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Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

RootsIreland / IFHF

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    #62
    ACProctor
    Registered Users Posts: 44 ✭ACProctor


    Thanks for this update. They're still comparatively expensive - especially given the difficulty with commonality and variant spellings of Irish names - but the issue Chris added about lack of source citations is a serious concern. I can't see how they might be unaware of the industry's focus and best-practices on poper citations.


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    #63
    RGM
    Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    Here's an issue I haven't heard about before: The Roots search system in regards to incomplete or illegible entries.

    Roots has a list of all the surnames in their database. There you will find entries like "R?" and various other incomplete names. These don't show up in search results. Someone with exact info may still have use for such records, but they are inaccessible.

    I wrote a complaint about it, but it wasn't from the e-mail address I used in my account so they declined to answer my question.


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    #64
    ACProctor
    Registered Users Posts: 44 ✭ACProctor


    RGM wrote: »
    I wrote a complaint about it, but it wasn't from the e-mail address I used in my account so they declined to answer my question.

    How do you know that was the reason? Did they respond to you at all?

    It would be a pretty silly excuse to avoid responding to an important issue like that, and it's an issue that might affect new users of their resource too.


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    #65
    RGM
    Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    ACProctor wrote: »
    How do you know that was the reason? Did they respond to you at all?

    It would be a pretty silly excuse to avoid responding to an important issue like that, and it's an issue that might affect new users of their resource too.

    This is what I wrote:
    When looking at the list of surnames in your database, it shows some incomplete entries like "R?" However, your search won't allow surname searches with less than three characters. This means that entries that are not completely legible (such as "R?") will not show in search results and can't be examined in any way.

    What are you doing to address this problem?

    Thanks,
    XXXXX

    This is the response I got:
    Dear Mr. XXXXXX

    You have not registered properly on the site. Please do so or we will delete your account. Please refer to our terms and conditions of use.

    Yours sincerely
    Customer Support
    www.rootsireland.ie


    Considering the vast number of records that Roots has transcribed, this is a significant problem. If you look through the surname list I've mentioned, you'll find that it's possible that a significant percentage of records are not accessible.


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    #66
    Coolnabacky1873
    Registered Users Posts: 556 ✭✭✭Coolnabacky1873


    That has to be one of the most spectacularly ignorant responses I have seen from "Customer Support"

    Can you imagine if Ancestry or FMP responded to you like that.....of course they wouldn't.

    If I ever win the lottery the first thing I will do is give the NLI the money to digitize the parish registers and put them online for free.


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    #67
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,647 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Utterly unprofessional and frankly pathetic response. Will think twice about paying them (heftily) again for something I could probably find in the NLI.


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    #68
    RGM
    Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    Just a real quick example of what I'm talking about:

    search results for M?
    List of databases that are searchable No. of Records
    Baptismal/Birth Records for Ireland 21
    Marriage Records for Ireland 34
    Burial/Death Records for Ireland 3
    Census Records for Ireland 751
    Gravestone Inscriptions for Ireland 3
    Griffith's Valuation for Ireland 0
    Irish Ship Passenger Lists 67
    Census Substitutes for Ireland 1

    But if you click on anything: "Please enter at least 3 characters in one of the Surname fields."

    It's bad enough that there are entries recorded as "M---" or "M ?" that won't show up when you're searching for Maguire or McBride or whatever, but you can at least seek them out if you know the situation. "M?" is completely inaccessible.

    The whole site is awful. It's frustrating, because I've found records there that aren't available anywhere else.


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