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Author Topic: Ancestry's new hint system  (Read 1726 times)

Offline Cockneyrebel

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Ancestry's new hint system
« on: Monday 01 February 21 13:45 GMT (UK) »
Has anyone noticed that Ancestry has updated their tree search hints system such that now you have to go 1 step further than before to see the record you want? I have complained to their Irish call centre.
It seems to me that programmers run Ancestry and not researchers as they are clueless as to what is needed by a researcher; they've already messed up the message system!
Apparently, they've never heard of the expression 'if it ain't broke don't mend it'.
Cr
Rosser, Henderson, Chapman, Clarkson, Harper, Healey, Horth, Page, Bowers, Ritchie, Sheen, Smith and Weymark.

Offline ggrocott

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #1 on: Monday 01 February 21 14:25 GMT (UK) »
There have been lots of complaints about this on their facebook page.
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Offline mrsruz

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 02 February 21 07:05 GMT (UK) »
Personally. I think it is a complete mess & unnecessarily complicated.

Offline Flemming

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 02 February 21 09:37 GMT (UK) »
Not sure if this is related to the hint changes, but has anyone else found that if you use '&' in the comments box for a person in the family tree, once you leave that person then go back to them, Ancestry has changed the '&' to '&'? Goodness knows how many '&' I have in the tree so will all them now say '&', and are we forced to type 'and' in full at the behest of an Ancestry whim? :(

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 02 February 21 10:08 GMT (UK) »
Quote from: Cockneyrebel on Monday 01 February 21 13:45 GMT (UK)
Has anyone noticed that Ancestry has updated their tree search hints system such that now you have to go 1 step further than before to see the record you want? I have complained to their Irish call centre.
It seems to me that programmers run Ancestry and not researchers as they are clueless as to what is needed by a researcher; they've already messed up the message system!
Apparently, they've never heard of the expression 'if it ain't broke don't mend it'.
Cr

I wasn't aware of that but as I only took out a suscription last month maybe I missed the old method.

Agree that they should ask people who are doing research before making changes

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 02 February 21 10:25 GMT (UK) »
Quote from: Flemming on Tuesday 02 February 21 09:37 GMT (UK)
Not sure if this is related to the hint changes, but has anyone else found that if you use '&' in the comments box for a person in the family tree, once you leave that person then go back to them, Ancestry has changed the '&' to '&'? Goodness knows how many '&' I have in the tree so will all them now say '&', and are we forced to type 'and' in full at the behest of an Ancestry whim? :(

&amp is standard computer-speak - nothing to do with Ancestry per se ;D

Some characters don't transfer between different encoding systems (EBCDIC, ANSI, etc), so this is a work around.
From my time in IT, I believe it's mainly a limitation of mainframe computer systems?
Or it's because the "&" character has a special meaning within HTML, and has to be replaced with "&amp" to avoid systems crashing.

The ampersand character is one of the suspect characters :D
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline Flemming

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 02 February 21 10:29 GMT (UK) »
Quote
&amp is standard computer-speak - nothing to do with Ancestry per se

How come it's only just happened now after years of it being ok? Just thought it was a bit of coincidence that it happens in the trees at the same time hints get changed for the worse. Perhaps it wasn't intentional but it's still annoying.

Offline Cockneyrebel

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 02 February 21 13:26 GMT (UK) »
I use a separate ft program to hold my tree as I don't altogether trust Ancestry with it. This means that I can upload a gedcom as necessary.
Cr
Rosser, Henderson, Chapman, Clarkson, Harper, Healey, Horth, Page, Bowers, Ritchie, Sheen, Smith and Weymark.

Offline ms_canuck

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Re: Ancestry's new hint system
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 03 February 21 17:57 GMT (UK) »
The changes to the hints so it shows up on the right side of the page were, at first, very annoying because when I clicked Yes, I then seemed to have to work within that very small area to make my changes, additions, etc. 

After a few frustrating hours, I simply clicked on the document link at the top of the hint 'screen' and was immediately taken to the more familiar 'screen' to add the information, pretty much as usual.  I'm sure others have discovered this 'workaround', but just wanted to leave this here in case others haven't.

Cheers all, from a very frosty, locked down, Toronto!

Ms_C
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2. Ettenton / Eltenton - Guernsey 1806
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