MyFamilyTree feedback

[benzden]

MyFamilyTree Feedback:
- the name of the person whose profile we are editing does not show up - my 72 year old brain would appreciate having that information so I'm not
confusing one set of data from another computer screen (or document) with that for another person on my extensive and complicated family tree.
- MyFamilyTree takes up way too much space when it becomes as complicated as
mine with 2 to the 12th power profiles going back 400 years; an
abbreviated one or two line entry for each profile would help - clicking
on the name versus a space consuming icon would suffice to expand it to
see all the relevant detail;
- I've hated all these separate 'notes', 'stories' and 'whatever' buttons
for as long as the internet has existed - having all that data shown (and
editable) in one scrollable window would be a lot more efficient -
allowing optional visible/scrollable sub-windows in that one window
(which could even contain expandable photos or charts or other graphic
images we could upload) would be very user friendly;
- edit is klunky; the initial duplicate profile for my maternal great great
grandmother appeared after an attempt to add or edit a photo for her -
when I deleted the duplicate, both profiles were deleted - leaving me
with NO maternal g g grandmother until I wasted time entering the data
once again; these type of problems have caused me to stop entering new
data (or editing extant entries) until the bugs are fixed - encountered
these type of problems 13 years ago and terminated 'online' family
tree/DNA operations then, too; [some of these problems may be associated with the time delay of a WiFi internet connection, but when they also happen with the high speed fibre optic connection at the library, then the process (programming) may be the problem]
- photographs are very klunky - new duplicate entries are being created each
time I try to replace, edit or reposition an extant photo; I had two
fathers and three mothers on my tree for a while; the uploading process
seems to take forever but after I just quit to do something else the photo
does sometimes display where it should; a slight bump of either the
standard keyboard at the public library or my MacBook disrupts the process
(?onFocus versus onClick within the encoding?);
- allowing a photo cache at our MyFamilyTree would facilitate the process.

[benzden]

OUTSTANDING!!!!
Just finished adding and positioning correctly more than a half-dozen photos of ancestors on my family tree. Will now search for more of various types that can be added for others who are missing them.

[benzden]

OC-SAM-I-O (OH MY GOSH):
The second spouses of ancestors in my family tree appear to be disappearing into the nether world - am hoping they show up eventually. Have lost several in the 17th century so far.

Sure hope all this data entry time isn't being wasted.

[AngeliaR]

Be sure to give feedback

The comments in the forums are not always conveyed to decision makers at FTDNA. Be sure to pass on your comments directly as feedback.

You can follow the "contact us" tabs until you get to a place to "open a request" or call customer service.

Hopefully if enough people take the time to give feedback, some changes will be made to the tools we are expected to use.

https://www.familytreedna.com/contact.aspx

[benzden]

feedback

Thanks for the suggestions.

Sounds like what existed a decade ago when I last looked into online family trees.

The keep on clicking until one finds help process has ALWAYS BEEN a waste of time for me - life is too short and there are too many alternatives needing attention, too.

I use a time limited public computer to access the internet after all the groundwork is done on my still very, very efficient Windows 98SE desktop.

If the FamilyTreeDNA decision makers do not read these forum topics SPECIFIC TO FEEDBACK, then they must really not be interested in what anyone else has to say, including those of us having been genealogists for the past half-century.

[benzden]

Trees here at FTDNA

Suffice it to say, I've stopped using the MyFamilyTree here until it becomes more user friendly.

As an alternative and to use as a future reference, one page summaries for each of my mother's (12 generations back to 1601) and father's (9 generations back to 1632) ancestral trees have been created as text files that are then converted to images. Both files are uploaded to a new 'secret' group on facebook where my 28 relatives thereat can view and/or download them at their leisure.

Mother's tree fits on one letter sized page because it doesn't include the ancestry for any of the females. My father's requires a legal sized page because it does include the maternal ancestry that our professional genealogist found back in 1971 - the first time I've looked at that data since then.