What do you think of these profile "Stickers" (replacing Recognition Boxes and User Boxes)? [closed]

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

We've been slowly developing standards for "templates". That is, we've been deciding as a community how feature boxes should be used on our shared profiles, simplifying and standardizing them, improving how they look, and making them easier to use.

We've gone through this process for Project Boxes, the ones that say which project you need to collaborate with to contribute to a profile, and Research Note Boxes, the ones that highlight important things that anyone who sees the profile should know.

A few weeks ago Abby led a discussion on what we've been calling Recognition Boxes. These are for honoring someone's achievements or otherwise highlighting important things about them, e.g. that the person has Irish roots, or they participated in the US Civil War, or they're an immigrant from France, etc. By definition these are less important than Research Note Boxes. They're nice, but they're not necessary for genealogical research or collaboration.

User Boxes are similar. These are profile boxes that any member can put on their own account profile. They're something that WikiTreers who are also Wikipedians borrowed from Wikipedia. There are User Boxes for showing your ethnicity, the languages you speak, your famous ancestors, etc.

For simplicity we're now thinking that Recognition Boxes and User Boxes should be consolidated. They can look the same way and be used in the same way. We can call them the same thing.

We're thinking about calling them Profile Stickers.

Ales has put together a couple samples for how the newly-unified "stickers" would look. Here are screenshots of some examples on my monitor, with and without borders.

See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Example-6 for a live example.

Do you have an opinion on whether or not they should have borders? Or other design elements or possible usage rules?

Note that the design would be improved upon a bit, if we go with this. It would need to be "responsive" for mobile users with small screens, for one thing. Presumably if you're on a mobile device they would appear centered instead of right-aligned. We would also enable them to do categorization, tweak some of the options, etc.

And note that the usage rules haven't been worked out yet, e.g. the maximum number of lines, how many stickers would be appropriate on a profile, etc.

Style rules really don't matter when it comes to boxes/templates/stickers on your own account profile (or animated gifs or anything else). They do matter for profiles of our shared ancestors. We need to carefully work these out, and we would, if members like this general plan.

To make it easier to give input, I'm posting "I like these" and "I hate these" answers. Feel free to vote one up, with or without a comment. We'll collect input and move this to the next stage of the rule development process in a couple weeks. Thanks!

Onward and upward,

Chris

Comments

Kitty, I think that can easily be done. I can write the code in half an hour and then profiles are corrected at speed 10/minute, so it can take a few hours. If this gets accepted, I will probably correct all templates to use the sticker template and also some template renaming and organisation will be done.

---

for simple things like language, religion, country roots, etc, lets call them factoids, having a small box in the corner seems appropriate.

for several things within Military and War, we created a template to call attention to something, such as being the recipient of the Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross, Killed in Action, etc. having these items display in a larger format across the page draws attention to them.  Shrinking them down to 1/3 of the size and sticking them in a corner is not a good way to present these items.

Other templates that display an image/text of what war they fought in, maybe a sticker would work with those, depends on how much text is added and how busy it looks in the smaller box format

One of the guidelines is templates should be placed in the profile close to the supporting text/docs, i think that they should be placed at the top of the bio, otherwise what we end up with is saying something softly with the text, THEN SAYING IT LOUDLY with the template/sticker....  at the top, people see it right away without having to scroll down thru the bio.  doing a quick experiment with my profile, the sticker display in the profile where it is placed in the text, i.e. does not always go to the top like [[Category: ]] does no matter where it is in the text.

another thing that could be put into a sticker is the project boxes since all they display is the profile is covered by a project and links to the project page / tag for more info so it does not need to take up that much space at the top of the page....

---

Ales, it sounds like you might be able to write some code to help with my point below about the Irish Roots template based on what you said to Kitty re the 1776 project - can you automatically convert profiles containing the current Irish Roots template into ones that will contain the Irish ethnicity sticker box instead?

And if you do that, what happens to the old Irish Roots template, will it still remain available to use for the "project sponsored" profiles going forward?  Thanks in advance for your advice

---

Leigh, a lot can be done and we will decide about details when it is time to do that. Give it a month or two, to get Stickers ready.

---

Veteran template needs a full stop between the words 'Veteran' and 'Served', otherwise when it wraps for a different screen size, it reads

xxx is a Military Veteran Served

---

I like these.  They look better & are interesting.  :)

---

We are now moving to the next step by proposing a draft of the official rules on usage: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/453610/should-these-style-rules-for-profile-stickers-made-official

---

Chris,

I went to the example and I love the example.  The boxes really make the facts jump out.

 

Taylor

---

Ales, sounds like a good project and would like to give in put but I can't access the Template:Veteran, etc links?  I says page doesn't exist.

I also don't understand much about creating template anyway so maybe shouldn't offer opinion. :)  Thank you!

---

Chris,

I would like to see some awesome borders for our veterans.  I think there should be one for the civil war veterans. one for revolutionary war veterans, etc.  The backgrounds should reflect the wars they were in rather than just military.

I think this would be great idea.

Taylor

Answer 1

"I like these."

Vote this up if you agree that Recognition Boxes and User Boxes should be consolidated into something like the "Stickers" described above. If you have input, comment on this answer.

Comments

Hi Chris,

When I first looked, I thought Ugh!, another change.  But, after looking at the live page, this proposal has a much neater, streamlined look to it.  I have profiles with two, three, four templates, and I've never been 100 percent happy with them.  I think I would be happy with this.  It appears to be more incorporated into the Bio.  I like the sample with the border.

---

While my personal preference is for a well-written biography Text, in this age of "15 seconds of attention" I guess these are a necessary evil.  Please, please include a Border so they are clearly separated from the Biography text.  I see in your Example that inside the "sticker" someone needs to correct how the small Icon and the text fit together - on my laptop with Windows 8.1 and Explorer 11 they overlap in all but the En2 and with English flag "stickers".

---

I like the neatness, the clean lines and order of them. Thank you.  ( I signed into my husband's account this am in above comment before coffee). I think these are a great improvement.

---

I lIke the idea. I would suggest a much narrower box, almost square leave out the person's name and other info that is already(supposed to be) in the Bio Add just a label i.e.

      Migrated  
French  Canadian
flag        flag
France to Canada

Same concept with other stickers. Only essential information to identify the sticker

---

I'm definitely good with recognition and user boxes being the same thing. I'm ok with the basic way they look (with border). I'd like options for placement: Two or Three across the top of the bio area, right side, or left side.

---

I think they make the bio look neat but I'm not sure that i like the boarder especially on the civil war template.  But i do like the boarder for the veteran box.  I think the pm should get the option of placement (right, left or centered) couldn't we take on a new design but leave them as recognition boxes?  I don't think we should mix them with stickers.  I feel they are 2 different things.

---

For profiles with military templates, will the Editbots automatically change them to stickers or will that have to be done individually?

---

If we decide to rename certain template, it will be done by help of EditBot.

---

It will definitely help with certain profiles were there are so many categories, so many recognition boxes.

---

This does appear to be an excellent solution to that problem, especially in Military and War and als Notables is here Profiles can belong to another project.

---

The example provided looks good, the only one I think needs a little changing is the Civil War. I think it should be separated into single lines and read as follows:

Name of who fought in the US Civil War between the States.

Fought For: Union or Confederate

Enlisted: The Date

Mustered Out: The Date

Regiment: Which Regiment or Calvary

Is the unit tied to regiment or does it have the ability to change depending upon the type of unit the individual was assigned to?

This is just my thoughts and if everyone agrees, it might be a same or similar way to do the stickers for all of the other wars.

---

There have already been expressed several great ideas:

Events or things to be remarked in some boxes are supposed to be fully described and sourced in the biography text as Louis says, so the <ref name=" "/> tag would help:

Test Example is a Military Veteran[1]

This way the Stickers could be the same zise/height and all of them could be automatically placed 2 or 3 across the top as Anne says.

---

One of our military members mentioned that stamps would be a better name than stickers. Just passing along.

---

Very true the all of the information should be sourced in the biography text. If the stickers or stamps as they have been referred could be seen as a quick snapshot of the of the individual for a lack of better words. Thus attracting those viewing the profile to take more time and read through the profile to find out the specific details about each of the stamps or stickers on the profile. In our current society people do not take the time to actually read something unless it catches their eye. These stamps or stickers could be that one thing that does the trick. Stamps or stickers name doesn't matter to me the idea of using them makes a lot of sense.

---

Hi Chris,

Looks good, but I'm not a fan of the shadow effect on the frames.

John

Answer 2

"I hate these."

Vote this up if you don't like the idea of any WikiTree profiles having "Stickers" and you think that Recognition Boxes and User Boxes should be something completely different, or should not be officially endorsed at all. If you have input, comment on this answer.

Comments

I still think it would be best to use recognition boxes like images and disburse them throughout the text of the biography -- next to the text that has to do with why the box is on the profile in the first place. I'm not a fan of the bunched-together look.

---

Jamie, It can be used anywhere throughout the biography. This was only done as an example. I change the example to demonstrate that. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Example-6

---

Ok then I'll switch my vote!

Answer 3

Hi, I am really happy to take this offline - I think the profile stickers look great and will work going forward for profiles covered by ethnicity projects.

Irish Roots has hundreds, probably thousands, of profiles using the old project templates of {Irish Roots} and {Irish Clans} which presumably should now be replaced with the project stickers.    I am not sure it is going to be realistic to amend all of them given that not all project members are very active.  Can we have a "amnesty" for the old profiles that don't get immediately updated?  It will be a huge effort to do that, not to mention indicating a subtle change in the purpose of the underlying project.

Comments

Leigh, You bring up a great point. There might need to be an "amnesty" for more than just the "Irish Roots" due to some project members within other projects not being very active. A change like this will be great in the long term, but will take some time to implement and will have to be done properly to ensure it is do right.

---

My sentiment as well. It is not so much liking or not liking it. Besides the overall pro's and con's (what are they for which options?) - there are other questions that come to mind. Such as main templates ({Projects}}, sub-templates {{Military Honours}} and mere information boxes {{Language Skills}}. And really - do we honestly need all those endless "... migrated from ... to ..." when it is totally not practical in a project such as the COGH or New Netherland (for reasons well explained many times before) and when I know people (in modern times) who have migrated 5 times or more to different countries and continents ...

On the whole though - yes, without saying I do like it or I don't - they seem to appear more compact and less "clumsy" for want of a better description. Spiffy. Only perhaps before implementation - a good well thought through plan of what when and how ....

---

Leigh, this is off-topic, but -- was there an announcement here about the change to the Irish Roots template? I follow the tag, but I didn't know until I looked at the project page after seeing your comment here.  None of my Irish ancestors are "of note" to anyone but their descendants.

---

Nan, I don't think it is off topic at all - I changed the wording of the template very quickly yesterday in line with this guidance, maybe the wording in the template is not quite right, but until all the hundreds of profiles with the Irish Roots template get replaced with the Irish ethnicity stickers, a change in the template wording was needed.  I will take another look at it.

My personal view is that these new rules around templates vs ethnicity sticker boxes mean the purpose of the ethnic roots projects like Irish Roots, German Roots, Italian Roots etc may need revisiting,.  In the case of Irish Roots, we will have to draw up some guidelines as to which profiles merit the Irish Roots templates going forward as opposed to using just the stickers.  Very open to suggestions, I suggest that once the Irish ethncity stickers are operational, I will post some questions on G2G for the project members to discuss.

---

One idea, is that for projects where the majority of the profiles are using project boxes like recognition boxes, we could change the current template to the sticker set up and create a new project box to use on profiles that are managed by the project that adds just "Project" to the template name, so {{Irish Roots}} could stay in place and we could create an {{Ireland}} template for use on profiles that are actually in need of project management. Same with 1776. {{1776}} stays where it is, but Aleš changes the look to the sticker format, and we create {{1776 Project}} for project managed profiles. Either way, Aleš has the tools to automate this, so no worry is necessary re: implementation.