User talk:Cottrells

Infobox for Swedish Parishes Fix Link
Hi Steve,

Just a couple items, first thank you for your work on the Infoboxes for the Swedish parishes. They look great and are going to be a huge help on the Swedish parish pages. I've started the definition pages for the Swedish terms in the Infobox and found that the link for Domsaga doesn't work. Will you please fix that? Once it's fixed, I'll continue building the definition pages.

Thanks

MorrisGF 16:27, 3 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Geoff, the reason the link for Domsaga is not working is that it is being displayed next to the edit link for a section heading. The format of this edit link is preventing the link from working not the code within the infobox. --Steve 16:35, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia's Historical populations table
Hi Steve --

When you have a chance, could you tell me how hard it would be to create a "Historical populations" table like the one found under "Demographics" in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_County,_Kentucky for FamilySearch Wiki? Has anyone built one of these before? I'd love to have one of these to put into the county pages where I'm working.

A few minor adjustments:

1. We might not need to hyperlink the census years

2. Some counties were not created until much later than 1790, and if we could hide or erase rows for years that do not exist, that would be a great help. The years 1790 to 2010 would be the maximum range to include.

3. Would it be difficult to program it to do a plus/minor percentage for population growth/loss

I'd love to have it right justified to the right of text, as it is laid out in Wikipedia.

Murphynw 22:43, 4 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Nathan, take a look at the template that is already in the Research Wiki Historical populations, you do not need to link the years, the range is entirely down to the user and there is a +/- column. For full details about how it can be used, read the documentation that is provided with the template. If things needs tweaking to suit your requirements let me know. --Steve 00:58, 5 January 2011 (UTC)


 * This is awesome. Works just how I was hoping! Thanks for putting that up a few years ago. Murphynw 00:59, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Contacting FamilySearch
At your suggestion I moved "FamilySearch Support email and telephone contact list" to "Help:FamilySearch Support E-mail and Worldwide Telephone Directory" with a "REDIRECT" to your suggestion of Help:Contact FamilySearch. That way there are more words to search with and it still goes to the site where the list of phone numbers is maintained by the Church.

I was a missionary in Wales and the Midlands back in the 60's. Want to come a visit Chester, North Wales and South Wales again. Just loved Boston. Felt like I knew the place.

Elder Charles Smith


 * Hi Elder Smith, Yes it makes sense to point all pages about contacting FamilySearch to a single wiki article that links to the information that is maintained in the Help Center. It would be duplicating effort to maintain a page of numbers in the wiki.


 * I also have my heart tied to Wales, I was a missionary in South Wales and the South West in the '90s :) --Steve 22:39, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Technical Meetings
Steve, I have updated the link for today's meeting, so you should be able to access it. The one for last week has disappeared from the site, so we need a better solution for long-term access to previous meetings. Thank you for letting me know about the meeting links. --Mark 23:00, 11 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks Mark, that updated link does work. So my next question is, why was I not able to join the meeting today? Is there a connection limit, so that once the maximum number is reached no more Guest callers can be added to the meeting? I ask this because I noticed that the meeting page that I saw stated Number of phone connections: 14. There was also a link called Invitees which when opened showed a list of 3 FamilySearch employees, plus 14 guests for a total of 17. --Steve 23:50, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Czech Republic
The Czech Republic page has issues on the page that force the topics list to the bottom of the page. We are at the RootsTech conference right now, so I can't fix it myself. If you have time, could you fix it? Thanks --Fran 18:11, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * It's fixed. Hope you enjoy/survive the conference. I enjoyed watching the opening keynote session that featured Shane Robison and Jay Verkler (introduced by Anne). --Steve 18:57, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Community Tools
Thanks for fixing the auto-category and the formatting of the last two sections. They were on my to-do list, but ran out of time last night. I have a .doc outline for the workshop that I'm converting into the wiki article. I also need to get some screen shots to help improve the page visually. That's also on my to-do list for tonight after the conference day is over... another late night. I'm sitting in one of the workshop rooms right now. Everyone in the class has a computer, so using the wiki page with links to the example pages will be helpful. It will make it easy for everyone to follow along. Too bad the help content in the wiki is still in need to much improvement. I really don't know what I'm doing to do about teaching the Help section or what are the best pages to link to. As you can see, the last two sections of the class outline are still in need to some work, so much thanks for your help!! --Fran 18:49, 11 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I've added a couple images to the page but now the page is doing something strange. Both images don't show on the page at the same time. Every time I refresh the page, one image shows up and the other one only the file name appears. With each refresh, the one that shows and the one that is a file name switches. But never do they show up on the page visually at the same time. Any clues as to why this is happening? I've never see this before in the wiki. --Fran 07:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I have seen this happen before, basically whenever a image is first uploaded to the wiki it takes a while for it to be replicated to each of the servers, meaning that when you refresh the page it may be served up by one which hasn't got the image yet. Often if you wait 30mins or so everything will work as expected. --Steve 09:56, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Contact
Are you going to the Who Do You Think You Are? conference in London next week? Darris is going and will be at the booth plus teaching a couple classes. If you are going, I'd suggest you meet up with him there. --Fran 18:30, 18 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Fran, I'm not planning on going, but I appreciate you letting me know. --Steve 20:47, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Ancestral File page
Thanks for going in so quickly and editing those Ancestral file pages! janellv 22:20, 22 February 2011 (UTC)


 * No problem. I searched for other comments that had been added to articles rather than talk pages and found one more, which I have now moved to Talk:Ordering Microfilm or Microfiche from a Family History Center. I couldn't find any others. --Steve 17:50, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

May I contact you on Sype when needed
2/28/11

Steve-

Kara Walquist and all on Michael's team tell me you are wonderful! Kara tells me you have helped her a ton. I am new on Michael's team I have never done anything on the Wiki till about two weeks ago. I started to be a contributer so I would know how they feel, I have already messed up some things.

Steve I want to be your friend as well as need too anyone that does as much as you do I want to know. I wondered if I could put you on my Skype contacts so when I need help and Kara isn't able to help me, I may inlist your aid. Is that OK?

much thanks,

Dawne


 * Hi Dawne, I am willing to help however I can. I do have a Skype account (&lt;skype&gt;steve.cottrell&lt;/skype&gt;), but I'm not a regular user. Feel free to add me to your contacts and ask for my help whenever you need, but the best way to get my attention is to comment on my talk page as you have done. --Steve 08:52, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Naming my contribution
I propose subject title as :

"Web links and miscellaneous on Cortelyou's origins"

Alain 09:24, 1 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Alain, thanks for replying. I add the Title flag to the page you created as the given article name is clearly an error. From you reply and looking more closely at the contents, I'm not sure if it fits with the the purpose of the Research Wiki. If you have any further questions about posting the information about Cortelyou's origins I suggest that you --Steve 17:41, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Hello, Steve. I am uncertain whether my contribution above fits well with Familysearch Wiki purposes. Some web links are dead, moreover... I won't be astonished if you decide to delete it and I will publish a correct version in a few days. Yours faithfully

Alain COURTILLON, CGIV RENNES, Brittany, France


 * Hi Alain, you're probably right about the information not really suiting this Research Wiki. Have you considered contributing this information to either www.WeRelate.org or www.Biographicalwiki.com --Steve 18:38, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Deleted pages
Is there a report somewhere that lists the pages that have been deleted from the wiki? There are some concerns about recent deletes and I want to follow-up on this, but I need to see a list of the deleted pages. Unfortunately, I can't find it in Special pages. Any suggestions? --Fran 16:56, 1 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Fran, what you are looking for is listed on the SpecialPages in the section Recent changes and logs. It a link to all the Special:Log. This page lists all public logs, one of which is the Deletion log. When you access the log you can filter the results by user, page title and/or year/month. --Steve 17:47, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Request for you to see forum thread on User Pages
Hi Steve,

I'd love to hear your thoughts about the importance of user pages! Can you take a minute and add your thoughts on the Forum thread I've started? Lise 02:16, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Welcoming Committee Userbox
Steve- thanks for the Welcoming box, you are wonderful. Dawne 18:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It was a pleasure. --Steve 18:38, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

WeRelate template
Hi Steve --

We're experimenting with ways WeRelate and FamilySearch Wiki can interact. I have a question about the WeRelate template. Have you worked with it? Currently, it is set up to retrieve Person pages. Could we make it so it also retrieves Source pages? Here is an example of where it is not behaving properly: Washington County, Tennessee

I would like it to direct people to this page: [http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Source:Washington%2C_Tennessee%2C_United_States._Washington_County%2C_Tennessee_Marriage_Books%2C_Licenses%2C_and_Bonds Source:Washington, Tennessee, United States. Washington County, Tennessee Marriage Books, Licenses, and Bonds]

Thanks! Murphynw 18:26, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Nathan, yes I have been involved with the WeRelate template. I created it to be easy to link to Person pages by automatically including the Person namespace. However in response to you request I've now amended it so that it can link to any page in WeRelate. To do this namespaces will now need to be specified. --Steve 07:32, 25 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Hey thanks Steve! Murphynw 15:37, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

England Family History Centres
Henry995 Thanks for editing out the Center spelling. A work in progress but if helpful Orpington England Family History Centre is out there. Feel free to edit cosmetically. I am grateful for a community member spotting these emerging yesterday. Most Centres are unaware of the pages.


 * Hi Henry, thank you for raising this as an issue. Charles Smith created the page FamilySearch Wiki:Family History Centers Naming and Content. I then added a proposed style guide regarding this issue to that page. Please feel free to add you comments to what I have suggested. --Steve 08:06, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Contributor Help
Steve ... thanks for working on the Contributor Help boxes. I put those up for Janell, where she told me to. I am perfectly fine with whatever the two of you decide. Thanks for checking with me, and thanks for everything you do for us. Jane 14:55, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

= Family History Centers (USA) =

Please take a look at the recently changed article Family History Centers and the discussion on the talk/discussion page. I stated my case and I am not going to be involved in a edit war. A member of the SLC FHC department needs to have input here on the different type of FHCs designated in the April 2010 directive. And on similar subject articles.

Please pass this on to an administrator or the appropiate person. Thank you. Jrcrin001 07:36, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi John, thank you for asking me to add my thoughts to Talk:Family History Centers. I agree it may take an authoritative voice from SLC to resolve the issue. I know that the wiki administrators that are FamilySearch employees are on the case. --Steve 09:49, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

= Changes =

Steve-

Much thanks to you, for spending time in the Wiki with all the tech changes you help with, we are all in you debt.

As you know we want to improve the process for welcoming new authors and editors in the Wiki. I have spoken both to Janell and Kara and both are excited about the changes you are going to help us make. Even though you know this Steve I wanted to send this to you with changes coming in June: this is in part what I sent:

We will have another Welcome Message Template designed to be more individualized. The others will be there too but we hope that you will use this new welcome message.

Steve Cottrell will be helping us with the Template, a special thanks to him. Please read more carefully what the contributor or editor have put on the page. The current steps listed for reviewing the contributions are good to follow.

Avoid adding the welcome message before following the steps outlined. The question Templates will stay the same.

We thank you again for all you do. Dawne 15:12, 27 May 2011 (UTC)