Help:Adopt-a-page/Getting Started

Registering on the wiki
You will need to register at the Family Search Wiki Site. If you currently have a user ID and password for any FamilySearch product, it will work on the Wiki, and you do not need to re-register.

From any Wiki page, go to the upper right corner of the page and you will see "Sign In". Click on that, and when the screen comes up to sign in, there will be a place above the "Sign In" box labeled "Create an Account", click on that and follow the instructions to register a new account. Create your account and log in.

"Watching" wiki pages
Once registered, the first thing you will need to do is set the pages you've adopted to "watch" status, which will notify you of any changes made to those pages. Here's how:


 * Once you have logged in and are on a page you have adopted, there is a small white star outlined in blue.
 * Click the star it will turn blue and a box will appear with a note indicating you are now watching that page
 * “Watching” will cause an e-mail to be generated to you any time another user makes an edit to your page showing you what was changed. This makes keeping an eye on the page content much easier.

Learning about policy changes saves rework
Changes occur often on wikis regarding policies, governance, stylistic issues, time-saving templates, and even the roles of adopters and moderators. When such changes occur, it is good to be aware of them early because this saves one from making many page edits using obsolete rules and having to correct them later.

Creating your user page
The last thing you need to do to get set up is to create your user page. This will tell users and contributors about you and your organization.


 * 1) At the top of the page on the right hand side there is a small icon followed by your User Name. Click on the User Name and your User Page will appear.
 * 2) Before you make your first edit to your user page, a message will display there saying "This page has not been created yet." Do not let that confuse you; just click on Edit This Page and begin typing.

Ideas for your user page
A user page is a great place to tell a bit about yourself and link to wiki articles and other sites you find helpful. There are no requirements about what user pages must contain -- they exist to help users -- but here are some ideas of what you might add:


 * A Personal Section telling a little bit about you.
 * A section about your personal genealogical projects.
 * Links to pages you moderate.
 * Links to Help pages you use often.
 * A section about any genealogical associations with which you are affiliated, and your responsibilities there.
 * A section that suggests the types of improvements that are still needed on pages within the topic area you oversee. (This, along with a project page is a good way to make a "call to action" that can get others working on your projects!)

To learn more about user pages, see Help:User page and FamilySearch Wiki:User page. To see a couple good examples of user pages, see User:JensenFA and User:Cottrells.

Thanks for adopting!
Now that you have completed these tasks, you are ready to start adding information to the pages you've adopted.