Global Record Hints - Canada

SteveFanning · September 6

When I choose Canada as the region, suddenly there are only 4 sub-regions that appear, only Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. What happened to the other sub regions?

dancingintherain · September 7

@SteveFanning

On the landing page of the Global Hints Campaign, you will see Frequently Asked Questions. Here is a screenshot of the very question you are asking:

SteveFanning · September 7

I think that's unlikely.

Paul W · September 8

@dancingintherain

Could you kindly provide a direct link to the Global Hints Campaign? I'd like to try to replicate the issue being raised by @SteveFanning but am not finding this page, or one listing all current campaigns.

Áine.ní.Donnghaile · September 8

@Paul W

Although it defaults to USA for me: https://www.familysearch.org/en/campaign/hints-global?location=UNITED_STATES you can change the location.

Alan E. Brown · September 8

This simple link will default to your location:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/campaign/hints-global

Paul W · September 8

@Áine.ní.Donnghaile and at @Alan E. Brown

Thank you both! Yes, I understand the OP's question now. Clearly, in this context, @dancingintherain 's response seems quite acceptable. Obviously, that doesn't mean there are no records elsewhere on the FamilySearch site that relate to other "subregions" of Canada.

JulianBrown38 · September 9

I think that it is a little more complicated than just the system not having any available hints.

There is currently no region visible that includes Australia or New Zealand. This is like @SteveFanning's subregional example, but on a regional level.
If I choose the Pacific Islands region, the system chugs away for about 10 seconds before returning a message "We currently don’t have any records to review for this area. Choose another area to find more records." The map shows Papua New Guinea (and possibly Samoa) highlighted, and the subregion dropdown contains only Samoa.

SteveFanning · September 9

Sorry I didn't get back right away. It's odd that the only regions showing for Canada are the 4 original provinces from 1867 and no others. I have record hints showing up on my own personal hints that are linked to Newfoundland, so if that is the case, Newfoundland should appear in the regions list. I noticed that they removed "Newfoundland, Canada" as an option for locations, is it possible that some location settings have been updated that cause the issue.

dancingintherain · September 9

@SteveFanning

It has been my experience working in other FamilySearch products, for example in the opportunities in Get Involved specifically Full Name Review, areas disappear for a few days. Right now Canada is not showing up in Full Name Review, when usually it is there. It is for the same reasons mentioned in the Frequently Asked Questions that when a region, state or province is taken out of the down drop menu it is because FamilySearch currently does not have record (or hints in Global Hints) that fit your search criteria. I advise you to keep checking back, because it is also my experience that when they do have records for your search criteria that area or sub region will appear again in the drop down menu.

irishizan · September 12

I just made a separate post about Global Hints for Ireland. It has totally disappeared ftom the subregion under United Kingdom & Ireland. I've been working on it nightly for Years !!! And now it's suddenly gone ? I doubt very much that it's really due to a "lack of hints available". That's just not possible ! I am SO LOST without the ability to work on these records for Ireland only. I've cleared my history, cache etc. Signed out & signed back in. Nothings changed.

dancingintherain · September 15

@irishizan

I am so sorry this happens sometimes. This must be so frustrating for you. I just spoke with our team and asked why a region disappears in Global Hints. The engineers said that it is because they run out of inventory. They usually get more inventory, so keep checking this region. I also found this question in the frequently asked questions, and the answer seems to be consistent with the information the engineers provided.

MandyShaw1 · September 15

@dancingintherain basically, this is all dependent on the accuracy of Hinting, and that is dependent on the accuracy of the Historical Records that are its inputs - if those show incorrect place or collection record type information, whether because of the issues currently under investigation or for other reasons, Hinting will miss stuff that might 'normally' match a profile in the user's part of the Tree. In short, garbage in garbage out.

dancingintherain · September 15

@SteveFanning

Global Record Hints has a site-wide bug. It may or may not be related to the inventory issue. This is the update given by the engineers: "Update on the Global Record Hints page where US states were pulling up random European countries. Turns out it was a bug affecting the whole site and is being worked on right now!"