Ianatlarge

It is good to be home in Perth, Australia. I get to take the bike out of the shed, let my nephews kick me and call me "Uncle Butt-cheeks" (amongst other things), spend time with my mother and family, and my sis-in-laws update me on everything I need to know—but what is truly great are the voyages I embark upon with Waymarking.com. I mean—this wonderful feature of Waymarking.com—where non-standard (non-USA) waymarks have their non-standard lat and lon (east and south) swapped back to the standard (north and west), randomly. When I was in Asia, only my east latitude was swapped, but now, being both east and south, both are swapped back and forth. For example, I enter a waymark e31.xxxx and s115.xxxx, and it can go anywhere. I can find myself in San Diego, on the frozen tundra of China, even in the briny blue. Every new waymark submitted is mystery flight. I find myself anticipating where I might find myself, then staring at a map of an unknown locale and trying to figure out where it is. Great fun. Those in the north and east might not appreciate this.

Ditto to the above. A great achievement, and a fine example. Personally, please accept a thank you for all the help and advice given to me, and everyone else here. Bruce has always been a voice of moderation (no pun intended) and reason in this active community of freethinking, opinionated, good people.

"Framed View" ? Have not come across any of these in the Commonwealth of Australia, but they look interesting. I suggest write up a description and the rest of us can examine the idea in more detail.

Agree with all of what has been said in reply. Let me add, that Waymarking, that is to say, creating waymarks, gives one an excellent incentive to go out and explore, either when at home, or while travelling. It is all to easy to be 'lazy', to put the feet up and watch the world walk by. Waymarks walk the world! Waymarking is also mental exercise, which we all of us need, particularly those of us who are older folk. And, if you start to ask "why", then why anything? In a century we will all be dust, forgotten for the most part. In a billion years (or so) the Sun will engulf the Earth. Should we then despair and reject the world? No! Go forth and waymark.

Umm, rather than limit to annual, how about any regularly scheduled mass sporting event? Just my 2c worth.

Wow, thanks, great. I feel humble. And it is a good waymark.

A bit late to the discussion, but... 1st, congrats on passing peer review. 2nd, I voted yay for your category, even though I was aware of a few issues, mentioned here. My thinking is, unless the category is woefully bad, give it a chance. If 1,001 waymarkers in the Kingdom of the Danes flood the category with tens of thousands of waymarks then success, but, if it proves unpopular it will fade away. I do believe that at some time in the future we should look at the categories, and category divisions, and generally tidy things up.

Just wondering, has anyone made any Waymarking resolutions for the new year? I mean, for example, to reach 100 entries in your favourite category, or make the first entry in a dozen new categories? Each year I try and better my average from the previous year. I realise that in the long term this is a self-defeating goal, but then again, most goals are.

Well, not so much a criticism, but are you planning to expand the utility of the app, from us benchmarks to all waymarks?

Well, not so much a criticism, but are you planning to expand the utility of the app, from us benchmarks to all waymarks?

Looks good, Qapla' I note the multi-nation basis of the category. In the back of my mind for a while now I have been pondering a few ASEAN multi-nation categories, benchmarks being one. The members of ASEAN are making a big push to integrate their economies, with the plan being to fully integrate by 2016 (or thereabouts). Thus there is an external, legalistic framework.

Life is a challenge. Is this not enough?

Just to lob in my 2 bahts worth, I have never liked the "rating" option, and generally do not use it when it I can avoid doing so. I am thinking specifically of hospitals. How can I rate a hospital, and on what basis should anyone rate a hospital? I cannot fairly judge its worth, and even if I could, so many ancillary factors would need to be considered that any rating would be meaningless. I realise that this opinion flies in the face of modern business practice, where everything is assigned a rating, such as Australian universities, which are rated in a bewilderingly complex fashion that resembles more the "Da Vinci Code" than anything of worth, but I digress. If you feel that the waymark is of note in some fashion, either good or bad, write a few words in the description, eschew ratings.

You would need to limit the category to architectural constructs in which glass was both the major structural and the major aesthetic element. A structure designed to highlight glass. Not impossible, but tricky. If you wish to continue, I suggest posting a draft category, and we can take a look. Good luck.

Australia was legally declared to be "uninhabited", therefore there could be no conflicts.

"Misc-non-categorisable-oddities waymarks." Sounds good to me.

Ummmm, new category: "misc architectural fancies"? Or, perhaps, gasp gasp, not everything needs to be waymarked?

I came across these architectural oddities in Singapore. They seem entirely without purpose or function (thus, most likely, Oscar Wilde would have approved). They stand in Fort Canning Park, before the former governor's mansion, in central Sing. Rather cute (and I don't use that word often) in appearance. Is there a category into which these might fall? I could find none.

No takers? Perhaps searching for a Jewish website or a local synagogue?

Yes, congrats to the category and to all concerned. Ummm, maybe not the best post to mention this, but, when reading about this category the question of "interesting" came to mind—in reference for the recent and ever ongoing debate as to where a proposed category is "interesting". In this context, is a disc stuck into the ground interesting? Obviously to some, perhaps not to others. Just as, for example, a Soroptimist plaque, may or may not be. The judgement depends on one's interests and what the particular item represents and symbolises. Anyway. There we go. As I said, congrats, and looking forward to the 2nd 10,000.

I did some searching and found a bundle of articles about gps accuracies, but this seems the most relevant. http://academics.skidmore.edu/blogs/onlocation/2012/03/smartphone_accuracy/ They found that an iphone is accurate to ~8m, while a Garmin gps was accurate to ~3m. A substantial difference, however, this ~8m is effectively what I found for my iphone. What is curious is that the two, identical model gps devices gave different accuracies. One was ~twice as accurate as the other (1.7m v 2.9m), but even here the accuracy of each varied widely. One on measurement (#3) the "accurate" gps gave a less accurate measure than did its less accurate associate. I also gather, from reading between the lines, is that these chaps did not pause for long at each gps spot. My impression is that the iphone requires a longer time to accurately measure its position. So, bottom line, is 8-10m / 25-30', sufficiently accurate for Waymarking?

DougK, you got me there. No iphone app that I am aware of does gps averaging. This is a surprising omission, as averaging could be easily implemented in software. (I just had a quick look at the Apple developers forum. Possibly the iphone api does not allow this? Not sure.) I do recall gps averaging — back in the 20th (at least I think I remember the 20th), accuracies to 2-3 metres were attainable, even better if you were prepared to spend hours waiting for the result. (I used to do Luna occultation observations. Astronomers are obsessive about decimal points!) My finding is that your iphone app will give an accuracy of 10m or less, when used correctly. That is to say, give the app a minute or two to settle down, and hope for unobstructed skies. This is a 30' diameter or less. Usually less, based upon my experiments. The "MotionX GPS" app (which modestly claims to be "MOST ACCURATE IPHONE GPS!—in caps with an exclamation!!) gives an accuracy reading. This settles down to 3, 4 or 5 metres after a minute or two, 10-15'. It comes down to the required level of accuracy. As you say, with large waymarks ~10m is not a problem. My favourite waymarks are large: train & bus stations, temples, and dated / neon buildings. I invariably compare my gps spot to google maps (lets not switch to Apple maps), and, when possible, I add a physical address to a waymark. I try and use the entire mix to gain the final position. I feel that even relatively small waymarks: fountains, sculpture/statues, are sufficiently large and distinctive that an accuracy of 5-10m is reasonable. The problem I have with accuracy is not the gps, but with the local environment, trees and such that obscure the signal. The only category that I find heavily demanding of gps accuracy is the one that involves searching for and finding entirely virtual spots on the Earth's surface, indicated only by the decimal based juxtaposition of terrestrial, angular lines of demarcation. To reach the desired decimal accuracy requires that one walk around in circles, draw lines in the sand, mutter under one's breath, and generally looking like a complete idiot to anyone passing by. So, what I am getting at is that, I believe that the fourth decimal place in a decimal degree is sufficient, and that for a large part of the time, all we can realistically hope for.

You go to sleep, you wake up, and everything changes. Wow, that was quick. I agree with all of the above suggestions. I had a look at the Western Australian Soroptimist website, they do not advertise and only accept new members by invitation, so as Control says, best not to list their details. "Soror" is in fact the Latin word for "sister", not "woman". So strictly speaking "Soroptimist" means a top notch sister, but who wants to be that pedantic (apart from me). Good luck with the category. I strongly suspect that it will be a quiet success story.

@Tharandter The system works well enough, 90% or more of the time, mostly. We are all volunteers, and some even allow their family and personal lives to intrude on their Waymarking. Go figure. People come, people go, and with a group of tourist people you got to expect that there would be a lot more going. I have never participated in a revival of an orphaned category, but that seems to be the area that needs improvement. Possibly, someone could document the process and then "pin" it in the forum so that the procedure is clearly presented and easily accessible.

Soroptimist plaques are not uncommon in Perth, Australia. I recall seeing a few here and there. Ditto for elsewhere in Australia. My late aunt was an active member, possibly this prompted me to be more observant of these in my pre-Waymarking days. I would be honoured to waymark these in her memory.