[Foundation-l] Rodovid.org, family tree wiki, wishes to become a wiki project

Thu Mar 23 23:55:31 UTC 2006

I think such a project should be added to Wikimedia, since genealogy is 
one of the most popular online activities. One thing I would suggest is 
requiring well-sourced entries; ideally, every connection and event 
would have a source.

Benjamin Webb wrote:

>I understand what you mean, but due to the size of many GEDCOMs, it will be
>easier to automate some merging, until we have a sufficient userbase to do
>otherwise.
>
>Just to fill you in. What happens with GEDCOM at the moment, is that if
>there is a similar person already in the wiki to one in the GEDCOM, then the
>importer recieves a message asking him what he want to do. (If this doesn't
>make sense, try importing a file yourself.) If you have any problems with
>the GEDCOM system, it may be due to the fact that the system, and infact the
>whole site is still under development.
>
>Benjamin Webb
>
>On 23/03/06, Patrick, Brad <bpatrick at fowlerwhite.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>To the Rodovid.org team:
>>
>>I would really hope that the people who look into this don't ever
>>automate such a process.  One of the most compelling problems for even
>>life long genealogists, much less newbies, is taking a fork in the road
>>without knowing they missed the real turn a ways back.  Proof, sourcing,
>>etc. of a common ancestor, much less linking two extended genealogies
>>and really "advancing" a family history, should be worked out wiki-style
>>on a talk page of each ancestor before there is a "merge"; such an
>>instance may seem simple in the case of same birthdate, wives, children,
>>etc., but genealogy is a field where things are very often not as they
>>appear.
>>
>>I applaud the effort to move this forward; my critique is certainly
>>meant as constructive.  The fundamental point of migration to such
>>systems is that quality is the only credential making the system worth
>>using.  If people upload a database of 1,000 unsourced ancestors, and
>>expect a program to automatically match them to what already exists, it
>>will be a failure.
>>
>>-Brad
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: foundation-l-bounces at wikimedia.org
>>[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Benjamin Webb
>>Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 2:57 PM
>>To: brian0918 at gmail.com; Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
>>Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Rodovid.org, family tree wiki,wishes to
>>become a wiki project
>>
>>I'm glad you like it. As for similarity, when importing GEDCOMs, a
>>similar record warning appear, but this doesn't happen normally. I think
>>if you are doing it manually you are supposed to search for similar
>>records yourself.
>>Perhaps I could ask Baya, the site's creator, about the possiblity of a
>>similarity warning when editing manually. (I am posting to the list
>>rather than him because his English is not terribly good).
>>
>>What do you think about the possibility of it becoming a Wikimedia
>>project?
>>
>>Benjamin Webb
>>
>>On 23/03/06, Brian <brian0918 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>This is probably one of the better genealogy wikis I've seen,
>>>particularly because it supports GEDCOM import, which saves quite a
>>>bit of time. My main problem is how the software can help people
>>>figure out that two separate users' family trees are connected at some
>>>      
>>>
>>>point; some sort of similarity-ranking system needs to be created (if
>>>it hasn't
>>>already) which would instruct users to merge pages that have more than
>>>      
>>>
>>>N items in common (name, date of birth, location, marriage, children,
>>>      
>>>
>>etc).
>>    
>>
>>>brian0918
>>>
>>>
>>>Benjamin Webb wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>I have not yet recived any real reply about this project. I would
>>>>like to hear from someone whether it could actually become a
>>>>wikimedia project,
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>and
>>>      
>>>
>>>>what would need to happen before it could. Any comments would be
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>apreciated.
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Benjamin Webb (User:Bjwebb on wikipedia, meta, commons, wikibooks,
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>rodovid
>>>      
>>>
>>>>and wikitree)
>>>>
>>>>P.S. It has a meta page at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Rodovid.org
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
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>>>
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