Here are the ABC's of Wiki etiquette.
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When someone leaves a message on your talk page or asks a question on a page you have created, please respond! WeRelate is a shared space and shared approach to genealogy. There is an expectation that you will monitor the pages you have created, respond to others' comments on the pages, and help merge pages when duplicate pages are found.
If you have something to add to a page, something that would enhance the quality of the page, be bold and add it! That's what a wiki is all about. Unlike most genealogy programs, WeRelate retains previous information in the History of every page. WeRelate also allows multiple opinions to be listed for events and relationships. Rather than deleting what's already there, consider adding your information as a second opinion, or adding your information in the primary opinion slot and moving what's already there to a second opinion.
If you change a page that others are watching, tell them why! Leave a message on the associated Talk page or at least enter a descriptive comment in the Summary box at the bottom of the page. Remember the golden rule, and be courteous and respectful of data that others have contributed. It's easy to add alternate events and opinions.
Also, if someone else changes a page you have contributed to, please don't just revert their changes! Leave a message on the Talk page associated with the page to initiate a conversation (that's what Talk pages are there for :-).
Unlike most websites, our administrators are volunteer. They try to help beginners get over the learning curve and patrol the wiki for spam. If you find an administrator changing your pages, they're trying to help you! Some guidelines may not be intuitive, so please find out why your pages are being changed, and try to follow those guidelines in the future.
The talk page is intended as a place to discuss the reasons for conflicting opinions. If it turns out that both opinions could be possible, enter both opinions on the main page and explain the justification for each. Remember that records, especially records compiled significantly after the fact, can be in error. We need to be humble enough to accept that sometimes we may not be the one who's right!
Soon we'll have an easy way to merge duplicate Person and Family pages. Until then a few people are going through the database merging duplicate pages by hand. Please be responsive and thank them if they merge your pages. It's time-consuming work!
