Appendix D - Moderation / Review Guidelines

1. Only Moderated or reviewed records are visible to the public, hence it is important to check more records so that the public see the information available to them. All records start out as Un-reviewed.
2. The purpose of record Moderation is primarily to eliminate gross errors in the data records. It is not expected that those undertaking the checking will have detailed knowledge of every site and hence estable that every detail is 100% accurate. Responsibility for the accuracy of the record remains with the person who created it.
3. Electronic publishing is different from traditional paper publishing where, once printed, every mistake is there for all to see. Electronic publishing allows updating and corrections at anytime - record checking becomes an on-going dynamic process.
4. You cannot review the records you have input. Records must be reviewed by a third party.
5. If there are only minor issues with the site record such as minor typos / spelling mistakes / grid references etc these will be corrected by the Moderator and the record will then be flagged as “checked”.
6. If, however, significant problems are found in the record it will be flagged as “Queried” and will be considered by a second Moderators and in extreme cases the IHO Administrator.
7. Grid references – To show the accurate location of a site on the Google Maps display it is essential to use the full ten digit GR: e.g. SE 144 170 will not show the correct location of Rippon Bros. coachbuilding works in Huddersfield. The site was cleared in the 1970s and replaced by a Tesco store so there’s nothing on the ground to show the exact location of the weorks. To show this the 10 digit GR SE 14414 17056 must be used.
8. Historic England Listing Number – links to Historic England “The List” website.

Historic England Monument Number – links to Historic England “PastScape” website.

Like GRs they need checking. If these are provided in a record, they must be correct. It may be appropriate to check whether a building is listed and add this to the record if the listing isn’t shown.

9. Spelling – must be accurate in all fields and all records. All unchecked records need checking for this. Keywords must be spelled correctly – a search for “cotton” will not find the incorrect typed “coton”.
10. Site Descriptions – should begin with a brief description e.g. Road bridge, Water mill, Corn mill, Coachbuilding works etc. so that it’s clear what type of site it is. Jane Hatcher’s records – others? – don’t always note this in the description.
11. Check that descriptions in records make sense – does the wording convey what is intended? But that doesn’t mean altering someone’s grammar etc just because you don’t like it!
12. Check that the location of towns are given correctly, e.g, there are several Bromptons in Yorkshire - is the geographic location, GR etc in the record the right one for the Brompton in question?
13. We need to ensure that those inputting records to YIHO are aware of and follow the guidance – Powerpoint training notes, Help Pages provided in YIHO. Getting it right first time is better than having to check everything later, especially if there are many records to check.
14. Please consider the time spent checking each record. It can be easy to spend a lot of time trying to deal with difficult records and still failing. This can quickly lead to all sorts of interesting by-ways, but since the aim currently is to provide as many reliably checked records as quickly as possible, checkers should consider marking a record for query sooner rather than later if they don't seem to be making progress. It can also be easy to be side tracked into trying to discover other interesting material relating to the site even when what is already in the record is adequate and sufficiently accurate to warrant being marked as checked.
15. The accuracy of the record content at the moment is the only consideration from the checking point of view.

The Online checking process

1. To check records you need “Moderator” or “Administrator” level permissions.
2. Sign into YIHO, then select records for checking by searching, either by:
• Location – e.g. Selby, Huddersfield, etc.
• Name of contributor – e.g. Charles Morris, etc.
• Any other search term you find useful
3. The search results page will be displayed. Click on “Show Summary List” This will display a summary of each record including the chosen search term. Open each record listed by clicking on Site ID, shown in green.
4. If the record is flagged “This record has not been checked” scroll to the bottom of the record page and click on the “Update this entry” button. This will then display the record for checking.
5. Read through the record. If the Grid Reference(s), location details look right, and there are no obvious factual / date errors or spelling mistakes in the text no corrections are required. Scroll down to the bottom of the record page to the “Update Checked Status” box and click “Record Checked” circle. Then click “Update Database” button. On the next screen the message “Thank you for updating or commenting on the entry for ...“ will be displayed.
6. If corrections are required:
1. Data in the following fields can be amended by typing in the appropriate box:
• Site Details 1 – Location
• Site Details 2 – Administrative and Protected Status
• Site Details 3 – Site Description Year of construction / Year of demolition
2. Data in the following fields can be amended by editing text:
• Site Description
• Site History
• Site References

To edit the original text, copy all the original text shown in blue into the text box and edit as normal.

To add text, type the new text in the text box.

If you do nothing the text will be saved unchanged.

7. Keywords: It is good practice to check the Keyword field. Although the "Site name" will show that the site is, for example a cotton mill, it is worth ensuring that the keywords include “cotton”, “textile”, and “mill” plus any others that are specific to that site. Additional relevant keywords increases the number of “hits” found by the search process.
8. Checking Grid References
1. If the Grid Reference needs to be amended right click on the "View Historic Mapping" button and select "Open in new tab", then immediately select "Explore Georeferenced Maps". Check that on the old mapping the expected site/feature is in the middle of the screen. If it is and the grid reference supplied in YIHO is 10 figures, change the transparency slider to check that the modern appearance of the site is consistent with the information in the "Site History"/"Site Description" fields. If this is satisfactory, mark the record as checked and move on.
2. If the site/feature is evident on the old mapping and the grid reference supplies has fewer than 10 figure precision, determine the accurate GR using the location information at the lower right corner and amend the record accordingly. (NB: the last five digits of the two six figure numbers on the second line are, in combination with the 100km grid square letters, the 10 figure grid reference.) Check the current state of the site as before, mark as checked and move on.
3. If the feature is not evident on the old mapping this may be because the feature post-dates the default mapping presented. In this case you will need to explore later maps using the "Find by Place" version of the old mapping. Unfortunately this doesn't provide the geo-referenced location information but it is usually possible (though more time consuming) to locate and refine the position of the feature.
4. If this fails, it may be that the GR quoted in the record being checked is wrong. In this case you can try to find the site by entering the place name using the "Find a place" on the historic mapping. Usually, it will be possible to locate the feature and correct the GR. Occasionally, this will fail, either because the feature cannot be identified at all, or because there are more than one plausible candidates for the feature. In these cases, to save time, the checker should mark the record as needing to be queried and move on.
5. Grid Reference Finderhttp://gridreferencefinder.com is an excellent tool for finding grid references and post codes. It can be used to check GRs where less than 10 / 8 digits are given in the record. But if the problem becomes difficult to resolve, to save time, the checker should mark the record as needing to be queried and move on.
9. When you have completed corrections, scroll down to the bottom of the record page to the “Update Checked Status” box and click “Record Checked” circle. Then click “Update Database” button. On the next screen the message “Thank you for updating or commenting on the entry for ...“ will be displayed.
10. Below this message 4 choices are offered. Click on the appropriate one to:
• Return to Summary Map
• Return to Summary Listing
• Show updated Record
• Update Next Record

as desired.

11. Site records input to the database by current members of the YIHO project are highly likely to need only proof reading rather than detailed checking and updating.
12. Jane Hatcher’s records: Records input from Jane’s site record cards, created in the early 1970s, are likely to need the Grid References checking and amending. If this can be done relatively quickly the checker should do so and move on.
13. Jane Hatcher’s records have been included as valuable information about the sites she visited and photographed in the 1970s. Many of these sites have been significantly altered, or demolished and the site records may require amending or updating with additional information. This may take some time and such records should, in the short term be marked for query, to be dealt with later.
14. When a checker decides that one of Jane’s records needs updating her original wording in “Site Description” or “Site History” fields should be retained, and prefaced by: “xxxx” (year) Jane Hatcher noted:” The new information should then be added on a new line in the text box – e.g.:

“In 1974 Jane Hatcher noted: 4 storey brick tower. Square windows under flat arched brick lintels aligned on 2 sides 2 opposing doorways windows above on 1st floor only.

Remains of timber floor beams in situ.
In 2016 Planning Permission being sought for conversion to dwelling / holiday cottage.”

.

Robert Vickers

12 September 2016




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