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Re: FamilySearch introducing errors

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

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On 29/10/2021 09:07, Steve Hayes wrote:
> FamilySearch has been plugging standardised place-names, which is not
> a bad idea but has now gone too far -- their software triest to
> automatically substitute "standard" place names for non-standard ones,
> but in the process it often inserts a place name that is entirely
> wrong and misleading, wand will ruin the usefulness of their
> collaborative family tree.
>

FamilySearch have a long history of mangling places.  From the errors 
I've seen it appears that batches of records from multiple places must 
have been entered without changing the place name on the data entry 
screen and any QA procedure has failed to trap it.

This casual attitude seems to have affected search.  It's a while since 
I used FS until recently when I found that the 1st search page has been 
dumbed down.  I entered a name, place (Holmfirth) and year (1911), 
looking for the 1911 census date.  There would likely have been one 
record that fully matched.  The search returns pages of hits for the 
name and county.  None of the initial hits have either year or place. 
About 2/3 or the way down we finally get the subject: it's his death 
registration in 1911 but the place name in Huddersfield, the 
registration district.  The combination of name, year and place, the one 
and only fully matching hit, appears one up from the bottom of the first 
page.

I was using search engines that worked properly - including the ability 
to include NOT terms - in the mid '80s.  Nowadays any search engine I've 
used (including Google, Bing and Amazon) seems to be based on quantity 
of output, not specificity.  (FreeBMD and its relatives are an 
honourable exception.)  It might be reasonable to allow a margin of 
place and date but at least make the effort to order the results in 
closeness of match to the search terms.

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Thread

FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-29 10:07 +0200
  Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2021-10-29 09:48 +0100
    Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-30 06:54 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> - 2021-10-30 08:38 +0100
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-31 20:32 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors knuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> - 2021-10-30 08:51 -0400
        Locations (was: Re: FamilySearch introducing errors) "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2021-10-30 15:38 +0100
          Re: Locations (was: Re: FamilySearch introducing errors) knuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> - 2021-10-30 18:06 -0400
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2021-10-30 16:02 +0100
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2021-10-30 16:23 +0100
          Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-31 20:34 +0200
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2021-10-31 20:26 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2021-10-31 17:25 +0000
    Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2022-02-14 23:23 +0000
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Daniel65 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> - 2022-02-15 22:42 +1100
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2022-02-16 07:45 +0200
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors cecilia <myths@ic24.net> - 2022-02-16 09:34 +0000
      Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Nigel Reed <sysop@endofthelinebbs.com> - 2022-02-22 14:15 -0600
        Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Ian Goddard <ianng@austonley.org.uk> - 2022-02-23 15:45 +0000
          Re: FamilySearch introducing errors Nigel Reed <sysop@endofthelinebbs.com> - 2022-02-24 17:34 -0600

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