Unit History is painful

[bboss]

Hey there. Newly called History Specialist here. I've been trying to add a number of stories and the experience was...not super smooth.

- Errors all over the place: Can't Find Story, Unknown Error, Story Cannot be Found etc. etc.,
- Unforced page reloads
- Autosave every 10 seconds or so seems a bit excessive.
- Can we add a better WYSIWYG editor? Could really use some bullet points!
- How about the ability to add audio and/or video files?

Just some thoughts. I like the direction and possibilities and I'm looking forward to further improvements.

[jdlessley]

The Tech Forum is user-to-user discussion and collaborative self help support. It has no connection to the official support channels. All we can do is discuss it or offer workaround suggestions, if any are possible. For your issues and suggestions it is best to submit feedback using the feedback link at the bottom of the Unit History page. Do not plan on getting a personal response. For the most part expect only an automated response to let you know they got your message. Do not submit multiple issues/suggestions in a single message. I did that for a number of Unit History site issues and suggestions and got into a transfer loop between website feedback messages sending me to the Global Services Department (GSD), the GSD sending me to the website feedback system, and looping back again.

[BrianEdwards]

Hey there. Newly called History Specialist here. I've been trying to add a number of stories and the experience was...not super smooth.

- Errors all over the place: Can't Find Story, Unknown Error, Story Cannot be Found etc. etc.,

As this hasn't been reported recently by other Forum members (and it currently works fine for us in our unit), perhaps it's related to an issue with website cookies. Could you try using a private/incognito browsing session, to see if that resolves these type of access issues?

How about the ability to add audio and/or video files?

As users we have no context, but my personal guess is that there might be storage capacity the Church is considering, since the Help FAQ states only pdf documents can be attached. The FAQ also states that stories will be available online for two years, after which they are archived and available upon request. I am uncertain why they would choose a "two year" limit for online access, it would seem straightforward enough to create some kind of user interface to be able to access everything from 2024-forward. But if it was related to storage, then that would also align with perhaps why videos files are not allowed. But this is completely a guess, and there may be other guiding reasons the Church is using to make these policy determinations.

I've also suggested elsewhere that if the Unit History Specialists have some kind of connection to an Area History Specialist (or somebody from the Area assigned to support wards and stakes), that might be an additional feedback route. If there's "someone" who has a vested interest in helping local history specialists, they might have an additional route for getting Feedback to the appropriate department. I haven't heard from anyone whether local specialists have any kind of access to higher-up specialists.