New contract for ScotlandsPeople website 2016.

[Forfarian]

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

[Forfarian]

Maybe it would be useful if all of us who like the SP site as it is were to contact SP and tell them we like it as it is, and don't want any 'improvements' if they make it more complicated!

I was invited to a consultation session at which various possible new layouts were presented, and I made exactly that point - pretty pictures and fancy graphics are not what I, as a user, want.

[DavidG02]

I just did that via Twitter

I wont post the @ address as its fairly obvious

[Ruskie]

So it sounds like some changes are afoot. If they have gone to the cost and effort to produce and present new layouts and invite feedback, it's unlikely that they will just leave everything as it is. 

Does anyone know if there is an official channel to comment specifically on this subject? I don't have facebook or twitter.

[Ruskie]

I wouldn't mind if they decided they wanted to 'freshen up' the site a bit - possibly change colours and slight changes in graphics, but I would hope that the layout and functionality would stay the same. I agree that pictures and over done graphics are unnecessary.

There has been such negative feedback for changes made to Ancestry and FindMyPast, to a lesser degree FreeBMD, and Familysearch a few years ago, that they need to be a bit mindful of over doing things. However as it is the only source available to many for official Scottish records, then unlike the pay sites, we have no alternative and no option of going elsewhere.

I hope they will be sensible .... 

[buckhyne]

I use FindMyPast for the Scottish censuses 1841-1901 and for the newspapers.
If/when Scotlandspeople & FindMyPast divorce will that mean no more Scottish censuses on FindMyPast?

FindMyPast doesn't have the Scottish census. It has transcriptions of the Scottish census, as does A******y, and second-hand ones at that. The originals are only available on SP, and I can't see that changing.
Transcriptions are fine as a finding aid, but you have to verify them by looking at the originals.

Forfarian you're being a wee bit pedantic are ye no.
Ye ken fine whit I mean when I say I use FindMyPast for the Scottish censuses.
If there is any dubiety I would then go to Scotlandspeople.
Most of the time the FindMyPast transcriptions are sufficient.

[Forfarian]

Forfarian you're being a wee bit pedantic are ye no.

Aye, fairly that. I'm famous for being a pedantic nit-picker

I am always mindful of the possibility that transcriptions can introduce errors that are not in the originals. A******y, for instance, is nearly as famous for .... er ..... let's be polite and call them "creative" transcriptions .... as I am for pedantry. As long as folk realise that, there's no harm in using the transcriptions, but some people genuinely don't seem to know.

[buckhyne]

Forfarian you're being a wee bit pedantic are ye no.

Aye, fairly that. I'm famous for being a pedantic nit-picker

I am always mindful of the possibility that transcriptions can introduce errors that are not in the originals. A******y, for instance, is nearly as famous for .... er ..... let's be polite and call them "creative" transcriptions .... as I am for pedantry. As long as folk realise that, there's no harm in using the transcriptions, but some people genuinely don't seem to know.

Fair do's.
I've never, ever, accessed  A******y, so I dinnae ken whit like it is, but I've heard rumours.

[ADP]

The ScotlandsPeople contract run by D C Thomson (and their predecessors) had a finite time, ending in September 2016. As with all government contracts, it was for a specific timespan from its outset. D C Thomson had the opportunity to bid for the contract for September 2016 onwards (I am not sure if they did or not). What we do know now is that CACI won the contract in October 2015, and have most of a year to develop the site, and provide the live site as of September 2016 on behalf of NRS. Then they have the contract for a further three years, with a possibility for an extension of up for two years beyond that. So the contract will be up for grabs again in a few years time. That is the way of these contracts.

The prices are set by the Scottish Government, and published in their official papers. The website operator has no influence on these prices. They know the prices when they make their bid to operate the site. I am not sure if the customer payments even go to the operator, or if they go directly to NRS; with the contractor receiving their fee to operate the site (and presumably aim to make a profit as they do so).

ADP