It's Merging Monday!!!

Question

Hello fellow WikiTreers!  Welcome to the first installment of "Get Involved" Vibes, from the Volunteer Coordinator Project, also known as VoCo Mojo....Here's how we play!!

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I'll post a message with the daily "assignment." Then, everyone can comment on the post at day's end, with their contributions!  

To kick it off, today is Merging Monday!  If you have a few minutes today, check to see if you have any pending merges and get 'em done! To check your pending merges, go to the "Find" pull-down menu on the top right, and select "Pending Merges." You can check merges on your watchlist, merges that were initiated by you, and merges waiting for action by you.

Come back tonight and tell me how many you were able to complete! Go!

DISCLAIMER: This is not an invitation to start merging away.  This is ONLY APPLICABLE to your OWN merges as stated above: Merges initiated by me, merges waiting for action by me.  That's it!!!

Comments

Please make sure you read through http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Merging and http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Matching_and_Merging_FAQ to help you understand your responsibilities in performing merges.

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Okay, this is making me nervous. I've already cleaned out my watchlist of pending merges, so I took a look at the system-wide pending merges (which is where your link above goes to, by the way).

The first many are pretty complicated and should be done by people who are really experienced in dealing with cases of different LNAB and multiple-word LNABs. If novices take this on, there will be a lot of fixing later on to do.

Also, after skipping over the multi-word LNABs, I found three in a row where careful attention needs to be paid to what's on the profiles.  If one doesn't look carefully, one could complete a merge  with conflicting data and lose possibly accurate data. I moved two to unmerged match because of different dates and places -- they're clearly the same person, but resolution of dates/places needs to happen first (and there are no sources on either profile to support either piece of information).

Then I came across one profile that had slid into automatic merge, just waiting approval, where people had questioned the merge, citing sources for why one couldn't be the other, asking for detachment of parents, and still the set of profiles had gone into auto-approved mode.

I caught that one and dealt with it, but I'm a pretty experienced mergerer. I strongly recommend against opening this up to the general populace.

Sorry, Summer, I know you meant well.

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I thought I was pretty specific that it was to be in our own watchlists??  Not WikiTree-wide??  I'll go back and add another sentence.

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But the link you provide above goes to the general list-- at least it does for me. So I worry that folks won't take that extra step but just go straight to the first item on the list.

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I re-read your post above. Looks like you've added some great emphasis. ;-)

My apologies for being over-nervous. We've had some bad calls this last week, is all.

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No worries. I understand.  We're all just looking out for each other here, right?!  :D  We all have our jobs!  :D   I removed the link.  But when I go to "Pending Merges" it still shows me WikiTree wide in addition to my own, in fact I have to click on mine because the WikiTree wide shows up first.  Perhaps our tech folks should change it to where our own watchlist should show up first?

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I had 4, one I was able to merge and edit the biography the other three are still waiting approval of profile managers.

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Yay Dorothy!  :D

Answer 1

Just to be clear, make sure you hit the link to find the merges IN YOUR WATCHLIST  If you are interested in learning about how to help Wikitree by doing other merges, take a look at [http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Arborists the Arborists Project]

Comments

Yes!!

Answer 2

I don't have any that are appropriate for me to complete (none on my watchlist) but I noticed one that I proposed is allowed now. This one is going to take someone from the Arborists project for sure.

Comments

See?!  Another goal.  Not just completing merges, but seeing that your merges are ready...and asking for help when you need it!!  Victory!

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Good call Debi, perfect example of where the Arborists jump in and try and solve the mystery of which parents are correct!

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Robin, thanks for taking that one on for me.

Wow! Having looked at your resolution for it, I'm really glad I brought it here. The way you handle it is cool and efficient but I'd have never have thought of doing it that way.

I'd probably have spent days trying to do someone else's research in order to figure out all the correct connections and then still potentially made a mess.

Thank you to the arborists, each and every one.

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This was a unique case where neither profile had sources that led to parents, in fact, most of the trees and sources I looked at indicated that the parents are "Unknown".   And in both cases the parents were also totally without any sources.

Answer 3

There were no merges awaiting action from me but have been meaning to check the pending merges proposed by me for a while now and this has prompted me to do it :)

Therefore 11 merges done and duplicate profiles tidied up,  I have 12 more to go but waiting for others /more time to pass on those.

Comments

Excellent!!!!

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Paula,   You bring up an important point.   When you look at the merge there may be one profile manager that approved the merge and they are just waiting for the default approval.  If you go in there the first day, you may do the merge before they have the opportunity. to do it.   Being a polite person, when one of the profile managers has approved the merge, I wait about 10 days before I do the merge.

Answer 4

I had three ... and they're done! :-)

Answer 5

Mine are waiting for approvals otherwise "A-Okay"