tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post9173427356337727198..comments2023-09-26T10:50:02.007+03:00Comments on Blood and Frogs: Jewish Genealogy and More: What's your favorite online family tree site?Philip Trauringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05783880008685868921noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-84634997030378560812012-09-22T16:24:07.701+03:002012-09-22T16:24:07.701+03:00My main problems are having to keep a seperate cop...My main problems are having to keep a seperate copy on my computer so I can print books and charts. Then another is that of collaboration with someone on a mac who I am working with on a book. She has Reunion and I have Legacy. So we both have to download a GEDCOM from WikiTree to update for our computer software.<br />Then it is the problem with working with Facebook. So many of our relations have facebook pages. I wish there were some easy way to make the connection to Wikitree. WikiTree has what I think is so important, the relationship finder. However, it is hard to find and use for most of my relations on Facebook.<br />Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08233868678363363938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-10035482636999685792011-10-03T13:38:19.697+02:002011-10-03T13:38:19.697+02:00Hi John,
You're right that on WikiTree you ca...Hi John,<br /><br />You're right that on WikiTree you can only have one father and one mother. That's part of our basic tree structure and it helps keep things simple. But it could be your biological father or your stepfather, whomever you feel closer to. And your mother can have multiple spouses. The best thing to do is to clearly explain the relationships in the text section of the page.<br /><br />See the <a href="http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Multiple_Parents" rel="nofollow">Multiple Parents Help Page on WikiTree</a>.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />ChrisChris Whittenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06681015715409399643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-64853809906287839612011-10-03T06:20:55.643+02:002011-10-03T06:20:55.643+02:00These are great reviews. Thanks. I like wikitree...These are great reviews. Thanks. I like wikitree, but I can't see my stepfather in my family tree? Is this my mistake or is this the format of the program. If so, that is my critique, that I cannot view all my family members in one big tree.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12024874433955443321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-27427041333649154122011-06-20T21:51:01.151+03:002011-06-20T21:51:01.151+03:00Cut-and-paste genealogy is a real problem on WikiT...Cut-and-paste genealogy is a real problem on WikiTree. We had a number of people import unsourced 10,000-person GEDCOMs that they recklessly slapped together from public trees on Ancestry.com. Then they left the mess for other users to clean up.<br /><br />Personally, I think just about any mistake is forgiveable if the person is well-intentioned and considerate of others in the community. Mistakes can be fixed. They real problem is when people don't care about their mistakes and don't communicate with others about them. If they care about accuracy, and you're willing to be communicative, things can be worked out.<br /><br />This has led to the development of our Wiki Genealogist Honor Code <http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/WikiTree_Honor_Code and we've been taking various steps to try to discourage reckless users. For example, after a GEDCOM is uploaded we now count the number of individuals and sources in the file before it's processed into WikiTree web pages. Then I can open a personal conversation with the person to make sure they're serious about what they're doing.Chris Whittenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06681015715409399643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-53711683693254782042011-06-19T00:35:26.470+03:002011-06-19T00:35:26.470+03:00Steve, unfortunately many of the online family tre...Steve, unfortunately many of the online family tree sites encourage superficial genealogy.<br /><br />I also think that online sites that encourage people to use their site exclusively instead of using a computer application to manage their genealogy are doing a disservice to those people, and everyone else who accesses the data those people create, since the quality of data is many times quite low and almost always un-sourced. Most of the online sites have very poor citation capabilities. At the very least, these sites should default to listing individuals as 'unsourced' until citations are provided.<br /><br />I sometimes explore different possibilities of family connections on my computer, but would never upload those 'theories' to an online site. That many people are using these online sites to manage all of their genealogy, including the theoretical family connections that they haven't confirmed, is very problematic. With sites like Geni where there is a one-big-tree approach this can be even more problematic because errors in the tree get merged into other people's trees and seems like fact to anyone checking out those trees. This happens with other sites too, but at least you can track the error bac to a specific person in those cases. Therein lies one of the major problems with the one-big-tree sites. I do think sites like Geni will improve in this regard, and tools like AncestorSync can help with keeping the separation of data from one's computer and online sites, but in the end these large sites have commercial reasons not to overhaul things as well as they could.<br /><br />In that sense, even though I haven't used it extensively, I would probably recommend people use a site like WikiTree.com where changes to the site's functionality are frequent, and the financial disincentive for change isn't there. If Chris sees this post, perhaps he can comment on what he's doing to prevent the cut-and-paste genealogy approach on WikiTree.com.Philip Trauringhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05783880008685868921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-89310768594802979962011-06-18T12:55:25.209+03:002011-06-18T12:55:25.209+03:00It seems to me that Mundia, in particular, tends t...It seems to me that Mundia, in particular, tends to encourage cut-and-paste genealogy.Steve Hayeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11283123400540587033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5169417466254804987.post-69845270177313427582011-04-20T15:51:02.044+03:002011-04-20T15:51:02.044+03:00Hi Philip.
Thanks for including WikiTree.com on t...Hi Philip.<br /><br />Thanks for including WikiTree.com on this list! I really appreciate it.<br /><br />One thing that sets WikiTree is apart from the others is that it's entirely free. The others give you limited free memberships, which might include some great services, but you know they'll always be trying to sell you a membership. What's worse, if you invite family members, they'll try to sell them memberships.<br /><br />WikiTree makes it easy to share with family and distant cousins at the same time. Like you mentioned, our privacy controls are one of our best features. Each individual profile has its own Profile Manager, Trusted List of other users, and Privacy Level that determines what users outside the Trusted List can see. The Privacy Levels range from Unlisted (invisible to everyone outside your family) to Open (anyone can view *and* edit the profile, though the Profile Manager still controls important aspects and reviews all changes).<br /><br />The careful privacy controls mean that WikiTree can be used for both personal family history and distant ancestry. We can connect our living family members to a shared, collaborative, worldwide family tree.<br /><br />I'd love to answer any questions you might have. It would be awesome if you reviewed WikiTree and compared it with the others. Even negative feedback is great. It helps us make WikiTree better.<br /><br />You or your readers are welcome to e-mail me at chris at wikitree.com anytime.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Chris Whitten<br />WikiTree.com Webmaster<br /><br />P.S. Another neat thing about WikiTree is that our open approach enables some sweet tools for bloggers. Check out the dynamic family tree widgets at http://www.wikitree.com/about/family-tree-widgets.htmlChris Whittenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06681015715409399643noreply@blogger.com