Age 61, a retired grumpy old man, living in the Geelong area, Victoria, Australia.

Please be nice and say thanks when a volunteer takes a photo for you. They've probably gone out of their way to help you. If you are not getting your photo requests filled it could be because you haven't thanked the volunteer for previous photos. Saying "Thanks in advance" on your photo request doesn't cut it for me, I would like a personal thanks AFTER I have filled your request by you sending me a message, but if I fill 10 requests for you on the same day there's no need to send me 10 thanks messages, 1 will suffice in that case. There are so many rude people that I now refuse to fill photo requests for, all because they couldn't be bothered to say thanks. It's not hard to send a quick thank you message, it takes 1 minute but some people just don't understand the concept that someone doing something for you means that you thank them personally.

If you request a photo but there is no plot info on the memorial, how do you expect me to find the grave? YOU want a photo, so YOU have to get the plot info. I will not chase up the plot info for you which means I will not take the photo either. If you want someone to take a photo for you then YOU need to contact the office and get the plot info and add it to the memorial. I have to drive an hour to the cemetery and another hour home again, and walk around a cemetery to find the grave to take your photo, and you want me to get the plot info too? That's not happening, no photo for you!

Please don't take photos from the Billion Graves website and put them on Find a Grave memorials. Unless you were the original photo's photographer it is a breach of copyright to use these photos unless you have the copyright holder's permission. You can't just take and use something that doesn't belong to you, that's theft. Besides, the majority of photos on the Billion Graves website are pretty poor quality. If you want a better quality photo of the grave added to the Find a Grave memorial then use the Request Photo button and a member will go and take one for you.

Another thing you should not do is create Burial Unknowns just so you can link a person to a family tree. Find a Grave is not a genealogy site. As the name suggests, its purpose is to record final disposition information to enable someone to "Find the Grave" if they want to go and visit it. Their website even says that its purpose is to record burial information. If you don't know where someone's final resting place is, then you do not create a memorial for them on Find a Grave, it's that simple, and yes that rule does actually apply to you as well.

If you have requested a memorial transfer and I haven't responded, it's either because you haven't provided enough information, or you requested it via message instead of by using the "Contact Manager" on the memorial, or your request falls outside of the transfer guidelines. So my answer to your request in that case is No.

And lastly, to my fellow photo volunteers, please take better photos. This is Find a Grave not Find a Plaque or Find a Headstone, so take a photo of the whole grave not just a closeup of the bit with all the words on it. I'm sure that family and friends would love to see what the whole grave looks like.

You can see now why I said at the top that I'm a grumpy old man.

Age 61, a retired grumpy old man, living in the Geelong area, Victoria, Australia.

Please be nice and say thanks when a volunteer takes a photo for you. They've probably gone out of their way to help you. If you are not getting your photo requests filled it could be because you haven't thanked the volunteer for previous photos. Saying "Thanks in advance" on your photo request doesn't cut it for me, I would like a personal thanks AFTER I have filled your request by you sending me a message, but if I fill 10 requests for you on the same day there's no need to send me 10 thanks messages, 1 will suffice in that case. There are so many rude people that I now refuse to fill photo requests for, all because they couldn't be bothered to say thanks. It's not hard to send a quick thank you message, it takes 1 minute but some people just don't understand the concept that someone doing something for you means that you thank them personally.

If you request a photo but there is no plot info on the memorial, how do you expect me to find the grave? YOU want a photo, so YOU have to get the plot info. I will not chase up the plot info for you which means I will not take the photo either. If you want someone to take a photo for you then YOU need to contact the office and get the plot info and add it to the memorial. I have to drive an hour to the cemetery and another hour home again, and walk around a cemetery to find the grave to take your photo, and you want me to get the plot info too? That's not happening, no photo for you!

Please don't take photos from the Billion Graves website and put them on Find a Grave memorials. Unless you were the original photo's photographer it is a breach of copyright to use these photos unless you have the copyright holder's permission. You can't just take and use something that doesn't belong to you, that's theft. Besides, the majority of photos on the Billion Graves website are pretty poor quality. If you want a better quality photo of the grave added to the Find a Grave memorial then use the Request Photo button and a member will go and take one for you.

Another thing you should not do is create Burial Unknowns just so you can link a person to a family tree. Find a Grave is not a genealogy site. As the name suggests, its purpose is to record final disposition information to enable someone to "Find the Grave" if they want to go and visit it. Their website even says that its purpose is to record burial information. If you don't know where someone's final resting place is, then you do not create a memorial for them on Find a Grave, it's that simple, and yes that rule does actually apply to you as well.

If you have requested a memorial transfer and I haven't responded, it's either because you haven't provided enough information, or you requested it via message instead of by using the "Contact Manager" on the memorial, or your request falls outside of the transfer guidelines. So my answer to your request in that case is No.

And lastly, to my fellow photo volunteers, please take better photos. This is Find a Grave not Find a Plaque or Find a Headstone, so take a photo of the whole grave not just a closeup of the bit with all the words on it. I'm sure that family and friends would love to see what the whole grave looks like.

You can see now why I said at the top that I'm a grumpy old man.