ScotlandsPeople (New website now live).

[Archivos]

Hopefully it's something simple enough to fix, like changing a value in the backend somewhere from true to false.

Yes, it could be as simple as that. But what they seem to have done is gone back to the in-house search, which always did this, but without the button to move to the previous year or following year that was never a feature of the online search.

Aaarrgh!! I really hope they get it sorted, as even searching within one year depending on the names involved gives too many results.

[Rosinish]

The site is dire...here is one of a few issues I have come across;

Death search (I knew when & where she died) Barra, Inverness 1898!!!

Surname - MacNeil (Phonetic matching)
Forename – Mary (Names that begin with)
Other Surname – MacLean (Phonetic matching) – I would normally have used “Soundex” which is no longer an option?
All Areas – No result?
So, what does SP mean by “Phonetic” as it certainly doesn’t work in the context I would use it?

SP gives this as my search:
“You searched for: Surname: 'MacNeil', Surname Option: 'Syn', Forename: 'Mary', Forename Option: 'Starts', Other_surname: 'MacLean', Other_surname Option: 'Syn', Gender: 'F'”

Never noticed “SYN” on old site previously?

However, when I used the “Wild Cards Allowed” with M*cNeil * M*cLean, it came up. It did bring up Barra but no mention of County which is Inverness?
Not much help to anyone who doesn’t know which County Barra was actually in?

So, the “Soundex” which would have brought up numerous variants (Mc/Mac) has disappeared?

A normal look-up which would have taken about 5 – 10 mins has taken me about 45 mins…….is this what is now classed as “progress/more user friendly etc”???

Annie

[MonicaL]

...It did bring up Barra but no mention of County which is Inverness?
Not much help to anyone who doesn’t know which County Barra was actually in?

So agree with this. For many people this will be a problem when searching. Having to always have another tab open to check name places is just making searching so arduous.

The other area (thread very long now, not sure if it has come up as a further problem search) is that of search fields on the Old Parish Registers. The lack of fields for parents' names makes it so hard to find anything of substance on the birth OPRs for example. I can't believe that Family Search will be the only place to get this info (as much as we all recognise how invaluable the site is).

Staying on the OPR search pages, for banns and marriages, the search is not working  Searching for entry for a John Smith married to a Mary (keeping it simple) ignores Mary in the main and gives me over 5,000 entries.

Death and Burial search is also basic.

Monica 

[Fordyce]

I spent two days in Edinburgh last week and got a huge amount of searching done - no fuss, no bother, quick and reliable. I needed to do a follow-up at home, so I have just used the new website 'for real' for the first time. My goodness it's clunky. The infant-tile design gets my goat. Might be all right for the tappety-tap phone generation choosing their music but it ain't all right for grown-ups researching using a PC. And it's so slow! Three seconds just to check a button or to tab to the next field. Even the scrolling is hesitant because the scripts running in the background have to recreate their pretty tiles and pictures every time they reappear in the window. That green tips infantile seems to be the cause of much of the delay - and you cannot turn it off, for if you do it just turns itself back on again.

In my day, sub-second response time was the mantra. Three seconds is an absolute 100% sure sign of bad design, and that bad design will be reflected elsewhere. I can't even get too excited about the shortcomings in searching because I'm already irritated that the system cannot keep up with me, so I'm already 'switched off' when I find (after nine seconds of hanging around waiting for the screen to react) Soundex has disappeared. Oh! I do have a powerful machine, so it's not my system that claggy.

Will it get better? I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

[MonicaL]

I am curious, Fordyce....

From your comments and experience, is searching in person at one of the centres' terminals different to what is available online.

Never made it to 'bottom on seat' at any of the centres so all my research is remote. So, have no concept of what the screens and search options are like at one of the centres.

Monica

[rosie17]

It's a few years since I have used the search room Monica but found it just the same as searching online ...only bonus being able to view the records up to date 
Rosie

[Forfarian]

From your comments and experience, is searching in person at one of the centres' terminals different to what is available online.

Yes.

Basically, what is available in-house is similar to what is now online, with a couple of significant differences.

The in-house system isn't bedevilled by hidden scripts slowing things down as Fordyce describes, so then screen is uncluttered and results are almost instantaneous.

The most useful difference is a pair of buttons for 'Next Year' and 'Previous Year'. You can't search for deaths using a birth year range, but you can search a single year using a date of birth range, and then just move forward or back in time, year by year, till you find what you are looking for.

And of course you can look at everything almost up to the present day.

[isobelw]

Have just managed to waste money on a certificate I didn't want as I hit the view certificate button by accident while scrolling down the screen (iPad). That bit isn't slow! In the past you got the option of cancelling the selection, but not any more. Did the same recently with one-click ordering on Amazon and ordered a pan set I didn't want, but at least I was able to go into the order and cancel it before dispatch.
Isobel

[MonicaL]

Rosie and Forfarian, thank you for that    Understand better.

Monica

PS: Isobel, poor you. Contact SP!