Category Dictatorships

It has always been a pet peeve of mine when category creators view a category as something "owned" by them. These category dictators see group officers as people to share the work load, but nothing else. In their opinion, they thought up the initial idea and could care less what anyone else's opinion is. I don't see it that way. They are leaders, not owners, and by refusing to listen to officer's suggestions they limit the category.

Close-mindedness leads to categories that become stagnant. If there needs to be some tweaking of the category it helps to have open communication, as I talked about in my last post. Without this communication and tweaking to waymarkers become frustrated and don't continue to submit to the category. Unless I am extremely interested in a subject I won't submit more than one waymark to a category that is unclear as to what type of waymarks they're looking for, or to a category where the officers are rude when they make comments. There are plenty of other categories out there to take up my time. I kick it to my ignore list and move on.

Another issue I have come across as an officer is when leaders go through and re-evaluate waymarks that have already been approved. Nothing is more irritating as a waymarker than to have a waymark approved and then denied. If an officer is regularly approving things that the leader doesn't think fit, then the leader isn't doing their job very well. It indicates that either the category needs to have a few changes or the group needs to sit back and discuss reviewing practices and what is and isn't acceptable. Just re-evaluating an officer's approved waymarks and not politely discussing the problems is micro-managing. It treats the symptoms and not the main issue.

I'm not saying that the leader's vision for the category means nothing, I'm saying it doesn't mean everything. We all share the Waymarking Website and a single person cannot own one section of it. A category is created to share places with the world and a leader is only the category's guide, not its god.

This has been your latest installment of Janell's Pet Peeves. For more, just ask me about chain store categories. (kidding :) The photo above really has nothing to do with this post. The Victorian triplex is posted in the "NRHP - Contributing Buildings" category which is led by a person I've found to be a great collaborative leader, JimmyEv. So I guess that it has a tiny bit of context.

Great groups have great communication

Something that I've noticed lately: the better the communication, the better the category. When a category is approved and the officers start reviewing waymarks they soon find that maybe the category definition or requirements aren't as clear as they expected they would be. That's okay, because if a leader and the officers are doing their job they will talk about issues that are raised and adjust things accordingly. No category is perfect and even the most well written and thought out descriptions might need some tweaking over time.

Discussion, disagreement, even debate, is necessary - in some categories more than others. Next time, before you hit that "vote" button when reviewing a questionable waymark, consider sending out a group email and asking the group about it first. Often there are underlying reasons that things are going to vote - something unclear in the category description that could be fixed. Why not talk it over and see if there's a way to make things clearer. It will save you work in the long run by limiting the posting of waymarks that don't fit the category. It will definitely make people who post to your category happier, because no one likes to put the work into posting a waymark and then have it declined.

If officers in the group don't have the "email group member" ability then be sure to email the group leader and see if they will change this. If you are the group leader, then what are you waiting for?! Go make the changes so your officers can better participate in discussions. I assure you that your category will benefit from the change. There really isn't a reason not to do this. In fact, I wish that it was an automatic feature for officers. Maybe make it automatic, but allow the leader to take back the privilege if an officer is abusing it.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents. Happy waymarking!