Volunteer Appreciation

This page is a new draft. Whitten-1 11:10, 17 April 2015 (EDT)

Consider "Genealogy Cheerleader" badge and gen_cheer tag? Sub-project of Greeters, Rangers, and/or Ambassadors?

One unusual way that generous genealogists help our mission to grow The Free Family Tree: by showing appreciation to other generous genealogists.

Most genealogists work in isolation. Sometimes even their family members don't fully appreciate the work they're doing for their ancestors and descendants.

Genealogists on WikiTree are working together. We're a community. Part of what makes working together enjoyable is that we encourage each other.

Do you have five or ten minutes right now? Here are ways to encourage your fellow community members.

Contents

Look for good contributions

Take a look at what genealogists are working on right now. See Recent Changes or just the ones Pre-1700. The latter are all public so you'll be able to take a closer look.

When you see good edits, click the thank-you links.

If you have a Facebook or Google account, you can also click the "Like" and "+1" buttons on good profiles.

If you see something really good, post a comment on the profile. The profile manager will get an e-mail and others will see it on the profile. It could be as simple as, "Gene, this profile is great! Good work."

If you see something extraordinary, award the member a star badge. To see which stars they already have you can click to their badges page. It's linked from beneath the badges on their profile.

If you feel totally inspired, share what the genealogist has done on G2G, Facebook, or another social network. You can click the sharing icons and post a status update, it could be simple like, "I'm totally inspired by the work Gene is doing on @WikiTree. These profiles he's creating are great."

Look for good photos

Scanning and uploading old family photos can be hard work, but they do so much to enrich family history. If you see a WikiTreers uploading great images, tell them you noticed.

Here are all the new photos.

If you see that a member is uploading some good ones, click to their profile and tell them.

If you see a great photo, nominate it to be the Family History Photo of the Week. The "PhoTW" project is all about giving special recognition for those who. great way to show special attention

number of them from the same memb Vote on Photo of the Week. The Photo of the Week is a fun way to show off snapshots from times gone by.


Welcome new volunteers

Click the thank-you links for the new Honor Code signers.

Click the thank-you links for the new Volunteers.

If someone's volunteer comment connects with you, post a comment on their profile. You might just say "Welcome to the WikiTree community, Gene!"

(If you really enjoy this and do it a lot, join our Greeter group.)

Browse projects

Some of the best WikiTreeing is being done in projects.

Click to the project list and choose one you're not familiar with.

For example, one outstandingly generous group is the Global Cemeteries Project. "Cemeterists" often work on the genealogy of total strangers. Check out what they're doing and thank them for it if it inspires you.

Be friendly in G2G

G2G is WikiTree's Genealogist-to-Genealogist forum. It's our virtual community center.

Check in at the Tree House.

Another place to look is the Help Needed category. Look for the answered questions to see how total strangers are helping each other with their genealogy.

Look for places you can show genuine appreciation. This can be as simple as seeing a helpful answer and posting a comment on it that says, "Great answer, Gene! It was generous of you to help them."


With all these suggestions: Don't forget to keep it genuine. If you don't feel it, don't do it.

A robot could repeatedly click thank-you links or post the same comment over and over again. Appreciation is only touching when it's personal.

We all like it when someone else notices our hard work and thanks us for it. We all love genuine compliments.

Thank you for thanking other volunteers!



This page was last modified 11:43, 13 June 2019. This page has been accessed 79 times.