Have the rules changed re: Curators Merging Private profiles?

In http://help.geni.com/entries/487543-What-are-Curators-
it states, vis a vis the powers it lists for Curators, that
"Each of these privileges also contains safeguards to make sure that they are not used irresponsibly, even by accident." -
BUT nowhere do I see where we users are told what these safeguards are.

What would be considered "irresponsible" versus - acting responsibly, but just inadvertently goofed/merged something that shouldn't have been merged, or whatever?

If a Curator has completed merges without being asked to do so by a Family Member -- is that acting irresponsibly?

In
http://help.geni.com/entries/23231182-What-permissions-do-Curators-...
it states:
"Curators only use these permissions when they receive a specific request for help from a user."

Is a user clicking on "Request Merge", at the bottom of compare profiles for a match Geni suggested count as "a specific request for help from a user"???

Yes, - a blue (+) in tree view is a stored request, telling that one or more people with access to one side of the request have approved the merge.

We should however check if the one of them have that profile within the family group, which means that the merged profile will be within the family group as well.

Sometimes a curator may be entering a private area in a merge chain and there is a dilemma for us, - should we complete the merges we started on higher up and leave the private area below in a giant chaos of parent conflicts no others might be able to solve, or should they just follow the chained merge suggestions generated by Geni to clean up?

That's well put Bjorn. I noticed that happened to me yesterday. It's a sensible thing to have in the programming but it took me by surprise too.

A Curator has been busy recently merging a number of sets of Private Profiles in my Max Extended Family.

And when I asked him:
"Do Curator Guidelines still supposedly require Curators to only merge Private Profiles (outside their own Max Extended Family) when someone in the Max Extended Family of the Profile requests it, or what are the Current Guidelines?"

He responded by saying:
"no, the guidelines (as they currently stand) do not require that managers initiate or request merges. I believe that changed once the World Family Tree was started."

I never asked him anything about managers - clearly he has no concept of what I was talking about.

Do Curator Guidelines still require Curators to only merge Private Profiles (outside their own Max Extended Family) when someone in the Max Extended Family of the Profile requests it, or what are the Current Guidelines?

(It is over a year since the last comment from others above - and especially given that a Curator had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned it - time to ask again).

One of the recommendations is that we should avoid leaving unresolvable merge conflicts, which means that after a single merge we should follow up all subsequent merges since they often involves private, even user profiles, so yes: we can end up doing merges even on your own profile if that is needed to clean up conflicts.
So far this has been a success and most of the reactions we get are thank you's.

Private User - I posted that question because I had a Curator say he was not aware of any such Guidelines. [see my first post of the day]

Being unaware of any such Guidelines is very different from being aware of a situation where there may be an exception.

May I forward the conversation I refer to in my first post of the day to you and him, and will you then enlighten him? Or should I tag him here? Or should I forward the conversation to Mike? Or?

Is it correct to say that

Curator Guidelines require Curators to only merge Private Profiles (outside their own Max Extended Family) when someone in the Max Extended Family of the Profile requests it -- with an exception for when a single merge, done according to Geni guidelines, results in needed follow-up merges that extend to Private Profiles in someone's Max Extended Family?

It would be a bit more accurate as:

"... -- with an exception for when a merge of Public profiles, done according to Geni guidelines, result in needed follow-up merges that extend into Private Profiles in someone's Max Extended Family."

Since my note about the guidelines in June last year we have received clarifications from Geni about the dilemma I wrote about follow-up merges then. The instruction is clear: All follow-up merges, even down to user profiles can be followed up. That is why we are curators: Having the access, permission and tools to do that. We should not just be "merge monkeys" in public areas, - any Pro user can help with that, and we really appreciate all who helps with that, giving more time for curators to resolve conflicts where curator access is needed.
However: We are not so many curators that dare to go close onto users with merges because of reactions from a few users, even if that is why we are curators. My experience is however mostly thank-you's, - you solved conflicts that has been hanging for years. In general we also leave most data conflicts to the family/profile managers to deal with. They should know best what is correct values.

A Curator recently merged a set of 5 Profiles - husband is my blood kin -- Curator merged the husband and wife - both born 1965 and their three children, born 2006, 2008, and unknown - all still alive -- the Curator merged profiles I added with Profiles managed by someone who was blood kin of the wife - but who shows as "Abandoned Tree", so he did not recently request the Merge.

Moreover, my merge center had shown no hanging requested Merges for any such Profiles. (I check it every few days). "Our" side had not built out any Profiles on the wife's side, his had not built out any on the husband's side -- so no way was this a needed follow-up merge.

If no Family on either side requested this merge (and as I said, it was not needed as follow-up clean-up of any other merge!) would it have been inappropriate for the Curator to have done it?

Or is it considered appropriate for a Curator to do a merge simply because either he saw it in the Suggested Merges, or noticed it for some other reason

Just can't satisfy some people can you.. I trust Bjorn and dan and erica when they say MOST if not all of the curators know what they are doing and follow the rules.. why they didn't have the courtisty to say this is what i am doing is this ok I don't know but....

If any merges are incorrect, or you can't fix any resulting incorrect data - ask the one who did them.

Correct me if i am wrong dan but i thought merge process required two people? am I missing somthing here if so I apolgize to the hard to please lois but if she could send in a screen shot of it to mike because if the 2nd person isn't getting a merge request with info that says do you aprove of this or not then we have a problem i thought that was supposed to be the case then we have a issue here.

Lois, - as I have said several times: Yes, curators can and should do those merges as a result of a merge chain. The duplicates that started it could be much higher up, - where each merge could result in some conflicts that should be followed up (a chained merge where the goal is not leaving any conflicts). Those merge conflicts usually exist just a few seconds from the last merge to the next, so you would never see them in your merge center.

Secondly you should also remember that merges you already have requested does NOT show up again in your merge center, - you have for example 20 of them now.

Bjorn - 1) If Merges I have requested do not show up in my Merge Center, where Can I find a list of them??
--You say I have 20 currently, and I am not aware of any - so definitely want to know!! (Why in heavens name does Geni not show those as Requested Merges in the Merge Center? -- Moreover, I do not believe I was ever told - and certainly do not recall ever being told this before -- can you give a link to where Geni tells us this (or where I was told it?).

2) How can you possibly refer to what I have described as being part of a Merge Chain? Once one of those 5 was merged, yes, the rest would follow - but I can not see how any of those five can possibly follow as a result of any merge chain [as I thought I spelled out above].

you can lead a person to knowledge but you can't make em understand it

Merges you have requested that are not yet completed show up under "Requested mergers" / "Requested by me".
Merges you have *approved* that have not yet been completed show up nowhere.

Thank u harld. maybe that will stop the gripe fest from her.
have you had a chance to look at my nordic tree?

When clearing up a merge and surrounding areas, I routinely complete all nearby merges that are 1) obviously correct and 2) requested in 2012 and before, even if they don't immediately touch tree conflicts.

For newer mergers, I want to give family first crack at resolvong them. But I have thought about moving my limit up to 2013 or so.

@mccann unfortunately have been too busy in the (few) weeks I've spent at home since the summer so far. It's on my TODO list....

that's ok. Most of it you have down pat anyway on your family line Only one or two supprises in the next page...

re: "Merges you have *approved* that have not yet been completed show up nowhere." - What does this refer to?

Thought either the Option shown was "Yes, request to merge" if approval was needed by "the other side" or else Approve - in which case it went thru and the Profiles were merged.

Is there a third category?

Private User - Found the button, clicked it -- it shows 1 Requested by Me, not 20 as you reported above -- did you misspeak, or are there 19 it is failing to show me??