Should this become the official WikiTree policy on Project Badges

+19 votes
486 views

This is a draft for improvement of projects by implementing a policy to add people to an alphabetized category of project members.

Many projects have multiple members joining daily or on a regular basis. Currently, we may look at a badge listing to see how members are working on that project.  This list is not alphabetized and it may be easy to confuse one project member with another.  Many of us realize how sophisticated categorization can become and how it can further assist with research and collaboration.

If when a project badge is awarded to a community member, why not add them to the defined category of project members?  These are alphabetized and adding the date the badge is/ was awarded can assist projects that are expanding to elicit help from those who may be most familiar with the project.  This addition could assist leaders with doing quick cross-references of members who are very experienced in another similar project.

Should a project badge become forfeited, that person should automatically be removed from the category. 

What do you think?  Thank-you for participating!

 

in Policy and Style by David Wilson G2G6 Pilot (119k points)
edited by David Wilson
Although in theory, I think this sounds like a good idea, but are you suggesting sub categories under the main category?  Otherwise this would be one very very large bucket of names.  How would that be helpful?  I am trying to think of this in terms of categorization.
Emma,  I hope you don't mind that I looked at your profile to give a solid example of usefulness.  Looking at your categorizations there I see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Greeters.  Have you ever thought another greeter may be able to better assist with an inquiry you have just received?  Was there a fast way for you to recall about a project member that had previously successfully worked through a similar inquiry?  There are only 27 of your awesome fellow greeters listed alphabetically on that category; though, there are 50 good folks that have the Greeter badge listed in the order they were awarded.  Why isn't the count equivalent?  Is it easier to look at an alphabetic list to jog your memory of who had that wonderful solution to the inquiry you are debating on best practices?  Does that make sense?

This addition could assist leaders with doing quick cross-references of members who are very experienced in another similar project.

This is the part I don't get.  How do they cross-reference?

New member joins a project you are leading.  The name sounds familiar to a person that was extremely efficient on another similar project you work; though, some of us have common names <who'd a thunk>...

You go to that member's profile and notice they have many badges and so you get to look through them all to see if they are the same person you remember working with on a similar project.   With the new policy, you could just check that project's members category to quickly verify they are the same person or not.
The reason the numbers are not equal is because the badged people involved have not put the 'Greeter' category on their own profile.
Sounds like a good idea.  Put the {{Category TOC}} template on the category page and you can easily find people.  Use a category name that clearly shows it is a list of members.
(moved to appropriate answer)
Ros and Jillaine,  I believe you are on the correct track.  When a badge is awarded to a person it automatically adds to the collector page for that badge.  Would having one extra snippet in the process that causes this placement also be able to place it into a category "[Badge Name] project member" as categories appear to have a TOC already present.   This may require a project once recognized to create this category.   Thoughts?

5 Answers

+16 votes
I like this and any possible pros and cons may be listed in a comment.

Thank-you!
by David Wilson G2G6 Pilot (119k points)
edited by David Wilson
This would certainly help us at the Quakers project. We currently have more that 100 members (and counting) so quickly identifying someone with experience in another domain (categorization comes to mind) would definitely be a plus.

Something like this from the England Project?
 

Or something like this from the One Place Studies Project?

+9 votes
I dislike this and any possible pros and cons may be listed in a comment.

Thank-you!
by David Wilson G2G6 Pilot (119k points)
edited by David Wilson
Can't Aleš generate a report of badge holders? Maybe we could link to such a report from the project's badge page?

Just trying to seek a simpler solution.
Projects do have a list of names already, let's not add more complexity than we need to on them.  

As for cross-referencing with another project, whatever for?  Unless the projects are related directly, being an ace in one doesn't necessarily mean the person will be an ace in the other.  I know my way around New France records almost like the back of my hand by now, but crossing over to the other side of the Atlantic into French Roots territory leaves me daunted most of the time.
+8 votes
Most projects already have a list of members.

We could simply link them to a new category called "Wikitree Project Members".
by Guy Constantineau G2G6 Pilot (377k points)
+7 votes
Or we could just make the lists of project members on each project page sortable by any of the columns in the list.
by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (664k points)
I really like those sortable tables!  I would like them even more if created by a bot in the category page.
+6 votes
I see 3 solutions.

1.) Wikitree core is changed, so category is automatically added/removed with the badge. It will take quite some time to program this. Priority of this is up to Chris.

2.) EditBot adds/removes the corresponding categories to the profiles. I have to program editbot to do that but will be faster. If it is removed or added by the user, EditBOT would undo that. It would enable queries on WT+ like French spiking greeters.

http://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=greeters+fr&MaxProfiles=500&SortOrder=Default&PageSize=10

3.) Badges are made part of the database dump and I simply add search capabilities to WT+. However you will not have the categories on wikitree, but they are not much different than badge list. Just sort order is different.
by Aleš Trtnik G2G6 Pilot (793k points)
I am a french greeter and not in your result :(
You don't use Greeter category. With 3rd solution, you don't need to.

Aleš , Thank-you for your insight!  I believe solution #1 would be best as the usefulness of a badge count page with member link and date awarded could more logically be updated into a project category thus automating these categorizations.  Perhaps, planning would allow for member placement in a sortable table additionally including WT member's profile creation date, Number of project badges a member has to help with experience, Keyword locations noted in member's goals for project assistance/ collaboration with areas.  Should a project end, consolidate, or splinter, category names have universal qualities for included profiles.

I favor solution #4.  (Do nothing.)  I'm totally missing the point behind targeting specific members of a project when they promote projects as a way of not dealing with single individuals.  OTOH, I do think having collaboration with the project here on WT would be better than Schmoogle.

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