Why isn't Gedcompare smarter?

Question

"Our search functions are not very "smart." Most notably, the search does not account for locations or names of family members."

Why?

Answer 1

Probably because it takes too much in the way of development time and/or resource usage after deployment for WikiTree to have decided to make this a priority.

Comments

Gaille 

Thanks for the answer - but how does that time compare with time users spend rejecting matches that the program could have rejected?

Having done  some prgramming I think it would be small in comparison.  

I am spending hours rejecting suggested matches for unknown names of just 20 or such such persons in my gedcom file.  And I am just one of thousands, I assume.  

And there are other issues, but at the moment the above is what is really bugging me.  I currently have these stats:

Rejected matches: 1614. Confirmed matches: 509

My file consisted of only 1511 persons.  I am being asked to reject (or match) many persons who are only remotely similar. 

As a programmer of sorts and with lots of experience with various programming languages and programming projects, I am convincend that the time spent in doing a better match in GEDcompare would save many times that amount of time spent by users doing the matches manually.  

Jim

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Jim, I am in full accord with your observations and fully sympathize with you.  The search capabilities here - both in GEDcompare and outside it, when doing any searching - are very lacking in functionality, in addition to many other WikiTree features that combine to result in members expending an inordinate amount of time doing many things that could - seemingly very easily - be much more efficient, as well as much more user friendly.

My impression is, however, that WikiTree does not appear to include user impact as one of the parameters when evaluating pros and cons of making any improvements.  By the way, I'm a retired systems engineer, now doing professional web development.

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Gaille

Thanks for that answer.

Jim

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The first round of search improvements are coming ~very~ soon.

Edit: And the improvements to search will make it easier to improve Gedcompare matching.

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Gaile, I’ve given you an upvote for this answer! I’ve made my views on downvoting very clear in the past, and I love that you always are honest in what you think.

As you are a pretty experienced wikitreer this is the impression the current programming gives you - until Jamie’s reassurance how would you/me/Jim know this IS actually a priority? This kind of stuff should be in the weekly newsletter maybe? I think the downvotes you received for this answer with no explanation are cowardly! My view..... if you’ve got something to say, then say it!

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I also think you deserve an upvote Gaile.

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Would whoop! Now up to total +2 upvotes instead of negatives 

There are more positive wikitreers than negative, yey! 

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There are way too many people who don't like getting what they think isa wrong answer. I up voted. I, too, am a software engineer and at this point I would prefer what limited development time go where the developers feel is necessary. I gave up on uploading GEDCOMs, not because of the matching issues, but do to the poor profiles that we end up with.

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I'd love for WikiTree to improve the Search algorithms.

However, Jim could solve his problem rather easily by not hitting the "REFRESH SUGGESTED MATCHES" button at the bottom of the GEDCOMpare screen, below text that says "Click the button below to refresh the suggested matches if it's been a few days or weeks since you have reviewed them. Your work will not be lost, but you will be unable to continue while it's searching for matches."

Every time he hits that button, the system goes off to find additional matches for people in his GEDCOM who have LNAB Unknown.

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I agree, as a programmer I've stopped using it. It's faster to input manually.

Nowhere in WikiTree do they compare locations.

I'd be happy if they just compared Continents!

99% of my tree is from Ireland and i'm sick to death rejecting matches from the USA.

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As Jamie mentioned, we have major search improvements being released very soon. We've been working hard to get them ready.

These improvements will enable you to filter by location and parents' names.

However, it will be another step to integrate these improvements into GEDCOMpare. And we may never be able to eliminate GEDCOMpare suggestions based on location. If a person has "UK" or "Great Britain" or "GB" in a location field we probably don't want to rule out matches that don't.

Answer 2

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

Attributed to John Lydgate

Answer 3

Jim,

Stop hitting the REFRESH  button at the bottom of the GEDCOMpare screen.

Every time you hit that button, the search process restarts and goes to find additional suggested matches for the people you've already reviewed suggested matches for. If you have people in your Gedcom with LNAB unknown, particularly if they have common first names, common current last names, and one known date (birth or death), as long as you keep hitting that button, the search algorithm will continue to find increasingly less likely matches to suggest.

You don't need to hit that button. Gecdompare will update its record of your progress all by itself.

Keep your finger off that button!!!

Comments

I'll say it again. Don't touch the button that says "REFRESH SUGGESTED MATCHES" unless you want to force yourself to have to review more suggested matches.

You may be having an additional issue with the checkbox in the left column of every row on the GEDCOMpare screen. When that box is checked, the row will be grayed out in the display, and the row will be hidden if you select "HIDE COMPLETED ROWS." That box is intended to indicate that you are finished with the person -- either you have added their data to WikiTree or you decided not to use their data in WikiTree. Many members mistakenly use that box to mark rows where there are  no more suggested matches to review. If you have used the checkboxes that way, do not HIDE COMPLETED ROWS.

Best solution for the checkbox: Uncheck that box in the rows for people whose data you still want to use in WikiTree (leave it checked only for people you have already added or who you intend to skip -- for example, because they already have good profiles in WikiTree).

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Ellen

I understand the use of the checkbox just fine. Thanks.

But, I thought I had to get rid of all the suggested matches to get the "ADD:" button.  Isn't that correct? At least, I am not seeing an "ADD" button yet - except as noted below.

I did discover last night that I can add selected individuals without getting rid of all of the suggeted matches.  Is that the route I should take?

Jim

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Once all of the suggested matches on the GEDcompare screen have been ACCEPTED or REJECTED, you will see the ADD buttons on that screen. You've apparently never reached  that point because you have been generating new collections of suggested matches by hitting the REFRESH button.

Working with GEDCOMpare is easiest when you finish reviewing all of the suggested matches (and refrain from generating any new ones).

However, as you've discovered, ADD buttons will appear on the COMPARE screens for some people if there are no suggested matches remaining for any of the people in the family group. Start from the COMPARE screen for somebody in the GEDCOM who is matched to an existing profile in WikiTree, and ADD their first-degree relatives (for best results, start with parents or spouse, then add siblings after the parents are added, and add the kids after the spouse is added).

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Ellen -

Something doesn't seem right.

I am going try and paste a clip  showing the current status of my gedcompare:

Compare: There are 0 suggested matches to consider. Rejected matches: 1788. Confirmed matches: 511.

But I don't have an "ADD" button. 

So do you have any idea why I don't see an "ADD" button?

Jim

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Try exiting GEDCOMpare (close the browser window or tab where the GEDCOMpare screen is displayed), then go back and reopen it. (Use the GEDCOMS link under My WikiTree.) That should bring it up with ADD buttons showing.

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OK

This is what my screen looks like:

Is that what it is supposed to be?  

Jim

Compare: There are no suggested matches on WikiTree. Rejected matches: 1788. Confirmed matches: 512.

Add & Edit: Use comparison pop-ups to add relatives and improve profiles on WikiTree. People in GEDCOM: 1511. Marked as completed: 1493.   refresh | more info  

1493 / 1511

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In the table, you should be seeing little ADD buttons next to many of the names. They are similar in size to the EDIT and COMPARE buttons.

But if yove marked almost all of the people on your gedcom as "completed," the buttons won't be very prominent, since "completed" is interpreted to mean that you won't be adding the person.