Who should merge an 'apparent duplicate profile' - the originator or the duplicator?

Question

..Further information will depend on posting of an 'answer' (as distinct from a 'comment')..

Answer 1

Whichever manager (or anyone else who) discovers the duplicate should alert the other manager (or the managers) by proposing the merge. It really doesn't matter which of them (or who) proposes or initiates the merge. What does matter is that the direction of the merge should be from the newest to the oldest profile so the lower of the two profile numbers is preserved. Content from either or both profiles can be saved. If the content from both profiles is saved, then there will need to be some profile clean-up afterward to merge the two biographies into one.

Comments

N: Thank you for your response (sorry about the duplicated 'question' - though it does emphasise the difficulties caused by duplicates). Briefly, and without mentioning names for fear of upsetting those who may end up doing the merge, I had recently adopted and completed an edit of an orphaned 2021 profile - which lacked a death date but used a "before year" birth date, nor did it show parents or siblings. A spouse was then separately created and added, as well as numerous children.The only 'source' for this 2021 profile is a link for the marriage to the spouse.

The 2021 creation is, I am sure, a duplication of the 2018 'originally profiled person', which listed dates, parents, and siblings - but not spouse nor children. Unfortunately the only 'source' for the 2018 profile is an inaccessible link to 'Ancestry'. Neither profile had been touched since its creation.

In view of the apparent duplication, apparent lack of interest by the PMs, and poor 'source' detail, I ended up scrapping my edit of the newly adopted 2021 profile and re-orphaned it.

Thus my G2G question.

I suppose I will suggest (to the 2018 creator) that a merge be completed and then offer to edit and provide relevant 'source' detail.

Thank you for your answer and your interest

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Thanks for the star, Phil. Glad I could help. I've noticed that most of the time when I inadvertently create a duplicate it's because the original profile had estimated dates and lack of sources. In those cases, I propose the merge, of course. I apologize for creating the duplicate. And I ask the manager of the other profile to try to retain the sources and biography I had on the duplicate I created. Most of the time, they do retain my work. Just in case, when I propose the merge, I save the "edit mode" biography of the profile I manage in a text file, so if the other manager doesn't retain it, all my work can be easily replicated with a simple cut/paste after the merge.

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Nelda: Many thanks for your comment. I had actually copied the 'edit save' before scrapping the edit & re-orphaning of the duplicated profile - with the same purpose in mind.

Answer 2

As long as the appropriate managers agree, and approve of the merge, it doesn't really matter who executes it.  The member who completes the merge does not necessarily need to be one of the involved managers for that matter.  I am not aware of any site policy or any unwritten "politically correct" approach, if that's what you're asking.

Comments

D: Thank you for your response.

Please see my comment (above) to Nelda.

Answer 3

Just my opinion, but the one who created the duplicate created additional work. As a learning experience, the duplicator would benefit the most by completing the merge. I made and merged my fair share of mistakes during the learning curve.

Comments

K: Thank you for your response and your opinion - with which I agree 100%.

Let's hope a mutually satisfactory outcome is reached .

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inexperience probably played a role in the creation of a duplicate profile therefore, experience gained by merging may help prevent said problem in the future. collaboration has both benefits and drawbacks. I try to stay focused on the benefit as hard as it may be some times.

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K: Your comment is especially relevant regarding the 'pro/con' of collaboration.

I recently asked the creator of a profile, created over 10 years ago & left untouched ever since, if they still had an interest in adding extra information. The response that it was not on the creator's 'to do list' was disappointing , to say the least.

Presumably, as that profile resulted from a gedcom upload (file since deleted), there may be many more such profiles , with inaccessible links the only 'source' provided, which may never receive adequate attention.

Answer 4

I try to make sure I do the merge because more times than not I have the most information and sources and I don’t want it getting lost in the merge.

Comments

J: Thank you for your response. I probably should have done just that, but I've found many contributors are unhappy if their long-unattended creations are amended - especially without prior collaboration.

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I mean if they have the older one and they have sources and info I don’t change their format and just add any additional sources I may have ( I like to have wallpaper and some sort of profile photo) but if they got nothing and they get mad—oh well