I really love Wikitree.com and it has been a joy plugging in our family's tree into the universal tree. With our goal of connecting users to their already established person profile I think we should revisit the invitation template and a screening step for a new user to see if there is already a person profile for them.
For the invitation template: The current template leads off with the first line saying <name> has invited you to create a password on <hyperlink for WikiTree: The Free Family Tree> so that...
And later in the email there is the LONGER more specific link for the actual invitation....
But if the fast new user who is expecting the invitation that their cousin told them quickly follows the FIRST hyperlink then they get to the homepage which they see a BIG GREEN BUTTON that says "get started" and they start entering their information and now they create a duplicate person profile that will either need to be deleted or merged later. The suggested solution is to rewrite the template to have more informational links well after the invitation link.
My second suggestion would be that IF someone does push. the "get started" button, types in their name at birth and location that instead of just creating the profile, screen to see if there is already a profile like the system does when creating new relatives and prompt a review of the matches:
1 Possible Matches for <person's login>
[show/hide advanced search options]
Living <last name> 1980's Privacy Level: Unlisted (Black) <last name>-12 managed by <profile manager>
If the "new user" realizes that that IS their profile it could prompt a confirmation email to the profile manager to confirm... instead of having the person create duplicate.
Thanks for your consideration of either of these ideas,
Neil Crittenden
