Did you notice the G2G changes?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

We just released an upgrade to the software that runs this forum.

The biggest improvement is that messages will load faster. In the past you might have noticed painful delays when loading questions with lots of answers. This should now be fixed.

Some other notable or noticeable changes:

• You can add smilies/emojis to questions, answers, and comments. 
• We can feature questions by "pinning" them to the top of the questions list. I don't expect we will do this very often. Probably just when there is a major announcement, such as this message.
• Tag descriptions will appear on the tag pages and in the mouse-over "tool tip" for the tag when it appears on question pages. For example, tag/data_doctors says "This tag is for questions about the Data Doctors project and WikiTree Plus suggestions."
• Certain tags will automatically change to the agreed-upon standardized version when you post a question. For example, if you enter the tag "data_doctor" on a question it will automatically change to "data_doctors". Or if you enter "us_presidents" it will automatically change to "presidents".

The tag descriptions and alternates/synonyms will be created and maintained by Eowyn, Dorothy Barry, Ellen Smith and the other G2G Moderators. If you have suggestions for them, you can post a comment on this G2G tags page.

As with any significant change, there could be bugs or unexpected problems. If you have questions or comments, please post here. Thanks!

Onward and upward,

Chris

Comments

Ha! Lizzie, you make me laugh!!

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I love the post pinning. I won't miss the important announcements.

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my pictures wont share from profile by clicking on share G2G.

I'll try another browser . I switched to chrome

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nope did not work. still does not show the photo

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The only thing I noticed is the change in the point total formatting. 

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Yes!  Thanks for continuous improvements!  

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Tapping this on my iPhone.  Chrome app.   I see no difference from the previous interface.

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Can no longer copy/paste into this text box, using my android tablet. Will this be fixed soon?

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What change? LOL  Really it is doing very well. Thanks for the work to make it run faster. I imagine that just like most things there may be problems in other areas. These temporary setbacks are better than how slow things were before.

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Wonderful update! Thanks, Chris.

Answer 1

Cool. Good work, Chris and team! Thanks for all y’all do!

Answer 2

with the new point total abbreviations, do we divide by 1024, or by 1000? :)

Comments

1040, as per the government.

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For those people in the millions, just let the song from Frozen keep running through your head. Or not. Wait. Now it's stuck in there. I blame Idina Menzel and the umpteen times I heard it when around nieces....

But just to stir things up, I think we should be more accurate and use scientific notation for the points. You would be 2.7152×10⁵; Chris would be 1.02246×10⁶; Eowyn would be 1.1853×10⁶. Which begs the question, if Eowyn is ranked number three with that many points, who are numbers one and two?

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Oh, no! I'm back in my high school math class and, once again, I'm totally lost!! Gee, thanks Edison! 

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(Uh oh. Now we may start seeing posts that contain only an emoji and no text. I suppose no one is really worried about that from me, though. Hm. I wonder if the change in limiting the size of a post... Nah. Couldn't be. <cough cough>)  

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   Edison, you've been saved by the best.   I had to post at least five characters.

Answer 3

Maybe you meant to do this but, on the Questions page the up/down vote links are grayed out.  If you open a question then the vote arrows are active.  I use those vote arrows to see what posts I've seen ... so, now, that no longer works.

Oh, and I hate the new point number format on the Member page.

Comments

More accurately, it is a thin plus symbol that I see, Ros.

I posted my comment because I absolutely KNEW that this discovery would  be of great importance to my fellow WikiTreers.

This oh-so-useful improvement alone is certainly worth all the lost cut/paste functionality!!

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Nope, still don't see any plus signs.  But it has already been pointed out that users of different devices see different things.  I am on a laptop, using Windows 10 and Vivaldi.  How about you?

On a question where I upvoted, it shows only one arrow (the up arrow), but whereas it used to be gold, now it is grey like the rest.

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Lindy ... well, I finally 'saw' it ... print screen, paste into the paint program,  crop that piece we're looking at and resize 1000X ,,, can't say that it's a plus sign, looks round to me ... kind of blue in color.  You have really good eyes or a humongous sized display ... lol

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Well, I didn't.  Just tried Firefox and Chrome - still no plus signs, no blue dots, nothing but up or down arrows greyed out.  Looked on my phone (so Android) - nothing.

What devices are you guys looking at this on?

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Here's an image ... 500X ... I'm on FireFox

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Wow. It is a plus sign. Barely. 

I'm using Chrome on Windows 10 right now, Ros. I can see it...with magnification and with reading glasses. What I'm also seeing is that, if I've upvoted a question, in the listing the grayed-out downvote arrow is gone. I assume it may work the same way if I'd downvoted a question, but to my knowledge I never have.

Just a general BTW for everyone: on many platforms, if you use a mouse with a scroll-wheel, you can hold down the "Ctrl" key (Command key on a Mac) and then use the scroll-wheel to zoom the Web Browser display in or out. Max zoom level on most platforms is, I believe, 500%. Comes in handy. The scroll-wheel without the Ctrl key works the same way when viewing Google Maps and some other applications.

Edit: Yeppers. What Bob said. Looks just like that. But if you go in really tight, it is a plus-sign, at least on my display. But yeah, it's functionally a dot.  

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Ros, I am currently using a Win7 PC, Chrome browser. I also checked using Pale Moon (the plus symbol looked more like a dot); Firefox (off-center plus symbol, more visible than on Chrome); and Explorer 11 (super tiny dot).

Ain't technology wonderful?

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screenshot, using Firefox

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Thanks for the screenshots, Bob and Lindy.  If I blow up my screen to a million%, I can see the dot (but still not the plus sign).

My guess is that they are so tiny because we're not supposed to see them.  They are part of the computer code that tells the software it's a plus. In fact, I bet they were already there, but even more invisible. And maybe this is another of those Windows-7-is-better-than-Windows-10 scenarios.

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This does not show up like that on iPhone chrome app. No matter how much I zoom in.

Answer 4

Did we lose the ability to cut and paste into the question/answer box? I tend to type my question into Notepad, then cut and paste into the box. But today I couldn't find how to do that and typed it all again.

Comments

You can copy/paste by Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v hotkeys. I also noticed, that  CTRL+Mouse right click displays the copy/paste menu.

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I use an RCA tablet. I don't have control alt mouse etc. How do I paste a source?

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I have no Idea. I have on my tablet special keybord instald. It is Multiling O Keyboard, that allows me to paste any of the last few clipboard contents.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh 

Maybe there are other keyboards that enable that.

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Eddie what happens if you hold your tap? When I hold my finger down a menu pops up.  This is so in both iPhone and iPad.

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Holding my tap on the g2g form for answers, comments, etc

Nothing. No menu.

Holding my tap anywhere else, cut copy paste menu bar on top of tablet screen.

But NO bar when I am on the g2g form. A couple other Android users have also tried. We have no "paste" capability in g2g.

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Eddie, just confirming, when you write a question, add a comment or answer and you're in the editing window, if you "hold" your tap, no tablet menu appears, but it does elsewhere in wikitree when editing ?

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I can confirm this problem on an Android device using the Chrome, Firefox, and default Samsung browsers. If you hold your finger down in the Question box, the menu appears with paste as an option. If you try it in the text box, the menu does not appear.

Answer 5

I don't know if you noticed, but the editor is localised. I see it in Slovenian. It probably depends on computer's local settings.

Another change is the message size. It is now limited to 12K.

Answer 6

My initial reaction is mostly good, but I'm not really a fan of the feature of "pinning" questions to the top of the list.  It was very easy to follow the progress of a thread when a new answer would bump the question back up to the top of the list.  With the pinned question I now have to try to remember how many answers there were last time I looked.  Old habits die hard!!  But perhaps you can teach an old dog new tricks -- we'll see.

Answer 7

I like the update and the speed of bring up pages.

But I ran into a problem with:

1. copying profile URL's , Find A Grave URL's or pasting the help pages addresses.

2.  transfering say headings for the "weekend chat"  that normally could be done with cut and paste. I think cut and paste is no longer an option?? Would it apply to the weekly challenges as well, when they try to transfer the headings used weekly to a new post for a new week or some for the weekend.

Comments

Dorothy, I found that when I hold down the Ctrl key, then right-click it allows me to paste.

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Thanks David! 

I also found out that I can click on ⋮. It's in the top-right corner of the window of google chrome, then find paste and it works!! Guess you learn new tricks every day!! 

Answer 8

That is great. Large improvement.

Comments

Hooooray for happy faces!!! 

Answer 9

Thank you for all the work and improvements to the G2G Forum, Chris, and team.

I do not like having to hold the Ctrl key in order to copy/cut and paste or the new member points listing.

Answer 10

I'm used to browsing the G2G list on my tablet to see if there are any questions I could help with and I thought that previously after looking at a particular question, it would go back to where I was up to in the list.

Now it seems to be going back to the top of the list every time?

Answer 11

That is simply awesome. I'm not fussy about the way the points are displayed but EMOTICONS. Oh yeah!!!!

Also, ctrl+c to copy and ctrl+v to paste. On one hand a step backwards, but no longer having that import box is a step forward.

Answer 12

I’m on an iPad and don’t see much different except for the formatting options above the box I’m typing into. I don’t see the value in all the formatting options, except the option to bold or italicised some words.

Answer 13

Wow!   Thanks for the upgrade.  I just wanted to add an emoji.

Answer 14

Now that I've been using it a few days, want to give a big

THANK YOU!

The speed improvements are great. Haven't seen anything negative.

Answer 15

Besides having the voting on questions grayed out, I'm having problems posting new questions.

Comments

The only time I've ever seen something greyed out is if it is my own question or answer. It seems you can't vote for yourself.

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That's the only time I see the greyed out as well. That is, my own post;

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That's the way they have always been (ie greyed out on your own answer, so you can't vote for yourself!)

But look at the up-down voting buttons *on the questions list*.  They are ALL greyed out.  Only if you go *into* a question will they show up.

Answer 16

My only criticism (also mentioned by some of my fellow WikiTreers) of this upgrade is the loss of the simple copy/paste functionality.

Upgrades should make using G2G easier, not harder. I hope we can get this functionality back!

The listed changes all seem useful, though. Thanks for always looking for ways to improve WikiTree.

Comments

ctrl+c for copy and ctrl+v for paste. And no more import box.

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I look at using ctrl-C/ctrl-V for cut and past as the normal. I didn't know about any other way since that is what works for nearly all applications so makes things consistent. (on a Mac it is Command-C and Command-V).

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Well, I won't miss the import box.

Perhaps we gained more than we lost!

edit: edited tense of second sentence.

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As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, CTRL + right mouse click enables copy/cut/paste functions.  yay

Answer 17

Android/tablets users can NOT paste data. Several of us have tried every which way. No go.

Answer 18

Well, wish you'd told us beforehand.  Been trying to copy/paste stuff the usual way I do it with my mouse, wouldn't do it.  Ctrl-V makes it appear, but there is loss of function with the mouse.    

Comments

Ctrl + RightClick brings up the context menu. It is different menu if you click over text and if you click beyond the end of the text.

Answer 19

So, after several days dealing with this ... some final comments.

 * Like other folks have said, kudos for increasing the download speed ... well done.

 * The grey on green on the voting box on the questions page is not very distinguishable.  Change the color so we can see what's going on.

 * Folks have complained about the cut/paste functionality ... no comment here as I have always used the CTRL C/V method ... seems as this should be something to look at for the tablet folks.

 * The points format still just sucks ... it's a number, print out the number.  And it rounds up ... duh! ... I could be 500 points from a new level and it would list me at that level ... I repeat, It sucks!  Fix it!!!!!  i.e. put it back the way it was .

 * Finally, what happened to collaboration here?  Why weren't these changes put up for comment?  I'm appalled!

Comments

It was a software update. It's not a policy change.

Answer 20

Yes.  What I love is you can now use the arrow keys on a Bluetooth keyboard connected to an iPad.