The dreaded change of Ancestry

[KGarrad]

Under the Facts tab, right-hand side, you get:

Family (plus an "Add" button!))
Parents
Add father Or father's details if already entered.
Add Mother or mother's details if already entered.
Siblings
Spouse (either Add spose, or name)

THEN Add Family

Click on that and you get the option to add Father, Mother, Spouse, Son, Daughter, Brother, Sister.

[StevieSteve]

Maybe Ancestry should consider dumbing down their site a tad?

[msr]

Perhaps Ancestry have dumbed it down so much that the smart people have to start lowering their standards.   

Just a thought.

[Speedway ace]

Hi good people, sorry I have not had time to read all the posts, so I will just put my thoughts on here "trying not to rant"... Grrrrrrr, now the enjoyment of my beloved hobby has been spoilt! by "Angstry" and its new format.

The arbitrary imposition of this new format on its paying customers is to be deplored. It is obvious that this format is designed for use on the i-phone, i-pad, tablet etc. The garish and highly contrasting colour scheme is designed to show up on small screens, The media on the personal media gallery has been moved off the profile to another page and the format changed so items (Photos etc) can easily be scrolled on tiny touch pad screens. Search results now only appear 2 at a time, again so they are big enough to read on an i-pad and of course you may have noted the larger size of the lettering, again for the obvious reason of suiting the i-pad/i-phone. In my opinion this retrograde edition of ancestry has much diminished its functionality and its ability to be enjoyed.

Traditionally the customer base of 'Ancestry' increases around Christmas time and cashing in on the Christmas sales of i-phones, I-pads etc with a format to suit them would seem to be what its all about (note the introduction date of the new format 12th Dec).

One could be forgiven for thinking that "Angstry" Is in total disregard of a large section of its customer base i.e. Those of us who are serious about genealogy and use larger devices that are eminently suitable for the same.

The very least Ancestry can do is offer us the choice between this "new" unsuitable format or the Classic view.

I can only encourage those of you who are of the same opinion and are serious about their Family History to contact "Ancestry" and protest  in the strongest possible terms.

I am now considering the alternatives with the intention of cancelling my subscription to the said company after 8 years.

   The seasons greetings to one and all. Regards, Nigel

[Finley 1]

It cant be   cos if it is I am totally useless, cos I still cant do it  

dumb and or even dumber than that

xin

great chrissy mas to one and all and NO I have not been imbibing    

[jaybelnz]

After many sessions on new Ancestry, I am more confused than ever, and certainly don't agree that it has been dumbed down! No way!  I'm getting more and more confused every time I log in to have another go!  Not good for my self esteem at all.

When I first subscribed to Ancestry, I found the whole process very user friendly. Loved the set out - the overview etc, and it was simple to flick through the rest of each family, add media, stories etc etc!  I found it extremely easy, and loved tinkering around in there, adding bits and pieces,  no trouble, and refining others! 

I use both my PC or my ipad to access it, (it was perfectly fine on the iPad before)  and after many tries - still unable to make any sense of it!  Other than editing a few incorrect countries, no sense! I have a record for a relative that died at sea on a ship named "Northumberland"!  Of course the new format showed died in Northumberland, England! I did manage to fix that one though! The only success I've had! 

 At all!  After about 1/2 hr of trying, I give up and do something else, and before the neighbours hear my bad language!

My true sympathies are with others who are finding it difficult!  It's just a nightmare for me, and I dislike it intensely!  Now I had better sign off,have a cuppa and dream sweet dreams instead of being such a b#**%¥ old misery! 

Seriously considering moving it, but when I think of all the family stories and photos that I have added, I hate to think that I'm going to have to add them all manually!  It's only the Gedcom and sources that exports isn't it??

[StevieSteve]

The first rule about new Ancestry is that they say it has all the features of old Ancestry, just some may be harder to find than others.

So you need to be thinking, it's there somewhere, where is the bloomin' thing NOT they've got rid of X, it's useless.

Now, there are only a limited number of places they can hide anything, so with a bit of grit and determination, everything should soon fall into place

[msr]

After many sessions on new Ancestry, I am more confused than ever, and certainly don't agree that it has been dumbed down! No way!  I'm getting more and more confused every time I log in to have another go!  Not good for my self esteem at all.

When I first subscribed to Ancestry, I found the whole process very user friendly. Loved the set out - the overview etc, and it was simple to flick through the rest of each family, add media, stories etc etc!  I found it extremely easy, and loved tinkering around in there, adding bits and pieces,  no trouble, and refining others! 

I use both my PC or my ipad to access it, (it was perfectly fine on the iPad before)  and after many tries - still unable to make any sense of it!  Other than editing a few incorrect countries, no sense! I have a record for a relative that died at sea on a ship named "Northumberland"!  Of course the new format showed died in Northumberland, England! I did manage to fix that one though! The only success I've had! 

 At all!  After about 1/2 hr of trying, I give up and do something else, and before the neighbours hear my bad language!

My true sympathies are with others who are finding it difficult!  It's just a nightmare for me, and I dislike it intensely!  Now I had better sign off,have a cuppa and dream sweet dreams instead of being such a b#**%¥ old misery! 

Seriously considering moving it, but when I think of all the family stories and photos that I have added, I hate to think that I'm going to have to add them all manually!  It's only the Gedcom and sources that exports isn't it??

Jaybelnz, I wasn't really suggesting that it had been dumbed down at all, but as one or two people seemed to be inferring that we who don't like it are all too stupid to work with the changes I decided to vent a little.   As you said, it used to be user friendly, the set-out was good, and clean.   I'm not against changes for improvement, but this version does not fall into that category.  My opinion of course.   
I do wonder how many of the programmers actually use the finished product on a daily basis - for hours on end as we subscribers do

As for making things harder to find as StevieSteve has just intimated - why on earth do that.  It isn't a scavenger hunt, it is serious business!

[KGarrad]

Don't blame the programmers! They just do what they are told by the Business Analysts!

And they just do what they are told by Management!

KG (ex-computer programmer )