Question of the Week: What improvements would you like to see on WikiTree in 2024?

Question

What improvements would you like to see on WikiTree in 2024? Is there anything you'd love to see in the WikiTree Browser Extension or Tree Apps? Tell us your wishlist!

Please tell us with an answer below. You could also answer on Facebook.

You might also be interested in this post about what the team is working on: "What is ahead for WikiTree in 2024?"

Comments

A feature where  Profile Managers can keep a living person's actual full name hidden, so that when a person profiled in WT dies, it would be easier to change from "Anonymous" to the actual name.

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I've certainly wished for this many times!

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My understanding is that the profile manager, in specifying that the person is still living, causes the full name of the profile person to be hidden from all except the profile manager and perhaps, the trusted list for the profile.

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Allowing the Trusted List to view the full name of a living person does not render that profile to be anonymous. So some profile managers opt to only use "Anonymous" or "Living" as the name in living profiles.

 Futhermore, all biography text scattered around various profiles that currently use names like "Anonymous Smith" does not change to the full proper name when a person is finally marked as Deceased. In short, WT needs a better way for managers to deal with the inevitable deaths of their living profiles.

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The descendants of my parents, from the profile of my father's father, before I logged in to Wikitree within this web browser on this computer (I have been working within Wikitree, on another computer before this session), are shown thus:

"

1. [private great-granddaughter (unknown - unknown)]
2. [private great-grandson (unknown - unknown)]

1. [private great-great-granddaughter (2020s - unknown)]

1. [private great-grandson (unknown - unknown)] m. [private spouse]

1. [private great-granddaughter (unknown - unknown)]
2. [private great-grandson (unknown - unknown)]

1. [private great-grandson (1990s - unknown)]
2. [private great-grandson (1990s - unknown)]

1. [private great-granddaughter (unknown - unknown)]
2. [private great-grandson (unknown - unknown)]

1. [private grandson (1940s - unknown)] m. [private spouse]
2. Phil Busby  (1940s - 2010s) m. [private spouse]
3. [private grandson (1950s - unknown)] m. [private spouse]
4. [private granddaughter (1950s - unknown)] m. [private spouse]
5. [private grandson (1950s - unknown)] m. [private spouse]
6. Bret Busby  (1950s - unknown) m. [private spouse]
7. [private grandson (1960s - unknown)] m. [private spouse]

"

After logging in to Wikitree, the details od each of the living people, in addition to me (I am mostly living), are displayed. But, the details, other that what is displayed above, are not displayed, until I, as the profile manager for each, am logged in.

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The formatting did not quite work, in my last previous post above - the great-grandchildren are not shown as being the children of their parents. But, my generation of my family, are those consecutively numbered 1-7, and, the displayed names, show the point that I was making.

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If you want to see what I saw (with the correct formatting), before I logged in on that computer, right click on my name above; open the link in a new browser tab or browser window, click on the Ancestors button, click on my father's name, or, his father's name, to open the profile, then, in his profile, click on the Descendants button, and, view my generation of my family. The only name in my siblings, that should be displayed, is my second-eldest brother, who died ten years ago.

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I would really like to see the Correct Nomenclature for the Colonies on the continent of Australia before 1901 when the Commonwealth of Australia came into being. At present the auto fill for Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia,  Queensland etc, is totally incorrect, because it does not align with the historical, political and geo-political facts around the evolution of Australia as a nation.

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Alison, the Australia Project allows for various forms of location statements in our Guidelines for such.  Even if you disagree with them, those are what we, as a group, have agreed are acceptable.
As for the list in the location dropdown, those come from FamilySearch.

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The drop down location list is from Family Search, and trying to get them to change anything takes an immense amount of time.

There is no requirement or recommendation to use the drop down list. As Melanie says the Australia Project has information about locations.

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Bret and David; as the profile manager you can see information that others can't.

If you look at the right hand end of the line with person's name where it says public view, click on public view, that is what anyone who is not on the trusted list sees for living people.

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M Ross - I do not know why you have addressed your comment to me - you seem to be telling me what I have already said.

What I had said, effectively, is what was requested " Dec 27, 2023 by David Chawes" is superfluous, because of what already exists, and I gave details and examples, to show that.

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Could someone who can, please,separate the sub-thread about the location names, from the thread about displayed names of living people, into which thread, the sub-thread was incorrectly inserted?

I have received notification of the response by M Ross, to the sub-thread, and, whilst I have participated in the thread, into which, the sub-thread was incorrectly inserted, I have not participated in the sub-thread, prior to, and other than, this request to have the sub-thread removed from the thread, to which thread, the sub-thread is unrelated and irrelevant.

Answer 1

I really like the Family Portrait app, but there's one thing that bothers me a little. If I have photos for a father and a son, when I run the app with the son's Wikitree-ID it shows both photos, but when I run it with the father's Wikitree-ID it does not show the son's photo. I don't know if this intentional or not, but it would be nice if the app also would show photos for children (maybe even grandchildren), not just ancestors of the focus person.

Another thing that would be nice, but this may be overly ambitious, is if you could also use the Family Portrait app on/for your CC7 profiles.

Comments

Family Portraits currently focuses on ancestors and siblings, so it goes up 10 steps from the starting profile, and sideways 1 step from the starting profile. So not seeing the son's photo form the father's ID is expected.

I have had requests to expand this app more, so I will try to work on that in the coming weeks.

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Hi Steven and Joke,

Where can I find this app? I've been looking everywhere but can't find it.

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Hi Vicki, you can find it in the "Tree Apps" tab of a profile.

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Thanks Steve!

Answer 2

A permanent place for a wish list similar to this question.

I have seen sites that have a want/wishes/recomendation list with a process similar to the following:

•  A central place for users to ask for improvements.
•  A voting system that others can vote on how much they want those improvements.
• A process indicator on which are being worked on.
• An explanation of why some are not practical or possible.
• A list of those that have been completed with dates.

Comments

That's a great idea.  I agree.

Answer 3

To be honest, I would like to have a traditional forum software rather than the one here. Because I can't re-find my own posts if I don't bookmark them and I'm sure I'm missing a lot of interesting topics, if they don't have a tag that I follow. I would like to browse through the categories or through all new topics.

But maybe that's just me, or maybe a help page about G2G would help (such as how to refind your own posts).

Comments

Hi I. To find your own posts, go to your G2G profile, either by clicking on your name on any post you wrote, or in the My WikiTree menu. Then at the top, select All Questions, All Answers, or Recent Activity. This works for everything except old comments, which are not indexed.

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Hi Jim
Thank you, this works for newer posts and topics. Then we only might need a help page for G2G (I couldn't find one).

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It indeed doesn't work for old comments, but if you scroll back through the pages it works for all questions and answers you've made (at least up to some very large limit).

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I, the G2G profile with your recent activity works for the last 50 threads you answered or commented on.

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Thank you Jelena, so the recent activity would work fine for me, but not for those who are very active in G2G, if they would want to search for older topics?

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I, if you go on the top of any G2G-thread you find the tab "Users". There you can look for any G2G-user and look up their 50 most recent threads they participated in. Depending on how active they are, the 50 are used up quite fast or not.

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Another tip - you can "favorite" a post by clicking the faint blueish-grey plus sign at the top of a post.

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Yes, it would be great to have some modern piece of software for the forum. eg Discourse is so much nicer, sleeker and faster.

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Oh, yes. Very frequently, I run across posts on topics that I know I have commented on before, but I’m such a chatterbox that the lists of my previous questions and answers is no help because they’re just too long. What would help me would be a tweak to the G2G search box to let me enter the keywords I’m looking for, and optionally specify who posted the question, answer, or comment that the keywords need to be in.

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@Michael Vorenhout: I agree, Discourse would be a great option. It could be come the general place for collaborative genealogical discussion (there really doesn't seem to be any good international & general forum these days).

Answer 4

I would love if the categories would have more features like the MyConnections. Showing all unsourced profiles would be nice, or maybe directly linking to a WikiTree+ search with database errors for this category.

Or a button for stickers, that would show a page with all available stickers and/or other categories, so you could sort of use them as filters. I know this could be reached with WikiTree+, but for this I would need to know what exactly I'm looking for. But with such a sticker, I could go to a location category and then eg. show all stickers, then see that there are some military stickers, then look closer at those profiles.

Edit: typo
And showing all unconnected profiles of a category would also be nice.

Comments

Do you have the WikiTree Browser Extension? There is an option to filter profile results in categories, and adding a link to Wikitree+ searches should be quite simple to implement.

Answer 5

In 2024, I would like to see an improvement to the software which finds possible matches when a new profile is being created.

At present, if I am creating a profile with Last Name at Birth of Smith and Current Last Name of Jones, then matches are suggested for profiles with LNAB Smith, LNAB Jones, CLN Smith and CLN Jones (provided the dates match; also incuding variants of Smith and Jones). But because the new profile will have LNAB Smith, existing profiles with LNAB Jones are irrelevant and should not be offered. Similarly, because the new profile will have Jones as CLN, existing profiles with CLN Smith should not be offered.

Such an improvement would significantly reduce the number of potential duplicates that need to be considered in the case where the LNAB and the CLN are different. This mainly happens with profiles for married women in certain cultures, but it is a very frequent occurrence.

Comments

One problem with this: at the place where I do research in Italy, married women keep their LNAB. But if they migrated to another country, they might have taken the surname of their husband. So it makes sense that both LNAB and CLN are considered for possible matches. If I don't know that someone migrated, that LNAB and CLN are the same, but this might be wrong.

What I would like to see is an improvement on locations (but not sure if this already was implemented by now, as I lately only added rare surnames). At least some time ago, I had many possible matches for similar names, such as possible Cruse when adding Caruso, for someone born in England or the US, while the new profile was born in Italy and died in Italy at age of 2 years.

I think it might be helpful if the possible matches could be reduced by something like "this is a precise profile" for profiles that have known names, dates and locations. While it would show more possible matches if a profiles doesn't have a death date and location, because then that person might have migrated to another country and might even have a different CLN than the LNAB.

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This is a good point, I. However, I believe the improvement I'm proposing still works if the LNAB and the CLN of the new profile are different. Then it never makes sense to suggest profiles (with differing LNAB and CLN) where the LNAB of the alleged potential match is the same as the CLN of the new profile, even in the cases you mention. If one woman is born as Rossi, and another as Ferrari, they cannot be the same person, whether or not the first changes her name later to Ferrari or the second to Rossi.

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Ah, yes, then you are right, that would make sense and it would be great if this would be improved.

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This is the biggest one for me. I mean no disrespect to the software developers (as I am sure this is a tricky problem to solve!), but the suggestions for possible profile matches remain vastly inferior to similar functions on other genealogy sites.

I find it frustrating when trying to create a profile to have to examine a long list of people whose name and vitals are not really at all close, and particularly off on locations. Perhaps Wikitree uses a cautious/broad approach to this with the intent of avoiding duplicates, but I believe it accomplishes the opposite effect, as I suspect people don't examine the potential matches very closely.

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A lot of the suggestions are somewhat reasonable, but....

I was adding Sue Ann (Hochstetler) Detwiler born 1954 and a suggestion is: Linda S (Peacock) Ringer born 1950s-1960s?????? How is that even possible?

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I think it's because Ms Ringer had an Other Last Name of Hostetter.

But if instead you try to add Sue Ann (Hochstetler) Smith born 1850, you see 100 alleged possible matches, most of which are quite impossible and irrelevant because they have Last Name at Birth nothing like Hochstetler—mostly Smith.

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The reason I see for including both LNAB and CLN are the errors coming from GEDCOMs and old profiles where married name was loaded as birth name.  I have seen this happen and lead to merges. Without matches being presented, I never would have caught the duplicate.  

Matching on country is important though.

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That is a rare occurrence which does not justify the presentation of large numbers of false matches, which are so distracting that they may make it hard to recognise if there is an actual match and can well cause it to be missed if there is. Data can be erroneous in all sorts of ways: no system is going to find every duplicate that is thereby masked. Inflating the number of unlikely matches offered carries much greater risk.

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An aspect to this, is that when a user creates a new profile, the "possible matches" are so ridiculous, and, of such a great volume of ridiculous "possible matches", that the user simply ignores the "possible matches", goes straight to the end, and selects "None of these is a match", which defeats the purpose of the facility.

The facility would be significantly improved, and, made worthwhile, if it would be tuned so that it is made worthwhile.

Answer 6

This might already exist and I just haven't found it yet, but I don't think it does yet!

I'd love a way to see the known "tops" of my tree all at once. As in, I know vaguely where my family tree stops for each of my many branches, but it would be wonderful to have a page that says something like: 

Your family lineage is halted at

• Your maternal grandmother (ie. no known parents)
• Your maternal grandfather's grandmother (no known parents)
• Your paternal grandmother has complete data going back for 5 generations, here is what's missing at generation 6

I hope this makes sense! I also recognize that the farther back the gaps are, the more data it would have.

Comments

Perhaps the app to Find Brick Walls does this in theory, though in practice it can be slow so might benefit from modernisation.

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I will have to check it out! I am also realizing that the "Fan Chart" tree app, might do this, just in a different visualization

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I use the fan chart for this, although it does look different than you described above.

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Using the Fan Chart is good for the first dozen generations or so, but then you have to click on each of the "last" individuals to see how much further that line goes.

I would LOVE to have some way to get a list of "earliest direct line ancestors on WikiTree" - either by number of generations or by decade, perhaps with an initial limit (top ten) and/or an ability to designate which decade or generation I'm interested in.

I imagine the results to be something like:

"the WikiTree profiles for your ten earliest direct "end-of-line" ancestors (perhaps "born 1600-1700" or "in the 20th to 25th generation") are:

25th GGF john Smith (ca 1630)

24th GGM Penelope Plum (ca 1600)

OR

1600 :  Penelope Plum (24th GGM)

1630: John Smith (25th GGF)

The list, as I imagine it, would ONLY include "end-of-line" ancestors - so you could get a quick read on which branches ended in the 12th generation.

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This isn't what you want, but it may help for now: https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/clarke11007/surnames.php .

Greg's Surname generator lists all of your ancestors' surnames. Clicking each name gives you the earliest known ancestor with that name.

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If I found the correct app, it seems to be limited to six generations, and repeats a surname in each generation. What would be nice (and I believe corresponds to the request for displaying the "tops of my tree") would be if each surname was only last in the "last" generation, and (unless filtered) did not stop generating names until it reached the profile with "unknown father".

The Brick Walls (wikitree.com) app is also GREAT! In its current form, it does much of what I was looking for: the link to the "tree top" profile, date and place of birth are listed in an easy-to-read format. 

A few observations:

1) The app appears to list profiles missing at least one parent, whereas a "top of the tree" list would only list profiles for which both parents were unknown.

2) The scope appears to be limited to 10 generations, which makes sense in the context of "roadblocks". If the "top of the tree" is 9GGF and beyond, but the 10th generation profile has both parents connected, then that surname does not appear at all. In my case, this meant that the Stout, Klinckenberg, Walton, Bowling, Lucas, Cowgill, Scott, Woodley, Dark and Bush surnames did not appear in the list. For the "top of the tree" list, those lines would each be followed as long as a father's profile is connected, and a new line created whenever a mother's profile is encountered.

3) It would be nice if the list could indicate the "generational distance" as well as the birth date.

I imagine a basic algorithm which might be summarized as follows: 

a) begin with focus on any Profile-ID (START-ID). Set the top-of-tree counter "n" = 1.

b) if the profile in focus (FOCUS-ID) has a father, the father's profile takes the focus. 

c) if the FOCUS-ID does not have a father, create a "top of the tree" record (TOP-ID#n): store the current FOCUS-ID, surname, birthdate, birthplace and relationship to START-ID in a record indexed with #n. Increase #n by 1.

Whenever a TOP-ID is encountered (FOCUS-ID = latest TOP-ID), proceed as follows: 

d) IF the current FOCUS-ID profile is connected to a mother's profile, set the focus on the mother's profile and go to (b).

ELSE (current FOCUS-ID profile is not connected to a mother's profile), identify the "child" of the current profile with a direct relationship to the START-ID, set the focus on that child profile, and repeat step (d).

The result will be a stored array containing all "top-of-the-tree" profiles, indexed as they would appear in a fan-chart from left to right, which could be filtered, re-sorted and displayed in various ways (possibly exported in csv, json, html or other formats). To avoid unnecessary duplication of processing, it might be possible to create and store such indexed arrays for at least the most connected, older profiles (perhaps pre-1900), and update the array for any of those profiles when changes to parent connections are detected. That way, any current user profile would only need to run the first few generations "live" - thousands of cousins will share the same "tree-tops" if they share the same 4GGF... 

Answer 7

A citation builder built in to the edit page. One that creates industry-standard citations (Evidence Explained, which is based on Chicago).

The browser extension does an fine job of importing citations from places like Ancestry, FS, or FG, but those citations are often junk to start with. They don't include all the necessary information, they're self-referential, often implying that the source is their internal database (rather that correctly stating that they are repository of a copy and also stating exactly what the original is and where it is held), etc.

There are lots of free citation builders around these days, but it would be nice to have one that includes easy options for things like vital records, deeds, wills, etc., which most don't. A labeled form makes it so much easier than learning all the details of EE/Chicago citations.

Having something right there on the edit page would make it so much easier to get people to properly cite their sources!

A few examples from around the web:

• CitationBuilder
• Scribbr
• Grammarly

Comments

I have a small app built for my own use, but I haven't published it yet because it needs some work. Perhaps I can work on that and integrate it within WBE?

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I agree there is a need for built-in citation maker like you've described. But I don't think conforming the style/format of source citations to Evidence Explained is our biggest issue to solve. I constantly see new members (or even not-so-new members) writing citations like "Ancestry.com" "1900 census" "birth record" or "research". If we can just help newer members to create usable source citations it would make a big difference.

And Steven, while it would probably be helpful to test it out using WBE at first, I really think the citation builder would have to be built into the main site. There seem to be plenty of members who are resistant to downloading extensions and who don't use Sourcer or WBE. A form would offer a simple way to make citations and would also be usable for websites or other source materials not covered by Sourcer.

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@Valerie, see Help:Developers, specifically the part about the core of WikiTree. In short, it would have to start as an extension / app before it could really be considered for integration with the core, especially for such a large feature.

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I agree with Valerie on her first point: the biggest issue will be to (gently) help new (and not-so-new) members improve their awareness of and adherence to the citation guidelines. (At this point I'd like to thank Ellen Smith for her patient support in my own struggle with this issue). I find the Sourcer to be a great help, and welcome tools like the "Bio-Check" and Suggestions, which flag my inevitable errors.

Is there some sort of "buddy system" on WikiTree, where new users are offered individual support as they initially learn the ropes? I remember being very impressed with the immediate first contact from the "Greeters" when I signed up earlier this year, but there seems to be an awful lot that has to be found and figured out on one's own - and "read the guidelines" or "watch the video" doesn't always result in confidence and/or competence. I haven't yet felt ready to start one of the "Trails", as my focus has been on trying to preserve my parents' work before their ancestry account closes in May, and I recognize the time commitment I would be requiring of my "guide". Perhaps there is some intermediate option, in which a "newt" could be offered a friendly review of edits and additions for a certain (limited) period of time and/or number of profiles. Then the "sponsor" (or mentor) could point out some of the tools he or she found most useful and address/refer individual technical and personal capabilities...

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I don't think conforming the style/format of source citations to Evidence Explained is our biggest issue to solve...If we can just help newer members to create usable source citations it would make a big difference.

The point of adhering to a particular style is precisely so one does create usable citations with all the necessary information included. If there's a misunderstanding that adhering to industry-standards is just about how things are formatted and to essentially "pretty things up so it all looks the same" that's unfortunate and maybe part of the problem. 

Giving people a form to fill in when they're in the process of editing will help them make sure they've included all the necessary information. If we're going to create a functioning citation builder, I don't see why it shouldn't adhere to industry standards. It's no more difficult to fill in a form for that than for something else, but something else might leave out important information, support people writing bad or vague citations to Ancestry databases instead of the actual document they were looking at, etc. 

I have no problem with having a good citation builder in the extension. I use the extension and like it. Maybe that's the way to test it. But I think that the people most in need of this kind of detailed support aren't using the the extension, so my wish would be to have it built in.

Answer 8

I would like the ability to upload multiple photographs/ documents at once and easily tag the profiles.

Answer 9

I would like to comment on my relatives whose information is incorrect on this platform but there seems to be no place to add my comments on their information.  So I guess it will just have to stay in error.

Comments

Hi Katherine. If you scroll down far enough on any profile, you should see a Comments section, with a button to post a new comment, which will be sent by email to the profile manager if there is one. You may need to upgrade your membership to be able to do this (it's quite free); see

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Membership

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You can comment on the main page of any profile (Scroll Down), point out the incorrect information and  you can put your sources in the comments.

If the profiles are open you can make changes and additions. It is always nice to communicate with the profile manager before doing that.

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I have a question regarding this, and, I am not sure whether it should go instead, into the G2G questions.

I have a relative who has a significant error with the person and offspring, having been wrongly allocated to a wrongful profile destination.

I initially sent to the Profile Manager, a Personal Message about this, and, after 11 days with no acknowledgement from the Profile Manager, I posted the material as a public comment.

The question then arises, as to how long we should wait, without acknowledgement or response from a Profile Manager, before we "take into our own hands", to make significant changes, to a profile that we believe to be wrong.

The particular Profile Manager is a significant contributor to Wikitree, and, is, I believe, highly respected, and, I do not want to act disrespectfully, in this.

So, I am wondering what timeframes are applicable, as a guide, that we should wait, before "taking matters into our own hands", to fix problems, when acknowledgement has not been received from a Profile Manager.

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On this point, I would appreciate feedback on a method I have been using recently (I thought it was a good compromise, but maybe others disagree): I have recently been adding information to the "Research Notes" section, (with a brief discussion and source citations), when I think it might help improve the biography but I don't feel ready (or don't really want) to make changes to the Biography text. My reasoning is that 

a) the profile manager (or someone else with more expertise and experience) can review, edit, use and/or delete my notes if and when they wish. (They remain in the changes log, so I don't care if they are deleted). I have thought of the "Research Notes" section as a good place for discussion and comment - precisely because it can be deleted once a clear decision has been made and relevant bits have been incorporated into the (hopefully beautifully written, concise, informative and accurate) Bio.  

b) a public comment can quickly become outdated, and cannot really be deleted. I often find the old comment threads distracting and can't always see what they were referring to (especially merge comments). So I hestitated to use that method.

c) I also hesitate to write a private message each time I find and add something, feeling that they may be considered intrusive, even annoying (especially during holidays!). I often send a private message to the manager to let them know I've been messing with "their" profile, but I figure that the change will appear in their feed anyway - as well as in the feed of anyone who has the profile on their watchlist.  

Any thoughts?

Answer 10

Ability to sequence photos and images rather than have the appear in the order they were uploaded.

Comments

Hi Cathryn,

The display of the associated images on the side is not really part of the Biography on the profile. If you go to the page for an image, in the lower right corner all the way at the bottom is code that shows you how to insert a photo into a Biography. You can then do whatever you want and order it however you want.

Here are a couple of profiles from my family as examples:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kerns-376

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Longan-25

If you want, reach out to me via PM on Discord (via Appalachia) and I can show you more on how to do this.

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You might check the latest tech thread for 2024. An image sideshow is in the works, and a site redesign may change how profiles look (including column layouts and the placement of uploaded images).

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Absolutely

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Eric,

Thanks so much for this answer, I've looked at the profiles you suggest and see how the pics appear in the profiles.

But I am having a hard time finding the code you refer to -- when I look at the page for one of the pics, the only choices are "Add to Popularity", "Send as E-Card", and "Share on G2G", none of which do what I want.

What am I missing? Thanks, Jeff

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Hi Jeff. On

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Crow-3528

scroll down and look for the section titled "Use Inside Text" near the end on the right hand side.

It's possible that some photo pages do not have this because of their privacy settings.

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Jim -

Thanks for the response. On the image you suggested, I see what you mean. It is a public image, that was originally posted by me, and I see the "Use Inside Text"

But on another one - e.g. https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Kerns-376-2 -- that is also a public image, posted by someone else, the section that has "Set as Primary Photo", "Set as Background Photo" and "Use Inside Text" simply does not appear. [I'd upload a screenshot, but can't figure how to do that right at the moment!]

I'm guessing it has to do with who loaded it? [Not profile manager, since I am not manager on the Crow profile, even though I added the image]

Not a big deal, just another mystery!

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"Use inside Text" is still there. It is on the right sidebar, almost at the bottom of the page and says:

Use Inside Text

To use this image inside the text of a profile, try pasting this snippet of code into the bio/text section:

{{Image|file=Kerns-376-2.jpg
|caption=Dovie Sue Kerns - age 3
}}

To align it on the right side of the page, in a medium size, with a different caption:

{{Image|file=Kerns-376-2.jpg
|align=r
|size=m
|caption=Here's an image.
}}

For more inline image options and instructions, see Template:Image. Ask in G2G if you need help.

If you are not able to see this, it may be a compatibility issue with a browser extension / device.

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Steven, thanks for trying again. Still a puzzlement though. On the Crow picture, for me, the "Edit Image" and other choices (including "Use In Text") appear on the image page AFTER the section used for entering comments. On the Kerns picture, that you talked about, there is NOTHING after the comments section (except the Footer with the Search box, etc). It is simply not there. No scrolling on the right, no nothing.  [If there is a way to upload or send a screenshot I can show you what I mean]

[Perhaps a browser issue? I usually use FireFox on a windows machine, I will check on my iPad]

Anyway, as I said, not a huge issue, and perhaps time to move on! Thanks, Jeff

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@Jeff: It's ok if you can't see it on that page. As Steve says you can learn all about it with the Image Template found here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Image

You'll want to learn about the Clear Template as well:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Clear

Use the Clear template after an Image template, or a group of Image Templates to force the text to go after the image(s) instead of possibly wrap around it. You can see examples of this on the Image Template page.

When I learned how to use these it really can make a Biography "pop" and stand out. It really helps to incorporate photos into the Biography to be able to tell a whole story.

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Jeff, as a workaround, just find the full image name and extension. On this page: https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Kerns-376-2 click on the image to open it in a new tab. The very last part of teh URL will be the image name (e.g., Kerns-376-2.jpg). Then you just plug it into the file parameter of the Image Template and there you go!

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Thanks to all for the prompt and helpful responses!

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@Eric: Those profiles are WONDERFUL!

Thank you so much for sharing - turns out that Jessie Mae is my "20th cousin three times removed"!

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Thanks, GM! It's all about continuous improvement, little bits at a time over a long period of time.

Answer 11

It’d be cool if we could adjust our shared X-DNA matches to the actual GEDMatch percentages, if possible.

I’m an 85% X-DNA match to my maternal grandfather but the profiles are fixed at 50%.

Answer 12

I don't know if this is even possible or not, but I would really like to see a translator button.  I love reading responses on G2G, but some are in other languages.  I was not blessed to be bi-lingual and other than a Google request, would appreciate something like this.

Comments

You do this already by either going to Google Translate, or install the Google Translate browser extension for Chrome.

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If you are using the Chrome Browser, try right-clicking on text that is in another language, and selecting "Translate to English."

If you do not see the option, you may need to enable it first.

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Edge also offers this function.

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deepl is a very good translating app. Better than google in my opinion.

Answer 13

WikiTree has a Merge Profile capability, to handle duplicate profiles.

But occasionally, we also have to deal with conflated profiles. For that, it would be nice to have a Split Profile function.

Yes, we can create a new profile, and move over sources manually. But it would be nice to have a function that makes it easier to specify the different sets of parents, perhaps, and a easy way to copy, or split, the Biography and Sources, etc.

Comments

Nice idea. Reckon  I’ve split more profiles than I’ve merged

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Man, if I had a dollar for every time I've found merged profiles that were not the same person, I could retire.

Answer 14

I currently find WT quite confusing to find things, often even when using the Search function. I wish it was easier to find projects, groups, stickers, etc.

An example is for someone who died during WWI or II. I know there is a specific category or sticker to use as I saw it once but I could not find it when I wanted to use it for a profile.

 I’ve also tried searching within G2G for a post I had previously seen and been unable to find it.

Comments

So, I am not the only one and it is not just me!

Someone suggested once to use google with

'your search term' :site https://www.wikitree.com

works for me some of the time.

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I am constantly going out to a new tab and searching "WikiTree World War II [sticker/category".  I do it so often I don't even have to hit enter, my browser just knows which link I want and it drops down and gives me the right page. 

Answer 15

Most of my wish list has already been touched on by others. But for what it's worth, I have been hoping to see a way to rearrange the order or layout of the images. Maybe make them thumbnail-sized by default. this could make a search easier.

It would be nice if there was a way to link an image that is recognized as a source into the bio, and the source section.

Comments

This suggestion is also at the top of my wish list. I like to think of my profiles as mini works of art. Images are key to this. It's very frustrating when I can't move the best images to the top of the profile where they can be seen.

Answer 16

I think WikiTree is an amazing site and rarely make suggestions for improvement on the technical side of things...but if it were my "wishlist" - I would love for more or returned accessibility to functions, like certain basics for those of us who use a cell phone every day to work on site...a small example would be the ability to copy and past links or ID#s in the  G2G forums :)

  Cheers!

       Becky Elizabeth

        Simmons-11603

Answer 17

I don't know how difficult this would be; however, it would be very nice if there was a way birth and death years could accommodate the Julian calendar. This would be up to 1572 when Great Britain changed to the Gregorian calendar. I have had numerous occasions when families have had numerous children nearly on a yearly basis such that children are not aligned in birth order, or there are error messages because one citation might say 1552 and another 1551 when it is likely 1551/52. This change would help to 'wrangle' these calendar differences.

Should this change occur, it would likely be best to use the documentation approach that Anderson uses. For example, some birth/death/marriage years are generally listed as 1551/2. Anderson uses 1551/52 to clarify the last two digits of the year.

Comments

I would add to locations as well a Now and Then place (populated via a database).  Such as locations that were once part of Prussia.

Answer 18

If I had one WikiTree wish for 2024, it would be that the WikiTree team re-examine and up-grade the options for entering names on profiles. This has been a topic of much discussion of G2G and other forums, and I won't pretend to have the ideal solution, but there should be a simple intuitive way to enter names which do not fit within the traditional Western-style parameters, while allowing them to also display correctly on the profile.

Additionally, I would like to see an option for displaying names in both the native script and Latin script. This would allow us to honor the individual's native culture while also keeping the profile accessible to the vast majority of WikiTree members who can only read Latin script.

Comments

One way would be to just have a single name field, and allow the person entering the name to decide what order/format it should be in. This would also make searching by name considerably simpler.

Answer 19

I would love to see a Word Cloud app using LNAB, with the user being able to select how many generations to include when generating the word cloud.  Also, to include optional themed shapes for the festive season, eg. Xmas Tree shaped cloud at Christmas.And, of course, including the ability to download the word cloud for including in emails and presentations.

Comments

I have marked this down as an enhancement for the Surname Cloud.

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Thank you, that's great!

PS. I didn't know there was a Surname Cloud app - it doesn't appear in the Menu item for Find > Apps.  Maybe it should be added there too.

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Most of my apps outside of the Tree Apps are either in progress works, or just stuff I am playing with and have not been ready to release. You can view some other items here: https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/harris5439/

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Thank you. This is great - I particularly like the Infographic app.  Awesome!

Answer 20

I would like to see an enhancement to G2G that would enable the user to go directly to any questions that they have asked previously.

Those times where I have wanted to find a previously asked question, to review the answers again, they have been an almost impossible to find.

If there is a feature for this already, then it is really well hidden, as I can’t find it.

Comments

Hi Carl. See my comment at this link.

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Thanks for the suggestion, but this appears to show posts related to my G2G tags. It still doesn’t help me find any of the questions I previously asked - none of which were related to my tags. Am I missing something?

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On your G2G profile page

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/user/Preisler-106

in the second row select "All questions". It takes you to

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/user/Preisler-106/questions

which lists the questions you have asked.

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Thank you so much, I get it now. :)