G2G: Correcting birth last name resets contribution number to "0"?

Question

It seems like an unfair oversight of the creators of this website to reset the contributions of a member if they fix their birth name. I wanted to bring this to their attention.

Answer 1

Christopher, it's not an oversight.  When you change an LNAB (what we call the Last Name At Birth), because that is a component of the person's WikiTree ID, the way the software works is as if the original profile was merged with a new one.

If you write to info @ wikitree.com (without the spaces), they may be able to restore your original contributions, as well as other data that may have been lost as a result of the name change.

Comments

Yes, it's a known bug/feature, yet another side effect of having IDs based on the Holy Last Name At Birth

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Also see: Help:Moving Accounts to New Names which describes this a side-effect:

Note that when you change your Last Name at Birth, a new account profile will be created and your existing one will be merged into it. This will reset your account activation date, contribution count, and G2G forum profile.