General Chat

Steve Thanks for replying in person. It's so much nicer to know I am talking to a 'real' person. Perhaps this could become a regular thing. Firstly may I say that I think the new name is pants! It doesn't make sense. But I expect you've spent so much money on the rebranding that you won't be changing it back! lol Secondly, I think there are 2 main reasons there has been such a furore. 1. The short space of time from us being notified that the name was changing to the dead being done. 2. The worry that the new name and the wording on the home page will encourage more 'trying to finds' to use the site and that genealogy will become less important. As your posting on here has been so popular, perhaps you could let us know of any changes to be made in the future - with plenty of notice obviously! And maybe you would condider starting a separate site if the TTF's become an issue. Have a good weekend Jeanette

Steve, Thank you for having the initiative to start this site, we do appreciate how much thought and work goes into it by all of you. And thank you for this thread, it is good to see someone is willing to go 'face to face' (so to speak) with the customers. The site is great, I am a member of both Friends Reunited and this one, on the first i did find old school friends with whom i am still in touch, and on this one I have found relatives of my husband we didn't know existed, plus a great deal of help from other members. I don't really have a problem with you changing the name because to me, and those of us who are long term members, it will always be GC. I do have a bit of a problem that the two sites are becoming blurred in their image and we already have people on the success board cheering at finding school friends. However, if they have paid you their subs for this site I don't really have too much of a problem, but, am I right in thinking that they have free access to part of this site? It is not with the members already on site that there will be a problem but with new ones who join purely to make contact with living people and who will have no interest in genealogy at all and therefore no input into the tips and Record Book boards which is what a lot of us are interested in. I also find the chat boards on FR a bit juvenile as they tend to be used mostly by very young school leavers while this site has/had a more balanced clientel of young and older members which seems to work. (Yes I am one of the older ones I admit!) I don't intend to leave GC because i like it and I like the people on here. But I will join other genealogical sites because choice is a good thing, and I am sure they are not meant to be set up to take your customers away but to compliment your site. Thanks again for your interest. By the way, I have had all my e mails to support answered, but the replies do tend to mostly be duplicate ones and not always satisfactory Ann Glos

Thank you for taking the time to give us an explanation. I am one who does not like the name change - however I love this site. I joined a year ago knowing absolutely nothing about Family History or Genealogy but with the help of the members on here I am learning all the time - no matter what question you ask someone will find you an answer, or as with the General Board be there in time of need or just to give you a giggle. It is your site and you can call it what you like - what I don't like is the fact that no-one who is presently using the site seems to have been asked when you say you did a survey. Surely you must have known the furore an overnight message and change of name was going to cause with the regulars from past experiences with changes. I have been contacted by someone who is related to my husband and has not seen any of her family for over 50yrs - a reunion is planned for August. That to us was a bonus but it was not what I joined the site for and I'm concerned that it will be confused by folk who just want to find a lost mother, father, auntie or whatever. Perhaps a new site especially for Familyreunited? Moan over - I've just renewed my sub and still think that other sites don't offer us anywhere near what this one does. Sue - getting it off her chest in Sussex. ~:0)

Hi Steve What is in a name?? I think people were just annoyed at the little notice or input they were allowed to put it. I, for one, love this site. I have met lots of 'new' rellies through here, some of which I probably would have never have met if it hadn't been for GC/GR, and I have you and your team to thank for that. THANK YOU! This site is well worth the £7.50. Sites like Ancestry, 1837 etc... they are all far too expensive and are in it plainly for the money, especially for a poor student like myself. The boards on this site have enabled me to get a lot of help, something that other sites do not offer to such an extent. Most sites are for the US, this site is predominantly full of UK people, with Uk resources which is very refreshing. Anyway, keep up the good work (to both you and your team). Chloe

Stevs, Thank you for the information you have given us. I have joined the new site but will also be staying with G C. It dosn't hurt to have a bit of competition. Julia

Have been watching this from the sidelines, and have to admit to being a little surprised at the way the name change was done, but........... have recently been reunited with some of my genes from afar - the grandchildren of the youngest brother of my grandmother's father to be precise(!) - and what a wonderful experience it was!! Spent three hours chatting, and exchanging old family photos where the family resemblence was amazing. One of the ladies I met could have been a sister to my great aunt - meeting her was very moving - quite brought my much loved great aunt back to life!! So....... connected or reunited - does it really matter as long as we find them?? Thanks genes - have found at least two living relatives thanks to this site and hope to find many more!! Keep up the good work - but maybe keep us a bit better informed and then maybe we'll all be happy!!!

.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:. I have to agree.The problem with the name change is it doesn't reflect what the site does. I want to connect them together not to reunite them together in one big party (Its a bit different when most of mine go back to early 1800 or I could get in Derek Acorah!). Its also frustraiting you have added the GC success stories with friends reunited ones for the hobby we follow there is a big difference in reading about a person who has found their whole family after many years of seperation than a person who hasnt seen their friend for a few years.I agree this site is fantastic and well worth the money we pay,but just to ask how many of the questionaires were filled in by GC members? If you realised the passion, thought and time members put into this site maybe you wouldn't be so shocked. Thank you for your time it is nice you came face to face with us hoarding crowds!! I suppose we have to agree to disagree some of us will still refer to it as GC as it has been for a couple of years! Jan x

Thanks Steve for a wonderfull site i have found members of my family and have had so much help from other people on site ,its nice to know that there are still lots of lovely people in the world that are out there to help one another. P.S. Have been in oz for a couple of months and only just found out you changed the name.

Fabulous site Steve, through which I have "Reunited " with at least 20 living relatives, who are as engrossed in this fascinating hobby as I am. They must have banned winging at the bowls club. John in Sydney

Well done Steve for having the unmentionables to come on here and face up to your user base. Haven't had the chance to see everything that's been said but this is more like it. Rick.

Dear Steve Firstly thank you for taking the time to reply to our messages, the personal touch goes a long way. When I first joined a little over a year ago, mainly to see if I could connect with other family members, ones I have never met and probably never will, not that I don’t want too just that I would probably never find the time and too many miles apart. As I had already started my family research a few years ago I had a lot of information on family members so didn’t think it would help me much, the Records Board had not started then, but I was wrong I am glad to say. With the help of fellow researchers I have found more, one or two I never though I would find as I had been looking for 3 or more years, so it’s nice to be proved wrong. I have enjoyed reading all the messages, very entertaining, and the pleas for help well you can’t just ignore them can you. I have had just as much fun helping others as doing my own research. Some names that no longer help on this site I miss; they gave a lot of useful tips (we never know it all). In all a Brilliant site, but I still can’t get my head round to thinking of it as Genes reunite as we never will, connect yes we can. Thank you for starting this site, its just what the UK needed one of our own for our own. Irene

I am not bothered about a name, its the site itself that matters. What has changed though is how I feel about the site. The new name may prove to be a better name at attracting new members which should be a good thing, however the introduction and implementation of this name change was handled appalingly. Three things struck me when I saw the original message: Firstly, Corporate Branding which is appearing to turn what feels like a friendly club into a corporation; Secondly a lame justification for the Branding change. I had never heard anyone call it GR before, however I can believe that non users may refer to it as that, especially if they use FR or are more interested in re-unions rather than genealogy. Thirdly: What market is the site targetting? Is it genealogy or reunions? For the moment I will still use the site as it is still one of the best around. I especially appreciate the direct contributions to this discussion from the founder who evidently cares about the site, however as the site becomes less focussed on genealogy and more on reunions then the chances of me renewing my subscription diminish.

dear steve to be honest there is a lot in a name names are important BUT what ever this site is called genes connected or genes reunited either one will be appropiate people connect with their past or reunite with family members many thanks for a great site tina xxx

Thankyou Steve for taking the time and trouble to post this thread. GC/GR always has had the dual purpose of ancestral research and reuniting 'lost' family members. I first discovered the site via FriendsReunited and saw it as a great opportunity to find cousins who I had not seen for years. I therefore entered all the names of known family members with as many details (birth dates, places etc) as I could. It wasn't until much later that I started looking into my ancestry - when I discovered the message boards were full of very enthusiastic and friendly people using the site for that purpose. At the time I was confused as I had assumed that the site was for Reuniting families. There is one problem that keeps arising from this dual purpose - below is a quote from the Terms and Conditions; "Important: Members must have, and continue to have, the express permission of any living person to include their details in a family tree. If a Member is asked to do so, relevant details must be removed. Members are the controllers of the information they input relating to living persons, and therefore have obligations under the privacy and data protection laws (such as the Data Protection Act 1998). Genes Reunited may remove all or part of a family tree if so required." If you are using it for Reuniting purposes, the easiest and most effective way of achieving your aim is to include the name of the person you are looking for in your tree! This is because almost any visitor to the site will search for their name first. If their name is there, they are likely to want to contact the person who posted it!! I have fallen foul of this dual purpose myself - as one person I wanted to make a connection with took offence to their name being posted, quoting the above terms and conditions and it caused a MAJOR family upset. PLEASE can you make the NEW site less ambiguous about its purpose. How you achieve this I do not know - maybe split it into distinct sections^%^&?? GC/GR is possibly the BEST site for GENEALOGY, it would be a shame to spoil it by making its purpose even more AMBIGUOUS. That summarises the problem that I have with the name change. All the best Russell

Steve - I think the thing which annoys me most of all about the way in which GC has gone about the change is the lack of consultation. If you have a million members, you can do good market research. Better still you could have run a poll on the website and found out what your paying users _really_ thought about the idea. Quote from the GC "about us" page > "Our ethos > We ask our members what they think of an idea before we go ahead with it." I think you have a slight credibility issue on your hands here. Most (if any) of the regular board users weren't asked - we just got the jolly posting telling us of a change which occurred within 12 hours. Not good customer relations. Jools

Thanks for your thoughts Steve and for the personal interest. The site was a great idea and without it I would never have got nearly as far with my research as I have. A name change DOES have ramifications for members though. For a start my computer directories and files may include "Genes Connected". The machine is not going to be able to recognise "Genes Reunited" without me re-naming the directories. Same goes for physical file: rename or keep as GC? On a pedantic note I believe that you can connect trees, you cannot reunite genes without commiting incest. The FR/GC differention emphasised the basic differences between the sites: FR for a bit of fun and interest in contacting old schoolmates/workmates etc. GC for serious research which will be passed down for generations to come. Overlapping the titles reduces that differentation and encourages a mish-mash. Maintaining that separation emphasised by different titles and style helps to focus contributors on the purpose of the individual sites. To be honest, the General Topics and Chat boards would be just as at home on FR as on GC (or even on a completely different site) and the really useful parts of GC are the search facility (which is totally dependent on other members creating and maintaining their trees), the Tips and Records Office boards (which are dependent on the goodwill of members as a body). So yes: what's in a name? A name is an image. Tescos and Sainsburys are both supermarkets, but the names conjure up different images. It's that image and therefore the type of customer which is attractes which is in danger of being lost here.

Janet Re: sample size for a survey Opinion polls are usually conducted on no more than about 2,000 interviews - 0.005% of the electorate - and claim to get +/- 3% on the results, I believe (providing the sample is representative) which is quite accurate enough for most purposes. If this is true, taking a 5% sample would increase the precision of the polling to much less than 1% which, to me at least, seems like overkill.

Genesconnected is the first site I have ever joined. Everyone has been very helpful and my tree is growing thanks to research and advice given to me by many members. I have joined another site , but will continue my membership with GC. I like the site and I like the people. Karen : )

"A rose is a rose, is rose!" As one of the first members of Friends Reunited I was delighted when Genes Connected came along. One of my happiest moments was when I was REUNiTED with a cousin whom I had not seen for 40 years! I was not even looking for him at the time - it happened because I was trying to CONNECT to other family members. Thanks for the posting - I would be shocked too! No matter how hard one tries one cannot please all the people all the time. "Ancestry' has never asked ME when they wanted to change their board - and I wouldn't expect them to - after all - they started it and they do the work. I have never had problems with access or slowness - maybe the problem is the UK servers - mine's fine, thank you! Keep up the good work - I still need to find my relations - which hardly ever appear except on a UK site (on all the others the US predominates - so I will be here a while!

Secetary Bird I cant quite understand why you paid two subs. You can have your tree on here without paying, but you cannot post any messages. But you having two trees you only needed to pay for one cause you dont need 2 to use the message boards.