Can a priorty be to do away with profiles with no data???

Question

After learning the ropes, I only add profiles for those that I fully research and add my research to the profile. There are a huge number of profiles, seemingly added through gedcom, that have NO data or just birth and death years that are not verified.

Yesterday when a proposed merge of my fully researched profile and one with no data that I completed it messed up just about everything. Much of the research was lost, and it recreated duplicates of all those attached to the files.

Now today, I get all kinds of requests to merge the stupid duplicates. This is going to require a lot of time on my part who does the research and data correctly, and is caused because someone imported a name but did not develop the profile with any information or research whatsoever.

I hate to ignore the merge requests, and maybe there is a better way. But rather than waste my time on empty profiles, could WikiTree not require either they be developed better or deleted period.  I had hoped that WikiTree would have researchers who were serious....but there is an over abundance of empty profiles. Could WikiTree not do something about them....like delete them so that serious researchers can put up a profile that has documentation?

I am sorry this is lengthy, but I am finding this very frustrating. And I DO NOT want more of my research documentation to be eliminated.

Thank you for considering my request for making a priority of deleting empty profiles.

Comments

Hi Carolyn,

Could you please provide profile id#s of affected profiles?

Thank you

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We do NOT delete profiles. The goal is to SOURCE, CONNECT and MERGE.

If you don't approve proposed merges, they'll go into default approval and others can complete the merges. If you reject obvious merges, they will be proposed again, perhaps with a referral to an Arborist/Mentor.

It's a lot of hard work being a good wikitree member but very rewarding ;-}

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Great question. Its always best to ask if you don't know or if you need or want clarification. Feel free to ask any questions relating to genealogy here in the g2g section of wikitree. If you are having further problems and need some 1 on 1 help with your profiles feel free to Contact a Mentor

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Hi Carolyn, I think I might have figured out what happened.

I believe there were existing profiles on WikiTree for some ancestors of yours and their families.  You added your parents, grandparents, etc until finding a match with an existing one.  Once the two were merged, then any duplicate children and spouses need to be merged also.  It's not uncommon, and hardly a mistake.  

Don't be too hard on anyone though, I think the other profiles were already here first :)  

Merging does not create duplicates, so that's a good thing.

You are the manager of both profiles in some of the cases of duplicates so that will make it easy as pie and just how you wish them to be.

I hope it works out to your satisfaction...have a nice day :)

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Thank you for looking into the situation Keith and providing some good information.

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I have been working on a lot of merges lately, and I recognize those profiles you describe. I am responsible for many of them in my own family tree, because when I first started I just loaded up whatever info I had, intending to come back and buff it up later. In most cases this has happened, but there are some profiles that are lacking data.

You post concerns me though, because I don't understand how data can be "lost".  I thought that everything in the biographies was merged?

What I worry about getting "lost" is data on the parents, if the system makes me "reverse the merge" so that the well researched profile gets replaced by the tacky one.  I have to agree with you, that it would be better to delete these mostly empty profiles than to make a mess of a well researched one.

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Regardless of which direction the merge goes, you pick from which profile you want to keep each piece of information--by clicking on the check boxes (or not clicking on them).

And everything from both of the biography/profile sections is kept.

If information from the name, birth, death info is getting lost it is because whomever is completing the merge is not watching which information is transferring to the new profile.

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I'd like to give Emma best answer but you can't on a comment.
As she says, any loss of data is due to the person merging the profiles not being careful to tick the correct green or yellow boxes on the merge page.
Direction of merge is irrelevant.

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Hi, Carolyn --

I just took a look at your last several merges (five, maybe?). I'm not finding any with missing information. Like Keith said, if you could give us the profile IDs, we'll be able to take a closer look and see what went wrong.

Thanks! :-)

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When I am fishing for connections in my various Surname lists, I appreciate even the unsourced profiles because sometimes I have sources that can be added, and sometimes these profiles turn up family members I didn't know existed.

Not everyone has a detailed library of genealogy info at their immediate disposal (all I have the internet and various search engines). When an ancestor has a common given name, even specialized databases like Scotlands People can turn up 10-15 births within a 5 year span with parent names who are also the same.

and, FWIW - I've never lost profile data in a merge. I've copied and deleted duplicate stuff so there is only one set of references and sources, but I would hope others will do the same.

Keep digging.

Answer 1

Hi Carolyn.  I'm confused about why data was lost in the merge.  Maybe it has something to do with the direction of merge, but all your sources should still be there. As for empty profiles, you're right that there are a lot of them.  In general, if I can't edit them and improve them, I ignore them.  Someone who really knows what's going on is bound to respond soon and educate both of us, so thanks for asking the question.

Answer 2

Hi Carolyn!

Wikitree is about Collaboration this is a point that is driven hard throughout the Honor Code and g2g section of wikitree.

What I believe your making reference too is the cleanup after merge and yes sometimes that can be messy depending on what is on the other profile.

Merging:

A merge should be done when two profiles represent the same person.

Click here to initiate a merge. If you are on the Trusted List of both profiles you will be presented with a confirmation page that enables you to choose which data to keep from which profile.

For a basic tutorial, see Paul Bech's merging video on YouTube.

Sometimes there are profiles with little to no data although this can be considered a nightmare for genealogist or a challenge for our many who participate in the often Sourcerer Challenge we still do not delete profiles.

After merging is complete there is always a record of all information on the other profile under the Changes

Deleting:

Deleting an account profile is appropriate in these three cases:

1. You are under 18.
2. You joined in the past 48 hours and have not created any profiles that anyone else has touched.
3. You have not made any contributions to WikiTree that will be meaningful to anyone but yourself, i.e. your personal profile and nuclear relatives with no connections to other WikiTree members.

Delete your account profile by using option three on the deletion form. This will leave empty spaces and dead-ends in place of any links to your account.

 

Keep up the good work. The more each record is researched and the more information given the closer we get to a grand genealogical masterpiece.

Answer 3

Welcome to WikiTree, Carolyn!  I understand your frustration with empty profiles.  It's hard to strike a balance between encouraging new members who want to upload GEDCOMs to save data entry time and later discovering that someone just "dumped" their GEDCOM here.  "Dumped" is not the official term, just my term for those who import empty profiles, then become inactive and never work to improve them.

You will find many very active members on this site that create wonderful profiles and work to improve the profiles that others have forsaken.  There are many of us who channel our frustration to one of these group activities for cleaning up those profiles:

• The monthly Sourcerer's Challenge encourages those who are inclined to add good sources to unsourced profiles
• The Saturday Sprints participants also work to add good sources to unsourced profiles
• The Database Errors Project searches for profiles that have problems with dates places, and other things and encourages additional research to correct those errors
• The Connectors Project encourages members to research, add information and sources, so we can connect profiles to our one, shared family tree
• The mission of the Profile Improvement Project is to make profiles beautiful by cleaning up messy GEDCOM profiles, adding well-written biographies, and making each profile attractive and useful

I hope that learning about some of the many efforts of members encourages you to continue your good work and know that we collectively intend to connect and source every profile.

Answer 4

Carolyn, many share your frustration. The good news is that the system no longer allows new profiles created that are empty. The bad news is that thousands and thousands of profiles were created before this new rule. And we keep bumping into them. The best thing you can do is to merge them. And nothing should be lost. You should be able to find "lost" data through the changes tab.

Answer 5

Carolyn, I agree with @Jennifer Cady that I don't  understand why your well-researched data was lost. When two profiles are merged, the data and biography information from both should be preserved. Generally, the biography sections are both preserved on the profile, and that is why there is an emphasis on post-merge cleanup. I know that it can be frustrating to see your well-researched biography get mangled, but the info should be there.  As @Keith  Hathaway suggested,  if you post the profile ID affected, we can take a look at it and try to figure what went wrong with the profile merge.

There are a couple of things I would suggest: One is to ask for help merging all of the profiles. Don't feel overwhemed! That is what is different about Wikitree is that we work together to create this worldwide family tree. The other thing that I would suggest is to remember that it is important to check for existing profiles for your family profiles before creating new ones. I had to learn the hard way that it is a lot easier to improve an existing profile than to have to merge one I create with others, then have to do cleanup.

Answer 6

There will be a livecast all about merging this Saturday!!  

Here is the link of where to watch: Merging Livecast 

It will be Saturday June 24 at 3pm Eastern/12:00 Noon Pacific.  For anyone having trouble with merging, this will be very helpful!

Answer 7

I strongly disagree with the statement that a profile has NO data.
Every profile has a NAME. The "NAME" is "data" for the profile that it is connected to! Therefore EVERY profile has data!

Comments

I would HATE to have my brand new, pretty empty, profile deleted while I learn to use Wikitree properly and deal with some heavy instances of illness in my family.  Genealogy research allows me to be a caregiver for two at my home, run a goat dairy, and have a VERY enjoyable hobby that may help others!  It is such an enjoyable pastime like fishing, without having to get a boat and have to leave home!

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And empty profiles can generate bragging rights and Googe hits and visitor numbers.

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Rona and Frank, the profiles typically referenced in this thread are very old, often abandoned, profiles from wikitree’s early years. There’s a slew of them that only have a name and nothing else, not even connections to other profiles. These often come up when searching for other profiles and it’s frustrating because there is insufficient information to determine if they’re a match. Today the system disallows creation of such empty profiles. That said, I’d encourage you to put at least some identifying info  into a profile when you create it— enough so that when I’m creating or searching for a profile of someone with the same name, I’ll be able to determine if your guy and mine are the same or not.