What does it mean when the profile creator's name is in red?

Question

A number of us have found profiles where the profile creator's name is in red.  Does this mean something or is it just a leftover from old gedcom imports?  Most of these are old gedcom imports that need to be cleaned up, sourced, etc.

Comments

The ones in red are no longer members.

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Thanks, Maureen!

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Good to know!

Debi

Answer 1

It is ID from past users who created profiles but are no longer with us for one reason or another.  I always try to keep them in acknowledgements section, although as one person suggested, it might be an idea to just remove the link format and just leave the name.

Answer 2

A follow-up question:  

Should we leave them in red, or remove the Wiki-ID?

Comments

I purposely use the profile creator's WikiTreeID in the Acknowledgments and coded as an internal link, even though it is for a deleted URL.

However, since the red link is directing us to the profile creation page, maybe I should change the deleted WikiTreeID to bold, with red text.

I presume the latter method would cause less confusion for my fellow WikiTreers, as well as for non-member visitors.

But I would definitely want to keep the profile creator's WikiTreeID in the Acknowledgments.

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I tend to acknowledge and give them credit for the previous work they've done, but you can remove the broken link.

Answer 3

I don't think it necessarily means they are no longer members.  You may have entered the ID wrong, which has been the case in the past when I've had that happen in my own work.

Comments

yes, their accounts were deleted, so...no longer members.

the red, actually indicates a broken url link.

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Maybe I'm wrong.  There's no way to reconstruct my past experience now.  If I run into another, I'll report back.

Edit:  Sorry, I see now that the original question referred specifically to profile creators.  In that case, the answer must be that the profile has been deleted.  I do recall seeing the red at other times, though, and I still think it was when I entered a non-existent number, for example, a typo.

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hi Julie, I have seen these also, it is not something I created but something pre-existing on the profile, created by the program when the profile was created.

Answer 4

I think a red profile link indicates that the member's profile has been deleted (not all closed accounts appear to have been deleted, so they still have active/green links).

Here is an example profile with a red link in the Acknowledgments:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bradburn-6

When you hover over the profile creator's link ([[Wilkinson-548]]), the URL is displayed as

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Wilkinson-548&action=edit

This link takes you to the Add New Person page:

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?action=editfamily&w=new

These red profile links seem to work that way for me, anyway (Firefox browser).