ON MY MIND
1. It would be helpful, and would go some way toward demonstrating Geni's seriousness of purpose, if Geni did not designate a profile as a "Master" profile unless it was sourced. The designation "Master" suggests superiority, although without sources, it merely reflects an organizational technique.
Toward this end, perhaps a new area of member participation could be introduced: authenticating (sourcing) profiles that are ready to be declared Masters by all other measures, but lack listed sources. (To include all of those which have already been declared Masters but are lacking sources.)
1.1 In the profiles, I have yet to come across anyone who listed their sources in the "source" tab. The sourcing I've seen is written in the "overview" tab. This makes no difference to me at all, but it seems to me you could revise the tabs with this in mind, streamlining the profile page a bit, OR make it easier to choose and use the sources tab.
2. I receive emails from Geni frequently, telling me about duplicates and merges, etc. I open each email to the Geni notification, and then click on the listed link. None of these links ever takes me to the subject at hand; usually I'm taken to the sign-in screen. I sign in, and instead of then being taken to the link/profile, I'm at my own home page. As a result, I rarely open the links anymore and don't participate in any of the actions that are taken. Can't this be modified?
3. The new arrangement with MyHeritage: I feel I was encouraged to upgrade to Geni Pro by the constant reminders that MyHeritage had lots of useful records for me. So I paid for the Pro upgrade, a significant expense. I then discovered that to receive any of the MyHeritage information, I had to pay an additional $10, making the Geni Pro user fee effectively $10 more than advertised.
In terms of advertising and disclosure, this is a lousy trick, with the $10 fee revealed only after the upgrade to Geni Pro.
I felt that the way Geni & MyHeritage have gone about this upgrade process has been deliberately deceptive, and that makes me angry and suspicious of both.
Ironically, I probably would willingly have participated in both fees if I had had an informed choice in the first place.
Why not disclose ALL of the terms and options and explain why they are a good value; trust your sales skills and the quality of your product, not your sleight-of-hand; and let people make informed decisions?
Sharon Stuart McRee