Guest Members and the Honor Code

Question

It sometimes happens that a guest does not totally understand the requirements for becoming a member of WikiTree. Then they may post a question on G2G asking for help. We have some very helpful WikiTree members who endeavor to give these guests advice on how to become members. However, some misinformation has made its way into the minds of certain members.

A Guest Member can not sign the Honor Code.

For future reference for those members who really do want to help our guests become members, there are five steps to becoming a member of WikiTree:

1. register a guest account and confirm email address
2. create research tags indicating surnames/locations/other genealogy interests
3. Volunteer to become a member of WikiTree
4. be confirmed by a Greeter as a Family Member
5. Sign the Honor code in order to become a full WikiTree Genealogist Member.

The Greeters really do appreciate the help that WikiTree members are trying to give to guests who are confused and we do thank you for your assistance in that regard.

 

Shirley

Comments

Ah.  Signing the honor code comes after confirmation.  I wondered about that :-)

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Yeah me too Emma. I thought it was before. Been forever.

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Shirley, sometimes there are cries for help in G2G from people who say they completed the steps to "Volunteer" some time ago (and appear to me to have done so), but have not been confirmed by a Greeter. The implication is that these people scrolled off the Greeters feed before getting confirmed. How do the Greeters want these messages to be handled when we seem them in G2G?

I've sometimes considered confirming one of these people, but then I read text indicating that this is a personal commitment to work closely with them on their genealogy, and I say to myself "Better leave this one for a Greeter."

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Great question Ellen.  We have greeters who regularly watch the G2G posts and pick these up.  It is best to let a greeter confirm a member because we have a specific message we use with helpful information and a link to the New Member tutorial.  When someone else confirms, the new members may not get this valuable information.

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And yes, Greeters get lots of emails from newbies asking questions after they are confirmed :-)

Answer 1

Thank you Shirley, great tip for new guest and members of WikiTree.