Poor Volunteers
Please stop letting volunteers make incorrect entries. Collaboration and help is great but when they are clueless they make you global tree forever flawed and inaccurate.
Frustrated user
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FS seems committed to the open-edit model. As you may know, they are sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Members of the church use the tree to perform "ordinances" on their deceased relatives. For this to work smoothly, they need to be able to change details and add people quickly.
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You have raised similar points in your previous posts here.
As explained, Family Tree is an open-edit program, available for use by both experienced users and those who, quite frankly, don't have a clue about what they are doing, or the implications of their poor inputs.
Many of us here suffer similar problems. If we feel the benefits of using Family Tree outweigh the negatives, we persevere by correcting the errors that appear in our branches of the universal Tree and carrying on. Otherwise, some have found the best option is to leave, and maintain their records purely in their own, private databases.
Either way, nothing about the Family Tree format is going to be subject to any radical change for the foreseeable future, in spite of our frustrations about the careless work of inexperienced users.
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Not entirely impossible - view my suggestion for restricting open-edit. You are correct that Familysearch would need to choose a restricting path which would be a departure from the current open-edit model in operation. Is it likely - no - but always good to have suggestions/options.
Ordinances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have no effect on vital records or other sources attached (Details) to persons in the Tree.
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I AGREE that NO ONE should be able to make changes to our Trees except the person who has built the Tree. I expect info to be provided so that I can make the choice to add to my Tree. If proof is provided I have not had access to or reconized to date I very much appreciate it but it should still be MY choice to add this info or further delve into the info provided to satisfy that I have the documentations of proof the changes or additions need to be made. I seldom return to this site as I am very disappointed in every time I do return there are additional additions I never added myself and when I send a request for removal nothing changes. I would NOT at this point recommend this site to anyone.
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I was not talking about attached records, but about persons in the FSFT.
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@JackieMcJunkin , no one owns any information in the FSFT. There is no "my tree" It is an open-edit tree that aims to build a single tree for all humanity. There are plenty of websites and software packages that allow you to build a personal tree owned by you, if the FSFT doesn't work for you.
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I am volunteer. I share the frustration of the OP about people making incorrect entries. In my experience not all of these are entirely the fault of the user. Quite often it is easy to see that the user followed a system generated 'Hint". These are very often more trouble than they are worth. I have developed my own technique of reviewing such hints which involves opening items in new tabs and trawling through the source data and relationships to confirm or exclude the hint. The way I work is probably not the way that you would work, and it is probably too confusing for a less database-oriented indivdual. Also, it is labour intensive to drill down to the child record in a baptism to confirm the data that is not on display when the hint is presented. In my opinion it is a serious flaw that the "hint" is so easy to click on.
There are also many sources of error within the records themselves. Transcription errors occur at all stages. Sometimes the original document is actually wrong. Sometimes a section of information is missing due to a database error. Whatever the reason, it is very difficult to make a connection with absolute certainty if the content conflicts. In these cases, the only option is to exclude all the other candidates who could possibly be the person of interest until only one remains. This is very time-consuming and intensive and is beyond the level of dedication available from the ordinary user. It is easy to see that a keen but inexperienced person might follow a connection without considering that it might be wrong at its source.
If I locate an obvious error, I try to contact the person who entered the data. I request a change. Whenever I can, I will provide the relevant correct information, and ask that they consider it. Quite often it is well-received. Sometimes I just get stuck in and repair the damage because it's quite apparent that the mess was not intentional. I leave notes to explain why I have made the changes so that others can comment or improve upon my work.
While FS exists as a freely accessibly system there will always be novices using it. The novices who will learn the most are likely to be those who make the most mistakes.
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Over time you will see a lot of "newbies" here. Most are well meaning. I made mistakes when I was just starting too. Even made people upset. Heck, I still make mistakes, but now I know how to clean up my messed. With some encouragement these people will become pros as well. We need to teach them, not ban them.
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