Recently I was voting in peer review for something and at the time thought that the available waymarks might be too small in number for the category to be viable. So how small is too small? I can't remember the exact voting criteria, but I know that one of them is "abundance". I've always thought that could go either way - there are so many possible waymarks that there's really no reason to waymark them (my beef with most fast food categories) OR there are so few that they will be too difficult for people to find.When I think about it though, if something is interesting with maybe a bit of historic importance thrown in, doesn't that make it exactly the type of place to be waymarked so others can find the spot in the future? If there are only 50 possible spots worldwide, wouldn't it be great to create a place where interested folks could find all 50?
Here's another thought. What if the 50 spots aren't worldwide, but they are all in one small area? Would it meet criteria then?
There really is no exact answer. Drawing the line somewhere would be foolish because there are too many factors involved. This is yet another example where being too rigid will limit the Waymarking Website. Better to embrace the fuzziness of the criteria in this case than to create some silly line in the sand.
So here's a confession though. When voting, I admit that my willingness to vote "yea" for a category is definitely affected by how interesting the category is to me. Try as I might to be objective, there are times when I just can't swallow a category and I might invoke the "too many/too few" criteria. I try not to do that very often, but sometimes it happens and I know I'm not the only one who does this so don't get all "holier-than-thou" on me. I'm not saying it's good practice, just that it happens.
Just thinking as I type here, so sorry if this post is difficult to follow. If you do understand what I'm talking about, let's hear how you feel. Oh, and the photo above is 8Nuts MotherGoose's photo of the Dubuque Shot Tower which we visited last summer. "Shot Towers" is one of those categories were the total possible waymarks are very limited, however, it still seems like a worthwhile category.
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2 comments:
I too run into the same dilemma when voting, from time to time. It is difficult to define too small or too large. Another thing that I personally struggle with are the categories that aren't "global." I understand that it is a guideline, however I feel hypocritical voting a category down for that reason since the two cats that I started are central only to the Americas and even then, mostly just the U.S.
Yes, the global criteria gets me too. I think the more that global categories are pushed, the stronger that Waymarking becomes. At the same time, there are some categories that, while they are definitely not global, have historical worth. And like you, I have a couple U.S. only categories that I have created or been involved in as an officer.
I think the important thing is that if there is any way that a category can be made global, then it should be. Hmm... dilemmas, dilemmas.
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