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“way to go”

written by sailingby on 02/09/2012

No, no, no. During several years Genes Reunited membership 2 changes of ownership. ITV updates very good. Since take over by Scotland's BrightSolid the main idea seems to be to make money for Alex Salmond. After months of network chaos (now fixed) Gru embarked on a major makeover which after several abortive attempts now seems to be established. The website does not support the old 1024x768 resolution - vert. res. must be at least 900. No tablet / smartphone suport whatsoever. The site functionality is reasonable tho a lot of long term members are less than delighted and have left. This matters as the big selling point for GenesRU used to be their very knowledgeable members who dispensed valuable know how and info on their own time and dollar. The tree is still buggy and the promise to support cousin marriages has not been kept. Print does not work. Media support eg photos abysmal. Support is dire with a strong flavor of out and out rudeness. If you like that sort of thing the message boards at Gru often have intensive flame wars ... moderation is reserved only to delete adverse comments on GenesRU themselves. The subs. auto renew is ON by default and getting a refund after a "trial" impossible. No contact telephone number. Gru claim to have "millions" of members. The reality of that most of these are dead / dormant accounts - sites such as Alexa report fairly low traffic. Basic membership used to be good value for the community but this has dropped off so much it is no longer so. If you are looking for a good free tree site try Genie or TribalPaqes. If you want budget access to UK records then The Genealogist is a much better proposition which also has good quality parish records. Sadly GenesRU is long past its use by date. Not worth paying for. HOWEVER the free membership gives you the tree (when it works) and some very good UK census indexes and access to the message boards read only. Basic membership also gives the possibility of sharing trees BUT the rush to the exit door means that you will have some trouble finding an active member to share with. GenesRU keeps all trees going even if the member has lost interest. Other BrightSolid sites are not too hot either. If you want a serious FH site then The Genealogist and Ancestry are really the only games in town. BEWARE puffs by GenesRU staff on this site and at Facebook, Twitter.