Question Huge percentage of users never come back

Over the years of hosting webtrees I have a few hundred users that did register, verified their email but they never came back.

I partially blame myself for this, because maybe I killed the moment of inspiration by not approving their registration immediately, But I did after I came home from work. But I also had hundreds of cases where I approved their registration within 5 minutes.

Do you guys know why this is?

Are our users expecting something else, or is the theme/colours not appealing?
I even used a custom theme recently, thinking it would keep users interested enough to build their own family tree, or search for an existing one. But somehow they lose interest. Why is that?

Have you experienced something like this and what did you to improve the usability?
 

I've asked myself many a time. Some I've even registered for them thinking it'll be easier than having them figure things out. Some do sign in, look at their own page and never come back. Some get lost at "My Page". One cousin has taken the time to help with her family and extended family.
I'm about to add a photo gallery, separate from webtrees but linked to it, and see if those I had conversations with over the last 3 months sign in and actually go beyond their page and help update missing information.

Do you know who all these "few hundred users that did register, verified their email" actually are?

In my experience most, if not all. will be scammers, trying to get access onto your site in order to be able to place advertising links for various unrelated merchandise.

You need to find out who they are, and what their interest in your family tree really is before you approve them.

Yes, I am related to most of them. First, in the comment on the registration page they must show they have Albanian ancestry. For most cases I can tell by their name who they are.
Second, we have a lot of orphans from the 1999 war in Kosovo. There are some villages with only a handful survivors and they have been seeking very distant relatives. I am trying to help them.
PS. I have an unintrrupted liniage from 1650's. So that spans accross many, many families.

What you are trying to do sounds wonderful, so well done for trying.

But if, as you say, hundreds don't return even after you have approved their registration after just a day or so, do they really want the help?

All the things you described in your first message in this thread "might" be the problem, but so could dozens of other things. There is no simple answer, in my opinion.

Perhaps contacting them first through social media would be more useful. It's the main tool for communication for many. rather than registering on unknown websites.

If they are valid family and not scammers and spam, then the next question is, do you have information they want and that a benefit them?  If not then many people may just be leaving because the site does not help them.  I’m a little cynical, but I think most people are not really interested in genealogy unless they are already entered, not everyone is quizzical and motivated to add to other people’s website.  

But that is my cynical outlook!

When we meet in funerals, weddings and other family events, they all show interest. They ask what was that link again, and so on. They register and then they do nothing until the next funeral.

Agron,

Mt own siblings show the same sort of interest in what I am doing, however only one has bothered to log in only once. I have other family who I have not met log in once or twice and thats it.. NONE have shown any interest to help at all..

I'm honest with myself now to say screw it I do it for me and IF I find something important I can let my Mum know who does at least take an interest but is not at all computer savy so I understand does not log in etc.

 

Mine is online to help anyone that runs into it. I hope to find someone to assume responsibility for my webtrees by November, 2029. :+)



 

RBaker wrote:

Mine is online to help anyone that runs into it. I hope to find someone to assume responsibility for my webtrees by November, 2029. :+)




 

Sounds ominous.. I too hope to find someone in the family to 'take over'.. Ancestry and all are wonderful, but leave much to much room for error. I am sure someone could find errors in my work, however I feel quite confident in most of what I have found and recorded..

Sometimes keeping it simple is better than to many cooks spoiling the broth.

 

agron wrote:

When we meet in funerals, weddings and other family events, they all show interest. They ask what was that link again, and so on. They register and then they do nothing until the next funeral.
 

Dont worry, my relatives behave the same. I even register them manually, because some of them don’t use email, only messengers. They don’t register, but even if they do, they don’t login. And from dozens registered, only 1 enters data to the tree. 

I read an article about Masloy pyramid effect in genealogy. So, it tells that genealogy is in the last place after all other needs. Means only few persons really care about their genealogy. Others are just curious.

Another thing - webtrees is not “for fun”, it is powerful instrument for research. It is too complex and unusual for most of visitors, used to “stupid web surfing* . 

It seems necessary for me to share how I operate my website here:
Currently, my genealogy website has more than 1,000 users registered, and nearly 3,000 users follow my website channel. The vast majority of people in China use mobile phones instead of PCs.

First of all, it is important to have a style theme that local people are accustomed to, as it directly determines the user’s first impression of it. The style of webtrees may be more popular among people outside of China, so I made layout changes to the homepage and my pages to make it easier for Chinese people to like it.
Secondly, in China, many people involved in genealogy editing do not have email addresses, so I canceled email verification. Moreover, when the user registers, I have added the information of parents, grandfather, and uncle (stored in the remarks field), which allows me to approve faster.
In China, basically everyone uses WeChat, so I also integrated webtrees and WeChat login. When I open my family tree website in WeChat, I will automatically log in. And I used introjs to add operation guidelines.
Finally, I also changed the pending change function. When the user's modification is approved or rejected, the user will receive notification information through mobile phone SMS and WeChat at the same time, so that the user can open it again for verification.
By making some of the changes above, you can enhance user stickiness to your website. And I also established additional "classified information" and "phone book" functions. The "Classified Information" function allows them to share business opportunities and communicate with each other. The "phone book" function can help them help each other in life and work.

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The above is from Google Translate.
 

My relatives—even the ones that do genealogy on (shudder) Ancestry.com—have never logged in.  Only two requested accounts but never confirmed their requests.

A serious website just can't compete with the low info eye candy of Facebook and the like.

I've had that problem too. During several recent gatherings, relatives expressed interest so I made it as easy as possible to log in. The ones couple that did log in, don't go beyond their own record and that of immediate family. One is of my grandparents generation so am so anxious to have her input. She's the last one left! The one aunt left has no interest. Other ten aunts/uncles are gone, taking with them any possible information.
The first/second cousins have little interest. As you say, it's not Facebook.

Hello,

May be they don't use webtrees anymore.

Or they have huge problems to access to this Forum like I do (account deleted, huge difficulty to (re)create one), account banned with no explanation less than one hour after creating this.

AND NOW I MUST use Opera's AND ITS VPN to access, because since this morning when I try to access without it, I got an HTTP 403 error (Forbidden access) 🤬
-> It would be nice to fix it ASAP, or I'll only use github.

Really fed up of this ! Then I understand why some don't come back. 

 

@fdejaigher,

Access to this forum has nothing to do with this thread!  They are two completely different things!  This forum is generally for administrators of a site using webtrees, this thread is about users of the website the admin set up and their use of that website!

I have been a member of this forum since its inception and your issues with access to the forum are very rare, compared to all the actual members of this site.

Maybe it is a case of where you live and restrictions placed on connections, maybe it is the way you yourself are accessing the forum.  

 

AND NOW I MUST use Opera's AND ITS VPN to access, because since this morning when I try to access without it, I got an HTTP 403 error (Forbidden access) 🤬

Ok, this is off-topic. And it sounds strange. I do not use a VPN to access this site. I'm using Edge, Chrome or Firefox and they all work perfectly with this site.

fdejaigher wrote:

Hello,

May be they don't use webtrees anymore.

Or they have huge problems to access to this Forum like I do (account deleted, huge difficulty to (re)create one), account banned with no explanation less than one hour after creating this.

AND NOW I MUST use Opera's AND ITS VPN to access, because since this morning when I try to access without it, I got an HTTP 403 error (Forbidden access) 🤬
-> It would be nice to fix it ASAP, or I'll only use github.

Really fed up of this ! Then I understand why some don't come back. 
 

You really need to increase the information content and reduce the anger in your posts if you want people to help you. Your comments have nothing to do with this ongoing thread, so why try to hijack this discussion instead of continuing the previous one:  Forum account keeps getting deleted/blocked

My method of using this forum is similar to what you described: I check for new forum content frequently, but don't log in unless I have something I wish to post. I've had my forum account for many years, and many times I've gone for months without a login and I've never had my account blocked. Furthermore, I've never had a 403 error even when trying to access it from multiple countries....

Now you say that you have a working forum account, but can't connect unless you go through a VPN. That sounds to me like a network-level security issue, such that the your computer's IP address belongs to a domain that is on someone's black list. This black-listed domain may also help explain why your previous forum accounts were deleted/blocked.

So, what's special about your network domain, such that it triggers server hosting the webtrees forum to respond with a 403 Forbidden Access error, whereas hiding your IP address through a VPN connection works normally? Context is important, so please go back to the earlier discussion thread, or send a private message to the forum moderator @makitso