warning! - please stop collaboration

I can also reveal that Geni is coming with major improvement's when it comes to translations, and they seem to have adopted our ideas on how to present a relationship using a two-level description instead of the "nn Removed" notation.

Instead of two times removed relative we prefer for example to say grandfathers/mothers/son/daughter's relative, which both tells the direction the generation shift goes and the gender of both points.

This way of showing relationships is however not yet planned implemented.

Hey there Roy thanks for your comments;
Unfortunately some people don't seem to understand (or don't want to) that phrase, and just think they are doing us all a big favor by removing duplicates from the tree.
As far as they see it, there is nothing wrong in deletion and anything goes for their ultimate "sacred" goal of cleaning up the tree, regardless of who or what; is standing in their way

No, Ofir! I would say it more radically. They think that their truth is absolute and ultimate and everyone else should "buzz off" and take their "crap" with them and the god of a man is willing to help and clear it up. Fine, maybe i overreacted now.

it took longer than usual - but here we go again
Yaroslav of Kiev changed to cyrillic by Lalu today
(and do not change the profile into latin or chinese or anything - just let it be!)

http://www.geni.com/people/%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA-%D0%BA%D0...

Vratislaus I, duke of Bohemia

If Lalu speak about rules, I dont understand why he write's Russian Names in Bulgarian

I think he is more into ruling than rules...

I have encountered some profiles named "Без име", which Google Translate says means "Nameless" in Macedonian.

Are these Lalu footprints? Is there any danger merging them into my stacks?

You probably shouldn't allow him as a collaborator... Susanna and the others know much more about it than I do, but I avoid him now and have blocked him.

The profiles don't belong to him, and the history of them doesn't show that he's touched them - but Geni's history can be somewhat hit-and-miss, it seems.

What I wonder is if the collaborator is a collaborator of his.

Harald - I searched (copy paste) that cyrllic word and there are 407 "no names" by the same adder!!! It looks like the user, when he come to an end in his tree, he adds the unknown father and mother as no name and no name, same thing if he knows the father but not the mother the mother becomes the profile no name.
it's almost funny
some use to put a Mrs or Mr to the unknown profile or the word unknown, I think it is better to just leave it

Susanna
PS. I do not know if he is a collaborator with Lalu

"Susanna Engberg Barnevik
4/29/10 at 2:09 PM
I think he is more into ruling than rules..."

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I think you're right.

So, I have a request from him to merge. It is a legitimate merge, but I will loose recognition of the profile after doing so. Dilemma.....

Margaret,
you could be pro-active and tell him he'll have to respect other people's work if he wants to play with the adults.

about 10 centuries of one of my lines is gone and I don't know why. Could it be a bad merge?

about 10 centuries of one of my lines is gone and I don't know why. Could it be a bad merge?

James, it's possible that there was a problem with parentage and someone in your line was therefore disconnected. If you do a search for a profile in that missing line, you probably can find them then reconnect them by merging them into your tree.

Thank you, Margaret
My info. on the Joslyn, Josseline, Josseline, Jocelyn line was taken from a book be geneologist Edith Wessler, a professional geneologist who did the work in about 1960. I still have the book but had gone beyond that on offshoots of various branches that had extended through Gerberga, Charles the Great and Julius Ceaser, then further BC.
Anyway, thank you.
I did contact Geni to report the problem.

For your information.

The name of the main profile of Yaroslav of Kiev has been changed again.
http://www.geni.com/people/%D0%AF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%...

Ans all the nicknames are now removed.
Nicknamesfield is an important clue to the profiles merge-history why this is very sad indeed.
Also, I think it is very arrogant to change the info on a profile that has been merged 100s of times and are well kept.

I am so tired of this nonsens and I would be very happy with an answer from the staff of Geni shortly. I have send several e-mails with no answer at all, not even to confirm the mail.
Please get in touch in the matter.

Also - regarding the warning - do not collab action.
Lalu has 23 collaborators in common with me - meaning that if he would like to merge one of my profiles he can just do so by sending the request to one of the 23 collaborators he has to chose among.

I am sending a letter to those 23 tonight.

Well, it seems that what we are experiencing here is a failure to merge all different languages and cultures of the world into one unified Geni system. Let's think of Wikipedia without the choice of languages, all articles edited simultaneously in English, Russian, Bulgarian and Chinese.

Vaike, I think your Wikipedia analogy is very apt. Wikipedia articles with different languages in different sections might just about work (but not at all well), but to have articles written by an author (in their own language) changed by someone else (a "Collaborator"!) into a completely different language with no remnant of the original remaining would not be tolerated.

Well Arthur, I don't think I am very original making comparison to Wikipedia here. And I guess you still agree that having articles in different languages enables to display different name forms and also different article content without any arguement which is the "right form" or "right content". It is not a problem in Wikipedia to translate an article into Bulgarian because it does not affect the original article.

In Geni we have basicly only one article about one person and it should include all languages. I am not saying it is OK to ruin somebody's work, but I just think the problem is innate in system itself.

Right then lets write all nordic names with runen,
I´ll be pissed if anyone changes my profiles into either greek or kyrillian, but I´d love to translate profiles into either runen og hiroglyfs, maybe wedge and sandskrit? No the creator of the profile must have the privilege of being able to read his own data and profiles.

I have asked for language dependent name fields, at least for Display Name.

There is an upcoming Geni release for a language dependent user interface (the developer I was in contact with had his in Russian now), and to quote the answer on my question about language dependent names:

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Brox, we have been discussing just this issue internally, and it is an important part of internationalization. though this will not be part of our initial translation release, we have plans to support this along with alternate facts within the next few releases. we also have other features coming soon that will help with the more general problem of vandalism, so stay tuned!

I've been reading all these commentaries and I've suffered the effects of merges not been requested and that make some people appearing twice or more times in the same tree and even being their own brother, stepbrother or son.
I would suggest that everyone works it's own family tree and if there is help needed in some profile, politely ask to whom corresponds. Unfortunally I've also found out in my tree people not being relative but appear 'cause they're friend of a friend of a relative of some other in the tree, being my only interest to have my blood relatives there, so they ought nothing to do in it though they own my respect.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Bain

P.S. The wrong thing with merges is not that they merge two profiles of a person that might appear twice or more times but, whatever trees are hanged to them, being susceptible to incorporate wrong or not serious data that even escape from your control.
Best regards to you all.

@Sylvia. That's the nature of family tree. Everyone is related to everyone. The question is how long is the path. If you want to see only blood relatives, then change the preferences of tree view. No problem, i´d say!

About the way trees are merged...If you merge two profiles then all the profiles found in the two merged branches have to be shown together. How do you think it would be possible to show two profiles of a person in the same tree that are not merged yet. Only as a duplicate brother or sister or double partner or double mom or dad. No other way. The technical procedure how to solve these conflicts could be simpler, i agree. There should be no request to have right to solve conflicts with "yellow triangle", only you should have right to confirm merge of "blue crosses". But that's only my opinion.

Dear Jaak ,
I've finally succeeded in solving those conflicts but when I ended in doing so, others arouse so it became the never ending tale. That's why I do prefer collaboration asking people not to change data and if there is something thhey consider wrong in it, please tell me so we work together, thus respecting each other. I do agree there should be no request to solve conflicts aroused in your tree. That's the only handicap I met; when I've everything correct and under control, it appears one of the repeated profiles locked and stating "you've no right to correct this", why not if it's affecting my own family tree? So we agree in that.

Yours sincerely,

Sylvia Bain

Jaak...That is the belief that I work under (whether you believe in the Bible, or evolution)..everyone is someway related to everyone...rignt from Lucy the first woman, or Eve, the first woman.
As I have said many times...to me it does not matter whether a person is my first, second, or twenty-first, thirty-third cousin, as long as there is a common PROVEN ancestor, we are related!!!!!
The only way we can discover branches is to collaborate, and Sylvia, you are also right.
Let's say I have found a mutual relative in your tree (I haven't even looked at your tree, so don't worry), I have no right to add your tree, or correct your information without asking you first, and also, if I saw something that for me didn't look right, I would contact you first with my suggestions.
No need to get "possessive" with information (although we all do it). That is why most ot us love doing geneology. I, for one am very seriously thinking about doing a DNA swab to see where that goes. Could be interesting.

Roy

Dear Roy:

You've right understood what I ment. Though someone called me or acussed me for being "possessive" I wasn't and I'm not that at all. It's all summarized in saying that work must be done with respect and based in proven facts. Unfortunally, I've met both, people getting in my tree or adding facts not real or duly proved, without even having contacted me or what's more, even not being my relative at all as Geni has finally stated.
On the other hand, I've developed a great friendship with 20th, 30th, or even far cousins but, who have respectfully and nicely contacted me asking a merge or to collaborate with eachother. Everyone like them is pretty welcome and I'm and will be very fond to be their friend and they can count with me.
Now, I avoid doing merges 'cause they might involve wrong information or facts within the other trees behind the profiles you merge, I faced that twice or more times and it's hard to do everything again. But I've no trouble in collaborating with serios people who work based on proven and real facts and data or if their not sure, consult about what we may know and don't act until he finally finds the right answer. At least, that's the way I work and I would highly appreciate the same from others.
Thanks Roy and everyone for your comprehension.

Best Regards,

Sylvia

@ Henn Sarv This is bad news, it has taken a lot of work to put together all the family info on GENI. It there a "Black List" of operators to avoid?
Kjell Nilsen-Nygaard