Genealogy Chat

On checking my Sent mailbox I find that I have 50 unopened/unanswered messages which I have sent to Genes Reunited members since 2005 and cannot understand why these people have not replied.

I now ask for an acknowledgement whether or not they can help, so that I will know that they have at least read my message.

I am so frustrated by this as it hampers genuine research and as soon as I get a reply I can deduce whether or not it will be helpful: if not, then I can remove that person from my list of possibles.

Has anyone else encounteed this problem?

Margaret

Margaret, there is a difference with unopened and not replied. If unopened they may well have stopped being members and/or changed their email address.
If they have opened the message but haven't replied, you could just try again I suppose.
You might not need to rely on other peoples' research to help you - if you are stuck just ask for help.
jan

This problem crops up quite regularly Margaret and yes, it is frustrating when people do not respond to the messages we send them.

There can be many reasons for this as Jan has mentioned above and, it may be that they are ill or perhaps deceased.

There are millions of trees on this site and I guess that many haven't been touched for a very long time.

Take Jan's advice and ask for help on the boards - take a look at the Help Clinic, above left, for some useful advice.


Regards. Cx



Hiya Jan - long time no speak........... :-)

If the messages have not been read, you can't possible expect to get a reply.

Margaret ......

Unopened means that the recipient has not opened the message, and therefore has not read it.

So asking for an acknowledgement will do nothing to solve that problem!


There can be many reasons for people not responding to pms, as touched on by Cynthia ................

1. Person has died, or become incapacitated and unable to use the computer and this site.

2. Family members do not know the user name and password to use the site, do not know about the tree on this site, or do not care about the tree on the site

3. Person has lost interest in genealogy, and ignores all messages from GR, or treats them as Junk Mail

4. Person is or is not still interested, but has changed their email address and has not notified GR of the new address. Thus all emails from GR notifying about pms, or anything else, does not reach the active email but gets lost in the ether.



The only person who can remove their tree from this site is the person who owns the tree OR a family member or friend who has been given the user name and password.

GR has very occasionally removed the tree of a member who has been banned from the site, but that is the only time the site removes a tree.



I'm afraid it is just one of those things, and there really is nothing that any of us can do about it.




There is one thing that we ALL can do ........... and that is to make sure that a family member or close friend has your user name and password, and is given the authority to remove your tree from here if and when you become too ill or die.


That would clear a lot of trees from the site.




sylvia

"There is one thing that we ALL can do ........... and that is to make sure that a family member or close friend has your user name and password, and is given the authority to remove your tree from here if and when you become too ill or die."

Good advice Sylvia.

Marie.

Marie


thank you!


I've got a little address book by the computer with all the sites I go on, the user name and password I use for each one.

OH and my daughter both know about it, and can deal with the situation if and when necessary.




sylvia

Sylvia

I too have an address book by the computer but it was getting a bit messy with all the additions and changes. So spent this evening updating it - something I have been meaning to do for a long time. I just needed that little jog to get going on it.

Marie.

Marie

I'm in the middle of updating mine ................ as you say, it gets messy with updates and new sites!



sylvia