2013-02-10 WieWasWie GEDCOM

headless GEDCOM

Yesterday, I noticed a tweet by Bob Coret that piqued my curiosity:

2013-02-09 15:10 coret @WieWasWie verberg aub de link 'Exporteer naar GEDCOM': resulterende bestanden zijn niet bruikbaar http://ow.ly/hzoS2 #standaarden

That's Dutch, and translated into English the text reads: @WieWasWie please hide the link 'Export to GEDCOM'; resulting files are not usable #standards.
The short link leads to a Dutch Google+ post. That Google+ post remarks that the files that WieWasWie creates are unusable; people are trying to upload ostensible WieWasWie GEDCOM files to his Genealogie Online service, but importing these files fails because they contain too many errors.

WieWasWie Beta

WieWasWie entered Public Beta on 2012 Jun 2. Like then, the home page is still dominated up by three boxes, a blue, red and green box. These boxes are starting points for Personen zoeken (Search persons) Stamboom bouwen (build family tree) and Resultaten delen (share results).

As a replacement for Genlias, WieWasWie's search functionality is paramount. Genlias was retired in the early hours of 2013 Jan 1, and now forwards visitors to WieWasWie.
Sad truth is, WieWasWie still isn't ready to replace Genlias. WieWasWie continues to be painfully slow, searches often result in the 404 error page, and when it works, searches still provide less results than Genlias did.

The premature replacement of Genlias with WieWasWie is ill-advised, and a disaster for Dutch genealogy.

The premature replacement of Genlias with WieWasWie is not just ill-advised, and a disaster for Dutch genealogy.
In their recent WieWasWie nog gratis (WieWasWie still free) blog post, even the WieWasWie team itself admits that the site is still onvoldoende stabiel (insufficiently stable).
On several Dutch fora, users continue to complain about WieWasWie and discuss alternatives, such as GenVer and Richard Keijzer's Genlias survival link page.

two things

The idea of the three boxes on the home pages is to suggest that WieWasWie offers three things. It actually offers two things; record search and family tree building. That a tree you build online can be shared is only natural.

WieWasWie replaces Genlias, so the search functionality is what everyone cares about. Few people care about the family tree functionality. It's even is reasonable to wonder why it is in there at all, as there are plenty of online tree sites already. It arguably would have been better to focus all efforts on providing a good search experience.

When I wrote about the WieWasWie Public Beta last year, the family tree functionality was even less impressive than its search functionality; I observed that it was painfully slow, not very reliable, and did not respect Dutch privacy laws. It was so slow and unreliable that it was hard to experiment with, but it was a Beta and I did not consider the family tree functionality very important anyway, so I moved on.

The files that WieWasWie exports aren't GEDCOM files.

Although the WieWasWie site still shows a Beta logo, WieWasWie is not in Beta anymore. WieWasWie has replaced Genlias, and is in production now.
People are using the WieWasWie family tree. The Exporteer naar GEDCOM (Export to GEDCOM) should allow them to take their data elsewhere, but does not. The files that WieWasWie exports aren't GEDCOM files.

WieWasWie family tree

WieWasWie GEDCOM

I created a small family tree, just one couple, in the WieWasWie family tree, and chose Exporteer naar GEDCOM.

0 HEAD 
0 @I0@ INDI
1 NAME Jacoba Adriana Johanna/Beijnen/
1 SEX F
1 BIRT 
2 DATE 13-10-1876
2 PLAC Voorburg, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME Cornelis Marius/Viruly/
1 SEX M
1 BIRT 
2 DATE 11-11-1875
2 PLAC Vuren, Gelderland, Netherlands
1 DEAT 
2 DATE 23-9-1938
2 PLAC Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
0 @F1@ FAM
1 WIFE @I0@
1 HUSB @I1@
1 MARR Y
0 TRLR

headless GEDCOM

Some issues are easier to spot than other, but you do not need to be a GEDCOM expert to see that this isn't a GEDCOM file. One issue stands out like a sore thumb: the file starts with 0 HEAD, but that's all; there is no actual GEDCOM header.
The absence of a GEDCOM header is a major issue; GEDCOM readers are not unlikely to simply reject the file.

This particular issue has been highlighted before. Late in 2011, Bob Coret participated in the Private Beta, and decided to try and determine the capacity of WieWasWie. He determined that WieWasWie's fan value is zero.
There is no doubt that the WieWasWie team read his blog post. A comment on the blog plost links to their response, posted on the Stamboomforum, and in that response they admit that the GEDCOM reading and writing needs work.

One issue that Bob Coret mentioned in his 2011 blog post is that the exported files lack a GEDCOM header. It is 2013 now, WieWasWie is out of Beta, and the ostensible GEDCOM files it produces still lack a GEDCOM header.
It's been more than a year since the WieWasWie team acknowledged this defect. It is a major defect, it isn't hard to fix, yet they still haven't bothered to do so.