Needed Changes for Improved Merge

Ashlee C.

@LoveStephenLoyd has posted:

The old merge program allowed the user to see and partially control the information that came over from the 'delete" person to the "survive" person. The improved merge does not allow this control. The final version should allow the user some amount of control. The improved merge does a good job of showing the results of the merge, but this is only after the merge is complete and opportunity to control contents of the final merge is lost.

One problem with merging using both the old and new programming is that the "All Changes" log for the "delete" person that completely lost. This log can contain critical information. It would be nice if the change log for both people could be maintained in a way that the entire logs of both merged people could be accessed from the page of the "survive" person.

Gordon Collett

The new merge system allows the same control of choosing which vital information to keep if there are different options on the two records just like the old one. Just click the radio button next to the value you want to keep. (I will say I think a lot of people are overlooking those buttons.)

True, if there is only one choice, it does not allow you to not preserve that over in the merge and it does not allow you to delete relationships in the middle of a merge. i think those are both great improvements to force people to thoroughly evaluate those pieces of information either before or after the merge and deal with them properly.

The change log for the deleted person is not completely lost and never has been. All you have to do is go to the deleted profile and look at it, just like you have to do with surviving profile:

It only take a few clicks to get there:

1. Start on the surviving profile's page.
2. In the Latest Changes box click Show All
3. Click Filters
4. Click Merge
5. Find the merge you want and click on the name of the deleted profile to go to that profile.
6. Click Show All in the Latest Changes box there.