At the danger of angering some of the folks who read this blog, I'm going to go on a little rant here. What is with all of the lame categories lately? I understand people getting excited about waymarking and wanting to jump right in and create a category, but give me a break! Some of the things coming through peer review I find odd - boy scout created footbridges rather than just plain footbridges. I have to admit I wasn't especially fond of the footbridges category, but it's grown on me. However - is this really a category that needs to have other variations? And the Jeep trails category - who cares what club/vehicle type creates the trail? Isn't the off-roading category sufficient?
The recent flood of new categories can be seen as a good thing, though. It likely means that a lot of new people are starting to waymark. But it is bringing up a flaw in the system. Categories are getting approved that are duplicates of other categories and peer review isn't weeding these out. Take the recent "Exceptional Restaurants". This sounds very similar to the "Independent Diners" category (which is for all recommended restaurants, not just diners.) Do both of these need to be on the category list? Or Domino's pizza (seen in peer review - I don't know if it passed) - doesn't that fit in the "take-out food" category? Peer review works on some of these duplicate categories, but not all of them. As more people start waymarking, more of these categories will make it through peer review and the grid will be clogged with narrowly focused categories. And as BruceS noted in the forums, once a category is approved, it's on the grid for good.
Silverquill recently proposed a mandated submission of category ideas to the forums before they are allowed to go to peer review. Yes, this won't always work because people will list it in the forums and then not really look at the comments being made. It also will leave the evolution of waymarking in the hands of the small group of people who frequent the forums. But something needs to be done! And it seems like some type of category discussion prior to peer review is the answer. At the very least there should be some place where people can submit the category idea and people more familiar with the grid can let them know which categories are similar and if their idea duplicates another. I'd love to hear some opinions on this. Anyone? Or is it just me who is bothered by this.
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10 comments:
I don't see a problem with Dominos Pizza since we have all those other chains. But that just points out a bigger issue.
Perhaps we shouldn't be making categories that contain Trademarks?
That way there'd be fewer categories for fast food.
This discussion makes me realize just how GOOD the Time Capsules category is. There's NO other web site (I don't think) that keeps up with Time Capsules.
I guess Domino's is a bad example. I would love to get rid of all categories that are trademarked chain names, though, but that's another post. Actually probably 2 or 3 posts. :)
Not sure what you mean about the time capsule category though. Do you mean there's no outside Website that keeps track of them?
I was confused when i submitted my "Montana Historical Markers" category (many other states had them) and received feedback that called it "not global" and "redundant".
I guess I was just as excited as the other newbies to get my category going.
I did read over everything I could before posting. I even tried another category before this which was quickly pointed out as redundant before I got to the group stage.
I agree with the statements about the boyscout footbridges & the exceptional restaurants categories.
I don't want to create any more categories because so many exist!
I hope I didn't come across as being against "newbies" zenpanda. The more new players the better, in my opinion!
I just want to find a way to offer category guidelines up front for new players, and to find a way to urge them to use the forums when they have an idea.
I will admit that I was a little afraid to talk on the forums when I first started. I had read the geocaching forums a few times and people were such asses over there that I didn't want to put my neck out there and ask a question on the waymarking forums. The thing is that the waymarking forums are a safe place to ask questions and learn. At least for now, the people on the forums are all very kind and helpful.
As for the global comment. You will always get comments like that with a state specific category. For the most part I like all the cats to be global, but the state cats have a precedence. I would support and vote yes (and have) on categories specific to other countries and regions too, if they have historic value. Glad you're reading the blog zen. One of these years I'll make it over to Glacier NP and get a few of your Montana SHM posted. :)
I'm a newbie and I have to agree that the categories seem to be getting out of hand. I am, for instance, put off by the "Wal-Mart" and "Starbucks" categories (just to name a couple) because I feel like the featured business are hardly noteworthy for not much more than their contributions to urban blight and sprawl. More importantly, the huge companies that own these locations have their own websites where they can (and probably do) host their own "store locator" search engines - these probably don't feature GPS coords, but they could easily add them if anyone asked them to.
I like the concept of waymarking as being useful for helping people locate interesting, useful, historic and/or noteworthy locations all over the globe. Yeah, Wal-Mart, Domino's and Starbucks all can be useful, but they are quite easy to find using other websites. Of course, there must be some people out there who are captivated enough by these to create and post to these categories that they exist, so who knows.
Occam,as for Time Capsules, check out The International Time Capsule Society (ITCS) for information on their time capsule registry. If they aren't aware of the waymarking.com category, they might be interested to learn about it. (As a matter of fact, I've got coords/pics of a time capsule I need to get posted.)
You are preaching to the choir, Tim! :) I wish the fast food/chain business categories would go away. I know that they are here to stay, but that doesn't mean that more have to be created. IMO, they are a black-eye to an otherwise interesting, fun, and even educational game.
If you haven't discovered it yet, the Website has an "ignore" feature. If you place those dreaded McCategories on your ignore list it's as if they no longer exist. When you do a location search no waymarks within those categories will show up on your search. Most people don't use this feature, but I love it and find it a great way to customize the categories to my liking. My favorites are heavy on the art, buildings and history categories.
Anyhow, welcome to waymarking. I'm glad you stopped by my blog. It's waymarked in the "Bloggers" category if you feel like posting a visit.
Right. There's no outside Website (that I could find) that keeps track of Time Capsules.
Tim Bond, thanks!
I did not see a way to SEARCH the ITCS registry. Only to REGISTER a time capsule.
Occam - Yes, I realized that after I had posted it as a comment. I had misread something that led me to believe it was searchable on the web, but apparently I was mistaken.
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