Talk:Family History and Genealogy Wiki

Archives
Archive 1 (January 2005 - September 2007) Archive 2 (November 2007 - present)

(Some of the material may go into a Forum. You can probably find an earlier full version for an unlimited length of time by using the "Page history" link. (June 2007))

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Foreign language in banner

Just curious why there is a message in some foreign language (German?) in the header of the main page? —DeGraffJE ^talk 23:04, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Dutch, to tell Dutch speakers that if they log in they can have Dutch interface. Room for more languages there. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:28, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Is it necessary? It looks a bit tacky, favors one language, and is iterated on Wiki Familiegeschiedenis en Genealogie (.nl), which is linked on the main (English) page. —DeGraffJE ^talk 14:46, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Favoring one language need not disadvantage others. But I'm pleased the additional Dutch has been pruned - a single sentence is enough, and maybe more than enough if we have a clear link from that page to the Dutch version. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 15:45, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Intro mods

I significantly modified the introduction on this page, as it made no sense in English and was redundant to the Welcome section on the page. More formatting can be done so that it appears neatly in different browsers and on different screen sizes, but I feel that the current text is clear, concise, and compelling. —DeGraffJE ^talk 15:03, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Great new wording, thanks! — Robin Patterson (Talk) 15:47, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Multilingual welcome

I notice changes have been made to welcome users in multiple languages, etc. I feel that this is unnecessary since (1) this is the English main page, not the multilingual welcome page, and (2) users are probably smart enough to select their language if they arrive here. If we just more fully develop the distinct language main pages, users who search, for example, in Spanish, would be encounter the Spanish main page per Google search, not the English one. —DeGraffJE ^talk 12:15, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Multilingual is coming, but unfortunately we are English for 99%

Problem is that there is no multilangual welcome page. This is still an English site with English welcomepage. User:Phlox is nowadays transforming this site to a multilangual site and until that process has finished the English sites will function as multilingual sites. The english sites are not yet catogorized as Page in English because that was logical at an English site. Now the site becomes multilingual all english pages have to be catogorized with AWB. Unfortunately are users usually not smart and have big problems to work with this wiki. I promoted this wiki at the biggest dutch genealogy site, but even average dutch genealogists, educated in dutch, english, german and french, had the opinion that this site wasnot ready and user friendly enough to work with en to cooperate, apart from the fact that there is not yet a good gedcom system and the current view of admins and bureaucrats seems to be that they don't want big gedcom imports. It is a pity that there is no coordination and cooperation between the various wiki genealogysites. No one is ideal, butt all have parts which are the best, so if somebody could pick up the best parts of all, then the ideal genealogy site could be created! Until then there are many dutch genealogist waiting with more millions of ancestors. -- Fred Bergman 13:05, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

additional notice

The LDS church (Mormons) are actually developping a new system; I hope that that will be as good as it looks now, then there will be no future for the other wiki genealogysites I think-- Fred Bergman 13:12, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Move the slideshow?

I wonder whether we could move the slideshow up, to sit at the left side of the welcome message balancing the links at the right. It's a while since I did anything with the slideshow; I remember it being tricky. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:25, January 17, 2010 (UTC)

Done. Not very tricky. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 02:22, July 17, 2010 (UTC)

Then we got the New Look and our slideshow turned into a column of blobs. Alternative is explained and illustrated on Help:Galleries and slideshows/wikitext. Robin Patterson 05:26, February 1, 2011 (UTC)

"Today in Familypedia people's history"

I'd like to see something like the above on the front page. Here's a template used on the South African Roux website that does it: http://roux.co.za/index.php?title=Template:Todayinhistory&action=edit - I'm sure we have someone here who can do a version for us. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 02:03, May 31, 2010 (UTC)

Our "year" pages already have the same sort of thing. We now have pages such as "January 1" (though I'm not sure if they are complete) and I think there is a piece of SMW that can be made to relate to each of them. If it could be easier, or not much harder, than maintaining a "featured article" slot, I would like some template expert to have a go at it. Unlike the featured article, it could be totally automatic once started. At a guess, I'd say there are currently well under 40 births per day, 40 deaths per day, and so on (40 times 366 is about our number of facts articles, but not everyone has day and month detail). But that will grow, so we probably need, right from the start, a small selection displayed with an "#ask" link for people who want to see more. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 02:43, July 17, 2010 (UTC)

Pop-up ad on welcome page

There is a pop-up ad on the welcome page that will not go away. It covers some of the text on the right side. If this could be put into a frame it would be okay. SouthWriter 23:08, July 16, 2010 (UTC)

Not something we volunteers have direct control of. There shouldn't be real popups anywhere. All that I see in that rectangle today is a smallish polite static ad from heritage.com or some such, not covering any content. If you see something covering text, I suggest you use the "Contact Wikia" link near the bottom of the page. Staff are pretty responsive. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 02:22, July 17, 2010 (UTC)

I ran into it just now as well; perhaps its just one bad ad in that rotation. Sj 22:12, July 19, 2010 (UTC)

Your wikia is in danger

The wikia staff are planning to impose a mandatory skin on all wikia sites that would disrupt the encyclopedic nature in its basic form. More info in the following links.

Your_First_Look_at_the_New_Wikia

Experience_the_new_Wikia

Important_Updates_on_Wikia's_New_Look

Wikia's_new_look_-_FAQ

[1]

Centering main page infobox

Hi, Robin,

Now that the wiki's using a fixed width with the new skin, I think the box on the the main page would look better centered rather than left-aligned. Mind if I change that over? Mistydemeo 16:21, October 18, 2010 (UTC)

Nice idea in principle, Misty (and it's nice to have you taking time off from County of Brant to contribute here), but that white space is used for ads shown to visitors who aren't logged in. I've just switched my Preferences to show all ads and been invited to meet girls in Auckland! If there's a way to have the block centered for logged-in users without interfering with that ad, I'd be pleased to see it. I've been reluctant to touch it because Wikia staff and helpers have been tweaking the page lately. — Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:55, October 19, 2010 (UTC)

SMW breaking again

The front page births etc look a bit skimpy:

Today is March 19.

Familypedia people who were born on this day


Familypedia people who died on this day
[<>]  	[<>] Father 	[<>] Mother 	[<>] Age at death
Anne Wellesley (c1788-1875) 	Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (1760-1842) 	Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland (c1762-1816) 	


Familypedia people who were first married on this day

The March 19 page has 24 people altogether, interesting not including Anne Wellesley. Do we use a different template? Maybe we should comment-out that section till SMW is looking better? --- Robin Patterson (Talk to me) 08:54, March 19, 2011 (UTC)

AOA,

I m Muhammad Hafeez, how can we get our Shajra-e-Nasab, what is procedure for this,

My cast is Janjua Rajput

Thanx

hafey55_nj@yahoo.com

Hafey55 nj 12:45, September 10, 2011 (UTC)

Can somebody repair succsion template and its copy at Oldrich of Bohemia ?

Copy-editing Needed

I noticed several formatting and grammatical errors on this introductory page. Since the Main Page has been locked to prevent any editing, is there someone who may be willing to address these issues and update it through copy-editing? I would be happy to assist! Thanks in advance.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by AncestorHunter06 (talk • contribs) 05:40, 10 January 2022‎

Thank you for your interest. We are not going to open this page up for the internet vandels and trolls, so please make a list of the changes you would like to see made, so we may discuss them. Thurstan (talk) 20:41, 9 January 2022 (UTC)