Benchmark Blasterz
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Posts posted by Benchmark Blasterz
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Welcome to the madness and exhilaration of Waymarking from Texas, y’all!
It will change the way you see the world - you will see much more of where you are as you look for things to waymark for the icon!
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So the more I am looking at all the waymarks in this category, the more I see that there are a TON of cool and different counting displays in Europe that I have never seen in the US — and not for a lack of trying!
It seems that in the US the water bottle filler counters are everywhere, and the cyclist counters may be few but perhaps more are coming, and the vast number of solar power watts generated or air quality metering displays are not public. I was happy to find the one AQ meter I did at Mt. Rainier.
I’d love to find a building with a solar array that showed the public how much power was generated - but I bet that is internal data not reported to the general public, and probably only the accountants and the local electric utility are tracking it.
HMMMM - I think I have shown that this is not a one-and-done category for me, but I accept that water bottle stations are not interesting - unless it is the one you got the icon for! HA
I will try and refrain from submitting others, even though I live in hope that I can help someone with a tough icon.
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I would not be in favor of one bottle saved counting display per waymarker per country - I do look for these bottle fillers because they are subtle and counting displays of other types are rare to find.
I am also not in favor of one WM of this type every (distance). Is it fair that I put a bottle saved WM at the zoo, and some other waymarker puts a bottle saved WM at a science museum planetarium next door, but they are denied due to distance? They can’t get visit on my WM because they didn’t go to the zoo, and they can’t pick up their category icon because I didn’t go to the planetarium.
I get that a category full of bottle fillers is blah for officers, but I create my WMs for waymarkers to find, and hopefully grab an icon.
I just found my 1st non-bottles-saved countdown a few days ago.
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Edit to add: I have a total of 15 WMs approved in this category, and 14 are bottles saved.
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Ariberna you are going to get this thread locked too.
Knock off criticizing category officers in the forums — It’s inappropriate and rude.
Take your beefs to private emails and, when you have said your piece, MOVE ON.
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Torgut, I love you, man - but this is Geocaching’s message board system, so of course they can decide what they will and will not allow to be posted on it.
Plus - it’s not cool to publicly call out and castigate a reviewer for reviewing to category guidelines. Even on Reddit there is speech that is not allowed - and no brigading ditto.
I’m an officer in Signs of History and I hate the 50-word limit for waymarkable signs, but it’s a requirement and as an officer my duty is to review to guidelines.
I will also say that all officers in that category are doing their best to be fair and review to guidelines. This can be a tough category to review in, because a lot of times there’s really not enough history in the signs, and then it’s a judgement call.
I did not vote on this waymark but I would have voted no too since the proposed plaque started with “according to tradition” - which usually means it’s legend, not history.
I’ll ask the officers if they want to do away with this 50-word requirement, but if they decide to keep it, that’s the decision and we have to live with it as waymarkers and review to it as officers.
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On 5/29/2023 at 8:59 AM, bootron said:
Also, it should be noted that Wayfrog (and BruceS before him) has been the primary interface between the Waymarking community and HQ. In my opinion, he deserves significant amounts of love as he is responsible for all of the non-programmatic day-to-day maintenance of the site. He volunteers his time to support the community and is most definitely one of the main reasons the site has continued to function. I couldn't easily do the work I do for the site without the efforts he puts in.
WE LOVE YOU WAYFROG!!!
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Bootron must be tinkering -- photo uploads are SUUUUUUPER SLOOOOOOOW this morming -- much worse than last night.
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I will -- thank you
THATS THE FIX! Thank you
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Date format in settings is 22 May 23 -- the 2nd best way.
Best way is 22 May 2023 but that's probably not the "coding" way- I remember Y2K panic! ha
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Bootron: When trying to change the dates of my visits to reflect the dates on my photos, I cannot add the 3 letter abbreviation for the month. I can change days and year, but not month. It is a huge pain tghe clock back in time many years in some cases. T
Thank you for addressing this visit date issue -- wow this is going to be awesome
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6 minutes ago, bootron said:
Not yet. But a fix is coming.
I love you, man.
I rely on those dates to find pictures - this would be most awesome
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is the visit date bug fixed, so I can edit the visit date and have it not revert back to today's date?
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I cant input coordinates in any of the suggested formats - yikes
Each time I try the site says I have to post coordinates, and -- I DID?
15 Minutes later, it is working for me
Thank you Bootron for investing time energy and resources into Waymarking. The loss of Benchmarking still hurts (see our caching name ha) but if some of that savings was invested into Waymarking, we appreciate it
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Well it looks like this category has passed Peer Review, and I am looking forward to Waymarking in this category!
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On 4/17/2023 at 8:17 PM, ScroogieII said:
See the above to answer your question. I stand behind your becoming the "father" of the proposed category.
EDIT:
Stupidly, I had assumed the word "father" to be the correct choice of genders here. Should that not be the case, PLEASE feel free to correct me.
Obviously, there's a 50% chance that I had made a faux pas.
Keith
I'd say 100%, Keith. I know CFH and she's definitely in DAR and not SAR for a reason - as am I, ha ha
I also support CFH keeping Leadership (ownership?) of this category - she's worked VERY hard over many months to make this go.
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7 hours ago, Becktracker said:
I had a good shower (great thinking time) and I think I have a preliminary list of possible waymarks for this category:
1 Buildings important to the Hanseatic league, and dated (at least partially) from the Hanseatic era
Allowed: City Hall of Wesel, Gdansk harbor crane, trade houses of Bruges
Not Allowed: modern city hall of Hamburg, the Kolner Dom (and other churches), city walls and gates, common houses
2 Museums with a permanent exhibition about the Hanseatic League
3 Signs and flags that display 'Hamburg, Hazestadt' or similar. Only one waymark for each sign of flag type.
4 Information signs about the Hanseatic League or history related to the Hanseatic League. If an information sign is attached at an eligable building, the building should be submiited as a waymark and a photo of the sign should be made.
5 Replica's of ships (or the real thing) from the Hanseatic era
6 Monuments commemmorating the Hanseatic League
7 Artwork (sculptures/murals) lagrely inspired by the heritage of the Hanseatic League. The link should be well-visible or included in a present information sign.
Why not city walls or gates from the HL time period?
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Well, I think obviously you would have to be IN Europe for this category, which is not an issue. This is a worldwide game, after all.
It's a question of WHAT would be waymarked? And how would it be proven to be appropriate in the category? I have never heard of Hanseatic League before today. Learning something new!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League
https://www.coe.int/en/web/cultural-routes/the-hansa
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Are there historical markers or signs that discuss and explain Hanseatic heritage? This looks like just a very cool mural to me, which can go into the Murals Category.
Please explain how someone from Texas traveling in Europe would know something they saw along their journey could be waymarked in a possible future Hanseatic Heritage category
Let's talk it over
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2 hours ago, BeayPepe said:
It seems that we no longer see everything so black. The truth is that we observe that the vast majority of this community are nice people. The bad thing is that although there are a thousand nice people, the two who are not, make much more noise than the other thousand. Sometimes this is frustrating and they discourage the others from doing anything.
Free advice: Focus on your positive people, and let others howl into the wind.
. Now Let's have fun today finding new things to waymark!
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On 3/5/2023 at 1:06 AM, Becktracker said:
What we see now, is the getting to used hiccups in the beginning of a new category. Everybody jumps with what they have at the unsuspecting officers.
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If there is mutual respects for the officers and submitters, I'm sure everything will work out.
THIS ^^^ 100%!!
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20 hours ago, BeayPepe said:
. . .
The first thing we want to do is to thank all of you who, in some way, have contributed to the approval of the category. Both those who voted to approve it and those who didn't, because your comments helped us to learn more about this strange community.Yes, Waymarking is very different from geocaching. But this is a fun category, and when the wrinkles get ironed out, it will be more fun to be an officer.
20 hours ago, BeayPepe said:
Although we are very happy that the category was approved, we regret very much that we created it. Our intention was to bring something to the game, but, since it has been approved, all we see are fights of little kids.
And we are talking about everyone, from the one who submits a category that knows will not be approved because it does not contain the name of a city, to the officials who, in their eagerness to approve things, leave the descriptions unread. But, of course, those who are most to blame for all this, are the leaders of the group, since we see that we have not known how to manage all this as it should be. We thought this was a game and we see that there are people who seem to have their lives in it....It's very sad for me that you regret creating this category. I wouldn't have voted for it and would't be an officer if I didn't believe in it, and in its potential to be fun and interesting.
It IS true that waymarkers enjoy the race of posting waymarks and getting that new icon. Some are much more competitive in this arena than others. Some are more understanding and less belligerent than others. You see the whole spectrum of human behavior in Waymarking - the good and the not so good - in ways that you don't in geocaching.
20 hours ago, BeayPepe said:
We apologize if it has not been clear at some point what is a city and what is not, or what is a word and what is not, or what is a meter high.
Right now, you all see that the description was poor, but nobody said anything when it was proposed in this thread. If you read the posts, you can see that all the indications we were given, were incorporated into the description. Now it seems that they were not enough.This is why Groundspeak gave officers the ability to edit the category descriptions
No category description, no matter how meticulously created, survives first contact with the Waymarking community. Think of it as de-bugging. This community will find every loophole, every thing left vague, and will try and exploit it.
Our job as officers is to tweak guidelines to make sure the category accepts what the category creator's vision was -- and we are going through that painful process right now. It will be over once new more specific guidelines are created.
20 hours ago, BeayPepe said:
You guys take away anyone's desire to do new things for the game.As sad as your regret over creating the category was, this statement is what really broke my heart. The vast Vast VAST majority of waymarkers are wonderful, kind, optimistic, adventurous, considerate, polite, fun and reasonable people. Once you get to know more of us, you will see that this is true.
Please do not use this admittedly bumpy start to form an opinion about the entire Waymarking community.
New categories are always chaotic in the beginning, even when mulled over in the forums for weeks. This too shall pass. I have faith!
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15 hours ago, Max and 99 said:
I think this is a really fun, global category. A great idea! I hope the officers will iron out the confusion/issues and continue with what will surely be a popular category that waymarkers will seek out while traveling.
We're working on it. I agree that this is a fun category, and the new-to-Waymarking officers are drinking from a firehose right now. Everybody who is an officer in the category is dedicated to its success.
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From Max &99: Would O-K-C be accepted for Oklahoma City?
Y-E-S!! - And I'll even come visit it
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I started Waymarking in earnest when virtuals were done away with a long time ago. Then there was that one time in 2017 that Groundspeak invited specific cachers to create a new virtual -- well, of course I grabbed that opportunity with BOTH HANDS (from my husband, whose caching activity had actually earned the award ha ha)!!!
My Virtual Reward cache GC7B7BDA from 2017: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC7B7DA
Click on the "nearest WM" link: https://www.Waymarking.com/wm/search.aspx?f=1&lat=42.25605&lon=-104.748467&t=6
Yeah, those are all my WMs from 2014.
I added a photo requirement to the cache, and 98% of folks post the photo. I don't delete logs of you didn't - your game actions finding a virtual cache are your business. I only deleted one log - a guy who posted a photo of his feet on carpet, and a "signed log, TFTC" comment. Yeah, that was too much.
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From the vague to the soul
in General Waymarking Topics
Posted · Edited by Benchmark Blasterz
I agree with what you are seeing. Submission quality is going wayyyy down, especially for some prolific waymarkers, . I think its in the pure pursuit of numbers, which was NEVER what this game was about. It's about telling the stories of interesting places - to encoruage others to exploire as well (at least that is how I try and play it). Have some pride in your submissions -- your name is on them!
With the advent of Google and Wikipedia, there isn no reason NOT to do some minumuim amount of research. We are seeing this most often in the history categories, but it affects other categories as well.
At the same time, we are seeing (especially with one person in the DAR category) incredibly vitriolic and unhinged reactions to declines of previously-approved-in-other-categories copy-pasted waymark submissions. It is NEVER OK to personally attack reviewers, and even when I disagree with a reviewer, I never attack them personally.