Hope whatever FamilySearch comes up with to replace GetSat is better than the FamilySearch Community

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: I don't understand the logging in thing, (number 6 above). I have always been able to go right directly to GetSat https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea... and see it all without even logging into familysearch.org. I can even reply without logging into familysearch.org. Logging into familysearch.org will also log me into GetSat. Are we talking about GetSat or the FamilySearch Community?

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: I just replied to this GetSat without having to log into FamilySearch. Having the database connected to FamilySearch like GetSat is.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Not being computer savvy, I don't get how being "logged in" works. My cookies / history are all removed once I log out of Firefox, so how (without being signed into FamilySearch) does https://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch "know who I am"? After I click on the GetSat/FS bookmark I see the URL contains an email address that has been defunct for years, yet these factors do not affect my ability to post here.

Basically, I'm asking whether I'm signed in here all the time (though I have to click on "Agree and Proceed" each morning), as I fail to understand the concept of "signing in" on this site compared to any other website I use (where I need a username / email address and password every time I log in).

To clarify, my use of this website is definitely not affected by whether or not I have first signed in at https://www.familysearch.org.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Going back to my comments about Juli's comment, if the idea that new posts when the last entry was six or more month old, are placed at the end of the discussion thread, it would be nice to see a link back up to that last comment.

In the old Yahoo Groups, threads were followed with indents. That can get messy in the case of very long discussions, but it worked well and allowed a certain amount of collaboration in the discussion.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: There are a number of support forum software solutions available and some of open-source. When I had my own site, I explored adding such a package to my site. Some of the open source software sites use those kinds of packages. The biggest problem is managing the user accounts.

If the new site is tied to FamilySearch, then it is likely that a lot of the user management will not be needed. I don't think a package like those I've mentioned would work without a lot of modifications.

Right now, I find the Communities offered by FamilySearch to be extremely difficult to use and to navigate or even to find an appropriate group.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: A nice feature to have would be to be able to star comments, as well as replies and the discussion thread.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: An additional point of comparison occurred to me this morning. I'll quite often use my phone to check my email and when I see notifications from GetSat, they are easier to read than those from the Communities.

(Context - I'm using GMail on an Android Smartphone - anyone else's mileage may vary but I suspect that the platform is failry widespread)

A GetSat notification looks like this:


A Communities notification looks like this:


In my email client on my phone, the GetSat notification appears to bundle all 6 (in this instance) responses into one email per topic, whereas the Community seems to split each notification into a separate mail. I suspect that this is simply because the email title from the Communities includes the name of the person commenting, which is probably different in each mail. GetSat excludes the user's name from the notification title, so GMail can happily bundle them all under one line.

I would therefore suggest that the Communities notifications exclude the user's name from the email title and thus allow systems like GMail to thread multiple notification on the same topic under one. (Anyone who doesn't like threading and wants a strictly time-based view will have, I assume, set their email client up to do just that anyway.)

The other advantage of excluding the user's name in the GetSat notifications title is that I can see the title of the thread - or, at least, its start. The Communities notification doesn't appear to give any indication in the title of what thread is being responded to - something that I personally find far more valuable. So, I would suggest that the Communities notifications include the thread title.

Another oddity in the Community notification email is that the response being notified occurs twice in the text of the notification mail - once at the top, and further down in a context that is some sort of abbreviated form of the surrounding responses. I'm not particularly objecting to this at the moment - but I am curious why the double text.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: An interesting (and annoying) effect of the way that Communities structure their email titles is that I was following up one response - from one person, remember, because that's the way that the email titles are structured - and when I went to the actual Community site, there were loads of other responses that I hadn't anticipated.

After initial confusion, I realised that other people's responses were there, but in a different and later thread in my email client.

Forming the notification email title from the thread title (as per GetSat) bundles everything for that thread together. Forming the notification email title from the user's name (as per Communities) scatters notifications for a single thread. I prefer to see notifications as per GetSat.

(I think there were 5 notification mails for one Community thread - whereas GetSat would have had just 1. I think. Numbers not guaranteed as I just had to search my GMail bin).

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: Agree with Chas Howell, " Overall GetSat functions better than Community. I think it would be or would have been better for FS to start with the GetSat Model over Community Model and build from there."

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: "but I find that I learn more here than I do there." - Slotbuddy
https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea...

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Don, I really suspect that FS was building from 2 different models to support 2 distinct mandates that the brethren had given them. The FamilySearch Feedback forum at Getsatisfaction was designed to be primarily a customer service/help desk extension for tool/website development and improvements.

However, for a couple of years now, I have heard presentations by the brethren and the prophet talking about how they want to create a greater presence in social media for the church so that more of the truth can get out to those who want it. Just a few years ago, if you looked up the name of the church online, most of what you would find was all kinds of misinformation, outside and poorly informed opinions, and even some outright attacks.

So I can only assume that the FamilySearch Community was developed partially in response to those mandates. That's why the FS Community seems to be based on a social media model where the getsatisfaction/familysearch site is more of a customer feedback forum type model.

There HAS been a trend showing in FS where everything wants to be treated as a social medial site--even when it is not. I do hope that if FS does end up using the FamilySearch Community as a new place for some kind of feedback group, that they consciously attempt to keep focused on the use cases that the group needs to support, as opposed to just cloning functions that Facebook has.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: In reading Slotbuddy's comments, I get the impressing that he was referring more to the content of this forum over that of the indexing group in the FamilySearch community. Not the ease in using one over the other. I left a question on that topic regarding this issue.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: Slotbuddy 7 hours ago
"I'd rather be part of this group than the FamilySearch Community that is dedicated to indexing and reviewing. They are all very nice people, no problem there whatsoever, but I find that I learn more here than I do there.

I don't mean to sound like I know everything there is to know about indexing and reviewing because nothing could be further from the truth, but I have been indexing and arbitrating and now reviewing for many years and need to know more about other things available on family search and you just don't get that kind of info on that forum. I certainly hate to lose this forum and hoped it would stay around forever." - Slotbuddy
https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea...

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: "even some outright attacks"

When I last looked at the website of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there was a lot about a religious freedom. Just as the members of the church have religious freedom to practice Latter Day Saint worship and promote their views, other people also have religious freedom to share views counter to those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

If you looked up my religion, you also find a lot of criticism, debate and theological discussion on the internet.

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: So if the brethren decide to do away with GetSat and use the FamilySearch Community site as Feedback for the FamilySearch "Family Tree," we can expect proselytizing at the FamilySearch Community site because it will be more of a social media site? -- I like the way GetSat is used now, and again, will not be moving to the FamilySearch Community site if it becomes the Feedback for the FamilySearch "Family Tree."

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: A Van Helsdingen,

I am quite sure that your religion contains far more good in it than those criticisms. But in order for people who are searching for truth in their lives, they need to see those positives of your religion and not just a bunch of voices of criticism and opinion. And as far as religious freedom goes, it is fine to voice differences in respect, but doing it in a devious way such as pretending your posts are from church leaders and spokespersons in order to make your voice appear to be more signifiant than it is, or to just lure in the unsuspecting is just plain wrong. And making fun of sacred things of ANYONE's religion is also completely unacceptable in my opinion.

Don,

I would not expect any of the rules of the FamilySearch Feedback forum to really change regardless of where it might be moved to. Rules of both the FamilySearch Community groups and the Feedback forum and GetSatisfaction are under the jurisdiction of FS.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: We're bending the rules of this forum too far- religion is a specifically banned topic (https://www.familysearch.org/help/hel...), so I won't be responding to your points.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Of course your are correct. I seem to be a repeat offender to that code :-(

LegacyUser

Don M Thomas said: Does the computer number, or address, have anything to do with it? - You make a good point, how does GetSat know who you are without signing into FamilySearch?

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: My belief is that when we go into GetSat, we are going in through a "wrapper" that is part of FS, is provided by FS, including the logon, menu bar, etc etc., and is running on FS servers. At some point, our transactions then get lobbed over the wall into GetSat.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: It seems that somehow, when you come from the FS website, it logs you into the getsatisfaction.com/familysearch site. The interesting thing is that if you totally log out of all FS sites and leave the browser, if you come back the the getsatisfaction.com/familysearch site directly via URL or book mark, you are still logged in. Getsat still knows who you are--you can see this if you view any Topic. At the end of the topic thread where you would make a reply, you can see that it knows to put your personal icon there:



But, if you then go to your getsatisfaction.com account information, and in the upper right of the window you do a sign out:



If you then leave and return directly to the getsatisfaction.com/familysearch website, it will no longer recognize you:



If you attempt to enter something, it wants you to login, but using your GetSatisfaction.com account username and password which are NOT the same as your FS username and password. However, signing in via FS first does this all for you transparently.

So it appears that once you are authorized to be logged into your GetSatisfaction.com account via logging into FS, the GetSatisfaction.com account stays permanently logged in. That's why once you've logged in all of your bookmarks will still work, even if you log out of FS and re-enter the getsatisfaction.com/familysearch website directly via URL or bookmark. If you log out of the actual getsatisfaction.com account, all of those bookmarks will take you to where you can read stuff, but you can't post anything.

LegacyUser

Juli said: (Stealing my sister's account to post this - Marti) I don't fully know how things work, but the answer to "how does GetSat know who we are if we're not logged in" is either "cookies" or "you're using a link that tells them". Also, "single sign-on" is a bit of a misnomer, or at least it should be interpreted differently than many people do: it *doesn't* mean you only sign in once and then you're logged into two sites. What it means is that you use the same *credentials* (username/email/password) on both sites, and the one site (GetSat) doesn't actually store or authenticate those credentials - instead, it sends your input to FS and asks, "should I let this person in with these credentials?" This is why you logging out on FS has absolutely no bearing on GetSat.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Thanks for these responses. In particular (Jeff), I had never thought about signing out of my GetSat account - probably because there's no clear indication that I'm logged in! I've not logged into FamilySearch today, had to click on "Agree and Proceed" (as my cookies get deleted overnight) and there is no Paul W / Paul Wrightson account detail at the top of this page. Also "explains" why my old email details are included in the URL (link from my Bookmark) - GetSat must have been the only people I did not notify when it changed 2-3 years back!

Is this (method of login) a unique / highly unusual set-up, or more common than I/we might think?

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: I don't think it is unusual at all. GetSatisfaction.com was in the business of hosting communities for many companies. Each person accessing ANY of those communities would have to have a personal GetSatisfaction account. It's just that they would provide the indirect login through portals on the individual company sites.

That's why several of us had to reset our GetSatisfaction account passwords to get back on here just recently. The GetSatisfaction personal account is the final say on whether or not you can get into any of the GetSatisfaction communities