Deleting my account and contributions

Question

I am already a member, but joined again as a guest member as I  wanted to confirm that Wikitree doesn't actually tell you that once you are in you can never get your contributions, or yourself out again....and that the joining set-up is unclear at best or deliberately set-up to be so obtuse that the automatic response, after having your email address confirmed, is to click the big button further down the page, which makes you a volunteer and not a guest (which is what I did the first time round).

This is little short of getting members under false pretences, as,  if I had been aware that joining WikiTree. locked me and my contributions in forever, BEFORE checking out how to close my account, I'd never have joined in the first place, not even as a guest.

I don't see why I can't delete my account AND my contributions, given that none of them are shared with any other tree. How is it a problem with a collaberative tree if currently there is no collaberation...and there won't be, because I don't intend to add any further generations or any children other than my own direct line?

Comments

If you created profiles for living people and have not added other people to their trusted list they will be automatically deleted if you close your account.

Answer 1

Hello Nancy,

I'm sorry you feel like you were misled. Did you read the Terms of Service when you joined? We link to that when you are first asked for your information in order to create a WikiTree Account. We make it clear there that the information you enter here can then be used as deemed reasonable by the site, which includes not deleting profiles created for people who are past a certain age and will end up being family shared with others. We also encourage new registrants to remain a guest to look around as long as they like, so they understand the community they're joining.

We delete profiles representing living individuals and their private immediate family when an account is closed. If you write info@wiktiree.com, we can help you with closing your account.

Answer 2

There may not be any collaboration with any other members trees at the moment, but people are being added on a daily basis so it would only be a matter of time before anyone else is able to match with the people you have created profiles for

Comments

There is no collaboration as of now...so why can't I delete my profile and contributions BEFORE there is any sharing. I just really hate the whole WikiTree set-up and if I had known of its anal restrictions, rules, regulations and back-patting and badges, I wouldn't have come near the place. It is even more irritating and controlling  than FaceBook

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Well, Anonymous, that's in the eye of the beholder.  I detest Facebook, probably to my disadvantage as so many people use it even for genealogical communications, but am pretty happy with WikiTree.  I don't completely disagree with you that there are some imperfect aspects to the badge system (sometimes providing unhelpful incentives) and that there is maybe a bit too much back-patting, but there are many advantages.  WikiTree does have more accurate information, on the whole, than any other one-world tree.  The opportunity to create beautiful profiles of your ancestors, for free, that you can then share with relatives, is unequaled as far as I know.  Ancestry's format, as one example, doesn't compare.

I'm just not understanding why you're so unhappy with WikiTtee.

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I don't use Facebook either, a dreadful site, I love this site, it is so much better than the other sites, I also use Ancestry, and there are so many errors on there, and it is very easy to follow the wrong branch, and their new system of asking you why you have accepted/rejected a match is extremely annoying, and yes I have informed them of that. I have noticed they have started a "tags" system, I wonder where they got that idea from hmmmm 

Answer 3

Why should you be able to delete every profile you've added?  They are real people, aren't they?  WikiTree makes it clear that it is an effort to build one world tree.  While the policy that no profile, once created, should ever be deleted is a little frustrating sometimes, as with junky profiles created by gedcom uploads with no sources and no relatives, I think it far better than allowing profile creators to act as gods, destroying the profiles of real people who are not only their own relatives, but relatives of others, even if they have yet to join WikiTree.  Why destroy information?

Comments

Why shouldn't I?  I was not aware that was the policy before I INADVERTENTLY joined WikiTree...and frankly I don't see that WikiTree has the right to forbiid me to remove information I have paid good money to confirm. If my relatives are the relatives of others, then why can't they do what I did if they are so interested in creating one world tree...and do the research for themselves?

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I agree with you Julie. They are real people, and everyone who has ever lived should be remembered in some way instead of by a piece of stone in a cemetery. Any profile that no longer has a Profile Manager can be adopted by other members who will add whatever piece of information regarding that person they can find, those created by GEDCOMs and not had any other information added by the person who created them have been looked after by other members who have found the missing information and tidied them up. This way they are all turned from a name back into a person again. No one should ever be forgotten

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Anonymous, maybe they have already researched them, and not yet been able to add them to here yet, I have been here just over 3 years and I still have about another 9,000+ people to add

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How does one inadvertently go through the steps of joining WikiTree?

You are probably not the only one who has paid to learn about your ancestors.  There are probably others, your relatives though maybe distant relatives, who have paid good money to learn about the same ancestors you've added to WikiTree, and if they join WikiTree, they will likely add to the profiles you've created.

By the way, if you are paying Ancestry, for example, for a subscription, you can delete your tree, but I believe everything you've ever added to a profile will live on in their hint system as well as the trees of anyone who has copied your profiles and thus be available to all their other subscribers too.  Once you put something on the internet, whether you've paid for it or not, you don't often get to just delete it, and that shouldn't be a new lesson in 2019.

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I find it interesting that Anonymous said they 'paid good money'!!  You didn't pay ANY money to use the wikitree site!!  If you did your research on some sites, you don't have to pay anything.  If you did pay on other sites, then you had to 'willing' pay for that information, but your research on wikitree did not cost you anything!!

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But you can't really research on WikiTree.  You can see what others have done, but to do research, you have to go somewhere that has archives, like Ancestry (at a cost) or FamilySearch (free).

Answer 4

Hello, Nancy,

If you did not know when you signed up that user generated content becomes the property of the site, it is because you did not read the Terms of Service prior to volunteering. This is pretty standard policy for websites that allow user generated content of any type, and is a very good reason not to just skip past those pesky ToS links and acceptance check boxes on any website you create an account on  You accepted these terms when you signed up whether you read them or not  

5. Ownership and Use of Content

License to Interesting.com in User Content.By posting User Content on the Website, you grant, and agree to grant, Interesting.com a license to use, copy, distribute, display, perform, and transmit the User Content you post in connection with Interesting.com's (and its successors' and affiliates') business. You also hereby grant each user of the Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the Website, and to use such User Content as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service. The licenses granted by you in this Section 5 in User Content are non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicenseable, and transferable.