What's to be done about this once great site which has become too hard to understand or use?
I started research in 2007 -joined a group - introduced to FamilySearch - loved it - started a tree. Now it may as well be in 'Swahili'! Can't make head nor tail of my Tree - Can't make changes - Can't correct wrong added information - Can't ask a question without being directed to areas I find completely confusing. Many research friends (with decades of experience) are also complaining re same. As a result folk are losing interest in continuing. A great shame as they are at the stage when really interested in helping others & sharing decades of knowledge. A hobby I've greatly loved is becoming too difficult to follow - just at a stage in my life when I finally have more time to devote to it. It's more than disappointing or annoying ...it's really heartbreaking.
Answers
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I'm sorry you feel that way. FamilySearch offers regular, free, online classes on how to best use the site. Everything in the tree can still be edited unless a profile has been made Read-Only (rare, except for Famous People). Everything is still pretty much where it was before the latest updates, and we had many months of the old format and new format running in parallel. Plenty of time to get accustomed to the new format.
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In 2007, "started a tree" might actually have applied to whatever was available through FamilySearch, although my vague memory is that only the historical records were public back then. I believe the tree-type stuff was LDS only before the current collaborative and open-edit Family Tree was launched, a bit over a decade ago.
If you're truly comparing the current site to what was available sixteen years ago, then I'm afraid I can't offer any useful advice. The internet and the modern world move much, much faster than that.
If you're actually comparing the current layout to a few years ago, I suggest you take a deep breath and look again. Things have not changed all that much: everything that was here is still here, somewhere, and (almost) everything that you could do in, say, 2017, you can still do today. You can also do several things that you couldn't do back then, such as correcting some fields of some indexes, or adding a godparent-godchild relationship in the Family Tree.
("Almost" because there is one thing that has been discontinued since 2017: you can't order microfilms any more.)
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The biggest change is that FamilySearch has brought everything under one roof.
Back in 2007:
If you wanted to look at a historical records you went to your Family History Library, ordered a film, waited for it to come in, the scrolled through the film.
If you wanted to construct a family tree, you did it on you desktop computer with PAF or something and had just your work and just your small family.
If you wanted to index, you downloaded the indexing program and worked through it.
If you wanted to check old research you could go through the Ancestral File CDs or the IGI CDs.
Now everything is all in one spot. Not only that, but the amount of information has exploded. The historical record databases are massive. Family Tree has not just your family but everyones families and you have to learn to work with your 10,000 cousins you will find here. And not only that, due to the wonderful job FamilySearch programmers have done, every time you turn around the program is throwing more information at you that might be about your family.
I would suggest that you spend some time getting familiar with just one section. For example, go to the Family Tree tab click on Person which should bring you to your own profile when first signing in. Now spend an hour or two looking at every single feature of the page. Click on every single image and every single bit of text. It all does something. Keep returning to your profile page until you understand everything on the page. You'll be amazed at how effectively it all works.
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