Genealogy Chat

Does anybody else help those looking for Living Relatives and, if so, would you agree there should be some way on the thread of knowing that someone is working on the case ?

Hi LD
there is a thread on this sbject on the general chat board
Maddie

Oh right will pop over there and take a look.

HI LD,

I must admit I tend to steer clear of this board, the reason being that I'm unsure if help has been received and therefore I don't want to "waste" my time in searching.

However on saying that I did once help out on there, all I simply did is send a death registration to the original poster....... very easily found on t'other site. The poster had around 12 other veiws on his thread so I thought that he would have had the info sent...... I was wrong and he is now in touch with the person who registered the death!

This thread was probably overlooked by others simply due to the ease of finding what he needed and others may have thought initially that he would have received the info which I sent.

So GR really need to sort this board out, posters are missing out on help simply due to the nature of the lack of "notice" it shows to replying to the OP. I'm not sure how they would go about it but I'm sure there would be a way of showing this?

Thankfully the person I helped ticked his post to inform others that the info he needed had been found.

Dee x

There are also threads about it on the Suggestions board which Genes do look at.

Hello Dee

I do agree with you. I spent yesterday evening (and some of night) doing searches and mailing people. Some have replied with their thanks. The rest are yet to read their mail.
I suspect that a lot of people using this board are fairly new so are not fully aware of what to do. perhaps GR could put a check button on each thread so those working on it could click to show that something is being done. (maybe with our user name on so others could compare notes with us ?)

I have no idea why it can't be the same as the other boards, allowing people to reply, either to ask for clarification or at least to say they are looking. I never look at this board at all now to be honest. While not as good as a lot of others here, I have had some success, and did have one example which involved a huge bit of lateral thinking and about which I am still preening! So I would like to help out but am not prepared to waste time repeating what others have done.
Jan

I have posted on the thread on Suggestions board requesting that something is done.
In the meantime if I mail info to anybody I will ask them to mark the thread as answered if they have the information they required.

Please do read the several threads on the Suggestions board and add to them if you like.

I ask people to edit their post on Living Relatives to say something like "I have been sent the birth registration info" or "I have been sent possible contact information". Sometimes they even do it.

The Living Relatives board is a gigantic poorly thought out mess. However, it is also a gigantic cash cow for the corporation that owns this site. On the back of the advertising associated with the Lost Family television show, people have been flocking here and paying (sometimes for platinum subscriptions!) to post on that board -- when there are free sites (like Missing You) that are much better known.

The instructions they are given are atrocious -- how many people read past where it says to post "personal information" about the person they are looking for, with the result that all sorts of awful privacy invasions happen. Like the one from the woman alleging that her mother had an affair with the neighbour while her husband was away working, and naming the man, the mother, the mother's children ... GR doesn't even read the posts there; it is left up to members to police the place by requesting review of posts like that.

The instructions don't even advise people to use the Search Trees function ...

Janey
You are absolutely right. I think what this site needs is Moderators !