Forum:Getting familiar with the county-related categories and their new templates

The initial paragraphs of what follows are copied from some very insightful feedback I've just received (after inviting TreeGenea3 to see how one could get more info on a page by TYPING LESS). Setting out the feedback here, with added headings and my responses and anything anyone else can add, may greatly help other users who like to get around the wiki and create links as quickly as practicable (the reason why several of us have been working on templates). It's great to see that new users are creating categories to help themselves and others link things. We older hands want to continue making the process easy. Robin Patterson 09:23, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Hi Robin,

New templates could be great for navigating to useful information
As you mentioned, the county templates and codes you are referring to are relatively new. With time, I'm sure I'll become a fan of using the same templates you and others use. I'm just looking for a simple way to navigate around this wiki and perhaps to help others find their way to the wealth of information stored here. TreeGenea3 07:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Making more use of categories, creating parent categories
You may have noticed, I'm using the "Categories" more and more at the bottom of each new article I create. It's kind of nice when more than half of them come up in blue. If it's in red, most of the time I'll just leave it alone. Every once in a while, however, I'll get the urge to create or "open" that category so that other users can see the names associated with that page and maybe add to it. The only catch is that you have to put something in the text box, or it won't create the new page. I'll put in whatever you prefer. TreeGenea3 07:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Good and bad points of county navboxes
I like the way you have the navboxes set up for each county. It's easy to get to each category from there. I don't mind using the templates, but is there a way to put the navbox below the list of names? It seems to me that the main purpose of the category pages is to show the list of names associated with that county. Besides, we've already seen the navbox since we were probably just at the county page. TreeGenea3 07:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Putting individuals in state categories, direct
I've shifted from using "Category:Born in [name of county], [name of state]" to simply "Category: Born in [name of state]." Those categories are populated with more links to other people from that state. It's nice to have some company instead of there being only one or two names listed on the county level. TreeGenea3 07:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Link from a state article to its counties and maybe even to its individuals' pages
By the way, what is the best way for a visitor to navigate from a state article to the people listed in its categories? On a few state article pages (and I see you've already discovered this), I've added a line "See also..." and then the link to "List of Counties in the state of [whatever]." (See http://genealogy.wikia.com/index.php?title=Ohio&action=history and go back one revision). Some of them were already messed up before I got there :-) This may not be how you want it done.  I don't intend to create more work for you, but let us know if there is a better way.  Anyway, I'd like to see more information related to genealogy on the state pages instead of just a copy of what's already on wikipedia. TreeGenea3 07:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Technical language in forums can be a bit over readers' heads
Some of the technical discussions in the forum and water-cooler pages goes a bit over my head. For instance, I would not have known to use the template: r-us|Kansas for that particular application. For me, it takes doing things a few times, then adapting as necessary. TreeGenea3 07:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)