Rant - FreeCen changes

[Forfarian]

I have been using FreeCen for many years now.

This morning I went to my bookmark and found that it had been changed to a new version.

- The search screen no longer has all the parameters on it at once so you have to faff about moving the screen up and down to set, review or revise your search parameters.
- About half the time when I have set parameters, the search fails.
- When the search does succeed, the resulting index doesn't include the age (one or two digits) on the census, but a range of years of birth (eight digits). Now, I don't know about you but I can instantly interpret up to four digits, not eight. So it makes reading a long list of results pretty indigestible. And why on earth go to the trouble of writing code to make a totally unnecessary calculation to produce a result that isn't in the original document?
- When I try to report a possible transcription error, it tells me that my report cannot be submitted.
- There is a link to the old version, but when I click on it it tells me there is no server available to handle it.

Why oh why do people 'fix' web sites when they are not broken? It always results in a cock-up.

I'm not saying the old version was perfect - there were one or two things I would have liked to see changed - but the new one as it stands at the moment is not an improvement.

[majm]

I'm convinced there are many IT spurts who make their fancy changes to so many websites but  actually do so with absolutely no working knowledge/ interest/ appreciation/ concern/ of or for  the actual outcomes that the users expect. 

JM

[jennywren001]

Double rant! It's possibly the worst 'improvement' in a website I've ever seen  I've sent them feedback suggesting the folks designing the database know nothing about presenting results in a meaningful way.
Jen

[macwil]

They're probably the same people that designed the 'new improved' Ancestry site 3yrs ago.   

[Footo]

They're probably the same people that designed the 'new improved' Ancestry site 3yrs ago.   

Improvement being that when you have a sub and signed in and click on record to see it on co.uk it sends you to .com where it requests you sign in or register 

[Mart 'n' Al]

They must be ancestrally linked to the people that reorganise the shelves in supermarkets just when you've got used to where everything is.

Martin

[KGarrad]

I'm convinced there are many IT spurts who make their fancy changes to so many websites but  actually do so with absolutely no working knowledge/ interest/ appreciation/ concern/ of or for  the actual outcomes that the users expect. 

JM

After 40+ years working in IT, I am convinced the problems lie with Management!
People these days aren't given enough time to properly test these changes - management want them installed ASAP.

I used to install software releases; so I have some idea of what goes on!

[DavidG02]

I looked at it last night and noticed it also

Doesnt have the same flexibilty as before. ie skipping to the next property to see if family or future in laws lived nearby

Another site I either get used to or ignore

[Mart 'n' Al]

KG, I agree.  Much of my career was spent testing software.  These days it is released as 'beta' software.  I was once told 'If you had your way, it would never be released' inferring that my testing would never be complete.  Towards the end of my career, automated testing became fashionable, using test scripts, but I always asked 'who tests the test scripts?'  A test script only tests for certain situations, not the odd things people (and pets) do to their keyboards.  I used to work with a Detective Inspector who used to do things that got error messages I'd never ever seen, before nor since.

Martin