Put sources in chronological order on the merge page to make comparison easier.
When I am comparing two people on the merged/compare set up, the sources are not in chronological order and it makes it harder to compare the people sources. It would be very helpful to have the sources in chronological order to compare when considering a merge.
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If I have any doubt about the likelihood of two IDs referring to the same individual, I find it far better to open the profiles - especially Sources pages - in separate tabs. If necessary, I then arrange the sources to the same order (for both individuals), but not necessarily chronologically. Comparisons are probably best made from the Details and Sources pages, rather than trying to work things out directly in the merge process.
If other users were to look at the records I have worked on they would find detailed comments in the Collaboration sections, as to how the different "James Young" (or whatever named) individuals are definitely not the same person, or whether further evidence is required to confirm they are the same individual. In the case of the latter, maybe another user has come across information not available to me that does confirm a merge should now be made.
My personal worry (expressed elsewhere) is that the Merge page might make it seem easy to make a decision on whether to go ahead, without looking at details that can only be properly examined from the Profile pages. There are already far too many identities that have been conflated by a careless merge, instead of the IDs being left separate unless there is 100% evidence they are a match.
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I agree with Paul: the merge screens are not where you should be making your decision. Merge should only ever be invoked once the equivalence of the profiles has been firmly established.
Yes, I know, the way that possible duplicates are presented in the research help box actively encourages the incorrect course of action and discourages the correct one. I do not understand the intent behind this arrangement; perhaps it assumes a better merge process, offering full visibility into both profiles and all of their relations? Unfortunately, the current tool is very far from that: it doesn't show reason boxes, it sorts people and sources apparently-randomly, and it completely hides even the existence of the collaboration and memories sections. It is therefore completely unsuited to making any sort of comparison; it's barely suited to confirming that you've got the correct two profiles.
As I said recently on another thread, the whole point of merging is that the profiles are for the same person. They are therefore definitionally very similar and hard to tell apart, and the way they're presented in the merge tool only exascerbates that.
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I agree with Paul and Julia; I always compare the 2 (or more) profiles separately before clicking Review Merge. My multiple monitor set-up is very useful for that.
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