Heartbroken
Answers
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile I'm just now seeing your post and am absolutely devastated for you. To have over a decades worth of work demolished like that is criminal.
I had a similar thing happen some years ago, where every six months or so the same contributor would make sweeping changes to an entire family lineage, against all evidence, and wouldn't hear about it because "she had published books on the family". It only stopped because, well, she died. Fortunately in my case that particular branch is closely monitored by dozens of contributors so the clean up was shared.
I'm sure it feels insurmountable right now, and I completely understand if it just feels like a lost cause, but I wonder, if official channels aren't going to help resolve it, maybe we in the community can help.
Perhaps wait a little bit for this hurricane of an individual to move on, check to see if they're following any of these profiles (hopefully they're not), and then post a list of the profiles which have been affected. You may not be following all of them, but I imagine you'd be across a good number.
If we, as a community, could all take on even a couple of profiles each to help restore, I'm sure we could make more than a dent in the damage.
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Thanks, Rani. Unfortunately the other guest is following my entire family now. Not just the County Tyrone branch about which they are extremely territorial, but both my maternal and paternal family, all the way down to my parents and even my stepmother. It's quite creepy. The two great aunts that were merged are not even part of the County Tyrone branch.
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Oh no! That's very creepy and, if it doesn't meet FS standards of abuse, it's certainly in the territory of stalking and harassment. In light of that, I wonder if changing tack is the way to go. Rather than reporting them for abusing the information within the profiles themselves, report them for targeted harassment of you via your contributions and deceased family members. Surely FS are held to a certain level of duty of care?
By what you've described, it sounds to me like they are in breach of Terms of Use: Collaboration with Others - paragraph 3, and FamilySearch Content Submission Agreement: section 5 Accuracy of Contributed Data, and section 6 Sensitivity to Other Users.
This goes far beyond a disagreement in the accuracy of vital details.
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I completely agree with the comments of most of the posters above including @RaniM .
I ask the moderators to state the options for @Áine Ní Donnghaile to request her abuse to be forwarded "up the line" for review. To me , it does seem to be abuse, even though Family Search Support appear to have dismissed this.
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Thanks, all, for the support.
The branch where this all started, my 2nd great-grandparents, from County Tyrone, has dwindled to a tiny nuclear family. There are very few descendants, and I know them - they are my paternal 1st cousins, and not interested in genealogy. In other words, there is no one with a direct interest, and I've been building this research on my own from the beginning. Of course, I share with my cousins when I find something I think will interest them.
This has all been a bit shocking - and creepy. The guest drilled down to the US 1950 census, where I'm listed as a tiny baby, with my full birth name. My display name for FamilySearch is not the same, and I do not use my full birth name online. She started using that in profile notes, repeatedly. I've reported that as abuse, and I believe all of those have now been removed.
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Makes you wonder how many other people the abuser has been targeting.
Interesting that a history of clear abuse clearly hasn't been taken into account in decision-making here.
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In case anyone doubts the issue at hand, here's a snapshot of the branch, showing sources I have attached to family back to 18th-century Ireland. If you know Irish research, you know how slim early resources are.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile A war by someone - who thinks to know it all - seems to be going on here. In Germany we call this behaviour "oberlehrerhaft", which means as much as pedantic.
He/She doesn't even seems to accept the meaning of the prefix Ní as "daughter of" and adding it wrongly to males (where it should be Ó). 🙄
I feel deeply sorry for you, because I know what a accurate researcher and helpfull person you are.
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Thank you, Lars, for the kind words.
My German is rusty, but oberlehrerhaft is familiar.I've repeatedly removed the ní designations with the explanation. This is my direct and close line, and I've found no evidence that O was used, either.
The guest has also used AI to write Discussions (indelible, of course) with incorrect information and false conclusions and does not remove or edit them even when shown the correct information already attached.
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Sam, may I contact you privately, please? The situation has just taken an extreme turn for the worse.
Thanks.
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Yes, please do.
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Hello @Áine Ní Donnghaile,
I am so sorry to hear this terrible news. I've run into this same situation in the past where the person thinks they are correct no matter how much evidence and sources you provide. In my case, this person had a Civil War tombstone placed on my gg-grandather's grave and he did not serve in the Civil War. It was a case of the same name in the same place. No matter how much evidence I provided she refused to admit her mistake. I had the Civil War tombstone removed from my gg-grandather's grave and replaced it with a civilian tombstone at my cost. Very frustrating indeed!
My condolences to you.
Sincerely, Robert Seal_1
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile, I'm truly sorry this happened to you. You are a treasure to this community. Be proud of your hard work and the help you've given to hundreds of people. Some day the tree will be put right again. We miss you and hope you return.❤️
At this time, I have decided to remove my name from the directory and turn off relationship sharing. I have concerns about misuse of this feature, as well as the follow button being used as intimidation. Please let me know the person or department that I can share my concerns with.
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Friends,
Thank you all for your kind words.I needed to take a short break from all things FamilySearch. I hope you understand.
I am sad to report that the situation - the dismantling of my careful research - has not improved during that break. It seems the contributor has created another username and is continuing to run rampant.
I'm weighing my options. Do I spend all my time repairing, repeatedly? Or do I cede the field and declare my branches of the world tree a lost cause? I have other research I want and need to do.
I am disappointed to see that there have been no mod/staff replies to the valid concerns raised by GFre and MaureenE123.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile - glad to hear from you again.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile I, too, am glad to hear from you again. And frustrated/disappointed your valid concerns have not been properly addressed
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile, it's so nice to see your name again.
If you want to do other research, I'd say go for it and don't worry about the other mess. With undoubtedly a growing number of people that will be affected by their poor behavior, I imagine something will be done at some point. Even now, they're surely breaking rules in making a new username. I hope that's investigated and added to the list.
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This is genuinely upsetting to hear. You are a long-time beloved and trusted member on here Áine Ní Donnghaile, I hope this gets the attention of mods so they can look into this further.
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I've been meaning to respond to a few topics that were not addressed in this discussion:
From @Paul W "One does despair that the code of conduct here in Community is so strict that members can be banned for breach of its terms and conditions, yet Family Tree users appear to be able to act with impunity in refusing to collaborate with others, or even completely vandalising branches of the tree. "
There does seem to be disparity in how the Code of Conduct is applied between the Community and Family Tree. In Family Tree, Support does not actively monitor or enforce general behavior except through abuse reports. The emphasis is deliberately on users resolving issues among themselves and promoting collaboration. For Family Tree to succeed, everyone needs to take shared responsibility for accuracy and ownership. Support seems to err on the side of self-resolution.
From @MaureenE123 "I ask the moderators to state the options for @Áine Ní Donnghaile to request her abuse to be forwarded "up the line" for review. To me , it does seem to be abuse, even though Family Search Support appear to have dismissed this."
Here’s where—in my opinion, FamilySearch needs to improve the process to better support our patrons. When one repeatedly is unsuccessful in reasoning with certain users, it can jeopardize Family Tree's integrity and Support may overlook these issues if they do not appear malicious. In addition—regardless of intent, errors that result in offensive or inappropriate content can still qualify as abuse. Here are some typical user actions Support may not consider abuse, but that often remain unresolved:
- Repeatedly changing records back to incorrect information after corrections have been made, even when sources and conclusions have been provided
- Entering offensive comments disguised as legitimate data
Patrons shouldn't be left without options for resolution. Our abuse reporting guidelines should clearly answer these two questions:
- Is there a way to appeal a decision from Support or to have a supervisor or escalation team review it?
- What should someone do if their issue isn't resolved after contacting Support?
Currently, after Support reviews a case, there isn't a formal process for further internal escalation—beyond resubmitting to Support. Perhaps this process needs reconsideration.
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Thanks, @SerraNola.
I've been meaning to update this thread, but I was unsure how much I should say.
When I returned to the tree, after that much-needed break, I saw that thousands - yes, thousands - of sources had been detached and events deleted. Hundreds of profiles were wiped clean or changed to something unrecognizable. My own mother's profile had been wiped clean; my maternal grandfather's name had been changed, despite all the attached evidence of his exact name. Duplicates had been created; profiles had been merged incorrectly.
I started methodically cleaning up some of the most egregious changes, but the other party was breaking again as quickly as I made repairs. Then, something amazing happened. After about two days, the changes stopped.
I kept working - carefully, methodically - but always looking over my shoulder, watching for the abuse to recur. Then something else wonderful happened. I started to see the profiles return to their former state, with fixes labeled "Change made by authorized support staff." I'm not sure what the tipping point was, but the abuse had been recognized; most profiles were returned to their former condition.
I'm still wary that the other party may come back, but, for now, I mostly have housekeeping chores. Many places lost their standardization, and all the source tags were lost.
Thank you to the support staff who recognized that the problem was real and made the decision to reverse the damage.
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Really good news! Thanks for sharing!
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@SerraNola Thank you and all the support staff for restoring our trust and faith.
Happy and Blessed New Year to each and every one!
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