Begging on Bended Knee

Question

Dear, Darling, WikiTree members,

Please, PLEASE, P-L-E-A-S-E! Stop using state abbreviations on United States profiles! I know it's tempting to do it and it's something we all do all the time in every other usage. But it really hurts on WikiTree because the "match" program doesn't pick up that "PA" is the same as "Pennsylvania." This results in hundreds (if not thousands) of duplicate profiles, which leads to merging nightmares, which leads to lots of us spending time that could likely be more wisely and usefully spent in adding sources and improving or linking profiles.

When you run across a profile with an abbreviated state, please expand it! When you're importing your GEDCOM, please change it in the profile before leaving!

Maybe this could be added to the Newbee instructions and helpful hints pages?

Comments

This is already WikiTree policy, but it may bear repeating in other places. WikiTree Help Page: Location Fields - Abbreviations

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Ellen if anyone else: is there a suggestions code for state abbreviations? Maybe we could have a periodic challenge ?

Or maybe incorporate fixing abbreviations into existing challenges?

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For the related suggestions, see:

Suggestion 616 Abbreviated Birth location Country not recommended,

Suggestion 676 Abbreviated Marriage location Country not recommended and

Suggestion 646 Abbreviated Death location Country not recommended.

Edited to add:

Also:

Suggestion 474 Profile completeness - Abbreviated Birth location Country not recommended and

Suggestion 475 Profile completeness - Abbreviated Death location Country not recommended.

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Thank you, Paul

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Thank you, Paul. But I have discovered that the vast majority of those profiles that NEED fixing aren't included on the Suggestions list. (If they're on the list, and you edit the profile, then the DD Error Code will show up at the bottom of the edit page so you can mark it "fixed" or "false".)

Try this. Go to the SEARCH function under the FIND menu on any WT page. Enter any relatively common surname, then enter any US state abbreviation in either the birth or death location. My bet is that you'll get many hits, and that most of them will not have the error code on the profile.

For example, I just entered SCHUMAN and birth PA. I got 80 profiles, with birth dates ranging from 1733-1944. I've changed 5 of them so far, and only 1 had the error code on it.

Maybe Ales has it set to only find so many and then stop? I have no explanation for why they aren't all coded.

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I just noticed that all of those error codes relate to COUNTRY abbreviations, not to smaller geographic locations. If a state abbreviation shows up on these lists, it’s likely because there’s a leading comma in the location field that makes the finder-bot think that “PA” (for example) is a country code and not a state code. I have found no error codes for any US state abbreviation.

This, of course, is why they’re not pre-tagged!

This is also why we should try so hard to correct those already done and avoid doing it as we create.

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Carole, I think the reason that a lot of the profiles that need fixing are not yet on the Suggestions list is that, for the moment, suggestions 616, 646 and 676 are only produced for profiles that are orphaned. I believe this is to try to reduce the work to a more manageable level - as Tommy Buch mentioned in a comment below, it still gives over 60,000 profiles needing their birth location fixed. I think the intention is that once most of the initial batch have been fixed, the checks can then be extended to more profiles. If individual profile managers want to check the profiles they manage, that is where the Profile Completeness suggestions 474 and 475 are useful.

Regarding which abbreviations appear in the lists, I can see some of the form "Philadelphia, PA" and others of the form "Snyder, PA, USA", so I think it should be picking up all of the state abbreviations (there are just a lot more of them that don't have the country than ones that do).

Answer 1

I agree, please include the full name of states, especially for those of us who do not live in the United States of America and are not familiar with the many varied abbreviations of state names, it can be extremely confusing.

Comments

Thanks for the best answer Jack

Answer 2

Maybe the match logic should be upgraded to include the state abbreviations. I know WikiTree is more than the United States, but a large portion of profiles are from the US, so that would be worth the investment of time.

Comments

Even then it is complicated. There are the postal codes (current two letter) and the official abbreviations which are different. Not a lot extra to work with. I periodically fix the misuse of NB for Nebraska (that was the postal code for about 6 years in the 60s) when working with New Brunswick Profiles. Perhaps it would be better if the saving/importing logic refused to save if such abbreviations were used.

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--> Perhaps it would be better if the saving/importing logic refused to save if such abbreviations were used.

!!!!!! Great idea !!!!! 

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and what about confusing states with other countries?  The example I immediately think of is CA, which could be California or Canada.

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My current count is 25 US State postal abbreviations conflict with 2-letter country codes, 4 Canadian provinces do as well. 1 Australian State matches a US State and another a Canadian Province and a third matches a country.

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Since you are keeping track of these ... At least 2 conflict with Netherlands locations (NH Noord-Holland or New Hampshire, UT Utecht or Utah), and Newfoundland can be abbreviated in the same manner as the Netherlands

Answer 3

Well Said.

It is worth reminding people of this policy.

WA could mean the US state of "Washington"

or

WA could mean the Australian state of "Western Australia"

I would go further and try not to use ANY abbreviations to reduce the possibility of confusion.

With modern technology, it is not hard to reduce keystrokes with some automation.  After all WikiTree helpfully provides a location list when you enter a profile.  

I am not a fan of GEDCOM assisted profiles.  I think the people the profiles represent deserve individual attention.

Answer 4

The best way to solve this problem is for WikiTree to STOP saving a profile with abbreviated locations.

Comments

Unfortunately that would be very hard to do because Places is a free text field with few requirements. Like, enter the place name as it was at the time. I would see it as a step forward that the last increment must be a country.

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A more sophisticated way of dealing with locations would be separate fields for city, county, state, and country.  In addition to requiring major database changes, this would also require code changes in many places.  If the fields for GPS coordinates is ever added (it's been teased as planned for several years)  that can go a long way toward clarification of location, but it would take significant additional code to compare GPS coordinates to whatever abbreviation was entered.

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Apparently, it is not too hard to do.

We have Data Doctor suggestions:

• 474 - 517 profiles
• 475 - 468 profiles
• 616 - 60,606 profiles
• 646 - 60,641 profiles
• 676 - 29,040 profiles