Discussions about the Collaboration Pool

google docs dont work properly with 1st line
sort and filter dont recognize title line

use better the Live version :)

Henn

@David Kaleita

You haven't switched systems have you? When I'm on my mac i can't see it but on my Linux I can see it.

P.S. I'm using the same browser on each (Firefox).

Henn, Google Docs is supposed to do the "first line freezing" by pulling down the "split bar" from the top. That also sticks the first (or whatever many) line onto the screen so that you can independently scrolll the rest - just like Excel. But no, it doesn't auto-recognize the header line.

Kim, your Mac problem appears to be identical to what I'm seeing when I use Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). No problem with IE8. I've contacted help@geni.com, but they appear to be backlogged by nearly a week.

David yes, I perhaps should have also added that my mac system is not up to date and that's why I'm currently using Linux most of the time because that system is more up to date -- although still not as up to date as I would like, however, that's somewhat of another subject ( i actually really need a whole new computer heh).

So also I suppose sometimes when / if I have similar troubles that it may be more on my end.

Anyway, I hope that you receive a response from geni help soon. :)

On topic:

I want to add (thanks to Martin Eriksen's suggestion) since adding my name to the pool yesterday, I have about 32 additional collaborators. I'm glad to be collaborating with all of you, and thanks as well to everyone of you. IMO the collaboration pool is great!

"20032 merge issues"

lol

What just happened? My number of merge issues tripled suddenly from 500 to 1500.

Explained by Noah here:

http://blog.geni.com/

When You add collaborator, You also add their merge issues. I have 630 collaborators and app. 70.100 merge issues. If we all merge 20 a day this should not be a problem, but take care to check for siblings, namesakes and so on. Since automerge has been introduced, it is extremely important that our mergerequests are as accurate as possible, at least until we get some kind of indication of who has put us on automerge (I suggested that the collaboration arrows symbol could be a circler arrow to indicate who has set automerge, then one could check again to be certain or cancel the request if slightly in doubt). Off cause there will always be some mistakes, but being member of the pool, there is almost always someone to help.
Michael
PS if You remove the tic in the checkbox texted include collaborators, You should only see Your own merge issues.

Great idea about the "automerge collaborator" symbol, Michael.

Thanks, Erica. I hadn't seen that. These do not include my collaborators--just mine. I imagine the explosion in numbers is related to these new features:

(quoting Noah)

You may notice an increase in your number of merge issues. There are a few reasons for this:

* All profiles you manage are now included. Previously the list only included profiles where you were the primary manager.
* Each pair of profiles in a pending merge is now listed separately. This means that if there are two profiles waiting to be merged into a profile you manage, you'll see two separate merge issues.
* All requested merges are now included in your merge issues list, including requests from lists of tree matches.

Interestingly I'm already seeing my merge issues reduce in number. Maybe my collaborators are being busy bees?

We try!

Lately i have encountered several of my collaboration requests that i have send to people that have "Signed up" in the collaboration pool, either have not been returned or i have received questions about our relations and a few that have denied to collaborate because we were not part of the same family tree.
I think we have to renew the "Rules" and remind people who sign up about the purpose of the pool. I miss a feature to renew request. Its also time consuming that when you click collaboration request pending, instead of jumping to the request in question, you go to the first page, and from there you have to search for the wanted request. with 20 pages of requests this is annoying.

Yes, Michael, agree - (almost) time to start a new discussion. I say *almost* because we realized we can use our new Projects tool for Henn's spreadsheet record and then link the discussion to the Project. So give us a chance to get the Project up and running, then start a new "Collaboration Pool" discussion.

Can you find and post here the original "rules" msg? Perhaps I can copy that wording into the Project as a continuing and available "quick reference." If you get questions you can just "point" them there and they'll understand more easily.

Erica,
that IS the whole plan. Post the list AND all relevant information / instructions in one easily accessed place.
It will of course need to explain and pre-warn of the fact that joining will result in 500+ requests, and link to TWO new discussions for the pool.

Im posting the original starter as it read "Greetings all...

One of the most frustrating/irritating thing about geni (for me) is the time consuming nature of trying to get enough permissions to fix many areas of the tree.

I, currently, have 398 collaborators... a number it's taken me more than a year to accumulate, and I still run into large areas where I have no permissions to work in.

So I propose a solution to this, in this very thread.

My solution is simple... post here with "@yourname" to indicate your willingness to join the "Collaboration Pool".

The rules are simple:
1.) if you post here, you are indicating your willingness to accept any collaboration request from anyone else who posts here
2.) before you can send a collaboration request from someone in this thread, you *MUST* post your name here (reciprocity)
3.) you may remove your name at any time by deleting your post
4.) you must respect the deleted posts as 'out of bounds' (ie., *DO NOT* send a request to a user who has deleted their post here)
5.) a post in this thread *without* the "@yourname"... is *NOT* an entrant in this pool

If enough people join in this effort, we can, rapidly, remove many of the prior barriers to fixing this mess.

Thoughts?

Jason P Herbert"

It probably should be modified.

Michael,
I would try and rewrite that, not as a proposal at all, but as a description of the what and how of the pool. I recently wrote this, about the pool: http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Resolving_Merge_Issues#Collaboration... but that too is probably a bit short on details (e.g. needs the warning re:deluge)

3 & 4) need to be replaced with sending a message to the Project managers and/or the Discussion. Having to check if someone deleted a comment 10 pages back is unreasonable. Never mind trying to FIND it yourself, if you want to delete.
5) We really do NOT need to "insist" people post their name. Most users post something like "OK" or "I'm in".

Very clear and easy to understand, but i think that we should rename the tread something like "I´ll join the collaboration pool" in contrast to "About the CP".

Sounds good to me

Shmuel: "5) We really do NOT need to "insist" people post their name. Most users post something like "OK" or "I'm in"."

I agree... my intention here wasn't to insist on adding a name per se... it was to allow for posts questioning the idea or other thoughts.
Ie., so people can ask questions before joining.

We really need some way to automate the Collaboration Pool... so we don't have to bother with adding new collaborators manually... or scrolling through 88+ pages of the thread.

The wiki idea is great... but I think even that will fall short of where the collaboration pool should be.

Jason P Herbert

Jason,
we're not talking about a Wiki page, but of creating a newfangled Project: http://www.geni.com/projects

It would NOT be a REAL project, because there won't be any Project Profiles, but the projects are highly visible (check "More v" on the toolbar), and are already drawing a lot of attention, and volunteers. This is really just the very first version of the projects feature (will have dedicated merge-lists and discussions). They enable us to organize teams of semi-Curators around specific areas.

Geni probably could automate the pool, but the added value is minimal. Will probably have to ask them to do so, though, if the pool gets much bigger. Receiving 500+ Collab. Requests CAN be a bit much.

Requesting that many is a bit much too. I've only made it half way through the list. A group would be great, but I agree that it's low in the priority list.

Brendan,
if people actually "behaved" (imagine that), then a new member would never need to SEND that many requests (although they could). What *I* do, is follow the discussion and send a request to new members. If everybody did this, we'd only send one request each, and the new member would RECEIVE 500 requests. Handling received requests is very easy. You can do 20 at a time. :-D

But somehow, I think people don't really understand the concept, and don't send OR receive too many requests. I myself realized yesterday, that I have less Collaborators total, than there are pool members. So I may have to review the list myself. Not that I need it, being a Curator, but for the symmetry.

I believe sending collaboration requests to new joiners of the pool is a terrific way for curators to raise visibility in the community, so I'm meticulous (I know, me, meticulous? ha) about sending out requests right away.

I believe sending collaboration requests to new joiners of the pool is a terrific way for curators to raise visibility in the community, so I'm meticulous (I know, me, meticulous? ha) about sending out requests right away.

Shmuel,
When I joined the pool, I received 43 requests. Since them, I have received another 10, but I'm not sure if they are from the pool or not. You and many (or maybe all) of the people on this discussion were among the original 43. So, I went through the list person by person and send requests. One person wrote me back asking if there was something specific that I wanted to collaborate on.

I have been able to get SOOOO much more done on Geni with all my new collaborators!

I have noticed that there have been several times when I receive a "collaboration pool" notice, and go on there, thinking one person wants to collaborate. And I always scan up a few names, and I have not been getting each individual request notice from Geni when someone adds their name to the list. I do have over 400 collaborators though, but some of them aren't from the list, so there are people I have missed. It sucks that they arent alphabetical on my profile. So I will have to someday go through the list again. This takes up so much time it's ridiculous. I don't post that often, because I am busy verifying and adding information on ancestor's profiled under the 'about me' section. Usually the BMD from the PRDH, since most of my ancestors I'm working on are from Acadia/Quebec.

A BIG HUGE THANKS TO MIMI AND DAVE KALEITA!!!! couldn't do it with out you guys!