How to Find Out Important Information?

+20 votes
401 views

I learned recently about an important change in Wikitree policy from a G2G discussion that I was following for another reason. My question is this: Is there, and if not why not, a method for informing Wikitree researchers of important changes or additions to Wikitree Policy and/or Style? I am talking about a Wikitree broadcast that goes to all members. whatever G2G categories they may follow, perhaps on a regular basis, and informs them of important changes. Maybe a G2G tag that all members are automatically subscribed to. 

The particular case that prompted my question is this: A recent G2G discussion led me to the page Help:Research Notes, dated June 23, 2017, where I learned about Research Note Boxes and a set of templates that replace templates that I have been using for a long time. For example, {{Uncertain Existence}} has replaced {{Questionable}} and {{Estimated Date}} instead of {{DateGuess}}. Probably, had I been following the right G2G tags, I would have learned about these before, but it was obvious from the discussion that many members did not know this either. It seems to me that changes like this are important enough that they should be broadcast to all members, not just to the ones who happen to follow the right tags.It would also be useful to learn what to do about Profiles that still have the earlier styles.

in Policy and Style by Henry Chadwick G2G6 Mach 5 (56.1k points)
retagged by Henry Chadwick
You might want to add the "leaders" and "improvements" tags to bring the people to this post who could make those kind of changes :-)
Done.

4 Answers

+17 votes
I second this excellent idea.    

Or when the error report is changed to Suggestions so we don't get half a dozen posts a day asking "Where is my error report?"
by Emma MacBeath G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
I think some stuff is mentioned in the weekend chats ?
weekend chats are not the best way to communicate out to the membership as a whole
Weekend chats are cool, but only a small portion of our membership participates.
Weekend chats should not be used as a means of communicating with members. I looked at the chats in the first month I joined and have never opened one since. I prefer to use my time elsewhere.
Sorry to hear you don't weekend chat., Miss Linda. You miss my music and movie picks and my fabulous soul food recipes. When it becomes to fooooood, I am the Xtreme Kong ;-}

Sorry to hear that you "prefer to use my time elsewhere" than on the weekend chats, Lynda. I have found them to be very friendly, helpful and informative, as well as informal. The latter is very important for new members like myself who are encouraged to join in and not be afraid to ask questions. Sometimes G2G can be a bit daunting when you are a newbie, but the weekend chat is a very friendly place and I for one am very grateful to those who donate their valuable time there to encourage us. 

I am a much newer member than you are Iain and I did try the weekend chat when I was new to Wikitree, but found it more daunting than the rest of G2G :)

I volunteer a considerable amount of my time to G2G: checking categories and tags to aid navigation for others, offering Wikitree help and genealogy help. I am sorry to hear that there are some who don't value that contribution as much as participation in the chat.
I agree completely with Lynda. I joined Wikitree for genealogy, not for music, jokes, recipes, movies, etc.  I looked at Weekend Chat a couple of times early on and bailed.
+13 votes
They do send out a periodic email newsletter type of thing.That seems like the right place to announce such changes; that said,I've never seen it used for that.
by Jillaine Smith G2G6 Pilot (914k points)
I don't remember ever seeing it. Maybe it only goes to Leaders.
I don't recall ever receiving an e-mail newsletter from WT.
You have to sign up for the WikiTree blog to receive those
Comes at the top of your weekly feed on activity.
In an email Eddie or if I click on my feed?
Once a week, in your email, you get an activity feed that has announcements, tells you who thanked you etc and lists any activity by SOMEONE ELSE on profiles you manage
It's called "WikiTree Family News.". I read it primarily to see what's happening with the profiles I care about.  I've not thought about it as the place where we would be notified of official WT changes.  BUT maybe I should have considered that?
+12 votes
What we need is a section on the Nav Home Page specifically designed to alert ALL members whenever policy changes are being discussed. Newsletters and emails just don't get the job done in a timely manner.

Membership can't be expected to follow EVERY possible G2G tag regarding these discussions. And these discussions are too important to continue using such a haphazard method to inform membership.

Too often we learn of these changes long after the fact!
by Lindy Jones G2G6 Pilot (258k points)
That is a great idea Lindy!
Newbies and semi-seldoms may never look at their nav pages
I think it is the regulars who are more concerned about changes
It used to be my starting point when I was new, but now I rarely look at it.
But, if we knew all announcements were there, we would probably look at it regularly again ;-)

I know it's possible to log in to WikiTree on a different page than the Nav Home Page, but it is the most logical place for important notifications of interest to general membership.

In my opinion, the Nav Home Page should be every member's starting point each time he/she logs into WikiTree (and each member should review the page regularly). Isn't that the main point of that page? And that's why it's also the best place for notifying membership of important discussions and announcements!

Log in? I haven't logged in from this computer in so long ... Do I remember my password?
What type of device do you use, Anne?

Do you use your Nav Home Page?
MAC desktop, Firefox, and I hardly ever look at my Nav Home Page anymore.

I do suppose if I thought it would change with important stuff, I might go there occasionally
LOL Anne.  I haven't had to log in for ages either.  I keep WikiTree open 24/7 :-)  But it only takes a second to click on the link to Home Page.
+8 votes
Hi Henry,

I understand (from a different g2g post) that the tag "Announcements" is the correct tag to have in order to receive important changes or additions to WikiTree.

I'm going to add it...because it frustrates me also when changes are NOT made known to all the researchers.

Cheryl
by Cheryl Skordahl G2G6 Pilot (291k points)
The problem is, when announcements are made, they aren't usually tagged as such
I don't believe anybody deliberately intends to have WT exclusive to researchers who joined up firstly, many of whom are now leaders.  WT has grown quickly and with small staff probably has problem keeping up with communications.  It's difficult to understand how changes affect the multitudes.

And that's why a central notification point for important discussions and announcements is needed.

Tags don't seem to help much either. For a time, I was following at least 15 different announcement/improvement/features related tags and STILL missed many important discussions!

We need a central point that is easily accessible and reasonably visible to ALL members.

Thank you, Lindy.  Agreed.
I agree that we need push notifications for these changes. The email update is fine, but when I wasn't a regular wikitree user, it mostly sat unread before deletion. You can also opt out of the family news. The navigation page makes sense for such announcements. I now have chosen to follow announcements as one of the limited tags I can follow, but that is an active choice I made. By placing announcements on the navigation page, no one would need to actively opt in. It would hopefully be easy to view past announcements as well, so irregular users could find out major changes over the last few months

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