Help:Easily Confused

Categories: Navigation Profile Boxes | WikiTree Help

Purpose

The purpose of the Easily Confused Navigation Box is to enable:

1. viewing users to determine whether a profile is for the person they expect, and
2. viewing users and computer applications to easily navigate between profiles that are easily confused, and
3. genealogists to more easily access the research that supports the conclusion that the people are different.

Rules for Usage

• Profiles must exist for each of the linked people in the Navigation Box. If an easily-confused person does not have a profile they should be discussed in Research Notes but not appear in a Navigation Box.

• Linked profiles should be set as Rejected Matches in our merging and matching database. They should never be Unmerged Matches, i.e. profiles that most-likely represent the same person.

• Linked profiles must cite reliable sources that lead us to the conclusion that the people are different. If it is uncertain whether they are different, the current state of the research should be described in Research Notes but the people should not appear in a Navigation Box.

• The conclusion that the people are different must be explained. This can be in Research Notes that appear on every linked profile or on a Free-Space Profile. (The advantage of creating a Free-Space Profile is that you won't have to repeat the same explanation on all the profiles.)
  • A good explanation includes why the people are easily-confused and the evidence for the conclusion that they are different.
  • Free-Space Profiles for explanations must be Open if the linked profiles are Open, and as collaborative as the profiles themselves. The explanation cannot be copyrighted or owned, but may be project-managed.
  • Example titles for explanation pages:
    • John Smiths of Colonial Boston
    • Jane Johnsons born in Milwaukee in 1920

• The people must be easily confused by genealogists. Before using the Navigation Box, you should know that genealogists or casual family historians have confused them in the past (e.g. if family trees or other unreliable sources have conflated them) or are highly likely to confuse them in the future. The people should not merely have similar names, dates, and/or locations. This is a higher standard than the one we use for Rejected Matches ("If two profiles look similar but represent different people they should be set as Rejected Matches"). All profiles with the Easily Confusion Navigation Box should be set as Rejected Matches, but not all Rejected Matches should have the Easily Confused Navigation Box.

• No more than eight easily-confused people should appear in the Navigation Box. If there are more, link to them in the explanation.

• Placement: The code should be placed directly below any categories. It belongs above all other Profile Boxes, including Research Note Boxes and Project Boxes.

How to Use

Example Code

{{Easily Confused

|profile1 = [[Lincoln-1878|Thomas Lincoln (abt.1603-bef.1684)]] ''the Weaver''

|profile2 = [[Lincoln-4|Thomas Lincoln (abt.1617-1692)]] ''the Husbandman''

|page = Disambiguation Thomas Lincoln

}}

Notes:

• The links to each profile can be copy-and-pasted using the "Link" tool that appears at the top of their profile. Be sure to use the internal wiki link option instead of the ID only or full URL.

• The page = parameter is optional. If used, it should be the name of the free-space profile with the explanation, with "Space:" left out. If not used, it will default to [[#Research Notes|See the text for details]].

• You can include a couple words by each person to summarize why the people are different. This should be a key indicator that distinguishes them, e.g. their different locations (e.g. "of Boston"), careers ("the Cooper"), or parents ("son of William"). This should never be more than 3-5 words for each. The full explanation is separate.

• The exact same code should be copy-and-pasted onto each linked profile. The code should not be edited to remove the link to the profile on which it is being placed. This makes it easier for the viewing user to navigate between the profiles because each name will remain in a fixed position on the list.

For more technical documentation, see Template:Easily_Confused.

Example Output

To see an example on profiles, see Lincoln-1878.

This page was last modified 13:19, 13 October 2023. This page has been accessed 1,176 times.