Feedback Friday and Project of the Weekend Challenge


It’s Friday!  We’ve had a great week with our World Record Challenge.  We’re headed into a beautiful fall weekend (at least we are here in the Rockies).  We have hundreds of new contributors joining our community every week.  So, let’s make this a Feedback Friday and let’s throw another Project of the Day Weekend Challenge out there for you to work on over the next couple of days.

Feedback Friday

When you start working on a specific record collection for the first time, always, ALWAYS read the project page.  This will ensure that you have the most up to date information regarding the specific project you are working on.  (If you are going to work on this project for a while, I would also recommend that you add the page to your watchlist so you will be notified of any updates as they occur.)  You can access project pages a few different ways.

  1. When you are in the Keying Tool and have an image set open for keying or review, click on Help.  Then click View More About This Project.  That will take you to the project page for that specific project.
  2. From the Ancestry World Archives Project Dashboard expand the All Active World Archives Projects section by clicking once on the arrow.  Find your project on the list and click through to the project page.
  3. From the World Archives Wiki, select the project you are working on and click through to the project page.

Once you’ve read the project page, be sure to also click through to the discussion tab where you will find extra keying helps, common errors found by reviewers, and a section where you can ask questions about that project and get feedback from more experienced contributors.

Project of the Weekend

For those of you who use your weekend hours to contribute to the Ancestry World Archives Project, we are running a special Project of the Weekend Challenge all day Saturday and Sunday, October 15th and 16th.  The project is the Alabama Reference Name Files.  Keying is complete but, there are several thousand image sets available for Arbitration/Review.  (Be aware there are both arbitration and review image sets in this project.)  So, be sure to read the PROJECT PAGE and check the DISCUSSION TAB for any further clarification.  Then have at it!

The three arbitrators/reviewers who submit the most completed image sets during the two days will win the challenge.  Winners will have their choice of a DNA test, FTM 2012 or a 3 Month Ancestry subscription.  *Project of the Day Challenge winners are only eligible to win once every 12 months.

We’ll announce the winners here on Monday!  Have a great weekend.

Until next time – Happy Keying!

Information and Links

Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.

Information
October 14th, 2011
14 Responses
Feeds and Links
Comment Feed
From This Author
Del.icio.us
Digg
Technorati
Categories and Tags
Tips and Tricks
WorldRecordChallenge

Other Posts

Write a Comment

Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think. Some basic HTML is allowed for formatting.

Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Janet
Posted on:
October 15, 2011 at 6:49 am

I agree about reading the project page (WIKI) before you start keying a project. I have the WIKI open every time I key, even though I’ve keyed the project before.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
marji
Posted on:
October 15, 2011 at 11:54 am

I’m mystified as to why one week my accuracy is listed as “exceptional” and the next week it is “unknown”. I have no idea whether what I’m doing is useful or worthwhile.
I would rather have useful, direct feedback than all the “chatter”.
I will continue to key Holcaust records in French, but I’m wondering if my effort is a waste of time. There are other websites I key for that are much more direct, less confusing and which lead me to think I’m actually contributing.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Kate Rimmer
Posted on:
October 15, 2011 at 1:10 pm

Marji, there’s quite a backlog of arbitration on the USHMM Eure-et-Loir project, if that’s what you’re keying, so it could be that none of the records you’ve keyed over the last 90 days have been arbitrated yet. Your overall accuracy score only covers stuff keyed over the last 90 days but hopefully your accuracy score(s) for the individual project(s) you’ve been keying on still show up?

And yes, what you’re doing is useful and worthwhile!

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Chris Wilkins
Posted on:
October 16, 2011 at 10:25 am

Christa’s advice about reading the project page is bang on the money. As a reviewer, I see lots of image sets containing so many basic mistakes that I can only assume the keyer dived straight in without studying the instructions at all. It must be so disheartening to spend hours keying only to get a really low accuracy score. It slows down the review process too.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Crista Cowan
Posted on:
October 17, 2011 at 2:03 pm

Congratulations to our Project of the Day/Weekend winners – Jane, Aimee, and Nancy. All together you arbitrated 458 image sets from this collection. These three ladies did 298 of those image sets. Way to go!

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Val
Posted on:
October 19, 2011 at 3:28 pm

I couldn’t agree more about the care and attention to accuracy which should be paid when inputting and arbitrating records. I was amazed to find no less than 9 obvious transcription errors on a single page of 1911 UK census summary records where the handwriting is perfectly clear.

Also can anyone tell me when the complete searchable records (as previous UK census records) will be available, as they are eagerly awaited and I have not found them to be available for input or arbitration.