Fixing what went wrong

This page covers the common ways a collection goes wrong and how to fix each one: a name spelled wrong, the same thing entered twice, two attributes that mean the same thing, a row in the wrong collection, or a cell showing the wrong claim.

Repair instead of rebuilding

It can be tempting to write a clean copy of an entity and take the old one back. Avoid this. The new copy keeps only the visible values and loses the sources, the dates each figure refers to, and which assistant found what. It also records whoever did the rebuild as the author of everything.

The repairs below keep all of that. You don’t need to know which one to use: describe the problem to your assistant and it will pick the right repair.

Fixing names and duplicate entities

• Wrong name. Ask your assistant to rename the entity. Nothing recorded on it changes.
• Same thing twice. Ask your assistant to merge the two entities. Every claim from both is kept with its original source, date and author, so nothing is lost.

You don’t have to hunt for duplicates yourself. Names that look alike are offered as possible pairs. Merge the ones that are the same thing and dismiss the ones that aren’t, and a dismissed pair won’t be offered again. For example, Acme and Acme Holdings may be one company or two, and only you know which.

Assistant:  [finds two possible duplicates: Acme / Acme Holdings,
             Brightline / Brightline Energy]

You:        “Merge the Brightline pair. Acme Holdings is the parent
             company, so keep those two apart.”

Merging duplicate attributes

Sometimes two attributes end up meaning the same thing, such as staff and employees recorded by two different assistants. Ask your assistant to merge them. The claims from both end up under one name, with their sources intact.

While you’re at it, have your assistant write down what the remaining attribute means. A clear description helps the next assistant record into that attribute instead of creating a new one beside it.

Taking a row out of a collection

You have two options, and the first is usually the one you want:

• Remove it from the collection. The row leaves that one collection, and the entity stays everywhere else with everything recorded on it. Use this for something filed in the wrong place, or swept in by a rule that was too loose.
• Retract it. Use this for something that shouldn’t be on your account at all. See Retracting is not deleting for what it does and what stays readable.

Undoing a choice

When a cell has several claims, it shows one of them as the answer. You can choose which one yourself, and you can change your mind later: once the choice is lifted, the cell goes back to showing the claim with the latest date.

Choosing and undoing both leave every claim in place, so nothing is lost either way.

A choice belongs to the collection you make it in. If the same entity is in another collection, that collection keeps showing its own answer until someone chooses there too.