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"A Geni profile you manage has been deleted"

June Barnes

February 24, 2011 07:53

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There is nothing as alarming or annoying to get these messages.   Please could we have some sort of protection against this happening.

If it was deleted because it was a duplicate the correct procedure would be to merge it. If there was another reason it would be a courtesy to be contacted first.

If there was a check on this action which meant that the manager(s) needed to be contacted for approval or disapproval first then people wouldn't be so quick to take the easy route of deleting a profile.   It could be that if a manager has an objection it can be voiced but if there was no objection then the deletion could go ahead after a certain set time?   Something has to be done about this - previously I had a malicious tree member who decided to just delete as he went along because he didn't like the sharing side of Geni - this resulted in him being able to delete profiles that he had not added because he had been collaborating - I am still repairing damage from this episode  years later.

 

36 comments

• 0
  
  Catherine Erin Serafina Liora Spiceland (Pinder) March 02, 2011 19:04

  Yes! Instead of deleting, we need a "Request to Delete" function where the primary manager can examine the profile and approve or reject the request.

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  Yiangos P. Kleopas May 01, 2011 18:38

  Yes, I absolutely agree. This is probably the worse and most dangerous function in Geni.

  Please do something about it.

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  Jim Sieks June 27, 2011 20:30

  I can understand the action being made summarily, however, it should be a requirement to ask for a "Reason" text box

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  Yiangos P. Kleopas June 29, 2011 05:05

  It is most dangerous for users to be able to delete without control. I suffered an incident myself several months ago.

  I totally agree with the curator , but unfortunately nothing seems to have been done about it.

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  Nita Kulkarni September 13, 2011 02:47

  I have this horrible experience where a person who is distantly related deleted as many as 20-25 profiles on my tree! Although I got the profiles back, they seem to have returned unconnected to the tree, and I had make them again, and keep getting that funny icon which says the profiles are duplicated!. It's very irritating. I have blocked the mischief maker now after the damage was done. I think this is the worst feature of Geni and I would never have gone to them if I knew this first. Now it is too late as I have already got a very elaborate tree on it. If anyone is thinking of using Geni for the first time, please be prepared for unknown people who may be related to your family through marriage only to random delete profiles.

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  Jim Sieks September 13, 2011 20:51

  It would seem that a dialogue should be required between the person desiring to delete a record and the originator.  In several instances, usually for prior marriages, someone decides that the ex-spouse shouldn't be there.  

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  Nita Kulkarni September 14, 2011 02:59

  Jim, the person has denied he has done although Geni clearly sent me a message with his name. That is why I think he is simply a spiteful person. 

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  Kathleen Margaret Watson October 24, 2011 09:26

  Or alternatively, the person doing the deleting should have their management of the profile deleted - I'm currently playing profile-deletion ping pong with a past collaborator who seems to want to remove his Geni presence and is doing it by stripping my tree.
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  Yiangos P. Kleopas October 24, 2011 11:06

  It is a great pity that nothing has been done so far. I really cannot understand why. The dangers are obvious and many users (some of whom have been victims)

  have made reasonable suggestions for a solution.

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  William Richard Klem November 27, 2011 14:15

  If the connection was made in error then the connection should be broken, Ours was clearly wrong, and I did ask you to correct it. Also I only took out what I put in. Yes, I agree  with all of you. But all of us should be able to correct  and fix our own tree  without interfearing with others. Just because my tree was wrong don't mean yours is, but I should be able to correct mine without messing with yours.

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  June Barnes November 27, 2011 14:20

  William Richard Klem  - who are your comments directed at? No matter what the circumstances a message explaining your reasons etc. is a courtesy.

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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) January 15, 2012 13:13

  NIta, unfortunately by blocking the 'mischief maker' you don't stop them from doing anything except from contacting you about what they do so if they request to merge a duplicate with one of your profiles the request stands but you don't receive the notification. This results in the circles.  I suggest you unblock them and discuss what you want to do with the duplicates. 

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  Deborah Delp January 24, 2012 00:40

  And this is another example of why Ancestry is better.

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  Nita Kulkarni January 24, 2012 03:12

  Hi Deborah and June,

  The profiles were deleted not because they were duplicates, but because of some other reason, most likely malicious. Some people just don't get it that family means the complete family! What is disappointing is that Geni has not yet responded to my complaint. Clearly they are not bothered. 

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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) January 24, 2012 08:51

  William Richard Klem, it is not clear who you are referring to in your message when you say "Ours was clearly wrong, and I did ask you to correct it.". Also I would like to clarify that you really understand how Geni works as it is quite unique. You said "all of us should be able to correct  and fix our own tree  without interfearing with others. Just because my tree was wrong don't mean yours is, but I should be able to correct mine without messing with yours." which makes me think you have missed the point completely about how Geni works.  As soon as you have merged just one profile the tree is no longer just 'your' tree.  You see EXACTLY the same tree as the other person but with you as the root person.  You are not seeing 'your version' which you can chop and change. If you delete a profile from the tree then you are deleting it from other people's tree as well because it is now just one tree that you are sharing.  Should you decide that you don't like that then you can close your account by contacting Geni but you should still not start deleting all the profiles that you entered because they are now part of other people's trees.

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  Anette Hermann February 15, 2012 10:47

  Does any one know how to get in contact with the Geni admins?

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  Anette Hermann February 15, 2012 10:52

  I have the exact opposite problem! Does any one know how to get in contact with the Geni admins?

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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) February 15, 2012 12:04

  Annette would you care to elaborate?

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  Anette Hermann February 15, 2012 12:28

  Thanks Terry Jackson!

  And Yes I would care to elaborate:

  A member on Geni.com has posted profiles in my name and all my family members names. We do not know this person. None of us has any interest in having private details posted online, searchable through all web browsers. It is very intimidating.

  I created an account in hope I could communicate with the person and possibly take over the profile which carries my name and my personal information... I assume I am the rightful owner of that profile, right? He doesn't respond and I'm not allowed to merge.

  Can you help me?

  Thanks.

• 0
  
  Jillian Hodges June 23, 2012 17:32

  Hi,  My cousin started a family tree of all our immediate relatives that we knew of.  I then spent months researching to extend the tree several hundreds of years much to my cousin and families delight.   Yesterday I noticed that someone I don't know had tried merging their tree with ours making  my greatgrandfather a brother of  of himself.  I emailed him to advise him what had happened.  He  responded saying that's because I have a private tree and and I should only make close relatives private and the older ancestors public.   Today, when I looked at the tree all my ancestors have gone and been replaced with a couple of incorrect   names.   When I went to the home page there was a notice about  a "merge issue" asking to accept this person to merge or not.  I tried serveral times to not except and geni won't accept my response unless I give my credit card details and join geni pro.  I can't even delete these odd names as it won't let me unless I pay a fee to join geni pro.   This is BLACKMAIL.  I will not give out my credit card details especially if this is what can happen. Jill

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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) June 23, 2012 19:48

  Geni's ethos of one tree for all is very hard to grasp especially since their recent changes allowing some people to have 'private' trees and charging for people to have more than 100 profiles.  Up to that point GENI is free except because of this such tree starters cannot merge creating situations like we are reading here where one person (paid up) thinks they've found a match and request that this be accepted or denied but when the person they are asking is not pro (paid up) they can do nothing and so there is stale mate.  I would not blame the person who is making the merge request. They may truly think it's a match but have something wrong.  Nor is it your fault of course.  The best course of action is to keep communication lines as open as possible with the other person and to try to remain calm and sensible.  Like e-mail these messages can very easily sound more aggressive or impatient than we intend. 

   

  If a profile appears to be representing yourself you need to contact that person and state the position. If you already have a profile then you may decide to merge trees and 'claim' their profile of you.  If you don't 'claim' it then it is still their managed profile.

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  Jillian Hodges June 23, 2012 22:31

  Hi,  Unfortunately staying calm does not put the numberous hours spent researching and creating the tree back as it should be.  The other person has chosen not to respond to my request of phoning me (I have sent my phone number)  or email me theirs in an attempt to salvage the damage.  I suspect there is no way of retrieving my tree anyway.   I feel so sick that this could happen that I havn't slept all night.  All I feel like doing now is doing a campaign on u tube and  facebook advising people what happens if you do a family tree on Geni  A TOTAL WASTE OF MANY MONTHS OF HARD WORK.  Recommend STAY CLEAR!!!    For this to happen it is breaking all privacy breaches.

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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) June 24, 2012 10:10

  If you would care to share your tree with me or another curator I/we will do our best to see what is going on and what can be done to remedy the situation.  The Url to one of the profiles in question may help with this or your own profile url (copy and paste from top of screen).

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  Jillian Hodges June 26, 2012 00:25

  Hi,  Unfortunely for me I am not computer savvy and I have no idea on copy & paste or Urls.   The merger has given me his login details which doesn't help me.   I tried loging into his account and deleted one person to see if it would allow me access to that person on my tree, but no such luck.  I re entered that persons details and gave up.  I need a phone number to call someone so I can be helped step by step while on the computer.  Then I might learn how to share the tree with you to chop all these unaurthorized  blocks off.  Please can you forward a landline number to my email address.   Jill.

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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) June 26, 2012 08:51

  Jillian,

  I don't think it would help you to know my phone number as I suspect we are on completely different time zones (I'm in England).  If you Really think this person's tree that he is trying to merge in is incorrect (it is probably worth researching some of it just to make sure) then I think your best solution would be to reject the merge. To do this you can take up Geni's offer to become PRO for  a trial period of two weeks for free. You MAY have to give credit card details to do this but as long as you say you don't want to continue before the two weeks is over you will have paid nothing.  If the other person has given you his log-in details then it sounds like he is trying to be cooperative at least. If you really don't want to give up your credit card details then it might be worth trying this -

  On the other person's profile page (the page with information about him and when he joined Geni etc. ) In the top right hand corner you should be able to see "actions". Click on this and there will be a drop down menu to select from.  Choose "Request to Collaborate". 

   

  I hope this helps. Please let me know.

  Terry

• 0
  
  Therese Camp July 21, 2012 22:44

  Yes I totally agree that GENI NEEDS TO  IMPLEMENT a "REQUEST TO DELETE" function where the primary manager has control of his or her tree.

• 0
  
  Berenice November 24, 2012 08:33

  re- Berenice Angel's profile says the faTher is Heim David Poslinsky, this is incorrect and needs to be amended Berenice ls the daughter of Lewis Segall
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  Terry Jackson (Switzer) November 24, 2012 12:30

  Berenice, you should start a discussion from the profile in question or contact the manager of that profile.  This is not the place to query a particular profile.

• 0
  
  Berenice November 24, 2012 13:12

  Geni replied that a profile has been deleted but it has not been deleted???berenice angel
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  Bjørn P. Brox November 24, 2012 13:25

  Check the revisions of the profile, - it was probably undeleted again