Curators Please / Asb HELP!

Sharon.. lets not make it a curators please help.. but a South African's please help... maybe with a comment as curators we are able to help with some of the tougher issues outside family groups. ?

Hi Mau - Say again - I don't understand. My thought was to help with merges that are stuck etc here. Have I described it badly?

We have a few things to think about here.. should we duplicate global curators please help for ourselves?

I'm also tending to think about the 'umbrella project' to provide structure and .. PROG tree issues and Tree confirmation projects to host these kind of discussions..

I would prefer to see a South Africans please help discussion.....as a conduit for everyone to help and not just us 'curators'. Some issues only us curators will be able to help with .. but I would like to avoid to create a seperation between us and the rest of the community for it to be for curators only to help..

Just a slight shift in philosphy ... I will ellaborate a little more on my thoughts this evening then we can better consider..

Mauritz, the reason we punted for SA curators is so that our family members can have curators to help them when PRO member tools aren't enough, but by people who work on the SA tree, and don't then willy nilly use curator tools to fix something in one place that messes another part of the SA tree, because they don't know it.

Hi guys

Thanks for the invite Sharon, my ninth cousin once removed.

Duplicating the global 'curators please help' as such shouldn't be a problem as it doesn't appear in the public discussion list. But users, especially newbies, might get confused between the two. That is, they might become frustrated and disappointed when their requests aren't replied to as quickly as they are in the global one which knows no time limits. So perhaps, then, giving it more of a smaller more limited feel would be better, as in 'South African' curators and maybe even in brackets 'Time Limited' or something. Or maybe not. I dunno.

On the other hand we don't want to become too exclusionary, which is, by definition, dangerous and inappropiate for this site.

Both of you have raised relevant points and concerns and should be included in the end product. I'm just not 100% sure what that is.

Hi Brendan - Thanks for your thoughts here - we're trying to figure out what is most helpful for people - So Mauritz & I need to get input on it.

Tell me more about what you mean by the time limited proviso? I'm not understanding that so well.

Ahoi Sharon.. Sorry, bit slow, just split into 10 pieces at the moment, (Brendan about 4 of those pieces at the moment ;-) I'll get to it by the weekend if all goes well. Know you probably want to move fast ... sorry..

I have been battling with this 'what fits where issue' for months now and I think what is needed is to try and share the whole picture as I see it to have full context that you can relate to..

Sharon,
By 'time limited' I meant that people asking for assistance may not get as quick a reply or response here than they would in the global 'curators please help', especially if they don't address their need for help to any particular person/s. Unless this is going to be a 24/7 situation. For example, somebody might ask for assistance with something when most, if not all of us are sleeping or not logged on and then that person will end up waiting for hours for a response. Unless there are sufficient numbers to avoid lengthy delays. In the global there is no such delay, not for more than an hour anyway (I think).
So, how many curator/collaborators are there going to be? What is the longest time a person will wait for a response? etc. etc.

Mau,
Am waiting patiently for the whole picture..........

I am prepared to help, but am struggling with this website. I am more comfortable working with gedcoms...

Hi Millicent,
Fantastic, and thanks for joining us. Welcome! Have to say geni and gedcom uploads are not really friends. I would be interested to know if you've done a gedcom download and what you think of the result? Building your tree until you make a link and then working together from there to correct and fix the tree works much better for Geni if I could offer an opinion. Certainly we have all sorts of needs for people to help and we will find a place in the site structure where people who can do with help could ask for such help. We have a few people for instance with tons of data that they are not likely to read in as individuals in a lifetime. Interested people could for instance take some of that on, so please keep close...

Ahh, I see Brendan. Yes I suppose there may be up to a day's delay here. I wonder if that makes this one redundant? Do you think most questions will be that urgent? Maybe?

Hi Millicent - Please persevere - if you ask, you get lots of help from others on Geni so the learning curve is quite quick, and the results are much less dry than a Gedcom. These come with people and stories and all the crazy curators too. Seaking of which, Mau & Judi & I are here to help you learn too.

Sharon,
I don't think that it makes this one redundant and I don't think most questions will be that urgent either. Well, not for people who have being doing genealogy for awhile as we know we need patience. But some new people won't necessarily know and understand that and will abandon this one and take their questions to the global.