General Chat

and how many of them are getting what they expected to get when they joined?

Even if the site is running down, there are still well over ten thousand new members joining every month.

actually, I still think this site is worth something .....................

the help that members give other members.

That's where I still spend most of my time when I am on here.

If that doesn't appeal to you, and you don't like the threads that are on the General Chat thread, then you can really only do one of two things


one is as you say, not renew

the other is to try and post interesting threads that others will want to read.

other sites have moderators

This has none

and who would be willing to take on the job of being a moderator, and all the hassles that they can get?

I take your point about Trolls, but other sites seem to be able to police troublemakers, and with the help of genuine posters weed them out and after appropriate warnings ban them from the site. Ok , they can reappear under another name, but other sites I post on don't seem to have any particular problems. This site is nothing like as varied or interesting as it as when I first joined in 2010, and not worth £18! Well not for me anyway.

magpie ..........

Genes doesn't own FMP ..........

A company called BrightSolid bought Genes Reunited and its mother site Friends Reunited in 2009. They already owned FMP and also had the right to Scotland's People, so had to go before the UK Competitions Board for the sale to be approved.

It was, but some of us believe that there was a condition that all 3 sites continue to be operated.

They gave FR back to its founder about 2 years ago to see if he could make it work, ie make it profitable. He couldn't, so that site is shutting down at the end of this month.

DC Thomson (parent company of BrightSolid) also did not re-bid for the rights to Scotland's People so that site will be run by another company some time soon.

Now they are continuing to concentrate on FMP.


As far as GR is concerned, this site did not have records until after 2007 ............... it does not own the records, nor has it even done its own transcriptions. They have acquired the rights to them from other sites, largely but not entirely from FMP. And, of course, you are often paying on GR for the right to see records that you can see for free, for example on familysearch or on freebmd.

This is also the reason why you will not find many long-time members who have more than the Standard membership ............... we all have paid to other sites since before GR carried records.

GR's strength has always been the Community Boards and the help provided by members to other members.


As far as paying a subscription .............. I actually don't mind. It does keep the trolls away :-)

Friends Reunited initially required a subscription to chat on the Boards after they were set up. FR set up GR as a place where people could start trees and build their trees for free. No Chat Boards existed.

The subscription for the Chat Boards helped the founders to run the site.

When Friends Reunited (and GR) was sold to ITV in 2007, they made FR a free site, and trolls abounded ......... often people took out duplicate free memberships where one was "sane and decent" and the others were trolls. It could be quite fun if you realised this and could watch troll names belonging to the same member going after each other. I never understood how they kept track of which one they were at any particular moment!

But it was very unpleasant when they went after you .......... especially if the "decent" version seemed to be supporting you.

Would you want that on here?

Not worth it just for chatting though. I've moved my tree to ancestry and you can pay as you go if you need to, on other sites you can talk to other people, send a pm for nothing!

You can do more than chat with a standard subscription. You can view other members trees and send messages to other members.

That being the case I'm not going to renew my sub when it comes up, as I'm not too sure that in a year's time this site will still be around!! :-S

Don't think there are enough people in the office to have time to read the threads these days - although they used to.

I'm sure you are right that they are letting the site run it's course and will eventually close it.

Kath. x

A thought! As Genes are now operating FMP perhaps they are deliberately letting this site run down, it then becomes unviable, and has to be wound up or incorporated into the new operation!!! I find it hard to believe that if they're interested in the workings of this site that they're not doing more to stem the flow of people leaving. Maybe someone from their office will read this and come up with a reply?!! Again, pigs etc!!!

Yes Kath, I've noticed that the site has become far less vibrant since I first joined some years ago. There was a lot more real conversation about topical matters of the day, with far reaching ideas and attitudes, and was at least worth the (in those days) small fee that was asked for. As you rightly say there are far more outlets for research these days, some of which are free, i.e. roots chat, where I've done really well on tricky research. No wonder people have deserted this site for facebook and other chat forums!
x

I'm sure Genes know that people are leaving the site.

When I joined in 2003 the community boards were really fast moving and vibrant. You could add a topic or request for help and within 5 minutes you could have 10 or more replies. Threads used to move down the boards and onto the next page very quickly because so many people were offering help and adding more new topics.

However that was when not many people had access to online records - before any of the census records were online and before BMD's were searchable without searching through every quarter of every year for the names alphabetically. Because of this loads of people asked for help. These days it is so much easier to find things online and because all the census records that are publicly available have been online for quite a while there are not so many people asking for look-ups so helpers get bored and leave the site. All the problems with this site are another reason why members leave in droves.

Kath. x

Oh I see! Sort of!! I wonder how many people have left the site because of this? As you say it's got more and more expensive which I'm beginning to balk at! Combining the two sites would be a good and cheaper idea, and probably encourage people to spend more on their research in the long run. Nothing like a freebie to encourage folk to spend in other ways!!! Perhaps if people leave it might come to Genes notice and action might be taken to come into line with other chat sites! I know, pigs might fly!!!

I think it is because they were one of the early websites and always did charge, and it was not so much in the beginning so they have just kept on charging.

I really do think they should combine this site with Findmypast, add a forum on there and let people use the forum for free or pay to see the records (which I already do).

Kath. x

I wonder why Genes seem to be the only chat forum that charges for chatting. I can fully understand paying for info and anything connected with enhancing a family tree, but paying for chatting?!! :-( WW2 chat, gransnet, mumsnet and medical sites, cocker spaniel forum, and many more are all free. Genes however charge £18 (after 10% discount) a year for exactly the same facility!!

Thanks DetEcTive. Why didn't I think of that? !!

At least my watched threads seems to work.

Kath. x

Kathleen - try adding them to Watched Threads. As long as you don't have loads, that might work for you. If you don't want notifying emails when another post is added, untick the first column and save. As long as you don't tick the Delete box you should be able to find it relatively easily.

Thanks Sylvia - yes, I remember someone else mentioning they had been given a phone number but I don't think they gave the number on the thread.

I don't use Facebook at all - and don't intend to - so I didn't know Karen was on there.

I just wish they would sort this site out. I have been able to access my messages this morning but "my threads" is still not working. It makes it so much harder to find threads I've added to - especially as my memory isn't what it was, lol.

Kath. x

Kath ............

someone else, can't remember who now, reported being given a phone number on an email to them, that was within the last 2 weeks.

Someone else spotted that Karen who signed the emails that I and this other person had been receiving was on the FMP FB page as customer support .... that was also within the 1st couple of weeks