Genealogy Chat

If leaving GR, what can still be accessed?

you can still read the boards but can't post or contact anyone. chris.

Janet just about everything. The only thing a nonpaying memeber cannot do is post to the boards, nor pm another member. but you can reply to a pm from a paying member. Makes you wonder what the rest of us pay for, lol. OC

Chris and OC Thanks very much for that information. On that basis my last appearance will be 24 January as my membership runs out then and have wondered for a while what I am doing on these boards! It will be nice just to read them for a change and good luck to all those still writing away. Janet

When I let my sub run out in October I found I could no longer access trees I had permission for. I don't do it very often but - wouldn't you believe it! - I needed to re-examine one I had already got access to. Reluctantly I did renew in the end as I've built up a small but useful list of contacts and trees with access (rarely used!) Anne

Anne Thanks for your comments. There are only two people on here researching the same family as myself and I can keep tabs on one through the search facility to see where he is up to. The other one I am in E mail contact with, and the main contacts I have built up is through the Message Boards. Janet

hThat reminds me, must change my membership type to avoid getting duped into another year. Glen

My membership is renewable in a few days, and I'm struggling to find a reason to cough the dosh. In theory, I would seriously miss the shared trees I have access to, but in truth, whenever I consult one of them and find information that MIGHT be helpful, I fire off a friendly message to the owner (usually to confirm a source), but get no reply. Today, I have eleven messages in my 'Sent Items' folder to which I would like a reply to progress areas of my research. Three of those are first messages to strangers, and the rest are to existing contacts, the majority of which are distant cousins. They just don't bother to reply. I usually send a second message after about ten days, and then write off the contact. I do this so regularly that I think I am wasting my time. My own research has taken me to the point where I am, more often than not, the net giver of information, rather than a receiver of it; but if I'm getting virtually nothing out of my membership anymore, why continue with it? In the rare event that someone does initiate contact with me, I will still be able to reply. Not being able to post to this forum is hardly going to change my life, so what am I paying £9.95 for, exactly? Carefully chosen, just one more BMD certificate will probably advance my research more than another year's full membership here, and I can go and have a pint with the change and still be up on the deal. I think I've talked myself into it.

Clive This is also the way I am feeling about GR. I have been on this site since three months after it first started and felt in the beginning that it would be a very good site to belong to, but I have drastically changed my mind on this, particularly over the last year as to me GR has gone downhill. I have been struggling for the last six months as I also give far more than I receive, but crunch time is fast approaching and I will have to decide very shortly which way I will jump. Should the site change very drastically for the better in the future then I might rejoin but I have many doubts that is going to happen. The hot matches are a joke so I certainly will not miss those. I have enjoyed adding to the threads but so few bother to reply to what has been written and I doubt many even understand what is said half the time. Yesterday I added a reply to one about Northamptonshire as having researched that county indepth for so many years I have a lot of information to share on it, but not even a thankyou, never mind whether she understood anything I said so I am really thinking I am just wasting my time on here. Janet

Yes, it is a waste of money as far as I'm concerned and most unlikely to renew on 7th February. I read the boards and often glean useful pieces of information but any contact is always done by pm and in many cases I have e-mail addresses if I want to re-contact. A good many of the members are also members - if that's the right word - of another site that is free, so this one is rapidly becoming a waste of time as well as money, particularly if replies are not received.

I have to agree with the last few replies -. Those of us who have been researching for a while, have developed 'specialist' skills, as Janet describes above, and may know a lot about one particular area of research. Why then, is this often ignored, and the poster goes on to ask the SAME question again, as if they don't believe the answers they got the first time. I too wonder if they even read the replies to their queries. I have long since accepted that I will always be the giver of information on here, as my research has been going on for 35 years. But lately, not even a thankyou or an acknowledgement and I am left wondering if they even got the stuff. I had already decided not to renew when my sub runs out, and unless things change drastically for the better, I won't be back - there is nothing here for me that I cannot get elsewhere. OC

I just wish GR would listen to members and make it so that the only boards non members can access are the trying to find and sucess. I think it extremely unfair that non members should be able to pick up all the tips etc while members are paying £9.95 for the privilege. As I have said before, I enjoy being a member of this site. i too belong to the other site (although was surprised to hear on the grape vine that a lot of members there had paid donations towards the running of the site - so not completely free then). And I still prefer the way this site is negotiated. Ann Glos

I can only agree with what has been written - I shall not be renewing in March. I shall probably look in occasionally to see if their are any useful snippets of info...but only rarely. The other side is much more helpful - both in content and layout. William

Ah well, I don't have the option of 'the other side' as I'm banned FOREVER. I'll get over it.

I stopped coming here for quite a while, popping across from time to time it seems a completey different site to the one i used to enjoy. I don't respond to many of the lookup requests now because of what appears to be a 'hardcore' of people who continually ask for bmd lookups. Most are from pre 1910 and on freebmd, not extremely difficult to find and it makes you wonder why they ask. It has to be better and more rewarding to learn how to find the details yourself than ask for a bmd ref (and most likely not order the cert anyway) I have had one positive match in the last nine months and one 'possible'. The possible was in response to one of my trying to find posts, their tree has over 2000 names and was started over four years ago yet just last week they were asking where to order a cert from and how to find a bmd ref. Needless to say i am rather dubious that i can get much info from them without the need to triple check everything, which means that i may as well start from scratch myself and satisfy myself as to the accuracy of MY research. I have had more success via my own site than this one and find my site has created more contacts and contacts in the parts of the world i need than this place ever did.

It was suggested earlier the 'Standard Members' could reply to messages from 'Full Members'. I don't believe they can any more.

Are you sure? It used to be the case but has been removed from the T's and C's sometime over the past year. UPDATE Having looked again and checked the FAQ's it appears that Standard Members CAN reply to messages, so I stand corrected.

Ann in Glos Over the years I have contributed many items to the Tips Board in particular, with a lot of input on Ireland, as I am a bit of a specialist in this area and one in particular 'First Steps in Researching Irish Family History' will disappear with me going from this site, unless people resurrect it from time to time, but this is extremely doubtful. I have paid my annual membership almost from the beginning and I have asked for information about 5 times at the most in all those years, and this has usually been in the technology areas of the computer like information on GEDCOM or Firewalls rather than actual Family History questions. The rest of the time, I have given my time freely to the boards, answering queries. I think that Genes have had more than their pound of flesh out of me! The Boards do give good information at times, though if more of the expert advice disappears, then these boards will be of little use, and there has been creeping in lately some very bad advice from some members, so I certainly do not think it would be in GR's interest to bar people from looking at and reading the boards. Who knows I might be so annoyed at the bad advice that I might rejoin! Stopping me from replying will do me a favour, as if I can't reply then the temptation to try to help others will be taken from me. However, I am not sure that that is in the best interest of Family History or Genes to actually stop me from giving help to others. It might be better if I could still offer help. I am not very interested in the Tree side as I have sorted most of mine anyway and I only have a few names on this site, which are judiciously spaced to give me maximum coverage, as I am just looking for specific links, none of which are forthcoming on this site at the moment. All my links have been made through other sites. I have made one only on here. I do not think that Genes would want to close people off entirely as so many links would then get lost. Janet

Peter If what you are saying is that only full members can communicate with other full members, and non paying members cannot reply - then it makes a nonsense out of letting non paying members build a tree! No one will ever be able to get in touch with them. Mind you, sounds like par for the course... OC

I have browsed through a lot on the tips section as well as the records sectiion. I have been a 'member' for some years and a full member since the end of November and have been astounded at the amount of information I have gleaned. Occasionally I have had some 'pompous twit saying 'look it up yourself it is much more fun'. Yes it is if you have the time but I see researchers 'pleading' to let them look things up for you, and if they have a subscription to a particular site and they enjoy it, why not? I always make a point of thanking them even if they could not help. Some people dont I know, but hey, thats human nature isn't it? If you read the 'success stories'....you will see how valuable GR is.....its not expensive compared to other sites. Good luck to everyone and thank you all for a valuable service! Gan Canny