Hi WikiTreers,
This is for those of you who have participated in Connection Combat, or considered doing so.
The game has been going well. It's been giving members a new reason to explore profiles, think critically about sources, and communicate with other members. These are core WikiTree activities that help improve our tree. So, we want to keep doing it. The question is, how can we increase participation? How can we make it more inviting and accessible to less-experienced WikiTreers?
With this in mind, what do you think about the following ideas?
Name Change
We may want to drop the military metaphor.
One possibility for the new name is "Connection Checkers." The idea isn't to change the game so it's more like checkers (aka draughts). The "checkers" here would refer to us checking connections.
Simplification
If the rules and instructions were simpler, more people might participate.
We're thinking about dropping the stuff about "WikiTree Weevils" so it's only about checking sources to confirm connections. Adding dates and locations and improving biographies is important work, but it adds complication.
One Notable
Also in the interest of simplification, it's been suggested that we just focus on connections to one notable per week instead of two. There would no longer be teams. Members would just compete to have the shortest, longest, or first verified connection.
Utilize "Confident" Relationship Status
After you have verified that there is a reliable source for a relationship, we might recommend using the Confident Relationship Status. (Relationship Status can't currently be set for spouses, but this is on the to-do list.)
This would be a way to track progress, and it could enable developers to do some interesting things in the future. Ales is already working on adding a feature to the Connection Finder that enables you to find your most confident connection to a person in addition to your shortest.
Create Easy Way to Show Progress
Advanced members have developed methods for showing the steps in their chosen connection path and when they've been verified, like David here.
We should be able to make this easier. Maybe we could ask Ian Beacall and the WikiTree Browser Extension volunteers if they could create a feature that would store a path, let you mark when a step has been verified, and easily copy-and-paste your progress into G2G.
Create Easy Way to Ask for Help
One of the best things about our community is how members help each other. WikiTreers in G2G and Discord are incredibly generous with their time and research abilities.
Sometimes new members don't realize how well-received a polite request will be, or they just don't know what question to ask. A good thing about the connections game is that it focuses you on specific, important questions. Is there a source for this specific relationship? If so, is it reliable? If not, how can I find a reliable source?
We want to encourage members to ask these questions. One idea would be to add another button to profiles. Right now we have a simple "Ask Question" button in the Collaboration section of profiles. We could add a more specific button that has more content and tags auto-filled. This would enable posts to appear here and in Discord. We'd then recommend using the form when you get stuck in the game.
Do you have thoughts on the above?
What are the "pain points" in participation? What makes it fun and makes you want to participate? What has kept you from participating?
Would the ideas above make things better or worse? Do you have ideas of your own? Any general thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
Thank you!
Chris and the WikiTree Team
P.S. Please reply with an answer instead of a comment. Comments at the top will be moved or hidden once read.