Sunday, December 31, 2017

Pros and Cons on the "new" Findagrave

Any of you who know me well know that I am an AVID cemetery photographer, and probably know my favorite web site for this is Findagrave.
So how long do you think I've been a member?
Pretty much as long as I've been doing genealogy, over 15 years. That's a long time to use a web site, and I use it regularly. I have contributed an average of over 1000 photos per year, or 3 per day.
Then lately, they decided to TOTALLY change their site, and its design. Now there have been updates over the last 15 years, but generally their design has stayed the same. So it wasn't that hard to get used to those.
I didn't think I was "old dog" who couldn't learn new tricks but for some reason I have been resistant to try this out. Well in the last month or so, it pretty much looked like I didn't have a choice.

Also please refer to their statement here as to the changes: https://www.facebook.com/FindAGrave/posts/10155934120708680

Pros:
1. Findagrave says it's better for phones and tablets.
   I rarely use it on my phone or tablet, but I agree it does work well on my phone. No need to zoom in to read the type which before was quite small.
2. It's faster.
I have found it loading quicker, hopefully this continues.
3. Easier to send edits
Instead of 5-7 choices to send edits, there is one page to make all the edits and then click save. No need to send relationship links in one edit, and then edits to dates in another. Do it all in one. Thanks Findagrave. I am liking this one.
4. More photos allowed.
This is a pro as sometimes a contributor would put 5 family photos on, not leaving any space for a gravestone photo or vice versa.
Now there is a limit per contributor


Cons:
1. You have to accept edits one at a time. This is more time consuming than it used to be. Used to be able to set up to 25 edits to accept (or reject or ignore) and then process them.
2. You have to claim a photo request in order to report a problem on it. My questions is Why (did Findagrave do this)? It seems like an extra step that is unnecessary.

That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to leave a comment if you can think of other Pros or Cons to the new format. Please no other comments about Findagrave and specific people (like the complaint I often see about posting memorials RIGHT after someone dies). I'm just talking about the format changes.

2 comments:

  1. Another con is printing a list. Less people per page so it means more paper.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can still process edits all at once with the select all button or using the checkboxes next to each to pick and choose. Also, you can upload more than one photo at a time instead of one by one.

    ReplyDelete