Hi WikiTreers,
We've been developing a way to identify the most-visited WikiTree profiles, i.e. the profiles that are seen by the most people. We're doing this so that we can focus some extra attention on them.
Yes, yes, all our ancestors are equally important and deserving of attention. But bear with me here and I'll explain why helping the most-visited profiles will help all WikiTree profiles be seen more often.
For some background, here is the method we're using to identify them. Ales is combining data from two sources:
- The page view count that we maintain internally. This is the number you see on a profile where it says, "This page has been accessed X times."
- The unique visitor count from Google Analytics. We're using this to find out how many different people have seen a profile in the past year.
We're giving a profile the top ranking, five stars, if it has 1.) 1,000+ total page views and 2.) 100+ different visitors in the past year. There are about 34,000 profiles that meet this criteria. (Ales is still working on improving his method. The profiles that get five stars will change a little bit over time.)
Why are we doing this?
This is about putting our best face forward.
These are the profiles seen by the most people. We want them to be the best they can be. If a person lands on one of these profiles and likes what they see they are more likely to dig deeper. We want to make a good first impression.
Moreover, this is about putting our best face forward for Google. Google is judging our worth based on these profiles. If these are good quality profiles all our profiles will rank higher in Google's search results. (For more on why appearing in Google's search results is so important for WikiTree, see this post from a few weeks ago.)
How should we go about improving them?
Thirty-four thousand profiles is a lot, but we have a large community here. If we work together I think we can make some rapid progress on them.
I. Star Profiles You Manage
Do any profiles you manage have five stars? Ales has enabled a way to see this on WikiTree+.
Click here and enter "5stars" and your WikiTree ID in the text field in the search section. For example, see 5stars Whitten-1 and then click "Get profiles".
II. Star Profiles Managed by Projects
About 7,800 of the 34,000 five-star profiles are managed by projects. Project leaders are now figuring out how to coordinate reviewing and improving them. If you're a member of a geographic or topical project you may have already heard about this, or will soon.
If you're not currently active in a project, will you help with this special task? The Ireland, Magna Carta, and Slavic Roots projects have already started recruiting new teams of volunteers. More requests for help will be coming. See this post for the current list or reach out to a project that interests you.
III. Star Profiles with Errors and Suggestions
This week's Data Doctor Challenge is focused on five-star profiles that aren't managed by projects.
If you've ever been involved with one of these weekly challenges you know what it's all about. Ales uses deep data analysis to flag potential problems. Dates that don't make sense with other dates. Circular relationships. Errors in reference tags, etc. All that gets compiled into tables of profiles that need to be looked at. Participating members check them off one-by-one.
These suggestion tables can look intimidating the first time you work with them. Don't let that stop you. Just ask questions on the challenge thread and others will be happy to help you figure out how you can contribute. We have a great community here.
Anything you can do is much appreciated. Just spending ten minutes improving a five-star profile will have outsized benefits for our entire tree. This is truly a case where everyone's contributions can make a difference for our mission.
Thanks!
Chris
