Nomination of Andrew Ernest Habib for Curator

Hello, Andrew,
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge your self-nomination for curator. It has been noted by the curator community and your name and areas of interest will be discussed among the group when we are ready to select the next class of curators.

For you, as well as anyone else who is interested in the curator program, I wanted to give you some information about the selection process. Geni management selected the first class. The succeeding classes have all been selected by the current curators. We create a list of nominees, discuss them and then vote.

Now, the question everyone wants to have answered! What make a good curator? We look for people who are actively building not only their own tree but helping with the Big Tree whenever they can. We look for people who are active in discussions. We look for people with careful merging skills. We look for people who are courteous. We look for people who have knowledge or language skills in under-served areas of the tree. We look for people who share their sources. It is very hard to find users with all those skills. So we discuss and discuss and discuss until we have found the best possible candidates for curatorship.

We have an approximate number of curators that we want to add at any one time. A good candidate who didn't make the final cut may very well be voted in with the next round, so do not despair!

Thanks, Maria. You've outlined it nicely. I recommend that anyone interested serving as a curator get as actively involved in the Geni community as possible--make yourself known through your involvement not only in merging your own tree but also in collaborating (you might join the collaboration pool), in participating in projects and public discussions (diplomatic skills are always extremely useful for curators), and in researching and building some rich and well-developed historic profiles that can showcase your interests and talents.

If you haven't already seen it, be sure to read this page: http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Curators and especially the section on Skills needed to be a Curator.

Every person who is a curator now has proved themselves through months or years of hard work, so be patient and keep learning the ins and outs of the Geni system.

Finally, let me add that being a curator is not a glamorous job, and the pay is lousy ;^) (that means none!), and we work around the clock doing lots of tedious dirty work that's not always fun, but has to be done. We also get a lot of stuff thrown at us (if you read the discussions, you'll see what I mean).

But the reward for all of us, curators and non curators alike, is feeling like we're contributing to something that is going to be very special. And it's a wonderful community of people here at Geni who are working on this collaborative project.

Now, Pam, don't scare them away with the low salary!

Yes, we are all volunteers and we do all sorts of tasks from mentoring new users to defusing tempers to untangling trees to working with Geni staff on improvements to the site. We have developed a close bond and enjoy working together on tough knots in the wood of this great Tree. It's truly addicting and truly rewarding.

Thanks Maria and Pam for noticing my self-nomination. I would like all to know that I am fully aware of the hard work envoled. I also believe that I have the passion for genealogy and willing to do research, actively participate in discussions.

I speak three languages (English, French and Arabic) and spouse speaks two additional languages (Armenian and Greek). I have a lot of relatives who share my passion for genealogy and are willing to provide me with documents and research when needed.

I started by building my tree then proceeded with inviting spouses of all generations to join and add their families and invite them …etc.
Then I proceeded with the starting building the Lascars and Ghassanids tree and link them to the Big Tree. In the process I caused Curator Pam Wilson some unintended grieve by requesting several merges believing that some of the managers may have been wrong in some of their data. Pam was kind enough to point to me the need to be more careful in merging profiles, so I started a process of contacting managers should the question of inconsistent data among profiles candidates for merging rise, before requesting such merge.
I also started a discussion on the Ghassanids Kingdom. I believe that I am courteous with all Geni users and Curators. I am willing to not only share my resources but added it as scanned documents to profiles when possible.
I appreciate that it is hard to select from unknown people, but I am sure that a vote for me will never be a cause of regret

I wonder if GENI programmers can change the generic e-mail response to a merge request to one of the following as applicable:
1) So and so “has accepted your request to merger ” so and so’s profiles
2) So and so “has rejected your request to merger “ so and so’s profiles
The current generic response “so and so has completed the merge on” so and so’s profile.” Does not inform the requestor if the merge request was declined and may cause the requester to assume it was accepted even if it was declined

1) Accepting a merge request result in the merge to be completed, so the response is correct. You don't get a new round where the requester have to agree on what he/she asked about.

2) - If you are a Facebook user you will notice the same situation (and it is stated in the request you get) The requester will NOT be notified about your reject.

Just to add: If I really disagree on a merge I send a message explaining why, even with a screenshot which even a kid could agree that the reuest was really bad, and ask him/her to be more careful.

Example: http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu41/bpbrox/LIH-Error.png

Ya I also do the same when I disagree. But unlike Facebook, the requester should know that his request was assessed and may be on denying I popup allows the denyer to explain why and this becomes part of the body of the e-mail

Andrew,
In the event someone denies the request, that person can click on the submitter's name and send a message if one is warranted.

When I am working on my merge/tree conflicts, I might need to view 40, 50 or more profiles. If the bulk of the information is correct, I accept. If not, I don't. I cannot send that many messages. I would never get through my merge center issues. Sorry, but for curators and for those with many profiles and/or collaborators, it just is not a workable solution.