Adding notes to indexed records and giving feedback to indexers

LegacyUser

Mark Zaugg said: Why isn't there a place to add comments when indexing an image? It would be helpful to note that the recorder misspelled a name when the correct spelling can be seen in the signature of the person of record. Also, when there are mistakes in the record number or year of a record when it doesn't track with the record number or year of the records before and after.

Another thought, is there any feedback to indexers that will help them improve their indexing performance? In reviewing what others have indexed, I find common mistakes such as not indexing all of the records on the image, starting indexing a record at the bottom of an image, but not opening the following image to finish indexing the record, adding a last name to a child when none is listed, starting indexing of a record on an image where the record started on the previous image, etc. If they could have some one-on-one feedback, it would help them avoid many of these mistakes.

Thanks

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: This is a commonly requested feature.

The old desktop indexing program allowed indexers to see how their indexing was arbitrated, and therefore they could see where they were going wrong.

The new online program does not give indexers any feedback. While I don't index or review much any more, when I was reviewing on the new program I noticed a definite drop in indexing accuracy. Some indexers were making basic errors over and over again within the same batch, causing additional work for reviewers and in some cases meaning batches had to be returned for re-indexing

Allowing indexers to see their results could fix this problem. I don't understand why FS can't introduce this simple, but effective feature that has been asked for so often.

I also think allowing reviewers to make comments or messages to indexers could be a good idea, but some monitoring would be required to prevent inappropriate or rude messages being sent to indexers.

LegacyUser

Robert Wren said: I, too, stopped indexing (& reviewing) - and totally agree!

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: I now index through two other organisations and only very occasionally through FS. One is VeleHanden- a well known indexing site for Dutch and Belgian records. I also index for the Noord Hollands Archief (North Holland Archive).

LegacyUser

Slotbuddy said: Many of us have requested this numerous times but get no response from support. It is very frustrating to repeatedly make the same corrections over and over again, but I do not blame the indexers for this. How in the world can they be expected to know if they are making the same error over and over if no one tells them or shows them what they are doing incorrectly.

We all make errors and expect to make corrections due to typos but when we are making so many corrections that are due to the fact that the indexer doesn't understand something or fails to read all the instructions, there ought to be a way we can just drop them a quick note or let them see the results of the review so they can correct themselves on the next batch.

It will help them and enable us to do more batches each day if we don't have to spend so much time making the same corrections over and over again.

Read Gilgen

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/64294/adding-notes-to-indexed-records-and-giving-feedback-to-indexers

All of the comments are spot on. I'm again coming here because there seems to be no way to get feedback to the indexing projects managers. I am doing Italian indexing, and while most of the indexers are great (a minor mistake here or there), there is one who has specific error characteristics so I know it's the same person. If this person could just be pointed out not to use the record entry date as the birth/death/marriage date, and not to take only the data from the margin notations (presumably done later) but from the record itself. All I can say is "aargh!" We could get a whole lot more reviewing done if this kind of feedback were possible. Do I have to send a note to my area authority, or higher up? <grin>