Diana 2. I agree but under the present circumstances whilst the system isn't working at least you aren't loosing them if you approve them all and you then have their email address and you can sort things out with them. If you continue on the contract me line you are just loosing them. In my mind although it isn't what you want at least you have gained direct contact and access to the data Better than not getting them at all Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diana Gale Matthiesen" <DianaGM@dgmweb.net> To: <y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 7:57 PM Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] join authorization > 1. I have, but haven't posted the responses. They all amounted to, "we > will > pass this suggestion on to IT." We all need to complain about this if > there's > going to be any improvement in the situation. > > 2. If I'm going to simply approve everyone, I lose the main purpose of > requiring approval: to get their lineage out of them. If you don't get > it > then, you may never get it, and I consider test results without a lineage > worthless. Approving their request to join doesn't mean they'll follow > through > and buy a kit, so I may not get their email address that way. I don't > think > FTDNA realizes how much hand-holding some people require before they'll > make the > plunge, and if they just disappear, I've no way to reach them. > > Diana > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- >> bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Bob May >> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 3:36 AM >> To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com >> Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] join authorization >> >> Two points >> !. From the number of complaints and no one quoting a response from FTDNA >> how > many >> of you have put in feedback on this >> >> 2. Would it not be better to use the approve button and having them in >> the > project and >> sorting it out and even finding the correct project for them and latter > unjoining them if >> necessary than loosing them altogether if the system isn't working. If >> you > accept them >> you get there email address. >> >> Bob > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > Y-DNA-PROJECTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 5635 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message

Unless I'm missing something, just accepting them doesn't give me their email address, not unless they go ahead and purchase a kit. And the bottom line is, I do not want to accept someone without a lineage. Yes, I would rather lose them. I have found that someone who is uncooperative at the point of joining becomes *less* cooperative once they're in the project -- and have gotten the discount on their testing. My only leverage with them is to withhold the thing they want: membership in the project. I made the mistake when I first started my projects, six years ago, of not requiring join authorization. Some people joined, and then never once responded to a single email from me. In many cases, knowing their identity, I was able to "do" their genealogy, myself, but in some cases I couldn't, so those people remain, to this day, without a lineage or even earliest ancestor. STR data without a lineage are useless. It's a one way street, helping only the test subject and no one else. They've a right to be tested and hide their lineage, if they want, but not if they want to join my projects. They share with their fellow researchers, or they can't enjoy the benefits of project membership. I work my butt off for my projects, so there has to be some reciprocity here. Building a project isn't simply about the number of members, it's about the quality of the members' data, and that includes both their STR results *and* their lineage. And, now, FTDNA has made the most difficult part of running a project -- extracting lineages from prospective members and staying organized -- even harder. And not a little harder, *much* harder. I haven't, so far, touched on the issue of trying to keep message exchanges for the project organized. Piling all the join requests into a single folder on my GAP is already chaos. Wait til it contains hundreds of messages! I file all exchanges with a prospective member (and later actual member) in an individual folder in Outlook. That way, even if they contact me years after joining, I can scan their folder and remind myself who they are and what has transpired. So, now I get to hunt through hundred of entries in my GAP to review our interchange? I do have a workaround, but it's definitely a *work* around. For every entry in the Join Authorization list, there is an email I've sent to myself, including the text of the message and what it was about, to be filed in the prospective member's folder in Outlook -- to be turned into a member's folder if they follow through and join. It's a PITA to do, but it will be less of a PITA in the long run with everything well organized, as it always has been. Diana > -----Original Message----- > From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Bob May > Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 5:29 AM > To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] join authorization > > Diana > 2. I agree but under the present circumstances whilst the system isn't working at least > you aren't loosing them if you approve them all and you then have their email address > and you can sort things out with them. > If you continue on the contract me line you are just loosing them. > In my mind although it isn't what you want at least you have gained direct contact and > access to the data Better than not getting them at all Bob