Neon's Illegitimate Sibling :)

I've been posting about the neon dilemma and in my last post I talked about the resolution and how a new category was going to be created for the less artistic of the neon signs that have no place to be waymarked. Well I'm happy to say that the new category passed peer review and is now open for business.

Although some signs don't have the gloss and style needed to make it into the Neon Lights category, the Neon Sign category will provide a place for these simpler and yet still interesting signs. Will the category collect a lot of boring signs? Probably, but the lesson that I have learned is that what is boring to some is wonderful to others. I'm glad to see that open/closed signs have been excluded, and I'd like to see typical beer neon excluded, but other than that I think that the officers did a great job putting together the category. I'd also like to see a variable added for the estimated age of the neon so that eventually if a search function is available to filter the drop-down variables folks who aren't interested in the modern stuff could filter that out - something like "20's -50's", "60's & 70's" and "80's to current". Who knows if that will ever be available, but I keep hoping.

This post is not dissing the "Neon Lights" category. I'm a member of both groups and I understand the desire to keep the category focused on only the artistic, pictorial style of neon. It was wonderful that the group was able to support this new category and pave the way for a smooth time in the peer review process.

I've transferred over the 12 signs that I had posted in the Neon Lights category that work better over in the Neon Sign category. Soon the Neon Lights group will be reevaluating the signs that now fit better in the new category. If you get a few declined, bear with the group and know that there's another home for those waymarks.

Neon Resolution

Well, the long and confusing days of the neon category are almost over. BQ kindly hosted a chat group so that all the officers and interested parties could work things out. Unfortunately I was down for the count during the meeting thanks to my lingering cold so I missed the conversation, but other officers have filled me in and it sounds like things are going to work out well. The final choice was to go with 2 categories. The existing "Neon Lights" category will be a repository for those over-the-top neon creations that people happen upon. Typically these are pictorial in nature and were created during the 1930's to 1950's. The rest of the more basic neon, such as the old parking garage sign shown in this post, would fit in a new second category that Team Farkle 7 is creating. This category is very open and unrestricted and will create a place for the neon signs that aren't quite dazzling enough to make it in the first category. This category is currently in peer review and hopefully it will pass.

It will mean a bit of work for the officers over at Neon Lights. The category description will need to be rewritten slightly and the category will need to have many of the current signs either reevaluated (declined) or switched over to the new category when it comes available. It will be worth it though. In the end everyone will get what they want. There will be one category focused on stellar neon, just like the category founders envisioned, and a second category for all the rest of the neon that, while it may not be stellar, is still deserving of a category.

It is a great example of how when a group works together challenges can be worked through and the category can become even better than when it was first started. I really urge all of you leaders out there to discuss changes with your groups and communicate any concerns as soon as they come up. Your category will be better, thanks to the joint effort.

You know your obsessed with waymarking when...

...You drive out to waymark a Nike missile site even though you have a raging sinus/ear infection. I couldn't stand it. Everyweek I try to find a waymark in at least 2-3 new categories that I haven't waymarked in before, but this week was coming to an end and my regular Saturday waymarking outing was cut because I was too sick. By the afternoon though, it was killing me. Sinus infection or not, I was going to waymark that damn missile site. So I talked my husband into driving (I was too "medicated") and in addition to my typical waymarking accoutrements, I armed myself with a box of kleenex, cough drops and a puke bowl.

It was nice to get out, but it wasn't the most interesting spot to be waymarking in. The missile site was turned into an off-leash dog park and was a big treeless area with not much to see other than a few remaining foundations and lots of cute dogs. After walking around the 37 acre site I had used up all of my waymarking gusto so we cut the trip short and headed home. I fell asleep on the drive back, clutching my kleenex box and camera and woke only once to talk my husband into stopping to get the car washed. I still needed to waymark a coin-operated car wash. :)

Category Evolution: My Conflicted Thoughts

Recently there was a debate on the forums about whether a state historic marker category should change to allow "official" and "unofficial" markers so that only one category is needed, or whether a second category should be created to manage waymarks that are unofficial. At first I thought the state historic marker categories (SHM's) were being rigid and uptight. It seemed so silly to have yet another SHM category. Now, I still think that there is an overabundance of non-global categories and that waymarking should shy away from the creation of another 20 or so "unofficial" SHM categories. There are too many of them already. But I now see that it was easy for me to ask the "official" SHM categories to change because I had no investment in the categories. I didn't value the markers. They all seemed the same to me so why not put them in one big category and be done with them?

Now all of you historic marker lovers out there need to just calm down and read the rest of this before you get your panties all in a bunch. Although I haven't changed how I feel about SHM categories, I do have a lot more sympathy for the leaders who wanted to limit their categories to something very specific.

Some of you know that I love vintage neon signs. They are my favorite thing to waymark and when I helped as an officer during the creation process of the neon category I wanted to limit the category to only the great old neon of the past. I didn't want a bunch of boring everyday neon that is easy to find. I wanted great old signs like the cowboy sign above - signs that did more than say "open" or "Bob's Market". You know the ones. The category was approved in peer review with the requirements that the waymarks posted be "unique" and "creative". The officers embarked in a rough ride of what the group definition of "unique" is. I grimaced everytime a simple, modern, neon text sign was approved, thinking "why would people even bother to take the time to waymark that? Why would they want their name on a waymark like that?" Several times the wording of the posting requirements was altered to try to better explain what type of signs the category was looking for. It didn't work. Eventually a rift grew in the officers and now no one knows what to accept or deny.

The result of this rift is that a second neon category is being formed to create a place for the "Neon Lights" rejects. It stopped me cold because I realized that exactly what I had railed about in the SHM categories was happening here. Some people wanted to limit the category, others wanted to expand it, and the result of the officer's not bending resulted in the current push for a second neon sign category. So here I sit, trying to decide which is more important to me: restricting the category and have a second category for the more basic neon signs, or to ask for the category to evolve into something more inclusive. I'm a hypocrite if I push to keep the neon category restricted to unique, creative signs. That's exactly what I was frustrated with during the SHM debate. At the same time, if the requirements are loosened the incredible vintage signs like the one above will get lost in a watered down category.

In the end, I have to side with letting the category evolve. I won't enjoy wading through the waymarks to find vintage neon, but I still believe that it is better that the category evolve than having two categories for a subject that really only needs one. Maybe a drop-down list variable could be added to differentiate between vintage and modern, textual, and the more elaborate neon "pictures". If the site had the functionality to filter waymarks by a drop-down variable it would make the decision easy. I would value this functionality far beyond being able to download GPX files because it would slow down the creation of redundant categories.

Sorry that this is so long, but it's a topic that I'm struggling with right now and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Thanks.

Happy Waymarking!
- Hikenutty

Rain, rain and more rain: Waymarking in Washington State

So, the rain is upon us in ernest here in Washington state. We're not talking a downpour: a storm with a beginning and end. No, we're talking gray skies and a steady drizzle that will continue through April. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much. We will have some dry days, but the gray is here to stay. Blue skies won't be back until spring. It will slow my waymarking, but it won't stop me.

So Saturday while my son was rehearsing with his orchestral group in Tacoma we wandered over to the New Tacoma Cemetery to do some waymarking. The grass was deep and spongey with moss, each step squishy with water, as we wandered the rows looking for the grave of a Medal of Honor awardee. The water slowly seeped into my shoes, soaking my socks and numbing my toes. After five minutes the grave was found and a transformation had taken place in me. I had let go of my longing for more sunshine and resigned myself to the long damp fall/winter ahead of me. I started to appreciate the beauty of the drizzle and what it means for the landscape: mosses of every shade of green, from deep evergreen to a startling chartreuse; evergreen trees everywhere that in the winter try to make up for the lack of color elsewhere; the sound of the water dripping from leaf to leaf like some massive yet gentle percussion instrument.

It is what you focus on that gets you through the gray season here. You can either mope around inside about the summer you're missing, or embrace the simple beauty of the rain and get out and experience it. Whatever the case, get your raincoat and umbrella out. You'll need them.

The picture above is of a moss-covered gravestone I came across while waymarking the waymark "Pfc. Richard Beatty Anderson, Marine Corps" in the "Medal of Honor Graves" category. After waymarking at the cemetery we warmed up and an incredible bakery, Corina Bakery, in downtown Tacoma with french-pressed coffee and cake.

Posting a Waymark from a Waymark

Have you ever posted an Internet cafe or wifi waymark from the waymark? I suppose those of you who pay for wifi on their cellphones or PDA's find nothing interesting about this, but it was kind of cool to be sitting inside an internet cafe and doing the write-up describing my surroundings. I felt a bit like a restaurant reviewer and was trying my best to not seem sneaky, but I didn't want a waitress looking over my shoulder and seeing a bunch of pictures of the place on my computer. I didn't feel like explaining waymarking - I just want to kick back on their comfy couch, drink my coffee and post away.

I sat there and posted waymarks for the building (an old Odd Fellows Lodge,) and for Dog-Friendly Restaurants, Internet Cafe and Wifi hotspots (the One Heart Cafe that I was sitting in.) What a cool location. The Merlino Art Center is this great old building that was built in 1925 as a fraternal lodge but is now an art hotspot in the very artsy town of Tacoma. The building holds a non-profit indie film theater, a cafe, 2 art galleries and a bakery on the retail level and above it is filled with artists studios, most of which are open to the public on the third Thursday of each month. I hear the bakery, Corina Bakery, is excellent and I'll have to go back and waymark it, along with Two Vaults Gallery - one my favorite art galleries in the city.

So it goes without saying that a pretty artsy crowd hangs out here. Typically I wouldn't be too out of place here, however last night I was covered in Nike swag given to me by my sister who works for Nike at their HQ. What can I say? It was free and comfortable. I had my t-shirt, pullover, and hat on and "swooshed" my way through the restaurant while onlookers stared. The uniform of choice at the Merlino is funky mismatched clothes, Converse hightops, and multiple piercings so I stuck out like a sore thumb. That's the funny thing about the arts community. They get very pretentious about not being pretentious. :)

Some of the above waymarks are still waiting to be reviewed, so you might not be able to view them immediately.

Say Goodbye to Visit Requirements

Last night was the 2nd official Waymarking Town Hall and I am officially no longer an IRC virgin. I have been initiated into the world of IRC and I quickly learned that I need to brush up on my typing skills. What a great tool, though! A conversation that would have taken a week on the forums took an hour in the town hall (give or take a few minutes for Canadian jokes. :)

Anyhow, the main topic of the night was whether or not there should be requirements to log a visit to a waymark. I was surprised because it was pretty unanimous that the visit requirements be done away with. How many shots of a McWaymark are really necessary and who's going to visit said McWaymark if they have to photograph themselves in front of a fast food establishment? It's not just about the business/commerce waymarks though. Do we really need to be waymark police? Will it kill us to have to put up with a few "TFTW" logs? I don't think so. If someone feels the need to be an armchair visitor, who has lost out? - you, who had the experience of being there, or the person who missed that chance and is lame enough to lie that they were there. When all is said and done, people will get out of the game what they put into it and no requirement is going to force them to have more or less fun. Sure, it's nice to hear what other people think about a place that you took the time to create a waymark for, but I'm guessing that for a cool, unique waymark you will still hear all about what people think. I realize that waymarking games might still need some requirements, but that's different, so if you disagree with me, don't start bringing up games to support your argument.

I'm offering up an alternative to the requirements that are currently out there: Visit "suggestions". There's no reason that you can't ask people to let you know how their visit went or to upload a picture they might have taken, just don't MAKE them do it. Let them know that the information from their logs gives a waymark a wider perspective and makes it a better waymark. Thank them in advance for helping out and bettering your waymark with their information. Kill them with kindness and I bet most of your visitors' logs will be even better than when you required them to spit out specific information.

If everyone out there who agrees with me takes steps to promote this change to visit logs then we have the power to make a difference. State your opinion (WITHOUT YELLING) in the forums. Post about it on your own blog. Most importantly, go back and edit all of the categories that you lead so they now have "visit suggestions". For groups that you're an officer in, not a leader, email your group leader and ask them if they would consider changing the category's visit requirements. Make it your waymarking mantra and before you know it, visit requirements as we know them will be a thing of the past. At the end of this post is some standard text that most categories could use as visit suggestions. Feel free to copy it and use it to edit the categories that you currently lead or to offer it to leaders of groups that you're an officer in.

I think that for waymarking to grow outside of the geocaching, gps-toting world this change is important. If you agree PLEASE take the initiative to start today and go change the visit requirements in your categories. And for those at Groundspeak who read this, PLEASE change the "Visit Requirements" text on the category creation page to something different. It doesn't have to be "suggestions", maybe just "Logging a Visit", but taking away the word "requirement" will jump start this change.

Go forth and "suggest". :)

Here's that text that I offered:

To help give a different perspective and to better the waymark for future visitors please tell us about your visit and upload a favorite photograph you took of the waymark. Although visiting this waymark in person is the only thing required of you to receive credit for your visit, taking the time to add this information is greatly appreciated.