Record Hints page is buried and basically impossible to find
I wonder why the FamilyTree product managers have decided that access to the Record Hints page (https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints) is not important enough to users that they would make it accessible from one of the menu dropdowns from the FamilyTree home page.
So the only way I've found that I can access it is to bookmark it in my browser. But I don't think that the vast majority of users think of doing that. My mother, for example, doesn't know how to create a browser bookmark.
I use this page all the time and find it very important to my research. In Ancestry a similar page is accessible from the menu bar. So why don't the FamilyTree product managers consider that page very important?
Answers
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Perhaps I will be corrected, but I believe the answer relates to this page (at https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints) only being a temporary one within FamilySearch. As the URL implies, it forms one of FamilySearch's regular "campaigns", which are designed to attract users' interest in exploring their genealogy further - particularly by using the material available on this website.
This campaign encourages users to find their relatives in FamilySearch's Historical Records collections. Others have included items like "Find the meaning of your surname". They tend to be aimed at - and of more interest to - those who have less experience in research of their ancestry.
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In view of the post instigated by another user (at https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/111985/record-hints-phasing-out#latest) it appears this might be an "live" campaign, but one which is perhaps being slowly phased-out, as suggested in that post.
This would explain both the present difficulty in finding the page in question, as well as the lack of hints now being found there.
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The campaigns generally just show up as e-mails. Sometimes as banners on your homepage. They are mainly to attract the attention of people who don't get to FamilySearch very often to remind them of what they can find.
The intended places to find these hints are very easy to find.
- On a relative's Family Tree profile page.
- On landscape, fan, and descendant pedigree views
- On your homepage on your Recommended Task list.
The first two are most useful when you are working on a specific person or branch of your family. If you want a never ending supply of hints on random relatives, like the campaign provided, the place to go is the Recommended Tasks:
You will never get to the end of that task list. Ever.
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Thank you all for your comments.
My thoughts by way of response.
- The records hints page at https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints is more useful than Recommended Tasks when you want to identify only record hints.
- The benefit of this record hints page is that you don't have to go to multiple places (a relative's Family Tree profile page or on landscape, fan, and descendant pedigree views) to see all of the record hints across your entire family tree.
There's no reason why a campaign couldn't continue to be utilized to attract user interest, etc. But I maintain that putting the record hints page under the menu bar would be the best place for (permanent and easy) access.
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Kelly
I am just another 'lowly' User/Patron ...
That "Campaign", of "Record Hints":
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints
is STILL "Active"; but, unfortunately, just DOES NOT appear to be being "Synchronised" (ie. "Kick-Started") - "Refreshed'; as, often, as WE would like - ie. MORE often, in fact, ALWAYS.
Mine were ALREADY, all "Attached" (mostly, by me); or, sometimes, there were NONE ... it comes and goes ...
There are other such (similar) "Campaigns", that are ALL in the 'same boat' ...
[ 1 ]
We found your [ Whichever Relative ] in our UK records
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints-uk
All x20, all "Attached" (mostly, by me); and, has NOT been "Refreshed" for some time ...
[ 2 ]
For "Mexico", which now ports to "Latin America"
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints-mexico
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints-latinamerica
I do not have any; so, I am not sure, if this particular "Campaign", is the same ...
[ 3 ]
And, just a few others ...
.
Ancestors with Headstones
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/memorial
Obituaries
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/obituaries
.
Military ...
Your relative served in WWI. See his or her service record.
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/wwiservice
Your relative registered for the World War I draft ... [ USA ]
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/wwidraft
Your relative enlisted in WWI ... [ USA ]
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/wwiiancestor
.
And, for Users/Patrons, who are Members of the Church ...
My Relatives' Missions
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/missionary
Nauvoo
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/nauvoo
Discover [ Whoever ], Your Pioneer Relative.
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/pioneers
Pioneer Children: Walk a mile in their (small) shoes
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/pioneerchild
They helped grow the Relief Society. And your Family Tree.
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/reliefsociety
Your relative was a part of a legacy of faithful women
https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/women-of-faith
.
They get 'resurrected' (and, "Refreshed"), every 'now and then', every 'so often' ...
Brett
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Just some things to mention that I want to make sure you understand.
1) We have been assured many times that all ideas posted here go to the proper team for consideration. Those teams almost never make any comments on them here.
2) It really doesn't matter what anyone else says about an idea. Just because someone else that happens to visit these boards doesn't want or need what is proposed in an idea, doesn't mean that thousands of other people who never come here would benefit from the idea.
3) If ideas are incorporated, it can take months before something new is implemented on the website.
So when I or other people comment about an idea, just take it as an opportunity to explain in detail why it is a good idea and the benefit everyone would see. Feel free to completely ignore comments or if you do comment, keep in mind your audience, which is really the engineers, not me or anyone else.
I generally comment on idea to get clarification as to why something should be changed or added to the website or to point out how to make due without it during the months to years it may take for the engineers to implement it.
Now to my actual comments on your post!
Of you two comments, you have a very good point with the second one. It is nice to have one place to see a batch of hints.
Your first comment, though, I think you need to clarify more: "The records hints page at https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints is more useful than Recommended Tasks when you want to identify only record hints."
Why?
If I go to the Record Hints page, I am shown 29 hints, three at a time, to work on attaching. Under each name is a single hint:
If I go to my homepage when signed in, set the Recommended Tasks to show just records, I can expand the list up to 13 people in a more compact format, but can see every hint on every person, not just one hint. Checking this list, it actually has 30 hints in total waiting to be attached:
I really don't know how either of these lists are generated or how often they are refreshed. It's interesting to see that these are two completely different lists. No one is on both lists.
What is it about the Records Hint page, that you would get to by clicking on a menu item, that is more efficient than the Recommend Task list that you can get to at any time by clicking on the FamilySearch log at the top of any page? The setting for the Task list is persistent, that is if you have set it to just Records it stays there until you change it? You will need to explain to the engineers the specific benefits of maintaining the Records Hint page, that is, why it is more useful.
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Responding to Gordon,
My comment about a preference to the Record Hints page rather than Recommended Tasks was that "The records hints page at https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/hints is more useful than Recommended Tasks when you want to identify only record hints" (bold added). With Recommended Tasks, there are other types of tasks mixed in with record hints.
There's also one less click on Record Hints per Record Hint because I don't have to click to see the type of Record Hint that is available for each person. I recognize that there's a trade-off there with having only 3 persons' hints at a time vs the 10+ with Recommended Tasks--but I prefer to not have to click on every record in Recommended Tasks to see the type of record hint. Overall, a lot fewer clicks.
By the way, I want to thank you for your thorough and thoughtful treatment of my comments.
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Thank you Kelly Carter. I have been looking for Recommended Tasks and for Hints.
The engineers making changes need to have a contact person/team who interacts with both users and programmers. Programmers frequently are not users of their products and make changes that do not help product users.
This particular issue you are asking about is a mystery to me. I have been able to find ways to work around the Recommended Tasks and Hints issue.
However, I have an issue that is forcing me to go to Ancestry for the information I want and return to FamilySearch to insert the information I need to add to my family tree.
If I could port my tree to some other system I would.
Louise Moyer
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@Kelly Carter, we would like to invite you to look at your menu bar on the landing page of FamilySearch and click on "Activities". Click on "All Activities". "Historical Records". This will take you to the page you are looking for. We appreciate all of your input given.
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Thanks, @AndLinda. I've been using FamilyTree for several years and did not know that I could access Record Hints via that navigation. And I think the vast majority of users are less knowledgeable of FamilyTree than I am. I think that the FamilyTree developers don't necessarily realize that most users don't know how to navigate the site nearly as well as they do.
My feedback is that Record Hints is important enough that it should be more prominently accessible. In my opinion, it is important enough that it should be accessible as a menu option from the landing page of FamilyTree.
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