WeRelate:Suggestions/Ability to merge Mysource pages with regular sources

Quite a large number of the mysources are in fact sources, but in the process of converting a gedcom became mysources. Using the keyword 'Census' in the mysource category gives back about 17,000 hits. While a few only have a single instance of usage and are thus easy to point to the real source and then removed, some have several hundred people pages linking to them. It seems it would be easier to clean this up if mysource could be merged with regular sources. There are probably other examples than the censuses. Daniel Maxwell 19:02, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

I know this has been discussed and renames across namespaces has been an issue. If this is indeed possible, I would have added this suggestion myself long ago. Yes, not just censuses:

MySource:Klewis47/The Descendents of John Rugge (title spelled wrong, I've already gotten most of the links converted)

MySource:Santatraugott/History of Ashburnham (Working on some of these, still several to go)

These are just two example from families I worked on this week. People find their family mentioned in print, and they cite the source for every person in their family. So converting a bunch at once is needed frequently. Not to mention cases like the following two describing the same book:

MySource:Wheeler/The History of the Wheeler Family in America (over 1000 links because the user apparently entered every person mentioned in the book? I have converted hundreds already)

MySource:Claudiakerr/The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler Family in America (nothing links here but probably used to)

Some mysources do a better job than others, some sometimes have enough information so that a useful citation gets generation. But some are so brief, they are almost unrecognizable. If while editing a page, I recognize a mysource as being a real source, I usually convert it as a matter of course. --Jrich 19:21, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes, if I am in a cleanup I usually will point it to the real thing and then delete the mysource version, but as I said, sometimes there are hundreds or even thousands of people pages linking to it. Merging would make it more simple. I think the value of the MySource isn't realized on WR because so much of it are just converted sourced from gedcoms, and many newbies probably never seen what a proper MySource looks like. Quite a few of the mysouces are non-sources or they it is unclear what they are supposed to be at all, but I have refrained from deleting those lest I step on some toes. Daniel Maxwell 19:26, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

To use the keyword 'Residence' in place of 'Census' will yield even more mysources that could be changed. There must have been a software program that used "residence" as an event but omitted "census". But what gets me are the census-entry quotes which come in through gedcom to the source details all-in-one-line-and-are-never-tidied-up-by-the-original-provider. The addition of several <br>s to these entries does wonders for their readability. I often want to go back to the original entries in Ancestry or a UK census transcribing website to verify the details, but that's too time-consuming. --Goldenoldie 07:13, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes it is, though yesterday I took the time to verify a 1911 Irish Census entry. Looking through the 97,000 'MySources' also showed that hardly any of them meet the WR definition of a 'MySource' (bible record, funeral cards, death certificates not in a common database, etc). Daniel Maxwell 16:13, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Workaround: Redirect

There's an existing mechanism that seems to work reasonably well, which is the page redirect feature. One puts special text like "#redirect [[Source:title of source]]" into the text box of the Mysource page, notes the redirect in the summary, and saves the edit (as described in Help:How to redirect pages). This results in the Source's title appearing on the pages referencing the Mysource, and clicking it takes one to the Source.

I tried this by putting "#redirect [[Source:United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule]]" into MySource:Mehitable/1880 US Census, which turned the mysource into this redirect page. References to it, like the one on Person:Elizabeth Rice (15) automatically appear as references to the source.

---robert.shaw 18:56, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

I considered that, but IIRC the MySource searches would still bring up a lot of clutter even with a half way approach. I still think removing/merging is a better option without having to create thousands of redirects. I feel this MySource feature is underused at WR, and that is another part of wanting to merge many of these Daniel Maxwell 18:58, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

There is another issue, namely that MySources pages inherently have a stamp of ownership, unlike regular pages. And perhaps should if it was really used to represent a private source that others wouldn't have access to. While I occasionally edit MySource pages, I always hesitate. So I agree, MySource page have kind of become a crutch for GEDCOM upload, and the original useful purpose, sharing private sources like family Bibles, etc., is lost, and almost better served by Transcripts?? I say this partially because citing a true private source without giving a transcript is not exactly helpful to others. --Jrich 20:40, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Is private a part of the official definition? In the future, I intend to scan and add as a MySource on WR, the Bible Record birth/death/marriage sheet for my ancestor George Morris, but it would be viewable on WR as well (there is no other source for the births/deaths for some of his children, as I have not located most of their graves, so it is needed). That is more what I had thought MySources were supposed to represent - real sources that are not apart of any 'official' database but still valuable.Daniel Maxwell 20:44, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, didn't mean that. By private, I meant not publically available, as in, not in a library, or database, on a microfilm, etc. Primarily in the context of wanting to confirm its contents and authenticity, etc. To view what I mean by "private" source, I would have to go through you, and you could cooperate, or you might choose not to. Sources like books, microfilms, etc., usually it is just a matter of working to find it, perhaps paying a fee, but as a member of the general public, I still have the expectation that I could see if if I wanted to enough. Private sources, that may not be true. There is, say, one copy and it is somebody's private property. It always seemed to me to be the primary distinction between a source and a MySource. --Jrich 20:55, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Technically, merging a MySource with a Source is already possible by adding #redirect to the MySource page. Therefore, I am clarifying this suggestion as follows:

Add the ability to merge a MySource with a Source. This would add the #redirect tag to the MySource page and would also update all pages that use the MySource as a reference so that they point directly to the Source page instead. As with all merges, the MySource page would NOT be automatically deleted, but the user could choose to request that the MySource page be deleted by adding the Speedy Delete template.--DataAnalyst 16:42, 9 April 2017 (UTC)