Put a leash on matchbot

Question

I've come across this disastrous merge from 2014 while going through the error report. Even though the initial merge proposal from matchbot was rejected, the bot re-proposed the merge the next day and was subsequently carried out.

There needs to be restrictions on this menace. There are plenty of complaints about quality of gedcoms, but this type of random merging ranks right up there and need to be curtailed.

Comments

Which demonstrates why the merge should have been rejected, not removed.

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Best would be if the matchbot just tried to match profiles with sources.....

Maybe we should add a template {{NoMatchBot}} that the matchbot could read and then avoid the profile. 

Also I think Sweden and Patronymics is warning bell that to match this one we need to have better criteria than just names....

What could be done:

1. We could start using templates for Birth Parish and Death parish ==> easier for Matchbot to match when the same parish and avoid if not
   1. {{SPC_BirthParish}}
   2. {{SPC_DeathParish}}
   3. {{SPC_Parish}}
       
2. Add a template {NoMatchBot}} to avoid getting more matches

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Is this menace still on the loose?

It seems a very bad idea with autocreated merges when it comes to Swedish patronymics (and probably other lines within the patronymic system as well). Even parish does not help. There may well be two Erik Larsson or Anna Andersdotter born in the same village the same year.

So if we have to put extra safeguards in the form of templates on all our patronymic profiles, then this thingy causes extra work instead of being of help, hmm?

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Feels like the Matchbot like Olsen ;-)

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Well if he comes sniffing around Erik Larsson I'll bop him on the nose. Hopefully the rejected match will keep him off.

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In my opinion, MatchBot is best when it's finding matches for inactive, orphaned, unsourced profiles.These profiles will never be improved without having attention drawn to them, and MatchBot does that. I just recently commented on a merge MatchBot proposed between two profiles with inactive managers, and one of the managers is now active & sharing wonderful stories about his grandmother.

MatchBot may not be leashed, but he is monitored, and I think more good than ill results (this was _not_ my opinion before becoming an MP!).

Cheers, Liz

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"I think more good than ill results (this was _not_ my opinion before becoming an MP!)"

So true Liz - it has made a few very correct matches, with spellings soooo off, that no human would have found them. I'm a converted member of it's fan club.

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@Liz nice to hear you got some persons active... but merging without sources then it feels better to delete profiles..... 

Had a nice meeting IRL this week with another WikiTree person and he called unsourced GEDCOM profiles as poisoned gifts.....

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not many WikiTree profiles _can_ be deleted. See http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Deletion_FAQ

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@Liz
Yes but I hope WikiTree will be Agile and change direction when we learn more... 

I spent some time checking the GEDCOMS that was uploaded and nearly no one adds sources ==>  nothing to trust and 
A poisined GIFT we have got

 ==> we have a situation with bad researched profiles that are uploaded and if imported will cost so much work to quality assure so it will never be done....

For me merging unsourced profiles is some kind of deleting a profile even if we don't call it deleting..... 

The number of sources per uploaded profile GREEN line is at least one source per profile. Feels that we attract the wrong people when we get 1500 profiles and 10 sources....

 

Answer 1

Yup, MatchBot is still around & as RJ noted, please don't remove a MatchBot-proposed merge after it's been rejected. MatchBot's activity increased significantly when the variable name search feature was implemented & the MatchBot Monitors Project was born to help make sure inappropriate matches were rejected quickly. The activity has tapered off now, and the handful of MatchBot MPs are easily keeping up with the new proposals.

Let me know if you'd like to join the MatchBot MPs. If you just want to check to ensure that none of your watchlist profiles have MatchBot-proposed merges pending, click here & then click "My Watchlist".

Cheers, Liz