Category Searches and Undiscovered WikiTree Resources

Question

It is always astounding for me when I happen to stumble across a here-to-for undiscovered resource on WikiTree. Today, I discovered a page with no category and recently a project that I am very interested in helping, "The United States Census Transcription Project":

I made a few attempts to categorize the Census Headers page so that it could be more easily found without success. Which brings me to the reason for this post.

I am often frustrated when I go looking for some of these undiscovered WikiTree resources. Sometimes, they don't exist. Fine, more projects that need doing. That is just part of the WikiTree process. But all too often, they exist, but I can't find them. In my humble opinion, every page on WikiTree should be thoroughly categorized. It should be mandatory when creating any new page.

And Categories should be the easily searchable Index for WikiTree. Yet when I use the Find:Category drop down menu available from most pages, the landing page is baffling. When I try to drill down to the category I am seeking, I don't know whether it exists or I just can't guess it's parent category. The category search option is so generic as to be essentially useless unless you already know the exact labeling on the category you are seeking. WikiTree is an amazing site with a phenomenal vision but it is often baffling and difficult to navigate. What can we do to make an easier to navigate landing page for Category searches? To make WikiTree more user friendly?

PS
I even had trouble picking which G2G category to put this post.

Comments

This page should definitely belong to the project you are interested in. I think a category for United States Census Records should be created and fall under United States History and perhaps a world census category. I am grateful that you pointed this free page out because I have been creating graphics for each census year and I can upload them to this page so anyone can click on it for the visual representation.

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This page is about the Census.  It has a link to the Headers just above the table.  I had updated the table a while back because the links were not there for all the years.  It sure will be nice when we can add 1950!!  I keep this page bookmarked so I have the Census and Headers in one place. U S Census and Headers

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There is a category already for United States Census Records and the states are listed under it as State comma Census Records. under the states it is listed as County, State, Census Records.  Under each county is Year US Census, County, State.  I am reading this straight off of the category chart.

Answer 1

Have you tried WikiTree+ to search for categories? It is superior. 

Comments

Yes, that helps, but I think it should still be better integrated and simplified for public use. Messing with categories is like getting lost in a forest. For instance, I think this project page I just created and have begun working on should be a category page, not a free space page? I am still trying to wrap my head around the categories and how to use them to provide the most clarity.

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So for this page:https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:1850_United_States_Federal_Census%2C_Franklin_Township%2C_Greene_County%2C_Pennsylvania%2C_Sheet_490

You have a table applied, which doesn't belong on a category page. The purpose of categories is to group profiles (individual person profiles as well as free-space profiles) and the text should describe what is grouped.

Also, we aren't drilling down to "sheet" level in census categories, only to the township or the city/town level. It's just too much to manage in categories, and they do not get that much use, to be honest. (You would understand if  you saw the numbers of categories we see every day, many of them named incorrectly, missing information, etc. All types of categories, military, location, ships, census, personal, etc.)

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I understand and agree with most of what you have said. However, the category for census records for Franklin Township, currently does not exist. So...a table was added to the Space page so that links could be made to the actual Census image sheets.

Categories may not generally have tables but they do have links to connected profiles which in this case, would be from the Category page for Franklin Township to both the sheets of the Census records and the individual profiles listed in the sheets. Do you understand my logic?

Answer 2

Gary, I really do understand your frustration.  Here are a few things I've tried:

•  Some time when you have some free time, browse around in the WikiTree categories.  I actually did that quite a lot until I discovered G2G, when I became an addict.  I think it was helpful.

•  When you are looking for something, go to WikiTree's Search page.  Scroll down to the bottom and enter whatever you're looking for.  Then on the results page, scroll down until you start seeing Wikitree links.

•  Google whatever you're looking for and select the WikiTree results.

•  Go to the G2G page and input the term you're seeking in the search box at the very top.

Have you ever considered how you would categorize information?  In the old pre-internet days, when I had volumes of paper files, I found it extremely challenging to come up with an overall logical system.  So as frustrating as I sometimes find WikiTree's, I understand the problems.

Comments

Yes, I have been giving a great deal of consideration to how I would categorize information, which was the reason for this post. And yes, it can be very challenging. But, if we can manage to get a truly functional set of Categories, it should allow us to easily search for appropriate Categories for any particular profile or freespace page.

I actually love the little tab that exists in each profile that allows you to search and insert a categories. It is extremely useful but usually missing appropriate categories for many levels.

I think categories should apply down to the last level before you get unique information. I know this is a tremendously time consuming task, but if it is properly done, we should be able to apply appropriate categories quickly and efficiently to every profile and freespace page. Please look at the example I have been discussing in the comment above about how I think the page I am currently working on for "The United States Census Transcription Project" should actually be a category rather than a freespace page.

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Gary, I looked at your Franklin County census page and by clicking around got back to the United States Census Transcription Project.  Honestly, I wonder why you want to do it.  The census has already been transcribed.  You could spend the rest of your life on that!  Same for categorization.

Maybe WikiTree doesn't need to be a self-contained source of all information about everything.  I had not thought to look on WikiTree for a guide to census headings.  I have my own paper copy that I got years ago at my local Family History Center for 10 cents.  The census bureau itself has on-line information including this downloadable history of the census:  Measuring America:  The Decennial Census from 1790 to 2000.

If we categorized everything down to the last little detail, how would that be useful?  Would each person's profile link to a dozen different categories?  Maybe I'm not understanding you.  I'd rather see an expanded help index.  Maybe we could have a census Help page with links to free-space pages and other sources.

P.S.  I had fun reading your biography.  You and I are only six days apart in age.  I was reminded of my own first year of college.

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There is not a short easy answer to your question Julie because of the nature of the culture in which we are presently embedded. The gist of your question is "Why WikiTree"? The only short answer I can provide is an analogy. What is the value of Wikipedia? All that information was already available from other sources after all. Why go to all that effort to create a free public repository of the same information? When was the last time you accessed an Encyclopedia?

When I was about 6 soon after I learned to read, our family would drive from Oklahoma City to Lindsay about 50 miles south to visit my grandparents. I was so excited about learning being able to read, I would read the Burma Shave signs aloud from the back seat we passed them along the way.

It was not long after that, that I discover the Encyclopedia Britannica my grandparents kept under the telephone table in the hallway. I spent hours pouring through those pages discovering the mysteries of the world. My grandparents bought that encyclopedia from a travelling salesman for the benefit of their children and eventually their grandchildren. Now, my son uses his computer to access Wikipedia and from there, clicks source links to discover the world.

Human culture is evolving rapidly. Lets hope it is evolving rapidly enough to save us from ourselves. WikiTree is about our vast and vastly dysfunctional human family. Isn't it about time we began treating one another like real family again? Loving functional Families share everything. I started this census transcription project because I have been having more and more difficulty accessing the US census image files on Family Search. The US census data is public information already bought and paid for by the people of the United States. It should not be behind paywalls. It is the history of our families. Thank God my grandparents did not charge me to read their encyclopedia, not even 10 cents. Consider it my gift to my grandchildren, ancestors and cousins all around the world.

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Gary, I was not asking "Why WikiTree?"  After all, I'm here.  There is no reason you should particularly remember my previous posts even if you had read them, but I have explained many times how valuable I find WikiTree.

What I was saying was that WikiTree should not need to "reinvent the wheel" when there is so much else to do.  However, if it is a labor of love for you, I have no interest in stopping you.  

While I agree that it would be nice if the census was freely available, there are ongoing costs of providing it such as maintaining a website, indexing, maintaining archives, etc.  I don't mind paying for access to information.  I know many WikiTreers disagree with me on that.

Answer 3

Sensible use of categories is fatally compromised by the fact that cross-linked categories are referred to on each other's pages as "Subcategories".

No actual subcategory functionality is implemented, ie nothing treats a member of a so-called "subcategory" as also a member of the "parent".

But people take the label literally anyway.  So they won't cross-link categories except where they imagine a (purely notional) "parent-child" relationship.

Comments

RJ, would you please provide an example?

Answer 4

Once categories moved to the bottom of profiles, I more or less forgot they existed and haven't added one in months.