Are WikiTree Projects and User Groups the same thing?

Question

We started creating "User Groups" about a year ago to help coordinate the work on historically-significant ancestors. The first one was the European Aristocratic Ancestors Group. Soon after came the Mayflower Ancestors User Group, then the Acadian Ancestors Group, etc.

More recently we've been experimenting with Projects. Projects aren't necessarily grouped around an historical period or group of ancestors. The first projects were for Categorization and Profile Improvement. But they could be for a group of people. The US Presidents group could be considered a Project or User Group. Paul Bech will be leading in the creation of an Australian Convicts / First Families group. Or project.

Should we just merge the user groups into projects, or would there be a reason to have both user groups and projects?

Answer 1

I've been thinking of them as basically the same thing. It's just the format that's different. So I think it comes down to what formats people prefer. The Google Groups have definitely died down lately, with only the odd conversation happening. Meanwhile, G2G has become a lot more active, and people are starting to use the project talk pages.

So, I guess that means I support making everything a Project. Though I still like the term User Group. :)

~Lianne

Comments

That has been essentially my thought as well. I think of the user groups as the people who run the projects. Honestly never considered they might be seperate things. I think by treating everthing like a project provides much more flexibilty. For instance in the president's group. If we treat it like a group you would only want to look at the presidents and maybe the first ladies. If we look at it as a project then that opens the door to explore and strengthen each presidents entire family tree - ancestors and decendants. I guess it is a matter of scope - projects seem more expansive than groups, but if you consider groups the ones who manage those projects it seems to make more sense. At least to me...