Beware of invalid approved merges when working with Pending Merges list

Question

In working the Pending Merge List, I have found many old Merge Requests that have been approved by both sides but are obviously different people, with different names, different parents, and different dates.  Some of them would merge father and son or brother and sister.  I don't understand how they got approval by both sides.  Although the system says anyone can approve the Merge, I've been rejecting them.  I think this is the appropriate way to handle it.  If the Merge should really go through, it can be proposed again.

Comments

Thank you, Vic!

---

This is the type of problem I'm seeing in the Pending Merge list.  i know Katherine wouldn't approve this merge.  I just reject them, but it makes me think that the system burped and used the wrong profile numbers.

Vic

John de Courtenay (Courtenay-69) and William Courtenay (Courtenay-83)   compare
Proposed by Katherine Patterson.
Approval from Katherine Patterson for Courtenay-69 has been recorded.
Approval from Katherine Patterson for Courtenay-83 has been recorded.
Anyone can complete this merge.
      If Courtenay-69 and Courtenay-83 are different people, reject the merge.
      If there's been an error, remove the pending merge.
Last updated 2011-07-06 05:49:20.

---

I bet it's one of those "transitive property" things. Since Kathy had merged other duplicates into both of those profiles, I bet there was a proposed merge that connected the other duplicates.

Answer 1

I think that in those cases probably the merge was approved, and then other merges were done after that made the merge not make sense anymore. I've seen quite a few of those, too.

Comments

Hi Lianne.

If we should think about changing something in the system, let me know.

Interestingly, this is the flip side of the bug that's been reported elsewhere: There's a pending merge of A and B, then B is merged is into C, then the pending merge of A and B is left hanging.

We corrected this so that the pending merge database is updated when either profile is merged. So, now if there's a pending merge of A and B, then B is merged into C, there's now a pending merge of A and C.

Basic transitive property, you'd think. If A = B and B = C then A = C.

Chris

---

That does seem to make sense. I still think it's a good rule. These seem to be cases of merges being done that shouldn't have been, which is going to mess things up no matter what, and one would hope isn't being done very often.

---

I've found that the bot-proposed merges are often wrong.  I also have come to realize that a lot of profile managers don't actually compare profiles in a proposed merge but just approve the merge via the e-mail link (not sure which is worse - mindless merging or being ignored!).  So I check out bot-proposed merges right away.