Ancestry's updated Hint interface

[Helen7]

I still just see the old style hints, both in individual and all hints views. What with that, my treetags problems and never getting any emails from Ancestry, I don't know what I've done to offend them!

 

[jorghes]

I still just see the old style hints, both in individual and all hints views. What with that, my treetags problems and never getting any emails from Ancestry, I don't know what I've done to offend them!

You might just be later on the roll out. Mine only changed after noon today.

 

[Tim]

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

Can you take some snapshots of the new colour coding?

 

[At home in NZ]

Can you take some snapshots of the new colour coding?

i hope this works:



click on Review takes you to the record instead of the hints for the person

 

[Tim]

Thank you. I don't see that yet....

 

[At home in NZ]

I don't see that yet....

I expect you will, in time. Ancestry seems to be all over the show right now and I get the impression they are trying to do too much at once.

Tim, I wonder if you can help me, please? Are you receiving the emails that you have opted in for in your Email Settings? If so how often do you get those for
New Content, Member Stories, and Ancestry News?

 

[Tim]

I'm opted in to them all. I only regularly get "New Content has been added to your tree", which is when other members have added people to their tree which they have shared with me. I don't get anything else.

 

[At home in NZ]

I don't get anything else.

Neither do I!!

I have had a long battle with Ancestry because I am not getting their emails. After trying to pull the proverbial hen's teeth I finally have answers but negative ones.
They say they cannot comply with my request to talk to my ISP or to send me an email example of what I have been missing.

I have thousand of Hints and not getting email notifications of those at all. I am opted in to all of the others too.

I do get the notification to say somebody has accepted an invite to my tree and I get anything relating to paying them for the privilege (?) of being a subscriber.

Maybe there is a problem with those of us who do not subscribe to the .com site because my American contact is getting all her hints notified. I subscribe to and use the .co.uk site and I gather you do too.

 

[jorghes]

I do occasionally get the new hints email - but they're rarely new hints, occasionally they're a couple of days old. I might get it once a week? I personally find the email rather useless, as I'm usually much more up to date.

I also get the "Tree growing email" for those trees that are shared with me, and the monthly news email.

 

[Helen7]

Maybe there is a problem with those of us who do not subscribe to the .com site because my American contact is getting all her hints notified. I subscribe to and use the .co.uk site and I gather you do too.

That's interesting. However, I don't think .co.uk members are affected in general. My husband was getting loads of e-mails from Ancestry that he found annoying as he never logs in and I manage his tree and DNA test, so we opted out of them all in his account, except for notifications of new DNA matches. He still gets these - but I don't - and he isn't even a current subscriber! I'm not too worried about not getting all the promotional e-mails (and can do without hints and 'new content added to your tree' notifications too), but the odd newsletter would be nice (like the FMP Friday update).

EDIT: And my husband has the same ISP as me, so I can't see the issue lying with the ISP.

 

[canadianbeth]

Neither do I!!



Maybe there is a problem with those of us who do not subscribe to the .com site because my American contact is getting all her hints notified. I subscribe to and use the .co.uk site and I gather you do too.

Maybe that is why I do not get anything except hints and information about someone else's tree. I use the .ca extension.

 

[Helen7]

You might just be later on the roll out. Mine only changed after noon today.

You were right. Checking this afternoon, I find I now have the new hint style both for individuals and in the 'all hints' list.
EDIT: I spoke too soon - the new hint style is only visible in my husband's account, not mine (I'd logged into his to check his e-mail preferences, then forgot to log out before looking at the hints list!)

 

[canadianbeth]

I just checked and still have the old-style hints.

 

[jorghes]

I've noticed another addition to the new hint interface though it doesn't appear on every hint.

There was a line of black type which read "These facts were pulled from a record by a computer and may not be accurate." Which is an interesting addition to some of the hints.
I can't currently see what leads to a hint having that information or not so far (it might be how much it matches information you already have) - I have so far ignored two and am still evaluating the veracity of the newest one.

Edit: screenshot of a hint with this type added.

 

[At home in NZ]

These facts were pulled from a record by a computer and may not be accurate

Considering very few of my hints are accurate I welcome those words. Although I would have thought all the hints are pulled from a computer somewhere or other.

Looking at one of my trees the latest hint has those words and I know it not relevant. It is for the last person I added to the tree, less than 24 hours ago, that person was born in 1958 in England, the hint is for a similar name birth 1944, death 2013 in USA.

Due to the sheer number of inaccurate Hints I have in my trees I did contact support about a month ago, needless to say I wasn't impressed with their response:
In regards to your hint query: we are aware that the hint algorithm might seem a bit broad at times. This is programmed this way to make sure you will not miss out on potential hints that might be sorted out if the algorithm filters too closely. Unfortunately this can also lead to hints being generated that seem completely wrong. This would then be a perfect time to use the ignore option that we have programmed for our hints.

Personally I think I could manage without any Hints and do my own research.

 

[At home in NZ]

It's all changed - again!

the screen shot is of three hints for the same person, i have selected 'Quick compare' for the middle one so you can see what it does. I'm not sure if this type of hint is more or less useful than how it was yesterday but it's a pain having to choose the quick compare to convince yourself you have a correct record.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Just came across these posts and am reminded that in clicking on a hint earlier in the week, or at the weekend, I came across a white on blue banner message telling me that I could now opt for the new BETA hints by using the mouse to select the BETA ON button. I did this an as a result all the hints became new style (and by definition would revert to old by clicking off the Beta version).

Clearly reading these postings - some having the new, some the old - means the Beta option has not materialised for everyone. So keep checking and when the Beta banner appears, activate the 'switch on' to get the new style hints. (that is until the Beta become Alpha of course).

 

[At home in NZ]

a white on blue banner message telling me that I could now opt for the new BETA hints

My blue banner allows me to switch Beta on or off and Beta gives me the ability to say why I accepted or ignored a hint. That's giving me the opportunity to say things like 'it's highly unlikely that somebody age 2 would be in a City directory'. or, to point out that my person died 50 (or whatever) years before the event.
Apparently the whole idea is so they can evaluate the Hints they are giving us.

It does seem there are different stokes for different folks and I wouldn't be surprised if all the faffing around by Ancestry is what is making it so slow and/or freezing.

 

[Bryman]

(that is until the Beta become Alpha of course).

Is that really how it goes now? I may be rather out of touch but when I was developing software, Alpha indicated the design stage and was followed by Beta as the initial, pre-release implementation which was still being formally tested, prior to general availability. For a Beta version to revert back to Alpha would have indicated major design flaws necessitating a major re-write of the product.

 

[Helen7]

My blue banner allows me to switch Beta on or off and Beta gives me the ability to say why I accepted or ignored a hint.

Same here. My hints are still old-style but now I can comment on why I have ignored or accepted them.