Volunteers amending records
There have been two occasions now where the records that I have entered have been changed by other members, not family members. On both occasions it has been a change to a place name. I enter the place names that are validated by Family Search when making the entry and on both occasions the validated place name has been changed to a non validated place name.
On the one occasion where I have seen an error in the information entered by another member, I contacted that person requesting approval to make an amendment and explained why. He agreed. Surely it is a matter of common courtesy to ask the author if his or her information can be amended and providing the reasons why and not to just go about making changes.
This latest incident has created a lot of extra work for me to put the record back to what I originally entered. A flaw in your process I feel.
I don’t agree with your policy of calling on volunteers to alter records.
Many thanks
Best Answer
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If you go to the Places database via the link Alan posted and look at the Citations for the place name you can see that new citations were added on May 9 and May 30. Since someone at FamilySearch was working on that place name so recently, I can well imagine that the place name was updated about that time as well.
That would be one of the advantages with using the place name from the list of standardized versions or the validated name, as you call it. Whenever FamilySearch updates the name, one would hope always in the direction of making it better, that name will change wherever it is used in Family Tree.
Again looking in the Places database here: https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?focusedId=6874738&includeIsParent=true&primaryText=Waikato,%20New%20Zealand&reqParents=374249&reqParentsLabel=Region&reqParentsType=337&reqTypeLabel=Town&reqTypes=376&searchTypeaheadInputText=Search%20Within:Waikato,%20New%20Zealand&pagenum=2&pagesize=20 there are several towns in Waikato that show both an English and Maori name for a town separated by a hyphen. Apparently the Places Authority team has decided that this is a good way to handle these place names. If you disagree, then you can contact that team at placefeedback@familysearch.org and express your concern.
I doubt the Places people have any way to contact every person who has ever used a certain place name when updating the Places database.
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Answers
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I think you must be misinterpreting something that you're seeing, because the only thing on FamilySearch's collaborative Family Tree that can be interpreted as "calling on volunteers" is the "fix placenames" project, and that would neither affect any already-standardized place fields, nor allow you to personally contact the volunteer. Also, it would not make any changes to what you entered: participants simply pick a place from the database where they think the computer should stick the map pin for the placename that the user entered. The user's original entry is not changed, not even to remove stray commas.
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I'm sorry you are incorrect. The place names that I entered, I am referring to the location of photographs that I have posted have been changed and I have had to correct them.
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Are these photographs you have posted in Memories?
I often find that my very distant cousins upload photos to our shared relatives. I can neither edit nor remove. I can only comment.
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In Family Tree, everyone who works to enter and improve information are volunteers, including you. All of us users are just volunteers volunteering our time and skills to improve FamilySearch's Family Tree. Once information is entered, it is not ours anymore. It is theirs.
I will admit to being a bit confused here. Currently no one can edit any information on uploaded photographs or documents, only the person who originally uploaded them. Can you post the URL of an example where you found this editing so that we can see what the problems actually is?
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This is the change I am referring to: Changed from: Tokoroa, Waikato, New Zealand to: Te Kaokaoroa o Pātetere - Tokoroa, Waikato, New Zealand. The latter was never an option when I posted the photos in memories, and I didn't make the change. How has this come about.
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At this time there is no standard place named simply "Tokoroa, Waikato, New Zealand"; the standard place is "Te Kaokaoroa o Pātetere - Tokoroa, Waikato, New Zealand". See https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?focusedId=422210 for the details on this standardized place. As you read the details, it's interesting to note that the simple name Tokoroa is mentioned throughout, except for one note that the Maori name for the place is "Te Kaokaoroa o Pātetere". Perhaps the standard name was changed to the Maori version at some point.
I don't know how it came to be different from what you recall entering; it could conceivably something that happened at the time the data was entered, or as it was saved, or through a subsequent fixup by the Standards Team. I certainly would rule out a change by some other user, for all the good reasons given by others in this thread. Although you may have encountered changes to places being made by other users for events on a person in the past, it is simply not possible for another user to change a place on a photo that you contributed, which is the specific issue you have raised here.
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Thanks Alan. The place name that I entered when posting my photos was Tokoroa Waikato New Zealand or Tokoroa South Waikato New Zealand. Both names were identified as standard place names when I entered them. They have since changed to Te Kaokaoroa o Pātetere - Tokoroa, Waikato, New Zealand and this has occurred only very recently as I consistently log into the site. Having given what has happened, I can only assume that it must have been an administrative amendment and if that is the case, I feel it would have been prudent to have been notified that changes were to about to being made. Sadly, I don't feel my query has been answered, who made the changes, and I don't intend commenting further on this subject.
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