FamilySearch Wiki:User Page

Purpose of User Page
A user page is a Wiki page about a Wiki contributor. It is a feature in the Wiki for the purpose of facilitating communication among participants and bring the online community closer together. The User page can state information about you and your interest in family history. If you have editing rights, you can create your own user page. Other users will see links to your user page from various places, such as Recent Changes and View History pages. You can link to your user page within the text of a Wiki page which is mainly use used on talk pages when you Sign your name.


 * Create a user page

Creating your User Page
To create your user page, do the following:
 * 1) Sign in to the Research Wiki using your FamilySearch account
 * 2) Locate your username at the top right side of a Wiki page. This is the link to your user page.
 * 3) Click on your username. It should currently be red.
 * 4) A page will appear that says, "There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, search the related logs, or create this page."
 * 5) Click on "create this page" link
 * 6) This will open your page in wikitext. Instructions' on how to edit in wikitext.

What to put on your User Page
Some appropriate content for a user page includes:
 * A list of your main areas of interest are in relation to the topic of the Wiki
 * Describe contributions you have made or areas you are interested in contributing
 * An abbreviated personal profile including where you live
 * NOTE: The Research Wiki is not a general hosting service, so your user page is not a personal website. Content on user pages should follow the '''FamilySearch Research Wiki Terms of Use.

Userboxes
Many users share with others their language skills and/or other interests by displaying boxes on their user page. User boxes are small, colorful boxes that denote membership in a group or expertise in a specific area. Visit the Userbox gallery to see if there are boxes that are appropriate for display on your user page. You must use wikitext to add the userbox to your User Page. For new userboxes, send a request to: [mailto:wikisupport@familysearch.org wikisupport@familysearch.org].

Finding the User's Contributions
When viewing another person's user page, an additional link, "user contributions", appears in the 'toolbox' area (bottom right). This takes you to a list of all of this user's wiki edits.

User Sandboxes
Creating your user page allows you to have a scratchpad space - an area for developing ideas without cluttering the main namespace. These pages are an extension of your user page and are called sandboxes. You may create sandboxes to assist in writing content on the Wiki, without changing Wiki pages in the main namespace. It also allows you to make edits on a page without scrutiny of other users. A personal sandbox link is found under the Edit the Wiki menu on the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. There is also a link in the top right hand corner of the screen above the search field.

More information:
 * Creating a Sandbox
 * About the Sandbox.
 * Practice Editing your Sandbox

Guidelines for User Pages
A user account should be used only by one person, and in most cases, one person should have only one account.

Name of User Page
Your user page is automatically named after your username you chose when you register for a FamilySearch account. It is preferred that users keep the username as the title of the page. However, there may be circumstances when a user would prefer their full name to be displayed as the page title. Use the DISPLAYTITLE template to override the title of the page. The wikitext code would be:. If DISPLAYTITLE is used to override the title of the user page, a header 2 must be at the top of the page stating the username of the contributor. The user name can also be found in the URL of the user name page.

Editing Someone's User Page
Though editing on another user's page is not prohibited, you should avoid adding or changing information. To communicate with a User, instead use their User's Talk page.

Some types of edits are widely acceptable and unlikely to cause any problems:
 * Fixing Wiki article links when a page has been moved or deleted
 * Fixing broken external links
 * Categorizing or fixing categories of user pages.
 * FamilySearch reserves the right to edit a userpage to conform to the policies of the Wiki and Terms of Use.

Terms of Use
FamilySearch Terms of Use require contributors not to use their User page as a forum for conjecture, gossip, or debate about the priorities, motives, processes, policies, or competence of FamilySearch or its personnel. These activities fall outside of the scope and use of this site and may result in loss of Editing rights.


 * FamilySearch reserves the right to edit a userpage to conform to the policies of the Wiki and Terms of Use.

Additional Information

 * Personal Pages - Wiki University