When will copy and paste end and when will inline references be a preference for citations?

Question

Copy and paste can be limits information gleaned from a source, creates copyright questions and inline references gives us a whole reference source.  Around the subject of the profile one discovers more about the ancestors and the descendants of the person--i. e. more biographical information.  Someone help me make a biography of all the families and the works used for profiles on both paternal and maternal families.  Have not figured out how to get back to the free space after it is created.  This 81 y/o is learning new tricks and wants help to help other to advance our World Tree.  Sharon

Comments

Hi Sharon, to get to a free space page after creation, Click on the My wikiTree tab at top of the page then scrool to watchlist and click that, from here switch the tab at top to free-space profiles. All your free=-pace profiles are listed there

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Becky,

Thanks for helping me 'learn a new trick'!!!!!!!  Found the ones I had created. How can they be made available to others?

Sharon

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What's a free space?

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It depends on what you want to do with your free-space page. If it's just for some members, family for example you could add them to the trusted member list and then they'll also have the page in their watch list. Or you could share the page on G2G  with a post to say what it's about and the link to the page, if it's likely to be of interest to many people. Like a one name study free-space page

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Hi Lois wikiTree has two types of pages, one for profiles of people and the other type are Free-space pages. You can read about them here:- http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Free-Space_Profile

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Becky,

It is New Jersey wills for one that can be of help to all.  And both maternal and paternal Stout, Throckmorton, and on and on.  Will try to share on G2G for every one.

Thanks again,

Sharon

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Your welcome  Sharon : )

If there's a one name study for those surnames, I would add the link to the free space page(s) on the ONS page under resources. Otherwise a G2G post making people aware of the page will work. There may be a better way, but I'm still learning my way around wikiTree.

Becky

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That's good to know, seems like a good idea.

Answer 1

It may be helpful to get the assistance of a mentor. Find one here:

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

Answer 2

Sharon, there is no way to forcibly limit copy/paste actions, since the only thing that is transmitted to WikiTree is the content of the edit box - WikiTree programming has no way to know whether that content was typed in directly or pasted in … and, by the way, many people work offline or in a text editor or word processor for their convenience and then paste what they have written into the edit box and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.

WikiTree policy does include not plagiarizing and not violating copyrights by copying the entire content of an article found elsewhere and pasting it into a biography but the only way to "police" it is for members who happen to find an instance of it to write to the member who put it there and tell them that it has to be removed, then give the member some time to do so before going back and doing it themselves.

WikiTree policy also states a preference for inline citations, but allows the option of simply adding the citations at the end of the Sources section to accommodate members who do not know how to code the inline references.

Inline references, however, do not automatically make the citations any better than if they're just added at the end.  It is the citation itself that needs to be complete and accurate and provide a link if the information is available online.

I am in full agreement with your wishes for having no copyright violations, plagiarism, or incomplete source citations.  I applaud your initiative and want to assure you that all the help you need to become an expert WikiTreer is right at your fingertips - and I mean that literally!  You can ask questions here about pretty much anything and someone will give you answers and/or explanations that will be fast and good.

Comments

Gaile,

After 15926 contributions a mentor probably is not what is needed by me.  What is remembered that on my early profiles was denied as a pre-1700 and pre-1500 because of copy/paste.  What was being copied was my own book with 7 lines of my family which was well sourced.  Just see a deterioration of the work being done on Wikitree, mostly, by new Wikitreers.  There was a information file created for them which covers these issues.  So will plug along, communicate, and maintain high standards in my work.

Sharon

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Sharon, I think what is needed by you might be new eye glasses - I didn't suggest that you get a mentor!  Aside from that, I just passed 47,000 contributions and I very often go running to people I consider my mentors - those who I recognize as knowing more than I do about a particular area of knowledge that has me stumped.  I don't have to have someone formally assigned as "my" mentor to think of people I know here that way.

I'm sorry that I didn't understand that you were talking about copying and pasting your own work.  That should never have been criticized, although what I hear very often is that when you get information from a place that has primary sources, those are the ones you should cite, rather than the place you got the information from … I think of it as second hand sourcing to send people on a scavenger hunt, first to the place you send them and then that place sends them to the real source.

I suspect that, all along, the lowest quality work has been done by the newest WikiTreers.  What I did when I first started here makes me shudder in disgust when I look at it now and I'm trying to go back and improve profiles I created at the beginning.

I admire your determination to maintain your own standards without regard to what anyone else does.  I understand - from personal experience - that it's not always easy to do.

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Gaile,

Yes, like you, have my go to's and yes as I go through my very first ones edit them too.  As for new Wikitreers that come my way,  try to help them but it is the older ones who resist.  Had cataracts now have 20/20 with reading glasses and 20/30 without after wearing glasses for 72 years.  Let us agree to continue to assure the standards are quality not quantity.  My reason for the statement was hopefully to facilitate conversation and maybe ours will help others.

Sharon

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Gaile,

Guess just a little upset.  I apologize it was no you that suggested the mentor.

Sharon

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I will tell you both something.  I am a terrible speller I think, so I like to copy and paste so I do not have to waste time figuring out my spelling mistakes - I came in here after a long spell of not doing genealogy after my first bout when I began back in about 97 or 98 - found Wikitree and loved it right off - entered a lot of my family from my binders I made back then - have had to re-find all the sources because most of the old links I wrote down back then are dead and I did not always write out citations - so I go and see that I am basically unsourced on someone and go to work on that profile - many have been done fairly well but still some are  MESS but we just keep on and do our best!