matches disappeared

[1_mke]

You're welcome to differ but any quantitative or qualitative analysis would almost certainly disagree with you. 23andMe's had their data corruption issue with the Ancestry Composition tool recently. The root problem was identified and fixed in days, not weeks or months. Ancestry rolled out their raw DNA download service and ran into capacity issues. Again, in days rather than weeks or months the service was essentially offline and word is they'll be back on line sometime in the coming week. We’ll have to wait and see on that one but so far I have no complaints.

The rest of the things you mention secondary issues involving functionality. If you want to go down that road I could go on for hours listing things that one or the other of the three has that the other two lack.

FTDNA can’t even get simple things right like the “Remember Me” check box on the login screen. It’s never worked and should just be removed yet it sits there mocking us every time we go to the login page.

I’ve been an IT professional for twenty three years and an MBA for four. FTDNA’s IT is clearly a freaking disaster right now and has been for the sixteen or so months I’ve been a customer. They roll out stuff that wouldn’t pass the most basic QA process and take weeks or months to fix it while setting dates for resolution that are completely fictitious. When I first came over it was by way of a 23andMe transfer. They had apparently tested the process with only data sets from the first generation 23andMe tests. It took a couple of months to fix that problem from what I recall. It’s been one thing after another since then.

Bad stuff happens in IT. I’m willing to forgive it when it is infrequent, handled quickly and/or there is a clear positive trend in how things are being handled. To date that has NOT been the case here. If anything things have gotten steadily worse.

As I’ve observed before FTDNA clearly has a lot of competence in the areas of business strategy and in their lab and science areas. Their inability to execute operationally and on the IT side is extremely frustrating though. This isn’t just a hobby for many of us. I have an eighty plus year old mother who was adopted. I’d like to discover who her birth parents are while she’s still around for me to share that information and FTDNA is one of the services I’m using to try to solve that mystery. Thank God it isn’t the only one and that I’m able to afford testing elsewhere.

[NYMark]

It's not a hobby for me either, and the issues I've mentioned are far from secondary (to me at least). They're not just about functionality; they relate to the accuracy and reliability of results and also reflect a rather shocking disregard for a segment of the customer base.

My situation is the direct opposite of yours. I've gotten little of value from the other sites and am grateful for what I've gotten at FTDNA, although it's far less than I'd hoped for or been led to hope for.

While it may not pertain directly to IT (even though it's a feature not a bug, in my layperson's view, the cap is a persistent, unresolved, and almost unacknowledged IT issue), 23andMe's lack of transparency about the cap and failure to disclose its existence to potential customers are unconscionable IMO. The site has been all but useless (it's only been of value to the extent that I've found non-AJ matches on Gedmatch), and Ancestry has only been useful for providing a couple of additional matches who share a suspected ancestral surname I first identified here. I don't entirely regret having spent the money on either site, but the return on investment has been minimal, and with regard to 23andMe, I feel that I was sold a bill of goods.

You're welcome to differ but any quantitative or qualitative analysis would almost certainly disagree with you. 23andMe's had their data corruption issue with the Ancestry Composition tool recently. The root problem was identified and fixed in days, not weeks or months. Ancestry rolled out their raw DNA download service and ran into capacity issues. Again, in days rather than weeks or months the service was essentially offline and word is they'll be back on line sometime in the coming week. We’ll have to wait and see on that one but so far I have no complaints.

The rest of the things you mention secondary issues involving functionality. If you want to go down that road I could go on for hours listing things that one or the other of the three has that the other two lack.

FTDNA can’t even get simple things right like the “Remember Me” check box on the login screen. It’s never worked and should just be removed yet it sits there mocking us every time we go to the login page.

I’ve been an IT professional for twenty three years and an MBA for four. FTDNA’s IT is clearly a freaking disaster right now and has been for the sixteen or so months I’ve been a customer. They roll out stuff that wouldn’t pass the most basic QA process and take weeks or months to fix it while setting dates for resolution that are completely fictitious. When I first came over it was by way of a 23andMe transfer. They had apparently tested the process with only data sets from the first generation 23andMe tests. It took a couple of months to fix that problem from what I recall. It’s been one thing after another since then.

Bad stuff happens in IT. I’m willing to forgive it when it is infrequent, handled quickly and/or there is a clear positive trend in how things are being handled. To date that has NOT been the case here. If anything things have gotten steadily worse.

As I’ve observed before FTDNA clearly has a lot of competence in the areas of business strategy and in their lab and science areas. Their inability to execute operationally and on the IT side is extremely frustrating though. This isn’t just a hobby for many of us. I have an eighty plus year old mother who was adopted. I’d like to discover who her birth parents are while she’s still around for me to share that information and FTDNA is one of the services I’m using to try to solve that mystery. Thank God it isn’t the only one and that I’m able to afford testing elsewhere.

[1_mke]

Fair enought but I think there is a lesson here. It's easy to be passionate about the stuff that impacts us personally while dismissing or downplaying things that impact others.

[NYMark]

Agreed. I did try to make it clear throughout that I was writing from a very personal place and that the criticisms were generally justified, even if I thought some were excessive. Sorry if my disclaimers were less than adequate.

People who've repeatedly had the goalposts moved with respect to time frames and who have lost large numbers of matches are obviously and rightfully going to lose trust – fool me once . . . But the issues of whether results can be relied on once the bugs are worked out and whether Build 37 itself is somehow untrustworthy are distinct from the problems with FTDNA's capacity to communicate and implement, and I think it's important to keep these things separate. That was the main reason I made the post that triggered this exchange. People are likely to lose matches due to the upgrade; in some instances they may be good matches, but that's not an FTDNA issue; it seems to me it's an unavoidable and for the most part desirable trade-off, and I suspect the same thing (loss of matches due to the upgrade not poor implementation) will happen at 23andMe when Relative Finder is upgraded (although I read somewhere that 23andMe claims otherwise.)

It was not my intention to dismiss or downplay, just to bring a different perspective to the subject. FTDNA clearly has some fences to mend; I hope they can.

Fair enought but I think there is a lesson here. It's easy to be passionate about the stuff that impacts us personally while dismissing or downplaying things that impact others.

[vinnie]

You're welcome to differ but any quantitative or qualitative analysis would almost certainly disagree with you. 23andMe's had their data corruption issue with the Ancestry Composition tool recently. The root problem was identified and fixed in days, not weeks or months.

Then why do I still not have correct results? Why has my e-mail been ignored?

Although I'm sure he's watching, I think you and NYMark should set up a conference call with Bennett. I'd feel better about this if the two of you were on the IT team. Consulting, anyone?

[1_mke]

NYMark,
Agreed on the complaints about match criteria changing with the new build. I've tried to defend FTDNA when that happens. It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when 23andMe switches to build 37 for their relative finder service. I'm going to guess they'll do some sort of hybrid approach given the experience FTDNA has had with people freaking out.

The IT stuff frustrates me for two reasons. First,as a professional in the field I hate to see these kinds of failures. I have a very clear understanding of how hard the IT staff is likely having to work in the background to clean up these messes. Been there, done that; which leads me to the second reason I'm frustrated. FTDNA has about two thirds of what they need from a business perspective to remain highly successful for a long time. The fact that their IT is clearly lacking in resources given how important it is to the success of any company today kind of boggles my mind. The recent announcements of job postings being up is a very encouraging sign but it's going to take them awhile to fix these problems even if they are on the right path.

[blejerh]

My 5th cousin disappeared with 37 and he's back as of today.

[andbro]

I am not a Happy bunny. It is now over 4 weeks since I lost all of my matches.

I Think thanking us for our patience is wearing very thin now.

if I had ordered a sofa say, and6 moths after it was delivered, they came and took it away, I think I would be calling the police or suing them.

[T E Peterman]

They are re-running the database, will do QC on Tues & Wed & will present new results on Thursday evening. The problem should be fixed at that time. If you still don't have matches after that, send a message to Family Tree DNA through their message box.

Timothy Peterman

[MerryB]

IT issues, and a suggestion if you are in a position to make someone listen

I don't know how many terabytes of data ftdna's family finder database use, or the type of servers they use, so I don't know how expensive this suggestion is, but:

For a period of time, run two copies of a critical database when making a data transition of the nature of the change from Build36 to Build37. Keep one copy of the critical family finder database as the old version. Keep one copy of the critical database as the new, test version. Make BOTH versions OBVIOUSLY available to your customers, and ACTIVELY enlist them as your beta testers for the new database! Notify your customers that this will be happening before hand. Then use their input as part of the quality control testing of the new database.

If you give people the option to look at the changed data before you permanently change it, you will be less likely to anger your customers than if you have this situation come about de facto, without notification, after the fact, as has happened with the changeover from Build 36 to Build 37. It also takes some of the pressure off IT and gives them time to identify and correct problems while your customers are NOT fuming. This is also a plus.

When you are not running two databases, if you have bought the hardware for the second database, then use it as backup. Or sell the hardware. If you have rented the hardware for the second database, then you can stop renting it after running two databases.

Yes, I've done IT myself.

[andbro]

More matches being lost. Posts on ftdna fb page

[MFWare]

I made this point earlier, but it bears repeating. The loss of some matches and the loss of all matches are related problems. I am one of the undisclosed percentage of FT-DNA customers who lost all of their matches. If you are like my brother and are a genetically related to me, then I will not appear in your list of matches.

It is nonsense to claim that only weaker more speculative matches were lost.

[ausgenjourneys]

Yes please don't forget this everyone who still has matches...my father is one of those who lost all matches and he no longer matches me! I expect when they work all these glitches out (which I'm sure they will) that I will regain many other lost matches too.

I made this point earlier, but it bears repeating. The loss of some matches and the loss of all matches are related problems. I am one of the undisclosed percentage of FT-DNA customers who lost all of their matches. If you are like my brother and are a genetically related to me, then I will not appear in your list of matches.

It is nonsense to claim that only weaker more speculative matches were lost.

FTDNA, if you are listening, may I suggest offering a future discount on the price of FF kits to customers who have kits that have been missing all matches for nearly a month now? I for one would take up such an offer when these glitches are fixed. Thanks.

[vinnie]

FTDNA, if you are listening, may I suggest offering a future discount on the price of FF kits to customers who have kits that have been missing all matches for nearly a month now? I for one would take up such an offer when these glitches are fixed. Thanks.

I second that! I've got a whole lot of cousins I want to test.

[boutrosdu93]

yeah but maybe some of the matches disappearing could be ok ?
. While not all matches will be restored since the new build refines matches
yeah because they filtered it but too much.
I will quote oscar wilde lol :
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.