Identifying locked profiles

They have a lock on them.

Not on my screen - that's only once I open edit profile.

I see no padlock on the page of a locked profile (mine or another's) and if I go into the edit page there are no padlocks - only if fields are locked.

This profile is "field locked":

John Alden, "Mayflower" Passenger

This profile is "locked":
unknown father of John Alden

Suggestions:
- explain what you see in various views (profile, tree, edit)
- ask an interested non curator / profile manager to compare with their views

Locked profile: Sir Elly Kadoorie

I am a manager of this profile. I did not lock it.

Is this where I report it as locked ?

On the locked profile 'Unknown Father of John Alden':

-Nothing different until I go into Edit this profile: then twds the top on the left this message in bold black:

This profile is currently locked and may only be edited by curators.

No padlock icons anywhere.

Annelise I will add the profile to project for you. Maybe we need a dedicated discussion for "curator please add this locked profile."

Thanks Erica. I am not sure what the purpose is of adding locked profiles to this project, but if there is a purpose then please note also Sir Elly's wife and son and mother-in-law
Laura Kadoorie
Sir Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron Kadoorie
Miriam Mocatta

I see that four curators have curator statements on this project to explain why they lock profiles. They are very helpful. Is it intended that all curators who lock profiles make such a statement? Is there a list somewhere of how many profiles each curator has locked at any time? If so, then it would probably be useful for the curators with the most locked profiles to explain their actions.

In particular, it would be useful to know what non-curators can do to help curators so that curators can unlock?

What I find particularly difficult is locked profiles that have empty About. Probably most people who would have something to say in the About field will just walk away when they see it locked, and we may lose their input forever. I can understand locking against bad merges, but why lock a blank About field? What is there to lock?

Can somebody explain this to me too? Why you are adding profiles to the project? Isn't it easier to unlock them if there are only 2 managers?\
See Sir Elly Kadoorie

I am not a curator. I see the lock on "Edit Profile" of unknown father of John Alden

I also see the lock on Sir Elly Kadoorie even though I am a manager.

I see nothing to identify that any of these profiles are locked - if I go into the Curator's note I see it is locked - I do think we need a note on the profile as to why it is locked - in the curator's note or in About.

I would need to go through all my MP's to identify which are locked but luckily I do add a note with reasons to any that I have deemed necessary to lock.

June - as a non-curator I agree it would be really helpful to see why each locked profile is locked. Even better to know when it might be unlocked. I don't know how many locked profiles each curator has - so I don't know how much work it would be for curators to add these notes to existing locked profiles. If each curator has just a few that are so far without notes, it's easy. If a curator has hundreds of locked profiles, it's a burden.

A commitment from curators in future to put notes on profiles when they lock them would be appreciated - and probably not too much of a burden if done at the time of locking?

Some more locked profiles - not sure why I am listing these - hopefully it is helpful to someone?

Fanny Adler and her daughters
- Henrietta
- Blanche and her husband Ernest and their son Simon
- Minna
- Constance and her husband Ernest
- Walter
- Myra and her husband Cecil

Quite a locked family!

David, how do you see Fanny's profile is locked? I cant see anything

Since I'm not a curator, Fanny's profile does display a padlock for me as well. Basically, if you're a curator, profiles will not display as locked for you, because they are not locked for you.

On Fanny Adler I see:
- All the family relationships
- Empty Overview tab and no facility to add anything
- Edit Profile on the right greyed out (not clickable) with a padlock

Hovering over Edit Profile I see "This profile is currently locked and may only be edited by curators."

I agree with David - a note with reasons for locking should be displayed on a profile. I would go so far as to suggest that locked profiles should be reviewed periodically - maybe we Curators need a reminder after a certain amount of time to check the status of a locked profile. I also think that it would be useful if a Curator could see at a glance if a profile is locked or not - a note would help if there was no other way.

I don't get the same message David - I would need to go into the Curator's options to discover that it was locked.

I am very happy to be in agreement with June.

I think we have also established that curator and non-curator views of locked profiles are quite different, and curators might want to suggest a feature request to enhance their view

BTW, If the whole profiles is locked, it looks like Curators still have edit privileges.
But if individual fields are locked, and Curator merges a profiles in - all edits will be lost - ie locked fields will lock Curators out.

Agreed June and David.
If Geni created an automatic message that prompted curators to add their reasons when they lock; this would be helpful.
It could display as something like: 'This profile is locked due to: .... Contact the Curator if you want to work on it, or if it you think that reason no longer applies."

That would double as a useful 'locked' alert on the front of the profile for all Curators, as well helping them make a judgement call on whether the profile's locked status has simply been 'forgotten' and should be unlocked.

Jadra's point "if individual fields are locked, and Curator merges a profile in - all edits will be lost - ie locked fields will lock Curators out" is has important effects on how locked profiles might be used or abused - I wonder if Geni intended that?

Jadra - I think we need more clarity around what it means for a profile as a whole to be locked and what it means for fields to be locked. I found field locking to be cumbersome and mostly stopped using it, even on sourced fields.

When are data conflicts that have to be manually addressed created? What are the values of data fields in a profile automatically selected over those of another profile in a merge?

David,

You asked, "I see that four curators have curator statements on this project to explain why they lock profiles. They are very helpful. Is it intended that all curators who lock profiles make such a statement?"

No real answer. It's optional, and it's relatively new. There is no rule that curators have to add their locked profiles to this project, although some of us do.

LIkewise, there is no rule that curators have to add a personal statement. I agree with you that it's helpful, but I haven't actively engaged other curators in any discussions about doing it.

Jadra, I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say, "But if individual fields are locked, and Curator merges a profiles in - all edits will be lost - ie locked fields will lock Curators out."

How are the curators locked out? What edits are lost?

My understanding is that in a merge where one profile contains locked fields, the data conflicts resolve automatically in favor of the locked fields. So, what is lost is not "edits", but conflicting information.

This makes sense from a particular point of view. If a curators has taken the time to verify the information before locking the field, then it would be a waste of time to resolve data conflicts that contain bad information.

Geni implemented this system in response to a complaint from curators that it was pointless and time-consuming to resolve data conflicts that by definition would not be correct.

I think your question might reach a deeper problem. What if the information in the other profile really is better than the locked fields? Obviously, the data in the locked fields is only as good as the curator who is locking them.

Yes, Justin, you've put your finger on the issue I think.

David and Jadra, You both asked about the purpose of adding profiles to this project.

I added some brief text about the reasons I've heard. There are probably other reasons.

The project started when some of the curators were unhappy because there was no tool for finding locked profiles.

Personally, I find it helpful in part because I am a curator so I do not see a lock myself. Seeing that a profile is in this project is an easy flag and helps me be conscious about locking.

As I work on the MPs I curate, I ask myself each time, "Does this profile really need to be locked? What is the danger of unlocking? Maybe it's time to unlock it now?" My own experience is that in the majority of cases when I unlock, the profile is trashed again within a month. To me, that means only that I'm probably applying locking appropriately ;)

Justin - thank you for your answers. As I have said a few times, I see the point in locking where the profile has information and sources worth locking. It's the profiles that are locked that have nothing worth locking that concern me. There we are putting people off from providing useful input while protecting nothing. Those are the profiles where I think it would be useful to have notes on the profile, and input from the curator locking the profiles on their reasons for locking.

FWIW, I have asked a curator to lock a profile on several occasions, each time when people persisted in adding facts that were incorrect, or changing the About Me to reflect incorrect or inappropriate info.

When I have wanted to work on a profile with locked fields I have asked the curator to unlock it for me. My feeling is that, especially with profiles that undergo almost daily mergers, anyone who wants to add to a locked profile could do the same thing.

Of course, none of this applies to empty fields or About Me's...