Help:Recruiting New Project Members

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Limits on Project Participation

Requirements for joining a project

Topical Projects should be open to anyone who would like to join. Participating in a project does not give a member any extra powers, so it should not be seen as risky to add someone who has little experience. Any requirements to join should be simple, such as signing the Honor Code, making 100 contributions, or being a member for one month.

Membership in Functional Projects may be limited. They are generally performing tasks or interacting with other members in manners that take specific knowledge or skills. This doesn't mean new members cannot be guided and trained to fill those roles — communication and education make for a better community — but some discretion is left to the leaders of the project.

Requirements for being a project member

Although joining a topical project should be easy and open to just about any signer of the Honor Code, there can be participation requirements. For example, projects might require members to:

  • Join the Google Group.
  • Take an "orphan trail" training program.
  • Choose a project team.
  • Respond to periodic check-ins.

Finding New Members

Projects are always in need of new members to help them achieve their goals. There are several ways to search out new members.

Monitoring the Project Tag

You can check to see who is following the tag associated with your project. It's a bit of a "hack": you do it by pretending the tag is a surname and going to the URL for what would be the surname index page, i.e. https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/tag

For example, the tag for the Categorization Project is "categorization". You would manually create this URL and check the page:
https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/categorization

You will need to resort the list so that the advanced features appear. This will include a list of those following the tag.

This same strategy could also be applied to surnames that are strongly linked to a project.

While checking the followers of tag, you can make sure that all the current members are following it.

G2G

Another great way to draw the attention of potential project members is to use G2G for questions and discussions. Be sure you are applying tags and using title questions that will grab interest. Often people see these and realize that they are not the only folks with an interest in a certain area.

Example Profile of the Week

See Help:Example Profiles.

Facebook and External Communities

WikiTree isn't the only place that genealogists gather on the Internet.

Although you need to be respectful of the other communities' etiquette and rules, it's generally appropriate to mention a WikiTree Project when it's related to the community's subject matter.



This page was last modified 22:39, 23 May 2022. This page has been accessed 835 times.