My Heritage

please read the explanation here

http://www.geni.com/blog/introducing-record-matches-and-smart-match...

Because i like participating in every single public discussion :)....

It truely does seem like another PR disaster.

Thanks for the link Jason, pity there isn't more effort to get this news across, like the mass email that Noah sent earlier this year, or even just someone from CS replying to the various discussion with the URL as you have done here.

Thank you. I had no idea that blog even existed.

At the bottom of every Geni page, in teeny tiny type that easily changes languages on you so be careful to use the BLUE links and not the GRAY, you'll see

About Terms Privacy Blog Wiki World Family Tree Help English (US)

NB: i presume Alex sees the last (furthest to the right) as English (UK), it's a wonder we understand each other usually

Anyway - the

Oops - see what I mean about slippery fingers? :)

I'm testing the match service just like anyone else. So far I'm getting pretty good matches.

Erica Howton
Still waiting for Geni to support English (Oz).

I think the point you're trying to make is that there is a link to the Blog on the screen wherever you are within Geni?
That's hardly an encouragement for people to check it everyday just in case a major change has been introduced.

As for the matches so far Smart Matches have been 99.9% accurate but unfortunately the quality of data in some of those trees is terrible and i don't want to confirm matches as it encourages spread of inaccurate info.
Also it seems odd to me that i will get a Smart match for say, my 1st cousin, and the MH tree has my cousin, their parents, siblings, spouse and children so why am i not getting a match for all of those other family members?

Alex I'm just testing it the same way you are - I might have the advantage though in having used ancestry.com more?

So far I'm pleased with the look, feel, & ease. I'm disappointed my remarkably obscure family is not hitting some of the newspaper archive collections (worldwide I believe). I do know there's a major data collection in the works that will help record building on my tree tremendously. and the FindaGrave collection is very helpful already.

So far, for a few hours into a deployment, I'm impressed.

I do think the Geni tree likely more accurate.

Hmmm, MH is crowd-sourcing without peer correction.
Geni has a lot of built in facilities to allow people to confirm on data to be a better picture.
MH just seems to be "here is what you think, here is what everyone else thinks, here's where you overlap" THE END with no desire/drive to iron out the wrinkles.

General question:

I've had a MH account for about a year but have never built a tree there.
I am thinking of a gedcom export from here to my PC into the genealogy program that i downloaded from MH. Then upload the resultant family tree into MH.
Any thoughts?

You'll probably end up with a million matches to your own tree here from there o.O

I've read a post by a Geni Staffer in another discussion today that if you have both of your accounts (Geni & MH) linked to the same email address (which i do) the software knows not to flag up matches.
Or it may have said that in the Blog, either way i've definitely read it today.

Alex Moes
It is not possible to release a new feature and make 8 million users on Geni instantly educated about it. This feature is less than 12 hours old, so some patience is required. In a few days, everyone who cares will know exactly how it works but it will not be instant. We are bringing up banners on the website today that will indicate what's new and we're sending a detailed email to the Geni users that will tell them more about this feature. They will carry link to the blog post (as Jason provided above) because we are aware that not everyone reads the blog. This email cannot be sent in one hour. This not a PR disaster, but a tiny handful of users who always rant and complain no matter what.

Confirming matches does not encourage the spread of any incorrect info.
You may get matches on some people and not on others if the matching technology doesn't have enough information on the others to consider the match likely. This is fine though, because if a profile was matched to another tree you can inspect its relatives without having to get matches on those relatives. Getting matches on close relatives with looser criteria is called "secondary matching" and it's something we intend to add soon. It already exists on MyHeritage, but not yet on Geni.

This feature is very powerful but it's not complete. If we waited until everything was completed, then Geni users would not receive any matches for the next 3 years. So first they get the matches and can inspect them. Later they will be able to extract information from them with convenient tools. Later they will be able to collaborate with MyHeritage users more seamlessly around them. We have integrated two websites here in a manner never before done in the genealogy industry, and you are quick to criticize less than 12 hours from the release that what you received is not enough? Then stay tuned for more. We're glad you care. Internet products are released when they are available and even the first version of Facebook did not have 5% of the features it has today. But if they had waited to make it more complete before releasing, then it would never have been released.

Private User

Totally get what you're saying. It's a ton of hard work and tough to make everyone happy for sure. Perhaps a little clue in advance that change is coming would be nice just so people don't feel like they were hit upside the head so to speak. Just a thought....:)

Wendi - it WAS discussed (vaguely) in the MyHeritage + Geni announcements.

As the flip side to Gilad's comment - if, in software development, you say "the toast will be ready to serve on March 20" & then something happens - oops - it's May 20 - what is worse?

I'd rather the toast get served when it's ready than expecting it - and it's not there. :)

They also talked about it at RootsTech.

Erica Howton Those announcements were months ago. A simple email a day or two in advance of launch with a teaser to get people excited is not an unheard of thing to do... no dates, no promises... just a teaser that says "change is on the way" so people aren't totally caught off-guard is all i meant.

Private User I didn't know that, but then again I wasn't at RootsTech as I'm sure is the case with 95% of active Geni users. Communicating with your subscriber base isn't an unheard of thing to do!

Wendi, my understanding from past mass e-mails to the Geni userbase is that it's very resource-consuming and expensive for Geni to send out those types of e-mails. From their perspective, it wouldn't have made sense to notify people in advance and then again after it happened.

I think of Facebook here -- my Facebook display changes all the time, and I never get any notice. Even though it sometimes annoys me at first, I get used to it pretty quickly.

For what it's worth, the RootsTech presentation was broadcast on-line for free, and I believe the Geni blog had promoted it in advance as well as day-of.

Wendi I can confirm Ashley's email understanding. It takes Geni a lot of computing resources to send out the mass mailer you're thinking of.

I'm hoping one day they'll better integrate the blog into the "home page" so they can use it for more info on what's in the pipeline. But frankly other organization blogs are linked only also.

Private User Erica Howton

Yes, you're both right and it makes sense. The facebook comparison is a good one. I guess I just spend a lot more time (and $) on Geni than FB, so I'm more invested in it heart and soul, ya know?

It's all good now. I think the initial WHAT is going on is settling down and my initial concerns were addressed, so I'm all good.

I had no idea the RootsTech presentation was broadcast. Definitely agree with you that it would be great if the blog could be more integrated with the Geni homepage.

I'm not looking to be argumentative. My initial reaction as was that of many people was just a bit of surprise and wanting ot know what it all meant.

Wendi, I don't think anyone is seeing you as argumentative. :) It's good for you to have a voice. Thank you for being patient and accepting.

I know that I, and *especially* Erica, have invested a lot of our life's energy into this big, beautiful project we call Geni, so we completely understand the heart-and-soul investment. It would break my heart if I ever had to start over on some other site, so I'm willing to accept pretty much anything they do to increase revenue. Personally, I've been calling for a "Handsome Men of Geni" fundraising calendar for a while, but that seems to be a non-starter so far... :)

Another way to keep up with the Geni blog is to follow the accounts on Facebook and Twitter, assuming you're active on either site. That's how I get my daily reminder(s) to go read it.

I've watched the blog from inception to it's current incarnation and am so proud of it's professionalism. I want more people to read it, including me LOL

My Geni site was flooded on 24 April 2013 with My Heritage matches. I do not want to join My Heritage. I chose to be on Geni as it was not associated with a research database. No research database adequately covers my family history especially my Estonian family & there are better sites for my heritage if I wanted to join one. I do my research across a number of pay & non-pay sites and don't want another pay site. Now I find my Geni site flooded with 447 My Heritage matches within 48 hours which I cannot delete from my Geni site without joining My Heritage. The matches appear in a list which I can ignore although thats hard because it reminds me every day of whats happened and grows every day.

I'm likely to eventually have thousands of undeletable matches which also appear as undeletable blue bubbles across the whole family tree. Geni/My Heritage does not offer an opt out option and offers no way of removing these matches unless you buy a My Heritage membership. It diminishes the value of Geni for those who do not want this feature.

I have had all my comments removed from the Geni blog and from Facebook. There are no complaints mechanisms and the sales pitch that we will get tremendous benefits from joining My Heritage overlooks why many people are on Geni - it was Geni's point of difference. Both companies have no complaints mechanisms and clearly do not want to deal with customer dissatisfaction. There are actually a lot of unhappy customers out in the world today who have no voice. The only response I got from Geni was that I "Don''t have to buy My Heritage and was missing out on the tremendous advantages of US Census" with Scottish, Irish, English, Estonian heritage and a long Australian history thats just a bizzare selling point.

I don't care if they are brilliant matches - I don't want the feature. I just want to turn it off and/or remove the matches. I'm very unimpressed with the way both companies deal with complaints (rather don't). Paying customers like I am keep your business turning over. A simple on off option could have been designed however it wouldn't maximise sales.

In the Geni blurb it doesn't say up front its a pay feature, its a way down in the article. Linking deleting matches to a membership of my Heritage is just plain mean - how many people will join temporarily out of frustration so they can delete?

Unfortunately I have so much family information on Geni it would cost me a large amount of money and time to move which I don't have. We have been willing to share information I have paid for for free on a public site on Geni because of the high expense of families paying over and again for the same information.

Annette, If they allowed people to delete them without paying, then what would that do for other family members that do wish the service? They'd find all their potential value destroyed because someone in their tree didn't want to look at a blue dot. It makes sense that someone with a vested interest in validating the accuracy of the match, and researching the potential, make the decision.

In the match center, you can filter your matches to just include Geni Tree Matches. http://www.geni.com/list/matches?filter=tree_matches

Private User Do you know how to access a list of matches you have already gone through and "rejected?" I rejected a bunch the first night not totally understanding the point of confirming the match and not sourcing them. I'm not sure if there is a way to get them back.

Thanks!

Private User, I'll message one of the developers and ask.

One example from matches is my father. According MyHeritge there are 17 matches, according Geni 13. I am almost sure that all of them are copied from me at various databaseses. This copying and matcing makes lots of useless work.
The best feature in Geni is, that it tends to make just one profile of one person.
To me it seems, that MyHeritage matches are mainly correct (95 %), Geni matches wrong (90 % wrong) especially at Nordic patronym names.
But anyhow, sometimes you find something new.

Thanks Private User! Not sure if you've looked but we share a common relative.