Find Ancestors

It is moan time AGAIN. I currently have a thread offering lookups on Ancestry,but It seems that people who post requests for help are just not ackowledging that they have checked back for results. There are results waiting for a response FIVE days after I have posted results I have even sent PMs but still no acknowledgment that they have been seen. In my opinion this sort of behaviour is downright rude,the least these people could do is acknowledge that they have seen the results that have been posted,even if the result was negative. So PLEASE if you have posted a request for a look up ,check back on the thread and give an indication that you have seen the result. I am sure that I am not the only person offering lookups that this happens to. Mary

I, so agree.......we need some thing like the nudge just to show we have looked and checked it Prehaps it should be CHECKED or C Its hard work looking if you are being ignored

I know it's annoying, especially when you ask a question that goes ignored because they've not checked back. Like you'll just get on and do it all for them. Perhaps you should just leave a message that they have to PM you for the result? Liz

I hope you don't mind if I make a few comments that I hope you'll find constructive. I absolutely agree that if someone asks you to do a look up, they should always say please and thank you and if your hard work seems to have gone unappreciated, then you have every right to be miffed, but do bear in mind that sometimes an absence of response may be because of equipment/service failure or simple ignorance (in the strictest sense of the word). Computers have been known to terminally crash; internet services can be interrupted; users may be new to using the message boards and may take a while to get used to how they work. I've been a GR user for several years and consider myself to be pretty computer literate, but I have to say that I have only just discovered the message boards and some of you are using terminology that I don't understand. What is a 'nudge' and what is a 'PM'? I've just checked the Message Boards Help page and while there are lots of 'Don'ts', there are no helpful 'Do's'. What may seem obvious and straightforward to one person may not occur to someone else, so you could help those of us who are hard-of-understanding by stating exactly how you will let them know what you've found and what they need to do to acknowledge they've seen it. Please don't stop offering help because of a few thoughtless people who have no manners; the next person you help might just have been waiting years for what you're about to tell them! Best wishes, Marian

This is a nudge --bringing it to the first page by replying. PM--=is personal mail--sending someone a reply by clicking on their name, Hope that`s clear, Ros

Mary, you've been helping people for ages, so obviously this issue is becoming more of a problem recently. I suggest that on your title message of your thread you add some comment on acknowledgement. Such as, please acknowledge within a week/fortnight/whatever. No matter what the crisis is - except, death, illness or injury, people should be able to get hold of a computer somewhere to acknowledge. One lady who had a heart attack acknowledged my help within a fortnight. It can be done. Ozi.

Hi Mary, Thats a difficult question, apart from as already mentioned, computer crashing,going on holiday, all sorts of reasons for not replying and acknowledging. You have been doing look-ups for people for ages, I think the adverts on the t.v. give the impression, that all people have to do is ask for a look-up, totally unaware,that it is the members themselves that volunteer this info and not GR. Perhaps you could put in the title, WHERE HAVE YOU LOOKED? Then surely they should reply again, hoping that then you might have some info for them. Keep up the good work Mary,please dont get downhearted, the good surely outweigh the ill mannered ones. Trish xx

Morning people, this deserves a nudge. Trish xx

I don't think these kind of thread need a nudge. But if someone hasn't come back you have the choice to delete Julie

Thanks to all who have posted on this thread,there is certainly food for thought in some of the replies,BUT it still does not sort the problem with people not replying when I know for a fact that they are still in the boards and asking for help for other lookups when they have not acknowledged your reply. Yesterday following my post of this thread I had a PM from one person who said he had posted a request on 18 May and I had not replied,when I checked I had posted the reply the same day but he claimed not to have seen it.I replied in a PM saying the reply had been posted the same day,but so far I have heard nothing from him.I await a reply and hopefully an apology!!! I will not stop doing look ups ,but have to admit my 'black list' is growing daily!! Mary

its even more annoying when you spend alot of time looking and they dont acknowledge it and just del the thread...

Most of you know how I feel about this - as I too get no thanks or no response whatsoever and threads deleted after spending a lot of time and effort looking up information for people. My ideal solution would be a locked message at the top of each board with rules/tips/suggestions for new posters. So they are encouraged to read that before posting - it tells them how to post, how to reply to a post, how please and thank you cost nothing, and general tips of what sites are free to look at yourself for information, how Google is a wonderful thing and stuff like that. It would help things a lot. But then with some people I've helped out - I doubt they would bother to read something like that anyway! *sigh*

Alexandra's suggestion of a locked post is a really good one. I for one would find it really useful. There are obviously some people who take advantage of those who offer to do look-ups and they should be ashamed of themselves; it happens in all areas and spoils it for the majority who do the right thing. Anyone used Freecycle? One of my local groups is thinking of introducing a system of three no-shows and you're out. Perhaps GR should do the same for non-responses.

Without being accused of advertising here - lol - on the Family Tree Forum we have addressed all those issues brought up here - The boards are in sections for Research, counties, specialist subjects, general genealogy info and there are stickies at the top of each board giving instructions and general info.

I think Alexandra's suggestion is a good one - I'd have found it very helpful when I first started. Luckily I was brought up always to be polite and to consider the effect of my actions on others - same thing, really - so Hopefully (!) I didn't upset too many people before I 'learned the ropes'. Perhaps she could suggest it to 'De Management', so there's no need for threads like this in the future? Bee

I think I will suggest it - as I am getting a bit sick of people asking for help, I do a load of look ups, they do not respond and then post the exact same message a day or two later - meaning people bust their guts to look up all the same info I already have given this person. I know not everyone is computer/internet literate but some things are just common sense!

How ever computer literate/illiterate someone is, if they have the ability to post a request on an thread, by exactly the same token , they have the ability to repeat the process again - and add 3 different words, those being THANK YOU MARY- There is no excuse for bad manners.