Template request - Needs Narrative/Bio

Question

Can we have a template created for the "Needs Narrative/Bio" category that is similar to the {{Unsourced}} template?

The {{Unsourced}} template allows a piped category for further classification -  {{Unsourced | English}} both applies the template to the profile and adds the profile to the English Unsourced Profiles category (which is a sub catgory of the Unsourced maintenance category).

I would like a {{NeedsBio}} template that:

1. applies a template to the profile requesting that a biography / narrative be created from facts and sources already existing.
2. adds the profile to the Needs Narrative/Bio category
3. Allows a piped sub-category.  for example:  {{NeedsBio | Pennsylvania}}

My thought is to use these maintenance templates for the Quakers and Pennsylvania Settlers projects.  For example:  {{Unsourced | Penn Settlers}} or {{NeedsBio | Quakers}} so the projects can tag profiles for members to work on within the already existing structures.

 

Answer 1

Andrea, As I've reread the question I'm not sure you need a template so much as simply some sub-categories. Look at the maintenance categories page http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Maintenance_Categories in the section Euroaristo and Filles du Roi. They've used subcategories of the Project to create whatever they need in maintenance. For instance you could do [[Category: Penn Settlers Unsourced]] as a subcategory of your "Quakers and Pennsylvania Settlers project". You can then make the subcategory also a subcategory of "Maintenance Categories" so it can be accessed from both places.

If you need help there is a Categorization Project. http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Categorization

Comments

yes, categories are easy enough to put into place.  Looking for easier/quicker data entry to help encourage use for those folks who don't live on wikitree.

I don't have a problem keeping my quick list to cut & paste, but the {{Unsourced}} template is easy to remember, quick to enter, and just generally more user friendly.

{{Unsourced | English}}

vs

[[Category:Unsourced English Profiles]]

My audience is the more casual wikitree users.  We have the tools and structure to make it easy, why not make it easy to do the right thing?

Answer 2

I found that the template exists and in going to the list the firsr profile does not need a bio what it needs is a post merge cleanup.  We keep adding all of these templates and list's of things that need to be done instead of just doing the work whenwe find the problems and that just delay's fixing the problem by passing it off to another.

Comments

Definitely agree Dale about don't put off, what you can do today.  What's the template though? I seem to have missed it.

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I agree with both of you that putting things off is a recipe for delays and endless procrastination. But having a template isn't necessarily condoning procrastination. One of the projects I lead, Filles du Roi, has a maintenance category for profiles that need a biography. When I'm asked to project protect a profile, sometimes all I have time for is to click the box that does it. I can see that the profile needs a biography, but I don't have half an hour to pour over sources and write a clear narrative. So I add the profile to the category, letting other project members know that when they have some time, this profile would benefit from collaboration. 

Not everyone is good at writing a narrative, or enjoys it. (I'll write them, but I'm actually pretty lousy at putting together a bio that doesn't read like a Dick and Jane book.) As long as people are using the templates to call attention to opportunities for collaboration, and aren't using them as a crutch for laziness, they are definitely useful.

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Erin, look at the line following the number 2, click on that link and then open one of the profiles and then click edit.  You will then be able to see the needs bio template.

I too write bio's that read like a Dick and Jane book, but with footnotes, but my feeling is anything is better than nothing and I have no problem with someone writing a better bio if they wish for the profiles that I manage.

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Dale, I am still confused, I see the category,-- Category: Needs Narrative/Bio,-- but I cannot find a template, or a line following number 2 or a number 2. What page are you on?

 

And... There's nothing wrong with a good Dick and Jane book with footnotes.

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On the line in the question

2. adds the profile to Needs Narritive/Bio catagory

click on the underlined section,  that will take you to another page that list's profiles.  Open one of the profiles and click on edit and the template should show there.  I do not use templates much so that is the only way I know how to tell you about it.

Sorry about the delay in answering you back I had to make a several hour trip with my grandchildren today.

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[[Category: Needs Narrative/Bio]]

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I just added tha above template to one of the profiles that I manage and it put it on the list on the catagory page so the template does what Andrea Powell was asking for but I am unsure if it allows a "piped sub catagory"

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Dale, I think you're perhaps confusing the term template with the term category. Those profiles all have the category enclosed in a [[ double bracket. ]] as in [[Category: Needs Narrative/Bio]] [[Category:Unsourced]]

A template is enclosed within {{ double braces }} as in {{PGM}} and {{Pennsylvania Settlers}} and {{DateGuess}} which are used as shorthand.

 

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Here is the scenario:

I find a source for a profile that I manage.  I edit my managed profile, create bio, add source.  I probably do the same for the person's spouse.

Now I have a choice.  I can move on to my next profile, or I can add the source to the children, children's spouses, grand children, children's spouses parents, etc. and whom ever else are also mentioned.  Assuming I do that for a few (dozen) pre existing profiles, now there is a source on the (usually unsourced, gedcom imported profile), but no bio.  In a perfect world I would have unlimited time to create a bio for every person mentioned in the source regardless of how peripherally related they may be.  But I don't, and until wikitree decides to pay me per bio, I probably won't.  I do what I can, but I can't do it all.

Again, I can just move on and assume that the profile manager will be notified that the profile has been updated, go see the change, follow the link I've provide to the source and create a bio for the profile.  I would love to think that is the case, but probably not.

This is the point I would like to add the profile to a maintenance category so that those that have a few minutes to spend can pick up the now sourced profile and create a biography from it.  I hear some folks like to do the narratives more than the research.  I happen to like the research more than the narratives.  I am thrilled to have a place where we can all contribute to our strengths.

The categories already exist, or the framework does.  Templates just make it that much easier, especially for the more casual users.

Rule to live by:  Make it easy to do the right thing.

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Andrea, you just perfectly described the two reasons we have that category [[Category: Needs Narrative/Bio]]

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And I also like the research better than writing a narrative but it only takes a few minutes to write a simple narrative and insert the source as a footnote where it is supposed to go so that even if someone else gomes later they can see how and where things are supposed to go.  And as Anne said that is why the catagory exixts so all you really need to do is add the catagory to the profile, why add a template and possibly cause further confusion?  If I was going to use it a lot I would copy the catagory name to my Nav Home Page, open a second window anc then copy and paste.

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I understand Andrea's point.  The purpose of templates  is to make  it easy via shorthand to do a particular action.

As she's trying to get across, it's far easier to remember  {{NeedsBio}} than [[Category: Needs...  Shoot! What was it again? Narrative bio., bio narrative?? Darn I have to go look it up....

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I agree a template would make it easier.