When is it appropriate to orphan a profile?

Question

When is it appropriate to retain management/trust on a profile, and when should I remove myself and leave it an orphan?

I have traced distant (third- and fourth-)cousins who are public figures such as politicians with Wikipedia articles about them (which provides a tertiary source with references to secondary sources, especially if the subject is still living).

I have thus become the profile manager for these pages, yet I have no social connection to these people (only a 19th-century common ancestor). Does Wikitree have a policy on how these should be handled? Should they be handed over to a public figures project of some kind?

Answer 1

I just discovered the Notables Project.If I have made profiles for distant cousins who have Wikipedia articles about them, is it OK to "donate" the profile to the Notables Project then remove myself from the list? The project says it uses the same criteria for notability as Wikipedia does. I agree with @Lynda Crackett that I don't think it is good to leave a profile of a living person, especially a slightly famous one like a former politician, open and orphaned as it sounds like a graffiti magnet.

 

Comments

Scott,

If the profile qualifies for Notable and is still living, then you can set the Wikitree Notables Project as manager and then remove yourself. This is fully explained by Karen Tobo in this thread:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/339694/proper-private-profile-settings-for-notable-living-people

I also add the notables project as manager of the living notables profiles I can still manage. That way, they can add a new manager if I stop responding. You never know.

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Thank you Isabelle Rassinot. That is exactly the information I was looking for in the original question, I just didn't know how to ask it properly yet.

Answer 2

The usual reason for orphaning profiles is when you have too many profiles for you to handle them all.  The recommendation is no more than 5000 profiles with you as Profile Manager.  Which ones you keep and which you release is pretty much up to you.  I'm fast approaching the point when I'm going to have to decide which profiles to keep I have a bit over 2400 so far in my watch list.But I'm not too worried as I may just stop adding new profiles and spend more time adding more sources to existing profiles.

Comments

So it's OK to be the manager of profiles of public figures who don't know me from a bar of soap?

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Sure. Some, such as Robert Heinlein the SF writer aren't that distantly related to me, but if I had a special person I wanted to work on, I'd have no compunction about creating, adopting or requesting to be a PM or on the trusted list of that person.  Of course lots of the more important important people like US Presidents are project protected but you can still join the project and thus be able to edit the profile as long as you consult with other project members ahead of time.

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It is up to you Scott, but if they are not causing you any trouble then it might be a good idea just to keep them but add a note saying you would be happy to hand over if anyone wants to take them on. That way there is at least a chance that you will pick up on it if someone tries to do something daft with them before they find an appropriate home.

Answer 3

My approach is to orphan profiles that I don't want to/have any reason to work on.

Answer 4

I orphan profiles (after I improve them) that are not my lines, so that others may manage them (especially if it is one of their lines).

Answer 5

When you are no longer interested in the person.

I removed myself from the profiles of ancestors who have many other relatives listed on their profile because I'm not working on people that far back in my ancestry.  I'm concentrating on brick walls from the 1800s.  I know I'm not going to work on those profiles, so I remove myself from them.

I sometimes adopt orphans, improve their profiles, then wonder at some point, why is this stranger on my Watchlist? and orphan them.  

I made a profile for a stranger last month, and someone emailed me asking if I had photographs of his father.  I cannot remember why I initially started researching the family, but because of this contact, the researcher and I (neither of whom are related to the family) were able to connect in a meaningful way.  So I'm glad I kept them on my watchlist, and I'll keep them there until I've researched them thoroughly.  Then one day, I'll ask myself "why is this stranger on my watchlist?" and I'll orphan them--probably.

Answer 6

I orphan them when I'm done with them. I only keep <300; they comprise direct ancestors, close relations and living Notables which I work on from time to time.

I've been working through thousands of cemetery pix this year. And it can sometimes take dozens of profiles to get them connected. When I connected Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland), I think I added over 200 before I got a connection. But once that's done, every week or three, I clean out the Watch List. I orphan all of them. Occasionally, I happen to revisit them. It's nice to see when someone else has adopted them, just like I hoped for!