G2G: Is there a way to inquire on the date a category was added to a profile?

Question

Is there a way to use WT+ (or something else) to inquire on the date a category was added to a profile? We have numerous maintenance categories on PGM profiles, and it would be very helpful to know when they were added so that we can work them off in the order in which the categories were added. One example is the category “Puritan Great Migration Project Needs Relationship Check”

Thanks in advance.

Comments

Oh yes ... this would really help!

I have my fingers crossed.-- Gene

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So you mean you would like to sort the profiles by the date they were categorized? That would be nice for maintenance categories.

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Yes, sorting the profiles by the category add date is exactly what we would like to do.

Answer 1

This is getting asked a lot lately. I will see what I can do about it.

Comments

Thank you very much, Ales! Much appreciated!!!

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Yeah!!! TYTTY. It is beautiful.--Gene

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This is now done. https://plus.wikitree.com/function/WTCategoryTime/CategoryTime.htm?Category=Puritan_Great_Migration_Project_Needs_Relationship_Check

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Aleš, you are amazing.

A related question, Is there a way to sort timelines to, say, place of death? I ask because the Australia Project doesn't allow location-based "Needs" categories unless a concerted effort has been made to find the record, so only the generic "Needs Death Notice", "Needs Birth Record", etc. is used on Australian profiles, except those that have been flagged hard to locate for a Wikitreer.

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If I understand correctly, you would like to Filter

https://plus.wikitree.com/function/WTCategoryTime/CategoryTime.htm?Category=Needs_Death_Notice

with standard WT+ search query DeathCountry=Australia and display the timeline.

That is not really possible.

You can find those profiles using
https://plus.wikitree.com/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=Needs_Death_Notice+DeathCountry%3DAustralia&MaxProfiles=10000

and I might be able to add last edit date to sort orders, but it is not the same as "Added to category"

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Thanks Aleš, I use the second link often (Wikitree+ is the only way to sort by location for Australian profiles, as the Australia Project won't allow location-based Needs categories except those flagged hard to locate by a Wikitreer), but was hoping for the date-based sorting layout, which is very cool (but was also expecting it might not be possible, given the category layering required!).

Have a great night

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Excellent job, Ales. Thank you so much! This will really come in handy. I have already added a link to each of our maintenance category pages.

Answer 2

Try clicking on the green Changes Box at top of the profile. 
It should give the dates of all changes to the profile, including when a category was added. It works for me. 

Comments

THat does work, but when you are looking at a profile that has been edited many times and the category was added but it's not been noted specifically, you won't be able to tell which edit you're looking for.

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Exactly. One has to find that date, and try to trace it to say a related profile comment; then review subsequent profile changes (to see if it has been resolved). All takes time, often to find out it has been resolved and the category can be removed.

Thank you, Natalie.

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When working with say 200 profiles in a category, having a list with the date the category was added would greatly help prioritize our work. It would take a great deal of time to scour each profile to find the date a category was added, and it might require looking at each Biography, Data or Categorization edit individually if the edit comments weren’t specific.

Answer 3

Another idea, that would be nice to have, is a way to display all profiles in a category, then be able to sort by date added to the category.

Comments

Yes, sorting the profiles by the category add date is exactly what we would like to do.

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You guys are so smart. Yes!

Answer 4

Tracking a change like this would be difficult. You have to capture a specific point in time when a category was added (from the profile changes) and log that somewhere. Aleš may be able to do it...

Category sorting is rather complex already, but as an alternative, and easier solution, I would suggest being able to sort by "edited date", similar to a Watchlist and based on information already available.

Comments

After a quick chat with Aleš, this request may actually be doable through WT+. But it would only track the data from the date the he started capturing the information and would not go back and find out dates of category additions.

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Can you further explain what you mean by sorted by "edited date"?

I would love to see something like an Activity Feed for a Category, if that is what you are suggesting. That would be very helpful for additions to the category going forward. Unless I am missing something, though, such a feed won't help with those profiles already in the category. Ideally, we would like both.

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On your watchlist, you can sort profiles by "Edit Date". The idea was to add that existing functionality to category pages.

But that may be a moot point, Aleš is working on a way to track when categories are added to profiles.

Answer 5

Hello S.

While it would be nice to work by date a category was added to a profile, it's not actually a large criterion in my view to organize work around.  I know I am currently working  on a maintenance category which needs to be emptied with correct categories assigned to the profiles in there, I personally don't see the point of trying to figure out when the category got added.  I'm running down the list alphabetically or when something takes my interest.