Life Sketch miss-used to "warn" people
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deleted an incorrect statement
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Expanding a little on my post about changing the name of "Life Sketch" to "Life Sketch and Important Notices," maybe include links to Collaborate and/or discussions in this field. Make this area the central area for sharing information between users. Seems like that would promote more collaboration.
See my uploaded example
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Here's what it might look like if someone posted a "warning."
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YAY! I'm so glad more people are standing up for Life Sketch to stay on top and applauding its use as a communication tool! If it's the name that bothers some then change Life Sketch to Person Information! And keep the thought process of having notes and collaboration threads open, visible and at the top as well. Please, please don't lose sight of the fact that you need to enhance communication. Lump all of those things in a box at the top and call it the Communication Center.
Can we even count the number of times people have thought "they" had "their" tree in FamilySearch?
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@Gail Swihart Watson, I agree that collaboration depends on communication, and I like the label "Communication Center" -- but the biography doesn't belong in it. That's like putting the obituary in the middle of the driving directions from the church to the cemetery.
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I think we can't ignore that over 3.7 million people have used the Life Sketch "appropriately" and that 2 million have included source information - for that reason I believe the area should include the existing data now found under the name "Life Sketch," but, there are also about 52,000 who have used the area to post warnings - we can't ignore these 52,000 users.
I realize my proposed name of "Life Sketch and Important Notices" isn't the cleanest name, but it does describe what the field currently contains. Other naming approaches should be explored. But it's the content that it has been used for that I think should drive the naming approach. How the users use this area should inform it's prominence (position, color, importance, etc.). When you think about it, it is the only exposed area on the person page that is user-driven. All other areas are "answers" to posed questions. Collaborate is visible, but as a link only - and that's part of the problem.
Whatever solution we come up with has to provide for the information that has already been created to be housed within it. I realize that 5 million people is a small number for FamilySearch, but we can't dismiss those 5 million users.
Think for a moment about why people are using this area for warnings. Why are people using it this way?
- There is no clearly identified place that is highly visible to post our notes
- The Life Sketch is highly visible
- Life Sketch displays the first line or two of text in full view
- Life Sketch is editable, not prefilled out
- Life Sketch wasn't designed to contain a single piece of data (like Birth, Christening...)
It only makes sense that this field would not have a large number of warnings - of the billions of people in the tree only a small percentage are people who are easily confused with others and likely to be changed by those who aren't skilled researchers. For example, in my own tree I probably only have less than 10 persons who fall into this category, but they're important! These persons have been difficult to differentiate from others due to poor research in the past, inaccuracy of published sources, multiple persons of the same name in the same locale, lack of records, etc. Although I only have 10 people like this in my tree, the amount of time spent researching them has been disproportionate - some have required hundreds of hours over years. We need a place to share, discuss, warn, and inform others about our research and conclusions. That place needs to be highly visible, easily editable, and able to accommodate a lot of information. That place is the "Life Sketch" field, maybe with a modified, or new, name.
Don't disregard the 5 million + who have used this for these purposes.
My suggestions:
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Another approach to make this area house collaborate features and change of the word "Warning" to "Caution." I think "Caution" is a more constructive word that carries the same basic meaning.
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If you have ever tried to keep your welsh ancestors from being merged with the thousands and thousands of other individuals with the exact same name you would understand the importance of having a warning top and center. Right now when someone begins the merge process they only see the first line of the life sketch—forcing me to keep the warning short and simple—albeit with Caps and exclamation marks. Still, there are times it is just not read necessitating having to add the same warning as a Custom Fact.
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Discussions are the only place anywhere on the person page that cannot be deleted. You have no idea how often the same person comes along and chops off all ancestors of my John Williams. Rather than fight I have chosen to add a discussion labeled as “father” then add that individuals PiD so parentage can still be found by a determined individual. Also, if collaboration—specifically discussions—are merged into life sketch (it would be nice if they were more visible) it is doubly important that discussions remain the one place that no can delete.
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Please review and comment on some up coming designs
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