Now we have started a family history Wiki on Wikispaces, and we invite all members of the family to have a look at it and join it.
The Hayes and Green family history space
This WikiSpace, called "hayesgreene" is for members of the Hayes, Greene and related families to post family news, history and anecdotes, and to make contact with other members of the family, and learn about the family history.Who is it for?
It's for any members of our families, that is, anyone who is related to us in any way. That means, in the first place, anyone descended from any of our ancestors -- uncles, aunts and cousins. That includes 1st cousins, 2nd cousins, up to and beyond 15th cousins seven times removed, and their spouses, parents of spouses and children of spouses.Who are we?
We are Steve and Val Hayes, and we live in Pretoria, Tshwane, Gauteng, South Africa. You can find out more about who we are on our family web pages, and also on our blog (which you're reading now!)How do I participate?
You participate by clicking on "join this space", which you will find somewhere on the left (not here, but in the WikiSpace page). If you are already a member of WikiSpaces, your application will be sent to us. If you are not already a member of WikiSpaces you will be invited to join (and then you can create your own WikiSpaces as well). When we receive your application, we will check to see whether you are related to us in any way, and if you are, your application will be approved and you will be able to add to and edit the information on these pages. But even if you are not related, you can still read the pages.How does this compare with a blog?
A blog is for changing information that quickly gets out of date. While you can find old blog posts, you have to search for them, and they are not always easy to find. A family history blog can be good as a record of new information found, meetings with family members, reports of family reunions and so on.What a blog is not so good for is things like anecdotes by and ancestors, biographies, research problems and dead-ends and so on. Updating biographical information on a two-year-old blog post is not much use, because few people will know that it has been updated, and so few will read it. But in a Wiki such information can be updated and added to as more information is found, and it can be found much more easily.
So, if you are related, go and look at the HayesGreene Wikispace, and think of stuff you can add. There's not much there yet, but there will soon be if we all get working on it.
2 comments:
You said 'Updating biographical information on a two-year-old blog post is not much use, because few people will know that it has been updated, and so few will read it.' I get around that problem by making a new post with the updated info, and I replace the text in the old post with something like 'An updated version of this post is at (link to new post).'
Yes, you can do that, but a Wiki is much easier to update, and is always available, and is therefore a useful adjunct to a blog. They are complementary rather than alternatives.
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