August 2010 Update to New FamilySearch

The August 2010 update to New FamilySearch reflected, exactly, the changes announced for the recent Beta tests. The main change was the discontinuance of the dispute option. To quote from the announcement:

Changes to the Dispute Feature
The dispute feature is being removed from the system. As a first phase, you can no longer add a new dispute. You can still see disputes that were previously entered. You can edit the notes of disputes that you added. You can also still remove your own disputes.

Eventually, all of the disputes in the system, including their notes, will be moved to the discussion boards. Instead of using disputes, you are encouraged to work with other contributors to correct information:

• You can work with a contributor directly. Click a contributor’s name to see if he or she has provided contact information.

• You can also identify your concerns on the ancestor’s discussion board. To see the discussion board, click the ancestor’s name to display the complete details. Then click Discussions, which is located in the lower-left side of the details.

 The main problem with moving the dispute function to the Discussions feature is that there is nothing presently in the program to indicate that an active discussion has been posted. Almost everyone who learns about this change immediately says, but how are they going to know there is a discussion? Without some indication, the feature will be largely ignored. I posted some discussion topics when the feature was first introduced and my comments have been entirely ignored.

Almost no one is sad to see the dispute function disappear. It was an interesting idea at first but became a major obstacle to working with the program.