how to "prune" the watchlist [closed]

Question

I am very confused as to why we have to limit our watchlists and yet wikitree is not limiting the size of the global tree at all.

 We currently have around 25 million profiles.

 If all of them were on be at least one watchlist - we would need to have 50,000 ACTIVE genealogists to manage them all.

On the front page it says that we currently have almost 755,000 genealogists to manage all these profiles.

But how many of those are currently ACTIVE?

We all know that many people join us, or at least did join wikitree, dumped their gedcoms and then do a runner. They disappeared.

So how many ACTIVE genealogists do we currently have?

Actually the better question to ask is - how many active genealogists do we have from each major country?  (using the same countries for which we have challenge & thon teams)

If I were to orphan my many Kiwi profiles, I doubt that many kiwis would pick them up because there are very few kiwis related to me currently active here on wikitree.

I have a sinking feeling that no matter how many profiles I will be forced to orphan, there will never be enough active genealogists to pick them up and manage them.

Which means that many profiles will sit in the database as orphans for years!!  To me, that does not seem to be a particularly effective use of  webspace or widthband.

So what is the best way to prune my watchlist?

Do I keep the notables and dump all their relatives?

Am I required to keep all my Unlisted profiles?  The profiles I made back before those privacy rules came into effect...

How many from my own family should I keep? For DNA purposes you know...

And what about my husbands tree?
He will never join wikitree. He is quite happy for me to manage the tree. He just tells me whenever he hears of a family members death so I can update the profile. .
Also many of that family also have unlisted profiles because again, they were made before the privacy rules came into effect.

So how do I become an effective pruner??

I currently have 4921 on my watchlist which is why I am asking...

Thank you.

Apologies for a LONG question!!

Comments

Hi Robynne,

I have over 5000 profiles and it works fine. So don't worry about the exact limit.

/ Maria

Answer 1

I wouldn't assume that just because a profile is orphaned, nobody will see it or work on it. I frequently come across orphaned profiles within the names I'm interested in and do some work on them. I have worked on profiles in different continents within those name groups and connected them to people in my country. Connectors tend to go where the info takes them.

Answer 2

I never orphan profiles, but regularly request that others manage them.  It doesn’t bother me having more than 35K profiles on my watchlist.  I regularly work with those that are family members of profiles that I created transferring large portions of their family tree over to them.

Answer 3

"But how many of those are currently ACTIVE?"

In October, 2444 members made between 100 and 999 contributions. 591 made 1,000 or more contributions.

I don't know the figures for activity below the 100 contribution level. There could easily be a total of at least 5,000 active members.  If they each had 5,000 on their watchlists, then that would be 25 million.

25 million profiles made by 750,000 members is an average of 33  per member ( actually 33 and a third ).

Answer 4

I have decided that open profiles generally don't need a manager (or at least, me as the manager), so I have been orphaning (well, TRYING, anyway!) the profiles for the oldest individuals in my watchlist.

Of course, I try to update the data, citations, biography, and any other useful/necessary items before I orphan a profile.

Answer 5

Like others wrote already: The 5.000 profiles "Limit" is more of a recommendation. You, are free to have as many profiles on your watchlist as you want.

The reason why there is this recommendation, is that some WikiTree systems may start to slow down for you, but for this there is no exact Limit, but rather a "those Tools will become slower and slower". E.g. the Quick search of your watch list, or the bulk changes Tool of your watch list.

Comments

OK well since I seldom use any wiki tools, I dont think I would have a problem. So maybe I can rest easy until my watch list gets up to 10K

Unless i start getting big red flag warnings - then it will become annoying!!

Thanks everyone for your advice.

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Another problem those with large watchlists encounter is keeping up with notifications, requests, and improvements on those profiles.

Thanks for the rundown on the tools, Norbert. You're spot on!