Why does WikiTree allow .ged Files that others have to fix and merge?

Question

People adding .ged Files that just have a name and then expect others who have spent hours, days and more to fix them up and then merge them.  I do not think this is fair at all. Those who do take care, check when adding people to see if there is a match, but with .ged files all just gets loaded and others have to fix up and/or adopt those they load.

Comments

Joan, early in its existence, wikitree allowed unfettered uploading of gedcoms. Several years ago it introduced limits. So we don't tend to see the kinds of gedcom impact that you're referring to from recent gedcom uploading.  But we still have a backlog of abandoned gedcom-created profiles from before the time when limits were put in place.

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Thanks Jillaine, I have been asked to merge some files in the past 2 days and they have all been added recently.  That is why I asked.  Am getting a bit sick of it that's all.  They have been loaded in the past 2 months.  Ex. Lovell-2805. When asked I always comply but I do have lots to do on my own profiles as you would know and it seems that these files are just loaded and left for others to check and fix.  Cheers Joan

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There are times when we need to be reminded of the Honor Code.   I believe this is one such time.

Edited to add:

1. We know mistakes are inevitable. We don't want to be afraid to make them. We assume that mistakes are unintentional when others make them and ask for the same understanding.
2. We know misunderstandings are inevitable. We try to minimize them by being courteous to everyone, even those who don't act accordingly.

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What Melanie said.  And Joan, I'm not understanding  what work you're being required to spend much time on. When a merge proposal comes in, and it's clear it's the same person, and your previously created profile has the better info, that's the info you keep.  There are some check boxes and the option to retain your version of the bio, not the other's. What is taking you so much time?

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Jillaine, The birth dates were wrong and did not match nor did the country of birth so it was not a match.  I am sorry I even bought this up as obviously you people have more time having a go at me than looking to see what I did or have done. I will certainly not adopt any more profiles who do not have a manager and will not look to go out of my way to help anyone anymore. Will just do my own stuff.  Bye Joan

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Joan, my experience has been that all of us make mistakes from time to time. As someone who makes mistakes, I appreciate it when other people are gracious about the situation (for example, by assuming that my intentions were good and allowing me to try to make amends).

In the situation you are concerned about, another member created a profile (not from a GEDCOM import) and  realized within a few minutes that it was a mistake, as another profile for the person already existed. The duplicate wasn't detected when he created the profile because of the 3-year difference in the birth dates on the two profiles, but since both profiles cited the same birth record, it's clear they were the same person. It's unfortunate that he deleted the information from the profile he created that clearly indicated that these were the same people, but the removal of that content should have made it even easier to merge the two profiles.

In the future I hope you will accept that other WikiTreers make mistakes from time to time (even if you don't), and that you will be gracious about dealing with their mistakes (and accepting their apologies, when proffered). We need to be able to do that in order to work productively in this collaborative environment.

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Dear Ellen, I never once suggested that I do not make mistakes. I have over the years adopted and corrected many profiles and I do know that when adding a person possible matches appear.  I have made errors many times but fix them as soon as I notice them.  It is just I had 4 or 5 emails on the same person in 2 days and I was getting a bit fed up especially when the dates were changed to match my person.  The only info was a name and possible year of birth.  No other info at all so why enter them without doing some research on them.  That's all.  Joan

Answer 1

Lovell-2805 was created in 2014 as Lovell-788.  And some work done on it 27 Oct 2019. That was the merge.