Upload pdf files as images
Progress continues, thanks to constant feedback from WikiTreers.
One new addition that might interest you: you can now upload Adobe pdf files to your profiles of family members, places, things, etc. They function just like images. Simply click “upload image” on any page. You can then associate the pdf with as many profiles as you like, add a title, location, date, and/or comments.
We’re still hard at work on our “gedcom” importing program. Those of you who use other family tree programs will easily be able to import your current work to WikiTree so there’s no duplication of your efforts. If you do have a gedcom file (and you do if you use just about any other family tree software or website) and you’re willing to help test the new import process let me know.
Hi Great site.
I had a couple questions/suggestions. First question is are you going to prevent or not prevent people from creating the same family trees instead of making a cooperative one. Will there be some sort of auto merge feature or will it be determined by the creator of the person page?
Suggestion, when you make someone and his father has the same name and it asks if its the same person or a different one? There are not enough details at that stage. I’ve got family lines that have 5 or 7 of the same first name/ last name combo’s and once the tree gets large enough reading
John Denman
John Denman
John Denman
John Denman
just isn’t enough.
Perhaps if you added the spouse?
John Denman who married Judith Stoughton
John Denman who married Mary Gano
John Denman who married Hasidah Slough (not spelled right)
Actually I think it was philip who married slough but whatever.
Suggestion
Could there be a way of coloring or somehow marking living individuals so if I forget to check the they are dead button I can come back and fix it without having to click on everyone to figure out who I forgot?
Suggestion
When you first create a female and then give her a husband could it not assume he’s taken her last name?
Suggestion
If there is a public tree but you cannot edit it would it be possible to have something to note that a viewer had noticed errors in the data?
Suggestion
As an addition to trusted people, would it be possible to have people fill in information as they are surfing the tree and then the owner of the person could simply approve the changes, if they are accurate?
I realize this has nothing to do with the blog post, but I figured I’d just post at the top. I also realize what *I* would like in a family tree may not be what the community as a whole would like, so if anyone feels like chiming in with other suggestions please do.
Comment by Fay X — July 29, 2009 @ 9:42 am
Hi Fay.
This is great feedback. I really appreciate thoughtful, well-composed input like this. Very few people take the time.
Your first big question and suggestion are tied together. My dream for WikiTree is indeed all about encouraging cooperation, not just among family members (who already know they’re family members) but among distant relatives and friends as well. One worldwide family tree is the ultimate goal.
You wrote, “Will there be some sort of auto merge feature or will it be determined by the creator of the person page?”
I believe that the decisions have to be made by human beings. Automatically merging two John Denmans together would be trouble. That said, our search engine needs to do a much better job of guessing at the right John Denman and making it easier for you to make the final decision. We’re working on this.
This connects directly to your suggestion about giving more detail in the list of possible matches. One connection that you may not be aware of: the list of John Denmans is displayed in the same way to everyone else as it is to you. That is, in order to encourage the global family tree, if I start to create a John Denman the system will ask if one of your John Denmans is the same person.
This means there’s a privacy complication. We can’t give out any sensitive information about living people in this context. But we’re working on a system close to what you suggest that doesn’t compromise privacy.
I like your suggestion about marking living people somehow. This could be done on the Watchlist page. (This is going on my to-do list. I’m also adding a note to e-mail you when it’s done.)
Regarding assuming that a man has the same current last name as his wife, we don’t already do that? I know we do it the other way around and with children. I’ll doublecheck this and make sure we do it right. (Thanks!)
Regarding your suggestions on profile pages you don’t have permission to edit, I do like the idea of “pending changes” that can be approved or rejected by the profile manager. In the meantime, you can use the bulletin board space. That is, every person profile has a completely public bulletin board where anyone can post a message. This is a perfect use for that space.
Thanks again for the great feedback. I hope we continue this conversation here or via e-mail.
Comment by chris — July 29, 2009 @ 6:57 pm
Chris,
I LOVE this site. Hell, it’s free, what’s not to love? I just recently discovered billions and billions of relatives (maternal grandmother had 15 kids, paternal grandmother had 6, do the math). Anyway, I am having a heck of a time just entering the data for my direct ancestors (back to the 1600’s), much less their other children, brothers and sisters. I have to keep clicking and opening different pages when I have to add where they got married, where they died, where they were born, etc.
Is there ANY way I could have ONE page with ALL that on it? I want to put the name, birthplace, birthdate, spouses, children, death, cemetary, wedding date, divorce date, ALL of it - on one page? I’m willing to bake cheesecake for this. Around my house, those are serious words.
Another thing - when I first started filling all this stuff out, I accidentally put one of my aunts on the Trusted List. She got on and changed a bunch of stuff. For the most part, I didn’t mind since she added photos and dates I didn’t have access to, but she changed some names around and didn’t bother so much with capitalizing the first letter of a name, didn’t write out places names completely (ny instead of New York) - not a big deal in a text message, right? But it drives me insane, especially for something I consider important. Anyway, I’d like people to be able to SEE everything, but I don’t want them MESSING WITH MY HARD WORK. So, is there a way to let them look at everything, including bio’s, yet keep them from changing things? I know this is supposed to be a collaborative effort, but I just want consistent formatting.
Thanks so much for reading my rant. Considering how much family members irritate, why do we try to keep track of them?
Comment by 2MuchFamilyNotEnufTime — August 3, 2009 @ 10:30 pm
Hi “2MFNET”,
Thanks for the kind words and the thoughtful suggestions. I know you’ve spent a lot of time entering info on WikiTree so your input is extremely valuable to me.
I think it’s a good idea to expand the number of fields on the new person form. I hesitated to do this before because I didn’t want to overwhelm people with having to enter too much in one step, but the extra info can be optional. It can even be hidden unless you click an “expand” button.
It will be a bit more challenging for us to enable you to create multiple people at the same time. That is, entering a lot of information about a single person (birth location, death location, etc.) in one step is relatively easy but entering a lot of people at once (parents, siblings, children, etc.) is technically a bit more tricky.
Of course, since there’s a cheesecake involved, I’ll try to find a way to make it happen.
Regarding letting your relatives see information but not edit it, I can appreciate where you’re coming from. I know there are some other advanced WikiTreers who would like having this option as well.
However, I’m very hesistant to make our privacy system any more complex. It’s already an obstacle for new users. Since our Trusted List system is unique it takes a few minutes to understand it. As you know, but as new visitors don’t know, there are three basic privacy levels:
1. Full “read, write” access (i.e., you’re on the Trusted List)
2. Read only (i.e., it’s public info so anyone can see it but you have to be on the Trusted List to edit)
3. No access (i.e., it’s private info so you have to be on the Trusted List to view or edit)
On the bright side, since this is “wiki” you can always change things back when you don’t like your aunt’s edits.
Keep me posted about how things go. The Trusted List system isn’t written in stone; if it doesn’t work for WikiTreers like you it will have to change.
Chris
Comment by chris — August 4, 2009 @ 9:46 am
As far as capitalization goes, couldn’t you just make it auto capitalize the first letter in a field? Kind of like ms word does when I’m trying to write something and DON’T want it capitalized? I have no idea if that is as easy as it sounds.
Gotta admit if you guys are going to force me to learn how to spell Massachusetts…hmmm looks almost right, I’m gonna have a hissy fit right here —–>
Unless your talking about the city of New York then I can see the annoyance.
I vote yes on the larger family field thingy, drives me nuts when I end up with 15 windows open because I click add spouse/ mom/ dad on the right instead of on the left. On the other hand I’d rather not sacrifice speed for fewer windows. I think this is the fastest online tree I’ve seen.
Dang I’ve only got two hands.
The only downside I can see with the cooperative tree is in Mr. Enuf’s (can I call you Mr. Enuf?)post. This isn’t directed at you Mr. Enuf I was thinking about it before but you said it better and with more vigor than I might have.
People becoming possessive of “their” tree’s. You could end up with 5 million partial copies of the same tree in the end. Perhaps instead of changing the privacy you can let the manager of a person “Lock” fields that they have filled in so that Aunt Aggie can’t come and be tooooo helpful. :-).
What happens when a manager dies btw? I wasn’t planning to hurt Mr. Enuf or anything but if some 80 year old comes in here and makes a massive tree than kicks the bucket… does that sound insensitive?
I’ll leave before folks start thinking I have issues,
Fay.
Comment by Fay X — August 4, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
Fay,
It’s Mrs. Enuf. God willing, I’ll live another 40 years in relatively good health . In the event that doesn’t happen, Mr. Enuf knows my all-purpose password for EVERTHING and I’m pretty sure he’ll pass it on to the kids or someone else just as uninterested and irresponsible so they can become mired in the “hobby” of tracking down dead relatives.
I’m willing to make a deal with Chris: Give me the fields already listed in a profile, plus Spouse(s), Wedding Date, Wedding Place, Death Date, (maybe add a Place of Rest/Burial Site? since we may DIE in a particular city, yet our final resting place is often a cemetary within that city, and I have actual plot numbers and such I’d like to add) and I’ll think harder about that cheesecake.
I can see the reasoning for leaving out Children and Siblings.
I love Fay’s idea of auto-capitalization. The first letter in each field SHOULD be capitalized. I can’t help it, I’m a Nazi about those things. It makes things look more uniform and professional.
I’ve come across bunches of people with birthdays like this (August 4, 1824/1825) and guess what? Yep, I gotta pick ONE year because WikiTree doesn’t let me put both years in. Sometimes I find “born aft. 1692″ and can’t add that either. GIVE ME SOME LEEWAY, CHRIS! You’re so inflexible with history.
And since I’m asking for the world, how about an interactive map with markings of places? If you could just put the entire St. Lawrence River and Nova Scotia, I’d be cool with that too.
Just want you to know that before all is said and done, I’ll be adding approximately 10,000 people and that is truly the reason I’m trying to streamline. I appreciate all the hard work you’ve put into making and improving this site and before too long, I hope to have lots of people looking at it.
Joanna “2MuchFamilyNotEnufTime” Tolson
Comment by 2MuchFamilyNotEnufTime — August 4, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
Fay and Joanna:
FYI, I addressed a couple of your notes in new posts: How do you handle inexact dates? and What happens if a Profile Manager dies?.
Chris
Comment by chris — August 5, 2009 @ 9:26 am