Future Updates?

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: Now that we are all getting used to the updated Merge system, Change Log, and Temple pages and icons, I wonder what will be the next section of Family Tree to be updated to the new style? The details page? The sources page? Something else?

The beta site does show a few interesting changes on the details page. Overall it is still in the current basic style, not the new one that the merge and change log have with slightly different background grey and section boxes that are more square. But the second menu line has some changes, the footer has some changes, and more languages are available.

The watch list is showing a major update (the pictures are actually from my wife's watch list which is why I show there as having made a change. I'm sure we've made some changes on other people here under her account. "No Recent Changes" must mean "by other people," but I don't know for sure. Changes we personally make to anyone show up under My Contributions). Its second line menu is different than the same menu on the person pages in that it includes an item named "Overview." It doesn't go anywhere at this point. I wonder what that is going to be.

Don't forget, it's never too soon to offer feedback on these potential future upcoming changes and that this beta site is where can have notification of the changes prior to their release.











The future looks exciting!

LegacyUser

joe martel said: Also, there has been some advance notice like the watch/notification emails coming to an end:

LegacyUser

Paul said: Gordon

There are only two IDs in my beta Following section showing as having had changes made to them - the one illustrated and his wife, Ann Briggs. My watch list is currently showing 1241 persons in the production version and 1077 in beta. I didn't expect the beta details would match in any way, of course.

I'm hoping I will get used to this quickly once it is introduced. Last time I looked, I believe everyone had "No Recent Changes" shown against them, so at least I now have some idea how any changes will be shown.

I believe Lundgren advised us last time there were changes to check out in the beta version. It would be excellent if a FamilySearch employee would come here to advise whenever anything new hits beta.



BTW - I don't remember previously seeing the page reached by clicking on the "Learn More" link (https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/...). Thought I was getting these emails already, but have now subscribed.

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Don M Thomas said: FamilySearch, sister Wiseman, who I think works with "Memories," would be a good person to advise us all when anything new is showing on beta. Hint. Hint.

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Adrian Bruce said: Comparing the current "People I'm Watching" to the new "People I am Following" in your screen shots, Gordon (for which thanks), nicely proves my feeling that the new designs take up a lot more space - four entries on the new right to seven (and a bit) on the old screen on the left. But ironically, the new design shows less of the vital data!

So lots more white space vertically resulting in more space needed, and data lost in the horizontal plane. Hmmm

LegacyUser

Paul said: Joe

Would you please post the URL for this. As commented in another thread, I am not seeing any header notices at all - relating to discontinuation of either "watch" or message notification emails.

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joe martel said: This is in the weekly email you get if yuou turned on notifications for Watched/Followed Persons

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terry blair said: For some reason I have never been able to access the beta site, thus I can only comment on what I have seen in the entries here. I have something like 3500 people on my watch list, most of whom change only rarely, but at times the changes are erroneous and I have also found other mistakes when reviewing a person's record because of a change on the watch list. If I have to look at four or five entries per screen, all marked as "No Recent Changes," which I believe is what I am seeing, it will take me more than a week to go through each weekly update. In turn, it means that the watch list will quickly become unusable. Thus, is my interpretation correct or erroneous?

LegacyUser

Paul said: Right, thanks. I must have missed the note.

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Paul said: Terry

Assumed you have tried to log in at https://beta.familysearch.org/en/.

I believe you can't be logged into both beta and the production versions at the same time, except by using different browsers.

The Sort By Date choice, under OPTIONS, should be of some help when this goes live. This pushes those with changes to the top of the list.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Terry has a major point - the current system has 2 components:
- People I'm Watching;
- Changes to People I'm Watching;

The latter has a simple check box to "Hide Changes I've Made". It also defaults to date order.

The new "People I Am Following" in Beta bundles both functions into one - and I dislike bundling by instinct.

The new "People I Am Following" has an Options button to Sort by date and also a button to either group changes by PID or display All Changes.

Why on earth can't it default to a useful order? (A time-waster) And what range will it cover if we Sort by date but also group changes by PID?

I can't, by the way, make it revert to just a list of "People I Am Following" (i.e. the old "People I'm Watching" function). (An error I suggest)

And the checkbox to hide changes that I've made simply isn't there (poor design). Nine times out of ten I don't want to see my changes - I did them, I know about them. Well, I did!

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: I see this as the addition of a significant nuisance. Changes I've made, and Changes Made by Others needs to be instantly comparable. Even viewable side-by-side. Toggling back and fourth between them with a single click is acceptable, but now having to navigate between them--total nuisance and far less efficient. I need to see things that I have done in response to things others have done (i.e., corrections and adjustments). Saving those in two different places makes no sense at all.

Also "People I Am Following" is a social media term for being able to see the different things a living person is doing as they move across the network or forum. "Records I'm Watching" means something totally different. It means a given record that I want to see and changes made to by ANYONE on the system.

You don't "Follow" a record. It doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't do anything to others. It doesn't post messages on sites and forums. It stays in one spot. How can you possibly "FOLLOW" it?

We need to get away from using terminology just because they are used on other modern technology. This isn't Facebook. Use terminology that is consistent to it's formal definition. It seems as though everyone wants to invent their own meaning for given words just because they like the sounds of them :-S

You don't "Follow" a database record. You "watch" it or "monitor" it.

Please, call a spade a spade. It creates far less confusion for the masses. It also eliminates misunderstandings when the wrong words are used on the website.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: "Monitoring" sounds good to me.

Regarding changes by others and changes by me, since they are in completely different parts of the web site in the beta, this is a good set up for having them open at the same time in side-by-side windows.

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Paul said: I expressed my feelings about this planned new / revised feature some time ago. I feel it does nothing to enhance the current set-up. Quite the opposite.

Please do not move this ("Following" replacing "Watching") feature on to the production site unless you want to have another avalanche of complaints, as have been posted here over the new ordinances "colour scheme".

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: "Watching" is as good as "monitoring". In fact it is even better since that is what it has been called for several years now!

Side-by-side is not quite as good as lock-stepped. And the current method is already implemented correctly.

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Adrian Bruce said: Well, yes, the first time I saw "Following" in Beta, I had to push it and prod it to understand what it meant. Why should I need to do that? Why does FS apparently want to confuse its user base by changing the name?

Cynically is it because the two distinct items
- People I'm Watching;
- Changes to People I'm Watching;
... have been merged into one (for no good reason)? So we need to pluck a new name out of the air?

I would hope that the merged function can be split back into two before implementation - and the check box reinstated that will hide changes that I've made.

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Jeff Wiseman said: Yea, I really need someone from FS to come here and explain to us why "Following" a PID record is considered to be so much more accurate terminology than the existing "Watching" a PID record. In fact, why is it so much better that it justifies time spent by the engineering staff to change it.

I learned many years ago that when an engineer cannot provide an appropriate and consistent NAME to an object or function, it is usually because that engineer doesn't fully understand the item that they are dealing with.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Not to mention the comments above from Terry and me about the merger of the 2 different functions and the extra work required for us.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: So things are moving in the Beta Site on the "Following" menu. I am hoping this is not the full story but this is the current situation.


The above is now what menu item "Family Tree / Following" currently looks like. Notice please the label of "All Changes" for the main text and the "Following" button. This means that having bundled those two functions into one (as complained about above), they are now unbundled back to (sort of) the current status.

If I press that "Following" button, I get this:-


This is a pop-up. It has no filtering and doesn't even give all the entries (it goes as far as the letter "E" in my list. Your mileage may vary)

Now, I'm assuming that not giving the full list is an error so I'll not worry too much about that. However, I have no idea whether the pop-up is likely to be permanent (why a pop-up?) or whether the lack of filtering, etc, on it is likely to be permanent.

So, I'm slightly at a loss to know why the basic layout has changed at all (I appreciate the detail for each line has changed)

And I still don't understand the reason for replacing the (to me) clear "Watch" with the social-network-speak "Follow".

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Adrian Bruce said: Oh - and menu item "Following" with sub-items "All Changes" and "Following" is inherently odd in the extreme.

Maybe menu item "Following" with sub-items "All Changes" and "Profiles Followed" would be better. Anything to avoid duplication!

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Re the Beta Site Family Tree / Following menu.

I find it difficult to follow the vision because it seems to keep changing. Either that or it's taking me way too long to find the features in the UI.

There is still a button "Following" that generates a pretty useless, non filtered pop-up. However, the Options button has View By Person and View by All Changes options. Are they new or has it simply taken me this long to realise the required function is under that Options button? No idea...

If I click View By Person then the heading changes to People I Am Following and the filter at the top works fine. Effectively, we appear to now have the functionality of the current people I'm Watching again. Except that where the current screen packs 8 in, this new one shows only 5 (roughly). Why?

It is possible to see how many changes have taken place (since when?)

If I click View By All Changes then we see, effectively, the current Changes To People I'm Watching screen - still with no means of hiding my changes.

That being so, I wonder if the pop-up is just a temporary feature? Although I note that in theory it gives a fast means of unfollowing - or it would if it were possible to scroll quickly and / or filter - neither of which is possible.

My concern would be that it is not obvious that one needs to use the Options button to swap between View By Person and View by All Changes options. They are (effectively) different menu options currently and people will expect that to continue.

So - we may be getting there...

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terry blair said: A few days ago I got the message that the PIDs I'm following are going to be reported through the internal messaging system. Not what I would like, but OK. However, I do have a question. The internal messaging system I've seen only has a box with space for a few lines of text, yet the PID information, in extreme cases, covers several pages of information. So, how will this work; must we scroll through a few lines of text at a time?

LegacyUser

Jeff_Luke said: disappointing.

looks like the same team that made the 'temple reservations' page difficult to use are working on doing the same to the watch list.

if it's not broken, don't fix it.