Orange-locked profile with note "do not share with anyone"

Question

Profile PM accepted my trusted list request on orange-locked profile; but this note on the unsourced profile:

Note: This person is privacy-protected on WikiTree. If you did not add their information, do not share it with anyone. 

There is a pending merge of Cole-3460 and Cole-4448, both profiles are unsourced and privacy locked and obvious duplicates. All attached siblings and children profiles are privacy locked.

I left comments on both profiles about collaboration.

Does the situation need to be addressed ... or ... ignored?

Comments

There is a source, of sorts: “source from myself (son) and things taken off the web.”

If privacy is important, and that is questionable for someone deceased almost 20 years ago, one of two things should have been done:

• Don’t put it on a public website where anyone can see it, or,
• Raise the privacy level to red, so the information cannot be seen.

Answer 1

Hi Jo,

Can you clarify what the problem is? Is there a reason you think the privacy level is inappropriate for the profile(s) and/or offside from Wikitree's privacy policy?

Comments

Matthew, if a profile has biography private then only the trusted list would be able to see that note.  This one, however, has biography public so that the note is meaningless because the information in there is visible to the public.  What Jo said about the conflict between the note on the profile and WikiTree's collaboration policy is very appropriate, since if the biography were private then the only people who would see the note are the trusted list, who should be collaborating on it, which literally means sharing information (that is prohibited by the note).

Jo's problem is not about the privacy level per se, but about the fact that it is preventing the merge from moving forward, since one or both profile managers have apparently not approved the merge.  

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Thanks Gail,

I had missed the fact that the birth and death dates in particular were present in the bio. My thought would be that it would be okay (but not my personal preference!) for a profile manager to not want that info to be shared outside of the trusted list.

As for the merge, my hope would be it's just a matter of giving time for the users to get it executed.

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The merge was proposed a month and a half ago.  That's more than the 30 days allowed for managers of open profiles to approve or disprove merge proposals.

Answer 2

There are a couple of strange things that I see.

1. There are BOTH unmerged match and proposed merge for these 2 profiles.  I didn't even think we could have more than 1 of these at the same time, but I suggest that the unmerged match be removed, since the merge is obviously ready and needed.
2. That note on the one profile about not sharing any information with anyone is also very strange, since the profile is now not orange, but yellow, with biography now public so the entire world can see everything.

I looked at the change pages for 3460 and see that it has already been merged twice in the past (once completed by admin), but I didn't go far enough back to see who created the other duplicates.  I also noticed that the manager of 3460 has not been active in a year.  I also saw that the manager of 4448, which is green, does appear to be active.  It looks like, if the manager of 3460 isn't answering you, it might be time for Unresponsive Profile Manager request.

Answer 3

You might want to check this out: Scot S. Cole

Comments

David, that is clearly not the profile manager of one of these profiles.  That Find a Grave memorial is for a Scot (with 1 "T") Cole who died in 2010 or earlier (based on flowers on the memorial page).  The profile manager, Scott Cole, was active on WikiTree a month ago.

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Gaile, My trusted list request was the start of UPM because the PM, Wes Cole (Cole-34570) had not made any contributions sine July 2022.

The PM for Cole-3460 immediately emailed and added me to the trusted list, which I removed after reading his privacy note. But, after my comment on the profile, now Wes changed the privacy to open.

The other profile (Cole-4448) is still green locked. PM is Cole-4415, last active April 2023.

There are 3 Coles involved in this line of Cole: West, Scott, and Trudy Cole Denis, gg grandaughter.

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Scott merged the profile and left it in an open state.  I just cleared the profile, removing duplicate text and gedcom junk, moving residence into a section and acknowledgements together.  I also removed the privacy statement since the profile was open for editing.

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Thank you, Linda.  It's rewarding to get this problem all straightened out.  I'm hoping the 3 PMs can coordinate on the Cole profiles.