Suggested change for text of "Acknowledgements" section

+10 votes
201 views
Would it be possible for the created text in the Acknowledgements section to be:

The WikiTree profile [http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:NetworkFeed&who=LNAB-xxxx LNAB-xxxx] was created on [Month xx, 2013] by [[WikiID|person]].

or, if created by gedcom import:

The WikiTree profile [http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:NetworkFeed&who=LNAB-xxxx LNAB-xxxx] was created on [Month xx, 2013] by [[WikiID|person]] through the import of <name of ged file>.
in Policy and Style by Liz Shifflett G2G6 Pilot (626k points)
recategorized by Keith Hathaway
Looks good to me. Too bad some of that data (LNAB-xxxx) has been lost. (The early ones) they are all dated, however.

And that would standardize them, too.
Hi Liz,

Is it inserting the date that's import to you, or removing the "thank you", or both?

Care to explain why? That could help with prioritization.

Chris
Welcome back Chris, hope you had a great vacation. I had a very productive 4th of July long weekend... I spent it merging profiles :D And I must admit that the acknowledgements phrasing started to wear on me. But in trying to clean up profiles that had already had multiple merges, the lack of information was startling (having just the person's name who created it isn't especially useful). At the least, if the profile could be created with the WikiTree ID in the bio text, that would have saved me quite a lot of time. Especially when trying to determine if any marriage info got lost. When I make a merge, I first copy the data of the two profiles so that I don't have to go digging in the old profile's changes to see if marriage data existed/got transferred ok. But when the profile's already been merged, it adds a layer to the digging needed. So, yes, the thanking someone for creating yet another duplicate profile was starting to get to me, but I could live with that because (hopefully) the number of truly new profiles with the thank you message far outweigh the duplicates. But I would really like to see the profile's WikiTree ID in the biography section. So many people will merge profiles and then not edit them that it would probably still be there when someone comes along wanting to clean up the bio. And the phrasing I proposed has just a slight difference between manually created and gedcom-created profiles, so I think that would encourage people to leave the info in the bio (or at least make it easy to spot in the changes if it's deleted). I dither between listing merged profiles with that type of wording and just listing the WikiTree IDs of the merged profiles linked to the changes page for them (where people can see what was changed in them before they were merged - some good stuff can sometimes be found! And some scary stuff, like the profile that keeps getting his LNAB and his mother changed). Anyway, armed with the WikiTree ID of the merged profile, I can easily find the other creation data if I need them (date and name). But without it, it can take a long time of looping through all the changes to all the merged profile pages to all of their merged profile pages (and I must admit I sometimes get a little turned around and may miss one or two). Bottom line, so long as we're changing the generated text, I'd like to see the wording/info I suggested (which is why I suggested it LOL). But I don't know the technical aspects of making the change, so if each minor change is a pain, just adding the WikiTree ID of the profile being created would make me happy (adding it as the clickable link to its Changes page would make me even happier :). Cheers, Liz

Hi Liz!

I just edited the text that appears when you create an unsourced new profile manually. For example, see http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sample-232

I'll merge that profile tomorrow, so look now. :-).

If this looks like an improvement to people, we can edit how they appear on GEDCOM imports and when you include a bio or sources in the initial profile creation.

Chris

P.S. I think you should feel free to be more ruthless in removing acknowledgments, especially if someone created a duplicate. You're right -- no need for a thank-you there.

ok, I'll live with "Thank you" but not "Thank-you"! (no hyphen :D), especially since if it's left in a merge it won't look as if the person created the original profile.  But could you have the "Sample-232" be the clickable link instead of "creating"?

And... on the p.s. - just because someone wasn't first with the profile doesn't mean they shouldn't be acknowledged for contributing. The original profiles for a couple of the lines I work with were started by folks long gone who included almost no information. If it weren't for people joining WikiTree and contributing - albeit via new, duplicate profiles - those lines would not be improving!

Thanks Chris!
Hi Liz,

The reason for the thank-you (hyphen aside) is that the text is meant to be demonstrative. Everything about the initial bio template is supposed to be demonstrating something. In this case, how to use an acknowledgments section.

Plus, if there is no "thank you" this is less distinct from the footnote example.

The reason I didn't want to make the ID clickable is that we generally link IDs to profile pages. It could cause confusion if we mix this on the site.

Chris
ah - ok. Guess I should figure out different phrasing for when I provide a link to the merged profile's changes page.

Thanks again, Liz

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