why can't we see where we made a mistake as was done before?
.I am inputting the names of WW1 veterans. Some of the indexers are not inputting the middle initial of the veterans. Why can't we see our mistakes anymore. I like to be accurate so it would be nice if I knew what I was doing wrong so I can correct my inputting.
Answers
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You are among those who who want to get feedback on how accurately they are indexing, and give feedback to indexers whose work you review. I’m with you on both issues, and have suggested a opt-in procedure where willing Reviewers and Indexers could give and receive DIRECT feedback on their work. It might even work in both directions “(360 degree” feedback?). But, at least Reviewer>Indexer. It might work/look something like the Labs optional “Reasons for Reindexing” form, but without the “middleman” approach of having FS Support reach out to an egregiously bad, even malicious Indexer (or Reviewer). The feedback would go directly to the “willing” recipient.
You remember the Indexer/Arbitration Desktop Indexing days when Indexers had precise feedback of what “corrections” an Arbitrator made to their work. You may also remember the tension and disagreement that surrounded it, which is why it wasn’t carried into the Web Indexing program. There were poor Arbitrators, just as there are poor Reviewers, and the poor Arbitrators “corrected” already-correct work, annoying and frustrating good Indexers.
But I think that we’ve “thrown out the baby with the bath water.” I believe that we can conceive and execute a feedback system that won’t be perfect, but will do a lot more good than harm. And it should be pilot-tested with willing participants to try to get it right.
This “feedback” might also be an opportunity to improve the way we give review credentials to Indexers. I think that indexing just 1000 records with no idea of the accuracy of that work is not sufficient to produce good Reviewers. The threshold for becoming an Arbitrator was much higher - I indexed 30,000 records with a high “accuracy” before my mentor (yes, we had mentors) gave me those privileges. Even with those precautions, we still had poor Arbitrators. Imagine what might be happening with Reviewers today. Finally - with feedback going both ways we might actually improve our Reviewers as well as our Indexers.
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I agree with the idea of allowing indexers to see the changes made to records they indexed...all with the goal of improving and obtaining feedback on your indexing. I understand the frustration but without you have no idea of your quality or progress.
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