Ancestry's updated Hint interface

[jorghes]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but when I logged on this morning and started my usual clearing of nefarious Ancestry hints which had arisen overnight, I noticed that Ancestry had updated the appearance of hints - but only on the person's page.

It looks interesting, may help to sift through rubbish in the future - anyone else have any thoughts.

(Wasn't sure where to put this, as it isn't an error... if it needs to be moved, please shift it!)

 

[peter]

Looks different from what I remember, but it's so infrequently that I look at Ancestry hints that I can't be sure what was there before. Does anyone have before and after screenshots?

 

[Helen7]

I can't see any difference. How have they changed?

 

[jorghes]

Interesting...

So the old hints looked approximately like this - which is the way they still appear if you click the “view all hints” option:

Now, when I click through to the person - in this case, Alfred William O, I receive more information about the hint and how it relates to my tree... and it’s even colour coded (red for different to my information and green for new information, no colour if it’s exactly the same):

So I can see at a glance that perhaps that marriage record is correct, while I’d have to think further about the 1911 census record.

 

[Helen7]

That's interesting. I just get the old-style hints, whether in 'view all hints' or in the individual person's hints page. The new-style hints do look more useful, but I can't see them (either at ancestry.co.uk or ancestry.com)

 

[jorghes]

That's interesting. I just get the old-style hints, whether in 'view all hints' or in the individual person's hints page. The new-style hints do look more useful, but I can't see them (either at ancestry.co.uk or ancestry.com)

Hmm... that seems strange to me. The only thing I can think of is that it might be attached to the “TreeTags” feature, which I enabled in the Ancestry Lab, which is the only other beta feature I enabled recently.

I am usually on .com.au, but that means nothing - my link keeps swopping to .com half the time.

 

[Helen7]

The only thing I can think of is that it might be attached to the “TreeTags” feature

I hadn't enabled this. I've just done so, but there is no change in my hints. Do you need to have 'tagged' a person for the new-style hints to appear?

 

[jorghes]

I hadn't enabled this. I've just done so, but there is no change in my hints. Do you need to have 'tagged' a person for the new-style hints to appear?

No, but the hints didn’t change immediately if that was the trigger.

 

[Heather]

That's interesting. I just get the old-style hints, whether in 'view all hints' or in the individual person's hints page. The new-style hints do look more useful, but I can't see them (either at ancestry.co.uk or ancestry.com)

I cannot see them either Helen, where is the " tree tags " feature please jorghes?

 

[jorghes]

I cannot see them either Helen, where is the " tree tags " feature please jorghes?

The "Tree Tags" are found in the "Ancestry Lab" within the "Extras" menu.

 

[Heather]

The "Tree Tags" are found in the "Ancestry Lab" within the "Extras" menu.

Thanks jorghes, found it, never been in the "extras" before, you learn something every day.

 

[At home in NZ]

So I can see at a glance that perhaps that marriage record is correct, while I’d have to think further about the 1911 census record.

Personally I wouldn't hesitate to ignore the census record.

I am sick and tired of the sheer number of Hints and irrelevance of so many and wondering how other users put up with them.

About a month ago I created a new tree out of an existing tree and the intention is to not update it because I am updating the original tree.

The new tree has 873 people in it and now has 1,678 hints!

The original tree has over 5,000 hints.

If I examined each and every one of them I would never get any actual research done.

When I click 'view people with hints' in the home page, in all of my trees the hints are displayed in the old style but when I click on an individual they are displayed in the new style.

I still prefer the previous style of display for the All Hints page, where you could see at a glance how may hints there were against a person and the list of hints did not use so many pages.

 

[jorghes]

Personally I wouldn't hesitate to ignore the census record.

I am sick and tired of the sheer number of Hints and irrelevance of so many and wondering how other users put up with them.

Oh I don't hesitate to ignore things. I have found that the initial batch of hints are usually decent (depending on the details you have added in that is - if you have an incorrect name or something, then the hints will be terrible), but they tend to get worse over time until you just spend all your time ignoring hints.

My tree currently has over 7000 hints and I trawl through them in batches, but every time I update my tree, adjust my tree or remove errors, it adds another bunch of hints.

 

[Pauline]

Other than when I first created my tree, I don’t seem to get an unmanageable number of hints., but I do have the hints from Member Trees option turned off.

Each time I add a new person to my tree I get new hints and I tend to check them out as soon as I’ve entered all the details I have for that person. The vast majority can be speedily ignored but very occasionally one pops up which merits a second look.

Far too many hints are completely ludicrous, though. I mean, how likely is it that someone who died in 1670 will appear in the 1911 census, or marry in 1875?

 

[jorghes]

Other than when I first created my tree, I don’t seem to get an unmanageable number of hints., but I do have the hints from Member Trees option turned off.

Each time I add a new person to my tree I get new hints and I tend to check them out as soon as I’ve entered all the details I have for that person. The vast majority can be speedily ignored but very occasionally one pops up which merits a second look.

Far too many hints are completely ludicrous, though. I mean, how likely is it that someone who died in 1670 will appear in the 1911 census, or marry in 1875?

I don't currently have member trees switched off, I tend to like to look and see what other people have to see if there's anything interesting before ignoring them - especially given Australian records are so hampered by different rules limiting what you can access.
But member trees only account for 801 of my over 7000 hints, so removing them would bring my count down under 7000, but not really by all that much.

I do clear as many hints as I can when I'm adjusting my tree - be it adding people or subtracting them (FTM can have issues with duplications when syncing is interrupted and I can have to delete/merge up to 100 entries) but any changes can add a lot of hints - I went into a section of my tree I hadn't been into for a while, and suddenly there was a "99+" symbol sitting on that leaf on the navigation bar...

 

[At home in NZ]

FTM can have issues with duplications when syncing is interrupted and I can have to delete/merge up to 100 entries

I know this is going away from the subject but I have also recently had issues with the sync, finding duplicate people as well as deleted Ancestry sources and 'other sources' added.
jorghes, is that also occurring in your tree? Your answer will help me to decide what to do about it, am waiting for the slowcoaches at McKiev to respond to my query and quietly getting impatient because I have stopped researching and updating that particular tree.

 

[jorghes]

I know this is going away from the subject but I have also recently had issues with the sync, finding duplicate people as well as deleted Ancestry sources and 'other sources' added.
jorghes, is that also occurring in your tree? Your answer will help me to decide what to do about it, am waiting for the slowcoaches at McKiev to respond to my query and quietly getting impatient because I have stopped researching and updating that particular tree.

I find that the duplicates in my tree happen usually when something stops the sync - either it slows to a crawl and I have to restart the program, or it fails because of the internet or something else. Once that has happened, then everyone who has been added since the last sync is duplicated, and any records added since the last sync are also duplicated.

Then you really have to immediately run FTM's "find duplicate people" function - and don't shut it. You can then use it to merge all the duplicated people and resync - however, if you accidentally close the "duplicate people" page, then it's almost impossible to find the duplicates using that function (which is incredibly frustrating).

I tend to then use FTAnalyser to find any other duplicates.

 

[jorghes]

Another step seemingly may have occured with the updated hints - now the new structure (with colour coding) is appearing in my "All hints" list!

 

[At home in NZ]

now the new structure (with colour coding) is appearing in my "All hints" list!

Mine too. Yet another 'enhancement' that we could do without and as far as I know, not notified to users.

Having said that, it looks easier to decide whether to ignore or review.

 

[jorghes]

Having said that, it looks easier to decide whether to ignore or review.

I don't mind this enhancement because it allows you to see at a glance if the hint matches what information you already have without needing to view each individual on your tree.

For example, the erroneous hints that you get for someone who is Australian from the US would be glaringly obvious, as would those which are the wrong era. Much simplier to see what to ignore immediately when clearing some of the "I visited that part of my tree and was gifted 20 new hints".