ALL CAPS data base errors

Question

There are hundreds of data base errors for profiles with names (or just initials) that are in ALL CAPS.  The majority of these seem to be for profiles which are not open to editing.  Can a message be sent automatically to these profiles by WIKITREE?  Sending them manually would be a huge task for me or anyone working on the data base error project..

Comments

I don't think this error should be corrected this way for unopened profiles. People are slowly seeing Errors project, and this errors are listed in their personal error list and they can correct it. So in time some will be corrected. You should work on some other error, if opened profiles are corrected.

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I agree that it may be hard to read all caps and those that use them don't think of it as shouting. Nor those that type/key in all lower case think they are whispering. The internet has brought an explosion of people (a good thing) to the keyboard to share information, many of who never learned to "touch type" but do well with a "hunt & peck" system.

I remember a book from the 1950s (it actually goes back to the 1920s; see Wikipedia article) by Archie & Mehitabel that was all in lower case. Archie, a cockroach, was keying the story/poems and wasn't big enough to hold down the shift key while pressing a letter. What I remember most about the book was, in addition to being in all lower case, how funny it was and maybe I should find a copy and enjoy it again.

Let us all be glad that the information is being presented for others to use. And if the occasion arises with open profiles, maybe do a little editing as it is continually pointed out, WikiTree is a collaborative effort.

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I remember Archie & Mehitabel! Could you please add the link to the Wikipedia article? I'd like to look up that book & read it again...

Answer 1

The biggest problem is if you need to change the Last Name at Birth you need to be a profile manager.... and doing it with a simple SQL command on the server is not an option for the WikiTree db people.....

107 Full name in UPPERCASE	2878	1807		38	53	369	594	17
108 Full name in lowercase	3114	2841	1		6	41	218	7

 

Answer 2

Can we please explore having the gedom import fix these?

Comments

It's not obvious how to fix them, automatically.  But it could skip them.

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Maybe that's the best option -- force a skip for them like it does for entries with no dates. That way, the importer can fix them off-line in a text editor. I've made other types of changes to my GEDCOMs like that; it saves making a change in your personal database that you might not want... You just have to remember to use a true text editor, not Word.

Answer 3

This is one of several problems that only a Profile Manager can fix, and, yes, fixing it manually is a monumental task. But, there's always a but, it is all we have at the moment. Personally, I keep a growing list of messages that can be placed in Comments or Private Messages asking the PM to correct a DB Error. If every Data Doctor fixes 10 or 20 profiles daily, we might just get a handle on the errors.