Changes in Geni

Apparently Geni is chaning its business model and obviously, trying to figure out how to make more money from all the additional couple hundred people who have joined our family tree. I have not had time to reiview what they are trying to do, but on the Geni comment thread, there are a lot of very mad and unhappy people.

In our case, the "blog or comment" box has disappreared from the "Home Page"(or at least mine has) making it difficult to post family news. From what I understand, if you move to the "Family" tab, you can post news but need to select if "everyone" or "only my family group" can see the posted information.

This is a test post to see if you all can see it and I want to see how it posts on home page. As I learn more, I will keep you informed.

yup i see it!

What do you mean when you say "if you move to the "Family" tab, you can post news" i don't see any option for posting news.

The latest news box was removed a few weeks ago unrelated to the recent changes to pro and basic account access. We are looking into bringing the latest news box on the homepage back (with some redesign).

I'm sorry - I meant the Research Tab but frankly I was starting this discussion for my family tree - not all of Geni - to see how that discussion tab works. Obviously, I did not expect to have a discussion with the rest of the Geni community buy only my family. This is not the intent of a family news box. Further, this does not work the way we want and it forces people in the family to serch the site who generally want an "idiot proof" experience. This is all about extracting more money from their base - customer I recruited for Geni - not them. . I think this sucks and was not what I bargained for when I selected Geni over others. If Geni does not change, I will eventually take my tree elsewhere. But that takes a lot of time - which right now I do not have. However, Geni is counting on us not to change and wants to extract money out our the family members we have recruited. That is a flawed stragegy - as many of us know, inerest in Geneology is probably less thatn 20:1 from my family membership. If they put a fee on all users - 90% of my family will not subscribe and I will loose them. Second, in my case, more than half my family is from the old Soviet Union countries and they simply cannot afford to pay for such extravagences. . I have selected to pay for the benefit of my family because I care. But obviosly, I too cannot start financiing this deal for everybody.

In my mind, Geni has broken the customer Trust and Loyalty aspect of an honest business relationship. They are free to do that but they have alienated me and I will seek alternative remedies. THIS SITE IS USELESS IF IT CANNOT HAVE A FAMILY NEWS FEATURE. I can put my tree on a private software program - but I wanted the interactive features so my children and others would have a "family facebook experience" with relatives they have seldom met or seen..

I do think we need to band together and collectively seek another company who will serve the interests of this dis-enfranchised Geni group better. I remain a champion of collective bargaining for this very reason. How else do you defend yourself against such arbitrary caprious action by bad actors.

When you start a discussion, you have a choice to post the discussion to everyone (all of Geni) or just to your family. This discussion was posted to everyone. I am sorry you are upset about the family news box, but as I said we are bringing it back very soon with a slight redesign. If you can hold on for a week or two, it should be fixed.

Michelle, I just logged in to Geni for the first time in a few weeks and was really surprised to see the News update box removed. I'm happy to see that this is coming back soon but still, I'm surprised that you guys removed that important feature without any notice to the many users of Geni. I have to agree with John "Janis" Celms here - most of your long standing members here are much more interested in a closed discussion and sharing of photos/news/etc. amongst family members and have no interest in building up a World Family Tree, celebrity, profiles, etc. I understand that you guys are searching for a business model to keep this site alive and sustainable but please keep the interests of your original user base in mind.

Of course! Removing the box was just trying to not clutter up the home page. We didn't realize it was such a popular feature. We heard from a lot of members and that is why we are bringing it back. Thanks for helping us make the site better.

Michelle Elena Kempner, - what most people disliked with the family news box was that there was no option to edit or delete your message, and no advanced formatting options like linking to profiles.

Hope you get an option for that, but as I have started before about edit: The message you send goes out as an email to your family as well and if you regret on what you wrote you cannot withdraw the emails.

You could however solve it as in the old forum: You get one hour to regret and edit before it is locked and notifications sent.

Sorry to complain Michhelle but that new discussion thread you pointed me to is not a family news box and is difficult to find and use.. Computer illeteriate people like my sister and others in my family will NEVER FIND THAT HIDDEND DISCUSSION THREAD. They know how to land on the home page when the randomly choose to look at Geni or get an email notice and they could enjoy the Birthday/Anniversary notices, post a greeting/gift and also read the family news. Beyond that they were not particularly interested. The passion for geneology was generally with a small minority in the family. It was simply a great way to keep the broader family aware of who was doing what, when and where. It would be greatly appreciated if we could get it back with the fixes that Bjorn suggested and one othe - when I leave poems on birthdays, the poems lines all run together. It would be nice to justify the paragraphs so that they see the writing the way it was written.

I have noticed that my family is begining to move torward using FaceBook for birthday and anniverary greetings. You people on GENI are simply losing all the good will established over the last few years. Once they adopt FB as their basis of "family news and greetings" Geni becomes irrelevent and it only goes back to the diligent nerds who care about geneology. GENI - you guys are really screwing this up. We bring you all these clients and now you piss them all off. How stupid!

Michelle - I had a nice anniversary dinner last weekend with my cousin in Laguna Beach and yesterday I wanted to load the picture up to share on the family news site and NOW I discover that although you have re-instated the "family news feed" you have disabled the capability to post a picture to share with the family of the event. Am I the only person on Geni now who still remains unhappy about your new Business Model? You admitted that Geni did not recognize how popular the news feed is - but that also includes our ability to post pictures of current events in the news feed. You guys will eventually end up with the same customer blowback that NetFlicks did by changing their movie distributioin model. Offending your original customer base is simply bad business policy!

@John "Janis" Valdis Celms no your still not the only on e unhappy ofver all the changes the called 'new improvements" of GENI - but its like talking to a brick wall and poudning your head against it - we habe to lump it all and like it basically keep silent about it - it still many many merges incomplete in my tree and especially within my 3/4 generation that i fear have 'dumped' their tree because of the fustrations they encounter - many DO NOT WISH to ask for help of merging their own direct ancestors or adding mor in they are very capable family historians who wish to do their OWN WORK - thus since they can't do it - CAN NOT AFFORD membership they have just abandoned or "dumpepd their tree which is very sad their are people that joined my branches that are double cousins and I fear that is what has happened to them as not heard from them since before the 'big crash' of august

John "Janis" Valdis Celms If you select Family > Photos from the main menu, you'll be able to upload your photo to share with your family. They'll receive a notification that you posted the photo.

OK - I forgot that each new picture gets posted.