General Chat

Boro Babs I agree some people are being abused by GR while others that do far worse get away with it, thats why experienced ' moderators.are needed to be put in place. To stop unfair treatment. To be honest i am expecting to be told off for makeing this thread up in the first place, even though it is a General Topics Board and all who have added have been fair and polite

Oh Ann i seconed that one. I would not even mind paying an extra 0.50p extra on my membership if it ment they would clean the site up once and for all and make it more members only user friendly

How can we sort things out I dont know;; All I can say is I sent GR a e-mail this morning and still waiting for reply;;here is a copy of what I said to them;;; Dear GR, I feel that you are abusing the site members by suspending people who have been pushed to there very limits by the Bullying on this site ;; You are intelligent people I suppose so why cannot this site be monitored 24 hours a day, like a lot of smaller site who do not enjoy the revenue that you are receiving;; I and many other from the site are very unhappy about the abusive postings on Success boards by banned people who rejoin using bogus name, please we beg of you get things sorted out, before you lose lots of valued members who bring in revenue by word of mouth ;; Babs ps still holing my breath for a reply to it or anything been done;;

When someone says LEAVE IT, then LEAVE IT! Don't then turn your attacks onto someone who is trying to stop the arguements for everyone's sake.

Stop non members posting on success board stop non members from reading general topics board...it isnt neccisary to their research !...general board should be a bonus once you have paid Im sick of those immortal words 'I have been watching the board as a non member for blah blah years now I will slate you all ' let them read tips and records boards and success boards...this would still encourage interest introduce moderators (if it was an ideal world) log credit card details...but this would be overcome by switching cards to join Only have one board name done at registration and if you want to change this again, it must be at the descretion of gr Elaine x

I do think an instant ban of 8 weeks for swearing is too much. It should be first a warning, 2nd a short ban then a longer ban. Instant ban of 8 weeks speaks of less work for the paid administrators (and I am really fed up with the cry of 'we are only a small team'. ) with the money they are making they should be able to afford to employ more staff to make the site user friendly and protect it from problem makers Ann Glos

i have to agree with brian,,,, well said mate, jackie

If when you join GR recorded your details stricktly for thair own use, then allowed you to have 2 names you could use if you wanted, this would make it easyer to find any trouble makers and deal with them in the yellow and red card system. Or do you feel a number of spoke persons that are members should be talked to befor GR give a ban out?

Re the question of how to make the boards more user friendly. I do think a sticky or forum of often asked questions would be helpful. Hot matches sorted out. Re. changing name. I used to have my full name on here but since I also said I came from Chester, realized that anyone who wished could find me in the phone book. I reduced it to Jeanie A. but since I rarely get an answer to any post on general board.(Loads of help from Tips) I thought my new name would make me stand out a bit more. Hasn't worked so far!! lol. Always put my name at the end of post. Jeaanie A.

Some brilliant ideas and suggestions on this thread. I sincerely hope GR will take notice. Otherwise, I can see this whole site going to the dogs, regrettably.

Jean, lol ! I only realised the other day I was reading a post by someone I already know had several names ... but never connected that particular post to the same person ..........so I know how confusing it can get. I worry when I see posts with people NOT signing a name afterwards ! sometimes you just don't know if its male or female and so a name would help ! I like my Derbyshire Dancer ! and I hope by now that everyone knows its me, cos I don't want to change it !! :-)) Elaine ;-)

Elaine, I didn't mean that people have to use their own name. Just choose a name and keep to it. For instance, Paul (Chunks) changes his name but always has Paul in the title... Elaine (Harlow Girl) always has Elaine in her name etc. Not only would this help with identifying trouble makers but it would stop this elderly lady being more confused than she already is lol. Jean x.

With regards to name changing, I think we should have the option of two names ... either the name you use every day or a name you want to use on here. I must admit, I wouldn't want to be restricted to such an extent that I wouldn't post if I had to give personal details out. Some of us have got personal problems and don't want our actual identities known ... sometimes for legal reasons. (not me on either score I hasten to add) Elaine ;-)

I noticed that the TYFH site is going to restrict posting on their boards to paying members soon and, I think this has been intoduced as a direct result of the probs on here. Quote from their email 'I have and always will try to keep membership cost on Tracing Your Family History to a bare minimum. At half the price of similar sites and roughly the price of a family history magazine the Tracing Your Family History site membership subscription is a site that really does care for our members. The second consideration was given to events happening on other sites with regards to free postings. It became clear over a period of time just how easy it could be to abuse a priviledge that we offer to allow non subscribing members to post on our boards. Whilst the majority of people are good decent people a minority of people can cause so much unneccesary hurt, suspicion, cause arguments amongst members and spoil the overall communnity spirit that has been created. I am not prepared to allow that to happen. We do not tolerate that sort of behaviour here at Tracing Your Family History For these reasons our site will soon revert back to being mainly full member only.' I'm in agreement with all the suggestions listed so far, but in reality who is going to listen? Suex

Jean i agree with you on that one One name to one member thats the way it use to be.

hi joyce, that's a good point. it's quite safe providing, you don't add to threads such as. where do you live. what is your maiden name. what is your middle name. what is your married name. it amazes me, that so many people add to these, as it really is a security risk... years ago, only the police had software, to find you... today, it's freely available to everyone. hope this helps......bryan.

Joan, I disagree with you on name changing. I cannot keep up with the names being changed all the time and certainly do not want to have a long list of numbers to which I have to refer before I know who I'm talking to. I can't see what is wrong with choosing a name and keeping to it. That would be my No.1 complaint. Jean.

I agree with Bryan. Stella

Now we are geting some good ideas If you agree with any say so or if you have your own ideas lets hear them. If enouth people have their say may something could be done. Only paying members to be allowed to use the site I think is good Bring in the yellow and red card system and then Ban the guilty i think is very good Bring in experienced ' moderators./ prefects is also very good. Ban known trouble makers good Don't let prebanned people rejoin very good Lets see what more can be done

Partial copy and paste from Elaine's thread - As well as logging IPs, GR should use the credit card records to check that banned people are not re-registering. They must keep them else how can they operate the continuous membership? It's so long since I registered that I can't remember what details they ask for but I also think we should have to give our proper names and addresses which are kept on file. Then if a particular member seems to be 'trouble' it would be simple enough for GR to check they are who they say they are. Far too many fakes are registering here. NO boards should be accessible to anyone who hasn't paid the fee. First suspension should only be 4 weeks. 8 weeks is too harsh for a first offence, second suspension should be 8 weeks, third 12, then a total ban. Gwynne