Curators: Please make this profile a Master Profile

Like I said, I give up.

Perhaps it would removed some of the burden off of official Curators if we, ourselves, were allowed to MP, lock, and curate certain profiles that have definite meaningful importance for us personally (i.e our direct ancestors up to a specific level (~20 generations, 2nd cousins), and all profiles we have personally created. Just a suggestion.

Private User,

That's not going to happen.

Kevin

Private User

It might be helpful to have an example to follow:

Dr. Ezra Elwood Kelsey, D.V.M.

There is an obituary in the about section, and nine good sources that verify his information, all properly footnoted. Sources are very important if disputes arise. While MPs may be done for a variety of reasons the profile should always be well documented. Hope this helps.

The only reason for me to ask for a profile to be Mp, is because I now have 14 pages of profiles to fix, mostly after that other people have done mergings, I fix it by selecting facts and figures entered by me the first time, making it green, and send it, done, because I'm right, exact and more accurate than most of the others in these cases, but I don't like to do things twice, and known profiles, seems to sooner or later draw more attentions, higher risc that other will cretae them, merge them etc.

I want to avoid errors, and often crappy half hearted made profiles done by people not really skilled in anything at all, but the seek for having themself as profile managers on more or less famous people. I feel sorry for the low level on many profiles created by them, and also for the wellknown profiles hijacked and kept private for reason obscure, as for example wellknowed actors, deceased, but not made public because they want to keep the profiles for themself EVEN though they are often NOT direct related at all.

One Example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Wollter
Managers not responding at all.

Sven Wollter

Thank you, Linda Zimmerman

Keri Denise Jackson, ♊ Twin "A" I’ve been on Geni since 2007 and have not MPd my entire tree. For much of it there’s no particular reason to do so. I “do” MP along family lines, looking for the well documented, the complete, and the easily confused. In other words, I try to use the same criteria as described.

Private User I often look at your MP requests as part of the point of this discussion is to share - show off our good work. And I applaud yours ! We also have exchange projects when we think someone more suited could re curate in the future.

Private User curator rights are super user rights into the software and we sign contracts aimed first and foremost at protecting member privacy, so it wouldn’t work. Perhaps in the future there would be a “user way” developed by Geni to “protect” data fields without other rights.

What I would ask is that everyone develop profiles and trees to make them the best possible.

And also — I’m very proud of member efforts in the world family tree, and consider it an honor to support that work.

Private User, I understand your frustration, and I'm trying to find a Swedish curator to help. I'm assuming most/all are asleep, so hopefully someone will reply tomorrow.

I got this! I'm going to work directly with folks that want to MP profiles. There is a certain point.... that unless you PERSONALLY go into the archives of the states, that you are just not going to find additional information on certain profiles. Primarily those (in the US) prior to !790s. At that point they need to be locked.

Folks have put a lot of work into there profiles, And they don't want to see them screwed up, over and over again. I have seen this many times. I don't mind being asked to open a profile for a merge or edit, where i can work with the requestor to verify that there edits are GOOD. For the next 20 Yrs I will will be here ALMOST daily to work with this.

For folks that want to MP's Please be Patience I don't want to lose anyone..

LSZ

Jessica Marie German you did splendid work on that example, and I agree it presents a fine model for those of us (like me) who are still learning.

Private User I'm sure many of us share your concerns.

Erica Howton "...curator rights are super user rights into the software and we sign contracts aimed first and foremost at protecting member privacy, so it wouldn’t work. Perhaps in the future there would be a “user way” developed by Geni to “protect” data fields without other rights."

Thank you so much for clarifying and courteously explaining the issue. And although I don't quite understand why curators should even need "super user rights" or access to the "software" which might risk endangering "member privacy" (requiring oaths and signed "contracts", apparently) -- I will simply take your word for it. Sounds like you're telling us it is currently the only way to get the job done, and I believe you.

Linda Zimmerman you all are wonderful, and I am very patient. No hurry, no worries. :D

Debra, Geni has I believe five (maybe six?) employees, only two of whom are customer service staff, and none of whom are professional genealogists. Back in the early days, those poor staff members were asked by users to mediate all genealogical disputes, field research questions, and otherwise spend a *lot* of time handling genealogy issues when that's not really their purpose. Imagine if every time someone needed a merge undone or help finding a birth record, they had to ask an engineer. It wasn't good, for anyone. :)

In September 2010, Geni decided to do what a lot of websites do (including Ancestry) and provide a small number of users with some extra capabilities to help relieve the burden. Erica was in the very first group of curators; I was asked in January 2011. Geni was like the Wild West back then, with no relationship locking, no field locking, constant bad GEDCOM uploads, etc. But by having curators, Geni now had people who knew how to use tools like that, and also how to follow genealogical practices.

So most of the things users today rely on and take for granted -- MPs, locks, even these discussion boards -- are only possible because curators exist.

And you can't give everyone curator tools, because imagine the chaos. Imagine all the reverts and edit wars and duplication that would occur if everyone could lock things, everyone could revert merges, etc. It would be like that old Wild West Geni, just wilder. :)

We do our best to help everyone. We know we can't meet everyone's needs, but we really do try.

Sorry, final thought:

Someone mentioned that curators often MP profiles we manage. True! But remember: you're asked to become a curator in large part because you're already making MP-worthy profiles, with lots of citations and nice formatting and tidy data fields. So it makes sense that those profiles would be more likely to get MPed than profiles that are incomplete, aren't cited, have low-quality citations, etc.

And even with our own profiles, we still only MP a tiny percentage. For example, I would argue that William Holbrooke Paisano, II is better than a lot of the profiles that get posted here -- it's clean, it has several sources, the sources are varied (vitals, military, BIA, etc.), the surrounding tree is good quality -- but I haven't bothered MPing it because it frankly doesn't need it. But I *did* MP my great-great-grandfather who had the exact same unusual name and title as another man from his state, with whom he is continually confused, including on Geni.

Users might see that as giving preference to a relative; other curators would see it as prioritizing which profiles really need MP status and protections. Nothing is going wrong with William's profile, but my great-great-grandfather has like five different birth dates on different sites and needs the extra support. So we make judgment calls like that about how to best use our time, even with profiles we manage ourselves.

Thank you everyone. Thank you very much Linda Zimmerman. I would love to work with you as I believe we have many relatives in common. :)

Could a Finnish curator look this over, please? I put it up for MP back on 10/11 and not sure what happened. He is quite well-known.

Aleksis Kivi

Perhaps Reijo Mitro Savola, Geni Curator ? Thank you!

I made Anna Greta Wide MP. Even if I am not a Swede, and by no means an expert on Swedish genealogy, I am still able to easily find & add a primary reference to to the birth record. So I expect the requested profiles to have this too. I MP profiles mainly beqause of great quality, but that we curators have to provide the quality, I strongly disagree to.

Unfortunately I have had to become selective in what I MP, because if someone asks a question they reasonably expect the curator to be able to answer it.

The Aleksis Kivi contains a lot of information but is a bit messy. Please, clean it up and I'll MP it.

Private User I totally disagree that curators have to provide the quality. What is the job of a curator if not to clean up and make improvements wherever necessary? Otherwise why even have curators at all and not just people that are capable of locking fields, disconnecting profiles incorrectly, etc ? That sounds like most people. I view curators as great people who volunteer to help others whenever it is needed who also represent Geni and can make all the difference in whether someone stays with Geni as a paying customer and/or leaves and spends their time on other sites. I personally believe we are all responsible for the tree not just curators which is why I put in a lot of work and money on all the sites I have memberships on (including Geni) . A lot of my relative's records were destroyed during/after the American Civil War (Southern US) so it poses a unique problem for me and others. Some curators have more experience with this than I do. I usually learn something new everyday. :)

Keri Denise Jackson, ♊ Twin "A",

It is up to you to give us a good clean profile to MP and not for us to clean it up.

Kevin

Thank you, Private User. I will work on it this weekend. It isn't my profile, but I do agree that it can use some sprucing up. I will take care of it based on your permission. Susanne

Kevin Lawrence Hanit I did not say anything about a cleaning up a profile. Please re-read what I said. Thank you.

Keri Denise Jackson, ♊ Twin "A" - Keri, I think we’re still having a bit of a conceptual issue.

Just think a minute on what I, as a curator on many of your lines, can do for you, and what I can’t. Because just me / curators, who can do certain things - but many, many things that you, as a PRO member, can do.

And what “mission” is.

As Ashley mentioned, I (and Lasse, and 13 others - we’re the “second batch” of curators, Ashley is “third batch”) have been doing this since 2010. In that time Geni has grown from say 150K connected profiles to say 1.5 million connected profiles.

How does that happen and what is the core curator right? The MP (master profile). In my view, “two MPs cannot be merged together.”

As we like to say, “all else is commentary.”

We need to be able to support what we curate. If it’s a simple stub and a messy tree that “anyone” can clean up - we ask members to do so. Not curators. Once that’s done, and profiles are self evident, “then” we can support. But not before. So please, have sympathy. :)

Erica Howton I have sympathy and respect for what you do. I appreciate the that I have and do receive from all of you. I do a lot so I understand how much work it takes. I'm not an expert and I am still learning. :)

Sorry I forgot the word help.

We’re all learning, all the time. That’s what’s great about genealogy.

Marine Lorphelin, Miss France 2013
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Lorphelin
Miss France 2013.

Thanks a lot

I kinda stayed out of this discussion on MPs, but here is an example of something that I think besmacks (made up word, I think) what several curators have mentioned and is a good reason to consider asking for an MP. I posted this on my Floyd Family FB page:

"A sweet lady in Alabama contacted me about Frederick II's Find a Grave memorial as she is his 3 x great grand niece, descendant of his brother Samuel Floyd who married Ava Jane Nichols (from the Nichols family of Nichols) and moved to Simpson County, Mississippi back in the 1830s.

"Martha" has cleared up some confusion on the Samuels. Brothers Frederick Hardee, James Rowland, Moses, and Samuel all had a son named Samuel. All but Moses had a son named Frederick. Three of the brothers had sons named James. It has been a bit of a nightmare trying to sort them out. Sometimes it has been easier if I could find the name of a wife or wives if married more than once. So here is the breakdown in case you want to know -

Frederick the son of Frederick Hardee Floyd was our ancestor and lived on the Lumber River in SC.

Frederick the son of James Rowland Floyd moved to McNairy, Tennessee.

Frederick the son of Samuel Floyd moved to Mississippi (though I am still hunting him down for confirmation).

Samuel the son of Frederick Hardee Floyd moved to Simpson County, Mississippi.

Samuel the son of James Rowland Floyd seems to have stayed in Horry County, though this has not been confirmed. He was named in J. R.'s will.

Samuel the son of Samuel Floyd lived his life in Marion County, SC.

Samuel the son of Moses Floyd was named in Moses' will, but nothing more is known of him or can be deciphered from the plethora of Samuels.

James the son of James Rowland Floyd lived his life as the Rev. James Roland "Jimpsey" Floyd in Floyds Township, Horry County, SC.

James the son of Frederick Hardee Floyd existed and is named in the estate, but little is known yet - still hunting him down for his whereabouts.

James the son of Samuel Floyd moved to Smith County, Mississippi.

Most of the "great migration" to Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, or other western states occurred after the War of 1812 when the English, French, and Spanish were run out and native populations moved westward. I have been able to find Floyds in all those states and they are connected to us. It was nice "meeting" a new cousin.

By the way - Brother Francis Floyd seems to have skipped a generation of naming his children for his brothers, but his grandchildren and the succeeding generations of the other brothers remembered the name "Francis" to recent times and picked up the other names as well. Great Uncle Howard Floyd who died on the operating table as a young man from a ruptured appendix was Francis Howard Floyd."

The above post gives me a reason to consider some MPs, but I still have not gotten them all straight yet. Once I do, I will talk about it with a curator. I appreciate all that everyone is doing to make the tree straight. It is a thing of beauty. Happy Thanksgiving!

Private User,

Request has been sent off for you to accept.

Kevin

Susanne Floyd, not sure if I'm understanding "besmacks," but that's definitely a scenario where we'd MP. :) People who are routinely confused, especially due to sharing names and close proximity, are often clear candidates for curation.

In 1600s Connecticut, there were two men named George Hubbard, both born one year apart and dying one year apart. They each had children named Samuel, Joseph, Elizabeth. Mary, and George. Both were involved in colonial proceedings. And for most of their lives, they lived within 15 miles of each other. So you bet they and their children are MPed -- plastered with notes, and in several cases fully locked -- due to how many times I had to disentangle them.

And yet people still duplicate them all the time, and they still get their info mixed up. Sigh. :) But at least the MP protections mean I don't have to constantly repair those lines anymore!

So when you're ready with your Floyds, we'll be ready to MP.

Working on them slowly, Ashley. I don't know it it is something to others to consider, but I've set up a Project for the Floyd Boys and enter them and their descendants as I come across them or invite the profile managers to add them.

https://www.geni.com/projects/Floyd-Family-of-Horry-Marion-and-Dill...

I am hopeful that one day, the project will be a "go to" place to see how they may best sort and where there are gaps and/or connections. I have the added joy of being directly descended from Brothers Frederick and Francis so I'd like to see it as right as it can be. Thanks for the offer and I will take you up on it when I can get everything ready.