JewishGen: ViewMate feature improved

Have a letter in an unknown language? Need help in deciphering a tombstone inscription? Require assistance in analyzing difficult handwriting?

Over the years, many researchers have used JewishGen's ViewMate feature with great success, uploading an image of their particular problem, and posting a message - detailing the required assistance - on the appropriate discussion group list.

The concept was created by Tracing the Tribe's friend Bernard Israelite Kouchel.

Users may upload letters, documents and photos for translation as well as to identify people, clothing, artifacts, and many other items. Images remain visible for seven days or 168 hours. They may be reposted after that time expires.

Click here to see archived images. As of today, there are 579 pages (20 images per page) of images, totalling  10,975 items. The first item in the archive was posted 14 October 2002. Set the archive to reveal 10-50 items on each page.

See the current gallery here, which includes requests for tombstone inscription translation as well as language translation for Yiddish, Russian, Polish, Hungarian.

Current images may be organized in chronological order, reverse chrono, grouped by category, new images and other parameters. Categories include: "Do you recognize," "Interpretation," "Photo Identification," "Tombstone," "Translation-Hungarian," "Translation-Polish," "Translation-Russian," and "Translation-Yiddish."

Please note that to post a translation or comment, you must be logged into JewishGen. But any visitor may see the Archive or the Gallery. To register (free) at JewishGen, click here.

On May 1, the ViewMate team, headed by administrator Sam Eneman and webmaster Gary Sandler, made enhancements to its look and use:

-- Changed to new JewishGen colors and page layout.

-- New, easier-to-understand navigation menu.

-- Support for new image types TIFF, PNG and GIF, in addition to JPEG.

-- Bookmark and share images and pages with more than 200 Web 2.0 tools - Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Email and more.

-- Filter and sort images on the Gallery page - new ways to organize and view posted images

-- Rotate a full-sized image while translating - easier to read words in margins

-- Display time remaining for each image on the Gallery page

-- Updated FAQs for managing and editing submissions

Contact Enemean and Sandler with comments or questions.

JewishGen: ViewMate improvements

New social networking features will be added to JewishGen's ViewMate feature from February 20.

Participants submit letters, documents and photos for translation and to identify people, clothing, artifacts, etc., to ViewMate and post about the item on the discussion group lists. Readers can then go to the link and provide assistance.

-- Visitors to the ViewMate Image Gallery will see the number of responses each item has received.

-- When visitors view any image, they will see responses submitted -- just as users of blogs and other social media sites see comments posted.

-- Volunteers will see immediately if they need to add a different translation or another response.

The online response form is available after logging in to JewishGen.

-- Submitters of documents and other images will be able to select which responses to display on a submission's page in both the Image Gallery and the Archive. They will also be able to close a submission to additional responses whenever they choose.

These functions will be available in a user's "My ViewMate" after login to JewishGen.

ViewMate will become a more usable and dynamic site.