Original Post: Alienfish and Ember, January 19, 2017
Written by Alienfish and edited by Ember.
The huge family tree which unites the vast majority of characters from this site's past is a precious resource of this site. Its expansive nature and endless supply of knowledge would not be available if it were not for the careful contributions and research of members like you. Everyone is free to use it or to add to it, but doing so can be confusing at first. This guide will help you to become expert navigators and editors in no time at all. Of course, if you have any questions that this guide cannot answer, feel free to direct them to the project’s leader, Alienfish, or the website owner.
Navigation
At some point during their time on this site, nearly every single member will be intrigued to know who their characters are related to, or who other characters are related to. Some members like to keep certain bloodlines alive, or even mix bloodlines to produce characters with multiple famous ancestors. The WCF Ancestry Tree is perfect for keeping track of this information.
Unfortunately, the tree can only display a certain number of generations at a time. To see more generations, you'll have to drag the screen up, down, left, or right. Arrow keys will not work. You can also click on other members of the tree, and the screen will shift to focus on that member. By continually clicking down from Moonstar, you might eventually arrive at Fallenstar, Snakestar, or even Lightningstar!
However, this can be cumbersome, and occasionally we do not know the path to take through the ages to find a certain cat. If there is a specific cat for whom you are looking, you can simply select the "Find (??? people)" button at the bottom center of the screen, right beside the buttons for magnification. Clicking this button twice will produce a scrollable list of all cats who are on the tree. By quickly entering the first few letters of a cat's name, you can jump straight to that section of the list. Clicking on the cat's name will bring you directly to your cat.
Adding Your Characters
While it is not necessary, some members may want to add their own cats to the tree before our team of Tree-Editors get around to adding them themselves. The most important thing to recognize is that the official Tree is ONLY a map of those cats who are somehow related to Moonstar, either through marriage, blood, parentage, or other crazy connections. While this family tree alone has come to encompass well over a thousand characters, every character is somehow connected to Moonstar's line, or to lines which are connected to Moonstar's line.
Therefore, the first step is to find a connection from your cats into the characters already on the tree. Check with parents, siblings, mates, or children of your characters, and try to learn if any of them are on the tree already. If so, there is your link! If not, keep looking. If you can't find any links at all, and you really want to get your cat onto the tree, then try to get your cats into a relationship with a character who is part of the tree.
Once you have found a connection, the next step is to establish what that connection is. From there, simply add your cat with the buttons in the sidebar. This will allow you to add siblings, parents, children, or partners.
Once you have added the cat, be sure to add the relevant information, which includes:
Name - Put the entire name under "First names" as one word. Use the highest rank which a cat obtained during its life. (e.g. Lionstar rather than Liondance; Snowymist rather than Snowypaw.)
Gender - Most cats have their gender included. Select whichever one of the three options applies to your cat. These options should appear directly below the slots for names.
Biography - This is entirely optional, but if you wish to include a short biography of your cat's life, this can be done under the "Biographical" section, found the furthest to the right on the left-hand sidebar under your cat's name.
How else can I help?
We're so glad to hear that you want to help. This is a huge project, and without the community's enthusiasm and support, it could never be completed. There are two major ways to help this project.
The first is to gather information about bloodlines which have not been added. This includes both dead characters, for which information can be found in the original family tree, photo albums, on the history page, in the comments on user's pages, in old PM's, on Lightning's character page, or on the Character Updates page, or it could be for those who are still alive, in which case information is probably easiest found by talking to other members or checking the clan pages. If you know something, please add it to the tree or pass it on to someone who will!
The next way in which you can help is by putting family information into your character application forms. At the end of the "Description and History" section, try including your character's parents, siblings, mate, and children. By doing this, you make this information easy to access for someone trying to add your characters - or the relatives of your characters - to the WCF Ancestry Tree.
Tips and Tricks:
You can change how many generations are visible at a time by adjusting the numbers associated with each type of relative at the bottom of the screen.
Some cats have small biographies included in their information. Click on the cat, then choose the "Biographical" heading. Enjoy your reading!
If a cat is already on the tree as a child of two cats, and later needs to be added as a partner of a different cat, choose "Add Partner/Ex," then "Partner with person already on tree." To do the reverse, take a partner of an existing cat, choose "Change or Delete," and then choose "Change Parents."