Wiki Tree Reviews

(based on 14 reviews)

23 of 39 people found this review helpful

What most members don’t understand is why WikiTree is a free site. The funding has to come from somewhere, and WikiTree is registered as a for-profit company, not a non-profit one. This means they don’t ask for donations.

Their business model is based on selling ads, and the types of ads they display are for other for-profit genealogy sites. To get money from these sites, WikiTree needs clicks to the advertised sites. If you have very well-researched profiles on WikiTree, then they won’t get clicks on the ads and no income. Thus, every competition (which they call “challenges” on WikiTree) focuses on the creation of new profiles with a minimum of sources. So basically, WikiTree is just an index to other genealogy sites, and they need lots of free labor to create the profiles.

They offer various incentives, such as badges for joining projects and challenges, and most of all, their biggest incentive badge: the 1000 monthly contributions points badge. Many newbies fall into this trap, as well as longer-time members who can’t get out of it. These members are commonly known as “points chasers” because they must have those new badges every month and consider it their prestige.

Points chasers don’t make... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

18 of 35 people found this review helpful

Wikitree makes it incredibly difficult to make corrections. One has to "earn" badges to be able to do anything of value. At entry level you have to be very careful adding a profile. If you make an error (and who doesn't?) you cannot correct it. I made an error and I am not allowed to correct it until I earn a certain badge. Sounds like an elite club membership to me!

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

24 of 46 people found this review helpful

Sue Thompson and Peter Jones from wiki tree are habitually sending threatening emails enforcing merges misapropriated to discontinue the Conective children with malice, deleting and orphaning, vandilising, leaving orphanes profiles with my name stated. changing my childs details, thats sick sick sick Locked out of profile It is Its an illegitimate sight. 400 names never again. Stop the email harrasement this minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

35 of 59 people found this review helpful

Wikitree is run by people who I think they think are god almighty.
They are a law unto themselves. To be honest its not worth putting your tree onto the sight as they will ban you for the slightest thing like stating your opinion if its not theirs.

Also never go for any of their tartan trails or usa or anything because all it is is them wanting you to do the work of orphaned profiles and then they take them over themselves. My grandmothers profile was taken over and worked on without my permisson.

So dont be fooled by them they are nasty people and sad pathetic individuals who must sit at their pc all day. Get a life Wikitree people and see the sun once in a while because you are all totally up yourselves.

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

39 of 66 people found this review helpful

Leadership copied their style from the Tudor Star Chamber. The Star Chamber was noted for its arbitrary and oppressive judgements and was abolished in 1641. However it has now been revived at Wikitree, as the Mediators Council. There is nothing fair about the leadership of Wikitree, cross them and you will have your account closed, put in a comment that one of them does not like even if this commend does not break their own rules of the honour code if one of them takes a dislike to it, you WILL BE THREATNED.

They rule wikitree with threats, oppression and fear. It is an extremely toxic environment to work in.

A well liked wikitree person got his account closed, the first person to reply to the post also has assumedly had their account closed. So far the Star Chamber of wikitree have not replied to allegations that this is the reason the other persons account has been closed, I suspect if the second account was closed for this reason that the Star Chamber, also know as the Meditors Council will find some trumped with charges why they closed the second account.

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

39 of 67 people found this review helpful

The site is very clunky, very difficult to learn, deceptive in what it promises with regards to DNA matching, not very respectful of the data you spent a lot of time gathering - and if you even dare to suggest some criticisms, the dictatorial leadership team can simply boot you, without any chance to take your data back with you. For an example of one person's experience, who had spent about 7 years of work into Wikitree and been repeatedly praised as a "Wonderful Wikitreer" only to be unceremoniously dumped, see https://www.reddit.com/r/Room_2562/comments/tc6lrd/response_to_public_revie

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

40 of 70 people found this review helpful

You say in your review article that WikiTree "allows you to build your family tree." No, they don't. At least not without harassing you constantly about what you've done. There is also a huge learning curve; the entire interface feels like something someone threw together in their basement in their free time.

I had a horrible experience with WikiTree and got nowhere in learning about my family. Honestly the website is run by people who control your every move. My entries were merged with others' without my permission and some were removed for capricious reasons. I honestly felt harassed. After a couple of years, I gave up completely after receiving a really nasty message from another user and I then tried to delete my account--and they wouldn't let me!!! Some mystery person who apparently was one of the site controllers/admins kept messaging me about how I'd "made too may contributions" to leave. I was told that the only thing I could do was request anonymization of my data, but I couldn't leave. That completely freaked me out. I was unsuccessful in getting my account deleted. WikiTree is both a cult and a scam; they build their site on the backs of... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

48 of 80 people found this review helpful

I used Wikitree for a few years. Eventually running into a sour Wikitree user who demanded I delete ancestors because their information did not fit his. Personal emails filled with manic rants until this user finally calmed down, forced me to want to delete my tree for safety's sake. HUGE MISTAKE! I contacted Wikitree and complained but because I did not produce his emails in time and wanted to delete my tree (which they frown on), they decided to shut down my account and have now claimed ownership of my genealogical tree for everyone else to use. And I still am not allowed to monitor information on my family members and children. So, please, do not use them. Ever. I don't care how desperate.

Stick to Ancestry. Use familysearch.org for free REAL records, not just pretty-looking outlines of other people writing claiming it's real information. This website and its organization really need oversite for this kind of seedy behavior.

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

73 of 140 people found this review helpful

For each ancestor you enter on your personal tree you write a profile including a biography. You are told you must provide sources for all information, which is good. Many members don’t do this, probably because they don’t have access to sources. There are hundreds of unsourced profiles that the rest of the members are encouraged to work on.

My biggest complaint is that anyone can alter a profile that you have spent literally hours researching and writing. Unless what is added is blatantly false, you must accept the alteration. The reasoning is that you don’t own your ancestors’ profiles, they are a communal endeavor. As a writer, I have a problem when I write a good narrative biography for a direct descendant, only to have it changed by someone who thinks they know better.

These do- gooders are encouraged by competitions for data correction, sourcing and so forth. In these competitions points are awarded, so many corrections are made.

Plus side— there are some very knowledgeable people there who give of their time and experience. They will help you with tough questions or foreign sources. Also, you use the free... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.

79 of 148 people found this review helpful

I have done extensive research and had spent literally almost 13 months correcting errors found in fairly well documented folks.

There was a particular family I had to correct three different times and eventually it just became ridiculous and an awful lot like chasing my tail.

I even offered a suggestion of locking those profiles for individuals who were well documented and from the colonial period, as those profiles would or should not need additions and/or corrections unless some very compelling evidence were to be brought forth. They responded that locking any profile would be against the very definition of what makes it a "wiki".

That was when I gave up.

I will check the site every so often, when looking for a particular individual and sometimes, though rarely, it has been helpful in furthering my research or at least offering clues to that end.

The best thing I could say about it is that there are a handful of really great and knowledgeable people who are active members, and then there's the project managers, like Jilliane Smith, who think they own your research, think their own your sources, and they think they own YOUR ancestors because they are using the sources from... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would not recommend Wiki Tree to a friend.