Why would a living Profile Manager have multiple managers on his/her own profile?

Question

I have run into this a couple of times and am wondering what the strategy is here.  One profile of a living person is named Anonymous Anonymous and is run by multiple managers.  Anonymous Anonymous is then the manager of hundreds of profiles.  

How can a supposed living person be managed by multiple people when they are supposed to represent themselves?  I feel uncomfortable collaborating with what feels like a corporation rather than a living breathing person.  I never know who I am talking to when sending messages.  At this point I am simply curious...

To clarify: When I say multiple managers, I don't mean two which would make sense.  I mean 3 or 4.

Comments

I know this is an unWiki comment, but I feel uncomfortable collaborating with any one who is Anonymous, or Anonymous Anonymous.  I know many people want internet privacy, but it puts me off.

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I know someone on here who suddenly added a number of other profile managers to his own profile. I guess the reason for that was the fact he is in his 80's and wanted the profile to be managed well after his death. He isn't anonymous though.

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Just a couple of things to help clarify -- 

• We don't disallow people from being "Anonymous Anonymous," but we do strongly discourage it. The Greeters will encourage new members to use at least their first name on their profile, and we let them know that some people will not be comfortable communicating with them if their identity is concealed.
• Whenever you invite a family member to the site they will be added to the Trusted List on your profile -- not as a manager, unless you explicitly add them as one. As others have said, people will add others as a manager for their profiles so that they have a contingency plan. Those managers don't have privileges on that person's watchlist, though.
• If you want to make sure that only Anonymous Anonymous gets your message, you can use the Private Message link next to their name; otherwise, posting a public comment does go to all PMs.

Hope this helps. :-)

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Thanks Julie:-)

Answer 1

I don't know how multiple managers might come about, except maybe several family members imported GEDCOMs and then merged. But in my case I created a profile for my father and then he joined, so we are joint managers of his profile.

Answer 2

I know a few people who have a second manager on their profile so that upon their death their profile will still be managed. Even when the person is managed by others, the person represented is who you are dealing with. The other managers may be alerted to messages meant for Anon. Anon., but if they respond it would be from them and not from the profile they manage.

Answer 3

I recently persuaded some of my family to join WikiTree.  When they accepted the invitation, I was dismayed to find that I was automatically removed as manager of their profiles by the system, which also automatically changed their privacy from yellow to red.

In all these cases, the new members are not especially computer literate, nor do any of them know anything about genealogy.  I managed to get them to express at least a little interest and promised to take care of everything until they get up to speed, which none of them (unfortunately) have seemed especially interested in doing.

Two, who were interested enough to add profiles for some of their family members, managed to add duplicate profiles by adding the other parent to more than one of their children and these profiles were also automatically red privacy, which I can't change, nor can I do the needed merge because I am not on the trusted list for the new duplicate profiles.  It has been like pulling teeth just to explain to them how to either change their own privacy back to yellow and/or restore me as a manager - some of them have still not managed to do that and without being manager, I can't change their privacy.

Anyhow, that explains why I may be listed as a second manager of profiles of some WikiTree members.

Answer 4

Hi Emma,

   Here is the way I would explain it. Even though a person might have a profile page, that does not mean that he or she stands alone. They could have many descendants. You and I could have the same grandfather or grandmother, and have different info about them to share. I think it's very helpful to have multiple managers who can work together on a shared ancestor's profile page. When you see someone who is anonymous, it is just for privacy issues. You can send them a message and ask to be on their trusted list, and then you can see just who you are dealing with, if they accept you on their trusted list.

Comments

This isn't a shared ancestor profile page.  This is the member themselves--one of our living genealogists who has 3 or 4 profile managers on his/her page.  

It would be like me having 3 other managers to my profile.  I don't understand this.  I completely understand multiple managers on ancestor pages--that's how we collaborate.

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In that case, maybe you could send them a message to
find d out why. Either they have a reason, or do not know
how to post or list things.

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Maybe they are disabled or elderly

Answer 5

I added both my daughter and my daughter in law as managers to my profile so that if anything should happen to me they can add or change anything they wish on my profile. However by them being managers of MY profile it gives them no power over the other profiles I manage unless I add them to those as well. I believe that some of us use the additional managers as a safety net.

Comments

 "However by them being managers of MY profile it gives them no power over the other profiles I manage unless I add them to those as well."

I didn't know this.  Thank you :-)

Answer 6

Often people don't quite get the system - they think it's the user who has the Trusted List.

Almost the only PM requests I've ever had have been to manage my own profile, which was never what the requester actually wanted.  But it's easy to just click on the link without studying the request.

Comments

Yes, I've gotten several of those requests and wondered why these strangers would want to help manage my profile?

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Agree with RJ, I get a request every month for someone who wants to be added to my profile in order to get added to a branch that I manage.   I have to walk them through the trusted list process.