Red warning when deleting a message left by another member on your personal profile

Question

Red warning  "You have the power to delete xxxxxxx's message, but this power should be used very conservatively. Please do not delete unless it's spam, vandalism, or reveals private information."

That says to me, don't do it. And there must be a reason for the policy.  But it can be and is blatantly ignored. Are these removals monitored by a ranger?  (seems like multiples should wave a red flag.)

Comments

Hi,

It is not monitored, and can be ignored. You are right that there are reasons for it and that it should not be ignored.  The people who do are the same ones who do other similar things in life... disregarding policies, requests, suggestions, and guidelines simply because there is not a "penalty" sufficient to deter them. Those of us who wish to be supportive follow the advice given.

:)

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I have occasionally run into situations where the comments left are so inaccurate or so confusing that they are best deleted.  There are also times where the comment is so completely irrelevant that they should deleted to avoid confusion and clutter.  Do you really care if 3 years ago "Smith-2424 was merged into Smith-2322 because they are the 'Same person.' "  Yes, I delete comments which no longer have any relevance to the profile.

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I'm with Joe on this one. Why leave confusing info forever?

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The post specifically asks about a "personal profile" not ancestor profiles :)

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Yes, yes it did. :-) Often there are extraneous conversations left on one's personal profile - items that heve lost meaning over time.

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I feel no guilt about deleting something off of my own personal profile. that no longer serves any purpose or has any meaning.

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Is this the same warning you get if you are a profile manager and delete a public comment posted by someone else? It makes no sense with respect to deleting comments from one's own profile. I see no problem with deleting comments posted on your personal profile if you feel like it.

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except that it is against policy.  there are reasons whether they are known or not.  a good community member follows policy and works pro-actively to change it if they disagree... they do not simply disregard what they do not believe or understand.

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I think it's a software bug, not a policy.

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Honestly?

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So, let's discuss the reasons for this policy. In other words, why should these messages be retained?

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Honestly, if it is the same warning a profile manager gets when they delete a comment, then, yes, I suspect it is a programming problem -- the warning was intended to prevent profile managers of other profiles from deleting comments because they didn't agree with them. The programmers didn't think about whether it made sense for a person's own profile. If they had, they probably would have revised the software so that it did not appear when a profile manager deleted a comment from their own personal profile. I can think of no valid reasons for having the warning apply to one's own personal profile.

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Consider this reason for NOT deleting a message on your personal page: there are often connected comments on the page of the person whose messages you are deleting (because wiki tree is set up to answer a message on the page of the other party.) By deleting the messages on  your personal profile, you are deleting half of the conversation.[I wish WikiTree could come up with a way to keep the questions and answers, i.e., messages and comments on the same page,]

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Sandi, But what if they haven't lost meaning?

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If it were mine, and the meaning remained pertinent, I'd leave it alone.

Answer 1

Any reason why you should wish to do so? But, if you wish to do, then Ctrl+ "scan the entry" then delete.

Answer 2

I was working on rebuilding a profile that had been edited in such a way it was no longer the person it started out to be. I and a few others had left notes and warnings in the bulletin board as to what had happened and what we were doing. I tried communication with the PM no word back. He orphaned the profile instead. Someone adopted it because they thought it was their anscestor , ignored and deleted all notes and warnings and created a whole profile for a person not the person it originally was meant to be. Sometimes those notes are very important. And while this tree belongs to everyone I'd like to see what a few people taught me when I started... slow down , stop , look , listen. Go up line , go down line , communicate. , compromise , collaborate and that it is never about only one profile it is about the tree as a whole.

Comments

Probably not the best place to discuss this one case, but that description is not accurate. It does provide a good example though of where a "profile defining fact" (as I called it) would be particularly useful, because the profile was an impossible mixture of unrelated facts.  Too bad TPTB don't see the importance of implementing good design suggestions.

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Not talking about the profile you think I am.  And in the case of the one you are talking about. It was obviously in the process of being worked on and communication would have been nice. The notes were relevant to the people working on the profile. And were communication between them.  I had no intent to discuss particular profiles. But point out a frequent occurrence.