General list of complaints ...

Question

Okay, so maybe daWife didn't drink enough of that bottle of wine at dinner ... or, maybe I just like to complain ... nah, I just want this place to get better ... it's a noble effort ... only been here a couple of months so just slap me side-o-the-head ... some thoughts:

- Seems like the biggest problem here is duplicates (can you say triplicate, quadruplicate ... and on and on) ... yikes!  Think the 'gedcom' disaster prior to mid-December may be the major cause but the search/match software is right up there.  I input a new person and I'm presented with a list of hundreds of possible matches.  I've input a spouse and I look at the first entry in the list ... different spouse ... why is it on the list?  I've input a birth date and I get folks that couldn't have been born at that time ... dad wasn't born yet, dad was dead, marriage date is out of whack ... YIKES!  So, what happens?  Create new entry ... duh!

- Oh, and name spellings ... not sure what to do about that ... as an exercise for the user ... in different windows search for surnames ... Parratt, Parrat, Parrott, Parrot ... well, not quite a bazillion similar folks but enough to cause concern.

- Ah, and my favorite complaint ... initiating a merge ... and apologies to those few folks that acutally respond ... why don't these people approve those merges?  They're just sitting there ... and the 'rule' is you wati for two months ... what?  Should be a week max ... can't they read their e-mail and do something?

Okay ... I feel better now ... another couple shots of limoncello and I'll be able to sleep ... lol

Sorry for the rant ...

Comments

Part of it comes from people who do merges, and then leave all the duplicates behind, and all the imported gedoms, and garbage user Id's that have no meaning.

Perferct example is this one:  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dickinson-137  or this one   http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hobart-92

The person who does these merges made an absolute mess and then went merrily on his/her way.  

And then there others who merge data and then remove biographies that someone else pain stakingly entered in great detail.

Makes you wonder why these 'managers' or 'supervisors' don't have better instructions on what they should be responsible for once they complete a multiple merge.

If they can't be bothered to remove the dups/trips/quads etc that  they create - then maybe they shouldn't be doing the merges in the first place.

---

That isn't actually true. No duplicates are created when doing merges. When you see duplicate spouses, children, etc., those already existed. That just means that someone merged one profile, and not all the connected ones. It seems rather harsh to say that someone should have to merge every single profile connected to the one they're merging (potentially hundreds!), or they shouldn't be doing anything at all. Every single merge is a positive contribution to WikiTree.

---

Thanks for the thoughtful responses ... not sure I deserve such kindness!!  It is frustrating at times ... guess I'll keep plugging along.  I do have this thought in the back of my head (it's a BIG cavern) about working on my own search/match software ... don't hold your breath!

---

Are you sure this is the case?  I believe if there are 5 matching joe smiths -married to mary jones - and they have 3 children on one profile, 6 on another, four on another  - Tom, Jerry, Robin, Batman etc.

you do the merges on all the Joe Smiths - he will end up as a single profile - but with 5 wives all named Mary Jones Smith.

 and tons of children of same names????

---

Chris: That's right, but those duplicates aren't being created by the merge. They were already there. Now they're just more noticeable because they're all attached to the same Joe Smith. Do you see what I mean? So merging Joe Smith but not his family members does make his profile look messier, but it's still a step in the right direction.

---

Thanks for the clarification on how that happens.  My next logical thought would be once you ended up with just "One Joe" - you would merge the duplicates and triplicates on his page.  Maybe that's not possible or readily done.

---

Ideally that is definitely what should be done. The trouble is, that can go on forever. Joe's wife might have parents and siblings attached. His children might have spouses and children of their own. Each merge can lead you to another bunch of merges. So often one just has to stop somewhere.

---

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Spent hours adding people only to find they already exist, now everything is a mess, trying to link things up and merging my profiles to the correct (and more informative) profiles but getting nowhere!!

No longer using WikiTree. Sort yourselves out.

---

Thomas, you replied to a 5 year old G2G discussion; it's unlikely more than a couple people will ever see your comment here. If you're having difficulties, people might be able to help you with them! I recommend starting a new G2G question.

As a side note, Bob, who posted this question, has since gone on to become a major contributor to our shared family tree. :)

---

Me too to the duplicates. Just happened yesterday. A young relative wanted to join WikiTree and then be on my Trusted List. She managed to start a new profile for herself even after I had warned her not to do so. I then proceeded to place her on my Trusted List ... seems like her new profile with a different -# took the place of mine. Admittedly, the only entries I had on her original profile was her name, date and place of birth. She is connected to one of my children. I had done the same for her brother with no problem at all warning him not to start a new profile. My name as a co-owner of her profile has disappeared! Today, I have requested a merge of both identical profiles to the original profile I had initiated a few years ago. Not sure if this will be allowed; looks like her profile will be the one and it appears as if I must now be on her Trusted List? Not sure if this would be a problem; but, I really wanted her to be able to be on my profile's trusted list, just like her brother is, so that she could peruse all of her ancestors going way back in time, that are in our shared ancestry. Help! WikiTree has become a bit more tedious even for this computer guru and too time consuming for younger people who are students, parents, etc. BTW, I have three GEDcom DNA lists here and she of does not although she is connected to mine as a direct descendent. I need some clarification as to how to go about merging and/or correcting this.

Answer 1

I'm sorry you're experiencing so much frustration.

- As for the number of duplicates, yes, it's fairly bad, but it seems to be getting better, I think. I'm not sure what December disaster you're talking about, but I've found that most of the duplicates are from years ago, and less have been created over time.

- We can't not list possible duplicates just because they have a different spouse. Lots of people have more than one spouse, so that could leave out real duplicates.

- As for the rest of that point, improving the search for duplicates is an ongoing effort that continues to be high on our priority list. That includes eventually including some kind of search for similar names, eg. using soundex.

- As for inactive profile managers, over time we are weeding them out (eventually we orphan all their public and open profiles so others can take over). You can always request Supervisor assistance to speed up merges on people over 200 years old.

Answer 2

Bob,

WT is a victim of it's success and I  totally concur with Lianne's response, there are so many variables eg indeed sequential marriages, concubines, children dying and their given names recycled to another sibling, dates that don't match/are contradictory all makes for the need for painstaking research effort and sometimes just making a note & leaving things just hanging....

For me I decided not to import a Gedcom and recently, with a few exceptions, not add to the tree I manage until I had contributed as much as my patience will allow, to reducing the number of associated duplicates. That was November and I'm still trudging on....along with the valued many who do respond. The newish browser for pending merges really helps - and the 'find a match search' list is never ending source...

I am only saying all this blah blah to encourage people not to get disheartened and to support all efforts to clean up profiles, duplicates, orphans etc, etc,

I willl now go and attend to one of my other passions - my orchids!

Happy hunting

deliberatley not editing - Wendy