How long should you wait before submitting a UPM form?

Question

I have always thought that
"If you have not heard back on any of these for seven days," 

meant you send a Trusted List request, wait 7 days, then
post a public comment, wait 7 days, then
send a Private Message, wait 7 days, then
submit your Unresponsive Profile Manager form.  Total wait: 21 days.

But I have recently heard someone say that they send everything at the same time, and therefore the total wait is 7 days before they submit their UPM form.

Which should it be?

Comments

The few times that I have used this process, have taken into consideration the activity history of the PM. If no WikiTree activity for past year, then have sped up the process, while reaching out and waiting 30 days or more if they have done edits in past months, presuming that they are just currently busy elsewhere.

Answer 1

I think you need to allow for the possibility that folks might have other things going on in their lives. Rushing the whole process through in 7 days makes the assumption that they are online and seeing all of these messages, which may be an unfair assumption.

Comments

Email etiquette is an additional reason for not attempting all three modes of contact at the same time. The Trusted List request, private message, and profile message all generate WikiTree email notifications to the profile manager. There's no particular value in sending all three at once, and sending all three notifications at the same time may make the member feel harassed -- and may even trigger a spam filter at their email provider or in their email software. Allowing a few days between these different notifications is more polite than bombarding them with three notifications at one time.

Answer 2

Hello Ros.

It all depends on how active the PM is, according to the help page:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Unresponsive_Profile_Managers#Open_and_Public_Profiles

"If they have not made any contributions for over 60 days^[1] WikiTree will send them a personal e-mail message and then wait another seven days. If after a week they have not replied to us, WikiTree will orphan the requested profile or profiles so that they can be adopted or merged.

If they've made recent contributions but are not replying to any of your messages ..."

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The answer by Robin Lee to the following post might also be helpful:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/503697/question-re-merges-and-unresponsive-profile-managers

"The thing to remember is that there are a lot of people who only log onto Wikitree once a week, or maybe less.   They are still active participants and we need to respect that they might take some time to get to their merges."

Comments

Actually, I find Robin's excellent answer to be rather contradictory.  First she lists what she does, and says "the next day, I send them a Private message.  If, in a week, nothing happens, I put in an Unresponsive profile manager request"

And then later in the answer, she says the part you have quoted about remembering that some people might not login every week, suggesting that it's better to hold off.

Which is it? The next day, or wait a while...

(And I'm currently looking at a UPM who hasn't been on since 2010, and another who hasn't been on since September 2017)

 

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Both of the PMs has been inactive "for over 60 days", so the first statement of the help page is applicable.

WikiTree considers that if the PM has not made any contributions for over 60 days, then the requested profiles are to be orphaned after waiting another 7 days for the PM to reply.

A waiting before initiating an UPM would be appropriate if there was recent PMs activity (Less than 60 days).