. . . a single, collaborative world family tree . . .

Protection against abuse/misuse demands offers !

They just erased the joy to work on a collaborative platform geni was...

I agree: 4th great grandparents are so close that we may lose motivated non-paying collaborators. That would be a loss for all. The limit for unpaid use should be preferably around the year 1500. BUT: the rates charged of Pro users are still bearable compared with alternatives, e.g. MyHeritage or Ancestry.Com. If you want to be a serious genealogist, you should be prepared to invest. When more people invest, Geni can develop even better services.

It was like the last time when the definition of the family group was changed from 6th cousins and closer to 4th cousins and closer.

It seems to me the underlying assumption (whether one agrees with it or not) is that: (a) that '5th generation' will already be there and one only has to request a merge, or (b) if you have data that far back, you ought to be "serious enough" to pay.

I might guess the Geni motivation (besides money) may be to minimize continual adding of duplicates from folks who don't research possible existing connections thoroughly.

Agreed Dan... I was in a discussion where a user TOLD us that they had purposely created multiple duplicate profiles because they didn't like the way the other manager had entered the data, then came looking for help in getting them all approved. This eleminates that kind of "it is MY tree, not yours" attitude and gets us all on the same page.

It would be nice, however, if Geni found a way to "gift" or "grandfather" some power users who HAVE made worthy contributions and are serious about it, but who also have financial situations that prevent them from becoming a Pro user, a way to get Pro access. If that happens, though, I think curators should get to review the work that person did before they say "give them access"....

Geni....maybe you could offer a month at a time subscription that would allow someone Pro access for a month (with a prorated payment), and then they could take a month off, work on other things, then pay for Pro again when they have a lot to do and the money available...

Just an idea....

According to Wikipedia the world population around 1750 was about 800 million people. So with only 50 million profiles it would be a bit premature to shut down the contribution of the biggest part of the members while assuming that the '5th generation is already there'.
I think there is only one driver here and that's satisfying the shareholders.
For me Geni is only a secondary tool. I might be willing to pay for another tool if there is enough benefit in it. But Geni is not even a proper genealogical tool. It is a nice way of presenting research results, but gives not much benefits in a genealogical sense.
At least I don't consider dump connections to Jesus, Adam, Jahweh, Zeus, or even connections to Charlemagne as a genealogical benefit. If I want fairy tales I read Grimm.
I'm very anxious to see who is going to add my ancestors I'm researching now. I will register my findings in my own tools and will do perfectly well without the nice Geni presentation.

Peter I agree I saw this comming and and moved my info to Legacy, this will be my last geni pro year.

Well it is sad, us who foexample can not pay because we are unemployed and even are living on existence minimum, searching for job everyday but have alot of time to just work with our historical part of our ancestors can´t participate now. I hope i can get a job so I can pay in the future but one never know...I do not think we have missused this site the opposite, we (and certainly I) have worked hard to find children to ancestors and tried to find connections etc. I think it is deeply SAD!!!! Well i continue with the things I can do, but it is not the same anymore. I will say thanks again (i did it on another discussion) to all the people I have cooperated with, but nolonger have possibility to do so. Thank you cooperators and shame on geni! sincerely Steve

For me... it feels....

After researching my ancestors to the 18th century, I'm not able to add their siblings or their parents! I'm not able to edit my own family story!!

This isn't fair for the majority of the Geni-users, who are free users. After years of imput by the free users (you take away their data and possibilities), you thank them to restrict their 'rights'! Btw, the intention behind the pro-user is to give them more rights, but the intention behind the pro-users is never to restrict the free-users. Genealogy must be accessible fotr everybody, even for the free-users.

Now I discovered that I am not even allowed to se my family tree where I am manager back in for example 17´s century. Which I have put in, I could do it yesterday but today NO WAY. It is a great shame geni, Here we have worked hard for you so you can suck out us all. before they who wanted to have other benefits got it but now we have worked and lost ALL. It is a disgrace, be a shame on you GENI!!!!! Steve Palmqvist

P:S. an now are you going to erace all of our work?
100 and 100´s of hours working for nothing to build a familytree...you telling us it is free and now it is not anylonger without telling us nothing when you changed it I am furious!!!!

Fred, let's take some action. At least our curator status should give us some privilege in addressing these pressing issues with Geni.

George, I wait some time before I work further, I will see what happens with Geni after these new rules en what non paying users are deciding to do. I received a lot of mails from users who are deleting their profiles and leaving Geni for other sites. I hope Geni staff reconsider all and keep them aboard.

Yes George and Fred, please do so, they will not listen to us...

Allright I posted a blog asking for a solution and asked Geni staff to get in contact with the curators. Alle beetjes helpen.. :-)

Volgens mij moeten de non pro users worden gesplitst in
1. eerste jaars gebruikers,
en
2. gevorderde vertrouwde gebruikers
en
3. gevorderde nog niet genoeg ervaren gebruikers

en dienovereenkomstig bevoegdheden worden toegekend op basis van de curatorsadviezen over de ervaringen met hen !

omdat ik dat al van plan was, heb ik een jaar-pro genomen, maar gezien de onredelijke beperkingen die men nu aan non-pro gebruikers oplegt, overweeg ik na de proeftijd niet verder te gaan. Kijk dus ook 'de kat uit de boom'. Jammer, had er veel plezier aan, maar wat ik nu lees maakt me droef. Wanneer men zo'n inspanning heeft gepleegd om geni bekend, betrouwbaarder en succesvol te maken, is het een belediging.

Ik heb inmiddels -ook als protestgebaar- mijn creditcardgegevens weer teruggetrokken en hoop dat dat wordt opgevat als een opzegging. Mijn pro-labeltje zit er op tot 27 augustus. En dan bekijk ik het nog eens...

Private User
I started my family tree on MyHeritage, there'll not have to face this real shame that is being committed with thousands of collaborators

if I have to pay more honest from the beginning, I said, free, both place and go by different numbers of profiles, I really feel very bad, and also have another advantage, I will not be thieves, I copiers, but thieves as which here is, whatever they say, they were abanddonados, which were conflicting, every excuse, but I do not know, nor the power of IBM Blue that is capable of introducing 440,000 profiles in less than 2 years, as there in Geni

These recent changes have now been commented even outside Geni by Tamura Jones in his website. Have a look at it at http://www.tamurajones.net

Eero here s another good one, a must read!
http://www.tamurajones.net/Geni.comGrumblings.xhtml

I have read all the posts, and agree with most of them. I have been a Pro user for a while, but I feel that it is indeed unfair for Geni to accept the free input from thousands of "free" users, then cut them off from their own work. In my line of work, that would be considered "Theft of Services" and is a misdomeaner offense, punishable by fines, restitution and even possible jail time, depending on the extent of the service provided. I have exported my jedcom...will wait and see how this turnes out. I have enjoyed working with so many awesome people and "new" relatives...I will miss that if I leave.

Dea you realy have written what it is all about! Yes it is "theft of services"!

I understand the anger and disappointment that you're feeling, but I also think you are mischaracterizing the nature of these changes. Geni hasn't cut off anyone from the work they've contributed. You still have full edit rights on the profiles you've entered. We've realigned the features surrounding the more-extensive genealogy activities to pair with what we consider a premium service. And there's still a great deal that you can do on Geni with a free account.

Mike that is a lie, because I can´t do anything with my added old ancestors and relatives. I thought this was a project going on for a long time som of course there are things not 100% secured so to speak, i thought when it was said this was free that one could work on in and I have added alot of ancestors long back in time. Now it is not possible to do anything to add more dacts, more children or what so ever...We are furious Mike, we have been hijacked so to speak. A great shame for GENI!!! before I used to tell alot of my relatives etc. to join...I would never do so from now of course not! And i have all ready got people into it that feel the same as me, quite many!!! regards Steve

I also helped some other with their relatives, old connections to my family that I am called manager for...Now anybody can do anything with them after the theft geni just have done...shame on you!

It is true that we now require a Pro account to merge profiles, or to add onto profiles outside your third great grandparents / fourth cousins. We believe that these are the "power features" of our collaborative genealogy site and as such, merit inclusion as premium features. You can still edit those profiles, as can your collaborators.

Mike do you honestly feel that you are improving things this way? Yes you will make money (well maybe if everyone doesn't leave) which ultimately is the goal but I think you are going about this wrong. Advertisement and different teared plans is the way to go about this. Why don't you sell services that help people build their family tree from scratch and do research? You really shouldn't mess the the ability for people to edit the core tree but rather monetize the ability to find metadata and manage their tree easier. What you did here was take away what we already had... that isn't something you do in this day and age. Most companies are going from few features for free users to opening up more features for free users. I understand you need to make money but I just don't think this is the right way. Lastly if you want to argue that this makes the tree more accurate and reliable I will argue against that as well, all this is doing is allowing people with deeper pockets to make edits and does not take into account their edit reputability.