Genealogy Chat

see below:

I trust the GR Team will be reading this and will hopefully respond.... - If not, I will forward it to them, but I just wanted to know fist if other people agree.?? Re Hot Matches, I believe that the introduction of Hot Matches was meant, in all good faith, as a step forward and I know it have been useful to some. However, I believe, to the majority of members, in it's present form, it is 'time-consuming', 'annoying', 'frustrating', and 'fruitless'. !!! There are so many 'hot-matches' which come through which are not even in the same Country, let alone the same County, which leads a great number of members to ignore them completely. Could I please request that this service be 'suspended' for the time-being, in order to allow time for the GR Team to work on a solution to this problem and at least work out how to generate possible 'Hot Matches' on a County level ? This would then be something which we could all make use of and appreciate, and I am sure that the GR Team would get a greater satisfaction from knowing that they have created a 'useful' service. Dea Shaw. What do others think?????? Dea X

Thanks Deb, This proves my point - at the moment it is a pointless 'service' Dea x

Dea Although they are very annoying I have finally got passed A-H and would like a chance to match the rest of my tree. However I would like to suggest 1. No details of children under 16 2. match to at least country of birth if one given. 3. ability to delete matches altogether not just ignore them. 4. If someone deletes their tree from the site the hot match goes as well. 5. Match to baptism date before 1837. well we can dream can't we? good luck with the campaign. Anne

Thanks Annie, That was onother point that I meant to, but omitted to mention - 'ability to delete matches' - This is really frustrating at present. Thanks, Dea x

I have to confess that I don't see the problems that others do. Then again, I only have fifty-odd names on my tree. But when the Hot Matches come, I look at them, click discard on most of them, and they go away... I can't see a problem with that. Is there a problem I'm going to encounter in the future that I don't know about? Gordon

Gordon, On average, with the number of names that you have on your tree - how many pages of 'hotmatches do you usually receive? I only have just over 400 in my Tree but regularly receive up tp 14 pages of hotmatches which takes 'forever' to go through. Many people on here have far more in their trees and so the service becomes unmanageable Dea x

Annie, You have added 2 more points to your reply: points 4 + 5 - Very useful suggestions. Thanks, Dea x P.S. - It's not really a 'campaign' - I just wondered what other members thought. Dea x

Three or four pages, mostly of Jones... You mean that I'm likely to get more, eventually? Hmm.. that could be a problem... Gordon

Totally agree Dea. I exercised my option to opt out of this part of the GR 'service'. The problem is that others still get Cold Matches which they insist on sending me messages about - does their Robert Brown born in 1840 in Texas USA match my Robert Brown born in 1840 in Sunderland, Co, Durham England? It would be a good feature if it worked. Two out of three simply doesn't work. It needs three out of three - name, year and county

I have about 600 on my tree.I get 5 pages of 'Baker's as hot matches each time & nothing else. I think they should re think the system & put all match details on the first page so that we can just tick the 'don't show me this again' box without having to go through all the palaver of going in to each match to see who, where & when. That would cut down the time spent checking them. I sent GR a mail suggesting this a couple of days ago. Hot matches IS a good idea but it's not operational in its present form ie it doesn't look for ALL matches (I don't only have 'Baker' on my tree but I do have a Charles Baker - & so do god knows how many other people - I dread to think what it must be like to have John Smith or Mary Ann Brown ! !) I hope they read this thread & that everyone replies to it - Sarah :-)

Your opinion is appreciated Lyla - As I said, SOME people find it useful. I think it depends how many surnames you have on your tree and how common they are. - If you have many and they are common, the hotmatches can be a 'real' pain. More opinions welcome. Dea x

I think adding 'new' next to them has really helped - they now stand out from the ones I have previously looked at and kept. I don't have a problem with the hot match system - yes it can get a tad frustrating when they are not 'hot' at all, but we have the choices of never bothering to look at them. Am I mistaken, or isn't there an option not to receive them at all? Jay

I have 2,800 names on my tree. I always receive 4½ pages of Hot Matches each time. Never more, never less. I would like the details of the person GR are matching to (in my tree) to be shown underneath the Hot Match. This would make evaluating the match simpler. Also instead of clicking each Match to view it.....can't we just have a straightforward list (theirs, mine, theirs, mine, theirs, mine etc)? Then a line of ''tick to delete match'' boxes down the side? Just view the list and then delete the matches we don't want. End of story. I wish we could opt out of Hot Matches with some surnames. If I had no Allen's on my tree I might get somewhere! Merry

I'm clearly missing out as, even with my Browns and Edwards, I rarely get more than a dozen new hot matches. While we are allowed to upload gedcoms (and I simply wouldn't have a tree onsite if I had to retype every blessed piece of information) there will never be uniformity of treatment of placenames. With boundary changes and the creation of new administrative areas, you're not even on safe ground with counties. We do seem to be losing those dead hot matches (at least I assume that's the reason the number of my genuine hotmatches keeps on going down. But does nobody else get New Names Alert? This is a much more useful feature. Like tree matches, but in a single list, weeding out all the no matches. All the names, on a timely basis. It's much easier to pick out potential rellies, even if they've used dob from censuses and are a year or two out.

4 1/2 pages Merry ??? - Is that like 41 1/2 which should REALLY by now be 41 3/4 ????????? Anyway, I believe there is some way you can 'opt out' of them, someone put this on here earlier, BUT, that would be a shame as, potentially, it should be a good service. Also, it seems that if you have a LOT of people on your tree (e.g. your tree), you seem to get fewer matches as you only get the first ?? letters of the alphabet and never move forward ?? I'm not sure how it really works?? Dea x

Lol Dea!! I uploaded my tree for a second time since joining the site about 6 months ago. Before that I had got to D on my Hot Matches.......I didn't realise that they would go back to A because of re-uploading the tree (I never thought about it!) When people are saying they get varying numbers of New Matches given to them by GR and I always get exactly the same number.....Would be be because I am always beginning with a clean sheet each time? I always delete all my Hot Matches as I have never had a real match in over a year (except with people to whom I already send Christmas Cards!!) (My next ¼ birthday is June 29th!) Merry

Merry, When you click on View Ignored Hot Matches, how many pages of results do you get? Gordon

46 (plus four pages not yet ignored, because I'm still in the process of deleting them!) Merry

So look on the bright side! That's 46 pages of Matches you won't be getting again... In other words, you're not starting from scratch each time. So why you only get 4.5 pages is a mystery... Gordon