Have you seen the new space for comments on followed tags?

+31 votes
359 views

Hi WikiTreers,

Today we added the ability to comment on tags you are following so that you can tell other genealogists about your interest in the surname or topic.

For example, I am following the tag "OLDFORD" and I added a comment saying that it's my maternal grandmother's name and her parents were from Newfoundland, and I'd be interested in participating in a one name study if anyone starts one.

This is the first step in a series of changes we'll be making to encourage collaboration by connecting WikiTreers who are interested in the same topics.

These changes have been mentioned in various posts so some of you are already aware of the plan, but to summarize:

  • The tags you're following -- and your comments on them -- will appear very prominently on your profile. They'll probably be at the top of the right column.
  • There will be indexes showing all the members who are following a tag and their comments. Eventually, these indexes will be on par with surname index pages, e.g. the "OLDFORD Genealogists" member page will be positioned parallel to the "OLDFORD Genealogy" content page.
  • The indexes of members following a tag will be automatically linked to the associated project page, if there is one. For example, the NEW_BRUNSWICK Genealogists page will automatically link to Project:New_Brunswick. If there is no project associated with a tag, members will be encouraged to start one.
  • The daily Wiki Genealogy e-mail updates will include new members who are following the tags you're following and their comments, beneath the normal stuff (new surname activity and G2G Q&A).

All the tags you've been following, since you added them before today, won't have personal comments. It would be great if you want to go to http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Following and start adding comments now. (If you do, note that they won't appear right away. You'll need to reload this page. This only applies to tags added before the new system went live.)

Please post here if you have questions or suggestions, or spot problems. Thanks!

Onward and upward, for the single family tree,

Chris

in The Tree House by Chris Whitten G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
edited by Chris Whitten
Too cool! I have the max number of followed tags, so it may take a while, but I'm adding info. Neat innovation Chris :D  And Merry Christmas to you too!
Done! Gave me the opportunity to clean up my followed tags. Only problem is that the text doesn't wrap in the edit box so I can't easily move to and edit the end of the sentence. This might be an iPhone only problem.

2 Answers

+8 votes
Why is adding a comment about why we want to follow a tag a requirement? I can see it as an optional field, but why make it mandatory, as it was today when I went to add one?
by S Willson G2G6 Pilot (218k points)
Hi S. If you're still wondering about this, I just answered the same question from Joop below. Maybe this belongs on a help page somewhere.
+7 votes
why it is mandatory and not voluntary to post comments folowing tags?
by Joop van Belzen G2G6 Pilot (144k points)
Hi Joop.

It's to encourage collaboration. If there's no explanation there's little basis on which someone could reach out to you.

If you don't want others to reach out to you, you could put: "Just lurking. Not interested in collaborating."

It might seem like an extra hassle, and lurkers are fine, so we hate to discourage them. But if writing a sentence or two is a really big obstacle then you'll end up having other problems on WikiTree too. WikiTree is all about genealogy collaboration. It's why we exist. Collaboration requires communication.

Chris
Hi, Chris,

I'm not agree, why should I mention for instance that I'm interested in my own family? Seems obvious to me and has nothing to do with collaboration. In other cases, it may of course be useful. Keep it optional and not mandatory.

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