Profile Quality Levels

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
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Surnames/tags: projects profile_improvement notables

This page is intended to explain the "metal" levels that some projects use to keep track of the different things to be done on the profiles that fall within that project's purview.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Progressing Through The Levels 2.1 Iron 2.2 Bronze 2.3 Silver 2.4 Gold

Overview

The "metals" used to name the different quality levels for profiles are similar to the metals used for medals at the Olympics and other sporting events:

• The top level is "gold", and it is reserved for profiles which fulfill all of the requirements listed at lower levels.
• The next highest level is "silver", and it denotes profiles which are "almost there", but still have a few elements missing.
• The next level is "bronze". It is the lowest level applied to any profile which exists on WikiTree. As long as there is a WikiTree profile for a person within a project's purview, it qualifies for at least the bronze level.
• The lowest level is "iron". There are no iron medals at the Olympics, but we needed a level lower than bronze to mark people who would fall under a given project's purview if they had WikiTree profiles, but who don't have profiles yet. (In other words, the iron section is a to-do list of people who need to have WikiTree profiles created for them.)

Note that projects or pages may display the levels in different orders:

• some may list iron profiles at the top and gold profiles at the bottom, to reflect the progress of improving a profile. In this case, as profiles are improved, they move further down on that page.
• some may list gold profiles at the top and iron profiles at the bottom, to show off the highest quality profiles first. In this case, as profiles are improved, they move higher up on that page.

Progressing Through The Levels

Iron

At the iron level, creating a WikiTree profile for that person, no matter how incomplete, qualifies that entry to move up to the bronze level.

Bronze

At the bronze level, a profile needs to have several elements added to it before it can be moved up to the silver level:

• Depending on the project, there may be a template or sticker which needs to be applied to each profile. See the project page of the project that a profile is associated with to see whether that is a requirement.
• Depending on the project, it may be necessary to set a profile's privacy to Open, or to add that project as a profile manager. For more information on privacy, see the Privacy help page.
• For the Notables Project, profiles need have a link under "See also:" to that person's entry in Wikipedia or some similar source (and, in the case of people who are listed on Wikipedia, there needs to be a link to their Wikidata entry, and the WikiTree ID needs to be entered into their Wikidata entry).
  1. If the person has a Wikipedia entry:
     • Add "See also:" under the Sources section, and then add "* Wikipedia: [[wikipedia:Person_Name|Person Name]]" on a new line, replacing "Person_Name" with whatever is in the URL for their entry on Wikipedia after the last slash. (In other words, if the Wikipedia URL is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Douglas_(governor), then that line should read "* Wikipedia: [[wikipedia:James_Douglas_(governor)|James Douglas (governor)]".)
     • Click on the "Wikidata item" link in the left-hand menu of their Wikipedia entry, and note the number you see on the top line in medium-sized grey type that begins with "Q". Add "* {{Wikidata|Q1234567|enwiki}}" on a new line, replacing "Q1234567" with the number you have noted. (For example, James Douglas' Wikidata number is "Q358904".)
     • Scroll down the Wikidata page, and check to see if there is a WikiTree ID entry. If not, click on the "+ add" link at the bottom of the page, type "WikiTree ID" into the property box (it should bring up a match after you type the first few letters), enter that person's WikiTree ID into the next box, and click on "save". (For example, James Douglas' WikiTree ID is "Douglas-4028".)
• Depending on the project, a profile may need to have at least a few categories added. Places of birth and death, and occupation, should be fairly easy to add. Some projects may require other categories, such as military units or battles. For more information on categories, see the Categorization help page.

Silver

At the silver level, a profile needs still more elements added before it can be moved up to the gold level:

• A narrative biography. For more information on biographies, see the Biographies help page.
• At least one primary source. A primary source is an official government, religious, or newspaper record which records a person's birth, baptism, marriage, death, obituary, burial, grave, census, or similar event. (There are other, secondary, sources of information about people, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, genealogical books or articles, family trees on other sites, and so on, but those should be listed under a separate "See also:" header.) For more information on sources and how to add them, see the Sources help page.
• At least one image. For more information on images and how to add them, see the Photos FAQ page.
• Being connected to the main tree. For more information on what makes a profile connected, see the Unconnected help page. For more hints and tips on how to connect unconnected profiles, see the Hints and Tips section on the Connectors Chat page.

Gold

At the gold level, there are probably other things that could be added: more sources, more categories, a more complete biography, photos of their headstone, statue, or some other memorial to them, and so on. Probably no profile is ever really "finished", but at least a gold level profile should be one that we can point to as an example of "how to do a profile".