Judy this probably means you already sent them a request to collaborate. Maybe instead of hiding the option on the actions menu, we could show something like "Collaboration request pending" in gray...? ( Michelle Elena Kempner ? )
You find the full message with links to respond in your request inbox which you find in a menu under the colored number to the left of your profile picture in the top right corner of a Geni page.
Here is the direct link: http://www.geni.com/requests
I always merge profiles, my list which was very long (over 200 pages) of merges is now down to 70 pages of merges left. When I merge I also go to the tree and fix conflicts in the tree and merge people who are there. When I finish with all the merges, I will then work on the conflicts of data in each tree, if I can find the correct information.
Collaboration helps with having less conflicts in the tree. At this time I have 41 conflicts in the tree due to managers who don't merge or people whom don't collaborate with me.
If you had read the beginning of this thread you would see that the intent was for people to 'sign up' to be in the pool. If you didn't want to collaborate, you wouldn't post. Discussions about why or why not to collaborate were supposed to be in different discussions. That's why those of us who have been here since the discussion began aren't used to reading posts here - we just assume you're here because you agree with the Big Tree concept and want to contribute to it.
Most of us will have no idea at all whether we're related to you or not - that's why we want to be in the Big Tree. If we're in it, we can see through Geni's relationship program if we are or are not related. Of course, we're all related somehow and that's what Geni is trying to say with building the Big Tree.
Private trees would be better built on another Web site like MyHeritage. Geni was built for collaboration. Think about this: your great-aunt might be 'your' great-aunt but she has other relatives who think of her as 'their' mother, sister, first cousin four times removed, etc. She 'belongs' to them, too. If you go just two or three generations before you, 'your' relatives stop being only yours. That's what Geni is all about.
However I have private information here. I am sick and tried of reading useless information in this Collaboration Pool. The reason I join this website was for my own private tree, not to share with the whole world.., How do i get out of this collaboration pool. I want out now! I like the Geni Website however I can;t even download anymore my family tree to my own private program. This site is getting worse and worse all the time and we have to read everyones comment or about their own trees I could care less.
Dennis Lawrence Blake I suggest you read Marsha's posting above then delete any posts you have made to this discussion. Then go to your list of collaborators and cancel the collaborations.Since you only have 18 it won't be difficult. Also it looks like Geni has plans to go back to the one tree concept so you should download a GEDCOM from Geni and use it with a private program
I kind of think the 'Collaboration Pool' is a good idea. For instance, my Swedish family comes from a small village in the Ukraine, where all 60 families that were forced to move there by the Russians in 1789 are inter-related many times over.
Now we are trying to find these distant cousins, and you never know who you are going to find. You go back even 50-200 years, and you see distant cousins (that may have not known that they were related) marrying that you may have discovered through collaboration.
If you don't collaborate with someone, how are you supposed to locate some of these 'lost' branches you are trying to finish on your tree. Or maybe Ancestry needs to start up a Message board system of its own for Geni Users, like it has for itself?