Where is the best place to post a question relating to Family Tree?
I'm confused as to whether users are meant to post here (https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/65-familysearch-family-tree), which is placed under "Q and A" or at https://community.familysearch.org/en/categories/family-tree , under "Groups". (Or is that the other way around - I'm trying to verify the two links, but am getting totally mixed-up!)
Best Answer
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As the FamilySearch website continues to get larger the community will begin to see a larger number of people entering that just need one question answered with no intent on returning. They don't want to have ongoing interaction or receive news, updates, and additional resources around these topics.
Rather than lump these individuals in with the enthusiasts we have created somewhat of a funnel where people who are interested in getting one answer have a place to go, that can also act as a feeder to draw people toward those related groups. Otherwise, you end up with Giant groups with very little participation.
So think of the help center categories as "Transactional Support" vs Groups that arre ongoing interaction, sharing and support.
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Answers
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@Paul W both of those are great places. The category is for more general questions the group is better for more specific questions. There should be people in both places who can help address your questions regardless of where you post it.
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Mark
"Did this answer the question? Yes · No".
Well, "yes" and "no". I rarely visited the former Community section whilst GetSatisfaction.com was in operation. Then (after GetSat disappeared) I started using "Ideas" AND "Questions" (within the old Community section).
I found it confusing enough with that set-up to choose the best place to post, but would definitely prefer not to have the choice of TWO "Family Tree" forums to post (and participate in) now, through this new "Community" section.
Can things be made a little less complicated by combining some of these places to post (like the two "Family Tree" forums)? Otherwise, even regular users are going to be overwhelmed by what appears to be unnecessary complexity here.
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Mark
My initial response has just disappeared! Basically, I replied "yes" and "no" to: "Did this answer the question? Yes · No".
Things are just a little bit too confusing, even for us regular contributors, the way things stand. Personally, I would appreciate just the one "Family Tree" heading for queries: i.e. for FamilySearch to remove the one reached through "Q and A," or redirect the link to the "Family Tree" section under "Groups". There's really not enough distinction to make two sections for the same heading viable, in this case - and possibly others.
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So we appear to have three places
1) The Groups:
Home› Groups› FamilySearch Family Tree
on https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/65-familysearch-family-tree
2) The Q&A:
Home› Help Center Categories› Family Tree
on https://community.familysearch.org/en/categories/family-tree
3) The Ideas:
Home› Ideas› Family Tree
on https://community.familysearch.org/en/categories/familytree
Notice the huge difference between those last 2 URLs? Yes - one has a hyphen in. Neither has "Ideas" or "QnA" in - not that they have to, but why on earth create confusion?
The Groups page says "Discuss and engage in conversations surrounding the building of family trees in FamilySearch". The Q&A page says "Get help building your family tree."
I fail to see the difference. I can see a difference between
- Using the existing system (?Home› Help Center Categories› Family Tree?) and
- Possible improvements to the existing system (?Home› Ideas› Family Tree?).
So why the 3rd? Confused I am...
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(Oh yes - I forgot - I can't trim that Quote down, can I? Sigh....)
Mark - one person's "general" is another person's "specific".... And a specific issue may lead directly into a general one.
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@Paul W The categories are controlled by FamilySearch. The Groups are controlled by members of the community. We very well may find in this instance everything belongs in the category. @Caleb Love just want to make sure you are aware of the concerns of this user.
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1) Re Q&A as a simple magnet for one-offs. Well, not a bad idea. But please think of the people who are going to be answering these queries. We now have to look at both Q&A and at Groups. Plus Ideas as well. That's three places to look instead of one(?) before.
And any of the more experienced guys are - clearly - puzzled, implying the UI needs more explanation. Maybe Q&A needs to be labelled "Quick Questions"?
2) One of the highlighted benefits of the new design was a breadcrumb display at the top that tells someone where they've come from.
So why does the left-hand bar say "Q and A" but the breadcrumb says "Home› Help Center Categories"? Naming must be consistent. This is broken immediately.
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As Adrian implies, having to visit three places is going to be of no encouragement to more-experienced users to post responses to posts. A number of FamilySearch / Family Tree users who used to offer excellent advice "disappeared" when the GetSatisfaction forum was withdrawn. I can see a further loss of support from experienced members of the community now https://community.familysearch.org/en has been divided still further.
Most of us knew where we were with the two-way split between Ideas (which basically replaced the GetSat forum) and Questions. The present three-way split (Q and A, Groups, Ideas) provides less encouragement for me (and I'm sure others) to spend valuable time jumping around between the various sections and sub-sections in a genuine desire to help (and be helped by) others.
Please help us to help others by simplifying the current lay-out.
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"The present three-way split (Q and A, Groups, Ideas) provides less encouragement for me (and I'm sure others) to spend valuable time jumping around between the various sections and sub-sections"
Agreed Paul - I just spent ages trying to find this precise thread...
Does anyone who set this up realise that there are three places for us to check? Or not...
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