User talk:RitcheyMT

Leave messages for Michael here (most recent on the bottom)
Leave messages for me here, and "sign" them with four tildes (~) so I can easily see who the message is from.

'Maryland Historical Maps'-- Google search results.
Maryland barn raising item.

Here are some promising search engine results for Maryland historical maps in Google. Not all maps described will be online, but some will. Don't overlook the utexas.edu link as that is a widely known one for historical maps anywhwere.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=Maryland+historic+maps&amp;btnG=Google+Search&amp;aq=f&amp;oq=&lt;brJamesAnderson 21:45, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

FCK Editor and ISBN number glitch
Here's a link to a developer site for the FCK Editor, specifically, the page with open tickets related to bugs found iwth it, one of these that was sent in the last month or so involves the ISBN number glitch.

http://dev.fckeditor.net/report/12 JamesAnderson 01:55, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Google search for the same problem, there appear to be a fair number of pages that may discuss the issue as well.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=FCK+editor+ISBN+function+bug&amp;btnG=Google+Search&amp;aq=f&amp;oq= JamesAnderson 02:00, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, James! Ritcheymt 22:21, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

England barn raising tasks, county pages links
Just checked the England barn raising tasks page, and I think the county pages are already up, but they may be titled differently than shown, which may account for them showing red instead of linking to the desired pages and showing in blue. Is this really the case? JamesAnderson 02:14, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I dunno, James. Alan Mann is running the England effort; check with him. He is User:Alan. Ritcheymt 22:21, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Michael, I just left a note about this over there on his talk page. JamesAnderson 00:02, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Maryland Barn Raising
I have to bow out of Maryland Barn Raising Tasks. See my note at Talk:Maryland Barn Raising Tasks. Johnalbertrigali 01:07, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the note
I'm glad that you like what I've done with the Maryland Societies page. I appreciate that encouragement. Thank You! Familyjournals 03:19, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

HELP
Michael - yoiu may have to come and refresh my memory againl Manessre 22:03, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

MD History
There is plenty to do on MD History. I hope to concentrate on it until Tuesday night. I think I can get it looking more like I want by then. Thanks, Diltsgd 17:58, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Indians of Maryland
Michael --

I've probably done all I can right now with this topic. It still needs work, but will require a significant amount of time and research to identify the existing records for the colonial time period and the depositories of those records. I won't have it done by the end of the sprint.

Jbparker 18:04, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Maryland Emigration and Immigration
Okey Dok. I'll see what I can do to add the suggested headings before the deadline.

18:22, 16 February 2009 (UTC)Mmark

I can help with last-minute barn-raising tasks
Is there anywhere or anyone you would like me to assist with for the Maryland Barn Raising Tasks? I have a son coming home on Thursday from his mission, but until then I could give some concentrated effort wherever you deem necessary. Familyjournals 00:36, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

User Mtg Agenda
Please put up March 3, I have two items now, one requiring attention, and other for users to look at. dsammy 19:30, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't have the time right now, dsammy, but feel free to do it yourself. Jimmy Parker has put up a lot of these; it's not a sacred cow or anything. Ritcheymt 00:40, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Pages are up for the whole month. And two items for discussion placed. dsammy 01:17, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Interuptions
My life was one big interuption. I had training the week prior to the 17th, The Monday and Tuesday, 16th &amp; 17th was spent in the hospital with Bill with the usual problems. He was released on Thursday, which meant another day off, Besides all my other problems and doctors. I'm just now caught up on life and emails. I assume I can still build and improve the rest of the census etc!?!? Hardestypn 19:06, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

US Census Discussion
I have finished entering the items on the chart. (some for the second time, I forgot and went to a meeting without saving the first group) UGH! So now we should start ranking the items? It will take a while there is a long list. hardestypn

Crowding the County Creations page
the data you added are best suited at the county page instead of the Creations page because there's more detail to list under "Quick History/Quick Facts" heading. A lot of Pennsylvania's details are already at the county pages. We already provided the link to them, didn't we? dsammy 03:13, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

I understand what you're saying about the information seeming to be too much. On the other hand, as I looked at the child county/notes column for the counties that were abolished, renamed, etc., it didn't seem clear to me. I couldn't envision the elderly people at the family history center I directed being able to understand it. So I'm still trying to figure out the best solution for presenting the information. I'll probably test it on a few users to see what they understand and what the trip on. Meanwhile, a little diversity in entries is okay while testing to see what works best for the customers. Ritcheymt 04:13, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

If you look at the counties in western part of Pennsylvania, there are more detailed information already listed. I know I didn't get to finish alphabetic list of counties, stopped at Lancaster County to tackle other more urgent tasks.

Request that users not create county pages without content
What's your opinion of the tagline I added for Oregon counties, reminding the users not to format unless they have contents to add to the cities/communities pages. dsammy 05:34, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I checked Oregon County Creation Dates and Parent Counties and didn't see the tagline, Sammy. Where is it? Ritcheymt 17:34, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

sorry, should be clear about complete different matter - go to the county level. It's in plain view and I also described the same in personal email. dsammy 18:14, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I went to Baker County, Oregon and noticed the line of text you inserted over the list of populated places (mostly towns). The line of text is within a box with a dotted border that says "Please do not format these pages unless you have contents to add to them." I see what you're getting at -- you don't want people to follow the red links and save the pages of these towns unless they have content to add. That way, the town pages won't just be empty shells with no real content. I'd say two things: First, it's not enforceable because there's no wiki policy on it. Second, the wording probably needs some clarification for users to understand it. The word "format" doesn't really capture what you want them to avoid. Ritcheymt 18:22, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

City/Town pages tagline
Okay, I see now that you're vetting the box right below the Communities heading on the Baker County, Oregon page. (BTW, I'd love it if, in future, you could just link to the page in question from this discussion page.) My knee jerk is that it doesn't seem like a bad thing to post such a box. However, the text isn't intuitive to me. It reads "Please do not format these pages unless you have contents to add to them." Format seems like the wrong word. Would "save" work better? And would it help to have an explanation as to &lt;why&gt; users shouldn't save the pages with red links? Would the text be more intuitive if it said something like this.... "Any community names in red below represent pages that have not yet been created or saved. Please do not save them unless you have contents to add to them"? And I'm not saying it's a great idea or a bad idea to add such boxes -- I think the community should decide this. I'm just saying that if they are added, they may need to be a bit more intuitive. Ritcheymt 19:05, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

FYI, our server resources are not an issue with regards to the creation of stubs. The real issue is usability: There's a fine line between how red links and stubs direct contributors to add content and how they annoy users who follow a link hoping to find information, but encountering a useless stub instead. OTOH, I understand why some folks on the wiki create a set of headings for use in county pages, and then create the county pages themselves, put the headings in, do not insert any other content, and Save the page. They consider it a shell, and they want the county page to start as a shell so that people who finally decide to add some useful information have some prompts as to what to enter and some order in which to enter it. Ritcheymt 19:19, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Had to separate the article. I was the guy who pushed for formatting the county pages to get ball going. The tagline is not intended to be absolute since I am looking for a way to encourage contents but at the same time don't try to format city/towns and leave them behind without any contents. A way is need to help the users be aware they are the key holders to opening up the city/town pages with the contents. dsammy 03:18, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

What I think you're saying is "I think it's okay to link to county pages that haven't been created -- I just don't think we should link to one and then go to it and save it without any content." Is that what you're saying? Or are you saying "If a county page doesn't exist yet, we shouldn't even link to it from a page like Alabama County Creation Dates and Parent Counties?" Ritcheymt 19:19, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

You are talking about two different issues.

1. Creation Pages - linking county names to pages not in existence. This is being taken care of by sessionsbrent. Not an issue.

2. Cities/Towns pages, the next level down from the County pages. That is what I am talking about. dsammy 19:39, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

So what issue still needs deciding? Ritcheymt 18:26, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Static PowerPoint?
Has static PowerPoint on presentation of Wiki been developed and completed for availability to use to introduce the Wiki? I don't like to use the actual Wiki to do teaching stuff. dsammy 04:50, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

There's an older PowerPoint linked from The Vision: Why We Built FamilySearch Wiki. Anne Roach also made some super handouts and CamTasia slideshows linked from Edit and Contribute and Search for Articles in the FamilySearch Research Wiki. Ritcheymt 18:32, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

County Creations
Got all states done. Last one is Virginia's Independent Cities - worst of all, they change names plus mergers, annexations, etc dsammy 08:33, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Nice, Sammy -- thanks! This is going to help a LOT of people. I like how simple you made the data, too.Ritcheymt 18:34, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I can't take all of the credit. Credit should also go to my cousin Elder Brent Sessions for doing good job of linking. BTW the Independent Cities section is done. dsammy 18:51, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Mike messing around
Here's a link to a section of a page.

Here's a link to Pennsylvania Maps.

Pennsylvania Maps

Here's a link to Pennsylvania Maps.

Here's a link to Google.com

Here's a link to Google.com

Suggestion for training for new users
The Community Meeting is fairly technical and philosophical. I suggest "Mike's Classroom for New Users" where users could assemble once per week to kick around items of elementary useage ("How do I add a photo," "the Link didn't work" "What do I do if I need to add my name") that sort of thing. It could meet once a week with you (or someone) as the "professor" to help with basic questions. Picking it up from PowerPoints or articles is good but incomplete.

Ellisgj 21:41, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Editing the Edit and Contribute page
Ellis' comment above - great idea, but maybe run by the community? Anyway, I noticed your concern about editing the edit and contribute page. Sorry about it being so hard to edit. We had to turn off the FCK editor to make some of the image mapping work (clicking on the icons to go to an article rather than the image page). Maybe the FCK overhaul will fix that. :) nixiao 21:08, 5 June 2009 (UTC)