General Chat

I would like to offer my sincere apologies to any members whose emails I haven't answered. I didn't know about them turning up in 'Your Contacts' until I read it on the Tips Board and one kind memeber, Kat, was kind enough to email me direct and explain in very simple terms. (yes I did get it!) I was absolutely horrified when I discovered what was in there as I always try to email a response to any member. I haven't been in my Contacts since the day I joined so I have spent a long afternoon spring cleaning. Once again my apologies if I have offended anybody. Jeanette

jeanette i am so glad you posted this i didnt know about it either and just found a lovely letter of james ive now emailed him god i feel awfull i will make sure i check them from now on so i too must apologise to anyone else i have not repled to. tina xx

Don't we get an email via GC anymore when someone contacts us then? Confused Dierdre X

I've told this story before but it happened to me with one of my first ever contacts. A whole month went by before I happened to just click 'Your Contacts' by accident and suddenly found a message from someone, which never reached my e-mail inbox. I replied back and discovered that we're related (his daughter and I are third cousins) and we met up in the summer. So all's well that ends well. However, it is annoying that this is a problem that GC don't seem to have eliminated.

Hi Jeanette. Thank you so much for shedding light on this as I was completely in ther dark. Because of your informative message, I checked "your (or rather my) contacts" out and found 6 messages sent to me dating back to September! I have just been sending messages of apologies to these lovely people as I felt very bad for not having responded earlier. Many thanks again. Jackie x

I too must apologise, i have just looked in my contacts to find a number of unanswered e-mails. Thank you fro pointing this out. Eileen in Portsmouth

This is a problem that GC won't admit is there fault. When I complained to them they said it was a problem with my inbox. Not so. Try complaining directly to them. Margaret

Hi all I didn't know messages turned up in contacts either. Previously they have always arrived direct on my email address. Just to embarrass - can everyone please note this public thank you to Jeanette for the fantastic amount of help she has given me. It has provided a deluge of information, hence my being off site for some while [including a two week holiday] trying to get me gedcom up to date. Will now spend a lot of time updating my genes site. Best Wishes Badger Bill, Worthing

Jeanette, It does seem odd you are missing ALL contact emails. Go to Edit/View your details and check your email address is correct. Crista

Crista I haven't missed all contacts thankfully. Most have appeared in my inbox. Some have appeared in both my inbox and in my Contacts. And a few have gone to my Contacts only. Very bizarre! It's these last few I was worried about. As I said, I do like to reply to all contacts. I wouldn't want people thinking I didn't have any manners. Bill It's been a pleasure to help such a lovely gentleman. Any time. Jeanette:-)

To all I have put the following suggestion on the similar 'Tips Board' thread too, in the hope that it helps! CHECK YOUR TRASH FOLDER REGULARY, BEFORE YOU SHUT DOWN YOUR E-MAIL PROGRAMME (JUST THE 'SUBJECT' HEADINGS - DON'T OPEN THE JUNK!!) FOR "CONTACT FROM GENESCONNECTED" OR "FAMILY HISTORY" (for eg) SUBJECT HEADED E-MAILS. The problem MAY be that you (or someone that shares you computer) have set up a filter, to filter-out junk mail from people that unfortunately share the same service provider as those people that you DO want to hear from. (And/OR filters have been set up on the computers of those you want to contact) So the address of some of the people, that send you contact e-mails thru genesconnected, may be similar enough to the addresses of 'junk senders', for the e-mails to be filtered-out into your trash. (OR YOUR contact e-mails may go into THEIR trash if they have set up certain filters) So I would suggest always checking your trash carefully - a pain I know, to have to read thru all the junk TITLES, (just read the TITLES that is, DON'T OPEN THE JUNK MAILS!) but I found an initial 'contact from genesconnected' e-mail had gone astray into my trash this way. And I nearly lost some of his follow-on e-mails, that were sent in the usual way, that also ended up in the trash for the same reason, until I realised what was happening. In this instance it was from a contact who had an 'at' btinternet(.)com address (with his name in front of it). But I fortunately just caught it in time, as I try to remember to check the trash folder before it all deletes when I close down my e-mail programme. Funnily enough, my reply e-mail to the same contact, had gone into his trash too but he just caught it too! I then looked at the filters & found that a different 'at' btinternet(.)com address had been sending junk mail. So then you will need to change your filters (in the 'Tools' section of Eudora for eg or whatever your e-mail programme is) Hope this makes sense & this works for you. Anna

I dont understand why G.C. feel that they have to 'control' the contact system so much. Why can't they use the system that was in use on Friends Reunited where they send an email to you directly and you can then correspond with the contact using your own email. I suspect that there are possibly hundreds of members who do not look at their 'Contacts page' because they do not realise that is how the system works.

To summarise: 1. Check your FILTERS to make sure they are 100% SPECIFIC & not overly general. (Go to 'Tools' then 'Filters' in your e-mail programme such as Eudora) Eg. a general "'at'-common-service-provider(.)com" filter, into the trash folder, may filter a lot of junk addresses into your trash folder, but it may also filter out people you DO want to hear from, who just happen to use the same service provider as the junk sender, so the e-mail from your "cousin-you-are-trying-to-find-'at'-common-service-provider(.)com" ends up in the trash folder instead of the 'in tray'. 2. Therefore also check the SUBJECT HEADINGS of e-mails in your TRASH FOLDER (but don't open junk!) for "Contact from GenesConnected - (From 'named cousin' concerning someone in your Tree - 'named ancestor')". This e-mail (via GC) automatically shows 'named cousin' 's e-mail address & their 1st message enabling you to reply directly to the 'cousin' sender in the normal way if you wish. A copy of this 1st message from the cousin sender also thankfully automatically shows up in the very useful 'Your Contacts' facility (where it cannot be lost) but their e-mail address will not appear in the 'Your Contacts' facility. If you can catch a GC initial contact e-mail (from a cousin say) that has filtered into your trash folder, you can reply to them directly, as you will have their e-mail address. But when your new found cousin then naturally e-mails his 'follow-on reply' directly to your e-mail address, if the 'overly general filter' intended to filter out junk, is still in place on your e-mail programme, then his reply e-mail will also end up in your trash folder. Hope this helps & makes sense! Anna

For AOL Users. If overly general 'blocks' to, for eg, " 'at'common-service-provider(.)com" address are the problem for AOL users, then here is how to remove these overly general 'blocks': I spoke to another AOL user. They said: 1. sign on to AOL 2. click on 'e-mail' (top left hand corner just below 'file') 3. click on 'set it up now' 4. click on e-mail address you want to edit 5. then you can remove any overly general blockage addresses you/partner/whoever have set up (or change the 'block' address to a 100% specific address to stop the junk getting thru.) I understand in AOL, e-mail addresses you block, will just bounce back to the sender rather than going into a trash folder, so the sender may give up on you?, or have to try to contact you thru a message board instead? Latest news on this point! - 2 days later!..... - I just replied to an initial GC contact via their e-mail address (not AOL) & my reply bounced back to me! - so I went to the 'Your Contacts' section on GC & was able to reply to him that way! Hope I've got this right! It's worth a try I guess? Apologies in advance if this is no help either! You could also try contacting AOL direct if you still have problems? They may be able to explain better than I can! Anna

I'm adding this, to this Guest Book thread, as well as the thread on the Tips Board, as it appears people are still having problems! It appears AOL users can 'BLOCK' e-mail addresses of their choice (so they are bounced BACK to the sender? in AOL's case?) in the same way that those with Eudora (or Outlook Express or similar?) e-mail programmes can 'FILTER' e-mail addresses into their TRASH folder. In both these cases, if the addreses you (or whoever shares your computer) SPECIFY, are not 100% SPECIFIC, you could lOOSE e-mail from people you DO want to hear from (whilst you, or whoever are trying to get rid of JUNK e-mail) You could try contacting AOL (or whoever) direct if you still have problems. Hope this helps & makes things clearer?! (it's a tricky one to explain!) Anna p.s. I'm not shouting, just trying to aid communication, & help - there is no 'enbolden text' facility here! So please don't anyone take it the wrong way ;-)

Anna Have replied to you on the tips board. I know how to sort my mail on AOL. I have nothing blocked so nothing can bounce back Margaret

Hi Margaret! It's great that everyone puts their thoughts on this thread so that maybe one day we can get to the bottom of the problem! I'm so sorry, I can't currently think of any other reason why there is still the problem. MAYBE THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE OUT THERE THAT CAN SHED SOME LIGHT?! PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN! THANK YOU LOTS! I Imagine everyone has already asked GC support about it (& AOL? or whoever they are with? could their service providers own spam filters be at fault? I don't know) I'm so sorry I can't help. Best wishes for finding a solution Anna

Each time we logon we get a message on the home page "134 surnames from your tree have been added .......". Would it not be possible to add to this: "You have X new contacts - check Your Contents Page" This would help to prompt people to check contacts and might stop messages getting missed. (I personally like the contacts page - since I use GC from work at lunchtime and home in the evening and have different email addresses in the 2 locations). Ann

Looking at replies on the thread on the Tips Board (entitiled 'GC contact emails') such as: "I have been having trouble replying to people who have AOL as their ISP for weeks, getting a message back from AOL which basically says that the address I am trying to contact has been black-balled because it is being used to send spam. This has also happened at work in instances which are not GC related." makes me think that maybe AOL's own spam filters (which are only within AOL's control) are at fault? I'm sorry I don't know for sure - just a guess! Or the people you are trying to send e-mails to, are spam senders? But perhaps any AOL users out there could e-mail AOL about that point to find out? Anna ps Yes I agreee the 'Your Contacts' page is very useful & an update about new contacts on the home page, as you say Ann, would be very useful. It would be great if GC could implement that - I have no idea how easy or difficult it would be for them to do that tho!