Now here… The World Archives Wiki


I have mentioned in passing a few times my desire for a wiki that we could use for our Project Pages and help articles and my wishes are finally being granted!  Over the next few days we will be implementing the beta version of our wiki  so instead of being led to the project pages you will soon be linked to articles for each project. 

Here are the two main reasons why I am so excited, and why we decided to make this change.

  1. We have help resources located in many different places – project page, help article, message boards, other online sites, etc and the wiki provides a one stop solution where we can compile information.
  2. In the wiki contributors can add their own images, findings, helps, etc.  It is a pretty simple platform to use and it allows everyone to access the same information in one location.

The project articles will be automatically generated after a project has been launched.  After the article has been created you will be able to link to it through the Dashboard or find it by searching for the project, by title, in the wiki. 

Throughout the articles you will see Edit links on the right hand side of the text or images.  (If you are prompted to login use your Ancestry username and password to access the edit tools.)  Clicking on the edit links will lead you to a source version of the page where you can make changes.  See the instructions below for how to make basic edits.

Editing Text: Locate the area where you want to add/clarify/delete information, and click there.  Start typing.  When you are done editing the page make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Save page button – this will save your edits and bring you back to the main article page.

Adding an image: This is a little more complicated so I’ve compiled step by step directions.

  1. Save the image you want to use in the article somewhere on your computer.
  2. Click on the Upload file link found in the toolbox on the left had side of the page.  Follow the instructions to upload the file. (3rd option down in the toolbox)
  3. Copy the link to the image – highlight the link then click on Ctrl+C
  4. Back in the article click on Edit and find the location in the article where you want to add the image.
  5. Use this “code” to insert the image [[File:copy_the_name_of_the_file_here]]
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Save page.

For additional help in adding/editing see the Help resources within the wiki.

Happy keying!

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July 14th, 2010
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Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Judy Little
Posted on:
July 14, 2010 at 4:59 pm

Fantastic. This will be great. It takes a long time to go through all of the message boards trying to find out an answer only to find out it is not there and then you still have to post your question.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Deanna M.
Posted on:
July 14, 2010 at 8:08 pm

Awesome. This will be a great way to combine the resources of WAP staff and WAP volunteers to maintain one primary project information location for each project.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
paulmd199
Posted on:
July 16, 2010 at 1:13 am

I have to say, my Initial impressions are very positive. This is worlds better! So many things we didn’t have the ability to do be fore, to keep up on project changes with the Watch feature would have made this worthwhile all on its own! To reduce the need to hunt for Q and A’s in the Message boards. Well done so far. Expect a few bumps along the way before it’s finished.

One of the new challenges will be synchronizing projects that have the same rules. Such as City directories and military post returns.

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Cornelis1822
Posted on:
July 16, 2010 at 5:54 pm

My Project Stats are gone.
I had a look at a few of the pages of projects I’ve worked on and it says 0 records keyed.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
sue
Posted on:
July 18, 2010 at 6:21 pm

I cannot find discussions or comments on the projects that I have been keying. I want to check the arbrators comments.

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
SheenaNeal39
Posted on:
July 19, 2010 at 9:50 pm

Recently my records are not recording or where it say accuracy has been keeps going down nor showing my stats on projects I’ve done! Should we still be keying?

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Jeanette
Posted on:
July 22, 2010 at 1:31 pm

On the project pages for each project where it shows how many records I have done it always says 0. I know I have keyed more than 0 for quite a few different projects.

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Marion
Posted on:
July 24, 2010 at 11:11 am

I may be very dense, but I have no idea what a “wiki” is!! I guess I’ll have to keep keying and arbitrating as I have in the past and hope for clarification if I run into problems.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Geoff
Posted on:
July 26, 2010 at 12:21 pm

I’m am quite prepared to bear with you, if that is your request, but I prefer to keep my clothes on and not bare with you, if you don’t mind. I’m afraid I also don’t understand ‘transition over’. Any chance of a little more respect for the English language?

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Ann Broadbent
Posted on:
July 26, 2010 at 3:16 pm

This is absolutely fabulous!!! Just what we have needed for so long.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
pam bryant
Posted on:
July 27, 2010 at 8:35 am

Along with others, I have found my statistics and accuracy going down. I can understand my accuracy score as I have probably made some mistakes but not the number of records I,ve worked on.

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
afechter
Posted on:
July 27, 2010 at 7:39 pm

I know that some contributors are still not able to see their project stats. If you are linking over from the online dashboard (where you are already signed in) you should see your project specific stats. We have fixes coming over the next few weeks for the current bugs.