When your new profile page is a match...

Question

Can we change the way the system works when you create a page and it matches someone else's entry? The way it is now, if your person is a match you can't really go any further with what you're doing at that moment until you're accepted to the Trusted List of the other person's entry. And if you choose to say it is a match and not proceed with a new page, then all the typing you've done is for naught.
If we changed it so that when you hit the box saying it's the same person, your new profile is created and automatically set as an unconfirmed match (along with a Trusted Request) it would be easier to proceed. I think it would be easier to see why someone wants to be added to the trusted list. It would also then be easier to compare info and see which would be more accurate to keep.

Answer 1

Hi Rob,

That's a real good idea.

Honestly, some of this was caused by not fully thinking through changes. When we started, we just had you enter the basic name on the first page, then it did the search, then you either created the profile or not. But users kept asking for the ability to add more and more info on the first page. It was just recently that we added the ability to include biographical text and source notes. I'm embarassed to admit that I didn't think about how frustrating that would be if you took the time to write a bio and then didn't have the profile created.

I like your idea about the Unmerged Matches. Or should they be Proposed Merges?

I'd hate to see people recreating entire lines that later need to be merged. How would we discourage that? We could just include explanatory text. Not that anybody ever reads explanatory text.

Anybody else have input?

Chris

Comments

I think they should be set as Proposed Merges. If someone's creating a new profile and saying, this is the same as this other profile, then they should be proposing a merge, not just marking them as matches. Plus, isn't a Proposed Merge more visible to the other profile manager than an Unmerged Match? It's been awhile since I received a merge proposal, but isn't there an email? So that would encourage people to get those profiles merged quicker.

~Lianne

---

I had thought about which way would make more mirror profiles. I think the way we do it now causes more, because I think if someone's uploading info, but has to stop and wait for a reply in order to continue, I think they would be more likely to just continue and then likely forget to go back and match.

As it stands now, there is no way to build back to an existing line and simply add your person as a child to a person already in the system - even though we know many people at least start by building back in a straight line, then adding in children later... if at all. I think if we made it so that when you get back to someone already in the system it created an automatic prompt for merging then the person recieving the trusted/merging request would be able to look at the new profile and see that the person in question is correctly noted as the same.

---

I like the suggestion.