Question

If I open up my tree to the public, can someone just add to my info on their own or must it go through me?

Answer 1

A public profile can be edited by anyone on wikitree. No one own's a public profile. It would certainly be nice if they contacted you before making a major edit, to get your imput, but they do not have to. This is not like ancestry where we each have our own tree, it is a single tree owned by all of us, no matter who first created the profile.

Comments

As Kathy Zipperer stated a green public profile can only be edited by the profile manager or someone on the profile's trusted list.

An open profile is open for editing by anyone who is a wikitree genealogist.  Living persons cannot be set to either public or open profiles.  So even when you set part of your tree to public or open privacy, no one can change your private relations without asking you first.

For relatives born over 200 years ago, the privacy settings must be set as open.  They cannot be public or private profiles.

Answer 2

You may want to look at the privacy settings

Privacy 

• 1 Unlisted
• 2 Private
  • 2.1 Private information
  • 2.2 Public information
  • 2.3 Partially private information
• 3 Private with Public Biography
• 4 Private with Public Family Tree
• 5 Private with Public Biography and Family Tree
• 6 Public
• 7 Open
•  

Answer 3

Thank you, Jeanie for you quick and simple response to my question.  Sheila Anderson

Answer 4

There is a difference between Public and Open.  Public is the green privacy setting.  It can only be edited by you or someone on the "Trusted List".  Open -- Anyone can edit it.  Open is the default setting for anyone over 200 years old.  I try to use the open setting on anyone that has been dead and has no living children.  I use the public setting (green) on anyone that is dead but has living children.

Answer 5

You can have private setting for yourself, but have a public tree.  Your private  ancestors' names will not show on your public tree unless the person seeing the public tree is either on the trusted list of the private profile or the profile manager.

Since only the open profiles on the tree can be changed without your knowledge, you don't need to worry about invasion of the privacy of your public or private profiles without your consent.

I hope that make some sense.  You asked about public "trees" and not about public "profiles."