Community Meeting Agenda 16 February 2010

Join

 * Join the meeting live, or listen to the recording at a later date. The links are the same for both live or later: Click to join meeting; Meeting ID is 1149
 * Those in attendance this week were: Christopher Lake, David Dilts, Jimmy Parker, Judy Wolverton, Kara, Laralee, Lise Embley, Mollie, Nathan Murphy, Thomas Huber, Allen Tietjen, Ben Bennett, Phil Dunn, Tara Bergeson, dsammy, Don Stringham, Darris Williams, Barebel Johnson, Fran Jensen. (If I missed anyone, please edit as needed!)

Kudos

 * Thanks to whoever came up with the method to 'hide' the CID numbers in the wiki pages. Simple and effective and probably an excellent solution for all or nearly all users. Laralee 18:56, 16 February 2010 (UTC)
 * US Census pages have links to all available sources for census records! A whole team of people have worked long and hard to identify the resources and add these links to the census pages. See the Alabama Census page as an example.
 * England probate records are easier to find now that links were added to the Wiki pages. A lot of effort by a community of people went into identifying the steps to get you to the records you need! See Essex Probate Records and Court of the Archdeaconry of Essex as examples.
 * Details that will help you find your Mennonite ancestors were recently added to the Wiki!

We thank everyone for their tireless efforts to share! Fran 22:14, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

New Community Meetings
New Live User Group Meetings page with meetings for genealogists and newbies starting 28 Feb 2010. CK Whipple 20:55, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

New Community Meeting Home Page

 * Note the new design of the Community Meeting home page. Comments and suggestions for continued improvement are always welcome.
 * Submitting agenda items for the weekly meetings can now be done two different ways. First, on the agenda Discussion page itself. Second, on the Forum thread: Community Meeting agenda suggestions

Nomimate pages for featured articles
Please, share your great work with all of us! Please tell us what you are working on and what you find elsewhere on the wiki so we can share these sites with other wiki users.

Taking action on your feedback: fixes coming soon to the wiki!
Based on your feedback, we've made a number of fixes to the wiki. Some of these have already been implemented and others will show up this next week. Specifically:

1. Editing timeout workaround (based on feedback from various posts in the forums): We've implemented a pop up message when you've got 2 minutes before your session times out. This will allow you to save your work or copy and paste your work to another location in the event that you're not quite ready to save. Note that this solution is a bit of a 'band-aid' and we're working on a long term fix for this issue.

2. Fix re-direct issues after logging into the wiki (based on feedback from various posts in the forums): Currently, when you're browsing the wiki and you decide you want to edit a page and log in, you're re-directed to the home page (vs. being re-directed back to the page you were previously viewing). We've fixed this to reduce the nuisance factor.

3. Make FCK editor the default editor vs. having users have to select this option (based on feedback from forum thread #1625).

4. Display wiki footnotes without forcing the users to log in (from various forum posts).

5. Display the number of times that a page has been accessed.

6. Create a 'test' site where users can see/try/give feedback on new features prior to implementation (e.g. skins, navigation, etc.).

In addition, we're getting ready to start work on the next set of features/fixes. You can post your suggestions to the forums, or, for those who are intrested in more, you can check out the engineering backlog (see instructions below) to request / vote on your favorite items.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Want to see the current Wiki engineering backlog (and request / vote on your favorite items)?
...where you can vote on proposed features/fixes as well as add new items. See last week's meeting notes at Community Meeting Agenda 9 February 2010 for instructions to view the backlog. Note that this solution is an interim solution (and as such is less than elegant). Long term, the backlog will be visable in the wiki. In the meantime, take a look, add any issues you see missing and vote for your favorite features and fixes.

2010 Meeting Archives

 * See the 2010 Community Meeting Agenda and Minutes page for links to the archive containing links to meeting agenda, notes, and recordings. The Web Meeting links will open the "Attend Meeting" option. Just log in with your name and click "Attend Meeting" then click on the "Attachments/Recordings" link. Unfortunately, the first two meetings of the new year were not recorded due to various reasons. FYI: all meetings begin recording the second they are opened, but the recording is not saved unless the "End Meeting" option is selected before the webpage is closed. Fran 05:56, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Feedback Requested: Proposed Wiki license change
Thank you to all who have provided your feedback on our proposed license change thus far... Overall the feedback related to the change has been positive with one user objecting to the change (you can see the latest post and my response here).

We will continue to solicit feedback from the community at large until February 25th afterwhich we'll summarize the feedback and make a final decision which will be communicated in this meeting, via the home page of the wiki and via an email to all registered users. Please provide your feedback (and encourage others to do the same) in the forum post regarding the wiki license change. Please make sure that your voice/opinion is heard!

Pass-Along Cards



 * We want to make it easy for you to share the Wiki with all your friends and family. If you would like copies of the Wiki "Pass it on" card, please let us know and we will mail some to you.
 * In addition, we would like to create a little kit that will make it easy for anyone to share the Wiki with those we come in contact with. Your ideas for other things, besides the Pass-it-on cards, could be included in a little kit that will help you share the Wiki with others?
 * Several ideas were posted in the Chat. Need to copy the ideas into these notes.
 * Footnote electronic card idea. (See Lise Embley's blog as an example: Focus On Family History)
 * Facebook page for the Wiki
 * Banners for blogs
 * Need Pass it on cards for the FHL, JSMB 3rd floor training room, etc.
 * etc ...

Bug Fixes
We have two bugs that are fixed and in testing right now. I'm so excited to have these fixes almost ready to deploy to the live Wiki site!!! Believe it or not, these two bugs are fixed:


 * Number of page visits has disappeared
 * The disappearing citations based upon log-in status. (I need to find the Forum thread for this one.)