Global vs. Region Specific Categories

Much arguing goes on over whether or not a category is "global" or not, meaning that waymarks for the category can be found on any part of the globe. It is one of the judging criteria when voting whether or not a proposed category should be added to the category list. Some folks are adament that only global categories be permitted, however, that seems to go beyond what Groundspeak envisioned when they formed that criteria.

I bring this up because I'm an officer in the managing group of waymarking's newest category, American Guides. During the great depression of the 1930's President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a work program called the Works Progress Administration and that group, along with creating many jobs building roads, lodges, and dams, also employed out-of-work writers to write the American Guide Series, guide books featuring driving tours of the United States. The goal was to create tourism markets. Over 100 of these guidebooks were created (over 300 books total if you include the oral history projects), written by some of the best 20th-century writers, such as Saul Bellows, Studs Terkel and John Cheever. The category asks waymarkers to find a site that is featured in one of the guide books and then to waymark the site, including the excerpt from the book in the waymark description.

When the votes came back there were several complaints about the category being "too American", or not global enough. My belief is that the global criteria should not discourage historically significant categories because they are limited to one country or region. I recently supported the "London Coal Tax Post" category. I've also voted yes on categories such as the categories approved earlier this year - "Maori Historic Sites" and "New Zealand Historic Site". The fact is that most of the folks waymarking are located in the United States and so it makes sense that many categories that are proposed focus on areas or topics that are concerned with local regions. As the hobby grows on other continents, I'm sure there will be many categories that are focused on those waymarkers' home countries. That's great! I look forward to learning more world history, and other lessons about this planet we share.

I agree that globalism in topics is important, and if there's a way to make a category global, then by all means do it. But look beyond the "global" criteria when you vote. Let's not lose historically important categories because of too much rigidity.

The above photo is of the Timberline Lodge, which was mentioned in the American Guide, "Mount Hood: A Guide", published in 1940. The lodge sits high on the southern flank of Mount Hood in Oregon State, and was built by WPA workers in 1937.