Does the "Pre 1500 Certificate" need revision?

Question

I note that the Pre 1500 Certificate was revised with a trial period of 3 months, earlier in the year.  I have not seen any outcomes of that trial posted.  Referring to the application page, there is no mention of a 30 day probation period nor any mention of having your certificate terminated if you make a single mistake.  Instead it refers to 2 days or a bit longer.  This page needs an overhaul giving clear guidelines as to the expected process and out comes, should a person apply.

I note that here has been several comments of displeasure about pre 1500 Certificates, resulting in some people "Wanting to close their account." and export a Gedcom of their work to another site.

Has the issue of Power & Control of the process taken over, as being more important than the Genealogy people are wanting to offer?  Sure, Pre 1500 needs to have sources and these are sometimes very short unless you are prepared to dig deep in your pocket and pay for assistance.  The presentation of a page is another item that seems to dominate as well.

I feel that there needs to be a revision of this area to establish a better balance of Genealogy offered compared to rigid control.  If one person makes a comment. OK.  If several make comments on G2G then it is a signal that something needs to be done.

Comments

I do have family pre-dating 1500, but felt I have to prove my worth to apply for the pre-1500 badge.  Therefore, have left their details off the site for the time-being.

Answer 1

I requested Pre-1500 certification and was denied. I was given a list of reasons why I was denied, some where valid and I made improvements as requested. However, when I did request to join a Pre-1700 project for pre-1700 project experience as needed for the Pre-1500 certification, I never heard a word from the project leader.  I also made 2 requests thus far to participate in another project, same result, I never heard a word.

I offered research assistance for the Civil War project. The project leader was right on the ball and got back to me immediately. May I add Paula is an awesome leader. That all being said, I gave up on Pre-1500 certification. I'll stay at my current level, and I'm good with the Civil War project. :)

Comments

It was a shame that you had this experience and equally a shame that you have had no response from a project leader.  It is for these reasons and others that the whole question of Pre 1500 needs to be debated and changes made. I was luckier than you. I was given a certificate with threats attached. I don't buy into threats, instead they challenge me to take action. I am still waiting for a project leader of another project to make contact and also for adoption of profiles to get in touch as well.  Several weeks in fact.

---

What's the situation that is requiring you to wait for adoption of pre-1500 profiles?

If you have good content to add (or corrections to make), at a minimum you should be able to instigate some progress by starting a G2G about your proposed changes, linking your G2G question to the profiles, and using G2G tags to alert participants in the relevant project(s).

---

Ah I didn't make my self clear.  The proposed adoptions was not pre 1500 but recent times where the correct form was used and then nothing heard.

---

Took five weeks for one project leader to reply to me on a different matter.  After three weeks offered assistance on the 8th June sent a message to another project leader - now it's the 20th June - still no reply - have to presume there are plenty of project members but a simple polite reply would have been nice.  Hence I've lost all interest in the pre-1500 certification.

---

So, Athol, you are saying that you tried to adopt a non-Open profile and got nowhere? In my experience, Trusted List requests often get no response. Have you followed up with the steps outlined at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unresponsive_Profile_Managers? The process can be time-consuming, and if you get to the point of submitting an Unresponsive Profile Manager form, the next steps depend on another volunteer having time to follow up, but in my experience the process does get results.

---

T. Cassidy, from the tone of your message I'd guess you were talking  about an experience with the customer service department at your cellphone company or internet provider. Do remember that Leaders are other volunteers (much like yourself) who have agreed to donate a significant chunk of their time to helping with administration and leadership of WikiTree, including working with other WikiTree members on projects. Like the rest of us, they have conflicting demands on their time, they may sometimes misplace incoming email (or lose them to a spam filter), etc. I find that it helps to keep all that in mind when making requests...

---

Thank you Ellen for your suggestion,  I will have another try using the WikiTree form to take on adopted files and mention that this is 3rd time.  If no luck, I will do as you suggest.  In essence, I am trying to do WikiTree a favor, as there are many files from a gedcom where the person importing them Is a very distant relation, perhaps not living.

  I am well aware of the many hours that all members put in, my self included.  There are times when processes need to be examined to see if there is a better way of doing things.  I feel it is time to do this in relation to pre 1500.

---

I can't help but wonder if there was inadequate communications with project leaders when the pre-1500 certification was launched. I think is reasonable for project leaders to respond within a week. But I wonder if they were ever prepped for such a role.

---

A valid point Jillaine,  hence a need to review the procedures do you think?

---

I'll bring this up with the group that does the reviewing.

---

Thank you very much Eowyn.  It is good to know that progress is being made.  In saying this,  I very much hope that an outcome will be posted on G2G, with a chance for others to give their view and take part in the debate.