Please add DATES to items published in the Help Center

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: With all of the frequent changes occurring in FamilySearch, it would helpful to provide a publishing (and revision) DATE on articles and information in Help Center, so readers can determine how current the information might be.

Simply providing this info for FUTURE documents would be helpful. If the FamilySearch Wiki routinely documents changes with appropriate dates, The "Help Center" should also be able to do it.

It appears the capability already exists as Help 'Lessons' often show dates in the search menu, e.g. "Finland: An Introduction to Finnish Church Record Online Resources, by Rachel Creswell / 3 months ago" (although the date does not appear on the page.)

Currently the only dates generally showing on the pages are the likely required and rarely read: "FamilySearch Rights and Use Information (Updated 2/3/2015) - Privacy Policy (Updated 3/18/2014) © 2017 by Intellectual Reserve"

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: I believe this is a good suggestion. Having a date of the latest change will provide the user information relative to updates in the support articles when the system is updated.

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: Once again, today, I accessed a help article and could NOT determine if it was CURRENT information.

"Simply providing this info for FUTURE documents would be helpful."

"If the FamilySearch Wiki routinely documents changes with appropriate dates, The "Help Center" should also be able to do it."

LegacyUser

Brett said: Robert

Stating the obvious ... 'do not hold your breath'!

Wouldn't it be great/fantastic!

Brett

ps: As has been 'coined' ... the "helpLESS Centre"!

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: Cynicism may not succeed, but perhaps persistence MIGHT?? - please don't mention GEDCOM

LegacyUser

Brett said: Robert

Cynicism, maybe; but, I was not even thinking of; or, considering/implying that 'Unpleasant' (to put it 'mildly') situation.

Brett

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: I received a response from FS Support today to a query concerning temple work done twice for two versions of a PID - one male, one female. (I had successfully merged them, which had surprised me.)

News to me!!! "Not too long ago our engineering department made it easier for patrons to change the gender of an ancestor and then merge. When that happens if the ordinances show up, then all is well. If the ordinances have not been done for the correct gender then you will see a request for those ordinances. The fact that ordinances were done as male and also as female is okay. The important thing is the ordinance were done for the correct gender. The fact that patron's can now merge the two will delete the female gender, which is also correct.

We appreciate our engineers. It is difficult to keep up with all the changes that is for sure!"

With a link to this help article: https://www.familysearch.org/help/sal...

I wonder when this might have done -

a DATE on the Help articles would be HELPFUL!!
"Simply providing this info for FUTURE documents would be helpful."

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: An ACADEMIC question, but I wonder which of these is correct or current, re ordinance permission:

1 "Before you perform ordinances for a deceased person born within the last 110 years, obtain permission from the closest living relative. Relatives may not want the ordinances performed or may want to perform the ordinances themselves. The closest living relatives are, in this order: a spouse, then children, then parents, then siblings."

2 "you must get permission from one of the closest living relatives to do the ordinances."

3 "Note: The closest living relative is an undivorced spouse(the spouse to whom the individual was married at the time of death), an adult child, a parent, a brother, or a sister.

a DATE on the Help articles would be HELPFUL!!

"Simply providing this info for FUTURE documents would be helpful."
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In addition to a date it would also be helpful to:
Be consistent in using article numbers (& include in the title), for example:

"Related articles
How do I merge duplicate records in Family Tree? (53952)
In What Sequence Should Ordinances Be Performed? (52726) "
vs:
"Related articles
I keep getting the "Needs more information" error when I try to reserve ordinances
Doing temple work for people not related to me "

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: This topic again raised the issue of the desirability of ADDING DATES to help articles. Many "help" articles appear to be obsolete!
https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea...

As suggested in THIS topic, simply by starting to DATE help articles, within a few months or years we might be able to determine what the current policy of FamilySearch might actually be!!

Anyone in "authority" care to pass the suggestion to anyone who could actually institute the policy???? Please!

LegacyUser

Lynne VanWagenen said: This is in the works and hopefully we’ll be able to include a publication date with articles here pretty soon.

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: Ahhh, thank you ever so much, Lynne!!!