflessly helped other members over years. In my opinion the efforts of these helpers were devalued. The Advisors were no more qualified than anyone else.

Also the advisors were restricted in were they could look for information by only being allowed to use Brightsolid sites. A lot of obscure information is found on other sites for example familysearch.

I think there is scope for improvements by sorting out the boards. Chat and General could be merged. History could be renamed social history for anyone wanting to know more about the living conditions of their ancestors. Surname could be merged with Trying to Find. Tips should be only for tips on how to find the information. Joneseys tips should be stickied to the top of the page. Any requests that are put on the wrong board should be moved to the correct board

Genes Reunited should learn to communicate with it paying customers on it's own site. I should not have to find out about changes from facebook. This is also an insult to every member on this site.