Spinning off[]
I've archived some really historical material. Now (one of these days, D.V.) I'll do a bit more removal of big chunks of more current matter to specifically-named pages to make the material easier to find by a category search or even a list of help topics. Robin Patterson 01:23, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
- Good! Some of that old stuff was beginning to look moldy!Bill 10:39, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
Not intended as a "Help" page[]
One should bear in mind that the Watercooler is not a Help page except perhaps incidentally. Bill and I are working on improving the usability of the Community Portal as a "Help" starter (for newbies who don't manage to find the "Help" links at first glance) and as a guide to users who want to look around a bit after getting the basics under their belts. Robin Patterson 06:05, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
Calendar[]
That's a neat little tool that's been added to the arsenal. I guess the annual Wikia meeting/convention? might be noted in that space. Seems like I recall them doing something like that last summer in NY. Are the entries done globallly by Wikia, and then dispersed automatically to the individual wikis, or is this something that we can add to locally? (not that I expect anyone setting up an event related to this particular wiki, but who knows?) Bill 13:49, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
- Each wiki does its own. Family reunions? Genealogy conferences? Thousands of possibilities per year. I'll browse a few newsletters to add some items, and we can invite people to add their family reunions. I've just heard a news item that can go on! All adds to the Google ranking... Robin Patterson 23:58, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
- Good ideas. I'll pass that on to some who might find this useful. Also, we might want to consider putting the Calendar on a separate page, with a link from the main page---I'm gradually working on modifications to the main page, but that seems like the place we'd want something like this. Perhaps the main page should be kept fairly simple---a greeting/purpose, followed by a few links to main components of the site. The idea being that sometimes you don't want to overwhelm folks. Bill 01:27, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
- Agreed 100%. Separate page done - reviving Current events. Maybe I'll cut the Watercooler one down to 2 months and refer people there to the longer one. Robin Patterson 03:33, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
- Good ideas. I'll pass that on to some who might find this useful. Also, we might want to consider putting the Calendar on a separate page, with a link from the main page---I'm gradually working on modifications to the main page, but that seems like the place we'd want something like this. Perhaps the main page should be kept fairly simple---a greeting/purpose, followed by a few links to main components of the site. The idea being that sometimes you don't want to overwhelm folks. Bill 01:27, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Note on Copy Right[]
I originally placed this comment (below) on Zephyrinchus' user talk page. Zephyr apparently doesn't want it there, and removed it. I believe the point made concerning copyright is important, but I will honor Zephyr's desire not to show it on his talk page. After all, there should be somewhere on a site where you can be free of edits by others (though the talk page is obviously intended for that purpose). But the point still needs to be made, so we'll place it here. Bill 03:46, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
Bill 16:42, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
I'm going to assume that you originally suggested the creation of a Cemetery Transcription Wiki through the usual channel, and that their response was that it would make more sense to include such an effort within th Genealogy Wiki.
That would be a conclusion I'd agree with, which is not to say a separate wiki wouldn't be in order either. An explanation of your objectives on the Genealogy Wiki would help us understand how we can best support your effort. I might also add that a certral location where cemetery transcriptions could be found would be an excellent tool for genealogists. Hence setting up such a project on this wiki, if done properly, is something I could easily support. There are, however, some things that need to be considered in more detail, and I'd like to know more about what you are proposing.
Setting up a special project area for cemetery transcriptions would be relatively straight forward. We have several "special projects" underway, and more would make sense. We've played with various "Data Port" ideas for recording county level records, etc., and this may be carried forward more systematically in the future. However, such efforts can be very consumptive of time. There's a lot of such data out there, and getting it transcribed, organzied and incorporated into the the wiki would be a major undertaking if it were done systematically. The same could be said for a "Cemetery Transcription" Project. There are an awful lot of cemeteries records that could be incorporated.
Would the records presented be original transciptions, or abstracts from existing transcriptions? One suspects you are not planning on going into the field and transcribing bunches of cemeteries. If you were, you'd probably not get very far, as the task would be huge, and very localized.
Rather, I suspect your intent is to use existing transcriptions, either published in book form, and transcribed by you into electronic format, or extracted from existing transcription projects on the net. If that's the case then you need to think about things like copyright. That's a complex subject, and one about which I would offer no guidance, other to say---you have to be careful about doing things like this. It can be done under some circumstances, but its something that can create problems if not done careful and with due consideration to existing "copy rights".
If the material you expect to transcribe/abstract/extract is "out of copyright", then its not a problem to make use of it. However, if your plan is to extract existing transcriptions from the net, even if its "out of copyright" material, you may still have a problem of one sort or another. People do not take kindly to having their material usurpted by others, particularly when its done whole sale (as in copying entire pages verbatim from someone elses' site. Before you launch a project of this type, you need to take things like that into consideration. Bill 03:46, 28 March 2007 (UTC)