Shouldn't FamilySearch being doing more to promote use of this Community forum?
Before posting this I did a search for "Community" from the Blog page and found it appears to be over four years since Community last had a mention there.
Yet many first-time visitors here claim they have not had an easy job in getting here. Also, the amount of current participants seems dire considering the claims of how many users there are of, say, the Family Tree product. Paging through just now, it seems the majority of posts here manage to attract an average of 50-60 views, compared to the huge participation (hundreds of thousands users?) in Family Tree alone.
I work on Family Tree practically every day and find there is currently some really dreadful work being carried out there, especially in respect of patrons conflating identities of individuals who often don't even look that much alike. They appear to be in great need of the kind of advice offered here. I've been working with Family Tree since 2012 and still find I pick up useful advice in my regular visits to Community.
So, can somebody who has access to the relevant channels please push for Community to get far wider exposure, and subsequent participation, than is currently the case? This forum really has so much potential in connection to enhancing the quality of work carried out in Family Tree, as well in helping improve other parts of the FamilySearch website.
Answers
-
I can see wanting more folks to have access to the forum in order to foster more support, but if they really did get an increase in traffic, then FamilySearch will need to have more support staff in order to handle the issues that come with a big increase in the same traffic. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we don't see from our homes. Those shoulders do some heavy lifting at times.
1 -
I agree the Community is hard to access, and its user interface is unfriendly; and the moderation suffers from being Utah office hours only (and also from not really being set up to offer /technical/ support).
But people looking for help do have other channels, in particular FS Support. It's not the people who know they have a problem who need a solution, I suspect.
I honestly think an abuse reporting mechanism with real teeth (and probably a new name, and an ability to provide dispute resolution), together with a better resourced and structured Community, is the only real answer. (Wikipedia achieves these things through well-organised volunteer effort and effective collaboration.)
The Data Quality initiative is a really good start but it needs far more coverage.
1 -
This Community is part of FS Support. You'll find a number of user posts that recount contacting Support and being directed to this Community. I've been corrected (reprimanded?) when I comment that we are other users, not Support.
3 -
Hmmm, that's disappointing (as is the reaction you got).
0
