FamilySearch Wiki:Community Meeting Agenda 1 December 2009

Be bold! Post your agenda items!
Feel free to post on the agenda any items you wish to cover during the meeting. If your item requires details or feedback, post some details on the discussion page and link to the discussion from the agenda. If you add an agenda item, you should also take notes when your item is discussed. If you are not able to attend or otherwise not able to take the notes, someone else should take that responsibility.

Administrative items

 * 1) Assignment of time keeper and note taker
 * 2) Introduction of new members: 10 seconds for name and desired takeaways.
 * 3) Review of Minutes
 * 4) Today's agenda preview

Un-portal Status
Status of "unportal" project? Lise 03:59, 27 November 2009 (UTC)


 * The project to convert the portals to regular pages is progressing. Currently I do not know how many portals have been converted and how many still need converting. I'll try to find out and let you know, or create a status update page for this project. Fran 17:35, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Fran reports that Eduardo is progressing alphabetically through the list of countries in the "unportal" project. Jimmy asked for clarification as to whether he is completing all states for each country, or just doing the country pages and then going back to the states later.  Fran will check with Eduardo and report back. Lise 21:08, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
 * UPDATE!!! I have created a project page for the purpose of tracking the conversion of all portal pages. If you would like to help with this project, please feel free to sign up as a volunteer. I have not created a list that shows the status of the conversion of portal pages, so if anyone would like to help with the creation of the list, that would also be a great help!!! Any and all help with this project is most welcome! -Fran 20:54, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Welcome Committee Testing
Our experiences with the two week test of the features provided by the Welcoming Committee. Please add your comments and questions here for discussion:


 * The first legitimate request for help from a wiki user was a request for help with their research. Kara was going to respond to this request. If anyone else has a minute, feel free to add a response as well. What are your suggestions for handling research help requests?
 * Who received the welcome message on their user talk page?
 * If you reviewed the articles that the welcome message links to, what are your opinions? What need improving? Do we have any volunteers to help improve the existing articles, write new articles, or look for other articles to link to from the welcome message?
 * Who posted a request for help by following the instructions in the welcome message? Please share your experience? How can this process be improved?
 * Who signed up to be a member of the welcoming committee? What feedback do you have in regards to your experience in being part of the committee?
 * Other questions or topics for discussion concerning this test?


 * I have reviewed the Welcoming Committee page and the items that link from it. I really like what is being done to welcome new contributors. I would also be happy to help out on the Welcoming Committee, but probably not for another week or two, until I get the Indians of North America Wikiproject running smoothly. If I can help with reviews or suggestions in the meantime, I would be happy to do that. I just don't think I will have time to write or search for articles to link to, quite yet. Jbparker 20:46, 1 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Follow-up discussions on this topic will be posted to the Welcoming Committee discussion page. The discussion in the meeting included the fact that there are several different ways to get help in the wiki: Contact Us, Technical Support, Feedback, Tell Us What You Think, and the Help link in the navigation box. The new "helpme" template introduces another way that users can get help. The concern is that with so many ways to get help, the users can be easily confused about which way is the right way to get the help they need. If you have additional thoughts or comments to add to this discussion item, please post them to the Welcoming Committee discussion page. Fran 22:32, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Linking Error
Spotted this error message when getting USGS maps for my cemetery entrance photography project, Go to the Pima County Arizona artile, then go to the secdtion about cemeteries. When clicking on any cemetery name, you get the following error message in the window that pops up. I'm working on a Vista machine, in MSIE7 if that helps anyone.

Expecting p_company or wwv_flow_company cookie to contain security group id of application owner.

Error ERR-7620 Could not determine workspace for application (116).

OK

Are these links actually broken or is this a browser or OS issue?

Hopefully I'll get the photos tomorrow and upload them later. Won't be there Tuesday as I'm on my way home that day. JamesAnderson 19:12, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Juar got rhw cemetery entrance pictures, will be uploading them later. A couple of them will prove to be very informative. JamesAnderson 23:08, 27 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I see the problem. The GNIS has been constant warning visitors NOT to link in this manner. You included "session id" and place name as part of it. Session ID will not work if anyone else try. The ones that DO work can be seen at several pages I worked on, one is shown on Baker City, Oregon.

Wrong:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=116:3:827734824577216::NO::P3_FID,P3_TITLE:15257%2CAll%20Faiths%20Memorial%20Park All Faiths Memorial Cemetery

Right:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:15257 USGS GNIS FID 15257

dsammy 17:10, 1 December 2009 (UTC)


 * sammy will add this issue to the FamilySearch Wiki:Known Issues page. Fran 22:05, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Chat messages during the meeting

 * Judy Wolverton: Did not receive the Welcome message.
 * Laralee: I would be interested in helping
 * chris lake: I did not receive the Welcome either
 * Judy Wolverton: JAWolverton NOTE: I cannot find the username JAWolverton in the index of all usernames in the Wiki. We need to exact username in order to add the new Welcome message. Fran 22:40, 7 December 2009 (UTC)
 * chris lake: user name: topher
 * Laralee: doesn't the helpme template put the pages in the Category:Contributors looking for help?
 * Laralee: One reason I asked was I've got that category on my watchlist but haven't seen any notifications [The answer to this question was posted on the discussion page Category talk:Contributors looking for help
 * Laralee: I've added the helpme template to my page so theoretically those watching the category page should get a notice
 * Laralee: Sometimes I'd recommend answering the question if we know the answer, but telling them where they should go in the future for these kinds of questions
 * Laralee: two types of help - finding information and contributing information
 * Lise Embley: Maybe one simple change - I am looking for help should be I am a wiki contributor looking for help. That might clarify it somewhat.
 * Laralee: On Jane's question - it could be a wiki question because we have pages that tell where to get the certificates. The helper could direct them there
 * Judy Wolverton: Also, on Jane's question. Could a forum administrator post the question to the correct portion of the forum for her, and post that link to her talk page?
 * dsammy: That was a genealogy query, a way to do it to direect her to the forums for assistance in that area. The HelpMe tag shouls be made more clarified that its for users of wiki who add and create for the Wiki only.
 * Laralee: help for asking questions. A how-to for articles with instruction maybe