Replace GEDCOM with Tree throughout the system

Registered by kiwi

Idea floated by Greg on the forum, but no-one responded. I think its an idea worth pursuing. But it is complex as there are many places where it will still be the correct word.

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
None
Priority:
Low
Drafter:
kiwi
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
None
Definition:
Discussion
Series goal:
None
Implementation:
Unknown
Milestone target:
None

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Whiteboard

[volschin] IMO the name tree is wrong in a lot of usages. There are projects using a gedcom for a church book, for cemetary data. I use it for a complete region. Better would match "collection". But from a product name perspective (webtrees) "tree" could be better.

[kiwi] Thanks for setting the priority. I meant to set it to "low" myself. Must have forgot. "Collection" doesn't really work in English, as it can mean too many different things. It would need to be qualified as "collection of genealogical data" which would be silly. I dislike GEDCOM because many users have never heard of it. "tree' is IMHO the next most suitable name.

[greg] I have just rewritten the gedcom management page, and I struggled to find an alternative word. Since users will always start with this page, they will have to learn what GEDCOM means. So, perhaps we should reject this blueprint?

[nick] For what it's worth, I was excited about this idea as a lot of beginning users are confused by the word GEDCOM. There are some who would start a new "tree" and not have an existing GEDCOM, and those users may never need to worry about what a GEDCOM is - that's probably a very small minority of users though...

[kiwi] I agree with nick. Looking at the editgecoms.php I think GEDCOM could be replaced by "Tree" everywhere, and makes more sense to non-technical users. They can upload a tree, create a tree, add a new tree, manage a tree's configuration and privacy, etc... I'm not sure everyone who might have a view has read this, so I'll copy it to the forum.

[wes]I agree that 'tree' is not a good match, but it's better than GEDCOM. To me, GEDCOM is a _file_ in that format. Took me a long time to correctly understand PGV's use of the term. I'd suggest keeping 'tree' for marketing purposes but using "database" anywhere that it doesn't sound too geeky.

(?)

Work Items

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