Is it appropriate to use a personal category as a place to put research notes?

Question

I have found in many cases I'd like to cut and paste research into a record to use while putting together a profile.  I'd prefer to keep the research here.  Where I and anyone else can easily find it.  

It is it appropriate to use a personal category for this?  Is there a better way?  

I put the link to the category where the notes are in the research section of his profile.  This allows others to see or add to the research.  I'm trying to avoid my random thoughts cluttering up the profile.  If people have found a better way, or if this problematic, please let me know.  Thanks, John

Comments

Hi John

I use the Scratch Pad on my Nav Home Page for some research notes.

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I'm new to using a Research Note section, but I have been working on a couple of profiles that could easily use one. Wouldn't it be easier for others to add to the notes if you just put all the information under the heading right on the profile rather than on a free page or is this not recommended?

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kettering-95  and http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kettenring-6

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I concur with Gerrie unless those notes are overly long-- say more than one printed page. Then I might use a freespace page.

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Gerrie, those research note sections you have are very nice.  I was looking for a place to dump information until I have time to organize it.  In many cases when I put that in the profile it just looks sloppy and isn't very readable.  I do like the idea of keeping it where others who are researching the name can see it, but in a way that isn't distracting to those just wanting to quickly read the profile.  Then research notes section you have for Kettering-95 is more clear and cleaned up than many bios on profiles.  Your notes are clearly ready for public consumption, mine not so much.  Thanks for the examples.

Answer 1

See

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Research_Notes

Comments

Thanks for all the great answers and suggestions. I selected this as the best answer as this is what we should all go by.  I hope all the great tips mentioned in this thread are in the guide, if not I hope you all will add them. Thanks again

Answer 2

I like to use free space pages for research notes.

Comments

John, under the Add drop-down menu on your profile page, you can select Add New Thing. Next to the Yellow Circle number 3 is To-Do.  This essentially is a free space page set up for To-do lists.

Let us know what you do for a solution.

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Or just go here:

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?action=newspace

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And you could create the free space page and add a link to it in the profile.

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Thanks for the advice.  I will try the free space page route. I had not thought about the huge number of categories I'd end up making.  Thanks for answering the next question about how to go about setting one up.  I'll give that a try.

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If the research notes are specific to the person profiled, I think they should stay on that person's profile page.

If the research notes are more general and are relevant to multiple people then it makes more sense to place them on a freespace page and link to that page from all the relevant profiles.

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AND if you have a research challenge you want to discuss with others, attach a g2g post to the profile. We do this all the time with PGM profiles.

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Re Jillaine
use {{Space:NameOfFreeSpacePage}} and its included on the profile
==> you can have the same text on more profiles..

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Thanks for the tip to get a free-space page to show up on the profile. Seems helpful for when you want to look at the notes and the profile at the same time.  Not to mention many other applications that might come in handy.

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Also have the same text on more pages.... some research about a farm etc. is related to more people... Wikitree has some cool functionality....

Answer 3

Categories are used to group people with like locations, or something else in common. The problem I see with what you've done, would be ok if it was only one category. But if you create a category for each profile you research, (because you've named it very specifically) you're creating hundreds of categories.

A space page like Doug suggested would work just fine. I would just make one, and keep sections for the profiles, I was researching.

One Wikitree-er starts right on the profile with a big section labeled
=== Temporary Research Notes ===

When she gets enough facts and sources to write a bio, everything is at her fingertips.

If you don't want random folks seeing you're idle notes to yourself, type <!-- at the beginning and then at the end add --> Everything inside the arrows is hidden from the public and private view. These notes only show in the edit view.

Comments

Either I'm the one Anne is referring to or someone else does the same thing I do.

Also, when I'm done with the profile, I always just leave all the data from all the sources on it - that's when I'll put the coooment tag (starting <!-- and ending -->) around it so that it only shows on the edit page ... if anyone else comes behind me to improve it, they can see everything I worked from right there instead of having to click links to the sources to see it.

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I also tried the  <! --hide text-- >.  I think hiding text might be the easiest unless there are long notes in which case the free space page should work. I need to remember to better use the scratch pad, that has possibilities.   Thanks for the ideas.

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Instead of hiding use Wiki code
Include to display all ntes on the page and change to a link to avoid having all notes on the page

Include syntax {{Space:NameOfFreeSpacePage}}
Link syntax [[:Space:NameOfFreeSpacePage|Research notes]]

Example of profile that includes the Free spage Research Note page
 

Answer 4

Research Notes section is the primary place as then everyone can find it

As Category has the extra value that you can "mark" profiles to belong to a specific category its excellent for gather more profiles where you can do the work at the same time or in the same source or in the same region....

I use personal categories for 

1. Profiles with military research when I should visit the Miltary archive and need to be prepared what documents to request
2. Graves in a specific Church yard  
3. Profiles I need to check in a specific source eg. Swedish SDB
4. etc...

Wishlist Research Note tab

In the same way as the talk page on Wikitree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Classicist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Digital_Classicist

Example Pålsson when we did more research on a profile its bad if we delete it and if we let it be there its get messy and using comments in the html to hide it feels like just a bad workaround....

Comments

After starting a training at Future Learn video where we speak in lesson nr 2 of the importance t have a research plan 

I suggest a Research Tab Research plan inside wikitree