13 replies to this topic

[Vyger]

I just felt a desire to state for the record that my hopes for Rootsmagic 6.1 far exceeded where we are now.

For one I had hoped, understandably I believe, that DataClean would be much enhanced and finally come out of beta.

With many other outstanding enhancement requests mainly in Place and Media handling I had also expected to see something significant and in my opinion overdue on these features and others.

Heading into the fourth month of the year and the road show season I have now resigned myself to hopes for the next full version update and the hope that we all live to see some of those much requested enhancements.

[Ludlow Bay]

Poor Vyger ... ever the optimist, never a realist.

[Vyger]

Poor Vyger ... ever the optimist, never a realist.

Being a driven and optimistic person I suppose I have a preposition towards disappointment.

Still I like being an optimist and having strong belief in the ability of others, I learnt a long time ago to deal with any disappointments that result, but I will share my belief.

[Renee Zamora]

Vyger, you probably would have seen more of your dreams come true if FamilySearch didn't throw a monkey wrench in our development schedule. With the coming demise of NFS we had to give it's replacement Family Tree sync top priority, and we still have more work to do there. The RootsMagician can't wait to get this project out of the way so he can get back to developing the fun stuff.

[Vyger]

Vyger, you probably would have seen more of your dreams come true if FamilySearch didn't throw a monkey wrench in our development schedule. With the coming demise of NFS we had to give it's replacement Family Tree sync top priority, and we still have more work to do there. The RootsMagician can't wait to get this project out of the way so he can get back to developing the fun stuff.

Thanks, I had kind of worked that one out, so I just need to look forward to 6.2

[TomH]

I like vyger's optimism and his prodigious efforts to illustrate how RM could be made better. Bring on the fun stuff, if by that you mean real improvements on fronts that have been stalled and have frustrated us users for some time. While I appreciate that the nFS and FSFT developments were strategic must-do's in support of a segment of the RM market, I must be in a different one and am wary of synchronizing my tree with anybody else's.

[Paul Harris]

Tom,

I think, at least, we are in the same, or a similar, segment. I would just like to be able to generate fully documented reports for distribution. With my database, and the current limitations of RM, I cannot do this without bringing great embarrassment to myself, and RM. In the program I migrated from I could manually control the ORDER of source citations and I could inhibit redundant or insignificant citations from printout. While I am kinda new around here, I did 'expect' these fundamental features to be available in Rm. I have since learned that BOTH features have been in the 'Tracking System' for years. Vyger, I feel your pain.

Paul

[Jack]

Now, if the info on FS Family Trees could be certified as accurate.

[Ludlow Bay]

With the coming demise of NFS we had to give it's replacement Family Tree sync top priority ....

Yes, I understand completely. How else could you ever dream of getting posts like this one:
http://forums.rootsm...ell/#entry57397

196,000 names in 11 days! RootsMagic, you have become party to a foul and revolting force of the most malefic kind.

[Jerry Bryan]

My expections for new releases are extremely low. So RM 6.1.0.3 more than met my expectations.

One "glass half full" for me with respect to RM is that the current version of RM is pretty good even if things I think are important to be improved are likely never to be improved in new releases. Another "glass half full" for me is that the alternatives to RM don't look any better, and for the most part look worse. And a final "glass half full" for me is that the ability to use SQLite to do my own queries is incredibly powerful, and I have no expection of being able to do the same thing with competing products. So three "glasses half full" isn't all that bad.

My sense of RM's priorities - strictly my opinion, not any statement from RM itself - is the following.

• LDS support such as FamilySearch support.
  
• Multiple platform support, Mac and mobile in addition to Windows.
  
• Cool new stuff
  
• Fixing or improving old stuff that I think needs to be fixed or improved

So the improvements that are most important to me seem to be at the bottom of the priority list.

In fairness to RM, if I were a vendor of geneaology software my #1 and #2 priorities would be the same as RM's #1 and #2, even though as a user I have no interest in either item. That's because a vendor that doesn't attend to #1 and #2 and give them the highest possible priority will not long be in business. My complaint is with #3 and #4. I think #4 is about 100 times more important than #3, but that's not the direction that RM seems to be headed.

Jerry

[Vyger]

Another "glass half full" for me is that the alternatives to RM don't look any better, and for the most part look worse.

Jerry, I believe you also use FTM and I cannot believe you believe that the FTM Place reconciliation and geocoding UI is not far superior to RM.

https://www.youtube....h?v=KhukmVNAgFY

[Paul Harris]

Jerry,

I would argue that in the long run, inattention to number 4 can be just as devastating. It's what keeps me looking!

Paul

[Paul Harris]

Yes, I understand completely. How else could you ever dream of getting posts like this one:
http://forums.rootsm...ell/#entry57397

196,000 names in 11 days! RootsMagic, you have become party to a foul and revolting force of the most malefic kind.

Well stated, Ludlow. Very sad, but well stated.

[TomH]

Jerry, I believe you also use FTM and I cannot believe you believe that the FTM Place reconciliation and geocoding UI is not far superior to RM.

Not to pile on, but, FTM2012 and the Ancestry mobile app are way ahead in integrating and syncing with online trees of a reasonable size - image and source support is unparalleled. That said, I doubt FTM could do anything with 196,000 persons...