Should we adjust the Unresponsive Profile Managers policy?

Question

We have a rather conservative policy on Unresponsive Profile Managers.

If you want to complete a merge and the manager of the profile can't be reached, they have a whole six months to reply before their account will be closed and their profiles will be "orphaned."

That's understandably frustrating for good WikiTreers, especially Arborists, who want to merge duplicates and clean-up our shared tree.

Maybe we should adjust the policy. The six-month rule is really driven by the fact that the account will be closed and private profiles will be deleted. We never want to delete anything, but we have to do this with Unlisted and Private profiles.

On Open profiles, you can always contact a Supervisor about an expedited merge.

But that still leaves Public profiles. Why not have a separate rule for them?

Maybe we keep the rule that accounts aren't closed and private profiles aren't deleted until it's been six months, but after a month or two Public and Open profiles can be adopted or merged.

Thoughts? Would anyone object to this?

Comments

One concern - I've run into quite a few lines where the profiles are private, for people who can't possibly still be living (1700s/1800s).  Do those get deleted? I think I saw somewhere in g2g that WikiTree was changing profiles required to be open to open... is that project still underway?

---

Liz, when you see these e-mail Lianne and she'll change the privacy level. Once in a while we run a script to search out profiles like this; we're probably due to run it again.

---

well i have come into this i did send a merge request but from best efforts it looks like the profile has been inactive for years http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Haskett-1

email was sent to info...

---

The policy has now been updated! See http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/15350/have-you-seen-the-new-policy-unresponsive-profile-managers and http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unresponsive_Profile_Managers

---

Thanks for the change Chris! James - I tried to see about the merge request... Haskett-1 is an unlisted profile, so I'm assuming that was the profile manager for the one you wanted to merge? What're the WikiTree IDs for the profiles you wanted to merge?

---

Merrill-502 and Merrill-1120

502 data does indeed match mine. for the moment i added the info in bio.

---

Hi again James - I think you'll need to send a request to join the trusted list. I don't think Wiki makes a record of these requests or sends you an e-mail copy, as it does with messages. What I try to remember to do is copy the text of my request message before I hit send, then send myself an e-mail with that in the body & the subject line of the wikitree ID of the profile I've requested to be added to the trusted list for.

If you don't hear from Haskett-1 (now Unlisted) in two months, let info@wikitree.com know.

Sorry I didn't have a better answer, but Merrill-502, if a match with your Merrill-1120, isn't old enough to be required to be open (born 1885/died 1966).

Chris/Lianne/Tami - am I interpreting the new policy right? It's two months now?

Cheers,
Liz

Answer 1

Chris:

As I've recently increased the amount of "pruning" (merging) activity I'm involved in here at WikiTree, I've repeatedly pondered this very question that you pose.  The tool for browsing pending merges has actually helped in so many ways, one being that it helps us examine this very issue.

Having already given it a lot of thought, I have this response for you:

I believe this change is not only an improvement for the WikiTree, but necessary for its long term health.

Comments

I agree with Keith. I do my best to jump on merge and trusted list requests, as I know how frustrating it is to wait to be able to clean up lines or work on shared profiles. Expediting the process of allowing access to public profiles that are no longer being maintained by their previous owners would be incredibly nice. I think a month or two is absolutely fair. I have times, due to where I live, when I cannot get to my computer right away-and a week or more may go by. I think a month is more than enough time to check things.  You made it very clear when I signed up with wikitree that there were responsiblities that came with it, and it seems only fair to maintain that standard. You are signing on to colloborate, not just dump a tree, and if you no longer are participating, we need to be able to get in there make sure those profiles are maintained. I look forward to seeing where this goes, and want to add I am always excited to see the changes that are made here at the site. This has been, by far, my most enjoyable online tree effort!

---

I, too, agree with Keith.  As a very active pruner, I do find it frustrating to find a Public profile for someone born in 1640.  It probably happened a while ago because the was no death date, but those need to be merged, and we currently can't do it.

---

One month at most.

---

Thank you, Keith, Abby, Vic, and Jillaine.

Vic, note that someone born in 1640 should be Open. If they're not ask Lianne, Tami, or me to fix it.