Geni Pro Just Got a Whole Lot Better

Just sent you a message see if it shows the notification you got a message

I have the same problem as many of you -- with tree matches that may never get resolved, I'm constantly looking at a big red number that has very little meaning for me. We're working on some improvements to the way this works.

Personally I do not like the Tree Match notification in there, leave it in the merge center

Angus, yes it shows the message and this discussion

I am not crazy over the tree match notificationm either!

Mike Stangel I am actually a bit curious why you have so many unresolved matches. You have just 318 managed profiles, right? I have 65,000 and am looking at a red number ONE (and actually wish it were the larger 1,408 for the tree matches I have for my managed profiles, as opposed to 0 for My Relatives which is what you use for the red number notice). Why have you had trouble resolving matches in your immediate tree? Just curious because our experiences seem to be the opposite of what one would expect for each of us.

To explain, the reason I think the red number should use Managed by Me as the default is that it would make it more likely that users would want to resolve the matches. But apparently that has not worked with you and I am curious why that is.

Randy, I can't speak for Mike, but I usually ignore the Tree Matches for My Relatives because I am cursed to have many common surnames in my tree: Wilson, Smith, Moore, Johnson, etc. And so every John Smith and Mary Wlson has dozens of tree matches that I don't choose to take the time to remove.

A fair question! I guess I'd have to agree with you, because it's precisely BECAUSE I don't manage most of the profiles that show up in the "My Relatives" tree matches, that I'm not jumping on them. About half of them are in my wife's family, and I'm not going to go merging into her uncle -- there are a half-dozen users over there who can do it, if they want. (some Pro, some that could start a trial if they were intrigued enough by the merge)

I am totally with Randy on this. If our objective is to resolve the tree and bring peace and happiness to the world in the process, then we should do everything possible to encourage matches. Using "My Managed Profiles" as the default is the way to do this. In fact, I would go so far as to have the computer play "Stars and Stripes Forever" at full volume whenever an individual logs on with unresolved match requests for profiles that he/she manages or has email requesting collaboration, family group requests, etc. Geni is way to coy about putting notifications up front and center on its site.

Mike Stangel, I forgive you for not getting all your merges done. It's not like you had nothing to do for the past month.

I also agree with Randy - and have 0 matches - and when I get some - I try to Resolve them immediately if I can determine a match or not.

As to the Tile of this Discussion - I hope All of You ha Posted a NEGATIVE Comment on the other one with the same title:
http://www.geni.com/blog/geni-pro-just-got-a-whole-lot-better-36966...

Why - because I am Getting Complaints from GENI non-PRO users I Invited who entered Many Names - Only to Now Loose Capabilities. This is what one who recently entered 5800 Names wrote:

"You may have noticed that Geni introduced some changes? Without any Pre-announcement they Hijacked All my Profiles. I can No Longer Add Relatives beyond my 3rd grandfather. I can No Longer Merge profiles (which means that I have to Create Multiple Duplicates in some cases). Those Duplicates I created Can Not be Merged by others, because all my profiles (3rd grandfather and lower) are now Private etc. etc. etc. Be careful with Geni; they might ask you money in future to keep your tree... Geni sucks..."

Thanks Mike Stangel , you've given yet another reason to have the default be "Managed Profiles" rather than "My Relatives". Presumably you'd care about the profiles you managed.

The merge centre now tells me there is tree match on a profile in another tree, but it seems to me that in many cases it is in my own tree and/or on a profile managed by me.

I would very much like to be able to exclude those matches. Is that possible?

Also it would be nice if I could see which matches I could perform a merge on as a non PRO member.

Angus...I usually go thru 'relative',' followed by me', and 'managed by me' and leave the collaborators list alone...I was just curious what was there and forgot to reset.

Most often the number are different for all 3 categories

Something odd is going on. Every time I hit a name in my tree all the other names partly disappear and there are columns running up and down under each name with the alphabet and numbers. Click on the name and everything comes back. Is this a glitch or not?

Unknown Profile - it's a bug with the newest version of Flash. We tried to find a workaround but we couldn't. I imagine they will patch it very soon, it's affecting an awful lot of websites.

I've been in touch with Adobe about the Flash problem. In the meantime, one of our clever users discovered that pressing the Ctrl key causes the names to redraw correctly.

Fay you said "I was just curious what was there and forgot to reset.

I'm sorry I do not understand your question.

The new change (August 18) on Searching for a Person on "All of Geni" to have a green check next to those I can edit (and letting me edit them) does include those I am co-manager of . Also it now once again shows “Managed By”. Definitely way better than a little while ago.

However, choosing the "Managed by You" tab when Searching for a Person is STILL only choosing those where I am the PRIMARY Manager. In the August 17, 2011 Blog, “A Message From Geni’s CEO” by Noah Tutak, he states: “All users can use the “Managed by Me” tab to search for profiles they manage.” Could someone please enlighten him and the others that this is not so, or, if their understanding of how it should work is correct, fix the bug!?

Lois there's a difficult technical challenge to getting non-primary managers on the Managed By You tab. We will make it happen as soon as we are able.

Mike Stangel - Thanks much!!!

In the meantime - someone should tell Noah Tutak and the others telling us in the Blogs (and probably elsewhere) how things are working that it is not working that way yet. Definitive statements from Geni-staff stating things are working in a way they are not lessens our confidence in them, their statements, and Geni as a whole. Especially when they continue to say it long after we have said "No, it is not". Noah's statement came out long after comments on the Blog and in the Public Discussions saying it was not working that way. It would have been much better if he/ they had said 'this is how we mean for it to work, there is a bug, it will be fixed" - rather than erroneously telling us that was how it was working.

Job Waterreus wrote: "Also it would be nice if I could see which matches I could perform a merge on as a non PRO member."

Job - you can - all merges that can be completed or initiated or approved by a non PRO are marked with a big gold star.

You can't see any big gold stars? You are in good company with all other non-PROs.

"Lois there's a difficult technical challenge to getting non-primary managers on the Managed By You tab. We will make it happen as soon as we are able."
The problem is even larger. Earlier there was just one manager and others that had added the same profile are not visible anywhere.
Search from profiles in my tree would help partly.

Mike Stangel....on an UP note, it appears that address works MOST of the time, at least in Hawaii...without going into the entire address field (in other words; by entering just city,state......it properly works)....

HOWEVER, Mike, it also appears that if you put a name into nickname field it BUMPS the current middle name and replaces it with the nickname....

Fay I'll pass that along...

Harry I'm not sure what you mean, unless you're saying that after a merge, one person lost management completely? If so, that should not be the case.

Mike Stangel Here is a profile with AKA Cause of death and place of burial locked. Not MP, no curator

Thanks Mike...I was just about to check when I re-entered the nickname as "Frank" rather than just Frank.......

Previously, it bumped his middle name of Francis OUT, and put Frank in its place....

I will keep checking on address entries...and update you.

ELDON, Contrary to other opinions, if you ask the manager to collaborate with you the locks will go away.....and I checked, 99% of the time there is absolutely NO source on the profile from which a LOCKED situation on death and burial site can be proven to account for the lock....it is, an anomoly.

P.S. Everyone....did you read the new PR release?

Fay Elizabeth Dyer & Eldon Lester Clark on all public profiles; AKA, place of burial and cause of death are locked because they are not easy to revert if someone accidentally enters bad information. This is a technical limitation and not imposed by curators. As fields become easy to revert, we unlock them. In those cases, it is better to start a discussion on the profile and discuss the information for those fields.