What is point of projects?

[gtc]

gtc,

Thanks. The project administrator does respond to email. I've emailed several times in the past.

It would help me to know what to expect from a project when I talk to her. I mean, should I be able to go to a page here on FTDNA and see something for the project other than an overview page that doesn't say anything?

I am in two surname projects. One has an extremely active admin who is a member of various genealogical societies, runs a blog, has recently authored two genealogy-related books, monitors members' results and gives upgrade and SNP test advice accordingly -- as well as running a household. This is one very busy person and she certainly proves the truth of the saying "if you want something done give it to a busy person".

By stark contrast the other surname project is as quiet as the grave. The admin doesn't respond to emails except, reportedly, one from FTDNA to determine if she was still there.

As mentioned by others, haplogroup projects -- especially the major haplogroups -- tend to have active discussion groups associated with them.

[rivergirl]

If there are issues with your Project, reports or updates that your would like to see, then perhaps discuss this with the Project Admin.
As Project Admins are volunteers and have their own lives apart from DNA projects, you may like to offer to assist as a Co Admin.
The more people who put ideas forwards for the advancement of the project and are willing to help the better the project becomes.

[Biblioteque]

Projects, what projects?

I also joined 4 projects at FTDNA over 2 years ago. I did receive ONE communication in all that time

[Donald Locke]

Many surname DNA projects have their own email list through Rootsweb.com ,
I just checked for you and there is not a Sutton DNA project email list, but it is possible they are discussing the Sutton DNA on the genealogy email list for the Sutton surname.

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/DNA/

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/surname/s/sutton.html

[tomcat]

Footprints,

Some projects have pages on other sites - worldfamilies, yahoo etc. - where communications between members is possible. The Y Haplogroups forum on this site is a recent addition to facilitate communication among those interested in Y phylogeny.

The point of a project is to pool results around the project focus - a surname, ancestry, location, subclade etc. - so as to gain insight into the focal concern of the project through comparison of results.

I have yet to encounter a project for which I would qualify in which the administrator drove the project forward. Like you, my experience has been unproductive.

[Footprints]

gtc,

Thanks. The project administrator does respond to email. I've emailed several times in the past.

It would help me to know what to expect from a project when I talk to her. I mean, should I be able to go to a page here on FTDNA and see something for the project other than an overview page that doesn't say anything?

[gtc]

Active projects are well worth joining, however there are many inactive projects where the administrator has gone missing (perhaps even died).

Try emailing your project Admin. If you get no response you can lodge a complaint with FTDNA and I'm told that they will also try to contact the Admin.

I'm also told that under some circumstances FTDNA will allow a new person to take of the Admin role of a defunct project, but I don't know if that's a fact.

[Footprints]

I joined the Sutton project when I joined FTDNA two years ago. Since then, I've never seen a report from the project, no communication about anything, no matches, nothing.

When I go to the project page for the Sutton project all there is is an overview. The exact same overview that I saw before I joined the project.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what is the point of these projects? They seem pretty useless to me. Is the data only give to the project manager?