Messages on Ancestry DNA

[Romilly]

This has been infuriating me too!

I prefer to split information up into paragraphs, as I personally find it easier to assimilate new information that way.

And now everything I compose is reformatted into what resembles a text message:-(

Romilly 

[melba_schmelba]

Once again finding that I'm not receiving any notifications of messages - had two waiting on my Ancestry inbox and definitely no emails informing me (also checked spam filter etc). Really not sure why the system is so hit and miss?

Not receiving these alerts is frustrating for both sender and recipient. I can see why you wouldn't necessarily want to get an email for every message if you got a lot in one day. So I can see why an algorithm would have to be used to determine the right frequency of alerts. But having just one email per day, saying 'you have a new message, or messages' would seem to be absolutely fine to me. Whatever it is doing now, the algorithm isn't working.

[kr236rk]

And now everything I compose is reformatted into what resembles a text message:-(

Romilly 

Have now formally complained to Ancestry about this & will update. I sent them a 'before-&-after' screenshot of my paragraphed, clear, draft message to another Ancestry member, which Ancestry then reduced to a block of dense text with all 'white space' removed.

:-|

[kr236rk]

Reply from Ancestry - emphasis mine:

"Thank you for your prompt reply and for supplying the screenshot. I have checked the screenshot. You have typed out the message like it was an email/letter send to the other person. The message box will always reformat the paragraphs as it does not work like an email box/letter, like it previously was. It is more like a message centre now, where paragraphing is not going to work. Messages should be written now as a continuous string of words."

So they have wrecked their own message centre & people you haven't been in contact with before will take one look at "a continuous string of words" & ignore it as spam - this has recently happened to me.

I suggest everyone using Ancestry complain - this is the only way they may listen to members.

Thank you.

[Romilly]

Things seem to have gone from bad to worse with the Ancestry messaging system.

I’m no longer getting any ticks or notifications underneath messages to say they’ve been read... I emailed a DNA match in Australia who confirmed that he had indeed read my message and was replying to me by email, but why isn’t it showing as read on Ancestry?

Romilly.

[kr236rk]

Have a lot of people I have messaged at Ancestry & never heard back from - did they ever receive my messages? Or did they reply & the message never came through? At least with Gedmatch you are given a contact email address for members.

[Janethepain]

Much as I find Ancestry DNA by far the most informative of the genealogy DNA companies, primarily because of their sister company with its traditional records & trees, and multi million customers, their main aim is to control the business, and make as much money from it as they can! They want to be in control, in charge, and that is the reason they do much of what they do I am afraid. Simply controlling how you communicate with fellow customers who you might match, is done in a way to maintain that control. If they encouraged customers to display email addresses to allow communication, that might take them out of the loop. Customers might find ways to investigate that did not require Ancestry and its databases of records and matches.

I am pretty sure that is why they have never introduced a chromosome browser into their tools, it would encourage customers to collaborate outwith Ancestry, and possibly to not use their (chargable), services!

Well that's my view anyway!

Jane

[Rosinish]

The system is a shambles compared to how it was a few years ago.

I've been in contact very recently with a DNA match & we've sent each other numerous messages i.e. my last 12 messages have been replies which have shown a 'tick' as read (I've always had replies) but when I want to reply (after finding more info.), when I click on my envelope (top of page, right side), his name isn't there!...

I have to open a message from top of the list (delivered a year ago), then scroll up to his last message 

I have another I sent a message to, it's been 'delivered', no reply (we've corresponded before i.e. not a new recipient) & her 'green light' shows 24/7 although her profile states she last signed in 3 - 11 months ago 

Annie

[kr236rk]

Am deeply critical of Ancestry - I use them because of their family tree graphics, which are good, & the access the give to census returns & so forth.

But my especial interest is in 3rd-5th great grandparents, this is when the dna matching starts fading away, in some instances down to '0'.

In this instance Ancestry is an absolute horror - I have a cousin match of 20.2cM on Gedmatch which Ancestry whittles down to 10cM! This means that many of my genuine dna matches never feature on Ancestry, never come up on Ancestry dna-searches, which is appalling.

With Gedmatch you are given a lot of control over how you search, you can raise & lower thresholds, for example. Ancestry, on the other hand, treats us like children - we are not allowed to vary anything, we are not allowed to see lower matching, we are only permitted to see what Ancestry wants us to see.

Members can still compare matches - a good feature - but it is still subject to the whittling down of dna matching, by over 50% in my case - that is just ridiculous, it's like being given a history book with over half the pages missing I feel.

But that's private companies - in general, a law unto themselves :-|