Confusion on free space profiles for sources -seeking feedback / clarification [closed]

Question

I have seen a number of free space profiles for sources that apply to a series of published volumes, rather than the specific volume cited. Is there a requirement for the source to be one or the other?  To me, this is confusing, but I'm wondering if I am the only one. My thought process, is that given the Evidence Explained methodology, we need to be as clear as possible in our source citations.

There is this page, but it does not address this: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Profiles_of_Sources

as well as this page: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Source_Free-Space_Guidelines

An example of this issue, is that I created a profile for Vol 1 of Rhode Island Vital Record: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Vital_record_of_Rhode_Island%2C_1636-1850%2C_Vol_1%2C_Part_1:_Kent_County%2C_Warwick

But, there is another existing profile that attempts to cover all the volumes of this work: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Vital_records_of_Rhode_Island%2C_1636-1850

Comments

Yes, you are quite right in that source citations in a profile should be as clear as possible.

The free space pages for 'sources' that apply to a series of published volumes I view primarily as finding aids. They are very useful indeed as a way of quickly locating electronic copies of a source you may be looking for. The freespace pages are not sources themselves but as you have shown in your example you can link through to the actual source via a freespace page.

I personally never refer back to the freespace pages when adding a source citation to a profile.

But I am very grateful to Rick and others who have spent the time and effort to create and maintain these pages for the benefit of us all.

---

Have you seen this thread?

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/220823/should-think-about-before-expanding-usage-profiles-sources

---

Thanks - it helps quite a bit.  I suppose my other biggest concern is that many of these free space source pages contain citation formatting that encourages span based citations, and it produces many errors for data doctors, though I believe they are now only showing up if there are more than 3 on a single profile.