How many leaves of old season growth ?

Question

Are any statistics kept to indicate the volume or proportion of 'old world' - v - 'new world' input or participation in this relatively recently planted & still growing 'global tree'?

Do such statistics, if available, indicate what proportion of that input is original (i.e. not borrowed from existing 'ancestrees' or other, older, online data accumulations)?

Are any indicators available as to the 'roots' of such input e.g. Dutch, German, English, Italian, Scottish, Greek, Irish, Finnish, Turkish, Russian, Egyptian, Pakistani, etc., etc., etc. ?

With some better knowledge of the answers to these questions I, for one, would be in a better position to answer a recent question from Eowyn Langholf regarding the importance, or otherwise, of connecting to the 'Global Family'.

Answers (as distinct from comments) would be of great help, to me, to get a better feel for where (and how) WikiTree is currently located in the greater forest of trees - which in absence of the requested information seems to be primarily americano-centric & based on the currently accepted americanisation & usage of the english language - thus effectively excluding (alienating?) the other 80% of 'our global family'.

Comments

I just wanted to comment on the language issue, to say that a website has to be in a language (at least until it is able to be translated into multiple languages), and that no matter what language that is it could be said to be excluding the rest of the world.

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And I will comment on that if a website claimed to be global, a world wide tree, translation on multiple languages is not only important but should be a priority.

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We had an important Wikitree event this week.  An unknown (as of yet) former neighbor of my wife recognized her family on the Wikitree and sent a message wanting contact with one of my wife's brothers.  This was from Barcelona, everything was in Catalans (a Spanish-similar language).  He recognized it was his old neighbors and used the SEND MESSAGE link to contact my wife.  This all happened in Spain.  This well shows that the reach of the Wikitree is spreading.  I also understand that every improvement to the Wikitree costs either time, money or both.  So if it takes some time to develop the different language versions it is understandable.  It is much easier to dream about improvements than to cover the cost of these dreams.  Maybe there could be an option on profiles where the Wikitreer donates in their last will and testament their estate to the Wikitree to help offset the costs! :D

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I think the tree analogy continues to work well when determining the relevence of WikiTree in the forest. Most trees of 7 years old would still be concidered a sapling. Few 7 year old trees produce fruit. I think WikiTree looks like a healthy edition to the forest of trees. My understanding is that WikiTree has the 'goal' of becoming a global tree not 'is' a global tree. Mighty oaks grow from small acorns. What stimulates WikiTree growth is word of mouth and free access and also it is not afraid to prune. Most other trees allow unfettered growth which can eventually choke the tree out completely. I notice on 'ancestry' there is a new trend of people uploading private trees with no public acess as well as an unbelievable amount of error and duplication. Is WikiTree a global tree? No not yet. Does it need translation? Most certainly. Is it the best curent concept moving towards a global tree? I think so.

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I do not know what is the structure of wikitree, I used to program in php and when I wanted to have the site in multiple languages I had language file and depending of the preference of the user the appropriate file will be served.

This work for the site itself meaning the buttons, links, help file, main page welcome text etc. it would be labor extensive to try to translate each and every post by the users, although there is a Google widget that can translate the page on the fly and if I remember well it is not that difficult to implement.

That being said I am not on the board of directors and I'm sure they have plenty on their plate to talk about and I understand the language thingy may not be the highest priority but it should not be put on the back burner for ever, eventually this issue will have to be addressed.

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We don't actually have a board of directors. We have Chris. :) And a handful of part-timers. I think everyone wants the site to be translated. The reason it's been put off is that once it's translated, every new addition to the site will take longer because of translation. But I'm confident that it will eventually happen, and certainly look forward to that day!

In the meantime, there are always multilingual profiles and categories to make the site a bit more welcoming to those who don't know much/any English.

Answer 1

Very interesting question about the Stats.  I know that at the first page you see, before you log in to WikiTree, has the volunteer and profile stats.

On a couple of occasions members have thrown out thier own stats based on information they have gleaned from various areas of WikiTree.

But, as far as I know, there is no official Stats page.

As for where WikiTree ranks in the forest of tress?  I would say top ten for sure and if you look at it's placement in some review articles, I would even venture to say top 3 (no scientific evidence has been used in these guestimations).

Now the whole language thing...We have many, many languages on WikiTree.  So we have profiles in japanese and in Italian and in Portuguese and English and Canadian and Russian and Norweigen and Spanish and French and...you get the idea.

We also have a Language Volunteers Project who help out with new members who need a little translating or for any member who needs to translate a document.  As for translating the entire site?  Since WikiTree is volunteer driven, you could join the Language Volunteers Project and add your voice to any discussions that may come up about it.

Mags