Collecting Personal Memories
Joanna Tolson and I have been talking about the under-utilized Memories sections. This is the area on every profile page for personal messages and stories related to the person.
She wrote, “Perhaps we can start a discussion on how to make the Memories field more attractive to WikiTreers. I know I enjoy anecdotal asides in my research when I come across them. Someone is more than a name, date and place when there is a little story attached.”
I agree 100%. Genealogy is one thing. Family history can be so much more. WikiTree is designed for showcasing the richness of individual lives and relationships — memories, stories, photos — but a lot of that is neglected.
How can we encourage more people to use the Memories sections?
Joanna came up with these Memory-Inspiring Questions. Now she’s talking about e-mailing out an interview form for all her relatives to fill out.
Any other ideas for promoting this sort of thing?
A couple of ideas -
I’ll be working on a little questionnaire to send out to my family. It’s like pulling teeth to get them proactively using the site so I said to myself, “What is everyone’s favorite subject?”. Yep, same answer you came up with, but without the sex stuff that you thought of first. Themselves. So if less work was required and people got to talk about themselves, more information could be gathered. As long as I don’t screw this up too badly, I’ll be sending out a form with questions. All they have to do is open their email, answer the questions that appeal to them, then hit the “Email” button on the form and it comes right back to me.
Let me make sure it works first, then if anyone else is interested, I’ll be happy to adjust the settings so that you can use it and have the information emailed to you directly. That way you can have first-crack at editing and enter it into the Memories section yourself. Or you could just copy and paste.
Another thing I’ve decided is I’m going to pick one person, place or thing per week and put a memory in. I know I’d love to see how people remember me and I’m thinking way ahead to a time when maybe I’m not around anymore. I’m not planning to live to see great-grandchildren so this would give them a little slice of my life. I know there are plenty of people in my family I’d like to know more about.
Anyone else have ideas?
Comment by Joanna Tolson — September 1, 2009 @ 5:27 pm