What is the best way to handle a non-responsive profile manager?

Question

Found several mistakes including duplicate profiles, a profile for a person who didn't exist etc. Have sent two messages to the profile manager but no response. This person hasn't made any new contributions in over a year. They apparently at some point adopted the profiles someone else imported via GEDCOM in 2013. Don't want to start a war, just want to know how best to proceed

Comments

I appreciate the two answers and I understand there is a process. I would suggest that the present policy of allowing someone to adopt a profile of a person who has been dead nearly 70 years and then make it something other than OPEN, with no co-managers present, seems like an invitation for trouble. I suspect many instances of this sort come about  simply because new or sporadic members don't really understand the effect their actions have.

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Suppose you lost interest or had a life crisis of some kind and left WT for an extended period.  Would you want your recent ancestors' profiles automatically orphaned and opened, without a responsible replacement manager standing by?

A person dead 70 years falls within the criteria allowing privacy restrictions.  In such cases, the privacy setting falls to the sole discretion of the manager.  The profile in question has a manager, who for whatever reason chose a privacy setting.  WikiTree respects that choice until and unless other members demonstrate that the manager has abandoned his or her responsibilities.  There's no way for WT to automate the decision to remove a manager, so we have a user-initiated process for removing the unresponsive ones.  Most of the time, the member filing the request adopts the profile right away, so it goes open and unattended for only a very brief period.  The new manager can make a new decision on the privacy setting.  Not everyone has co-managers for all their managed profiles, but the Unresponsive Manager process provides for volunteer replacements.

So, thanks for volunteering!

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Problems never get solved when the response to an observation of a problem is to defend the current system. My approach to these type situations is that processes can always be improved given time, thought, and a willingness to consider alternatives. If you will re-read my comment you will see that I specifically addressed a concern with situations where a member ADOPTS an orphaned profile and then CLOSES it. I said nothing about removing managers. Most problems are best solved on the front end as in an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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There is nothing wrong with adopting a profile and then determining the privacy level, if the birth-death is within the allowance for it.  I have done this, because an open lock was inappropriate for the profile/s.

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I read your post, and it is about managers.  There's no reason a manager adopting a profile should forfeit the responsibility to choose its privacy.  A manager is a manager.  Whether he or she got there by creating the profile or adopting it, the rights and responsibilities are the same.  I would make the same argument if you complained about someone adopting a private profile and then opening it.

You opened the thread asking how to override a choice made by an existing manager.  If the manager continues to ignore attempts to collaborate, the process for correcting that often results in his or her removal.  WikiTree has no room for managers who refuse to collaborate, but doesn't remove them without good cause.  Hence the process.

As always on WT, if you don't like the current system there's a process for proposing changes:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Developing_New_Rules

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You are correct Melanie. I agree with you. I didn't intend to suggest otherwise.

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No, I didn't open the thread by asking "how to override a choice made by an existing manager". I opened the thread by asking "What is the best way to handle a non-responsive profile manager?" I fully recognize that we are all volunteers and I wanted some feedback on how other members handle these situations. This was not a "rules question" but a "what do you guys think about this" question. My secondary comments that I made about current policy, weren't questions but suggestions about how the process could be improved in a way to help everyone.

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I think it would be really useful if, on a User's profile page, WikiTree would indicate the date on which the User last logged on, or was last active.  That could help indicate whether a person was truly 'non-responsive' or was maybe a long-term absentee.  This would perhaps aid considerably in choosing the appropriate course of action.

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Richard, there is.  Looking at your profile, I see that your have been active today, because you have made three contributions.

Answer 1

There's a prescribed process for it, here.  It doesn't start a war, but deals with the problem in a calm rational way.

Basically, you make three specific attempts to contact the person.  If he or she hasn't responded after a week, use the form found on the Tools tab of the profile you are trying to improve.

Comments

Thanks for the star, Susan Mark! 

Answer 2

Here are the instructions for Unresponsive Profile Manager.

Comments

What if you have done that and there is no action from the powers that be?