Jennifer --
I'm sorry you're having a hard time, and I hope you'll give us the chance to show you the ropes so we can help you feel better about working on your family here.
Here are a few things you can do when you're not getting the help you need:
- Make sure to tag your posts on G2G with tags that will catch the attention of people who can help you with whatever problem you're having. It sounds like maybe GEDCOM would be a good one for some of the struggles you've been experiencing. (I've added tags to your post up there to catch a few groups that can help)
- Don't be shy about using the Contact a Mentor link on the Help menu in the upper right corner. Our mentors are busy, but they all love to help other members learn the ropes.
- Make sure that you're making ample use of the Help Index, also on the Help menu. It took me quite a while to really get into doing this, but it's kind of my best friend now! ;-)
- If you're having trouble with a specific member, please, please, please use the Problems with Members link, again, on the Help menu. We have all signed the Honor Code, which means that we've all promised to be courteous to one another, and we don't take that lightly.
As I'm sure you've noticed, Wikitree is vastly different than any other genealogy website for a couple of reasons.
First of all, it's run almost exclusively by volunteers. Those of us on the Leader team and all of the other projects don't get paid for being here. We're here because we love what we do, and we want WikiTree to be the best it can be. The downside of that is that our time is limited. Many of us have full-time jobs, but we still make a point to do what we can to help out fellow Wikitreers.
Secondly, because we have a "one profile per person" goal here, GEDCOMs will not be imported in the same fashion as other websites. We can't just import the entire structure of a family because that would cause far too many duplicates to be created and would create an enormous amount of additional work for the people who scout the site for those and fix them. This is why the limit for the number of profiles you can import with a GEDCOM is so small, and it's also why you will oftentimes hear people discouraging the upload of GEDCOMs. It gets the profiles into the database quickly, but it really doesn't reduce the amount of work you'll be doing to get your family as it should be.
Finally, it's important that everyone have patience with each other, and I'm really sorry if anyone has been rude to you. That's not acceptable. Sometimes we all need to be reminded what it's like to be new and try to learn everything that's involved in creating a well-researched world-wide tree. There is a steep learning curve.
I hope that you will make sure to ask for help here when you need it. There are plenty of people who are willing to step up and get you what you need.
