Ethics, etiquette and all that stuff

I've had my head down during the past week preparing  a talk I am giving at The Society of Australian Genealogists on Thursday next week in Sydney.

It looks like it's going to be an intimate gathering as only 8 people have registered so far for the event. There is usually quite a healthy rollup when I give a presentation so I am quite surprised.

I was hoping that more people would be interested in this topic. Perhaps Sydney genies are all polite, kindly, thoughtful, law abiding folk who do not need some crazy lady telling them how to Do the Right Thing. Perhaps they are a bunch of researchers who are so busy hunting down ancestors that they do not think of the consequences of their actions. Maybe their geneabudgets are exhausted and they can't afford another event.

If you want to discuss how to deal with secrets that you encounter around Adoption, Crime, DNA Discoveries, Illegitimacy or Sex or if you need to make sure you are being a well-mannered and responsible genie this event may just be of assistance to you.

In everything we do in life it is important to reflect on and evaluate our actions. This talk will give you an opportunity to reflect on your practices in the geneaworld.

SAG members and guests can book for this session via this link:  https://www.sag.org.au/learn/current-events/full-list-of-events/icalrepeat.detail/2017/05/18/269/-/do-the-right-thing-etiquette-and-ethics-for-the-family-historian.html.

  

Eye Contact - A Rant

Here's another rant from 2015 that I found in my drafts folder.
_____________________________________________________________________

The tables were turned on me recently when I spent a day on a trade table at a family history conference. I am usually one who wanders around looking at the displays on offer and chatting to the exhibitors.

I was surprised at how many people walked past our table with eyes downcast and therefore failed to make eye contact with we exhibitors. Mr GeniAus and I were representing a new family history group and didn't have much to offer except for a friendly smile and ears willing to listen to the stories of those who passed by.

I realise that many folk are shy and find it hard to chat with strangers but it also isn't easy sitting at a table all day watching people pass by.

When next you're at a geneaevent please spare a thought for those folk (often volunteers) who are at the event to share information and make connections with fellow genies.

A friendly smile or greeting might add to someone eles's enjoyment of the event.

Mind your Language at Rootstech

When I was giving my very first Rootstech presentation I was going along fine until, when I uttered a phrase that is commonly used downunder,bthe audience let out a large collective sigh.

Apparently the term I used was not one to be used in polite company in the US.

If you are an international visitor attending Rootstech and don't want to offend our American hosts you may wish to study this post from the Oxford Dictionaries blog. (WARNING: it mentions some words that should not be uttered in polite company).

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/12/how-to-swear-across-america/

Rootstech 2015

Give credit where credit is due.

My presentation at the Hawkesbury Family History Group on Wednesday this week is titled "Do the right thing - minding your manners in the geneasphere". 

One of my slides contains this clip of a comment from Alex in response to Susan's blog post.

Alex didn't have to tell Susan how she found her way to Susan's post but she did and I am most grateful. THANKYOU Alex. 

If you would like to join me for the talk at Hawkesbury Central Library at Windsor on Wednesday at 10:00am  I would love to see you there. Details can be found here: http://www.hawkesbury.net.au/community/hfhg/meetings.html

Do the Right Thing

I am excited to be returning to The Hawkesbury Family History Group Meeting on October 14 to present a new talk "Do the right Thing : minding your manners in the geneasphere". The Group has advertised the talk "as a fun and informative look at the principles of doing the right thing in family history research" so I will try to take a lighthearted approach to the topic.

Although I am not an etiquette expert I look forward to exploring the topic with the folk in the Hawkesbury group. As someone who has been guilty of several breaches of etiquette as I have navigated the geneasphere I have a few personal examples that demonstrate what not to do.

The powerpoint slides all have their headings, I just need to flesh it out with a few appropriate images and a little text.

If you'd like to join me at Hawkesbury Library in Windsor at 10:00am on October 14 you would be most welcome. The library has an excellent Local and Family History collection where you can linger after the meeting.

I can't believe that the gig is three weeks away and that I am well advanced in my preparation - perhaps I am heeding my own message to "Do the right thing". 

Questions, Comments and Anecdotes

From time to time I like to republish some of my old posts. I have witnessed the behaviour I first wrote about here at local, national and international events over the past year. 

What to do?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WARNING: This is a crankypants post.

When I was teaching we drummed into our students the meanings of and differences between Questions, Comments, andAnecdotes or Stories. When we were giving a lesson and students interrupted with a question or comment we would respond to them immediately or say we would deal with it at an appropriate time during the lesson; if they launched into a long-winded anecdote that had little to do with the topic under discussion we cut them off with a "sounds like an interesting story, perhaps you can tell us about it later."

What got up my nose on the recent Unlock the Past Cruise (but is not confined to that event) was the lack of manners of adults (who should know better) in the Q&A sessions towards the end of speakers' presentations. Some people asked relevant questions, some offered interesting comments and opinions and some launched into long-winded anecdotes that did little to enhance the subjects under discussion. 

I heard one woman tell the same story in two Q&A sessions and the poor presenters who did not want to be rude let her go on and waste that precious time we had for collaborative discussion at the end of talks.  GRRR! 

The problem is that speakers are generally polite and do not know how to cut audience members off without appearing rude. What to do?

My solution is simple. Please mind your manners and when a speaker asks for questions and comments during or at the end of a session please stay on topic. Most presenters, and especially those on the Unlock the Past Cruise are happy to speak privateyl with audience members after the conclusion of their formal talks. Please, save your stories for post-presentation chats.

Here are some handy definitions:

Question: a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/question?q=question

Comment: a verbal or written remark expressing an opinion or reaction
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/comment?q=comment

Anecdote: a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/anecdote?q=anecdote

The problem with some of the anecdotes we heard in Q&A sessions on the ship is that they were neither short, amusing or interesting.

Little Blue Stars

This post is directed to those who read or write Wordpress Blogs.

For those who read:
Do you enjoy some of the Wordpress posts you have read? Do you want to acknowledge the bloggers for their efforts but are too shy or don't have enough time to write a comment on the post? Are you aware of the little Blue Stars?

Blue Stars are found at the bottom of many Wordpress posts.

The Little Blue Star prior to receiving a Like

When I read this blog post this week I scrolled down to the bottom of the post and clicked on the Little Blue Star to indicate that I "liked" the post.

Blue star turns white after "Liking"

I have gotten into the habit of doing this for most Wordpress posts I open (I don't open all that appear in my RSS feeds). I want to let the blogger know that someone out there in cyberspace is reading what they have written and appreciates their efforts to contribute to conversations in the geneasphere.

Some people who use the blue stars are not so liberal as me. They may just "Like" posts that  they agree with or that they find exceptional. Most of  the posts on my Wordpress blogs must be unexceptional as the number of "Likes" I receive is only a tiny percentage of the views my posts receive. As a blogger I get a buzz when someone "Likes" one of my posts.

Another reason that people don't use blue stars is that they read posts in their RSS Feeds and do not open the posts.  Might I suggest that, if you find a post thought provoking or exceptional, you open it in your browser and "Like" it.

For those who write:
Blogging is a two-way street and we should provide means to encourage two-way communication.

I find it frustrating when I come across a Wordpress post that does not give me an option to "Like" it. Please consider adding this facility to your blogs so that readers can give you feedback.

To enable "Likes" on your Wordpress blog please follow these instructions: https://en.support.wordpress.com/comment-likes/#how-to-enable comment-likes

Recycling - Methinks some people tweet too much

Every so often I republish a post of old. The following post first appeared on this blog on June 8, 2010. Since I wrote this article the number of genealogists using the tool has grown enormously, I do not even try to keep up with all the tweets in my stream any more but just drop in when I have some time. I still find Twitter especially useful for sharing news from events.

Having read this old post I still agree with what I said nearly four years ago about Twitter use.

-------------------------------------------------

Twitter is a wonderful resource for learning about current news and new resources. My problem is how to use Twitter for family history responsibly.

I don't want to clog up the tweet streams of my followers with useless tweets so I don't retweet items that a number of my followers who have the same follower base have already retweeted.

Neal Chambers says that "The most important thing about your Twitter account is your username. This will be used to identify you in the Twitter stream and how people will find your account (http://twitter.com/username) It's best to choose something easy to remember/spell. A perfect example of this is your real name (gasp!)." I chose Geniaus as I wanted something short and easy to remember that indicated my interest in genealogy and my location and interest in Australia. If you do not want to use your own name think of a short identity that somehow describes you. I particularly like @infolass, @geneabloggers, @genebrarian and @geneaphile.

The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice "Don't feel compelled to tweet regularly. I promise that if you take a personal tweet-free day, your audience will understand." One does not need to tweet every day, interesting news does not arrive at regular intervals but in waves, one's pattern of tweeting can reflect these peaks and troughs. Less is more.

Some Twitterers with a commercial affiliation use Twitter as a marketing tool and seem to retweet endlessly; I am tempted to unfollow them but I might miss some of the original snippets they post. The Search Marketing Spin Blog warns against being"Re-tweeting Machines: If all you do is re-tweet, that can get annoying as well. I definitely encourage re-tweeting articles and thoughts that are deemed important, but keep that as part of the overall mix." I wish Twitter had a facility where one could select individual settings for those one follows ie so one could select to see just a user's original tweets, retweets, replies or any combination of these. 

"Don’t RT Yourself If you have multiple Twitter accounts, for example one for personal stuff and another for work, please do not Retweet what you said on another account. If people want to follow both, they will. There’s a reason you have two accounts: not everyone cares about both of your online personalities." This advice from "Online etiquette: Tweet with care" should be heeded by some genealogy Tweeters.

In Mind your twitter manners Jacqueline Whitmore says: "Don’t spam. If people are following you, they are going to want real content that matches their interests or teaches them something new. If you are sending out numerous tweets that are trying to sell your products, you will quickly lose your following. People have enough spam through e-mail and don’t want this to be another source of excess clutter."

I actually unfollow and refollow some people while they are at events and conferences. A PCWorld article "Twitter Etiquette: How to Tweet Politely" states "Reconsider the running commentary. Live-tweeting sporting events or conference speeches may seem like a public service, but who's listening? If you normally use Twitter to post once-a-week status updates but then abruptly let fly with 80 tweets in a day, you'll aggravate followers who aren't expecting their account to be inundated by your sudden outpouring. Consider composing a blog post instead, or offer a single succinct observation each hour".

"Don't bother re-tweeting the big dogs" is more sage advice from The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice. Most people interested in genealogy will follow Ancestry and FamilySearch and other major organisations in their countries, don't retweet what most of your followers will have already read.

One of my pet hates is the Follow Friday post where one thanks followers. These posts seem impersonal to me and clog up tweet streams. If a thank you is warranted one can send a private thankyou via a direct message. It is important to build relationships on Twitter; this can be done by sending public individual thankyous, using the reply function and retweeting followers' posts.

Remember that your Tweets are in the public domain. If you say something on Twitter you are potentially telling the world. Your tweets can be read by everyone.

Questions, Comments and Anecdotes

WARNING: This is a crankypants post.

When I was teaching we drummed into our students the meanings of and differences between Questions, Comments, and Anecdotes or Stories. When we were giving a lesson and students interrupted with a question or comment we would respond to them immediately or say we would deal with it at an appropriate time during the lesson; if they launched into a long-winded anecdote that had little to do with the topic under discussion we cut them off with a "sounds like an interesting story, perhaps you can tell us about it later."

What got up my nose on the recent Unlock the Past Cruise (but is not confined to that event) was the lack of manners of adults (who should know better) in the Q&A sessions towards the end of speakers' presentations. Some people asked relevant questions, some offered interesting comments and opinions and some launched into long-winded anecdotes that did little to enhance the subjects under discussion. 

I heard one woman tell the same story in two Q&A sessions and the poor presenters who did not want to be rude let her go on and waste that precious time we had for collaborative discussion at the end of talks.  GRRR! 

The problem is that speakers are generally polite and do not know how to cut audience members off without appearing rude. What to do?

My solution is simple. Please mind your manners and when a speaker asks for questions and comments during or at the end of a session please stay on topic. Most presenters, and especially those on the Unlock the Past Cruise are happy to speak privateyl with audience members after the conclusion of their formal talks. Please, save your stories for post-presentation chats.

Here are some handy definitions:

Question: a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/question?q=question

Comment: a verbal or written remark expressing an opinion or reaction
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/comment?q=comment

Anecdote: a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/anecdote?q=anecdote

The problem with some of the anecdotes we heard in Q&A sessions on the ship is that they were neither short, amusing or interesting.

Recycling - Re Twitter

As I have gathered a few new readers since writing some of my early posts I will be recycling some from time to time. Fittingly the first post I will be recycling from June 15, 2011 is entitled "I'm into recycling"

I'm into Recycling

Hopefully my blog has gathered a few new followers since June 8, 2010 when I posted an article "Methinks some people tweet too much" in which I outlined some points that genea-tweeters should keep in mind when using Twitter. As I haven't seen any other post on this subject I am recycling this post with a few alterations and additions:

Twitter is a wonderful resource for learning about current news and new resources. My problem is how to use Twitter for family history responsibly.

I don't want to clog up the tweet streams of my followers with useless tweets so I don't retweet items that a number of my followers who have the same follower base have already retweeted.

Neal Chambers says that "The most important thing about your Twitter account is your username. This will be used to identify you in the Twitter stream and how people will find your account (http://twitter.com/username) It's best to choose something easy to remember/spell. A perfect example of this is your real name (gasp!)." I chose Geniaus as I wanted something short and easy to remember that indicated my interest in genealogy (Geni) and my location and interest in Australia (Aus). If you do not want to use your own name think of a short username that somehow describes you. I particularly like @infolass, @geneabloggers, @genebrarian and @geneaphile. This username can be used across a number of social networking sites to give you a brand name.

The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice "Don't feel compelled to tweet regularly. I promise that if you take a personal tweet-free day, your audience will understand." One does not need to tweet every day, interesting news does not arrive at regular intervals but in waves, one's pattern of tweeting can reflect these peaks and troughs. Less is more.

Some Twitterers with a commercial affiliation use Twitter as a marketing tool and seem to retweet endlessly; I am tempted to unfollow them but I might miss some of the original snippets they post.The Search Marketing Spin Blog warns against being "Re-tweeting Machines: If all you do is re-tweet, that can get annoying as well. I definitely encourage re-tweeting articles and thoughts that are deemed important, but keep that as part of the overall mix." I wish Twitter had a facility where one could select individual settings for those one follows ie so one could select to see just a user's original tweets, retweets, replies or any combination of these. 
"Don’t RT Yourself  If you have multiple Twitter accounts, for example one for personal stuff and another for work, please do not Retweet what you said on another account. If people want to follow both, they will.  
There’s a reason you have two accounts: not everyone cares about both of your online personalities." This advice from "Online etiquette: Tweet with care" should be heeded by some genealogy Tweeters.

In Mind your twitter manners Jacqueline Whitmore says: "Don’t spam. If people are following you, they are going to want real content that matches their interests or teaches them something new. If you are sending out numerous tweets that are trying to sell your products, you will quickly lose your following. People have enough spam through e-mail and don’t want this to be another source of excess clutter."

I sometimes unfollow and refollow some people while they are at events and conferences if I don't have an interest in the event they are attending (of course major genealogy conferences are an exception).

A PCWorld article "Twitter Etiquette: How to Tweet Politely" states "Reconsider the running commentary. Live-tweeting sporting events or conference speeches may seem like a public service, but who's listening? If you normally use Twitter to post once-a-week status updates but then abruptly let fly with 80 tweets in a day, you'll aggravate followers who aren't expecting their account to be inundated by your sudden outpouring. Consider composing a blog post instead, or offer a single succinct observation each hour".

"Don't bother re-tweeting the big dogs" is more sage advice from The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette  includes the advice "Most people interested in genealogy will follow Ancestry and FamilySearch and other major organisations in their countries, don't retweet what most of your followers will have already read."

Recently I have received a few tweets containing a link to a website that  requires a  usernmame and password to access the information being recommended. It is extremely frustrating to follow a link and then be thwarted by such a request. I suspect that sometimes people tweet without actually checking out the site they are tweeting. Always check a link before tweeting or retweeting it.

Hashtags (#) are an important element of Twitter use. As well as giving readers an idea of the relevance of tweets to their interests they can be important for marketing and promotion. I would suggest using between one and three descriptive hashtags with each tweet.  Additionally these descriptors help people conducting searches on Twitter to find relevant information. If you are tweeting about genealogy add the #genealogy hashtag. If you are at an event use the hashtag assigned to that event eg #rootstech2011.

One of my pet peeves is the Follow Friday (#FF) post where one thanks followers. These posts seem impersonal to me and clog up tweet streams. If a thank you is warranted one can send a private thankyou via a direct message. It is important to build relationships on Twitter; this can be done by sending public individual thankyous, using the reply function and retweeting followers' posts. Following the lead of @JudyQld a number of other genealogists embraced a policy of one #FF per week. This sensible policy makes one think very carefully about who will receive that one precious follow. I have relished those follows I have had from the people following this policy.

Like Audrey Collins I too was taken with the badge Thomas MacEntee gave me at the Rootstech Conference earlier this year. (You can buy one here). That little red badge simply says "Keep Calm and Cite your Sources".

I don't mind what method one uses to cites one's sources but it should be done whenever one quotes another's words in any form of media. With the 140 character limit on Twitter this may be difficult but, as I used to say to my students, "plagiarism is stealing."  Taking the words of another and passing them off as your own is unethical and should not be done even on Twitter.

When I wrote my post, "I'm into recycling" yesterday about Twitter etiquette I did not mention plagiarism. This morning I saw a thoughtful sentence posted on Twitter that did not sound like the language normally used by that tweeter. I put the sentence into Google and within a few seconds found that sentence on a genealogy blog post written yesterday. The tweeter in question was obviously also captivted by the sentence and shared it without attribution. It has been retweeted a couple of times with kudos going to the tweeter not the blogger who appears to be the original creator of this piece of text. I am now wondering about the credibility of the tweeter and the organisation this person represents.

Plagiarism does not belong on Twitter.  It may be difficult to cite a source in 140 characters but it must be done. Plagiarism is akin to stealing; using the words of another without attribution is unethical, whenever one publishes in any format one must give attribution to an original author. Plagiarism is easy to detect. Tweeps who are found to have plagiarised lose credibility for themselves and the organisations they represent.

Remember that your Tweets are in the public domain. If you say something on Twitter you are potentially telling the world. Your tweets can be read by everyone.

Mind your Manners

There are some useful tips here for geneabloggers and users of other social media.

Social Media Etiquette – The Do’s and Don’ts | Social Media Today

I forgot about plagiarism!

Like Audrey Collins I too was taken with the badge Thomas MacEntee gave me at the Rootstech Conference earlier this year. (You can buy one here). That little red badge simply says "Keep Calm and Cite your Sources".

I don't mind what method one uses to cites one's sources but it should be done whenever one quotes another's words in any form of media. With the 140 character limit on Twitter this may be difficult but, as I used to say to my students, "plagiarism is stealing."  Taking the words of another and passing them off as your own is unethical and should not be done even on Twitter.

When I wrote my post, "I'm into recycling" yesterday about Twitter etiquette I did not mention plagiarism. This morning I saw a thoughtful sentence posted on Twitter that did not sound like the language normally used by that tweeter. I put the sentence into Google and within a few seconds found that sentence on a genealogy blog post written yesterday. The tweeter in question was obviously also captivted by the sentence and shared it without attribution. It has been retweeted a couple of times with kudos going to the tweeter not the blogger who appears to be the original creator of this piece of text. I am now wondering about the credibility of the tweeter and the organisation this person represents.


I will now go into yesterday's post and add a piece about plagiarism.

Plagiarism does not belong on Twitter - "Keep Calm and Cite your Sources".

I'm into Recycling

Hopefully my blog has gathered a few new followers since June 8, 2010 when I posted an article " Methinks some people tweet too much" in which I outlined some points that genea-tweeters should keep in mind when using Twitter. As I haven't seen any other post on this subject I am recycling this post with a few alterations and additions:

Twitter is a wonderful resource for learning about current news and new resources. My problem is how to use Twitter for family history responsibly.

I don't want to clog up the tweet streams of my followers with useless tweets so I don't retweet items that a number of my followers who have the same follower base have already retweeted.

Neal Chambers says that "The most important thing about your Twitter account is your username. This will be used to identify you in the Twitter stream and how people will find your account (http://twitter.com/username) It's best to choose something easy to remember/spell. A perfect example of this is your real name (gasp!)." I chose Geniaus as I wanted something short and easy to remember that indicated my interest in genealogy (Geni) and my location and interest in Australia (Aus). If you do not want to use your own name think of a short username that somehow describes you. I particularly like @infolass, @geneabloggers, @genebrarian and @geneaphile. This username can be used across a number of social networking sites to give you a brand name.

The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice "Don't feel compelled to tweet regularly. I promise that if you take a personal tweet-free day, your audience will understand." One does not need to tweet every day, interesting news does not arrive at regular intervals but in waves, one's pattern of tweeting can reflect these peaks and troughs. Less is more.

Some Twitterers with a commercial affiliation use Twitter as a marketing tool and seem to retweet endlessly; I am tempted to unfollow them but I might miss some of the original snippets they post. The Search Marketing Spin Blog warns against being "Re-tweeting Machines: If all you do is re-tweet, that can get annoying as well. I definitely encourage re-tweeting articles and thoughts that are deemed important, but keep that as part of the overall mix." I wish Twitter had a facility where one could select individual settings for those one follows ie so one could select to see just a user's original tweets, retweets, replies or any combination of these.

"Don’t RT Yourself  If you have multiple Twitter accounts, for example one for personal stuff and another for work, please do not Retweet what you said on another account. If people want to follow both, they will.  
There’s a reason you have two accounts: not everyone cares about both of your online personalities." This advice from "Online etiquette: Tweet with care" should be heeded by some genealogy Tweeters.

In Mind your twitter manners Jacqueline Whitmore says: "Don’t spam. If people are following you, they are going to want real content that matches their interests or teaches them something new. If you are sending out numerous tweets that are trying to sell your products, you will quickly lose your following. People have enough spam through e-mail and don’t want this to be another source of excess clutter."

I sometimes unfollow and refollow some people while they are at events and conferences if I don't have an interest in the event they are attending (of course major genealogy conferences are an exception).

A PCWorld article "Twitter Etiquette: How to Tweet Politely" states "Reconsider the running commentary. Live-tweeting sporting events or conference speeches may seem like a public service, but who's listening? If you normally use Twitter to post once-a-week status updates but then abruptly let fly with 80 tweets in a day, you'll aggravate followers who aren't expecting their account to be inundated by your sudden outpouring. Consider composing a blog post instead, or offer a single succinct observation each hour".

"Don't bother re-tweeting the big dogs" is more sage advice from The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette  includes the advice "Most people interested in genealogy will follow Ancestry and FamilySearch and other major organisations in their countries, don't retweet what most of your followers will have already read."

Recently I have received a few tweets containing a link to a website that  requires a  usernmame and password to access the information being recommended. It is extremely frustrating to follow a link and then be thwarted by such a request. I suspect that sometimes people tweet without actually checking out the site they are tweeting. Always check a link before tweeting or retweeting it.

Hashtags (#) are an important element of Twitter use. As well as giving readers an idea of the relevance of tweets to their interests they can be important for marketing and promotion. I would suggest using between one and three descriptive hashtags with each tweet.  Additionally these descriptors are help people conducting searches on Twitter to find relevant information. If you are tweeting about genealogy add the #genealogy hashtag. If you are at an event use the hashtag assigned to that event eg #rootstech2011.

One of my pet peeves is the Follow Friday (#FF) post where one thanks followers. These posts seem impersonal to me and clog up tweet streams. If a thank you is warranted one can send a private thankyou via a direct message. It is important to build relationships on Twitter; this can be done by sending public individual thankyous, using the reply function and retweeting followers' posts. Following the lead of @JudyQld a number of other genealogists embraced a policy of one #FF per week. This sensible policy makes one think very carefully about who will receive that one precious follow. I have relished tose follws I have had from the people following this policy.

Like Audrey Collins I too was taken with the badge Thomas MacEntee gave me at the Rootstech Conference earlier this year. (You can buy one here). That little red badge simply says "Keep Calm and Cite your Sources".

I don't mind what method one uses to cites one's sources but it should be done whenever one quotes another's words in any form of media. With the 140 character limit on Twitter this may be difficult but, as I used to say to my students, "plagiarism is stealing."  Taking the words of another and passing them off as your own is unethical and should not be done even on Twitter.

When I wrote my post, "I'm into recycling" yesterday about Twitter etiquette I did not mention plagiarism. This morning I saw a thoughtful sentence posted on Twitter that did not sound like the language normally used by that tweeter. I put the sentence into Google and within a few seconds found that sentence on a genealogy blog post written yesterday. The tweeter in question was obviously also captivted by the sentence and shared it without attribution. It has been retweeted a couple of times with kudos going to the tweeter not the blogger who appears to be the original creator of this piece of text. I am now wondering about the credibility of the tweeter and the organisation this person represents.

Plagiarism does not belong on Twitter.  It may be difficult to cite a source in 140 characters but it must be done. Plagiarism is akin to stealing; using the words of another without attribution is unethical, whenever one publishes in any format one must give attribution to an original author. Plagiarism is easy to detect. Tweeps who are found to have plagiarised lose credibility for themselves and the organisations they represent.

Remember that your Tweets are in the public domain. If you say something on Twitter you are potentially telling the world. Your tweets can be read by everyone.

Meaningful subject lines

As a connected genealogist I subscribe to many email lists, forums and blogs related to my interests. Greeting a full email box each day does not perturb me as I can quickly scan the subject lines of the emails,delete those that are not relevant and open those that may be of interest. Some people, however, just don't get it.

Particularly relevant to people downunder is the myriad of Rootsweb Mailing Lists, each of which is devoted to a particular niche area of the field. There are a number of Australian lists to which one can subscribe and connect with people with similar interests.

On one such list last night I eagerly opened a message whose subject line was one word,my given name, thinking that it was a personal note to me. It was for another person who shares my first name.

In all messages is is useful and polite to clearly state, in the subject line of the email, clues to the content of the message that follows. A recent message on The OrangeBathurst list has the subject "John Henry Williamson of Boronore", this clearly tells users about the subject ot the message, however other posts entitled "The New Family" give very few clues. Sinilarly this subject line "[HHHV] Hawkesbury pounds and poundkeepers 1855" from the HillsHawkesburyHunterValley list is very specific, whilst another heading "Wills" is far too general.

List etiquette would suggest that a list is not the place for personal messages. Sometimes, however, it is not possible to contact another list member because of a dead email address. In these cases something like "Personal message to Mary Jones" ,"Trying to contact Fred Wright" or "John Brown - please contact sender" would alert other listers that the content of the message is personal.

Sometimes during the course of a thread (or email conversation) the subject changes. Do not let an irrelevant subject stand. Change it to reflect the contents of the messages in the conversation. Search engines, such as Google, index the contents of mailing lists; it pays to have relevant subjects so that your posts can be indexed correctly and subsequently found by others.

Busy people may skip emails with fuzzy headings such as "genealogy question" or 'help please"; if you want people to read your messages remember to have a clear and cogent subject line.

Methinks some people tweet too much.

Twitter is a wonderful resource for learning about current news and new resources. My problem is how to use Twitter for family history responsibly.

I don't want to clog up the tweet streams of my followers with useless tweets so I don't retweet items that a number of my followers who have the same follower base have already retweeted.

Neal Chambers says that "The most important thing about your Twitter account is your username. This will be used to identify you in the Twitter stream and how people will find your account (http://twitter.com/username) It's best to choose something easy to remember/spell. A perfect example of this is your real name (gasp!)." I chose Geniaus as I wanted something short and easy to remember that indicated my interest in genealogy and my location and interest in Australia. If you do not want to use your own name think of a short identity that somehow describes you. I particularly like @infolass, @geneabloggers, @genebrarian and @geneaphile.

The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice "Don't feel compelled to tweet regularly. I promise that if you take a personal tweet-free day, your audience will understand." One does not need to tweet every day, interesting news does not arrive at regular intervals but in waves, one's pattern of tweeting can reflect these peaks and troughs. Less is more.

Some Twitterers with a commercial affiliation use Twitter as a marketing tool and seem to retweet endlessly; I am tempted to unfollow them but I might miss some of the original snippets they post. The Search Marketing Spin Blog warns against being"Re-tweeting Machines: If all you do is re-tweet, that can get annoying as well. I definitely encourage re-tweeting articles and thoughts that are deemed important, but keep that as part of the overall mix." I wish Twitter had a facility where one could select individual settings for those one follows ie so one could select to see just a user's original tweets, retweets, replies or any combination of these.


"Don’t RT Yourself If you have multiple Twitter accounts, for example one for personal stuff and another for work, please do not Retweet what you said on another account. If people want to follow both, they will. There’s a reason you have two accounts: not everyone cares about both of your online personalities." This advice from "Online etiquette: Tweet with care" should be heeded by some genealogy Tweeters.


In Mind your twitter manners Jacqueline Whitmore says: "Don’t spam. If people are following you, they are going to want real content that matches their interests or teaches them something new. If you are sending out numerous tweets that are trying to sell your products, you will quickly lose your following. People have enough spam through e-mail and don’t want this to be another source of excess clutter."

I actually unfollow and refollow some people while they are at events and conferences. A PCWorld article "Twitter Etiquette: How to Tweet Politely" states "Reconsider the running commentary. Live-tweeting sporting events or conference speeches may seem like a public service, but who's listening? If you normally use Twitter to post once-a-week status updates but then abruptly let fly with 80 tweets in a day, you'll aggravate followers who aren't expecting their account to be inundated by your sudden outpouring. Consider composing a blog post instead, or offer a single succinct observation each hour".

"Don't bother re-tweeting the big dogs" is more sage advice from The nine essentials of Twitter etiquette includes the advice. Most people interested in genealogy will follow Ancestry and FamilySearch and other major organisations in their countries, don't retweet what most of your followers will have already read.

One of my pet hates is the Follow Friday post where one thanks followers. These posts seem impersonal to me and clog up tweet streams. If a thank you is warranted one can send a private thankyou via a direct message. It is important to build relationships on Twitter; this can be done by sending public individual thankyous, using the reply function and retweeting followers' posts.

Remember that your Tweets are in the public domain. If you say something on Twitter you are potentially telling the world. Your tweets can be read by everyone.