Locating the changes made by a specific user
I sometimes encounter issues in the tree that were caused by a single user and affected hundreds of individuals that I am not related to. These are usually problems such as over-merging, which takes up most up my research time to correct. There is one user known to have Alzheimer's, and I have carefully been undoing all of his mistakes I can locate.
I recently ran into an issue where someone deleted individuals rather than merging them, stating that they were "Tired of all Familysearch problems". In cases where they couldn't delete an individual, they replaced vital information with "x" or "xxxx". Unfortunately, this can cause their identity to be altered, as can be seen in the changelog of this individual: L5PK-P7K. I would like to be able to locate all of the individuals that got this treatment and correct the error before it causes further confusion. This capability may be reserved to admins, but is there a way to track down all of the changes made by a specific person?
I've just been searching through changelogs, but I worry that I might miss someone and they won't be restored. I can also use the Find person feature and search for "x", but I would still miss deleted individuals and I can't narrow it down in the ways that are most helpful.
Thanks in advance!
Best Answers
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This would fall in the Abuse area so the best thing is to go to the Person page for Maja Greta Matsdotter, L5PK-P7K and make a report there. It goes directly to the correct department that way.
"Report Abuse" in on the right side of the Person page under "Tools". Pretty much across from the "Family Members" section.
Thank you for your efforts to keep the data valid.
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Seconding what @Puzzlefixer advised. It is a repair job for database admins.
In your reason statement state you found widespread vandalism of Family Tree, and likely there is more you cannot find or reasonably repair by hand.
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Please do follow Puzzlefixer's advice, but update us here as to the result of your actions (in reporting this as abuse).
In the past, it appears to have been quite exceptional for FanilySearch employees who receive such reports to actually take any further action. If administrators are now taking action to deal with these serious cases, many of would like to know, so we can feel it worthwhile to click on "Report abuse" when we are confronted with similar issues.
Restoring a damaged family branch can be too overwhelming for even fairly experienced users, so it would be great to know if FamilySearch is now willing to provide some of its limited resources to assist users who meet these issues.
Sadly, in some cases, only sanctions, or even expulsion from FamilySearch / Family Tree, might prove to be the only solution for preventing certain users from vandalising Family Tree.
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Mary
I am just another 'lowly' User/Patron ...
Can I humbly suggest, that in your particular case, that this is the more appropriate, "Knowledge Article" in 'FamilySearch':
How do I report changes or problems made by other contributors?
And, when "Collaboration" fails, in particular, the last sentence:
Where is states:
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If you have questions regarding inadvertent, suspicious or potentially malicious errors in records that you are unable to resolve per the instructions above, contact FamilySearch Support.
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Such is what your QUOTE to 'FamilySearch' "Support", when action is REQUIRED by 'FamilySearch' "Support".
Provide you indicate, that you have tried; and, supply examples of such unsuccessful attempts (eg. "Discussions", and/or, "Messages"; and/or, the like), then 'FamilySearch' really should take action.
[ Well, as implied by that aforementioned "Knowledge Article" in 'FamilySearch' ▬ use it to your advantage ]
Just my thoughts.
I hope this helps.
Brett
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Answers
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Thanks for all the advice! I have never used the Report Abuse feature before, since I prefer to contact the user directly. In this case, it looks like the user stopped using FamilySearch altogether, so I don't think anything would come of it. I'm glad to know when to use this feature, and I'd be interested to know what the FamilySearch admins do in response.
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Hi Mary,
You wanted to know if you report abuse, would you know what FamilySearch Administration does in response. if the user, who reported the abuse, has an email associated with their account, they will get an email. So you will know that the issue has been reviewed, and you are not left of wonder.
We hope this answers your concern.
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When you report the abuse, be prepared for a long wait and much effort on your part. I reported an egregious case recently, with details. A user was changing the names of an entire family to nonsense words, in addition to making wild racist remarks on the profiles, and detaching all the sources.
I had to report multiple times and insist that someone actually take a look at the problem. Some of the errors were eventually corrected but far from all. From when I reported to when action was taken took almost a month.
Just to say - it's not so easy.
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