I'd like 'Share an Idea' to be more private and not have my name appended to it.

LegacyUser

Jack Hern said: I should add some details here, but this is mostly a test.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Welcome to the community-powered feedback forum for FamilySearch. FamilySearch personnel read every discussion thread and may or may not respond as their time permits. We all share an active interest in using the resources of this site and as users, we have various levels of knowledge and experience and do our best to help each other with concerns, issues, and/or questions.

The key word is "share" and when you "share" it becomes open for public consideration. This is a public feedback forum and as such, many of us are regular participants in this forum and FamilySearch users.

The development teams are not part of the support infrastructure for FamilySearch. As such, they work under the guidance of two departments of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- The Family History Department and the Temple Department. Both are overseen by the leadership of the Church.

The resources are made available, as far as laws and contractual agreements with the custodians of the historical records will allow, free of any charges. The site, first and foremost, serves the ecclesiastical needs of the Church. This has been the situation since the formation of the Genealogical Society of Utah over 100 years ago.

As a user, I don't know what channel you can use to provide suggestions and keep it private. As with any organization, there are processes in place that provide an avenue to the leadership. This forum is one of them.

LegacyUser

MaureenE said: For this forum, by editing your user profile, you can change your user name to any thing you want (within reason).

Tom says that this forum is one of the processes in place which provides an avenue to the leadership. Personally I doubt this. I think you are lucky if even "middle management" takes much note of what is said, let alone the leadership.

I'm not a church member, so I'm talking about genealogical record related issues etc and can't comment on church issues.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: Just another patron like yourself.

You could go into "Settings" and change your user name to something other than "Jack Hern." I would not use your photo if you want comments in this forum not appended to "Jack Hern." FamilySearch would know who you are, but other patrons reading this forum would not know who you are. I think one can change their user name? FamilySearch can one change their user name? I just recently changed my user name from Don Martin Thomas to Don M Thomas, so I think one can change their user name.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: Just go to the Help menu, choose "Contact Us" and send an e-mail. Those do get read but don't show up here.

However, since FamilySearch has stated many times that posts here are monitored and forwarded on to the correct team as appropriate but rarely reply on this board, I would not expect any reply to your e-mail. You will just have to trust that if your idea has any merit, it reached the right people.

Basically, this board has two functions:

1) As a feedback site it works like those little feedback boxes you sometimes see at grocery stores and other business where you can fill out a card with a comment or idea and drop it in the slot. You never hear anything back.

2) As a user discussion group where we users who can't really do much about anything endlessly debate just for the fun of it while FamillySearch sits off in the background eavesdropping to pick out the wheat from the chaff.

If you only want (1) but not (2), an e-mail should accomplish that.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: So I guess Gordon, because I don't have as many numbers attached to my name as you do with your name, I am the chaff? What happened to the saying, Judge not, that ye be not judged?

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: So I guess Gordon, because I don't have as many numbers attached to my name as you do with your name, I am the chaff? What happened to the saying, Judge not, that ye be not judged?

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Where did you get that idea? Gordon said nothing about numbers, but only addressed the question posed by Jack.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Huh? Where did that come from?

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: "Pick out the wheat from the chaff" referred to ideas, not people.

If I send a confusing, poorly thought out, impractical idea directly to FamilySearch, it will go directly into the trash bin.

If I post that same idea here to be challenged, discussed, clarified, refined, and rewritten by everyone on the board here that takes an interest in it, the parts of it that are worthless will be winnowed away. Possibly leaving nothing behind but potentially resulting in the kernel of an ideal that could lead to a valuable improvement.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: In your sentence number (2) above, you did not use a secular terminology as they will pick out either the, bad, good, better or best ideas.
In your sentence number (2) above, you used a religious terminology, of judgement. When Jesus Christ comes again he will separate the wheat from the chaff. Meaning he will separate the righteous from the un-righteous people.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: From dictionary.com:

separate wheat from chaff - Sort the valuable from the worthless, as in "I hope we'll get a preview of the auction so we can separate the wheat from the chaff." This idiom alludes to the ancient practice of winnowing grain."

From dictionary.cambridge.org:

separate the wheat from the chaff - to separate things or people that are of high quality or ability from those that are not:
"The first round of interviews really separates the wheat from the chaff."

From merrian-webster.com:
separate the wheat from the chaff (idiom) - to judge which people or things in a group are bad and which ones are good.
"The magazine describes many different products and then separates the wheat from the chaff."

Many valuable and fun expressions and idioms that have entered everyday language can be traced to the Bible, but that does not limit them to strictly religious usage.

LegacyUser

Juli said: Don: huh???

Separating the wheat from the chaff is agriculture. The concept predates every currently-known religion by many millennia. The analogy is as non-religious as it is humanly possible to get.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: Juli, not according to LDS culture. It is used as a religious statement.

LegacyUser

David Newton said: You well know not everyone who posts here is Mormon. You should also be aware of the general usage of the term. After all not every good Samaritan is from Samaria for example.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: Gordon, I apologize for my accusation and accusing. Please forgive me. I ask for your forgiveness. - Don

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: No offense taken. Misunderstandings happen. Language is complex. Apology is certainly accepted.