General Chat

if i contacted someone with a genes account and it had expired. they would see that i had been trying to msg them, because it would be seen on there email acc. so why keep old acc/ emails in the round of things? i know people may not wish to be contacted but WHY keep details of accounts that are no longer viable? greed by Genes? lol.

Not sure what you mean Jane?

Members who let their subs lapse, or who have not paid any in the first place, can still use the site to keep their tree on or just leave it here and forget about it totally if they no longer have much interest in genealogy.

They can still receive messages if GR has their current email address, if they have changed email addresses and many people do , myself included, they won't know there are messages.

There is no such thing as a membership that has expired

If you message someone they can reply as long as they have not changed email address's or died

If they are a free member they cannot initiate a message

Because then GR would not be able to claim they have 11 million plus members

Roy

But how would GR know which trees to 'deactivate'? The only way to do that is if members, paid or unpaid remove their tree and delete their account.

People can come back to the site after years away... taking a break from their tree to raise a family, or work or any number of reasons.

Hi . Thanks for you r replies. if i had let my membership lapse, i would not be able to write this msg. so do genes still let you be able to contact a person whose membership has ceased? im asking because of a lot of no replies to other members?? if there membership had expired, do they still get messages from me or other members?

Jane, If you send a message to someone whose membership has expired that person will still get the message if GR has a current email for them and they will be able to reply. But a non paying member can't initiate the messaging themselves.

Have you checked your sent messages to see if they have been read ( shows as an opened envelope). If they have not been read there may be good reasons for lack of reply...one being that GR doesn't have their current email...but equally the person may be ill , or, sadly, deceased, or just not wishing for contact as they are no longer interested in their tree.

How does a membership expire? :-S

Only the member themselves can delete their account in which case you wouldn't be able to send them a message.

so if you let your subs lapse or change your email the person that you try to contact and is STILL REGISTERED WITH GENES, caps intended, will get an email to the address they originally registered with. so therefore someone may have had a sub 5 yrs ago and let it go. but all the family details are still on here. i dont want to get my hopes up to contact a "maybe" and hear nothing back because genes are too lazy to remove all details. they get enough money to know who is or isnt active on this site. as i say. sheer greed.

Jane, GR CAN'T delete people's trees...that's my point, because just because someone is not active on the site at the moment doesn't mean they are not going to be at some point or that they want their tree removed.

Many people don't log out of the site, me included, so GR could not tell by when I last logged in, whether I used the site recently.

We have all contacted people who are evidently not now using the site, it may be frustrating...but sometimes people do return to the site after a long period, so the message to them will still be there.

I don't see where greed comes into it...you pay for other services on here as well as being able to contact members paid up or unpaid, it's hardly GRs fault if people come and go at will and leave their details here for ever.

The alternative would be to make it a paid service only...ie no subscription , no tree...and I think that would be very unfair to those who can't afford to keep a subscription up but have built up a full tree on here that they wish to keep online.

Or in my case I did not pay to use this site for the first three years after joining in 2007...so would you say it had lapsed?

So do you think they should have removed me for not paying?

There are probably a few million that have never paid to use this site and just use it for storing their tree

If a member is "STILL REGISTERED WITH GENES" their account wouldn't be "expired" as you put it in your first post.

Members can build a tree and reply to those who initiate contact. How exactly is keeping data of non paying members "greed by Genes"?

As for "caps intended" - don't be so RUDE, caps intented.

Thanks for your replies.

GR Do no when an account is not active and they can deactivate it if they wish

If you have Hotmail as an email account and you don't use it after a set amount of time they auto deactivate that account,

you can still get that account reactivated if you wish at a later date

GR could do the same, just as they could list when the account was last active when you try to send a PM

Roy