Great meeting of Operation War Diary's academic advisory group

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Operation War Diary's academic advisory group met in Oxford last Friday. There was a great discussion about the forums in particular and over the next few weeks we aim to tidy them up and make them a much easier place to navigate and find the answers you're looking for. Huge thanks to HeatherC for all her valuable insights in that respect.

  We're also aware that while our Citizen Historians have been heroically tagging the diaries and giving up so much of their time, we haven't been communicating as much as we should have been about the insights this work is generating, our plans for the project over the upcoming months and the opportunities available to everybody to follow their own research interests once we are in a position to make the early data available. Rest assured we'll be rectifying that!

  In the meantime, thank you all for the effort you're putting in - Operation War Diary would be nothing without you!

  Posted May 26, 2014 11:22 AM

• by Maria64

  Thank you for the update, ral104. I just want to echo your thanks to HeatherC as her help has been invaluable to us. It's great to receive these updates and working on these diaries is a privilege - thank you.
  Best wishes,
  Maria

  Posted May 27, 2014 6:23 AM

• by atozvet

  If there is to be an update, it would reduce the tedium if the unit or regiment whose diary one was working on could be 'templated' in to all the 'person' info put in.
  Similarly as the most frequent rank one puts in is Second Lieutenant, could it appear high up the lists as does Captain (and just in Lieutenant). It would save time and repetition of scrolling down through a lot of obscure ranks listed alphabetically.
  Just a thought as I hope to continue on these diaries

  Posted May 28, 2014 12:21 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist in response to atozvet's comment.

  Thanks, @atozvet. At the moment, we're concentrating on improving the forums and making all the valuable info and discussion contained within them more accessible. I'll raise the points you make with the zooniverse development team, though, and see if there's anything they can do.

  Posted May 28, 2014 1:30 PM

• by paratsoukli in response to atozvet's comment.

  Instead of scrolling down the list to enter ranks and other 'listed' entries, try starting to type the info in the relevant field. In many cases the software will autofill the info you want: eg in Rank type C and Captain will appear. Similarly tab into a field, type O and Other will appear. Doesn't always work but saves time when you get used to it.

  Posted June 13, 2014 1:00 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Great tip. Thanks, @paratsoukli

  Posted June 13, 2014 1:15 PM