User talk:Julie Kelts

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General Questions [17 July 2022]

Hello again.
I am curious to know where your reviews will be published? Do you happen to work for FamilySearch? In looking at your Contributions page (left menu), I see that you have worked on 5 Person and 2 Family pages so far. I'll go ahead and Watch (left menu) each of those pages, so I will be notified if you post any questions on any of their Talk pages, and I can answer them there.
--cos1776 13:38, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

Oops - my count may have been a bit off, but I'm "watching" the pages now, so feel free to post any questions you might have. --cos1776 13:42, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you and hello again. I'll answer your questions and comments first and then get to mine.

Meanwhile, I can't help but say that it would be useful if, on this screen, I could see the comment I was replying to.

The review I'm writing now is quite a long one, and I will post it to a private forum of WikiTree dissidents, most of whom are WT members, but some who have left, been thrown out, and/or are looking for a new home for their research. Later I'd like to post a review to GenSoftReviews.com, and maybe elsewhere as yet undecided. Those would be my attempt to be helpful in spreading the word about WR.

No, I don't work for FS. Nor for anyone else, and from my perspective I have nothing to gain from doing this. I was thrown off WT several months ago. If you want to learn more about the background, please visit the subreddit r/Room_2562. By the way, I realize that by replying to you like this, I am posting comments that anyone can read.

After getting throw off WT, I wrote a long post for Room 2562 on alternatives to WT and in the process discovered WeRelate. Only recently did I make time to join WR and start participating. My purpose with the current review is to inform my colleagues of what I've learned. In case you have any concerns, we are all serious genealogists which was mostly what brought us into conflict with WT.

Here I'll ask my first three questions. In general, I think I should learn the site for myself, but there are a few things I've not been able to figure out.

1. Is there somewhere I can find a complete list of my own watchlist? I can see that there is some information on the left of each WR page, but it doesn't seem to be complete. And by the way--if I could make some trivial comments, though I have no idea whether anyone has the time to address them--that little list is distracting. I see, after several days, that there is a heading "Tree: Default" but it is not separated sufficiently from the section above to stand out clearly. (I hope that makes sense.)

It looks to me like the little section at left only includes profiles with some activity. I also "watched" Rebecca Towne (2) recently, and I am on the list of watchers, but she is not listed at left. It would be useful to see a complete list of those I've decided to watch.

2. I found the list of WR users (Admin > Special Pages > User list). At first I thought the names in red were people who had left, but that can't be right. Are all those current members? Is the red just to indicate those who haven't added information to their user profiles?

3. This is more of a comment. Yesterday I stupidly unsubscribed myself. It seemed rather abrupt! No option to say I didn't mean it. Then the message I got told me to go to My Relate, but that is out of date, and the options to restore are now on the Settings page. There was no edit option on the page, so I couldn't fix it, but maybe someone can?

I am still working on my dad's profile. I realize I need to move the marriage source to the family page. I will probably have some more detailed questions later.

By the way, regarding other profiles I've worked on, George Willms was one I encountered by chance and all I did was fix an error. I won't ever go back to it. On the other hand, John Cissell is one I'd like to do a lot of work on.

Oh, another thing...would you be willing to review my draft review for accuracy? I would want to e-mail it, not post it publicly here.--Julie Kelts 21:03, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

P.S. I'm not used to working with people who have aliases. Is it a breach of etiquette to ask your name?--Julie Kelts 21:04, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for the background info. I took some time to read thru it. Let's see if I can address some of your comments about working on this site.

"it would be useful if, on this screen, I could see the comment I was replying to"

I'm not sure I understand what you are seeing, but that could be because there are multiple ways to perform the same function on our pages. If you open the entire page via Edit (left menu) or just the topic section itself via [edit] (next to the section sub-heading), the editing box that opens contains all of the current text in the page or section. You should be able to see what you are replying to in the edit box. Are you experiencing something different?

1. Is there somewhere I can find a complete list of my own watchlist?

We have several ways to define and view a "watchlist". Here are a couple:

• If you just want a list of all of the pages you are "watching", you can use the Search dropdown (top menu) to specify page type. (Ex. choose All) Then narrow your list by specifying "Watched only" in the dropdown (top right in Search box). Then click "Search" again (lower right in Search box) to get a list of all the pages you are currently watching. You can play around with the other parameters on that page to learn how to further narrow the list or the format.
• If you want a list of all recent changes to pages you are "watching", go to MyRelate>Watchlist (top menu). You have some choices for narrowing this list there as well.

Within the above comment, you also had some comments about the general page layouts (i.e. the Left menu not being complete or (I think) the "My Trees" box on your User page being distracting). I'm not sure I can address these yet without a little more specifics. I am going to venture a guess that once you are more familiar with the functions of the Left menu and the MyTrees box, the page placement and purpose will make more sense. As a wiki, the underlying structure and functions of WR are similar to both WT and FSFT, but IMHO the WR interface, page design, and notification system is much cleaner and more flexible. WR is not without its own frustrations, but the page design is the biggest reason why I continue to work here.

2. ... (Admin > Special Pages > User list). At first I thought the names in red were people who had left, but that can't be right. Are all those current members? Is the red just to indicate those who haven't added information to their user profiles?

Just like other wikis, red links (in this case they are links to User pages) indicate that the page has not been been created yet. So, like you suspected, for the most part these are Users who registered but never added anything to their User page. As a general rule, red link Users are not active users, but there are some who are.

3. re: unscribing and re-subscribing yourself - Please contact Dallan for questions about this.

would you be willing to review my draft review for accuracy?

Sure. Go to my User page, then "more>Email this user" (Left menu), and I'll take a look.

Hope this helps, --cos1776 16:32, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

PS - No breach of etiquette to ask questions here. I have been known as cos1776 or just Cos in the various online genealogy communities I have worked in for 25+ years now, so these are the names I stick with. --cos1776 16:51, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

OK, Cos, that's what I'll call you. Thank you. The information is helpful.

This time I'm using the Edit option from the left menu. Last time I used the "add comment" option on the right.

Yes, using the Search option does give me a complete list of my watchlist, including the pages with no recent activity. That is what I wanted (in order to make sure I was actually watching them).

Regarding the comment about the page layout and the "My Trees" box...For some reason, I can't make it appear today. Doesn't matter. Like I said, it was a trivial comment.

I agree with you about the WR page design. It is way more elegant than WT.

Yes, I'm familiar with red links from WT and a few I've seen on Wikipedia (which I'm familiar with as a user, but have never contributed to). The difference is that on WT those links, when they are user names, are for profiles that no longer exist. On WR, the link goes to a page that looks like a user page, and has the user name at the top. That's what confused me.

Re the option to e-mail you: I don't see any way to add an attachment. Were you thinking I'd just paste in the entire review?

Thanks for your help. - Julie

Just a follow-up to let you know that I am in receipt of your draft and will get back to you on it soon. I would like to share it with my fellow admin, DataAnalyst, as per her comment below. Would that be ok with you? --cos1776 21:49, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Yes.--Julie Kelts 21:53, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Recent edits to Help [15 July 2022]

Hi, Julie

Welcome to WeRelate. The change you made to the Help Glossary was fine - I just cleaned up the link to make it an internal link as we usually do with links to WeRelate pages. Also, I moved the Top of Page link back to the bottom of the T section. No big deal.

I just got back from vacation so am still catching up on things. I'd be glad to help you understand WeRelate better and look at your review. One thing that is worth mentioning is that the Help pages at WeRelate need work. Cos and I came up with a plan for organizing a revamped set of Help pages, but didn't have time to follow through right away, so it's on the back burner for now. As of now, there are some older pages that are not 100% accurate and some newer pages (such as Help:My Trees) that need to be properly integrated (e.g., into FAQ). While it's obviously not ideal, it doesn't seem to have been causing a lot of issues with users, who will reach out for help when they need it, as you have. But I wanted you to know that we are aware of the situation and will address it eventually.

--DataAnalyst 22:37, 15 July 2022 (UTC) (Janet Bjorndahl)

Hello. What is your interest in me? [24 July 2022]

Hello, Rwbdragon. I'm curious why you've decided to watch my user page. Is there something you'd like to discuss?--Julie Kelts 00:05, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

-

I'm a member of your WikiTree-themed Reddit group.

I just wanted to see some of your work here.

I don't have any special need to discuss anything here, but feel free to communicate with me if you want.

---Rwbdragon 18:06, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

Oh, I see! Good alias. I didn't guess that you were anyone I knew.

I'm happy to have people look at my WR work, but please note that most of the pages I've created are in their very early stages. I hope to plan my edits, especially for the ancestors who are important to me, like my grandparents, etc., so that I can add sources and images in a logical order. My father's profile is the most complete so far, but nowhere near done.

Meanwhile, I am surprised at the number of pages I want to contribute to here. I've found some fairly distant ancestors already on this site, and as it happens, they are ones I've done considerable work on. I also found a place page for Sylvia, Kansas, a tiny town in the middle of the state. My mother grew up there, and her mother spent her whole life there. I visited many times during my childhood. There is a lot I'd like to add to that page.

I am looking forward to adding to this site.--Julie Kelts 21:42, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

Working with multi-page documents [27 July 2022]

[continued from here]

Re: uploading your memoir - I've been thinking about this. There is no quick answer for you on the best way to incorporate your document with the wiki pages here, since there are so many different options. I am going to venture a guess that you would want to refer to it (cite it), so you should probably start by creating a MySource page for it. Then, if you want readers to be able to see the text, you could create Image pages (read only, not searchable) or Transcript pages (interactive, searchable and linkable). Help:Transcript pages gives a good overview of some of the different options. I also encourage you to browse some examples of these different methods, by running a Search in the different namespaces (MySource, Transcript, and Image (both pdf and non-pdf)), to see what others have done. We have had some ambitious transcript projects here in the past, but I would say they were usually started before the free library sites, like Internet Archive, were as prevalent and searchable as they are today. Regards, --cos1776 17:26, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you, Cos. I also commented about the memoir on your Talk page. For the Rowe memoir I can "Wayback" it now and then even if it disappears from WikiTree I will still have a good link. For the Van Wye history that I also mentioned, I can likewise Wayback the version currently online. I don't know if there's a way to upload something directly to archive.org but I can look into that too.--Julie Kelts 18:45, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Hello [4 January 2023]

Hi Julie,

I saw your post at the watercolor and wanted to say hello. I was also a WikiTree person. I would love any tips or tricks you’ve learned over here.

Thanks in advance, Pam--Pam41014 16:23, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello, Pam. Thank you for contacting me. I don't recall what I posted to the Watercooler. Yes, I was on WikiTree for about three and a half years. Full disclosure: They threw me off in a political dispute unrelated to genealogy.

I joined WeRelate in 2022 and am still very interested in the site, but for several reasons, including a computer failure and some health problems, I haven't done much on the site lately. So I am a little rusty on some of the details at the moment.

In general I think WR is much better designed than WT. In particular, the means of entering sources enables linking them to facts and events without the user having to learn in-line sourcing as on WT. That also avoids the messy-looking profiles you sometimes find on WT when people don't format their sources consistently.

When I began adding profiles to WR, the most confusing thing for me was the family pages. I can't think of any particular tips except to recognize that that structure is different from how WT works so may take some getting used to. (It may be more like how FamilySearch works, but I never became adept at using that site.) Also, I sometimes had trouble finding the source links. If you don't find the source page, it doesn't stop you from adding the source but the name will show up in red (see, for example, a couple of censuses on George Kelts (1)).

I wrote a long review of WR for a private subreddit. I don't think it's appropriate for posting here, but I can e-mail you a copy if you contact me by e-mail at jvkelts@gmail.com

Best wishes, Julie--Julie Kelts 18:51, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for writing back. I’m going to email you right away.--Pam41014 19:39, 4 January 2023 (UTC)