No Way to Remove Names Accidentally Added to a Message

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: The title says it all.



Obviously someone is experimenting in the production database with group messaging. It appears that this has not been completely thought through yet.

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Brett said: Jeff

'Yes', so much for User/Patron, both, (1) "Focus" Groups; and/or, (2) "Testing", BEFORE something is "Released" into the "Production" ("Live") Environment.

"Testing" ONLY by; and, "In-Line" release in the "Production" ("Live") Environment by, the "Programmers" should NOT be allowed.

Hence, all the faults/flaws of recent time.

It might slow things down; but, at least, we would not get as many faults/flaws.

Brett

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LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I would cancel the message and start over. These things can happen with any messaging system, including your email client. In the case of an email client, you usually can delete or erase (using backspace) the bogus entry, but you can also cancel the message, delete the draft, and start over.

The same holds true for messaging with FamilySearch.

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Jeff Wiseman said: Tom, this isn't a single message. It is several messages recording a conversation on a specific topic that I had with one person. I do not want to lose that history as we continue to use information in that thread. I also do not want to start another totally disconnected conversation on the subject so we now have two conversations to switch back an forth between.

As it is now, I cannot respond to our conversation because 2 totally unrelated names have accidentally been added to it. People who would be very confused seeing a message sent to them that had nothing whatsoever to do with anything they are involved in and sent from someone that they may not know.

In the case of an email client, you usually can delete or erase (using backspace) the bogus entry...

Correct.

"...The same holds true for messaging with FamilySearch

Incorrect. That is the problem here. Right now once a name is accidentally attached to the conversation, it cannot be removed (as far as I can see, anyway).

LegacyUser

joe martel said: It's like a group text message. If you want different people in the group, you'll have to create a new thread.

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Jeff Wiseman said: But it was NEVER a group message! It is a dozen or so messages between just me and one other person. The only reason that those other names have now appeared on it was a complete accidental addition. Why can I not remove them?

Are you saying that the ability to add a name to a thread of messages, without the ability to REMOVE it is intentional?

LegacyUser

joe martel said: Sorry, I have no idea how you got to this setup. Did you add those people to the message or were they added by something else? If you could describe exact steps to get to this scenario that might help. Sorry - I've never seen mutliple people in a message on FS.

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Jeff Wiseman said: Up till recently, I had never seen it either. Just click on the spot indicated and take your pick of names:

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Adrian Bruce said: Yes, the facility is there for me as well. Just select a message and it gives me the option to type a recent contact. It doesn't even say what happens when you type - someone might assume that it's a filter facility.

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DougHo said: Joe, it is not unique to Jeff (or Adrian). I've started receiving message threads with past dates between people where I was not part of those original messages. Apparently people are clicking there and adding names without realizing the purpose/consequences. Under "Options" (to the right of where it says Type a recent contact name) there is a Delete and a Report Abuse, but I have no idea if Delete means that it will erase the whole old conversation between the two original people, or will only delete my recent view of it.

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Brett said: DougHo

As far as I can ascertain; and, am aware, that "Delete" under "Options" on the 'right-hand-side' of the page/screen is ONLY for deleting the 'Message', not to those to whom the 'Message' is being sent.



And, as like 'Jeff' originally indicated, if you add a User/Patron in error (or, if there are 'multiple' recipients for the 'Message') you CANNOT "Delete" those you DO NOT to receive the 'Message' - the ONLY way 'Out' is to "Close' the 'Tab' or 'Window'; and, start over again.

Brett

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LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Right! And when you have 3 months of collaboration messages there, you have to give up the entire conversation just to avoid irritating people who have nothing to do with you or it.

The ability to add additional names to a discussion about a specific FS record is fairly new. I've noticed the new "Type a recent contact name" link only recently. So as I mentioned earlier, it appears to just be another partial implementation of another feature that has not been designed or thought through completely.

LegacyUser

Brett said: Yep.

LegacyUser

Tim Cross said: I appreciate the discussion, feedback, and interest in the new messaging features.

Currently, we allow for adding and removing individuals on the message up until the first message is sent.  Once the message is sent, we "create" the message thread.  Once the message thread is created, we currently don't allow for adding/removing patrons on the thread.  We may change this in the future.  However, we need to better understand the ramifications associated with adding/removing patrons.

For example, with Facebook Messenger, the thread is based on who is included on the thread.  As you adjust the list of those on the thread, the thread actually changes.  Meaning, if you create a message with Tom, Sally, and Harry, when you remove Harry from the thread, a new thread is created with just Tom and Sally.  The old thread still exists with Tom, Sally, and Harry.  You can actually toggle between threads by adding/removing those on the thread.  You can not have multiple threads with the same participants.

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I have a question for those following this discussion.  When do you feel you will use FamilySearch Messaging to discuss your research pertaining to an ancestor in the Family Tree instead of using "Collaborate" on the Ancestor's Person Page?

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Brett said: Tim

I do not know about the others; and, cannot answer for them; but, in answer to your question ...

Just about each and every day (within reason, of course) ...

I DO NOT "Delete" ANY of my "Conversation" 'Messages' ...

I often go back through them to initiate a follow-up, sometimes years later if the User/Patron I contacted did not; or, has not responded,

And, like many, I would like the ability to "Remove" Users/Patrons from a latter "Conversation", not because I want to 'hide' anything, just that they are, either, not interested; or, the further the conversation is more private or direct in nature.

But, perhaps, that is just me.

Brett

ps: By the way; as, a 'Product Manager', 'Thank You' for joining in on this post.

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LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: All really good thinking that I wouldn't have any issues with. However these names got added to the thread AFTER I had sent two messages to a single person. So it sounds like what you intended to do hasn't happened completely yet. It's either a bug or an incorrectly implemented feature.

Also, a basic function to editing exists in most cases, if you are able to add something to a computer entity, you should also be able to remove it. I cannot do that here.

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Regarding your collaboration question:

First of all, Notes are NOT collaboration and they do not belong under any categorical grouping named "Collaboration" and I'm rather baffled how it happened in the first place. They MAY be the results of collaboration elsewhere, by summarizing why particular vitals have been assigned given values (i.e., AFTER the collaboration has run its course). I use the Notes all the time, but never for collaboration (although I may refer to them in other collaborative sources such as the Conversation messages).

Although Discussions were supposed to be collaborative in nature, their broken implementation seriously cripples that capability, and they also have various uncontrollable and undesired characteristics. They tend to also get used for other NON-collaborative functions due to their unusual characteristics (e.g., permanent "post-it" notes for a persons profile. I personally would like for Discussions to just go away as I personally feel they totally missed the mark they were intended for.

The "Conversation" messages that we are talking about here is the only in-site collaboration mechanism that has any use to me, and it is very useful I think. I frequently use it to discuss the logic in derivations of vitals from sources and what kind of values should be put in those vitals. It is VERY useful the way it was originally set up. Its effectiveness seems to be getting eroded by the other unrelated messages in that cluster. I don't see a problem with attempting to enable group operations, but it shouldn't get turned into a Facebook like free-for-all chat mechanism. I am concerned that that is where it is heading.

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Tom Huber said: There is another problem with the system that needs to be addressed, once I click on the "Type a recent contact name", I cannot close the list. There is no way to close the list of names.

I've played around a bit with this feature and

1) if you click on the name you want to remove, a smallish "X" appears to the left of the name. That will delete that name.

2)if I have opened the list and want to remove it, I have to click on the original person's name, which will close the list and give me some options for that person.

There may be other ramifications to this feature, but right now, it is not at all intuitive and seems to have some funky operating characteristics.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Tim,

I often use the messaging system to collaborate with another user if I do not use email (for whatever reason).

Collaborate, while useful, is tied to a specific person, where as the conversation message is not.

Also, Notes, while in the collaboration section, are, in my opinion, temporary at best, where as Discussion entries cannot be deleted, except by the user who entered them.

LegacyUser

Brett said: Tom

FYI

I found that the way to make that "List" of "Type a recent contact name" go away, was to 'Click' anywhere away from (outside of) the "List" - certainly not intuitive.

And, where you say that "... if you click on the name you want to remove, a smallish "X" appears to the left of the name. That will delete that name. ...", that ability to "Delete" ONLY applies when you are ADDING someone and still have the "List" active.

If you want to "Delete" someone in a subsequent 'Message', that you want to send, you cannot, which is the whole crux of 'Jeff's' post.

Just my observations.

Brett

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LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: remember, most third party tools as well as the GEDCOM standard do not recognize FS's proprietary "Discussions", where they all support the person level Notes.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Yep, this is all that I get. Again, I sent two messages, then accidentally added two names, and now cannot remove any of them.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The problems noted are very real and get back to my earlier comment about the unintuitive nature of this feature.

For instance, in order to delete a name from the list of recipients, it is necessary to click on the "Type of recent contact name" -- then and only then will the "x" to delete a name appear to the left of the name.

When I started playing around with this feature, clicking to one side of the list would not remove it. The only option at that time was to click on the original person's name, which will close the list and give me some options for that person.

It appears that the engineers have been somewhat busy getting some (but not all at this time) of the bugs eliminated. I haven't seen any effort to make the feature more intuitive.