Content Publisher - BETA - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Re: Ability to Save Records

ContentPublisher — 2012-06-27 18:15:13Z

We do not have a release date at this time. We are still working on the product and hope to get this functionality soon.

Ability to Save Records

bigbears6 — 2012-06-26 19:39:08Z

I know that the records will be able to be saved to trees once the BETA stage is over. Any clue when that will be?

James T Snyder's United States Obituary Collection, Correction is needed.

Kat_yellow_bird — 2012-06-25 22:25:23Z

Hi, I am Katrina M Snyder the daughter of James T Snyder.
In Goshen, Decatur and Fort Wayne Newspapers obituaries it states: He is survived by a daughter, Katrina M. Snyder, New Haven; a son, Darrell T. (Marlo) Snyder, Fort Wayne; four grandchildren, Joshua, Ben, Jonah and Jared Snyder; companion and special friend, Rebekah Arbuckle, Shipshewana, and her children Caden, Abriana and Alayna. He was preceded in death by his brother, Samuel Snyder.
He was not married to Rebekah he was a special friend of her's and her children (Caden, Abriana and Alayna) ARE NOT HIS CHILDREN just special friend's.
http://www.northernindianafuneralcare.com/obits/obituary.php...
If there is any question please contact me at Kat_yellow_bird@yahoo.com

Re: BETA Stage Progress

bigbears6 — 2012-06-14 20:52:21Z

Thanks for the quick reply! I can't wait to see what's new :) I know programming can take a long time, but I was just a little anxious...

Re: BETA Stage Progress

ContentPublisher — 2012-06-14 18:29:55Z

There has been a significant development to Content Publisher that will be rolling out next Wednesday. You just beat me to the announcement. The big news deals with marriage events along with a relationship builder.

I will be sending out an email early next week to all Content Publisher Owners giving details on the updates.

Re: BETA Stage Progress

bigbears6 — 2012-06-14 02:56:31Z

Is any progress still being made on the Content Publisher? I haven't seen any new updates in a long time.

Re: BETA Stage Progress

ContentPublisher — 2012-03-14 22:35:18Z

We wish we were at a stage where we could remove the BETA tag. There are still some enhancements such as marriages that are still being worked on as well as print and save options when viewing records. Once we get these sorted out we will be in a better position to move out of BETA.

BETA Stage Progress

bigbears6 — 2012-03-11 15:35:00Z

I was just wondering when the Beta stage for publisher will be over, as I know that it was originally scheduled for late 2011 to early 2012?

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2012-02-08 21:26:28Z

Now that it is 2012, how much longer is the beta stage of the Publisher expected to last?

Re: Too Large for FEEDBACK text box

ilgensoc — 2011-10-29 19:14:07Z

Steve,
Thanks for the answers. They help.
I hope Publisher could eventually highlight all references on the same person.
Thanks
I will finish my reviewing and OK this collection.

Re: Too Large for FEEDBACK text box

yesel — 2011-10-28 22:13:41Z

Hi Larry,

Currently, our indexing tool does not support adding multiple highlights for a single person unless you create multiple instances of the same person in the index (by clicking "Add a person" and entering redundant information for each time they appear on an image). This can be a confusing experience for anyone trying to view your image. Highlights are useful for quickly locating a name on a page, but they are not essential for returning an image in search results. As long as you have captured an individual in the index for an image at least once, the image should be surfaced in search results.

Having the ability to add multiple image highlights for a single person in the index is on our list of feature requests. Until this feature is available, I would recommend highlighting the individual only once and adding a line in your collection description that states that some images will contain multiple references to the same person. This will help ensure that your users browse the entire image when it is served to them in search results.

Best regards,

Steve
Ancestry.com

Re: Too Large for FEEDBACK text box

ilgensoc — 2011-10-28 21:52:49Z

Steve,
I have another question about the HS Yearbook I am working with.
I am currently reviewing my indexing efforts before I OK their release, on several pages individuals are named several times.
Do I need to highlight every instance single instance of their name on the single page they are listed on?

Oh course I am listing them on other pages.
I do not know how the search feature will work for a user and I am concerned that if I do not highlight EVERY single occurrence, even on a single page that a searcher might over -look a mention.
Suggestions please?
Thanks Larry

Re: Too Large for FEEDBACK text box

yesel — 2011-10-28 17:12:14Z

Hello Larry,

Thank you for your feedback. We are currently evaluating ways to improve the efficiency of indexing images and your comments further validate the need for such improvements. I have added your suggestions about our help dialogs and record highlights to our list of requested features.

Thanks again for your post and please let us know about any further improvements that we can make to Content Publisher!

Best regards,

Steve
Ancestry.com

Too Large for FEEDBACK text box

ilgensoc — 2011-10-27 23:47:41Z

Working on our first collection. Arcola Township High School Yearbook 1922 for Illinois State Genealogical Society.
Upload no problem, just time consuming- did 100 images over DSL. 30-40 mins.
Indexing:
Could the drop-down tab about index highlight be switched off with a toggle instead of each time Add Person is selected? The drop-down was high enough to be out of the way, but I just let it annoy me each time it came on.

Could the text boxes and option buttons in the Individual selection box be made to cycle through with the TAB key.

Could the Add Individual button also have a keyboard key to function.
I would like there to be keyboard shortcut keys for all functions. Would speed up the process.

One time I could not turn on the Add individual operation. I selected Add Individual and the drop-down appeared for half a second and then disappeared. I could not get the Add Individual to work at this one point.
I left Indexing and went back to the Collection and then came back into Indexing and the function worked again.

One time while Indexing as I selected Save, the Highlight box around the name disappeared but the individual was listed in the left column of indexed Individuals. The selected people before this person were still highlighted and the following people became highlighted as I continued indexing. Weird that one highlight disappeared but was still listed in left column of Individuals.

Could there be a way to turn on all previously created highlights on a page for when I go back to review the page before I decide the Indexing is complete. I think seeing the highlights would be make checking easier than consulting the left column of Individuals.

thank you Larry Pepper llpepper@sbcglobal.net

Re: Released to Search

ContentPublisher — 2011-10-03 19:07:08Z

The “beta” period is expected to last at least through the end of the year. Regarding your question about indexing a genealogical book, we encourage you to submit and index whatever content you have available as long as you have verified that you have the legal right to do so. It is up to your organization to determine whether you are violating copyright restrictions.

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-10-01 19:36:26Z

Just to clarify, how much longer is the "beta" period expected to last? Also, I have a copy of a genealogical book that is already on ancestry.com that I would like to see indexed instead of being merely scanned with OCR. It is under no copyright restrictions because it was published in 1852. Would the publishing of this book violate any of ancestry.com's terms of use? (It is entitled "Family Records or Genealogies of the First Settlers of Passaic Valley (and Vicinity,) Above Chatham" by John Littell)

Re: Multiple Indexers?

laurelp48 — 2011-09-15 05:03:30Z

Hi Matt,

We're thrilled to have your participation in our pilot program!

Currently, it's a single login that you distribute to members of your organization to help index collections. That said, we have other solutions within the product that allows you to get your collections indexed. We'd like to discuss these solutions with you, please email contentpublisher@ancestry.com and let us know a good time to contact you.

Thanks,
Laurel

Re: Linking to specific collections?

laurelp48 — 2011-09-15 04:57:29Z

We expect to have discrete collection URLs in the future to address that very issue you raise. For the time being, it's a single page that houses all collections listed alphabetically.

Thanks again for the feedback.

- Laurel

Re: Third-Party Access to Collections

laurelp48 — 2011-09-15 04:55:06Z

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the concerns regarding allowing people to print/download published content and we'll take them into consideration. Perhaps a toggle that the publisher can control to enable or disable those functions might address your concerns?

We know stats and analytics are very important to content publishers of every size and we hope to provide this functionality at a future date, e.g. page views, unique users, etc.

In regards to your GAR collections, we'd love to chat with you further about how we could bring them online. Please email us at contentpublisher@ancestry.com and let us know when we might contact you.

Thanks again, Laurel

Re: Third-Party Access to Collections

laurelp48 — 2011-09-14 17:29:46Z

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your message and enthusiasm about Ancestry Content Publisher! We're currently engaged in a pilot program and inviting interested societies/institutions to participate. The aim of the pilot is to listen to feedback and evolve the product accordingly. As you can imagine, we're learning a ton.

You are correct that the program is currently focused on societies and organizations although we're exploring how we might extend the platform to individuals. Institutional participants are not required to have an existing website (although it helps). Really the only requirement is digital content (images or index-only) and a willingness to publish their collections online.

Let me know if you have any additional questions about the program and the overall proposition at this stage.

Many thanks,
Laurel

Re: Image Access

AGHatchett3rd — 2011-09-14 04:15:35Z

Laurel,

I agree that the downloading and printing should be available but please, Please, PLEASE forget about being able to attach them to member trees.

Once that happens then they simply become more fodder for the namegathering treebie vultures to copy without thought and start attaching them to everything in sight.

If someone wants to download and then attach it-fine; although I personally would just use a link to the website where the image is located.

Please do not allow the Content Publishers Program to become just another venue for the creation of junkology as has happened with the Member Trees.

Re: Third-Party Access to Collections

AGHatchett3rd — 2011-09-14 04:03:27Z

Hi Laurel,

Am I correct that Content Publishers is limited to societies and organizations who already have a website but that it is not open to individuals?

Can you go into a bit more detail as to the criteria needed to be accepted into the Content Publisher Program?

If my assumption above is correct, has Ancestry given any thought as to how individuals can contribute their content - other that attaching stuff to online trees?

Overall I think this is a great thing for online genealogy.

Andy Hatchett

Re: Third-Party Access to Collections

suvcwmi — 2011-09-14 03:32:37Z

Laurel,

To kind of piggy back on the poster's first original question....

I could definitly see a situation where content publishers might want to allow access to their images, but maybe not let people download and / or print them.

I know that many organizations want to prevent dis-honest users from downloading large portions of their collections and posting it elsewhere. Being professional archivist myself, I have seen this time and again. Allowing some control might go a long way with alleviating these fears.

Having some idea of usage statistics would be a wonderful plus! Institutions these days struggle to justify every little thing to management boards, etc. It's one thing to be able to say "We have stuff on for free on Ancestry.com" compared to "We have stuff on Ancestry.com and collection XYZ received 5000 hits last month, more than our own institutional website."

Another aspect to consider is distributed collections... My organization "collects" information and records on the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Sometimes this is physical "stuff," other times it is digital copies of records located at other institutions. With appropriate agreements on our part, we could post the imformation that we have gathered on the GAR thereby unifying the widely scattered records of a large organization. Essentially, the sum is greater then the individual parts. I could see some of our partner institutions granting permission to post the records, but not download.

Matt Adair

Linking to specific collections?

suvcwmi — 2011-09-14 03:01:16Z

Another feature request / suggestion....

Our society website will be implementing various written histories, blogs, etc. While I understand the capability to link to our overall collections page, it would be great if there was the capability to link to a particular collection. This way, wecouls specifically cite / link to a collection without making the user dig through a bunch of them.

Multiple Indexers?

suvcwmi — 2011-09-14 02:55:55Z

So I just found out about Content Publisher this evening. I'm thorouhgly excited! After doing a little testing this evening, I do have a couple of questions or perhaps a suggestion.

While content needs to be tied to a particular account, will it be possible to grant others permission to index images?

My organization has people spread out across the state of Michigan than could help index our content, but I wan't to proivide them with a "master" login and password. (I'm sure Ancestry doesn't want this either!) It would be fabulous if we could let specific users, who we know are members of our organization, index content.

Matt Adair
Historian
Michigan Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War

Re: Image Access

laurelp48 — 2011-09-13 05:41:21Z

Hi,

Currently, images in Content Publisher don't attach to member tree nor can you print/download images. We know these are critical operations that users expect in a publishing service and we hope to roll them out soon. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks again,
Laurel

Image Access

mlaflash_1 — 2011-09-12 13:52:58Z

Will it be possible to attach images made available in Content Publisher to a member tree? Possible to download or print images? Or will members be encouraged to request digital/print copies from the submitting repository?

My apologies if this has already been addressed, but I was not able to figure out a means of accomplishing this. I attempted the right click and "Print" method, but this only generated a page of the corner of the image, not the complete thing.

I'm very excited about the opportunities that this will present, and I look forward to seeing how well organizations respond.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Re: Accessibility

bigbears6 — 2011-07-19 22:54:21Z

That is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you for clarifying the previous answer.

Re: Accessibility

laurelp48 — 2011-07-19 22:12:40Z

To clarify the previous post from "ContentPublisher", the process he outlined is for the "beta" site today. When a publisher has finished indexing their collection and it's ready to go "live" to Ancestry.com, that database will be free to all users, i.e. not put behind the pay wall. The goal is to honor the spirit of the contribution by removing any barriers to making that content discoverable by family history researchers.

Does that appeal to you?

Thanks,
Laurel

Re: Released to Search

laurelp48 — 2011-07-19 21:52:21Z

The comments are specific to the image, not the record. Currently there aren't notifications to alert the collection owner about comments or transcription errors although that is something we have on our roadmap. The ability to have a dialogue with users as they interact with contributed content is an important feature.

We also plan to display stats to the publisher on how their content is being "consumed" on the live site. It could include granular detail, like how many records have been attached to trees, as well as aggregate data like page views and visitors.

Thanks again for your questions and suggestions,
Laurel

Re: Released to Search

laurelp48 — 2011-07-19 21:44:09Z

The "beta" period is expected to last anywhere from 4-6 months. Even in a "beta" state, the site is stable and the core publishing features are available. We are making improvements to the site every 2 weeks. This is a combination of bug fixes, site improvements and new features. Your feedback has been very helpful in that regard - thank you!

Thanks again,
Laurel

Re: Accessibility

ContentPublisher — 2011-07-19 18:46:17Z

That depends on how your collection is being accessed. If you search through Ancestry.com and are not a member, you will get the index, but will not be able to view the image; it will ask you to log in or become a member. If you access the collection through the link provided with your collections and search from your branded page, then you will get the image without having to be an Ancestry.com member.

Accessibility

bigbears6 — 2011-07-15 23:01:26Z

Will all records that are produced through Content Publisher be able to be seen and saved by both free and paid members?

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-07-15 22:21:14Z

Also, does the comment tab allow a person to comment on an image, or just a specific record? When someone does comment, is the collection host notified? Is there a way to notify a collection host about a transcription error? Is there a way to see how many people have saved a specific record or records from a specific collection once Content Publisher goes live?

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-07-15 22:12:28Z

Does anyone have a good idea as to when the beta stage of Content Publisher will be finished? I know that it is scheduled to be over by the end of the year, but does it get any more specific than that?

Re: Released to Search

laurelp48 — 2011-07-07 05:48:02Z

Excellent! Please let me know if you have any other issues when using the site and/or tools.

Thanks,
Laurel

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-07-07 01:40:48Z

This problem was resolved soon after my last post. I cleared all of my browsing history (cache, cookies, etc.), tried to access my collections again, and voila! I am again able to access and edit my collections.

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-07-07 01:26:50Z

I have just run into a glitch in which I am still logged on to my ancestry account that I have used all along to publish my content, but it is recognizing me as someone else who is unable to edit my current collections or add new collections. Please help!

Re: Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-07-07 01:14:00Z

Thanks for the reply! I stumbled across this site when looking at the "Member and Institutional Collections" from the Recently added or updated collections list from my homepage, as I check it quite frequently.

P.S. - I have some marriage records that have marriage information to be keyed that is currently not a part of the indexing process. Is there a way for you to make it so that when I add a spouse for a specific person, I can then edit that relationship to add the marriage information?

Re: Released to Search

laurelp48 — 2011-07-07 00:59:10Z

Hi,

My name is Laurel Penney and I'm in the product manager for Ancestry Content Publisher. Thank you for using the site! We are very appreciative of any feedback and ideas you have to make it better.

When you save the index information, it will automatically be made searchable within approximately 24 hours. Be sure to mark your collections as “index complete” when you are done keying the image.

Since you indexed images today, you should be able to verify the searchability of your collections tomorrow by clicking the "search all collections" button from your Publisher Homepage and entering the search criteria on the form.

I'm sorry if that information wasn't clear. I'll be sure to update the FAQ section accordingly.

We just launched the Beta site today but haven't advertised it at all. May I ask how you discovered the site?

Thanks again,
Laurel

Released to Search

bigbears6 — 2011-07-06 15:24:25Z

When I first started using this feature, the information about it made it appear that as soon as I was finished with the indexing of my collections that they would become automatically searchable on the site. This is not the case, I have found. So, how long does it take for a collection to become searchable on ancestry.com after being indexed?

Re: Indexing question

rjchris47 — 2011-04-01 21:07:25Z

The name entry problem brings up another that I just ran into this week.

I have several Navy Ship Cruise Books that I have entered into collections.

The people are identified by Rank and Surname, i.e. YN3 Smith. No given name.

Do I enter a first name as YN3, leave it blank or what.

I seriously doubt if I would do a search for YN3 Smith. Because it could also be entered as YN 3 or YN-3.

I want to identify these men as they are crewmembers of the ship.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Re: Collections Feedback link

laurelp48 — 2011-04-01 20:57:33Z

The link was fixed soon after you posted this message. Thank you for notifying us.

Thanks,
Laurel

Re: Indexing question

laurelp48 — 2011-04-01 20:56:19Z

You raise a good point about keying standards and it's not the first time we've received questions about this topic. It's clear that we need to provide more guidance on keying standards. That's a project on the "to do" list.

We definitely do not want two records keyed, so in this case you should just key Samuel. That is the safest and will always work. If you run across this in the future and don't know what an abbreviation means, then just key what you see and move on.

Thanks,
Laurel

Re: Custom facts and relatives

laurelp48 — 2011-04-01 20:02:48Z

Great feedback, thank you. We are currently exploring ways to improve the keying tools and you've presented an interesting scenario. The tool must be flexible to meet the varied types of historical documents that come into the platform. It seems we've missed the boat for your Civil War records so will revisit this.

The image info tab will be active in the next 6-8 weeks. In the meantime, you can add your notes to the comments section.

Thanks again,
Laurel

Re: new navigation

laurelp48 — 2011-04-01 18:53:00Z

Hi Samantha,

Thanks for the positive words on the new image viewer! I'm so glad you like it.

The print function is an action we definitely plan to roll out in the future. That feature already exists in the "standard" image viewer that is used to serve other Ancestry.com records so users will expect it here as well. I agree we'll want to remove the boxes from the print view.

Thanks,
Laurel

new navigation

samanthaeastman — 2011-03-28 06:24:49Z

I like the new navigation of images, less clutter taking up screen space, less scrolling to command buttons. Newbies may have a learning curve to hurdle, even I make a slip of the mouse and zoom in when I don't want to. But that's minor.
I would still like to print a copy of a document without the orange highlight boxes. And hopefully just capture the image for print instead of wasting a ton of ink on the black sections and actually fill the page with the image so it can be bigger.

Custom facts and relatives

samanthaeastman — 2011-03-28 02:54:00Z

Rather than the very small drop down list, I'd like to see a custom fact/relation feature much like is offered in a family tree with room to type a description. What if the relation is a Civil War tent mate or brother in-law? What if the fact is that the document was written two days before a dramatic event? I find your selected lists to be limiting,so far.
Still can't add image info yet. When is that due?

Re: General Ancestry Trees Question

elainecope49 — 2011-03-18 14:49:08Z

I don't think I will use the 'Invite' by my contact list, I have a large tree and 28 family members shared, all as guests but one, my son a contributor. Its too critical to let anyone else have the ability to change the data.
I too have had problems with the current 'Invite' system, but we just keep trying. If set as 'Contributor' I still have to go back & change it to 'guest'.

Indexing question

rjchris47 — 2011-03-04 06:08:52Z

This is a question to all for suggestions.

Some of my collections are city directories which have names on the advertising pages. I can see listing the names and adding a fact of occupation.

However one I looked at used the abbreviation Sam'l for Samuel. I doubt if very many people would search on a given name of Sam'l.

My question is whether to double enter the name as Sam'l and again as Samuel or just as Samuel.

Is there any guidance on abbreviated names? I haven't located any.