Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Switcheroo Follow-Up

18 June 2015

Switcheroo Follow-Up

Monday's post was shared on a number of Facebook pages/groups. After reading the comments I can divide them into three categories. These apply to pretty much every article ever posted on Facebook.

1) Those who read the article and understood it.
2) Those who only read the headline.
3) Those who read the article but completely missed the point.

The first group doesn't need a follow-up to Monday's post. The second group won't read this post either. This post is for the third group. After the jump I'll try to put this is the simplest, clearest terms.

ⓑⓐⓡⓚⓘⓝⓖ ⓤⓟ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓦⓡⓞⓝⓖ ⓣⓡⓔⓔ

If you have World Explorer Plus nothing will change for you. There may not be a "dedicated 1-800 number" for top subscribers anymore but you will have access to "Ancestry Academy." It is still access to everything under the Ancestry umbrella. If you don't plan on downgrading your subscription you can stop reading now. This change in Ancestry's subscriptions does not affect you.
Those of you with a World Explorer subscription might not see any changes. Ancestry's copy could have read, "Plus includes all collections available on Ancestry.com." Instead it reads, "Unlock our premium collections, including yearbooks & wills" and "Explore global immigration, travel & church documents." So I called and asked. I was told Plus included "virtually everything." So I asked the obvious follow-up, "What collections on Ancestry.com are not available with Plus?" That's when the customer service rep walked back her answer to "as far as I'm aware the Plus subscription includes all the collections on Ancestry.com." So...no guarantees.
Here is the big change. If I could insert flashing red lights here I would. If you have U.S. Discovery...

...Ancestry wants to force you to upgrade.

While the least expensive option will give you access to worldwide censuses and BMDs the following U.S. records will not, repeat NOT, be available with the new Standard subscription:

Immigration
Military
Church (BMDs, baptisms, etc.)
Wills & Probate
City Directories
Yearbooks
Land & Homestead
Occupation
Family & Local Histories

I hope this clears things up.

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3 comments:

Iowa ComfortFriday, 19 June, 2015
Thanks Loretta. I was just getting ready to purchase a new subscription. I have been on a genealogy hiatus for a little over a year. Your post was very helpful.
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AnonymousFriday, 19 June, 2015
Yep...I don't see the window you see above on my ancestry sign up page....but...l'm taking your word for it that they have changed. In my window, where Ancestry says, "U.S. Discovery - Access all U.S. records on Ancestry"...is a big, fat lie!
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Replies
AnonymousThursday, 25 June, 2015
Not to be negative or anything, but I hate Ancestry.
ReplyDelete
Replies

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Blog Reviews

Barking has been "deemed offensive to [Ancestry.com's] brand" and is banned from their Facebook pages. In Ancestry's "Community" comments with links to Barking are censored.
Dear Emma, Hannah, Jemima, Mary Jane, and all of her other personalities agree that I use "the banner of 'education' to actually mock, deride and laugh at [Ancestry's] own customers" and I "can make [my] point concerning tree inaccuracies & cock-ups and their effect on our 'hints' system without being downright unpleasant and sarcastic about it."
Allen says, “your cute little blog is a waste of bandwidth at best”
Ann thinks I'm "...copying and pasting mistakes on trees and calling it a blog" and that my readers are "mean-spirited people...who like to have a laugh at the expense of others."
Sue was really offended by the “...continual stream of sarcasm and constant poking fun...What a nasty taste in my mouth your blog left me with. Unpleasant, sarcastic and jeering at people who you obviously see as your intellectual inferiors. Won't be reading that again.”
And finally from Les, "You truly are a horrible woman, pointing out mistakes is one thing but blatantly laughing and taking the p is completely out of order."

Why?

Researching our family histories we are bound to make mistakes. Hopefully we are quick to correct them. Unfortunately some people refuse to read or think before adding information to their family trees. Some trees have been abandoned so the errors are there for eternity. Here we will laugh, mock and shake our heads at the carelessness, stupidity and/or ignorance of those errors.
All examples are taken from trees published online.
I'll also post tips occasionally, though the messed up trees are a great example of what NOT to do.
If you have an online tree to suggest for a future post please send me a link: buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com

The Fine Print

1. Copyright: Barking Up the Wrong Tree is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License and is owned and administered by Loretta Gillespie.

2. Content: Barking Up the Wrong Tree is responsible for the content of this site, not including visitor comments. Barking Up the Wrong Tree reflects the personal views and opinions of Loretta Gillespie.

3. Credit: Credit is not given to tree owners to protect the clueless. A tree owner who discovers their tree on this site should correct their mistakes so no one else realizes they were once a clickophile.

4. Accuracy and Validity: While there are helpful pointers on Barking Up the Wrong Tree a majority of posts are intended to be humorous. The disastrous trees are copied exactly as they appear on Ancestry.com. These trees are being used to show others what NOT to do.

5. Images: Attempts are made to source images used despite the fact that the trees they are taken from do not include source information.

6. Comments: Barking Up the Wrong Tree will exercise its right to delete comments which are deemed to be spam, offensive, childish or just plain stupid.

7. Liability: The content at Barking Up the Wrong Tree is not to be taken as fact nor absolute. Barking Up the Wrong Tree contains posts that are humorous and posts that are research tips. Barking Up the Wrong Tree is not responsible for anyone who cannot tell the difference between the two. The sites that Barking Up the Wrong Tree links to via hyperlinks are not under its control. Those sites are responsible for the content of those sites. If you do not find the humor on Barking Up the Wrong Tree to your taste then stop reading. If you choose instead to send an email to the owner it may be published on Barking Up the Wrong Tree and mocked publicly.

Thanks to Thomas MacEntee for allowing the use of the GeneaBloggers terms as a template.