Projects

Hatte,

The best information is at http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Projects

Geni doesn't offer templates so if you see something you like, you might send a message to the project manager asking them to send their template to you (or just add that person as a collaborator on your project; I'm sure they'd be happy to paste in the template for you).

Thanks Michael. I think I got the template I used from Erica Howton. If you look at the Richard Williams Family project, you'll see it only very partially filled out.

Actually the link you sent me takes me to the template:
http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Project_Template_Format

http://www.geni.com/people/Shmuel-Aharon-Kam-Kahn-%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%9...

I think Shmuel may have been the person who first discussed the template.

This was an example of your friendly neighborhood curators collaborating. :)

I did a "project template" for myself. Shmuel shared it with the geni world here:

http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Project_Template_Format

I copy and paste the Project Template to Notepad, tweak in anything else I want (such as outside links), and then copy and paste from Notepad to the new project.

And voila!

Formatting stays intact.

Another hint:

If you copy and paste from the "edit" tab in Wikipedia, formatting also stays intact. You do need to edit out the <ref> tags from Wikipedia, though.

You add project collaborators and profiles to the Project the same way.

1. Go to their profile
2. On the right, select "more options"
3. Select "Add to Project"
4. Drop down box, highlight the Project, close.

If you make a mistake and add a Profile to the wrong project you just X it out. Not that I've ever done that or anything.

Thanks Erica for everything. I added some collaborators and now that I know the same mechanism works for profiles, I'll do that forthwith.

Add me to the Project so I can make Master Profiles of what you've collected there for you.

Will do. I just tied to add some ancestors' profiles the same way I added collaborators and there was no available action for that. I'll try once more, maybe there's an action for living but not for deceased so I'll look and see if there is a more options...

Okay Erica, I could neither add a profile of an ancestor to my projects nor could I add you. When I clicked on Add a Project for you, a long list came up but my projects were not on them.

ha, it's a Geni bug or incompatibility with my system. I was able to add Noah since there was an entry box with a drop down menu at the top for him because he has a short list of projects but your list of projects runs off the screen so I can't access the entry box. It'll probably turn out to have to do with the Mac.

Hatte, the mac shouldn't give you trouble. I'm using Firefox on the mac. It may be your browser.

Brendan, I'm using Firefox on the mac. Try to add Erica to a project and see if you get the same problem.

Here's another problem -- I think that profiles of ancestors have to be public before you can add them to projects. The profiles that a collaborator of mine created I have been able to add to my project, whereas the profiles that I created or merged with his profiles, and kept private, I cannot add -- there is no "add to project" option for those profiles. I tried making one public but perhaps I have to re-load the profile or something because I still didn't get an "add to project" option.

Hatte,

That is correct. You can only add to a project PUBLIC profiles that you have edit rights on. (Manager or Collaborator).

If there are private (historical) profiles of yours, there's an easy way to reset them to public. Do that before you try any merging, adding to project, etc.

1. your own profile
2. on right, profiles managed
3. Refine this list filters - drop down, deceased, private
4. on right - you should have an option to toggle public / private / quick edit --

p.s. it looks like they've updated this screen since the last time I tried it so you may have to fool around with it a little

Okay, I figured it out, although I had to do it one by one. I would have never known to hyperlink from Managed Profiles under Statistics on my profile page to do this. Not intuitive to me.

What have you done to link to profiles inside the body of the project?

That's a copy and paste of the URL from the address bar. Use a * to start a new line.

* http:// xxxx

There's a little toolbar in Projects for formatting, like a mini Word toolbar, same meanings. I think the globe make the link "hyper."

Thanks, I had discovered all those easily and I'm now reading up on Wiki formatting more broadly. What I want to do is put the name of the person as the anchor for the hyperlink. I'm sure I'll figure out how to do it.

What you want to do is called piping (the name aliases the URL):

Here's a cheatsheet for wikimedia coding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet

Thanks, yes I have the cheatsheet and actually picked up a couple of books on Wikis. I am using my family tree as a forcing function to finally make me learn how to construct a Wiki. I know it's piping and I thought I had understood the way to achieve it, but haven't succeeded yet. But I'm sure I will anon. I'm hoping to enlist some of the younger generation and more presentation oriented family members on my projects.

Also be aware that the installation of WikiMedia in Projects is not complete - "a geni work in progress."

Full formatting available on the Geni Wiki:

http://wiki.geni.com/

Requires separate (free) login (use an alias -- it's outside the "geni veil of privacy.")

Can we add a number of profiles to a project all at once?

Anchit,

I wish! And so does geni. They're thinking about how to do so -- or other methods of making it faster to associates profiles with a project.

I think the Projects will be quite powerful but only if the re is someone involved in each project who's good a Wiki construction and presentation. I assume that mine will be clumsy at first and will improve over time as I try out techniques. If you have tricks you want to share, I'd be grateful. My goal is to make history come alive, be multimedia and multifaceted, and be easily navigated by any of the relatives or those interested in the families and milieus I have focused on.

Yeah, hope they come up with it soon!

Hatte,

Great minds are thinking alike. We have a very long wish list for Project module enhancements. I am pleased at the rapid pace of development they are doing with it and I think many of our wishes will be fulfilled, if we have a little patience.

One way to think of the Geni Wiki is the "back office" for the "front office" presentation to families. So that is where extensive "naming conventions" are -- and then we copy and paste the appropriate snippet (formatting intact! yes!!) from there to the individual Project.

http://www.wikipedia.org formatting from the "edit" tab there stays mostly intact too. Unfortunately the graphics files don't link <pout>

FYI
Please do NOT add me to projects without first asking me. I looked at my project list and was a member of quite a few that I really am not interested in, even though fellow curators or collaborators were part of it. It's in no way to insult your work or your favorite topics, but please I've found myself part of family tree projects that don't pertain to me, found myself part of projects of profiles I don't even work on or even thought of working on...