Persons who have not been online for a year (Abandoned Trees)

Fred, in order to become a co-manager with these [thousands of] profiles, I would have to create a duplicate for each and merge them. That type of behavior is RATHER frowned upon on Geni, never mind the oodles of work required and never mind that I do NOT WANT management of these profiles...

So if you and Eldon want it, I'll create a public discussion to post David Wooten specific requests to. You could then post pairs of profiles you want merged. I'd do this on ONE condition, that anyone posting a comment-request there, delete it after it was handled. We used to have similar discussions for a "Merge-Group" that predated the Collaboration Pool ( http://www.geni.com/discussions/6000000008539319639 ).

I actually agree with Beth here. A year is too short a time period in order to "seize" someone's profiles. For a while Geni had a 2-year cut-off, but even that was too aggressive at times. The ONE exception to this rule, is people who did a one-time GEDCOM upload, and then almost immediately never came back who also have NO other claimed profile in their tree.

Eldon,
it IS possible to add someone else to a project FOR them.

Then good for you....it was in general...I have -0- in mine but there are now 25,400 in the collaboration data conflict area (that would include the 64 people I personally am in cahoots with).......there is also a like number of merge issues)......
Your collaboration listing of merge issues is probably different and determined by the number of people YOU are in cahoots with....that figure is JUST the data conflicts, and does not include merge issues..

Was really trying to tell everyone in general that the merge issues and tree problems they have encountered might ease a bit if everyone took a little time on a regular basis to do their own merge issues and data conflicts....

Would imagine, with the number of people on Geni, that if 64 people can create that many issues then imagine what thousands can create....it aint gonna get better by sticking heads in the sand...

Sorry...but there were 28,000 a few days ago....and I am, and you all should be, addressing these things....I sort of volunteered to help out and was totally flabbergasted at how many there were....some were from the people who have abandoned Geni but some were from people who have better things to do than spending time deciding whether Massachusetts v Mass v Ma is right....they are trying (meaning the curators etc) to resolve major merge errors so we can all build the trees

When you go into merge issues, look at your ancestors, managed by you, and then look at your collaborators.....believe me you will be surprised.....if YOU have a clean file, then help out in the collaborators....if you dont know what to do then you CAN send the URL to a manager to resolve.....BUT a whole heck of them are as simple as someone using a comma AND space while another person used only a comma....

If you happen to come on a tree match while you are doing it data conflict resolve...you might want to SEE if you can take care of that at the same time...

I thought family helped family...and your collaborators are at LEAST your neighbors...

For those with a "Mega-Mail" issue, try making a folder and set your mail sorter to send all Geni mail to that folder...then you can check it at your leisure.
This way Geni does not fill your inbox, and it is all in one place when you have time to read it.

It's always nice to have something to agree on Shmuel :)

I was and I am one of the victims of transferring profiles after a year absence. There are still at least 1500 profiles I cannot edit any longer.
My wife was serious ill (cancer) and I spent no time to Geni. Now all is okay again. I started here 4th april 2009, made a new profile september 2010 and merged then my 2 profiles. Caused by a bug in the Geni software I think is the mentioned date on my profile now september 2010.
Many of my profiles are managed now by somebody with whom I collaborate, so can edit these again.

Eldon...already go into My Ancestors,Managed by Me, My collaborators....what I was saying was that while I attend to the first 2 on a daily basis....I have also been going into collaborators and was astonished at how MANY problems I was finding...that some are no-brainers that ANYONE can help with...and suggested that, after attending to your own...help would improve the whole of the system in such areas as the collaborators listing.

I also have found that a lot of the data conflicts are from people who, at this time, are overwhelmed with solving big merge muddles for us underlings and therefore helping out would be a great idea.

Fred...gad to hear your wife is doing better.. I passed my 5 year free milestone just this summer so know where you are coming from...it takes alot out of you and definately takes precedent over such things as Geni or, as a matter of fact, most everything else...

Glad you are back on the active duty roster.

There are many areas to be helped out in...I mentioned collaborators lists (specifically data conflicts) because I truly feel that helping there allows the curators more free time to address the major merge problems that equal, in number, the volume of data conflicts (at least that is so in MY collaborators list...don't know what your (your meaning everyone else) collaborators lists look like.

In the long run it helps MY particular trees

Hi Eldon, one of the curators told me the possibility to ask Geni to recover the old situation and to transfer manangement to me of all the profiles ever managed by me and now else. So I did and I expect that Geni will repair the old situation.

I don't know who has the profiles. Until now I discovere a great number to 2 curators and every time I see their name as manager under one of my profiles I request transfer of management. They accept that every time, but if Geni does this in one time then that is much easier !

Beth, I gotta agree with you. Just because someone has to step away from their hobby for an extended period does not mean they've permanently "abandoned" anything. Fred's case is just one example of a very good reason that an account may not be touched for a year or more.

I wish that all would remember that it is not the end of the world if someone doesn't approve your merge immediately. The "big tree" will ALWAYS be a work-in-progress, and not everyone can dedicate as much time to geni as we'd like. There is no point trying to rush to get "finished". Be patient.

So this is inconvenient for you? So it keeps you from making your own tree larger? So it is frustrating? I understand, I do!

But none of these are good enough reasons to effectively *steal* someone else's account, and their relative's personal information, from them.

I don't understand why there must be managers for public profiles such as it now works. It works bad, very bad ! I can understand that masterprofiles have a manager or even a curator, but the way to masterprofiles must be free, so that everybody is able to merge everything until the status is there that you can say, now it is a good masterprofile . Managers must be cancelled, now immediately !

Eldon said: "I wish there was a way to take care of the data conflicts without Geni taking you out of the merge center".

Eldon, you CAN!
I don't know which type of computer you use, or which web-browser, but pretty much all of them now support what is called "tabbed browsing". You can open multiple pages in the same browser window, and then either with the keyboard or mouse tab between them.

I have a PC and use Firefox (and IE - Internet-Explorer). In BOTH of these, I can open a new tab, by clicking with the MIDDLE mouse button on a link. So when I go into the Merge-Center, I can scroll down the right column of data-conflicts (or whatever), and click each "View Profile" link...

This way I can open up to 20 at a time, and even save the waiting time while they load (because I'm still looking at the list). I then can flip through them all and either OK them or cancel. Try it!

Shmuel-Aharon: Glad you use Firefox :-). I use multiple tabs right now I have 4 open in Geni but never thought about using it that way Thanks for the tip

Jennifer, no one is "stealing" anyone's data, it is still there. It is being shared which is one of the things Geni is about. If in my merging, I find a profile that is abandoned, I request management and if anyone wants management rights I give it to them
Yes it is inconvenient when someone does not complete merges but merging is not not to make ones tree larger. Merging actually makes a tree smaller by removing duplicates.

Fred Bergman you are my 16th cousin 4 times removed :) I hope you get your issues straightened out. And I'm sorry that your wife was ill. Welcome back.

In IE instead of opening a new tab, I right click and "open in a new window" that puts the page infront of the one your working on.

Is JB still active??

JB has been absorbed..

I have a branch I would like to add to a tree of someone who has not been online since last spring. Is it possible to work backward from a "leaf",( ie and individual's profile) I would like to add and hope that I can then merge with the existing tree when I have the new branch completed? In other words, is there any way on Geni to start with a new profile of someone (other than yourself) that is not yet linked in some way to the big tree??

David,
I'm not sure I understood your question.

You CAN create a free-floating branch. Just temporarily add a profile (from either end of the branch) to your own tree, for example as your own "brother" and then just go into "Edit Profile" ==> Relationships, and remove that profile's connection to your parents. Just don't forget to bookmark a profile in this branch, or you'll have a hard time finding it.

As to attaching this to someone else's tree without their consent, that is trickier. If this part of the tree is public, then a Curator can attach it for you.

Had to chuckle -- Fay says "JB as been absorbed."

The Geni Borg moves on - you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

@Shmuel-Aharon Kam - Why didn't I think of that??

Jason Brian Fisher

New feature! On the profile page under More Actions there is now a Report with the option to report abandoned profiles. Hope it works.

WHOOOHOOO!!!GREAT

Good news! Maria, I always enjoy your points of view.

Nikki Dietz

Kathy, I hope it works also. I am reporting the ones I listed here then deleting the messages. I will leave the Initial posting to keep the discussion alive.

do ya think i could even figure out where in the tree i ran into her at. nope i have no idea at the moment what area of the tree i was working in when i can across her, my link to her profile is still intact, so i am at a loss at the moment. thanks for asking tho ^U^

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