Discussions moved from "Q and A - Family Tree"
A few items caught me eye today, but I found they had been labelled "Discussion removed" and then "Closed". When other "fellow moderators" have move discussions, these have been left open, so there is a link to the section to which they have been transferred.
Would you please clarify why you are doing things this way, as it is making it very difficult to trace the topics of interest, at their new location.
(I apologise if it is not you that is taking this action, as a closer look shows it was you that initiated these discussions, so maybe they have just been completely removed, rather moved elsewhere.)
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Hi Paul
There are some postings which are requesting or require certain actions which need to be handled by various departments. In such cases, a family search missionary such as myself will move the item to our escalation queue and the item is marked closed. The posting will then be worked as appropriate. I generally message the individual posting the request letting them know what is happening.
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Thank you for your prompt response, Wayland. I see Gordon Collett raised a similar point in the "Ideas" section, so I will post a link there to this discussion.
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Wayland,
Thanks for confirming what I assumed was going on with the posts that become inaccessible here. Can you pass on to the right people my suggestion at: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/87756/please-differentiate-between-moved-types#latest
It would really be nice to be able to see at a glance which posts have been escalated and can no longer be viewed here vs those which have just been moved to another group rather than have click on each one.
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Gordon Yes, that will get passed on. The easy way to tell is if the post is closed. It will be closed when moved to the escalation queue and no longer accessible. When we escalated a post, we message the contributor telling them what is happening. If the post is just moved to another group. it will remain open and you can click on it to open the post in the new group assuming you have access to that group.
Thanks for your many contributions to the community. I see your name often with some good insights.
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Wayland,
Closed does not mean escalated and inaccessible. Closed just means closed. For example:
was just moved from Q&A>Family Tree to Q&A>Search and can still be viewed. I'm not sure why it was closed because there may be all sorts of people out there who might be able to give the poster useful hints: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/87738/how-do-i-search-for-chinese-names#latest
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I agree with Gordon about the closure of Discussion items. I would go further, feeling that even if the item has been escalated there should still be the opportunity for some of the very experience users who participate in this forum to add comments that might help address, or add extra weight, to the issue.
The practice of closing a case was far too prevalent when Support dealt with emails. Often, queries were merely addressed by providing a "copy and paste" response that did not even have a direct bearing on the issue, then immediately "closed". I would be sorry to see a similar practice being adopted here.
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After writing the above, I came across an example (at https://community.familysearch.org/en/categories/search/p2 - titled "Moved: Family skipped in indexing page of the 1940 US census") - screenshot attached.
This was probably closed and passed to the "relevant team", but I would have probably liked to have commented (depending on the full content of the post - no longer visible, of course!) that such problems are rarely able to be fixed: as I did in a post of a similar nature.
Users of FamilySearch, who have many years experience in encountering such problems are sometimes better equipped to respond to such issues than even FamilySearch employees, so please (moderators) leave them open, as far as you can..
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I can think right off hand of three types of posts that support might get involved in:
1) How do I...?
- E.G: How do a merge a duplicate not found under possible duplicates?
- There may be a help center article, which might be out of date, that Support can post, but users sometimes have short cuts or other suggestions that can be very useful or toss on an illustration to clarify the process.
- This should never be closed because someone might find a better way to do this and want to post.
2) Please do this....
- E.G. "My uncle died one year ago, please find his church membership record and add deceased so it will appear in Family Tree."
- This just needs action. No comments.
- This could be closed because no user really can have much to say about this. It should probably be completely removed from the Community.
3) Please make note of this....
- E.G: "The indexed birth records batch for Ænes, Hordaland, Norway were all standardized as Ænes Cemetery in Kvinnherad, Hordaland and should have been standardized as Ænes (the parish) in Skånevik, Hordaland.
- This just needs to be reported to the proper team to put on their unending list of things to fix someday.
- This could be closed because I don't need or really even want any comments. They are not going to be useful. I just want the correct people to be able to analyze and fix what went wrong. But it should stay in the community so others can see what has been reported.
I am assuming here that "Closed" in Community just means no longer able to be posted on, not marked as completed and filed away by Support.
Regarding most discussions, I agree with Paul that they should never be closed. The exception would be if they degenerate into an argument.
0 - E.G: How do a merge a duplicate not found under possible duplicates?
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Paul and Gordon In general I agree with your comments. However, there are several postings/questions which absolutely have to be forwarded to the correct department for resolution. The only action we have to do that currently is to move the posting to our escalation queue. Closing is automatic when moving to that queue. We do private message the person asking the question and tell them what is going on. But as I said, we have no other options at present. I would suggest you put a post in the "Ideas" group for suggested changes. It does seem a bit confusing the way it is.
And BTW, we do appreciate your inputs into community. As stated, you often have much more insight than some of us that serve as moderators. Thanks for all you do.
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That's fine, it does make sense that a topic moved to the correct department be closed here. It would just be nice to be able to see clearly that that is what happened without having to click on the topic.
One, possibly final, further comment on this topic is on my experience so far. On June 20 I posted a topic under Q&A Family Tree that I was certain would be forwarded on. Mainly because it was an item that support would have to address but also to see how the new system works. It was: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/86918/please-add-bic-to-vivian-thelma-andersen-kwvl-gt2#latest
It was moved/escalated within about 12 hours. It's been 9 days and I have not had any e-mail or direct message regarding this. I also see that it is no longer on my "My Discussions" list under my account. It would be nice if everyone did send a message, as you, Wayland, said that you usually do, or if there were an automatic process programmed in to send a message that the post has been sent to the proper department to be taken care of.
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