New Format for FF Results

[MoberlyDrake]

Well, that was a surprise. I came back after lunch to find the format of Family Finder results completely changed.

As usual, it looks like they've made everything more difficult. Maybe that's because I've developed a certain way to work. At first I thought all my notes were gone. But if you click between the icon for email and the one for the tree, the notes are still there. There's just no icon.

I don't like how long it takes to load anything!

[jbarry6899]

This change is really crummy! Very slow, and not seeing the notes icon is a real bummer, because I always made a note to confirm that I had seen that match.

Maybe it's just an oversight and the note icon will come back. I hope so!

[graycan]

In Common With is not working right either. You can run it once, but then you can't run it again on someone in the results list. You also can't run it after you've filtered on surname.

[richard86]

My notes icon had gone the first time I looked, but then when I went back a little later it is now showing which is something so hopefully it will sort itself out for everyone.

[loisrp]

They have rearranged the ordered list by relationship range. The person who was supposedly my closest 2-4th is now down the list. It looks like they are putting the person with the most cM at the top. However, I think the longest segment is probably better here, as the match with the highest cM is (I strongly suspect) related to me on multiple lines. But I know this is always a controversial point.

[ltd-jean-pull]

I'm not seeing ANY matches at all. If I click on Matches it is blank.

[MoberlyDrake]

The notes icon is still not showing for me.

It is extremely slow, even to load the next page of matches!

The worst thing is, whatever your working on, if you want to go back, you can't. You have to start all over again. If your looking at new matches and look at your matches in common for one of them, you can't get back to new matches without starting all over from the beginning! And when you click "Match Date" they show the oldest matches first, you have to wait for it to load and click "Match Date" again to see the newest ones. How often do people want to see their matches in the order they got them? Not nearly so often as they want to see their new ones, I bet! Most recent should be the default!

[rivergirl]

I tried several of my FF kits, and just get an empty page. No matches or anything that looks like the FF match page.
Just the logos and links that appear on the bottom of the main pages.

Weird.

Chromosome Browser, Known Relationships and Advanced Matches are still there.

[GoneResearching]

My Initial Thoughts on Surprise New Family Finder Interface

I agree, matches seem to load much slower than prior interface. (Using Win 7, Chrome.)

I like that FTDNA has eliminated a lot of tedious clicks needed to access the tools (chrom browser and matches in common) by putting them on top of the page but FTDNA really should have put together a short, clear and concise video explaining the interface changes and how-to do what you used to do so the customer isn't left alone out here trying to figure it out. (Yes we can stumble around but why have us do that?)

In this day and age, it's not hard to do a video or an email or something pointing out the changes and time it so it is available when the change is made. Especially since there was no prior announcement/warning of the interface change to the general public. I'm sure the DNA bloggers were given a heads up but I've seen no posts about this.

I'd really like to know what the new Paternal, Maternal, Both tabs are all about. Mine are currently showing 0. Have not checked all my tests yet.

I do not like that the centiMorgans now appear rounded up/down rather than showed with the prior decimal point system. I prefer accuracy not generality.

I like that the initial view is now by most to least cM rather than whatever the prior default ranking used. Two things I always first do after logging into a test -- sort to see the newest matches and then sort by most to least cM.

My Notes Icons are all showing whether I have used them or not. The names in common are appearing bold as usual.

I really like that I can now see more than 10 matches on a page. I counted 30 matches per page now.

I have not tested the tools yet to see if they are working for my test or not. That's next.

[rivergirl]

Just got this email from FTDNA re the changes;

Dear Group Administrators,

Upgrades are on the way! As we increase the size of our server room at FTDNA from 5 PM CST Friday, July 8 to 12 PM CST Saturday, July 9, a few features will be temporarily unavailable. This includes uploading Gedcoms, Autosomal transfers, Genographic Project transfers and Genographic Next Generation upgrades to Family Finder. Other services and the shopping cart will be unaffected.

More good news! We are excited to announce the release of our newest Family Matching tool. This upgraded feature works within your myFamilyTree and Family Finder matches. When accessing your Family Finder matches, you will see a new layout, along with tabs for “All”, “Paternal”, “Maternal” and “Both”, which now allows matches to be sorted paternally or maternally.

For more information on using this new tool, visit:
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/.../matches-page/

Please note that while we perform our scheduled maintenance this Friday and Saturday, the new calculation function will be temporarily unavailable. If you already have relatives connected, you will still be able to access these different categories, though updates stemming from changes to your tree will not be calculated until Saturday afternoon.

We welcome your feedback on this useful new feature. Please send feedback to [email protected] and we will be happy to pass it along to the development team.

[Ann Turner]

I do not like that the centiMorgans now appear rounded up/down rather than showed with the prior decimal point system. I prefer accuracy not generality.

The CSV download has cM out to 9 (!) decimal places in some cases. I assume they are doing some sort of interpolation that involves division. I think one decimal place is quite adequate.

[mabrams]

For the most part, I think its a real improvement. The Notes icon works for me.

A bit slow, but you do get more matches per page and a lot less clicks...

It seems to me that we had a lot more Sort options before, but not sure what might be missing.

I am not sure that X DNA merits a column (and I am a fan of X DNA). It could go on the second row. Maybe female testers see a lot more X but for me its like 24 out of 1600 which is less than one for two pages. And you can Show just X matches so that is a useful alternative.

Some Improvements
Add a Matrix button next to the ICW buttons.
Add a global + button so that we can see all second/hidden rows if we desire
Add a tenths place to cM under 10 cM, so 8.7 rather just 9

[mabrams]

Sort options were missing from my screen but now I can see them. Glad to see they are still included.

[KATM]

Just got this email from FTDNA re the changes;
More good news! We are excited to announce the release of our newest Family Matching tool. This upgraded feature works within your myFamilyTree and Family Finder matches. When accessing your Family Finder matches, you will see a new layout, along with tabs for “All”, “Paternal”, “Maternal” and “Both”, which now allows matches to be sorted paternally or maternally.

For more information on using this new tool, visit:
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/.../matches-page/

Well, that's one way to encourage those of us who currently do not have family trees uploaded to do so.

rivergirl, thanks for posting the email for project admins. There is a glitch somewhere for me in receiving these; sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't. When I do, they rapidly just "disappear" from the inbox, sometimes before I can even read them. And this does not happen with any other emails, even others from FTDNA. It's a puzzle.

[ech124]

Hi,
Has anyone started to experiment this new feature when the parents are distantly related? I took a case where I suspect this is true. The experimental tree is just the person and the linked father. Looking at the match table, it shows 209 matches under the paternal column. Then I did an "in common with" for the father. The result of that filter is 284 matches.