Your "new" stuff doesn't work!
I wanted to give feedback re errors on 2 records (1 in transcription of information & one in your "maps" for the timeline. Instead, you take me to a community board - how is that feedback?
Then, it asks me to sign in or register - I was already signed in - why should I do that again?
You are making yourselves too much like the commercial family tree sites. I don't like it.
Answers
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community.familysearch.org is a different service with different policies. So you have to sign in separately.
Try the Feedback button on the right side of the new person page. This is the simple feedback you want.
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I want to give feedback on the catalogue search. Every "feedback" button I tried took me to the community. Why not give the option to report issues to tech support or similar??
What a waste of time! Really DO NOT like your new system. Have considerably reduced use of Family Search since last comment because EVERY VISIT is so FRUSTRATING.
Today - wanted to ask about why Familien Blätter would not load properly. Where can you do that? I am not on a new or old "person" page.
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Hi Bridget. You are totally correct, Feedback brings you to the Community. This IS the correct place to report issues and ask for support. We have so many knowledgeable members, volunteers and staff. Bugs can be reported and sent to the team that can address the issue.
You asked about Familien Blätter, which sounds like a German record. You could certainly ask about that in the group German Genealogy Research or the category Search. Do you have a link for the page that won't load properly?
FYI: On the community home page there are three buttons under the search bar. The bar lets you search existing conversations to see if your problem has been discussed.
FamilySearch Help is broken into different topics where you can read others' posts or start a new discussion by clicking the +New Post button. The topic categories can also be found in the right side bar or at the bottom of each page, depending on the size of your screen. One example is using the category Search to can ask questions about using FamilySearch to find new records.
Suggest an Idea is where you can share things that you think might make FamilySearch work better. You can also read through others ideas and see if there is something you want to "upvote."
Groups are a great place to get involved with others who have common interests as you, such as a specific location or research strategies. People often go there to ask for translation help or get ideas from others who have more experience.
In the top right corner by your name, there is a circle with a question mark inside. There are links at the bottom to use the Help Center to read through FAQs and other knowledge articles on a variety of topics, or to find support for your location.
I hope this helps. Please reach out and let us find a way to help you.
Maile 🙂
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Thanks but no thanks. There is, or at least, should be, a difference between site feedback, and actual community conversations.
FS is headed in the wrong direction here. Catering to the social media generation, where everybody has to part of every conversation and make posts whether they are knowledgable or not. This does not work for me.
My feedback wasn't meant for a "community". I don't need a bunch of strangers giving me useless advice. Upvote? Give me a break! Are we all in a glee club now?
Sometimes all I want is to simply let FS know there is an error on a page, index or record (you have too many people/volunteers indexing who make mistakes, especially if record is not in English). I used to be able to do that...
I know what the Familien Blätter are - the issue was simply one of - why doesn't a page load properly - doesn't really matter what page. I assume the system was overloaded.
I realize the overall family search tree is meant to be collaborative, and I am okay with that, but I feel it is wrong to make everything a group discussion. I think this is FS abdicating its responsibility to its (dare I say, "more mature") users. Quite frankly, I find most of the advice from other people to be - let's say - less than helpful.
Too bad - for me, I guess. I had been putting quite a bit of work into my family tree on FS. Now not so much.
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Depending upon where you are living there are different ways of contacting FamilySearch, as found via links on the page at https://www.familysearch.org/en/fieldops/familysearch-support-contact-us. However, for me, this Community forum has proved a far better option than contacting FamilySearch by phone or email. In the case of the former, I have been stuck on the phone (on more than one occasion) for over 45 minutes, speaking with a completely inexperienced volunteer who offered no help in resolving my problem. In communicating by email, all I tended to receive was a "copy/paste" reply, which again did nothing to solve my specific issue.
As you know, FamilySearch is a free-to-use, non-profit making concern. Its priorities are apparently decided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and its resources are relatively limited. Nowadays, I cannot get to speak with customer support when my computer or washing machine goes wrong - I find I have the choice of going to a community forum for advice, or paying for a visit from a service engineer! So, should I expect more from FamilySearch than from a commercial concern who is making huge profits and to whom I have paid hundreds of pounds / dollars for their product?
On your specific issue, you probably wouldn't get any further if communicating by other means. Suggestions as to why you are not getting the expected behaviour (of a page loading properly, for example) are best addressed by experienced Community participants. Whilst you might feel better about expressing your problem / frustration via a Feedback link, what is the guarantee this will result in either a detailed response, or - even if you are assured the matter will be referred to the "relevant FamilySearch team" - how would you know if any further action will result following that?
If a matter relates to something (private) that you do not want to discuss in public, just request that a moderator arranges for a response in the form of a private message, so the finer details do not have to be aired in public. I have often seen responses here from FamilySearch appointed individuals saying, "You will receive a private message on this matter".
Overall, I find far better outcomes by bringing my problems here. For example, many users ask for details in indexed records to be changed by FamilySearch. By visiting this forum you will find this is generally not possible. In some cases, you can edit the record (or certain fields in it) yourself, but - in general - once a record has been indexed corrections are not made. This might not be your issue, I know, but just an example of how it is best to come here. Only today, another user was advised (via a phone call) by a well-meaning missionary that by informing FamilySearch of an error it could then be corrected. So would you prefer a misguided response through "Feedback", or an email or phone call, or a truthful (even if maybe a disappointing one) by bringing your problem here?
Other than that, I believe you have received excellent responses from others (above) and - if you could be a bit more specific - would no doubt get a direct reply here to your "Familien Blätter / why doesn't a page load properly" query.
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Thank you for your response Paul W.
Maybe I am looking for the level of service we used to get (here on family search and elsewhere) - yes - everything is being pushed into public forums. While well intentioned I am sure, I think there need to be other options (what about accessibility?).
This is simply not me. If there was a major issue that needed a lot of input, perhaps. But 99% of the time not necessary. My complaint above really wasn't about the page load issue so much as needing to share my frustration because I really do not like any of the changes Family Search has made. I used to find FS really easy to work with, but now I find it frustrating - it is much more like the big commercial sites. In part I think because the bulk of my search is in Europe and FS & others seem to focus on North America. I find it easier/better to conduct my search directly with relevant archives in Europe if I can find them.
Side note - I also find far too many people have errors on their trees (dates, people's names, relationships, timelines, locations) - I like to check every piece of information independently to confirm or correct.
Here is a comment though - As with other genealogy sites, I find indexing is not done well, especially if a name (person, place) is in another language (e.g. German) or in old script. Most people doing the indexing seem to read everything from an English (language)/North American, current perspective. I have told FS in the past that they need to better train volunteers and certainly need the 2nd level indexing reviewers to be knowledgable about whichever language the records are written in.
I was considering volunteering to do indexing and indexing review (for German records), but am so frustrated now, I don't know if it would make any real difference.
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I am sorry to hear about your frustration. I noticed that you had given some thought to volunteering with indexing, but are not sure if you want to at this point. Having an interest and an understanding of some of the skills that would be helpful to an indexer, I hope that you would reconsider and share your abilities with the indexing of records.
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