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Member Since 08 Dec 2018
Offline Last Active Dec 09 2018 10:08 PM

Posts I've Made

In Topic: Release Date for RM8

09 December 2018 - 06:33 PM


Hmmm, I have a classic car and I love it, however my road car is over three times as powerful, more efficient and equiped liks a space ship compared to my classic, whilst I love to drive my classic I wouldn't want to everyday.



LoL. That car analogy does not work for me since I use RM for a different reason. For my usage, RM will be the engine that keeps things running smoothly while I build a body around it. For example, here is what I do with the data I export from RM;




You are coming at me like I am a newbie :). Maybe to RM as a user, but not from a programming perspective. I have been doing this genealogy thing for over 20 years. I understand what this program is and does on a level that most general users do not. I code and build websites as a hobby. I'm too lazy to build modules to connect Ancestry and Familysearch API's. I'd rather just pay for RM do do it...lol.


In order to keep RM alive, Implementing connection to Ancestry and FamilySearch was more important than working on bugs in the bells and whistles or implementing more features at this time. They needed to focus on the total re-write of Ancestry and Familysearch API's and bridging it to RM.


It is obvious by reading the history of this program and seeing what's under the hood that there was a conscious effort to follow programming and gedcom standards in order to keep data from becoming corrupt. It is definitely a labor of love. Other genealogy programs fall short of this and want to be everything to everyone with much fluff. Most of these programs failed because the technology changed and the authors did not keep up with the times. It is amazing that RM has kept up where most have not.





A Name without a Date or Place is useless in research, if I tell you I have a John Doe in my database you will ask me where he lived and when, Rootsmagic needs to leap ahead in the data mining and mapping necessary to make and suggest those possible community links.


I may not understand you correctly? RM does data mining quite well for a desktop program. It connects to the Ancestry and Family Search API's and pulls in data without corruption. 


In terms of mapping, I don't think free access will be around much longer for these programs. Google already wants to charge me for tapping into their API to use their maps. I expect Bing to follow suit eventually. Hey, maybe we will eventually go back to paper maps..lol.


Data mining on the net is a whole other animal. Data mining for genealogy content on the web is useless since there is no way of knowing where sources originated and there is so much noise that would have to be filtered. Like fake news :)


The nuts and bolts of RM are solid under the hood and does what most other desktop genealogy programs do not do, in terms of pulling info from Ancestry and FamilySearch in a clear concise manner.



I would rather see all the extraneous stuff pulled out of the new RM8 and the developers  focus more on  strengthening data manipulation with only modular addons for any bells and whistles that users want.






In Topic: Release Date for RM8

08 December 2018 - 02:21 PM

PH3 = http://rootsmagic.co...onal-Historian/


I would seriously be disappointed if RM switched to a cloud service. The internet infrastructure is simply not mature enough nor widespread enough to ensure that I (and others) will ALWAYS have access to the cloud. The big telecom companies have repeatedly claimed that they have the infrastructure. But it is not true, in my opinion.

So true. It is sad when I go to some Countries and see how much more their infrastructure is built up and cheaper to access.  The best networks I have used were one's where the government owned the equipment and allow telecoms to rent them. This creates more competition and therefore  inexpensive providers.


Whereas, in the US, our politicians allow monopolistic telecoms, whom we give our tax dollars to, to build our fragmented infrastructure. This money gets diverted to third party contractors that are the lowest bidders which typically translates to those in greater population arease will get better service. Those in the country can only hope a provider comes in their area. Which is not likely since money talks. My cable company wanted me to pay $30,000 to run a line to my house.

In Topic: Release Date for RM8

08 December 2018 - 10:07 AM

"I don't ever remember Rootsmagic being voted best genealogy program".



I truly think RM is underrated. I've only been using RM for a few years and it fully does what I need it to do for my situation.


I have run my own family website for over 15 years and it has been a bear, over the years, trying to bring in and merge my own data with Ancestry and Family Search.  My data flow was to use FTM to extract data from Ancestry, import that into Legacy to clean up the FTM data to gedcom standards, and then merge with my own data,to upload to my cloud server. This was conversion using three different database transfers. I would lose a lot of FTM data in the process.


Since FTM did not abide by gedcom standards, my data was always "dirty" and had to be cleaned up. I have no interest in the newer MacKiev. It is just a bought out rehash of the same thing that will be hacked and pieced together. I would much rather support mom and pops programmers like RM. When Ancestry went through their divorce with FTM I was glad to find that RM took on the task of integrating with the new Ancestry API as well as the new FamilySearch API. That is a big learning curve for the authors.. Some of us get complacent in our old age, glad they didn't :)


I was even happier that RM has a good sourcing format built into it so I could start to clean up the 20 years of sources I have collected.


I know folks are expecting a lot of features in RM8, but to be honest this program is so feature packed as is, I can only expect any improvements to be icing on the cake. I am totally thankful I have found RM and that the authors continue to provide us with the ability to bring in data from Ancestry and FamilySearch under one roof as well as the tools to clean up that data.


I do not expect programs like these (home computer based) to be around much longer as the world and our next generation has moved to cloud based services where data is controlled by those that own the servers behind a paywall. I haven't fully bought into the disruption, monopoly, and unregulated data control that Google, Amazon, Ancestry, etc, has created. I like having my data and a program to manipulate this data, that I paid for, in my physical possession. I am antediluvian in that way. :)


I'm not sure how much longer that Ancestry will allow programs like RM to connect to their API. I am sure, for now, Ancestry is allowing programs like FTM and RM in order to collect more data from users. Ancestry can flip the switch anytime it wants to shut it off. This has always been their corporate modus operandi. I have a love hate relationship with Ancestry. I'm loving them while they have opened their API and allow us to collect data from their site.


This program and others like it serve a niche. I am thankful that the authors still have an interest and can still make a living writing this program. These types of programs are becoming boutique programs getting edged out more and more by programs on cloud servers.


With that, I already owned RM7 and then went ahead and paid the $30 to get PH3 and a future upgrade to RM*. I am sold. Thank you again to the RM authors for their hard work. I don't think they hear that enough. I have created programs in the past and know how thick skinned you have to be to keep producing for users and push forward with your plan without getting burned out from all the negativity that can come from users.


As long as RM sticks to gedcom standards, sourcing standards, and can export without messing the data up,  I will remain a faithful acolyte. Like I said, anything above and beyond is icing on the cake.