Bulk removal tool

Question

Is it possible to bulk remove from your watchlist anyone to whom you are not connected?  I have had a look but not found any way other than selecting each profile and checking  "connection to me" and then using Privacy - "remove yourself" if appropriate.  

If there is no easy way could it be added to the to do list?

Answer 1

I think this is what you want.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:TrustedListChanges

Answer 2

I don't think there's currently a way to do this with the bulk changes tool.

You can go to the Find drop down menu and choose unconnected. This will show you the unconnected profiles on your watchlist. You'd still need to open each one and remove yourself.

There may be a way to use Wikitree plus to create a list but I'm not sure how.

Comments

Ah, but that helps.  Using your link I can get a list of all unconnected profiles from my watch list.  Then using that list (either printed out or switching tabs) select them in the bulk remove remove tool. Not as easy as having a button to press to do it for me but quite a saving over what I was doing/  Many tanks for the pointer,

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The profiles which appear on the Unconnected list are 'unconnected' to the main big ole tree, not unconnected to you.

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Since JG is connected to the big tree, these unconnected profiles are not connected to him or the big tree. If they were connected to JG, they would also be connected to the big tree.

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It's got nothing to do with being connected to him or not.  It's purely 'unconnected to the big tree'.

Answer 3

JG....you are correct, there is no way to identify the profiles on watchlist for people who are not connected to you......

And yes, it would be wonderful if there was. There is no way, except profile by profile to do this in today's world......

I think this is a wonderful suggestion.

Comments

Thanks Robin,  I had hopes after Peggy's answer which seemed  pretty sound at first glace.  After some mental gymnastics, i have worked out that there are people that show up as "No connection yet" who are nevertheless connected to the big tree, These are the ones I want to remove.  The unconnected report presumably shows profiles that have no connections at all.  These are a small subset of the ones I want to remove.  

Either there must be a limit on the connecting distance or there are lots sub trees in the big tree, or possibly both,   Anyway it is back to the one at a time method for now.  I hope the request is added to the to do list, though I can appreciate there are a lot of other pressing issues, and modifications always have the potential to introduce unintended bugs so it may be a while, if at all. 

Answer 4

There is the option on the bulk removal page to show only recent additions, but it doesn't work, long-ago profiles still appear on the list. How wonderful it would be if the list could be ordered to show newest profiles first.

Comments

Perhaps an option to choose different sort orders;

.  Alphabetic: Surname, fornname

. Chronological (date of change}

Answer 5

Yes. It will take a little work, but you can do it. Go into the Bulk removal tool. Click on select all your ancestors and descendants. Go down through all the selected names, and also click ancestors and descendants again. If needs be, search and do the same thing for any extra names added. Once you have done that, go through and invert all checked names to unchecked, and all unchecked to checked. Then select remove. It will take a little work, but doing this will pretty well do what you are asking. There isn't a single button that will do it though.

Comments

Yes, it does take some time (it took me 2.5 hours for a watch list of about 1800) but it does the job.  It takes a couple of passes through the list to get most selected, but then it becomes tedious as you have to click the select ancestors and descendants again as you don't know which pass that profile was selected on.  By then I had worked out that only a few new profiles were getting selected each pass, but I would need several more passes to catch them all.  I had worked out a way to tell if another pass was needed (you can't see if anyone is additionally selected unless your watch list fits on one page).  You make a note of the unselected profiles as you work down the list.  If this total is the same as the last pass you don't need to do anymore.  But this then gave me the idea that the last few passes can be done in one go by changing the method once there are are only a few unseleted.

Only look at those unselected and open the profile in a new tab and check the"conneted to me" link under the profile's menu.  Note if there is a connection or not and close the tab.  If there was a connection check the select box and then click on select descendants and ancestors.  If there was no connection leave the check box unticked.  At the end of this pass no more  passes wil be needed and the invert selection can be done.

It would be nice to have a control (button or link) on the bulk tool to invert the selection as it is time consuming on a large list.  You can alter the browser font size to make the check box bigger so it is easier to click, but then you need more pages to display the list.

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The need to remove unconnected profiles from your watch list can arise if you participate in many thons, as you may be adding profiles that are not connected to you.  It is possible to remove your self as PM before going on to the next profile, which would avoid the need for a watch list cleanup.  But it is preferable to leave yourself as PM for a while so that you can be notified of any errors made during the thon giving you a chance to correct them before detatching.

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I'm not sure if you would lose marriage connections. It is probably a good thing than you went back through and double checked that they weren't connected. Hopefully this process saved some time.