General Chat

Precisely Sylvia - it makes no business sense whatsoever.

Ann ................

I don't deny you might have responses from 2 different people. I've certainly seen other names mentioned on here from a name that I might have.

What I don't think is happening is that there is more than 1 person working at any one time on GR.

Genes Reunited is owned by brightsolid online publishing which is part of the larger Brightsolid stable which in turn is owned by the huge DC Thomson.

Look up financial and company data and available accounts for either of these companies and those under their respective umbrellas and it becomes immediately apparent that in business terms Genes Reunited is but a small, insignificant drop in a vast ocean.

Brightsolid alone has its finger in various online tech pies so employing somebody to keep us from being naughty is probably pretty low priority.

Sylvia, out of interest the last time I contacted support re the error message I had contact from two different people.

David, the fees don't go to a handful of individuals. Look at the "company Information" at the bottom of the page under "Site Links". :-)

Thank you Sylvia, that post was informative and interesting. It is interesting to note that GR members have to pat annual membership fees to use the threads and the trees and more to use some of the search features, these fees going to a handful of individuals who can sell then on. Free speech :-D :-D :-D

David .................

GR is run from the same office as FindMyPast, whose parent company bought GR back in ca 2011 (????).

The sale had to go before the Competition Board, and they were seemingly told that GR had to continued to operate, not closed down.

Since that date, GR has gone down and down, until there was another change some years ago, and GR's operations were moved into the same offices as FMP

We gradually lost all the technical and support help that used to work for GR.

If you look at postings by members who have been in contact with GR, only one name will turn up as having responded to requests for help ............. this is why I think there is only ever 1 person assigned to deal with GR at any one time.

So basically, yes, it is being run by only 1 person ..................... little technical help or support except when there is quite a lot of uproar by the members.

It is back almost to what it was when the site began ................ a place to build your tree and members helping members.

This is despite the fact that there are records available on here if you buy the Platinum membership ........ those records do not belong to GR, but GR got the right to provide access to them. Many can be accessed for free on other sites, eg Freebmd for the bmd index or FamilySearch, some are available for a lower subscription on another site, while many others belong to FMP. There are NO records that are available only on GR, unlike records on every other genealogy site, including FMP.

Intriguing as to how many run the show at GR. Since all the trees, threads and other data since the conception of GR are on record, probably in Cloud, GR could be run from a one roomed office by an individual (?)

You will get a headache trying to work it out logically :-D

David that is correct.

It stands to reason that if the OP goes then the rest of the thread must, otherwise it would be utter nonsense.

That makes it all the more bizarre that certain threads (ie OPs) have been deleted despite being entirely innocuous.

As I understand it to remove an entire thread all that is required if for the first person to post on that thread is to delete his or her post ?

There seems to be only one person at any time "responsible" for GR.

I base this idea on the fact that only one will appear on emails for weeks at a time, then it might change. There never seem to responses from 2 or more people during a the same time period.

If the person responsible only has a certain numbers of hours in a day or week to spend on GR in addition to his/her other duties at FMP, then things will be skipped over. Lots of RR's this morning?? Haven't time to read the whole thread(s), remove it.

We're the poor cousin to FMP, in every way from technical help and support to staff paying attention. The site basically is being left to us, the members ......... and I really do believe that this fits FMP's desire for the future.

GR may survive in its current form if members stay and new ones join ............. but they won't bother providing more staff help.

We may just have to get used to the RR'er, whomever it is and how many there be, running riot every now and again.

I’ll give you an example of one of my reports. Some years ago someone posted a joke about blindness. My eldest who has MS loses her eyesight temporarily, between 1 and 5 days typically.

I was feeling particularly tetchy and didn’t find it in the least bit amusing.

Couldn’t be bothered to contact poster by message so went immediately for the report button and told them so.

We all have our personal nerve points

I don't think anyone has any issue in practice with the report aspect if it's not abused. It's allowed to be abused when they pull a thread/comment that has nothing wrong with it. This has been proven...again....when the same thread was reported twice restored the first time pulled the second when no changes had been made to the thread.....so it shows GR couldn't have read it the second time.

Common sense required and for all us to be adults.....if you don't find a joke funny walk on by if it really is offensive someone on here will challenge the poster themselves.

supercrutch is quite right about how long this particular debate has been raging and I too am stifling a bit of a giggle.

People report posts for many differing reasons - some genuine and some not.

Naming people is completely out of the question for a number of reasons. The person risks, at best, ostracism even if there is a genuine reason for reporting. People would then become more loathe to report leading to some posts remaining when they really should not. There is also, of course, a privacy issue.

The current system whilst not ideal is workable BUT only if reported posts are properly considered and in context, before a decision is made about that individual post or indeed an entire thread.

I always said/say when I report, the member can abuse me all they like. If I had a genuine reason I'll tell them so.

Being mildy irritated by a nameless person unfairly reporting threads or posts is infinitely preferable to being targeted on the boards and off with abusive messages when one was upfront about reporting something even when it was for very genuine reasons.

Who censors the censors ? ;-)

They're obviously reading them before deleting them, but seldom in context.

https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/general_chat/thread/759069

Just to demonstrate how long this debate has been ongoing.



GR will delete any threads which it deems critical of it's performance, that is not new.

We have had threads in the past where countless members expressed their dissatisfaction with their services, particularly thread moderation (I'm trying not to laugh as I type 'moderation').

There will be no resolution.