Do we have a page listing people that are willing to help others do research? I know there is a category for those willing to help new people to the site but that is not what I am looking for. For instance I pay for the full subscription to Ancestry.com which has a lot of source records especially for the United States. I am willing to look up things on this site for others, given time.
William Allen Shade 22:07, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
- A page for people to volunteer to help others would be a great idea. Although you did not mention it, I would go further and I think we should ask professional genealogists to list here. There probably should be some ground rules on the "pro page" though so that the page does not become a source of contention. Accredited genealogists should receive special billing and there should be some restrictions on length of blurbs for each person. Folks can go into greater depth on their user page. So long as common sense and civility prevails, I think this would be a welcome addition. Just my two cents. -~ Phlox 22:49, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
- Eventually would think we would like a link from the main page to this after it gets a number of people on it. I like the idea of Professional as wells as volunteer look-ups. William Allen Shade 23:01, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
Wikipedia recently discussed a related topic- WP contributors who where being paid to create articles. Jimbo made the following statement in the RFC:
It is not ok with me that anyone ever set up a service selling their services as a Wikipedia editor, administrator, bureaucrat, etc. I will personally block any cases that I am shown. There are of course some possibly interesting alternatives, not particularly relevant here, but the idea that we should ever accept paid advocates directly editing Wikipedia is not ever going to be ok. Consider this to be policy as of right now.
Wikia is certainly different than wikipedia, and in particular it seems to me perfectly proper for a family member to pay a writer to create family history articles here for their family. However, I have a big problem with the idea the potential conflict of interest, especially regarding bureaucrats or administrators using their official powers in exchange for any kind of compensation. It is an issue that may crop up down the road, so it's nice we have some time to mull it over in advance of our global domination of this subject domain. (just kidding?) -~ Phlox 18:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC)