Can we have an interest list as well as a watchlist?

+32 votes
578 views
My Watchlist consists of profiles where I am on the trusted list. I receive notices of activity on those profiles and they get exported in a GEDCOM.

However, I am interested in many other profiles. If I made a public comment, I'd like to know about activity on the profile. The parents of the spouse of a descendant of a forefather I work on should be in the GEDCOM I export. I may be very interested in some public figure, to the point of wishing to know when the biography has been edited, but the profile is protected and the trusted list is deliberately kept small.

None of that involves my needing permission to edit to the profile.

A possible solution would be to have a structure like a Watchlist, consisting simply of a list of profile IDs, but where the user controls which names are on the profile and which not. You'd get notifications of activity, you can make a GEDCOM export of it, but you are not necessarlly on the trusted list.

A possible implementation could be via templates in a free-space profile.
in WikiTree Tech by Dirk Laurie G2G6 Mach 3 (38.8k points)
retagged by Ellen Smith
Yes please,

I work on many of the gentry from the area that  I have access to local sources. The more I worked on them, the more I became interested in them as a group of interrelated families with influences on national history. I am not a relative of any of them.  I have created some quite detailed biographies on profile of which I am  not profile manager. I   admit, I have  not even tried to be on the  trusted list since it took me 2 years on wiki-tree to learn about that option. As a result,  I don't know if changes are made. I  care about their accuracy but memory being what it is I find it impossible to keep track of  changes .
Would using the personal category option help? I have tagged some profiles I don't manage with my personal category to keep an eye on them and find them easily.
What is the personal category option Lianne?
Thanks for the link Dennis. Had a quick look and I don’t think I will be rushing to try out personal categories.
I love personal categories.  I categorize all the profiles I create for a veterans project with a personal category, so I can keep track of them all until the profiles are "complete" enough for me to set them free.  However, I would feel weird adding a personal category to a profile that was managed by someone else.
I did not know about personal categories. They seem to be designed for the purpose of making subcategories. Once my watchlist crosses the magic figure of 1000, I think I will need them. I probably have about a year left before getting there.

They would solve half my problem (the notification part) in an obtrusive way. I don't think I want my personal category sticking out red or green in the biography of every open profile I follow. Even members of the trusted list are handled more discreetly.
Categories don't help with notifications.  You can't add a category to a feed.

It might help if category lists could be sorted by last-updated date.

7 Answers

+8 votes

Have you considered setting up a free space page where you would enter the wiki IDs of the individuals you want to keep track of? I don't think that WikiTree software can be modified to create the list that you want. A free space page might be your best alternative.

by Shirley Dalton G2G6 Pilot (530k points)
Following tags could work for some of what you want. Maybe you could start G2G threads asking who wants to collaborate on certain profiles and store this information on your freespace.
Its certainly possible to modify WikiTree code to do this, and would not be difficult at all, but it may not be high on the priority list of feature requests

The main feature is to get email notifications, just like we do for managed profiles on our watchlist.

It would not be difficult to extend the watchlist to include an additional level that is "watched" but not "managed" or "trusted". Probably just an additional database column in the watchlist table (and a little bit of code around that).

Free Space pages and categories are a poor workaround, and do not solve the problem.
I completely agree with Dennis, would upvote if I could.
Dennis has hit the nail on the head. "managed" > "trusted" > "watched".
+12 votes
This would be a great feature.  Categories/Spaces are fine for grouping profiles, but they don't generate the kinds of activity feeds that would be useful for connecting with other genealogists who share our interests.
by E. Compton G2G6 Pilot (193k points)
+8 votes
Basically, a "watchlist" on a Wiki is a list of pages where we watch activity (that is, activity on those pages appears in a feed we subscribe to). The problem here is that the watchlist function has been combined with the Trusted List function, so we can't watch a page without being on the page's Trusted List.

If you have a focused interest in a few surnames, following those surname tags is a good workaround.

Instead of following surnames, I've taken the route of requesting Trusted List access to a lot of profiles. Sometimes this is a quick and easy process, but I've also had to contend with profile managers who don't want me on the Trusted List of the profile of a direct ancestor of mine who died sometime like 1698 because they don't know me personally, and I've gone through a number of Unresponsive Profile Manager processes just to be able to watchlist an Open profile.
by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+4 votes
It seems that a lot of people agree with you.  I, on the other hand, have no need for this and can't figure out when I would ever use it.
by J. Crook G2G6 Pilot (226k points)
It's rather like, someone who knows the number of your bank account should be allowed to check that you have enough money to pay him, without being allowed to just withdraw it.
Dirk, that's not quite right.

How about this analogy instead... Its like taking an interest in a public shared company, but we're neither on the board of directors, nor a shareholder. We would still like to follow it.
+17 votes
Hi Dick,

I've added your suggestion to our Team to-do list to look into.  Thanks for the idea!

Abby
by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (722k points)
A variation of this would be to extend the availability of joining the Trusted list without requiring permission of the profile manager for open profiles.
Thanks, Jillaine. I'll put this variation in our notes.
Status?
On the list. We've been busy with several improvements so it hasn't gotten much attention yet, but it's definitely there.
Abby, this came up again today in a G2G post.  It would be the ideal solution for those who truly want to watch without being on the trusted list.  It would be an improvement for PM's who. might not want to put everyone on the Trusted list, and make it wasy for those who want to watch without having to go through the process of requesting TL status.  Can you update us on where this idea stands?

Hi Cindy,

It's still on the Team radar, but we have quite a few more pressing items so it likely won't happen anytime soon. There's a lot to change behind the scenes for something like this and it would need to come up with another improvement we're working before it got consideration, most likely: https://trello.com/c/uFTuuO80/12-separate-the-trusted-list-from-the-watchlist

+7 votes
I just thought of another reason to have watchlist capability separate from trusted list.

I sometimes get people requesting to be on the trusted list of my profile. I'm not keen on the idea of giving other people editing access to MY profile. BUT they may want to follow changes to my profile. Currently, there is no means to allow this without also giving them editing access.
by Jillaine Smith G2G6 Pilot (896k points)
+11 votes
Ian (@Beacall-6) has recently added an Extra Watchlist to his WikiTree BEE browser extension. I suggest that you use your browsers' tool option to search for and install the BEE. Then give it a try to see if it does what you want. It seem most WikiTreers don't investigate what additional WikiTree functionality is available through browser extensions. Otherwise you will have to wait and hope that any future changes to the WikiTree core give you what you want, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
by Stephen Adey G2G6 Mach 2 (26.7k points)
This is exciting and may offer a workaround to a request many of us have had for many years. I look forward to checking it out.
caution that the Extra Watchlist only works until your cookies are cleared, then it's gone. It's great, but it's not permanent like the Watchlist here, because it's not logging to a database.
If you plan to clear your cookies, you can download your extra watchlist, then upload it afterward.

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