MyHeritage matches

Leon I fully support your view. I is even worse - information and photos posted by me (i.e. Jan Harm Thomas Reyneke, my grandfather) now has a new manager! His name is Kenneth Vincent Wheeler and when you open my grandfather's profile you are requested to subscribe to MyHeritage, $6.35. I did that but did'nt see the small print - it is $6.35 per month and deducted in full for one year 12 x $6.35!! And please, dont ask for a GEDCOM file - it is impossible to open. On the blog somebody posted "If you can open Geni's gedcom file you will be the first in the world to do that". Please Geni, help us! William Reyneke

In full agreement. I have posted a support call to Geni to lodge an official complaint and have yet to hear back from them. To me this smacks of fraud or at best very sharp practice. I have exactly the same issue that photographs that I have posted now appear on so called profiles managed by MyH members. I believe these are spureous members that have just been set up to warehouse existing Geni profiles to trick Geni members to spend money with them.

Does anyone have a phone number at Geni that one can call to complain?

Leon, William and Theunis I fully agree with and support the views.

I agree completely with your frustrations. I started another discussion over the exact same issues.

See: http://www.geni.com/discussions/115406?page=21, and http://www.geni.com/discussions/122961.

There are actually three discussions about the same problems. Some folks love what MyH, and others loathe it. I believe the solution is to have settings to either turn it off or on.

I submitted a report to Geni.com help desk, and I received a reply that they might investigate incorporating settings.

The more folks voice their opinions, the more likely Geni.com staff will listen and react in a timely manner.

I believe that these annoying blue scars on my trees are terrible.

I thought I was the only one with this "problem". My Heritage have really screwed up Geni. My first tree was on MH but after repeated problems I moved to Geni - now I will have to move again. Can you believe they want me to pay (I am a Geni PRO member) to complete the MH/Geni matches. They want to integrate MH and Geni and they want us to pay to do them the pleasure... Well they can do it without my assistance!

I disagree. Strongly. I love the new matches. How can any genealogist not want to look for more info? Access to the new matches is an extended feature. You don't have to take advantage of them to be successful on Geni. Just ignore the little blue dots. The matching doesn't change the data on Geni, so hardly worth the drama.

There will be many of us who want the increased access. For me, it's amazing technology. Probably the wave of the future for online genealogy.

I suggest you play with it for awhile, if you haven't already.

Justin: I don't doubt for a second that you enjoy the new merges. But understand that not everyone feels the same way. We can't "play with it for a while" without paying for a year subscription to MyH. We can't even "reject" merges without paying for a year subscription. In my mind, that is totally unreasonable.

About those blue scars on our trees, I mightily object to them as well. Aesthetically, they look horrible, and I know that I will have to explain these scars to every family family who attempts to view their tree on Geni. Also, they mask the actual Geni.com merges, so if we attempt to just ignore the blue scars, we will lose real information.

No, Mark. I think you're misunderstanding. Those blue dots don't mask actual merges. You haven't lost information. You have lost anything. Instead, think of them as windows into other information that no one has yet accepted or rejected. If someone accepts them you'll see it on the profile and the blue dot will disappear. And (this is important!), if someone accepts them, it won't change any information in the Geni profile.

As for the aesthetics of the blue dot, I'm not seeing them as scars. To me, they're very much like the leaves on Ancestry. A subtle reminder that I can see more if I want to and if I'm willing to pay for it.

Ok, Justin. Let's just agree to disagree. I think we each understand each other's position.

Justin Durand They are exactly like the leaves on Ancestry. It's just that the whole thing is new and there are a ton of them now. Give it some time Mark Harold Melmed and others. Those who choose to subscribe will work through them, just like subscription members used to do merges for non-paying members. Same idea, just newer.

Wendi: I am a Pro Geni user. I have no intention of subscribing to MyH. I have 20,000+ profiles I manage. What am I giving time for? The great majority of my profiles i manage by myself. Does anyone believe that someone else will accept or reject those merges with MyH for me? I don't think so, nor do I expect anyone too. What exactly will time by me?

I feel very frustrated . And have the same grumble as everyone else , which is beginning to sound like a roar. I am a Pro and paying member, and I do not see why I should have to pay again to match My Heritage. I am not rich, This has been a hobby. I do not want to work for Geni and My Heritage. IMy money is no longer a renewable resource. I am trying to have enough money to live on until I kick the bucket. Don`t worry about bringing out the violins. I am not interested in My Heritage under this kind of umbrella. Tell them to ge away.

I am sorry Justin Swanstrom - when the proposed matches in someone else's tree carries a photograph of my grand mother that only I uploaded into Geni and simply contains the information that I added (and have to pay for the clearly valueless carrot due to the fact that someone at MyH/Geni clearly just uploaded my information into a dubious family tree to entice me to enlist to another business model for which I have already paid), it smacks of sharp practice if not down-right fraud.

I have no problem with MyH trying to move all of the acquired Geni customers to its MyH platform (that is normal practice in an acquisition), but they paid the shareholders of Geni for this priviledge and I don't see why I should providey MyH with a second bite at the cherry.

It would be better if MyH did not try to pretend that they want to run 2 separate platforms and brands but acknowledge that their intention is to merge the businesses. In that case they can either move Geni customers to their new platform when their membership expires, or offer a fair conversion option (i.e. membership of MyH less unexpired membership of Geni.

After all, the membership fees for Geni and MyH go to the same eventual interested parties!

Theunis, the MyHeritage team has assured us repeatedly that they're not transferring data from Geni over to MyHeritage. What happened in this case was that someone downloaded the picture from Geni (possibly as part of a GEDCOM) and added it to MyHeritage.

Also, keep in mind that your profiles, as far as I can tell, are all public. Someone else researching your grandmother -- possibly not even a Geni user -- could very easily have visited her profile on Geni, downloaded the picture, and added it and the data to MyHeritage. If you want to be more restrictive about who can see your information that you post on Geni, you should adjust your privacy settings. (Though keep in mind that even if you make your profiles private, people within your family group could still see them and share that data elsewhere.)

Penelope, you're being offered a deal at an additional cost for the same reason you have to pay more for a first-class plane ticket than a coach one -- it's an upgrade. Any time you want to receive extra services from any business, you expect to be charged more for them. No different than Ancestry, for example, offering different levels of membership at different prices. If you want to upgrade to a higher level, then subscribe to the new matches on Geni. If you don't want to do that, stick with Pro.

I'm not hearing the same roar as you. In fact, what I'm seeing is that the complaints are dying off as more and more try the service out and like it. The vast majority of negative comments on the discussion board about the service come from the same five or so people. Which is not to say that they aren't entitled to their opinions, but it does indicate that once people are willing to actually give the matching a shot, they tend to really love it.

I roar in agreement..........maybe privacy adjustment will keep MH at bay.....

Ashley: You say "Penelope, you're being offered a deal at an additional cost for the same reason you have to pay more for a first-class plane ticket than a coach one -- it's an upgrade. Any time you want to receive extra services from any business, you expect to be charged more for them."

But we are merely being offered a deal. Our trees are cluttered, our merge centers are cluttered, our home pages are cluttered, and there is no way to remove the clutter but to purchase the first class ticket.

People argue that we will come to see the benefits in time, but we say that we don't think we will ever see the benefits,and we want the de-cluttering now. I can't see how that is unreasonable.

I just read: " Curators are given ... Full view and edit permissions for your profiles, so they can assist you at your request." I never knew this before.

Does this mean that curators can handle my 20,000+ profiles to delete the blue scars? Would they be willing to? How long would it take? Can they do it without my asking 20,000 times?

Mark, how is it different from having matches on Ancestry? I get "leaves" all the time that take me to pages where I'm expected to pay. I've learned to simply ignore them. Same goes for when I run into the New York Times paywall, or get those "send a virtual gift" icons all over my Facebook homepage, or when I'm playing a game on my phone and it keeps showing me interstitial ads, etc. This is absolutely, 100% in keeping with the advertising norms for the Internet. Geni isn't doing anything that any other site wouldn't do as well.

Yes, I do believe it's unreasonable to say "I want X and I want it now," especially when Geni has such a small staff. I also think it's unreasonable to say that you can assess the usefulness of a feature you haven't tried yet and which is still being developed and expanded.

Your question about having curators help has been answered in one of the other threads where you posted the message.

Private User - Are these leaves you are talking about on Ancestry something to do with a Family Tree on Ancestry? I use Ancestry.com's site with the free registration for searches occasionally, and AncestryLibrary (its library edition) for more searching - but I have never noticed any leaves. What are these leaves you and others keep talking about?

Lois I don't keep a tree on ancestry, I use it for data access. But my understanding is they there are green leafs you can follow for hints to other ancestry trees etc. just take a tour of their site and you should be able to better visualize it.

Erica - I have no interest in better visualizing it. But thanks.

My point is -- why are many folks (do not believe you were one of them) assuming everybody is familiar with these leaves -- why ever are they making comments such as "how is it different from having matches on Ancestry? I get "leaves" all the time .." - Are folks making these comments assuming we all have a Family Tree on Ancestry? And if not, what is the point of the comments?

Lois, the reason people use the Ancestry comparison is because it's the combined record/tree service that has the most familiarity, especially with Ancestry running ads internationally featuring their "leaf hints." The leaves are pretty famous within Internet genealogy, so they're the easiest reference point to use when making comparisons.

And if you're curious, this is what the display looks like: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiSfy5Y1YHc/TcF-NhpjihI/AAAAAAAAASI/Y_Rme...

The leaves work the same way that the "dots" work on Geni now -- if a leaf pops up on your tree, it means a matching record has been found for that person. So that's where the comparison comes from -- Ancestry does the exact same thing Geni is now doing. Hard to find a better comparison than that one. :)

Ashley - Thanks for the picture. Those leaves are way less obtrusive and obnoxious than Geni's dark blue circles/dots. And do they bobble the way Geni's dark blue circles/dots do?

I actually haven't noticed any "bobbling" from the dots on Geni, but yes, the Ancestry leaves wiggle at you. Where are you guys seeing the bobble? Mine just sit there like good little icons. :)

It's funny to me to think that looks less obtrusive, though. From an aesthetic perspective, I feel like the Ancestry leaves dominate the entire tree, especially when they're wiggling. When I see the match notifications on Geni, they seem -- to my eyes -- to blend in more. Everyone has different tastes and perceptions, I guess.

A big plus for me is that when you look at the matches and reject or accept them - even tree matches - that little blue orb goes instantly - the previous little match orb lingered around for ages!

I don't know about that, because mine remains. But I must admit that there is a lot of new information on profiles. It is just a pity that we are suddenly swamped with the new matches. I trust that, over time this will be sorted out by co-operation between all of us. After all, there are many players in the field - I do agree that the non-members of MyHeritage must be frustrated to have this carrot dangled in front of their noses. I would not have been able to resist. Perhaps MyHeritage should have offered a discount to Geni Pro members?

Yes - some good leads to be harvested. I think the main thing to remember is that confirming a Smart Match doesn't affect the profile or any information in it - it is just a reference for others to have a look at in their research.

But what does that link to geni on confirmation then mean? The "create a source on geni - yes / no" link?

If you want to cite that tree as a source for information that you add to the Geni tree then click yes - the link doesn't do anything other than tell a person looking at the Geni profile that there is a tree on MH that is for the same family.