G2G: Ratio of thank yous to contributions

Question

I have noticed that my ratio of thank-yous is always a bit less than 10% (9.3 now).

This has encouraged me to click Thank You whenever I see it.

And to ask if anyone else has watched this ratio.

Comments

I have noticed it.  It's not a perfect indicator of  a member's value to other members, because there are members who give "thanks" liberally (for example, for every edit to the surnames they follow), while most of us are more conservative. But lots of thank-yous from others should make any of us feel good -- and 10% is a very good percentage.

I enjoy thanking people for actions I particularly appreciate (not every edit to any profile that interests me). This year's 15 for 15 challenge has several items related to appreciation of other members. It has reminded me of the value of sending appreciation/encouragement to other WikiTreers.

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Greeters seem to receive lots of thank yous. That's where most of mine have come from.

Answer 1

Mine is like 5%

Answer 2

That is high! Mine is less than 1%.

Comments

Same for me, just under 1%. Probably due to mostly making new profiles that nobody else is really watching. I find I get more thank-yous when making connections and improvements to existing profiles.

Answer 3

I think it depends on what profiles you are working on. If you are working on orphan profiles or old gedcom files and the user has not been active for a long time, not sure someone at that moment will notice. Or new users are unsure of what is going on.

I am good knowing whatever I am doing is making the overall tree better.

I am very thankful for what everyone is doing, we all have an area (writing bios, sourcing, greeting, connecting, cleaning,…) that we like to do and as a community, we rock.

Answer 4

I've actually watched this for several years. My thanks / contribution ratio is always about 4.1% to 4.2%, and consistent for many years. I do a lot of work all over the place.

I'm also very liberal about giving thanks for two reasons. 1) Because I believe it encourages people to do more and to collaborate, which is at the heart of WikiTree. B) It acts like a checklist for me, so I can review what other people have done on profiles that interest me, whether because of tags I follow, or profiles that I manage. This "checklist" allows me to manage profiles better. I'm not perfect about looking at every change, but it keeps me at least mildly informed. So I give out a thanks on just about everything.

Answer 5

Another response: Interestingly, WikiTree keeps track of people who have received the most thanks:

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Thanks&action=leaderboard

I think this list gets slightly skewed because people who are Greeters have a tendency to get more thank yous. That is not meant to take away from the important work that they do. They are just interactive with more people and new people will thank them for the contact.

But there is not a list of people who give the most thanks. I think that is something that is missing on the Tops menu.

Answer 6

My ratio is .0045% for the past two months. Not complaining, just observing.

I try to thank anyone who did anything which shows up in my activity feed for my watchlist and my ancestors. But I am not a prolific "thanker" so I think what is receive is about right in proportion to what I give.

Perhaps I need to give more. Not for me to receive more, because it really doesn't matter that much to me, but so that others will receive more for whom it does matter.

Answer 7

I think the biggest factor in the ratio is the type of profiles you work on. If you work on profiles that have multiple Profile Managers and people on the Trusted List - e.g., older, more popular profiles - those people will get notified of your contributions to the profiles on their Family Activity Feed and lots of them will click Thank You. If you work on profiles where you are the only person working on it, probably no one will be aware of your contributions and you won't get any thank yous.

Answer 8

Mine is .0398, but I don't think it's a valid indicator of anything.  I have been thanked nearly 2,800 times, but probably almost all for work on projects and participation in G2G.  

I work almost exclusively nowadays on my family.  In the over 1,000 profiles of my family members (including a small number of family members of spouses), there is only 1 connection that goes outside the circle of these profiles, which makes me feel somewhat ostracized from the rest of WikiTree.  The isolation is probably why not too many people see profiles I work on and therefore aren't likely to thank me for something they're not aware of.  It's no problem for me - in G2G, I feel like a full fledged member of the community and love to associate here with so many wonderful members, although I'm still anxiously awaiting that magical moment when I discover that a profile I'm about to add is already here.

Answer 9

Mine is 7% so I guess that is OK. I give Thank You's pretty often, particularly if it for something that was done to a profile on my watch list.

Answer 10

My percentage is 2.7%.  I sometimes go several weeks, or a month, between thanks, but I don't remember to give thanks as much as I should either. I think this is something I shall improve upon.