Why do I need to request to be added to the trusted list for profiles I do not even know? [closed]

+19 votes
658 views
I have seen this question posed one other place but did not see an answer.

When filling out the unresponsive profile manager form it asks you to confirm that you have sent a trusted list request to the profile manager, however,  I am just trying to correct database errors and do not know these people so why do I have to request to be on their trusted list?  I have already posted on the profile that needs corrected and sent a private message to the profile manager, each a week apart, but the form says you have to do all three. These are for people that have not been on this year at all and most of them are over 6 months since they have made any contributions.  List below is just one of the 55 profiles that I have sent the other two messages on, all but the trusted list.
WikiTree profile: Georgina Evans
closed with the note: Answered; post originator asked for it to be closed.
in Policy and Style by Paula Franklin G2G6 Pilot (105k points)
closed by Natalie Trott
Paula, I concur with you that this part of the unresponsive pm process is the part that prevents me from ever using it.  In most cases where I need to submit a UPM, I most certainly do NOT want to be on the TL. in addition, submitting such a request gives the recipient the option to bulk add you to a slew of profiles from which there is no easy way to remove yourself and adding unnecessarily to one's watchlist.  

Your example is a good one and illustrates why this requirement is inappropriate. At best, it creates extra work for already stretched volunteers.
I actually got a response from one PM and this exact thing happened, it appears I am on the trusted list for his entire tree.

Hopefully it will create less work for the overworked volunteers that have to deal with the UPM form if I do get on the trusted list. Just more work for me to get off it.
Not volunteers - it takes paid staff time to deal with UPM forms, and it's a longwinded business.

7 Answers

+15 votes
 
Best answer
I have found that if I post the source/record I have found in the comments to help with the database error I am correcting, then ask for trusted list access, I either get a nice response or I get nothing.   That is the best way to let the person know that you are trying to help.   That is the reason it is the first step of the process.
by Robin Lee G2G6 Pilot (852k points)
selected by Susan Smith
Robin, I explained that I was a Data Doctor and that I was working on database errors for WikiTree.  I asked to be put on the person's trusted list and if they did not feel comfortable doing that would they please correct the errors and I also let them know what the error was.  I usually tell them who and what because the first few times I did corrections and didn't that was the question I got asked, why I was working on their profiles.
+19 votes
I wondered the same thing, but for whatever reason, I got a response from the PM when I requested the Trusted List.  They gave me that access, which allowed me to change the profile and then I removed myself from the Trusted List.
by Linda Peterson G2G6 Pilot (764k points)
Yeah, I have started sending them but there are a lot of them so it will take some time.  But at least if it doesn't work I can send in the form.  Eventually it will get all these off the database error report.
+13 votes

I consider a Trusted List request to be the FIRST step in courteous, collaboration communication and the preferred method to get a fellow profile manager's attention!laugh

We should always remember that some WikiTreers don't actively edit profiles; they merely watch them.cool

by Lindy Jones G2G6 Pilot (253k points)

P.S. When you send a Trusted List request, you create a convenient list of those profiles you want to edit!wink

Use the UPM/Unresponsive Profile Managers request form steps regularly and you may become more efficient in your work - and less stressed!!enlightened

No stress here, at my age I have learned not to be stressed, it only causes health problems.

I just hate the idea of possibly 55+ people I don't know from Adam's house cat putting me on their trusted id list even if it is just until I can fix the error.  What I have decided though is if they do put me on one of these I am not taking myself off of it until after the clean-a-thon and if I understand it right I will get an email with any errors that need correction that anyone takes the time to send next weekend.  So maybe I can correct them and no one else will have to request to be put on the trusted list for this family. Then after the thon I will take myself off.  Sounds like a plan to me.
I would advise you to limit how many requests you send to each manager, at least at first. That way you can learn each manager's work habits and collaborative level.

The main point is to understand the (UPM) system and have a standardized plan to streamline one's work.
Lindy,  Most of the ones that I have to send the requests to have only one of two profiles that are in the problem category, or ones that I have come upon while working on them that is.  I think one of them had 5 but I also think that person has been online this year and is either ignoring me or is off line for a bit.  I am leaving the newer ones until I get the older ones done.  Will do a few more tomorrow time permitting.
+12 votes

We want to give the unresponsive profile manager as much chance as possible to respond. I recently had a response from a PM who hadn't been active in over a year.  Maybe this time they'll stay.  smiley

by Nan Starjak G2G6 Pilot (378k points)
Between my first round of requests where I posted just on the profile and my requests by private message I had six that showed up that had not been here since 2017.  Maybe they will hang around too..

Some of those I sent requests to had not been around since 2010 and a few of them had messages left on profiles and private messages but usually just one message if any at all.  No one ever had anything about following up on them and that is why the errors stay on the report forever.  When a challenge is going on few people take time to send out whatever messages need to be sent.  That is why I kept a list of the 240 messages I sent and 134 were cleared on the first round of messages.  The PM's just needed to know that there were errors to correct.
+16 votes
If I had to be put on a trusted list to edit a profile in order to correct an error, I'd skip along to another profile.  The only reason I'd ever want to be on the trusted list is if I were related to the person. Are there not enough errors to be corrected that don't require a trusted list request?
by J. Crook G2G6 Pilot (226k points)
+5 votes
I believe you are to request to be on the trusted list of the profile you are editing, not the profile of that manager..
by Walt Steesy G2G6 Mach 4 (46.6k points)
Yes, which is what I have been requesting, only one actual answer so far, however the PM put me on his whole tree, not just the profile I requested it for.
+5 votes
What worries me is the notion of perfectly harmless contributors being driven off the site just because they have better things to do than correcting "errors" like "Unknown, England", which seems to be arbitrarily illegal, but most people would think it doesn't really have a lot wrong with it.

Could the Great Suggester be programmed not to report minor errors on Green profiles?
by Living Horace G2G6 Pilot (625k points)
I have to totally disagree with you about things like Unknown in the location field not being important.  If it is unknown they should note it in the biography and leave the location fields blank.  

I sure don't like to pull up a profile searching for someone and get a lot of things in the location field like Unknown, So and So Cemetery, Such and Such Hospital, Born in World War I, etc.

And I don't understand why it would be illegal.  Those are the rules of the site and when you use the site you are agreeing to abide by the site's rules.  Anything other than a legitimate location in the field should not be posted there.

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