User talk:Jbparker

Soliciting your opinion
Hey Jimmy, will you weigh in on "Local Histories" or "Histories" heading on county pages? I want to reach consensus on this quickly in order to get a big missionary team engaged in FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Linking to Books in the BYU Family History Archives. Thanks in advance! Ritcheymt 13:46, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Wiki Etiquette and Conflict Resolution

I have now reviewed a number of articles in Wikipedia to see how they handle dispute resolution, and deal with contributors who could become difficult. From what I have read, I believe we need to prepare some pages on the FamilySearch Wiki on proper behavior on our Wiki, on how to treat others, on how to mentor newbies without making them feel inadequate, etc.

One of the articles in Wikipedia which has some good information is "Wikipedia:Etiquette." I think it needs some work and needs to be rewritten to reflect our own philosophies, but there are some good ideas in it. Two others are "Wikipedia:Dispute Resolution" and "Wikipedia:Consensus."

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Jbparker 18:20, 2 March 2009 (UTC)


 * For direct access to the above mentioned Wikipedia articles, click on one of the following links: Etiquette, Dispute Resolution, and Consensus. I have read the articles. My hope is that we will have shorter and fewer articles. My opinion is that like longer and more articles will equate to less read articles especially dealing with these kinds of subjects. Thomas Lerman 15:21, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

This will also be important for other reasons in the future to have these pages as concise as possible, to aid in translation to the future language instances of the wiki, and also so as not to leave the user or potential editor feeling intimidated. Most people realize there is supposed to be some sort of user etiquette and policies regarding terms of use, and for most it won't affect what they do on a day to day basis. However, they will be necessary for those times when there are problems.

Boiling down the apparently overinflated policies at Wikipedia, and by that I mean they are very wordy and almost look like something I would read in a law library, and may scare off potential editors just because of those two factors alone.

PS: I'll make some changes to the copy below and let's see how that sits with anyone working on this. JamesAnderson 22:43, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

[This statement, or something like it, would go on the Main Page as the invitation or "teaser" to get people to contribute.]

Would you like to add something to this Wiki? Whether it's something small or a full article, it's easy! Click here for a guide to contributing on FamilySearch Research Wiki.

[The following would be a separate page and would be kind of an umbrella article to lead contributors to how-to articles, hopefully, without overwhelming them with more information than they need to know initially. Everywhere it says "Here's how," there would be a link to a more detailed, step-by-step article on that subject. Many of these pages already exist. We just need to provide a simple, user-friendly "table of contents" for the contributor. All of this needs some more thought and work. It is at the conceptual level only right now.]

Indians of Maryland
Hey there! I noticed you've done some great work on Indians of Maryland -- thanks! As the barn raising winds down, I want to get a feel for how each article on the Maryland Barn Raising Tasks is coming along so I can tell where to allocate any help that contributors can give for a last push. Could you either send me a message by editing my User Discussion page or go to the Maryland Barn Raising Tasks page and update the column on the % of "doneness" the article is at now? Ritcheymt 15:52, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Getting started as a Contributor
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