FamilySearch Wiki:Moderator/Getting Started

Registering on the wiki
A Wiki Moderator should already have a wiki account to sign into the wiki with. However, in some circumstances, a moderator may not have one. If you currently have a userid and password for any Family Search product, it will work on the Wiki, and you do not need to re-register.

To create an account, from any Wiki page, on the upper right corner of the page, click sign in. When the screen comes up to sign in, click the link to register a new account. Create your account and log in.

Moderator Setup

 * We have added you to the FamilySearch Wiki:Moderator page. Please make sure that the link there to your user page is correct.
 * We have also added you as a moderator to the main Locality or Topic page you will be moderating. If you are moderating, for example, New York content, you have been added to the New York page. Note that you will also be moderating all of the New York content.

"Watching" wiki pages
Once registered, the first thing you will need to do is understand how "watching" pages work. Watching the pages you moderate is important so that you can be aware of the changes that are made to the pages over time. When you watch a page, you will be notified through email each time a change is made to that page, and you can know who is working on these pages to:


 * 1) Thank them and encourage their contributions to the wiki.
 * 2) Be aware of potential problems that may arise.

Here's how to "watch" a page:


 * Once you have logged in and are on a page you want to watch, look on the upper right side of the page on the toolbar with watch, share and print.
 * Click watch. The system will indicate that 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 the page. When you visit the page, you can view the History tab to see what was changed. This makes it easy to track changes to the pages you moderate.

Watch the following pages:


 * First, add the FamilySearch Wiki:Moderator page to your watchlist. This will notify you of any new helps for Moderators and any changes to the job description.
 * Second, add the locality or topic pages you are moderating to the watchlist, their topic pages, and the sub-locality pages. For example, if you are the New York moderator, you will add the New York page, the New York topic pages, and the New York county pages to your watchlist.

Be involved - learning about policy changes saves rework
Changes occur often on wikis regarding policies, governance, stylistic issues, time-saving templates, and even the roles of moderators and adopters. 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.

At FamilySearch Wiki, changes that affect moderators, adopters, and other contributors are proposed, discussed, and decided on an online forum called the FamilySearch Wiki Contributors' Corner. In order for you to be aware of these discussions, impact their outcome, and learn of changes early in order to save time and prevent unnecessary rework later, you will want to register on the forums and subscribe to the Contributors' Corner forum. This will allow you to receive notifications via email when new issues are being discussed.

Navigating from the wiki to the forums
To get to the forums, you could just type forums.familysearch.org into the address bar of your Internet browser and press Enter. But if you prefer to use a link from the wiki to get to forums, here is the path:


 * On the right hand side of your county page you will see a gray pull down navigation menu with the main titles of Views, Community, Toolbox and Personal Tools. Click on the small arrow out to the right of Community, opening up the pull down menu.
 * Go down the menu and click on Wiki Forums.

Subscribing to the Contributors' Corner forum

 * Sign in to the forums using your Wiki user name.
 * At the forum home page, navigate to the FamilySearch Wiki Contributors' Corner forum. It can be found near the bottom of the forum home screen in the FamilySearch Wiki section.
 * Click Forum Tools, then Subscribe to this forum.
 * When new posts are added to the forum, you will receive notifications in your email.

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) Using the navigation menu on the right side of the page, expand Personal Tools by clicking on the arrow out to the right.
 * 2) The first item you see under Personal Tools should be your username. Click on this, and it will take you to your user page.
 * 3) 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 reponsibilities 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 good example of a user page, see User:Cottrells.

Ready to moderate
Once you have completed these tasks, you are ready to start moderating pages in your subject area.