User group meeting agenda & minutes 13 August 2008

= Proposing ideas for this agenda =

To propose or discuss ideas for this agenda, please use the Discussion tab above. As the meeting draws near, we will review the items proposed on the Discussions page and decide which ones should get highest priority on the agenda.


 * Changing Colors on Portal pages. Whats the process? davide 03:24, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Are you talking about in general or to specific portal/article? I am not sure that we really want to encourage this for every individual article/portal. Thomas Lerman 19:37, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

= Agenda =

Administrative items

 * 1) Assignment of time keeper and note taker
 * 2) Introduction of new members: 10 seconds for name and desired takeaways.
 * 3) Prayer -- Joan Healey
 * 4) Review of Minutes
 * 5) Today's agenda preview

Information items
Reports from BYU Conference -

Reports from the Field -

Carryover from Last Week
Report on progress with the county pages -- U.S. Unit

New Items
Recordings of previous meetings??

Log-in Problems

Using the "Getting Started" page as a basis for discussion in Users Group Meetings

= Minutes =

Facilitator was Jimmy Parker, Note taker was David Dilts.

Prayer by Joan Healey

Total number of registered users of the FamilySearch Wiki as of the start of this meeting is 3,620. That is an increase of 2 registered users over last week.

Attendees
Jimmy Parker, Mollie Forbes, David Samuelsen, Joan Healey, Darris Williams, Barbara Baker, Carlos, James Andersen, Gerda Balls, Ruth Merimann, Sylvie Pysnak, David Dilts

Remotely: Raeone Steuart

Items Discussed
Reports from BYU Conference - James Andersen reported that a live FamilySearchWiki session was demonstrated at the Conference to get students used to the idea of the making changes and how those changes can be reverted if need be.

The word is getting out and pieces are being added. We can add stub items and go back later to fill them out.

Reports from the Field - Jimmy Parker reported that a lady from Virginia (Lise Embley?) will on Friday will make a presentation and get librarians in southern Virginia involved in contributing to the FamilySearchWiki.

Dealing with undesirable edits. Gerda Balls, Ruth Merriman, and Sylvie Pysnak were concerned about edits made to portal pages they had created that changed colors and distorted tables for no discernable reason. Would it be possible to automatically lock down certain pages? To deal with undesirable changes an author can:


 * Contact the person who changed the page: Click the History tab, click on their user name, and in the navigation bar Toolbox click on E-mail this user. Encourage them to continue participating and contributing to the Wiki, but in a kindly way educate them to the difficulties they are causing. Show them alternative ways to edit articles that are more constructive. Win them over as friends of the Wiki.
 * Undo the edit. You can click the History tab, and undo an edit whenever you want (up to a limit), but to be courteous, please first try to persuade the person who made an undesirable change that the other way was better. Seek their approval in order to avoid an editing war.

Our policy is too freeze a page that has been edited and reverted back to the same place three times.


 * Locking down pages. Moderators can protect pages. Sysops can change locked pages. Selected pages have already been protected, such as the main page. In most cases we prefer to avoid protecting pages if possible. It is better to allow freedom and educate people who misuse that freedom than to suppress expression and participation in the FamilySearchWiki. If a page needs to be locked contact a Moderator or Sysop.