User talk:Cottrells

England Family History Centres
Henry995 Thanks for editing out the Center spelling. A work in progress but if helpful Orpington England Family History Centre is out there. Feel free to edit cosmetically. I am grateful for a community member spotting these emerging yesterday. Most Centres are unaware of the pages.


 * Hi Henry, thank you for raising this as an issue. Charles Smith created the page FamilySearch Wiki:Family History Centers Naming and Content. I then added a proposed style guide regarding this issue to that page. Please feel free to add you comments to what I have suggested. --Steve 08:06, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Contributor Help
Steve ... thanks for working on the Contributor Help boxes. I put those up for Janell, where she told me to. I am perfectly fine with whatever the two of you decide. Thanks for checking with me, and thanks for everything you do for us. Jane 14:55, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Family History Centers (USA)
Please take a look at the recently changed article Family History Centers and the discussion on the talk/discussion page. I stated my case and I am not going to be involved in a edit war. A member of the SLC FHC department needs to have input here on the different type of FHCs designated in the April 2010 directive. And on similar subject articles.

Please pass this on to an administrator or the appropiate person. Thank you. Jrcrin001 07:36, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi John, thank you for asking me to add my thoughts to Talk:Family History Centers. I agree it may take an authoritative voice from SLC to resolve the issue. I know that the wiki administrators that are FamilySearch employees are on the case. --Steve 09:49, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Changes in welcoming
Steve-

Much thanks to you, for spending time in the Wiki with all the tech changes you help with, we are all in you debt.

As you know we want to improve the process for welcoming new authors and editors in the Wiki. I have spoken both to Janell and Kara and both are excited about the changes you are going to help us make. Even though you know this Steve I wanted to send this to you with changes coming in June: this is in part what I sent:

We will have another Welcome Message Template designed to be more individualized. The others will be there too but we hope that you will use this new welcome message.

Steve Cottrell will be helping us with the Template, a special thanks to him. Please read more carefully what the contributor or editor have put on the page. The current steps listed for reviewing the contributions are good to follow.

Avoid adding the welcome message before following the steps outlined. The question Templates will stay the same.

We thank you again for all you do. Dawne 15:12, 27 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks Dawne, looking forward to see the changes that you have planned. --Steve 19:57, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Helpme template
Steve, when you get a second, would you mind taking a look at my comment here? Thanks! janellv 19:55, 24 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Janell, I have replied to your comment about the Helpme template --Steve 07:40, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Non-English articles
Steve: I created that article in my sandbox thinking it would only be in my sandbox, but I guess not. How do I keep it in my sandbox? Charles -- ccsmith (talk | contribs) 00:21, 31 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Charles, you may have created the main page in your sandbox, but this page includes template and links to other pages that are not in your sandox. Any page that you wish to be within you sandbox must start with the prefix User:Ccsmith/Sandbox. My question to you is why not develop these Spanish pages directly in the Spanish wiki? --Steve (talk | contribs) 16:19, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

Today's meeting agenda
Thanks Steve for explaining exactly what I was trying to get at only so much better. I do think there's a bit of a difference between say content projects and support projects, and then also the committee examples that you mentioned. Are there any other "types" that you can think of? I hope that we can come away from the meeting today with a specific list of needs. Thanks again! -- janellv (talk | contribs) 17:11, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Side bar template for Oxfordshire
Steve,

In checking a page, Oxfordshire, personal names, I thought the page should be deleted. It had a To Do template on it, but the pages that link out from it are already deleted and the subject doesn't fit the wiki scope. In checking what links to this page, there are several pages and one of them, Oxfordshire uses the side bar template that you put there. If I delete the personal names topic from that template, will it cause a problem? L Avery 20:05, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Lynda, my understanding of the situation with the page Oxfordshire Names, Personal was it was the content that was a problem, not the page itself. According to the Category:Names Personal articles about the subject Names, Personal should be about the etymology, history, and meaning of names of individuals, either surnames or given names. So I would say remove the content, but not the page. --Steve (talk | contribs) 15:33, 19 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Shall I just leave the template alone for the topic, Personal Names, then? By taking out the content, there won't be much left on the page, itself.L Avery 17:01, 19 August 2011 (UTC)


 * You are right there will be no content left, but the subject is legitimate, so you could add a Stub template. If you do delete the page do not say that the page was invalid - only that the content was misplaced/not suitable. The template used to create the sidebar on the Oxfordshire page Sidebar and the other one creating the other links to the page Place do not need to be amended. --Steve (talk | contribs) 17:10, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Did as recommended.L Avery 19:29, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

User Templates for Mentoring
Steve, thank you for fixing my wikibus image. I had put the template on first, then saw another page with just the text and changed my mind. Also, thanks for adding the construction template to the Mentoring page. I forgot that was available. We could use your help on the new Mentoring pages we're doing. Wikipedia has an adopter program that is similar. They have some userboxes that are pretty nice. Could you help us with one for Mentor's user pages, that would say something like, "This experienced user is willing to mentor a new user". We could possibly put the wikibus on it. Let me know what you think. Lynda 17:18, 26 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Lynda, I have created a userbox using the Wikibus.svg.png image you suggested. I've called it User Mentor and added it to the resources section of FamilySearch Wiki:Mentoring and to your userpage as an example. In addition to the image I used the colours already used for User Welcoming Committee, just switched around. I hope you like it. Let me know if you would like anything tweaked. --Steve (talk | contribs) 07:51, 27 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Steve, that template is absolutely perfect! Thanks so much and for adding it and Welcome to the page.

Geograph Template
I have used the template for about a dozen Geograph images but support@familysearch.org do not appear to be familiar with this. The following has been included in each image loading email to me:

"PS: The actual format we use for the information template is: If you could build the information in this format it would speed us up as we submit your image."

You may wish to check with those handling image loading requests to ensure that the submissions processed are being handled in the way that your template was intended.

There is also an issue if the geograph title is used by image loaders as it may not be possible to identify the image loaded from the "St Mary's Church" title using search in Wiki. Although some of the punning titles in geograph or " crocuses around St Mary's in spring" may be rare enough to pin down the correct image it would be helpful if those loading could use the place&gt;Parish name&gt;county format to enable search to retrieve the image simply. There is a wide variation in support handling of image submissions at present "Downloaded" and a series of numbers hides in search the identifier for the image needed to load. You may wish to discuss the revised template with those responsible.

Ps1964 07:07, 27 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Paul, thanks for your feedback about this issue. I will make those I know in Wiki Support aware of the problem and hopefully we will be able to rectify the situation. With regards the image naming, do you change the file name before submitting, but find that the person who uploads it changes it again? I'd like to understand the process that take places. Henry has suggested using a standard naming convention for these images place name, Church dedicatory name (where available) or "Former" "redundant", County or unitary authority. Thanks for all that you do to improve the wiki. --Steve (talk | contribs) 09:16, 27 August 2011 (UTC)


 * We've been made aware of the Geograph template, in the support area of the Wiki and will keep an eye out for these in the future. We apologize for any inconvenience we've caused. Lynda 22:11, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks from the Wiki:
The FamilySearch Research Wiki is delighted to let you know that the “WikiProject England” page you helped create was a Featured Article, highlighted on the Main Page of the Wiki 8/22/11, and remained there for seven days. Thank you for your excellent work to help others quickly access records. Your contributions are appreciated and have assisted others in finding their ancestors.

You have made a difference in research!


 * Thank you for your note Gloria, I have made some recent changes to the WikiProject page, but it is the people that have worked on the tasks that made a real difference to the information available about research in the wiki. --Steve 07:20, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you templete
Steve once again I thank you, this template will help countless folks in sharing their thanks to countless other folks who have contributed in the wiki. Dawne 13:12, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
 * You're welcome --Steve 06:23, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Michael ask
Good Morning Steve-

Miachael asked me to ask you if you would be the lead on a team made up of you, Nolan Clark and James Tanner, this team would be led by you but the other two would be doing the leg work. You would be there to give leadeship. The mandate is for them to look at policies regarding conflict with Wiki contributers, disputes resolution, Third opion, arbitration and mediation. Michael has two lawyers, one serving as volunteer the other as a missionary, he and I and would hope you would guide them in what will be best for the Research Wiki and contributers. What do you think? Dawne 14:34, 1 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Dawne, this sounds like an interesting and worthwhile project. Michael phoned me yesterday and left a message. I've emailed him and hope to be in touch with him later today. --Steve 06:30, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Resource badges
Steve, question for you. I would like to put a "campaign ID" to track the clickthrough links on the resource badges. I'd like to add it to the template if at all possible so that we don't have to add it to each link, just append the following at the end of each URL link on the badge itself:


 * Forum: ?cid=wiki-forum
 * Research courses: ?cid=wiki-course
 * Indexing: ?cid=wiki-indexing

Is that doable? Thank you!! -- janellv 16:27, 1 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi Janell, yes to make this work is doable, in fact it is now done for the forum badge and the indexing badge, but using the same way of implementing this for the online course badge produces an undesired result. Try it out, look at the results filter. Tell me what you think. I can do this another way, but making this change would break the links in the current badges already in place. I'm going to give this some more thought and hopefully think of another way of tackling this. --Steve 07:06, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you.
Hi Steve,

We in the SLC area can't thank you enough for all you are doing and have done for/and in the Wiki! We are especially appreciative of your contributions to the British Isles article that was featured on the Main page of the FamilySearch Wiki on August 8th of this year.

Thank you again for your outstanding service in assisting wiki users to quickly access records. Your contributions are treasured. You are making a huge difference in research!

Thanks again Steve!

joy


 * Thank you Joy, the recognition received from you and your colleagues is appreciated. --Steve 07:14, 2 September 2011 (UTC)