Apples and oranges I'd suggest.

As your OP appears to address the ramifications of individuals "mindlessly" downloading error prone data and the agita it obviously creates for members like yourself, my observations are an attempt to deal with what "is", not what "should be".

The "mindless" downloading is a horse long out of the barn...and I'm disinclined to tilt at that particular windmill.

My suggestion, however, might afford you (and all) some relief.

Asking for more records with birth, marriage, and death data is all well and good - assuming Ancestry may already have such databases they haven't put online yet. If, however, they don't already have them that is a different matter entirely.

I know that they have approached some organizations about acquiring a certain database and been refused - and I believe that with genealogy becoming a "hot" topic both because of privacy concerns and those organizations seeing their data as an in-house revenue source that those refusals may be growing in number.

The correcting of inaccurate index entries is a matter they need to really look at.

Just as an example...

Can anyone tell me exactly how many voter lists Ancestry has online? It seems different keyword searches finds different groups and that there is no single keyword or phrase that will return a full list- and that is absurd.

The problem is you are assuming they are genealogists vs. collectors. I've run into this problem with my family tree numerous times, contacted them, blah, blah, blah. But to get to the heart of the matter - they are collecting "big" trees to show off, not accurate data! Yes, sometimes, I meet someone that appreciates the help - but rarely.

I suggest you post a note on your trees description field about inaccurate data on this particular family - thus alerting those(like me!), who whould greatly appreciate such information.

On the subject of downloading or merging other people's trees, I was contacted by someone who appears connected to people in one of my trees and was offered an invite to their tree. However, when I went to check out the other tree, I found many multiple listings of children in the tree. One female was listed 5 times, each with different birth and death dates for the same person. I did not respond to their offer for an invite because this is the type of tree that I avoid like the plague. This person is either just a name collector or a newby who uses no common sense. Bad if they are just a name collector who likes to bragg about the number of names they have collected or unfortunate if they are a newby who needs to learn proper genealogy research.

Selena,
I like your suggestion about adding a comment to your trees regarding errors that are out there. I think I will start doing that to my trees.

I know of some errors that predate the Internet. Corrections were made before the Internet but you still find the errors on trees on the Internet.

Believe me, those of us that are serious about data accuracy will greatly appreciate a posted warning on your tree. I've been so lucky to meet fellow researchers that tipped me off to inaccurate trees, and I'm still very, very grateful.

But keep sending those emails, as if even one of them is a beginner, they might really appreciate your help. That's how we all learn, right?

I agree that all info should be added by hand and not merged with a single click. In the case of my tree that I have worked meticulously on for the past 3 years a name collector grabbed a huge chunk of the tree and added it to hers even though she was just distantly related through marriage. I was mildly irritated but the info was correct and she did give me credit for the photos. The next person to do this I could not see how he was related to me at all. This person merged a large portion of my tree into theirs but somehow shaved the first names off - Mary Christie instead of Gertrude Mary Christie - Thompson Taylor instead of George Thompson Taylor. You get the picture. What a mess! It does look like it was the work of the merging software. I quickly made my tree private but alas too late I think.

I just made my tree private for the same reasons. Too many don't value the search or the proof. Just filling in puzzle pieces even if they have to force them.