Drop in activity level in Ireland Genealogy Research group
The activity level in the Ireland Genealogy Research group seems to have fallen off a cliff over recent months.
Before the upgrade to the new community format, the activity level in this community was quite buoyant. However, in recent months it has been approaching zero. Total number of discussions in June so far has been 1. In May there was also only 1 discussion. April had 4, March had 17, February had 8, and January had 13. Discussion in 2020 was steady.
Would there be any underlying reasons for the fall in activity? Are people finding access more difficult? Is this pattern of activity reflected in other community groups?
Comments
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The new community format seems to require digging to deeper levels before you get to actual content. The content doesn't jump from the page.
For a novice user, who would be the type of user who could perhaps get significant benefit from the community forum, this would seem to be an off-putting factor.
I wonder what we can do to help improve both the usability and the immediacy of the content?
John.
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I agree, I was helping people with questions about Irish genealogy at least weekly, but now such questions are very rare.
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Raising this topic again.
Three months have passed since I initially raised this topic. Activity levels in the Ireland Genealogy Research Group have not improved to any appreciable level.
What happened? A community with vibrant involvement seems to have simply almost stopped.
Has there been any analysis as to why people are no longer using the valuable community feature of FamilySearch?
John.
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You'll have to ask the people who left why they left and where they went.
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I have argued elsewhere that there is a strong case for winding-up most of these groups and for questions to be posed in the main Q and A section / sub-sections of the Community platform.
I am a member of the British Isles, England, Scotland and Family Tree groups and share a similar experience. The first two of these have had just one post this month and the latter two just two posts in September.
There was an announcement a few months back that the Indexing group would be removed, as there was a section for this in Q and A, so I definitely believe this should be applied to the Family Tree group.
The reasoning behind having these separate groups is sound enough, but if they are hardly being used (I only infrequently visit my groups to check for new posts) they might as well be removed.
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I don't know the answers but suppose:
If the group on the previous platform was 'lost' it will take time to 'rebuild' the group. There are alternative groups on other platforms but I would not know whether they also have experienced this downturn in participation.
Covid and summer vacation (i am guessing) at least in my neighborhood has affected group participation in family history - there was a significant drop in participation from my local group around March/May timeframe. So there are seasonal and other concerns that are 'probably' affecting participation generally and this is being reflected in low participation in the online community groups here.
Personally I am only returning to my sporadic participation because of various factors which make my participation possible. I can only hope, invite and persuade others to participate because as a collective group we can get much more family history work done.
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Tell me. What was the previous structure/group like?
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