Everyone that I invited to take over their profile is now on my personal trusted list

Question

Sir William's question prompted me to look at my own Trusted List.  His question was about people showing up under Add to Trusted List.  I'm seeing something more serious.  Recently, I've been sending a lot of email invitations for people to take over their own profiles that I created.  Every single one of them is now showing up on the Trusted List for my own personal profile!

 

It says right at the top, "These Wikitreers are trusted to view and edit your profile."  To be clear, I never added them to my Trusted List.  I went to their profiles, clicked the Edit tab, and entered their email address.

Is this a bug?  What is going on?

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

I believe that, depending on how their accounts were created, that they are automatically added to your trusted list when they accept your invitation and confirm their accounts.

You are free to remove anyone that you don't want on your profile's trusted list.

edit: Go to this thread to read more about this situation:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/395413/check-your-trusted-list-invited-people-wikitree-they-trusted

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Lindy, thanks very much for that info and the link to the prior discussion.  Hopefully you will put this as an answer.  This information needs to be widely disseminated given the current push to get living member's to take over their profiles before the GDPR takes effect.  I agree completely with what Emma MacBeath wrote in the previous thread.  It's ironic that Wikitree is taking all of these actions to comply with the GDPR yet provides no warning of what is actually happening when you invite someone to take over their profile.

Answer 1

I dont plan on anyone taking over their profile. They just need to join as "Family members." They dont need to sign the Honor code and their profiles will be safe - or at least that is my understanding of the situation.

Most of my family members are not into genealogy so I really dont want to "force" them to take over their profile just so we dont lose it. It can still stay under my management - they will just be added to the trusted list, and as a family member they are a member of wikitree so their profile will not go unlisted!!

Comments

Robynne, they become manager of their own profile as soon as they accept your invitation and you are removed as manager. If they have no interest, be sure they make you a manager of their profile again.

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Oh. Ok Deb. Thanks.

Answer 2

The instructions for Step 3 of Add New Person state (sans highlights)

Third, add any additional information you have available. All this is optional, except including the source of this information.
Include an e-mail address if this is a living person who you'll allow into the Trusted List of your profile. We'll send them one invitation on your behalf. The address will not be used for spam.

Perhaps membership should have a discussion on potentially changing this policy/procedure?

edit: I don't know how my fellow WikiTreers feel about this policy/procedure, but I prefer to decide for myself whom I trust - especially for my own profile!

edit 2: I removed the link for Add New Person; it did not take me to the correct page.

edit 3: links to related threads:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/395413/check-your-trusted-list-invited-people-wikitree-they-trusted

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/222763/how-did-all-those-people-get-on-the-trusted-list-for-my-profile?

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/432831/should-inviting-someone-automatically-them-your-trusted-list

 

Comments

I trust the people I've invited to WikiTree. Are people inviting people they don't trust?

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Lindy, thanks for that info.  However, it only applies to Add an Unrelated Person.  There is no similar message when you add a person via links from an existing profile, [father?], [spouse?], etc.  There is also no similar message if an email address is added later on.  We get huge red banner warnings for many things less important.

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That's the same page/form that I was referencing, Kerry. I used the title of the tab that I see on my browser.

Add New Person, which I accessed through the drop-down menu, has the title Add an Unrelated Person on the form page itself.

As you state, the trusted list message doesn't appear on the profile creation pages that we access from a profile when we are adding a parent/sibling/spouse/child.

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Even though this message appears on this specific form, I would be surprised if many WikiTreers realize that this is what happens when they use this form to invite others to join WikiTree.

And if this is what happens when invitations are sent from profiles created through the relationship links and when invitations are sent after the profiles have been created, then we certainly need, at minimum, a red alert banner to let us know that this will happen!

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Agreed!