ATTENTION Curators, please assist

Would someone please check for last online philip magnuson
No activity shown and no response to merge requests

Eldon Lester Clark,

November 19, 2011.

Thank you Kevin. He must just be ignoring merge requests then.

Eldon Lester Clark@eldon, You won't get a response on merges from him because he is not PRO. He cannot complete or approve merges since Geni's tiering changes.

Thanks Terry I didn't notice that. I was just looking at activity. I guess my distant cousin will never get merged.

I know frustrating is it not? The recent tier changes had impact on the effectiveness of a pro account as well as limiting Basic users.

If Geni would let us see last online dates again, it would be easier to know what to do and we wouldn't have to ask for curator help for something so trivial. The curators should scream at Geni to change it.

I think the question was asked before why non-curators can no longer see last online dates, and the answer was that there was some sort of security issue. If that were the case, it's odd that you can just list any user here, and a friendly curator will respond quite quickly with that person's last online date. They wouldn't do that it it was really a security issue.

It would be good to get an official Geni response on why non-curators can't see last online date.

re: last on-line security ... It seems to me to be a fuzzy distinction, but there is probably an important legal difference between asking about one person at a time, from a known source (i.e.: we all know who asked!) vs. anonymously "trolling" for unattended logins / users.

Instead of forcing these little tech changes onto everyone in best politbureau style, why not simply provide more options on the shelves of the account settings that might enable the grown ups here to make up their own minds about whether it's a good idea or not to show the last login date? Most would probably understand a checkbox like "Show my last login date publicly" perfectly well. Would it not also manage to dampen the constant corporate fear of accumulating hoards of complaints regarding privacy? Let users themselves be the ones responsible for the opting-in and opting-out of stuff that might be regarded as sensitive/private, perhaps even clearing Geni, Inc. from several judicial headaches in the same process.

I believe it is far better to keep a family tree clean of merges so it maintains it's value as a reference that may help someone else open a new direction of research. How many of us can guarantee our trees to be 100% accurate, especially during the period of the American Revolution. I prefer that my research remain "my research," and that each person verify facts for themselves if they can.

I am in need of the assistance of one of you wonderful curators. Poor Eliza Mary Clegg is linked up with the wrong father and I can't fix it. Her father is Benjamin Clegg

Appreciate the help.

Constance M. Baus -- I respect that point of view ... I personally, however, continually find details and connections via possible merges that I would probably never find out about in any other way ... and most of those *increase* the resulting accuracy of the tree -- particularly when sources are included to point to places of information I either had not discovered or do not have access to myself.

http://www.geni.com/people/Olav-Linno-Po%C3%ABll/6000000000700358965 ... I like the idea of making it an option, but I'm not sure it'll change much in requesting that information. Why? Because I suspect most of the time users would just leave such a setting at the (probably necessary) default of "private".

Private -- moved!

Thanks a bunch Dan!

Dan, options are always nice indeed. But in this case, no one should really have to request such information to be able to do what they need and want on Geni in the first place. And, if the "date" has turned out to be such a business critical security/privacy issue, certainly no curator should assist to manually breach, circumvent or disseminate this information onto a public forum?

The need for such information — i.e.: why do I have to "anonymously troll" or get curator assistance about someones last login time — probably has it's roots in the increasingly and overly complicated parameters, prerequisites and conditions that all have to be met before one is able to initiate/complete a merge at all. The operation is evidently not simple enough as it stands as even 'veteran' Geni users find themselves in predicaments trying to clarify the necessary conditions for successful merging.

Until the jury results from the next round of major Geni developments are in, I suspect curators will find a nice, steady flow of demand for their "jailbreaking" services of the Geni system — to keep stuff workable and more transparent for us regular folks. Well, at least as long as the newly introduced obstacles continue to seem as fun and attractive prospects to waste money and time on, some genealogists are just blessed with a stronger masochistic spirit than others. ;)

Simplify! - And have a nice weekend ...

Ummn... Looking at this, I am thinking that we have here either 2 lines mixed together or 2 generations mixed together... Any opinions?
http://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000001121982469?resolve=6...

Absolutely mixed! The "About" for Hannah even describes the problem which as resulted.

Furthermore, with her father, it looks like it could be a cross-generational merge of two with the same name but 21 years of age difference.

I'd get the Hannah profile sorted out first and see what else shakes out after that. Maybe the curator of that profile can help...

Dan... right... we shall see what happens...

Here's another one, Dan..
http://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000008178253423?resolve=6...

This has appeared in my "requested merges" list... Plainly there is a problem with it.
http://www.geni.com/merge/compare/6000000013239576471?return=merge_...
not going to touch it with a 10 ft. pole!

The error message is clear enough: "Cannot merge this profile with his son"

yep, crystal clear! :-)

That "Fairbanks" clan is a bit cleaner now, but there are a couple of children of George III ( http://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000006445913140 ) and his wives that I've identified could NOT belong to that immediate family because they were born after the wives died ... and they were not referenced in the couple of places I looked to sort out which kid belong to which mother.

That area needs more work ... there are some matches which look "right", and there are some more "kid sorting" still needed for Samuel Leland ( http://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000008518501673 ) ... but I gotta go to dinner now!

I do not understand how to use this program. I seemed blocked all the time from contacting or notifying people who are said to be matches. If we cannot chat then how can we be sure we are actually related. This seems chancey to me. I would never merge families without knowing about the documentation involved or being able to contact and share with the submitters. What am I misunderstanding about this program? It seems like a great work but I'm missing the point I guess becasue I cannot seem to understand how to use this instrument. Thanks, Brenda

Hi, Brenda G Garvin -- one of the things to remember is that the 'matches' that Geni.com automatically finds are really, of course, just possible matches. Furthermore, the "matching" algorithm at the present times seems rather "loose" -- I presume the choice was to err on the side of not missing possible matches rather than only looking for "rather certain" matches.

Secondly, there are many groupings of profiles which were added "in bulk" early in Geni.com's startup years, and (unfortunately) a number of the people which added them are no longer active on Geni. It *is* a source of frustration.

Thirdly, some people have chose to use Geni.com as a nice place to keep their own personal private genealogical tree, and they have no interest in sharing or connecting their tree with any other branches of the "Big Tree".

All this can be a bit frustrating for those who *do* wish to connect and expand into "one family tree" -- as many of us have also experienced!

If you have questions about actually using the features of Geni.com (and you haven't explored it already), you might check out http://help.geni.com/ .

Would someone please check for last online Bjarne Hansen Bonde
No activity shown and no response to merge requests.

Bjarne Hansen Bonde

Hi Gunnar, will report this as an abandoned tree, no activity since June 2008

Gunnar the above tree was reported as being abandoned already, no time-frame for when the records will be released as yet.

Just a thought, but it would be very helpful if the match list showed birth (maiden) names for everyone, and if there was a simple check box that could be used to delete a group at a time. (Currently working through someone with a common name who has over 200 matches, probably none of which are valid.)