WeRelate talk:Volunteer log

Is this just for time spent doing administrator tasks (patrolling edits, etc.), or time spent simply using the site? --Joeljkp 21:45, 27 September 2007 (EDT)

I think it's just admin type tasks Joel. I just added my time this morning and since I've been learning wiki table formatting, I thought maybe we could do this in a table. Pretty simple format, but feel free to set it up differently, e.g. headers, colors, etc., or delete it altogether and use a different format, feel free. --Ronni 06:22, 28 September 2007 (EDT)

How does the information on this page vs. other types of information influence the fate of WeRelate.org? Are we any where near statistics sufficient to maintain tax-exempt status? --Ceyockey 08:49, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

Topics


Statistics page [7 November 2008]

I have created a sub-page at WeRelate:Volunteer log/Statistics and started a discussion point on this page's talk page about storing the data for accessibility. I've not consulted our admins prior to setting up this page, but am quite amenable to modifications or retirement based on their needs. --ceyockey 10:26, 7 November 2008 (EST)


Header formatting discussion

see User talk:Ceyockey#Blue color on administrator log .5B6 December 2008.5D --ceyockey 14:25, 6 December 2008 (EST)


Volunteer question [14 January 2009]

Hello,

I hope this is the right place to ask this question. I am still a little confused about this subject and do not see it mentioned anywhere. When is it volunteering for Werelate? When is it doing your personal work? What is it considered when you are working on your ancestors pages? I assume volunteering is only volunteering when you work on a community page?

Thank You, Debbie Freeman--DFree 15:11, 10 January 2009 (EST)


Debbie,

My sense is that volunteering for werelate is when we are *not* working on our own personal pages-- on our own ancestors. I donate many hours a week doing "match and merge" towards the goal of having no duplicates. But if I'm working on my own records, my own family, I do not record those hours. A GREY area, for me, is when I am posting information that is of interest to a broader group of people-- for example, I have done a fair amount of research into the early Taylors of Massachusetts. I've engaged in this research in order to determine the origins of my husband's ancestor. However, because of the number of people descended of these early colonial Taylors of Massachusetts, one could say that my putting this information online here is of broader interest to the werelate community and should therefore be recorded as volunteer time. I haven't done that yet, but I wonder if I should... jillaine 23:20, 12 January 2009 (EST)


Step by Step instructions [26 March 2009]

Hello,

Could someone give me a step by step instruction on how to enter the information on the volunteer page. I tried to input my volunteer time but it did not work. It did not look the same in preview when I tried.

Thank You Debbie Freeman DFree--DFree 08:29, 26 March 2009 (EDT)


Hi there Debbie,

  1. Go to the month heading (March 2009) and click on Edit Section
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the edit screen
  3. See the |} that, and everything below it needs to stay intact.
  4. Go to right before the |} and add in a few spaces
  5. On the first line after my entry add |-
  6. Go down to the next line and add your data in the format |DATE || HR || MIN || SIGNATURE || REASON
  7. Preview and Save

For right now, go ahead and save it, even if you think it looks a bit wrong. I'll check it and provide feedback.

--Jennifer (JBS66) 08:39, 26 March 2009 (EDT)


Hello Jennifer,

Thank You so much for your help. With a little trial and error it looks right. Gratefully, Debbie Freeman --DFree 09:33, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

It looks good!--Jennifer (JBS66) 09:33, 26 March 2009 (EDT)


Step-by-Step: GEDCOM Review [13 August 2009]

What are the specific things required for reviewing recently uploaded GEDCOMs (for approval)? I'd like to work on that. Thanks. jillaine 21:31, 11 August 2009 (EDT)


Hi. We check the warnings and the matches. If the matches seem to be OK and the not matches are OK, and the warnings are not too serious, it is uploaded. If you think they really need to do a better job on these, then send it back to user review and send them a very nice email explaining your concerns. I usually just upload admin's and people I trust. Thanks for helping out. We really appreciate it. Jlanoux has been doing a lot of this, though she might need some help. We should ask her. Would you be interested in taking on Sources or Places?

Please go ahead and ask User:Jlanoux what she would like help with if you're interested in gedcom import.--Dallan 23:26, 12 August 2009 (EDT)

I've posted an offer to help on her talk page. In the meantime, what's involved in Place and Source review? jillaine 23:32, 12 August 2009 (EDT)

Hi Jillaine,

On place pages I make sure the name hierarchy is correct. Sometimes people create a duplicate page with a creative title, like they leave out the commas or the county or they put in Co. or City of or ... you get the idea. On those pages I redirect to the existing page if one exists or rename it appropriately.

For source pages, I check the titles to make sure they conform to our standards. If they don't I rename them.

In both namespaces I check infrequent users to make sure they are not vandalizing pages.

That's it. Thank you for all your help on so many other things. Please put your name by the namespaces if you want to do this.  :) --sq 21:37, 13 August 2009 (EDT)


Reviewing Places [1 September 2009]

Okay, Solveig asked me to consider reviewing PLACE namespace. SO I thought I'd take a look to see what's involved. And I already need help.

I followed the instructions at Help:Administrators'_guide. Specifically, I went to Admin:Review Changes, set the drop-down to PLACE namepsace. And clicked on "Hide patrolled edits". My understanding of the instructions is that if a bold "N" is listed on the line, then it's a new page.

Problem #1: There was a bold "N" on the line for Place:Schönau,_Schwetz,_Westpreußen,_Preußen,_Germany. But upon examination I found that this was NOT a new page at all. So not sure why there was a bold N by it.

I'm not sure why you got a bold N for a page that wasn't new. Sometimes this happens when someone creates a "redirect" that points to an existing page -- you click on the new redirect and are taken to the existing page (with a little message under the title: redirected from ....). I'm not sure if that's what happened here.--Dallan 15:49, 1 September 2009 (EDT)
By the way, what does the red exclamation point mean?

Problem #2: I didn't recognize all the places listed in that place name so I started doing some research and found out that this place is actually the old, pre-1918 (or pre-1945) name for what is now Przechowo%2C_Bydgoszcz%2C_Poland. Ah... the mess that is German kingdoms, states, etc.

If you look (now) at those pages, you'll see I edited them with things like "former name of what is now..." and "current name of what was formerly..." BUT should I just be using a redirect instead?

I think I'm quickly being able to see why vol. admins don't want to sign up for monitoring the Place space!

Please advise. Thanks!

-- jillaine 13:07, 15 August 2009 (EDT)

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. We have been really involved in the place renaming and I let the talk pages slide a little. So, here goes. Mostly I just check for name hierarchy. I usually don't click through to see the page unless its a new user. I don't spent that much time on it. That said sometimes we get a new user who makes a lot of pages. Last week someone loaded up about twenty pages for home addresses. Ugh! I had to delete them and explain it to the user.
If the location has changed its name (and what place in Europe hasn't) put the other name (with its hierarchy--town, county, country) in the also located in field along with the dates. We had to pick a date and freeze the names. That date necessarily had to different for each country. For instance, it didn't make sense to freeze the US names in 1810. But, for some European countries the most relevant jurisdictional names were quite a while ago. It seems like changing jurisdictional hierarchy is a national pass time for England, France and Germany.  ;-D LOL So, if the place currently has a different name, that name should be put in the alternate name field.  :) --sq 13:43, 20 August 2009 (EDT)


I think you have picked a difficult task. I spent 2 or 3 months last year reviewing all of Portugal Madeira, and the Azores. Originally we tried to have every thing as it was in 1900, but that proved difficult to determine so we made place names as of the current Hierarchy with Traditional provinces as alternates. I ended up renaming all of them and adding alternate names as well as their coordinates. A difficult task indeed, especially working in a foreign language.

The red Exclamation mark means the page was modified but not patrolled. I was monitoring recent changes for the Famil namespace while Solveig was on vacation, but suddenly the patrol links vanished and I didn't know why. I just realized it was because I hadn't logged in.--Scot 14:07, 15 August 2009 (EDT)

I just need a protocol to follow. Let's see what else? How does one "Mark as Patrolled" a NEW page when there is no "diff" clickable? jillaine 14:40, 15 August 2009 (EDT)
If the page has a diff link click on that. If it has a N, click on the title of the page. The patrol link is under the page title on the right for diff pages. It is in the lower right hand corner at the very bottom of the page for new pages. The wiki engine is kind of funky when it comes to marking pages controlled. Dallan says we can't change that part because it came with the WikiMedia engine. There a bug that prevents you from marking pages patrolled even if you are logged in. It doesn't happen very often. You have apparently found another with it marking pages N when they are not. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Thanks so much for all your help! :)--sq 13:43, 20 August 2009 (EDT)
I'd add that you don't need to worry about determining the current vs. historical jurisdictional hierarchy for a place. Just check whether newly-created places are obvious duplicates because the creator used the word "County" or "Co." or something obviously wrong in the title, and that new users aren't spamming. Someday it would be nice to go through the German places and list the modern jurisdictions as also-located-in jurisdictions, but as Scot says that will take quite a lot of effort, and it's not something I think we need to take on anytime soon.--Dallan 15:49, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

Reviewing Places, Part Deux [1 September 2009]

Went to Place:SALISBURY, Wiltshire England (a new page) to try to fix the upper case bit. Edited it, but no place to change the Place name. Also the "Located in" is missing a comma, hence a red link. But I could not see how to edit that either. jillaine 15:02, 15 August 2009 (EDT)


To fix the upper case, rename the page with lower case letters also including the comma. doing so will add Salisbury as a contained place on the page Place:Wiltshire, England. Did you create Place:SALISBURY, Wiltshire England as a new, duplicate page? I think renaming it to an existing page name redirects it. In my case as was adding a level of hierarchy so did not encounter that situation.--Scot 15:22, 15 August 2009 (EDT)

When you rename a page, it overwrites the old page by that name. If you try to rename a page and it gives you a message saying there is already a page--then manually redirect the duplicate page. If there is only the one page and you rename it, it only renames it. Like you said, you can add a level of hierarchy.--sq 13:43, 20 August 2009 (EDT)
Just to clarify, when you rename a page to a name that already exists, you are asked whether you want to overwrite the old page with the new page. If you're ever asked this question, then instead of renaming the page, manually redirect the new page to the old page using a "#redirect [[Place:....]]". Otherwise, just go ahead and rename the page.--Dallan 15:49, 1 September 2009 (EDT)