myGroups Update

[ljc]

Hi all,
As of a few minutes ago, the team pushed a release that will do the following:
1. Have a setting in GAP allowing the administrator to choose to activate or disable the activity feed.
2. Automate coupon generation. The coupon will be pushed at 10am Central daily and be good for 24 hours.
3. Activate two privacy settings pertaining to the "Members List" that is a part of myGroups. These 2 settings will allow users to keep their name and most distant ancestor from showing on the "Members List". The settings are on the "Privacy & Sharing" tab in myFTDNA and will allow each kit to determine whether they want to be shown in the Member List.
4. Make the member list visible only to the admin by default, but gives the admin the ability to set the member list to be visible to members only or to the public.
5. Update the the default page that will load when going to a myGroups website. If the user is not logged into a kit and goes to a project's myGroup website, they will see the "About" section. If a user is logged into their kit and then go to a myGroups website, they will see the activity feed.
6. Update the Terms of Service.

https://www.familytreedna.com/privacy-policy.aspx

We'll be continuing to evaluate feedback and tweaking the product.

[Kathleen Carrow]

Thanks Janine.
Feedback here?
I think Activity is fine but could get confused if there is not a "new thread" option, otherwise there is no coherence to discussions.

Good about the coupons being automatic.

I really would like a FF feature.. Accurate stats for that is a place to start..My Carrow group says we have 3 FF but I think we have 15+. It would be a draw for people to join the group.

I am afraid to try the Banner picture as it has never worked for me, even when I know it was the correct size.
Is it being worked on?

[Jim Barrett]

A coupon that can only be used by one person, out of a project of 100's is all but worthless. The coupon needs to be removed or marked as used once someone has redeemed it.

If I go through the process of placing an order, only to learn, at the end of the process, that the coupon is no longer valid I will not be happy.

[SJCoker]

Hyphens Added By Groups Conversion

When we converted to the new groups format, the URL for two of my projects was changed by the conversion. Hypens were inserted into the URL. I'd like this corrected to remove the added hyphens.

The original URL was /public/deloach/ the converted URL is now shown as /groups/de-loach/

The original URL was /public/dubose-dubois/ the converted URL is now shown as /groups/du-bose-du-bois/

Our DeLoach, DuBose, and DuBois families do not use spaces or hyphens in these names.

[rivergirl]

Website URLs have changed.

Ive found that all my project website URLS have been changed.

Instead of www.familytreedna/public/james
it is now
www.familytreedna/groups/james

Every project that I had a link to in my Favourites folder is now obsolete.

[SJCoker]

Home Page

Please add an option to allow Individuals or Administrators to decide which page to use as their start page when they open the group. Forcing everyone to open to the About page is not very useful for returning visitors. I would prefer to set my Front page to open directly to the Activity Feed or the DNA Results. The About page should be the Front page for first time visitors. But it should be a reference page for regular visitors.

[SJCoker]

Activity Feed

The Activity Feed should be mandatory for all projects. It should not be an optional feature. Some project administrators use these groups to corral and control members in order to steer them offsite into paid membership organizations. Admins should not be able to make these DNA projects so limited in functions that people are effectively forced to join offsite associations in order to get functions that should be available here for free.

[SJCoker]

MDKA Privacy

The new privacy settings for Most Distant Known Ancestor defaults to make MDKA private. This should default to make MDKA public. The main purpose people use FTDNA is to find ancestors and relations. Sharing MDKA is fundamental information for finding common ancestors. Making MDKA private defeats the primary purpose for which FTDNA exists.

[SJCoker]

Member Lists

The default privacy setting for the new member lists is set to private. The default should be project members only. The basic purpose of groups is to exchange information and help each other with genealogy. Making everything private impedes the purpose for which groups exist. Anyone that wants total privacy could either toggle their settings to make themselves hidden. Or, they could just not join groups.

[SJCoker]

URL Changes

FTDNA should fix things so that all the old URLs automatically transfer to the new web pages. As it is right now, the old URLs fail.

The conversion has changed all the URLs to groups. This has caused all the links we have setup on many other sites to fail. Not to mention the thousands of email messages we've sent out over the years containing URLs to the projects.

[SJCoker]

Join Requests Failing

The reply to link in automated join request responses are failing. I've received 4 such responses lately and all the links failed. These were for the Duncan and Warren project groups. But I suspect this is a global issue caused by the URL changes in groups.

[GingerSmith327]

Member List

The default privacy setting for the new member lists is set to private. The default should be project members only. The basic purpose of groups is to exchange information and help each other with genealogy. Making everything private impedes the purpose for which groups exist. Anyone that wants total privacy could either toggle their settings to make themselves hidden. Or, they could just not join groups.

I changed mygroup's setting to show the member list to project members only. But how do I see or show the member list? I don't see it anywhere?

Thanks
Ginger

[prairielad]

I changed mygroup's setting to show the member list to project members only. But how do I see or show the member list? I don't see it anywhere?

Thanks
Ginger

On your website banner it should list number of members, by clicking on it, it will show you your member list.

[GingerSmith327]

Member List

Great, thank you. So I can see the list of members as the project admin, but when I signed in as myself, the page just comes up empty. Maybe I have to wait 24 hours for this change to take effect?

Also, I thought it was interesting that I could click on a person's name (as the admin) and it told me I had no surnames in common with that person - I guess this doesn't work if you are an admin because I have surnames in common with almost all of my members! Has anyone else tried this?

Ginger Smith
Goodwin-Godwin DNA Project

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/goodwin/

[prairielad]

Great, thank you. So I can see the list of members as the project admin, but when I signed in as myself, the page just comes up empty. Maybe I have to wait 24 hours for this change to take effect?

Also, I thought it was interesting that I could click on a person's name (as the admin) and it told me I had no surnames in common with that person - I guess this doesn't work if you are an admin because I have surnames in common with almost all of my members! Has anyone else tried this?

Ginger Smith
Goodwin-Godwin DNA Project
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/goodwin/

I believe, as an admin, you do not have a DNA profile, you will be(in member list) signed in as the member listed as "..." even though you may have a personal kit in project, therefore you will not show anything in common. If you have a personnel kit in project, you would have sign into kit and use these functions.

But I can not confirm if function is working or not as I too can not see member list (brings up blank page) when signed into my personal kit.