I seem to have two different pages and different id numbers

jgardiner1

How can I combine these two pages.....I only realised this when I started using this Lab experiment page....I was wondering why my photos, posts, stories were not being saved to my page. When I tagged a memory it would not save. Here are my two id numbers G5MR-QJP and KWRK-5BK

Gordon Collett

One ID is in your shared group and one is in your personal private space. These are two different "containers" for living people. The group one everyone that you invite into the group can see. Your personal one only you can see.

When we create a shared group, we are not letting everyone see the living people in our private space. We make a copy of them and put the copy into the group space where the group can see them. Since these are two different profiles for you, they have two different ID numbers. And no, they cannot be merged.

@kathryngz , when are you going to have a class on this topic of family groups posted online? Users are in desperate need of one of your excellent examinations and explanations of how things work in Family Tree.

Bosch

@Gordon Collett And no, they cannot be merged.

But I think we should be able to merge them. I think it would make more sense to have all copies (in personal space and different family groups) synchronised, BUT being able to desynchronise at will the copy in the personal space and the copy in other specific groups. To resyncrhonise again the copies would require to create another copy and merge them.

Gordon Collett

There is a bit of a difference between merging and synchronizing. I can see some trouble with the first. If there is only one ID or a merged ID between private and group, which does it really belong to? If to the private spaces and the person leaves or is dismissed from the group, does the group loose that profile and all the work they did on it? If to the group, does the person leaving loose that profile and all the work that person did? Having two different profiles with two different IDs avoids those kinds of questions.

I agree that syncing so that, for example, if you added a source to your private copy then the source was automatically and instantly added to the group copy, resulting in the two copies always remaining the same as long as the two profiles were linked would be a very nice improvement in the feature. However, it would introduce the issue of needing to be careful to never put information on your private copy that you don't want the rest of the group to know unless you kept the two unlinked. It would also mean that anytime someone in the group changed or added something to a profile, it would automatically be changed or added to your personal copy of the profile, even if you do not want it there.

I wonder if the programmers did any type of marketing surveying in deciding how to implement this? As with all surveys, how the questions would be asked can really influence the results, but in this theoretical survey, I wonder what the result would be.

If it were possible to share living profiles in Family Tree in a family group, I would prefer:

A) Move my copy of the profiles into the group and lose personal control of those profiles.

B) Keep a separate copy of the profiles in my private space that I maintain full and total control of.

If 95% of the respondents wanted to keep a personal copy that no one else could touch or would immediately turn off the syncing feature, it really would not be worth the programming effort to have syncing. If 95% of the respondents wanted a single profile as long as they got to create a copy of that profile when they were kicked out of the group, then they should have designed the feature that way. Unless there are a lot of arcane privacy regulations somewhere that prevented such. That would fall in the category of "if a feature makes no sense whatsoever, there must be lawyers involved somewhere."

AnneLoForteWillson

@jgardiner1 Moderator note: I edited your images to hide information on living individuals. This is for your safety and privacy, per the Code of Conduct.

kathryngz

@Gordon Collett, thanks for your suggestion (and kind words), which I just saw today! That is a great idea to do a webinar on family groups. I'm always looking for topics and have added this one to the list.

Kathryn

kathryngz

@Gordon Collett , I acted on your suggestion above (thanks!) and will be giving a webinar on family groups on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Here's the link to the announcement of the event:
https://community.familysearch.org/en/events/1382

For anyone who is interested but can't attend the live broadcast, the webinar will be recorded and posted in our webinar library within a few days after the event:
https://fh.lib.byu.edu/classes-and-webinars/online-webinars/webinar-recording-index/

Kathryn

Gordon Collett

I'll be looking forward to watching it.