How can I get a list of my Watchlist profiles in Last Modified Date Order?

Question

I wish to review the earlier prepared profiles on my Watchlist to upgrade them to my more recent standards. The Watchlist Edit Date doesn't do this. The more appropriate date that reflects my older work appears to be the Last Modified date on the individual profiles.

For example the profile Brown-93691 shows " Last modified 24 Jul 2019" but my Watchlist Edit date currently shows Dec 2, 2023.This latter date has nothing to do with the work I am doing.

How can I get a list, like my Watchlist that will achieve this to help me prioritise my work.

Answer 1

If you go on your watchlist and there on the namings of the table columns (Name/Birth...) and click on "Edit Date", the watchlist should change either to the profile that is the oldest edited or the newest edited. If it is the oldest edit, click once more to change it to the newest edit.

Comments

As I see it, this is not correct. As I am trying to explain, the Edit date shown on the watchlist shows a much later date which is not related to the Last modified date shown on the profile. I am only interested in the Last modified date which appears to relate to the last work I have done on the profile.

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There may have been another edit after your last edit, such as a change in templates/stickers (which, annoyingly, updates all the profiles using that template/sticker and ruins your Last Edit column). Or somebody else may have made an edit.

There is no way to limit the 'Last Edited' column to just your own last edit.

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Again, I don't believe that is correct.

Both of the dates were taken on different screens at the same time and, have persisted for at least two days. It seems to me that each date represents different events and, if you have a look will probably be as indicated. They are also labelled differently as shown in my initial description (with actual copies of dates) in my initial description.

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I have checked the profile, and it has been updated because of this conversation. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that, in my initial description, the dates shown were actual copies of the date shown in the profile and that shown in my Watchlist. In fact, my watchlist still shows Dec 2, 2023!! 

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From the discussion above, I guess I am trying to ascertain if the dates labelled differently as 'Last modified' on the profile and the Watchlist 'Edit' column come from the same source.

It is possible, obviously, but that seems to me to be unlikely given the experience that I have had many times over many months of the watchlist edit date being later than the profile's last modified date. In all cases that I have noticed, the profile date has usually been related approximately to the date I last worked on the profile (maybe precisely), and the Watchlist date is related to something that happened later. I have noticed this many times and assumed that the date on the watchlist reflects the many changes, other than my editing work, that are regularly occurring because of other events.

At the moment, the profile date almost immediately reflects this conversation, and that's probably because this conversation is related to that profile, even though I have used it only as an example of many similar experiences. My Watchlist doesn't yet, possibly because it may be updated less frequently.

However, that is opposite to the usual experience where the profile date is much earlier than the Watchlist date.

The profile date usually doesn't change very often. It usually doesn't change until I actually do an edit. In this case, it was on 24 Jul 2019 until we had this conversation.

That very strongly suggests that the dates may come from a different origin.

In any case, it does matter a lot to me. All I am trying to do is say that if they do come from different sources, then it would be much more useful to editors if the Watchlist used the date that appears to reflect the editor's work, so it would be easier to prioritise revision work. Prioritising editing of content I do believe to be important because it does affect the reader's experience.

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John, I think each profile may have both a last modified date and a last tracked changed date. These are often but not always the same. That may have something to do with the problem.

Sorry but there may be no way to get what you want, unless WikiTree Plus has some way of interrogating both those dates. Try editing your question and adding the tag

 ales 

in case Aleš Trtnik can suggest something.

Answer 2

You might like to have a look at https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1483085/watchlist-changes-last-date-saved.

The good news from that thread is that the WikiTree development team agrees that changing the Watchlist to show the date the profile was last saved would be more useful than the Edit Date shown on there at the moment. The not quite so good news is that it doesn't yet seem to have made it to the top of the development list (it's a long list and only a small development team). 

Unfortunately the bad news is that the fact they are considering a system change suggests to me that there is not currently an easy way of getting the last modified dates for all the profiles on your Watchlist.

Comments

Thanks Paul, That's very helpful