User talk:Cottrells

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Tree
I love the personal family history research tree on your user page! Nice addition. -Fran 15:51, 1 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I wanted to share with others my areas of research interest and thought what better way than addding a brief pedigree. Once I have tweaked how the template works, I will move it to the main template namespace and document how it can be used. For example one thing I have coded into the template is; that it will only work in the User namespace. I did this as adding pedigrees is not in harmony with the main purpose of the wiki, but I could see other users wanting to use it as I have. --Steve 15:59, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

I love it too - that's an awesome addition and I look forward to using it myself when it's ready for prime time. Laralee 20:49, 19 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks Laralee. It is now ready to be used. The template is called Ahnentafel or if you prefer Pedigree chart will work as an alternative. As I see this template being used to help users of the wiki share with other their names/areas of interest, the template will only work in the User namespace. For information about the different parameters etc, please see the template pages. If you have any queries, feel free to post them here or in the template talk page. --Steve 13:18, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Problem with titles with words starting in V
Steve, David Dilts just flagged me that many wiki pages' titles have been injected with the string "eronicaanguianoital." I did a search and this has happened to about 240 pages. I checked the history of the first two to find that you edited them last. Is this possibly caused by a bot you may be running? RitcheyMT 20:00, 19 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes this is nasty, I'm not sure what is causing it. I've not been running any bots. To me as there is not edit history linked with these "injections" I suspect that something has happened at the database level. --Steve 20:11, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
 * PS the injected string is eronicaanguiano making "Vital" "Veronicaanguianoital".
 * Does anyone know a Veronica Anguiano? --Steve 20:15, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Changing bibliographic description on RecordSearch articles
Steve, thanks for your tips on the RecordSearch citations. I'll add my commentary on tags and descriptions vs. citations to the discussion page you suggested. This area will see a bit of flux and experimentation over the next few weeks as we: a) solidify our preferred Use Guidance bibliographic description business rules; b) transition from RecordSearch to FamilySearch beta; and c) work out a better way to use these citations in multiple places in the FamilySearch system without having to update them multiple times. It's likely your template work will help in this effort. I understand you'll be here in Salt Lake this next week. I'm looking forward to having Dorothy introduce us. GehringJG 16:21, 22 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, you understand right I will be in Salt Lake next week. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of people involved in the wiki while I am there. I would be happy to help develop the template to help achieve what you need. --Steve 21:37, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Eliminating "Record Search"
So it seems that the name "Record Search" is no longer going to be used. So is it possible to remove that phrase from this template? I am thinking for the logo just using the FamilySearch part as well as just using FamilySearch. I also have an official Familysearch logo uploaded if you want to use it. (you don't have to but here is one if you want it) LakeCL 15:40, April 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Chris, thanks for this update. Yes the reference in the template can be changed, also the image used. Thanks for uploading the FamilySearch logo.


 * When will the branding on the website be changing? I think it would be better to follow the website change (as short as possible after) and not pre-empt it. Of course if there is a strong reason for it to be the other way around, we can do that.


 * Will the URL also be eliminating the term recordsearch? I see that a different domain is being used from the http://labs.familysearch.org page to access the main search window http://search.labs.familysearch.org, but that it is still referred to as Record Search. You say that in the future to use just FamilySearch but would FamilySearch record collections be OK as to distinguish this section from other parts? --Steve 10:20, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for creating this template for us. It's great. I appreciate that you have been helping Chris Lake to learn how to edit the wiki and other things. He changed the logo to FamilySearch and deleted "Record Search" because, as you know, they will do away with that phrase soon. --HoranDM 03:36, April 28, 2010 (UTC)


 * Took care of United States Census pages formerly linked to old url name. There are few left but you have to follow the links to find other pages. dsammy 06:44, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Yorkshire Pages
Dear Steve, Thank you for letting me know, that will make my job a lot easier. Feel free to send me a line anytime I do something odd. Thank you, SarahLowe

Tech discussion
Javier wants to discuss a few items with you about the Spanish wiki. Fran 13:32, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Links
I solved one of the problems: Links. I had several links in a page pointing to different pages but all of them beginning with the same words. It didn't work. It seems wiki goes and checks certain number of letter from the beginning and if doesn't find a difference there it crashes. I changed the name of the pages to make them different at the start.

There's another problem
I created yesterday an article called CHF Estaca Bogotá Colombia. It cannot be found but it is there. If I look for recent added pages I can find it. We need help on this or at least to define if it is a bug. Thanks. Javier 12:19, 5 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Javier, I'm glad you have fixed one problem. The other problem sounds like an engineering/search issue, so my suggestion is to contact your technical support or post a message in the forums. --Steve 18:24, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Project Templates
Steve, would you please create a template for users who are a part of the Indians of North America Project, similar to the one for Idaho? Thanks. Jimmy B. Parker 05:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Done. See User WikiProject Indians of North America. --Steve 07:57, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Posting an invitation for feedback
Steve, my name is Jake Bunker, I am incharge of quality and performance improvement for Patron Services in FamilySearch. Right now I am working with a team to get customer satisfaction data from registered wiki users. Is it possible to push an invitation like that to all registered users talk pages? What does it take to do something like that? Thanks BunkerJM 21:52, 4 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Jake, the extension that needs to be installed to add this feature is Extension:SiteWideMessages. There is a thread in the forum where uses for this extension has been discussed and it has been added to the Wiki Dev Backlog. If you are able to help raise the importance of getting this extension installed, it would be very welcome. --Steve 10:16, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Wiki Article Rating System
Steve, I really like your article rating system for quality and priority. I have a question -- Who is to do the rating of quality and the assignment of priorities? Is that a function of a moderator? Or should that be done by the community at-large? I guess I'm a little shy about rating the quality of articles I wrote. Jimmy B. Parker 19:38, 5 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Good question. I think that moderators/project leaders could take up this role, but it could also be assigned to a specific person. In saying that, as with anything in the wiki I believe that all users should be encouraged to contribute and that would also be true of article assessments.


 * A key requirement is to set some guiding criteria. Wikipedia's quality grading criteria is well defined, but probably more than the Research Wiki needs. The criteria of importance is defined around the notability the article has within the subject/project field. Both of these are subjective and different editors/contributors will have different views. Hopefully they can discuss them and agree a rating.


 * You also mention rating article that you have authored. I feel that at the start that an author will have more idea of the article's potential than others, what you have started many may feel is complete, whereas you know that there is further improvement. As an article get higher up the grades then useful peer review will be beneficial. My feeling is that it is better to have a rating that others can discuss than no rating at all. --Steve 12:05, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

User Discusion page
Thank you for the user Discusion page and the clean up of the SDFHL article.

I also have a question. I uploaded 3 jpg pictures for the SDFHL article. When will I be notified that they are approved and ready for use? I have noticed that are not yet listed in user contributions, will that be a clue? I am familar with the "other" Wikipedia, but a newbie here. Jrcrin001 07:17, 21 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, it's good to know that you have experience with how a wiki works. If you have time, I would invite you to review past community meetings and get involved with other members of the community. To answer your query, you will be notified by email once the images have been approved and uploaded. How long ago did you submit them? --Steve 07:51, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I just checked the queue, and my guess is the images will be approved and uploaded today. You will receive an email notification after the images are uploaded to the wiki. -Fran 14:48, 21 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you once again! I will look around. Jrcrin001 16:10, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Move an Article
Hello,

I need to move an article and its talk page. San Diego Family History Library to San Diego California Large Multi-Stake Family History Center. And a redirect needs to be made for the former to the later.

I tried the Wikipedia format, but that did not seem to work. Apparently, our Director wants to conform exactly with the new rulings from the FHC Department. Any help appreicated. Jrcrin001 18:48, 3 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi. I'm not sure what you mean by Wikipedia format, but to answer you question about moving an article, if you are using the new look skin the when you are viewing the article select move from the Views section of the right-hand sidebar. You will be taken to a new screen where the name of the article is given twice, the second time in a box called To new article. Type in this box the new name of the article and if your moving an associated talk page make sure the Move the associated talk page option is checked. When you've done this select the Move page button. The wiki software will then move the page and automatically create redirects from the old title to the new title. If you want some more information about the process you may want to review the Help:Renaming a page article --Steve 19:12, 3 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I am more used to the Wikipedia format here. This version of wiki is different. Thanks to your info, I was able to move the article without a problem. Actually, it was easier than the other Wikipedia. Add those to another wiki format I dable with and I sometimes get confused over what works where and when in each wiki!  Thank you! Jrcrin001 06:04, 4 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm glad that you found it straight forward :) --Steve 12:19, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Guidelines Template
Chris Lake and I like your idea about changing the Contributor invite template:



I think that when a person comes to the wiki to learn more about a collection of records they would like to get straight to the specific information about the article subject. Does the new Style guide section warrant being place before the Foreign Language Title and the Record Description etc.? Would it not be possible to include information about the style guide in the new Contributor invite template For example: We welcome user additions to FamilySearch Historical Records wiki articles. Guidelines are available to help you make changes. Thank you for any contributions you may provide. If you would like to get more involved join the FamilySearch Records Project. --Steve 16:38, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

If you have time, feel free to do it yourself. If not, let Chris know and he will add this. I appreciate your ideas. Streamlining is great. If there isn't a way to use a find and replace sort of function, we'll have our missionary, Elder Bloomfield, clean up the records. Thanks again. --HoranDM 14:55, August 6, 2010


 * Hi Dorothy, I have gone ahead and made some changes to the Contributor invite template. If you would like to make further changes please go ahead and do so. By making the change, I believe that it makes having a seperate Style guide section is redundant. --Steve 08:00, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Quick Note of Appreciation
We wanted to send out a quick letter of appreciation for all your hard work and dedication in getting the FamilySearch Records project off the ground. The information you provide is invaluable to those users who are searching out further information about collections in FamilySearch; it helps them make a deeper connection with their research, especially when it has to do with their own ancestry. It’s your contributions that are keeping the project rolling forward. Thank you.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. We’d love to hear from you and help you out in any way we can.

Sincerely,

The FamilySearch Records Team User:HoranDM User:LakeCL User:ginabegin

Ginabegin 19:59, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Suggestion for layout for society template
Steve, thanks for your hard work on the society template. I have a question. Would it be possible to have the infobox display to the right of (and level with) the table of contents like we used to do with pictures on place pages? I think the Dorset Family History Society page, for example, would look a little sharper if the layout were done this way. I tried in vain to make the change last night, but couldn't figure out how to do it. Do you know a way? RitcheyMT 05:36, 18 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Question also asked (and answered) at Template talk:Societies --Steve 19:44, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Transfer Research Guidance
Steve, I'm working on transfering this information for British Isles and there are a few images I can't copy. Do you know how to capture these? I have noted them on the task page. Thanks again for all you do!

Kara 18:21, 24 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Kara, I will help however I can. The task page? I've looked at your recent edits and think that you are refering to British Isles content in FamilySearch Research Helps. Which images are you not able to copy? Can you provide me with a link to the images in question. Or update the task with a comments about copying images. Thanks --Steve 18:46, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Stub sorting
Question, on the wiki stub project there were 116 left after we finished. What I am wondering is there were 30 or more that we did edit, but they didn't go away. Could you tell me why? They were from all over the world, no one specific location. Would just like to know how to have edited them Janedwards 03:10, 1 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Jan, I found that some of the articles that had been edited had more than one copy of the stub included on the page. When one was sorted the other kept the article in the Category:Stubs. There was also two articles that did not appear to have the stub template in the article at all: Anne Arundel County, Maryland and Queen Anne's County, Maryland. This puzzled me at first, but then I realised that something that these two article had in common was the name Anne in the title and I was aware that just after the migration to the single sign on at the end of last year we had a problem with some articles that included in their titles the old username of a person because the system was changing all instances of the old username, even in the main namespace. I then checked the Special:PrefixIndex and found that the database had two copies of each of these pages, but only one copy could be accessed and edited, leading me to believe that I would need to delete the editable copy to get to the other. I tried this theory out in the test version of the wiki proving my assumption was correct before making the change in the production wiki and updating the remaining version with all the latest edits. I hope that helps explain why it was difficult to take some pages out of the stubs category. If you have any follow-up questions just let me know. --Steve 06:11, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

FamilySearch Collection Template Link Change
Hi Steve, I am in need of your expertise. As you know FSbeta is now the main source for FamilySearch Collections so there is a need to change the Template:FamilySearch Collections so that it directs to the beta site as opposed to the Record Search site. I was not sure where to link to in the template and wanted your impute so I didn't mess anything up. Thanks, let me know if this is not clear. LakeCL 17:45, 12 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Chris, I have amended the template RecordSearch so that it now uses links to the beta site. This template is used in FamilySearch Collection to produce the links within that header template. Please let me know if you find any links that aren't working after this change. --Steve 11:52, 13 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Steve we have a problem with the template links not taking everyone to the beta collections. It works fine using Google Chrome or Firefox as your browser. But if you use Internet Explorer It goes to a blank page on FSBeta when you click on the template link. Do you know if this could be a problem with IE or perhaps beta itself? or what? Thanks for you help LakeCL 15:23, 14 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Chris, sorry about that. I think the problem was that I used http instead of https in the generating the URLs. I've checked the links with IE7 (I don't have access to other versions). Please let me know if this fixes the problems on all versions of IE. --Steve 16:13, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

County infobox adaptations
Hi, Steve,

We want to test a few things with the county infoboxes, and are wondering how feasable this is.


 * Adjusting the width of it (either wider or narrower). How much flexibility does it have, and will it automatically make all the images bigger?
 * Adding or removing a section of it. We do need this to test the infobox to put the page-adoption banners. And there will eventually be multiple page adopters, instead of only one. We need one to test this concept to show the page adoption community.

AdkinsWH 19:39, 29 October 2010 (UTC)