User talk:Cottrells

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England headers and links
Steve, you have changed several of the manual search links in the wiki articles that User Guidance created for England, for example, the England and Wales 1861 Census Population They are now in cute little boxes, but I don't like the way the links appear. The one that draws the user's attention doesn't take users to the page that we intended, the collection details screen page that the teeny blue link goes to. We don't know how to edit that type of link, so we can't edit them. I have an employee assigned to edit these as collections are added to Record Search, so we need to be able to edit this paragraph. Dorothy Horan 17:02, December 29, 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi Dorothy, I have amended the way the links are formatted. If you still do not like them please explain some more. I would be happy to discuss how this template works with the assigned employee. Please let me know how else I can help. --Steve 19:03, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the portal template!
I really appreciate you taking care of that. Many thanks Laralee 23:47, 26 January 2010 (UTC)


 * You're welcome. --Steve 23:52, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

To all FamilySearch Wiki Contributors: An apology is in order...
By way of introduction, my name is Ben Bennett and I’ve recently joined the FamilySearch team as the product manager for the Wiki and Forums. Put simply, my job is to ensure that your experience, as contributors and users of the Wiki and Forums is excellent. To this end, an apology is in order.

As you know, we recently implemented a new user ID/sign in process for the FamilySearch Wiki. As we implemented this new system, I personally heard from many of you. You shared with me problems that were occurring for you as you tried to sign in, edit or do other things that resulted in lost work, lost time and frustration for you, our key contributors and users. Please accept my sincere apology for the poor performance and poor experience associated with the Wiki during the past few weeks. Please also accept my commitment that the FamilySearch team will learn from this experience and do all that we can to prevent situations like this in the future. To this end, I wanted to share with you ...CONTINUE

CID tags in templates
Steve, you are correct in that Record Search is searching for the formulation CIDxxxxxx with one space after the last digit. I had been led to believe (incorrectly) that the parameters in templates were not indexed and thus we could not hide the CID in them. As we can see this is not the case. I also have no control over how Record Search searches the wiki, I am constrained by their decisions though I have forwarded your ideas to them.

On a side note my team quite likes the template you created for the England and Wales 1841 Census and were wondering if we could use something like it on all of the Record Search Collection articles? The question that I have, would it possible to easily change the link to Record Search to link to the search page for each individual collocation? As the template now stands you have a link to the wiki page describing record Search and the second link goes to the general search page on Record Search. I was wondering if it could be possible that this second link be changed with each article to link to the search page for each specific collection in Record Search, i.e. in the England 1841 Census clicking on the link will take you to the England 1841 search homepage. Spain Civil Registration wiki page the link would go that specific search page etc... If such a thing is feasible let me know. Anyway I am interested in getting your thoughts Thank-you Chris Lake


 * Thanks for replying to the queries I raised. Yes the template could provide a link back to the appropriate Record Search collection. In fact the way the template is written allows for this. When I first added the template to the article a link as you outlined was included (see diff). However the part of the wikicode that does this is in the format CID=xxxxxxx. The easiest way to fix this would be by using StringFunctions to strip out the the numerical part of the reference as that is the key element needed to create the URL. This extension is currently not installed in wiki, but has been requested and added to the dev backlog. If you can help make a case for installing the StringFunctions it would be helpful. --Steve 17:54, 19 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I amended the Record Search article template so that it will display a named link back to Record Search when a parameter is included in the correct format. I have updated the template documentation to explain the format required and why. --Steve 17:26, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

So I want to say thanks for all your help with this template. We have encountered another conundrum and are wondering if there was a way to adjust the template to solve it. Basically the FamilySearch people are changing the way they publish some of the collections. They are creating "supercollections." These are collections that have multiple CIDs but are linked to the same wiki article. They also have to have a seperate link back from the wiki article to various sub-collections in FamilySearch. An example is Illinois Cook County Vital Records. So I was wondering if it might be possible to add a parameter much like the |sceduled= that would add a phrase saying something to the effect "To access these records clink on the links below" or some such. We are not sure of the upper limit of the CIDs that can be part of a supercollection, and new sub-collections can be added to a supercollection anytime. If you could help us that would be great. We have really liked the look of this template and want to keep using it. Thanks. (also is there a limit to the number of paramters that we can put in the template? Just wondering if I have to hide multiple CIDs in the template. Chris 15:52, March 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Chris, good question. It's one I've been pondering for awhile. Today, prompted by your question, I have put my idea into production and it seems to be working OK. See User talk:Cottrells/Template where I tested it out. I have amended the documentation for the template explaining that additional references should be defined as CID2, CID3 etc along with title2, title3 etc up to a maximum of nine pairs. --Steve 17:27, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Way to Go!
Thank you so much for all of your hard work on cleaning up the Policy namespace! What would we do without you!!!

You da MAN
Thanks, Steve, for all the behind-the-scenes "mop &amp; bucket" work you do, including decrementing and finally removing the Policy namespace. Your efforts help keep this project humming. RitcheyMT 22:00, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Question about magic words and/or template
Hi Steve. I was wondering if you could direct me to information about or help me with a categorization question. I have one area that I add categories to Category:Old microfilm number conversion which are pages showing old and new FHL numbers. Right now all these 100s of pages show up on their category page under Old. I know I can add the number or number range to the category so it would file by number but was wondering if there was a way to use either a template or a magic word that would allow me to automate this - where it would look for the 5th 'word' or the first number string as the filing word. I don't know what the volunteers at the FHL use when they create these pages but perhaps it could even be added to that. Thanks - I stand in awe of folks like yourself who can understand this sort of stuff Laralee 20:00, 6 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Laralee, I have created a template Old microfilm number conversion index that will extract the 5th word from an article title. If you use it as follows


 * It will index the article under the number reference given, providing the article name is in the format Old microfilm number conversion xxxx. See Old microfilm number conversion 2988-3011 as an example. If you like I could build the category into the template so that you just need to add the template rather than adding it only as the sort key. Let me know what you think. --Steve 20:53, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you Steve. I've added this to the style page (template) that's on the wiki for the conversion pages. I don't know if it's used consistently since there was a category on it but I still get pages w/out the category, but now if they do use it it'll get the category and be sorted nicely as well. Many thanks. Laralee 19:27, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
 * This is cool !!! Thanks Steve for helping Laralee with this project. We appreciate both of you for your efforts! -Fran

Need Record Search article example
I've been looking for a Record Search article that has a few images on the page in a gallery. You showed us how to create the gallery a few weeks ago, but I can't find that page. Do you remember the name of the article? I want to use that page as an example in the Wiki class I'm teaching at the BYU conference next month. Thanks in advance! --Fran 00:23, 18 March 2010 (UTC)


 * The example that I pointed out to you before was England Cornwall Church of England Parish Registers and Bishops’ Transcripts. --Steve 16:54, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Stats on wiki growth over time
Hey Steve, is it possible for us to get data on growth in pages or in edits over time without installing an add-on? I need to create a line graph for NGS conference at the end of April but our statistician just had his hard drive crash and he's behind by at least two weeks. I was hoping we could use magic words to get a snapshot, but the only magic words I see on Mediawiki.org give a current snapshot. Is there any way to make them give a snapshot with a date parameter? Or is there some other way to do this? I was assuming I could just use a magic word with a date parameter and re-run it for every month since Jan 2007 and enter the data into Excel, but I don't see a way to get the data. RitcheyMT 21:02, 23 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I do not think that it is possible to obtain the statistics that you want without using an extension or add-on of some sort. I've seen the reply that Thomas gave you to the same question and I agree with what he has said. --Steve 13:31, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

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)