Chickilim

Following the legitimate remark by lumbricus regarding copyrights, here is the photo montage that will be used in the description to present the different types of dovecotes all over the World. All photos: - are either free of rights (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons) or - were bought on commercial sites (Fotolia, Stocklib) and - are credited. And here are credited photos that will be used in the description to show what is eligible or not: Oops! I forgot those two! Thank you veritas vita for permission.

lumbricus, you're right and I'm very attached like you to the copyright on Internet. I already have in my possession enough dovecotes photos of which I have acquired the rights to replace those that are not mine and for which I have not yet received authorization. I hope to have time to redo the melting pot including the flags before the end of the peer review to make you change your vote. But in any case, know that in the end all the photos of the description will be legally published.

Well, We thought the melting pot of photos in our description was sufficiently explicit to clearly show the difference between "Unique Bird Houses" and "Dovecotes" but visibly not enough for some. First of all, I must say that I love the category "Unique Bird Houses" which allows us to discover incredible fabrications! Of course, Dovecotes are bird houses etymologically speaking, but if you look, as I did, each 236 waymarks in the "Unique Bird Houses" category you will see mostly bird shelters. And it's normal because the first sentence of the description is: "This category is only open to painted or decorated" UNIQUE BIRDHOUSES "(Close-ups only !!!) ". Try to get permission to paint or decorate this dovecote classified as historic monument and I would offer you a bottle of champagne if you succeed ! And you may know that just in Europe there are several thousand like this. Too bad the category was not called "Unique Bird Shelters", it would have saved a lot of discussions here ! Moreover it is also specified that standing structures are not accepted whereas it is the case of the majority of the dovecotes that we wish to waymark in this category. Some other major differences between these two categories: Birdhouses: small shelters Dovecotes: big structures or buildings Birdhouses: mostly constructed of wood by one person Dovecotes: mostly built in stone by several people Birdhouses: main decorative interest Dovecotes: main architectural interest Birdhouses: main vocation observation and refuge for the winter Dovecotes: main vocation breeding and housing all year round Birdhouses: designed for garden birds and sometimes pigeons or doves Dovecotes: exclusively for pigeons or doves Birdhouses: capacity of some birds Dovecotes: capacity of 20 to 3 000 birds Birdhouses: located in private gardens or sometimes in the city centers for the largest Dovecotes: located in areas of castles and farms in the country Birdhouses: rarely older than a few decades Dovecotes: mostly aged several hundred years Birdhouses: almost never classified historical monuments Dovecotes: often classified historical monuments By staying on a strict architectural point of view, it would be curious to gather in only one category delightful Modern wooden Chapels and imposing Roman Cathedrals of stone. Don't you think so ?..

The suggestion of BK-Hunters regarding the change of category group from Buildings to Structures seems fair to me. What does the community think about it?

First of all I would like to apologize to the waymarkers who actively participated in this topic in February... 2013 and who wondered why I did not persevere in this category? I noted that the issue was raised again in 2014 here. After almost four years, I come back to present a new description that takes into account the different remarks made during the first Peer Review and in this topic. I asked Marine Biologist, Benchmark Blasterz and Alfouine to be officers in the group Pigeon Squadron that will manage this category if accepted by the community. We count on your remarks and suggestions to improve all that can still be, hoping of course that the idea of a category for dovecotes interest you. ---------------------------------------- [Waymark Category Formal Name] Dovecotes [select Category] Buildings [Describe your waymark category in one or two sentences (no html)] The purpose of this category is to discover the incredible variety of these pigeon houses that were built by humans from historic times to the present day throughout the world. [Please define the waymark that should be placed in this category:] A dovecote is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. – Source: Wikipedia - To be eligible in this category, the dovecote can be: - a free-standing building, - built above or as part of a façade of a castle/house/barn or - carved into a cliff (troglodytes). However, in all cases, pigeons historically must have been or currently must be able to enter and leave the building freely. It does not matter if the dovecote still houses pigeons or not because the value of this category is mainly architectural and not ornithological. Therefore, even dovecotes that have been converted into housing or are now used for other purposes will still be accepted. Dovecote ruins will also be accepted if a visible part of their architecture still exists. What we are NOT looking for: - bird houses (there is already a category for these here). However, to allow some modern dovecotes to be included in this category, we will accept structures that were designed to house at least 20 pigeons and that are so large that they could not be moved without heavy equipment. - cages or aviaries (there is already a category for these here). These structures are mainly of ornithological, not architectural, interest. - pigeon transporters, such as trucks for pigeon racing. The dovecote must be a static building, not a vehicle. [Please list any specific requirements for posting a new waymark in this category:] Required: two original photos taken by you. One photo must be of the entire dovecote (this should be the default photo) and a second photo must highlight a particular detail of the dovecote, or provide a more distant view of the dovecote and its surrounding area. Any information about the dovecote (eg: century of construction, name of the domain to which it belongs or belonged, building's condition, presence or not of pigeons, current use) would be appreciated. Please make every attempt to follow the naming convention below: Place - City, State, Country (eg: Manor of Ango - Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France) Optional variable: Approximately how many pigeonholes (boulins) does the dovecote have? This question is important because in many countries the number of pigeonholes allowed was established according to the surface area of the domain owned by the owner of the dovecote. If you are able to answer this question, you will contribute information about the history of the area. [Please list any specific requirements for posting a new log for waymarks of this category:] The only condition to visit a Dovecote waymark is to upload at least one personal photo of the structure. Also, tell us a little about your visit and your opinion about its architecture. [Please enter up to 10 keywords, separated by spaces:] dovecote pigeonnier pigeonaire colombier columbaria palomar Taubenschlag duivenkot holubník pombal

Today I received an instant notification for an EarthCache (GC6R7JX) located 142 km away from my home and still more curious, a geocacher of Martinique (French Antilles), bzh972, received this morning the instant notification of one of my 9 caches (GC6MKXG) published in the Loire Valley ... 6 700 km from his home !

For those who seek space Invader in France, Belgium or in United Kingdom, a few hundred addresses are listed in this site. http://spaceinvaders.mosaic.free.fr/ And you can download the free app that allows you to play by accumulating points for every discovery!

Here, some other examples of Space Invaders non-mosaic et mostly non-European : Unofficial and non-mosaic Space Invader in Budapest (Hungary) Space Invader bike parking in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania - USA) Space Invader "anti-mosaic" in Perth (Australia) Space Invader Hockey Team of Whitefish (Montana – USA) Space Invader graffiti in Brighton (UK) Space Invader molded in Adelaide (Australia) Space Invader Studio Home in Beijin (China)

When Alfouine asked me for being one of the officers in his Aliens' group devoted to the submission of this new category "Space invader", I first did some research on the subject : If 3 295 "officials" invaders in 65 cities and 38 countries (24 in Europe and 13 outside Europe) seemed to me an already significant amount compare to… [oops… thank's very much fi67 to precise that a lot of categories wouldn't have pass the Peer Review nowadays ;-) ]… so is a significant amount, full stop. But to these "officials" invaders must be added all those that were created by other fans who are not referenced on the artist's website. For example, in my city, I found 4 "unofficials" invaders that are still in place since 2009 (two of them could be seen on Google Street View). I photographed them yesterday and one in the railway station is not in ceramic so it couldn't enter the mosaic category. Space Invader 1 Space Invader 2 Space Invader 3 Space Invader 4a Space Invader 4b I do understand the legitimate reluctance of waymarkers who feel that their country seems to own too few potential waymarks in this category. But could it be the principal reason to vote "Nay" when others countries have many?.. Personally, except for commercials chains, I never voted "Nay" against categories that was unfindable in my country, which is still the case of 20% of the 50 last published ones. No one is able to estimate with certainty the potential number of waymarks that could be posted in one particular nascent category. Only 29% categories have more than 500 Waymarks and 21% have less than 100. Who could have predicted that?.. We can see that Invader is still active because he placed 12 new works in London just 4 days ago... This brings to 150 the number of invaders in the British capital (http://www.space-invaders.com/post/london18/). Believe me, when you'll find your next space invader at a street corner, you will smile! [I was just finishing my message when MountainWoods posted his, so it's just coincidence if there are some similarities in our words with the difference that I'll vote "Yeah" for this category. ]

Since few days, the function "Search from Here" located under the map no longer works. Anyone have information about this bug?

No, I speak of a finder who writes very clearly in his log that he gives a point of favorites to the cache.

I think there must be a small bug in the website concerning favorites' points. Several of us have noticed since few months that when we click the "Add to your Favorites (X remaining)" box on the "Post a New Log" page, the point of favorites is not always awarded by the site. This is not systematic but it happens very often. We discovered that the only way to assign with certainty a point is to return to the description page after our log "Found it" and go through the favorites' points' counter for adding the cache in our favorites. Many geocachers do not check if the favorite point they have attributed when they logged has been really taken into account by the website. When the finder specifies in its "Found it" log that he favors the cache and the point does not appear, it forces the owner to send an email asking him : "Thank you very much for that favorites' point you gave to my cache GCxxxxx but unfortunately it has not been taken into account by the website. Could you, please, go back on the cache's page and add your Point via the favorites' counter? Best regards." Obviously if a geocacher has awarded a point favorites without specifying in its log and the point was not taken into account by the site. The owner will never know and the point will never appear . So could it be possible to check this... point , please? Best regards,

- CONCERNING THE MODERN DOVECOTES : First, we think that pigeon transporter (such as : http://www.commercialmotor.com/big-lorry-blog/racing-and-homing-pigeons-retu#.UR4xUBKarTo) should be exclude of this category. We can precise in our description that dovecotes must be statics ones. We need for your help about modern dovecote structure. It is obvious that the modern dovecote presented by Tante.Hossi could be accepted. But what do you think about those pigeons lofts presented by TMOB or here http://trainingracingpigeons.net/racing-pigeon-lofts-considering-the-top-spot-along-with-the-right-care/ and here http://www.westerncapepigeonracing.co.za/leukes_brothers.htm ? We don’t think they have a lot of interest because they are more cages than dovecotes. Do you think we can exclude them ? and if yes how ? And what about those little gardens’ dovecotes (http://www.dovecotes.org/rivington-dovecotes.html) ? Some of them could be pretty but we think that they are too small for our category. We may exclude them by specifying that the dovecote should not be transportable by one person. What do you think ? - Hey SILVERQUILL ! Dovecotes are surely for doves but mainly for pigeons ! So please let us know about the korean dovecotes !.. - Dear TANTE.HOSSI, is that your vote will stay a "Nay" if we keep the French translation as some others encourage us to do so ? Please keep in mind that the description will be shorter 4 or 5 variables instead of 10… - We are waiting for your suggestions and be sure, BENCHMARK BLASTERZ, that we will post here our new category submission before sending it to peer review ! Pending our next post, please take a look at some dovecotes from all around the world with the following links ! India : http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/digital/lema/gallery/seringapatam/dovecote.html http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-56974723/stock-photo-ancient-hindu-dovecote-on-the-banks-of-the-sacred-banganga-tank-in-the-malabar-district-of-mumbai.html Bangladesh http://bangladeshunlocked.blogspot.fr/2012/04/shiva-temple-or-dove-cote-betka-up.html Qatar, Arabia : http://www.123rf.com/photo_8789562_a-traditional-arabian-pigeon-house-or-dovecote-at-the-katara-traditional-village-in-west-bay-doha-qa.html Mexico : http://www.redbubble.com/people/vadim19/works/5756975-the-dovecote-uxmal-yucatan-mexico USA, Europe, Iran, Uganda, Brasil, Egypt, Israel : http://www.bigpictureagriculture.com/2011/08/raising-pigeons-and-examples-of-pigeon.html Thank you all

Thank you Benchmark Blasterz for your post that warms my heart and encourages us to continue to work on this category proposal !

Thank you all for taking the time to comment your "Deny votes" on our proposal for this category. Sorry for not having responded quickly for reasons of personal schedule. Here are the answers we like to give to the main objections. - ON THE PRESENCE OF AN OFFICER OF THE CLASS NOT YET "WAYMARKER" We recruited another officer (Ava Dahmer) with greater experience Waymarking (67 waymarks and 532 visits) than marmotterando. - ON TOO MANY VARIABLES: It seems that some have not noticed that only 3 were required. We thought that other variables could potentially be filled by local visitors in their logs. Taking into account the various comments, here is our list of new variables: 1 - A photograph of the dovecote taken by you is required. The photograph required does not need to show the entire building, the goal must be recognizable dovecote in the picture. Additional pictures of the dovecote or some details are optional goal will be welcome. 2 - All possible information regarding the location, architecture and history of the dovecote are welcome in the description. 3 - How many putlogs (pigeonholes) in it? (OPTIONAL) 4 - Century of construction? (OPTIONAL) 5 - If the building cannot be approached directly by car, a parking area may be indicated as well as the walking time in minutes required to reach the dovecote (OPTIONAL). - ON THE DESCRIPTION OF THIS CATEGORY: We are surprised that some may have judged "poor" our description in comparison to some categories. By placing links to pages on Wikipedia we wanted to allow everyone to benefit from detailed information on the history of the pigeon in the world. It would have been tedious to describe at length in our description, or worse copy/paste these excellent contributions while they are very complete in it. In addition, you will notice that we have taken the trouble to illustrate our description with PERSONAL pictures to the attention of those who do not have the chance to know what is a dovecote. - ON THE FACT OF A DOVECOTE COULD BE TODAY IN ACTIVITY: The interest of the category that we offer is to highlight the varied architecture of these old buildings. Even if they were transformed into something else, often they retain their architectural features and it is indeed the object of that category. - ON THE PREVALENCE OF THIS TYPE OF BUILDING: As stated in the Wikipedia page, there are thousands of dovecotes throughout Western Europe, Central Europe, Middle East and even in the United States. We even think it exists in Asia despite the lack of concrete information about it. - ON THE FRENCH TRANSLATION: As French waymarkers, we thought it would be a plus to add a French translation in our description. Who can do more, can do less ;-) ! We are well aware that the Waymarking is Anglo-Saxon, but why English-speakers waymarkers could be hostile to some additive translation ?.. Finally, we add that we are big fans of dovecotes and we want to share our passion for the great variety of these buildings to the greatest number. This is what led us to propose this new category. We believe it has its place in the Waymarking and we hope that we will bring here some answers that suit. Anyway, we remain attentive to all your remarks. Best regards, Chickilim

Dear Waymarkers, We are really sorry to discover during the "peer reviewing" of the new category we propose "Dovecotes (Pigeonniers, Colombiers, Fuies)" that some negative votes are based on the lack of discussion on the forum. We did not think that this step was absolutely required before submitting a new category. We hope that members who voted against the creation of this new category revise their judgment in bringing their arguments here. It is true that one of the officers has not yet visited or published waymark to this day, but he plans to do it quickly because it has placed several geocaches near a dovecote. Thank you for your understanding, Chickilim

I agree with foam follower, it will be extremly usefull if the app could ignore caches already in the ignore list. Some are in maintenance for a long time, others you don't want to go, and at the end you need to scroll one or two pages to see the brand new ones !