Volunteer Reviewers

[+fresgo]

DEAR Powers That Be

I'm writing this with the understanding that this has been posted before so I apologize ahead of time I value the volunteer reviewers but this issue popped up today and I couldn't find an answer so maybe someone can direct me.

 

How many volunteer reviewers are there and what is their concentration?

What criteria need to be met when a new volunteer is needed in a certain region?

Is there any requirement that reviewers know the area in which they are reviewing?

Can the Fresno area (perhaps centered here and including an area of 100 miles in diameter) please have a local reviewer that knows the area and the people that cache here?

Do the reviewers know or care anything about the geocachers that they are reviewing, or is it squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing?

Do distance or region barriers come into play when info is disseminated and what is the cure for this?

Does Groundspeak value local and regional geocaching groups such as those of us Yahoo Groups? Or should we just give up in deference to the Bay Area, LA, or Sacramento?

 

I value the work that the reviewers do but being over 200 miles away in areas with nothing in common with the Central San Joaquin Valley doesn't seem like things are equal. Our reviewers that I know of are either in Sacramento, the Bay Area, or LA the only thing in common is that we are within the borders of the Great State of California.

 

A reviewer commented to me today that he didn't realize we had an organized group of geocachers in Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings Counties. It seemed to me as out of touch, perhaps it was me! It got me thinking does someone 200 miles away know or care about the area that we are in when they have so many ties to their own regions. I realize in certain areas population and cache concentration aren't an issue so 200 miles doesn't seem much but with 8000 caches in the Bay Area or 10000 caches in the LA Basin some of us feel overlooked, undervalued, and out of the mainstream.

 

Signed Frustrated in CSJV

[+theUMP]

Could be worse.... there's two of us in Australia (and 90% of the time it's just me) and we have an area 90% of the continental US! 8-)}

 

Most of my reviews are for caches >3,000km away, and some of the 2,000km ones are in my home State!

[+Googling Hrpty Hrrs]

There's probably an interesting alternate story behind this post...

 

That being said, I don't understand the importance of having a "local" reviewer per se. Given the guidelines they must follow, and the resources they probably use to ensure those guidelines are met, I'd think a reviwer from Montana could publish caches for California just fine.

 

What's the intrinsic need for a "local" reviewer? Is there a cache that didn't get published by the current reviewer that would have been were they local?

 

What's the rest of the story?

[+fresgo]

There's probably an interesting alternate story behind this post...

 

That being said, I don't understand the importance of having a "local" reviewer per se. Given the guidelines they must follow, and the resources they probably use to ensure those guidelines are met, I'd think a reviwer from Montana could publish caches for California just fine. I agree in theory but should a reviewer be familiar with the area no they are reviewing?

 

What's the intrinsic need for a "local" reviewer? Just wondering if it would be possible IS cache saturation a factor in determining the number of volunteers, do the reviewers have so much to do they can't take the time to get to know and area they review in?

 

Is there a cache that didn't get published by the current reviewer that would have been were they local? NO, the reviewers have been very good to me when it comes to my caches. I value the work they do! That being said it would be nice if there was some way we knew that the people reviewing our caches or being a link to GC.com for us actually understand issues confronting this or that region, somewhat like a senator or representative. Is that out of the question?

[/i]

 

What's the rest of the story? I think the questions I asked are valid without the rest of the story!

All of what you said is true but probably only interesting to me. I just felt a little dissed today by a reviewer and a comment he made to me - that's all! Actually the funny thing for me a few months back I contacted TPTB and inquired about how to volunteer to be a reviewer and if there were plans to add a reviewer and the repsonse was that volunteers are asked for their services and there were no plans to add a reviewer for our area and the next week we got a new reviewer from somewhere along the central coast or the Bay Area.

[+fresgo]

Could be worse.... there's two of us in Australia (and 90% of the time it's just me) and we have an area 90% of the continental US! 8-)}

 

Most of my reviews are for caches >3,000km away, and some of the 2,000km ones are in my home State!

I understand what you are saying and thanks for your service to the GC community. I would volunteer to help but...

[+briansnat]

I'm not sure what your beef is, but there is no reason a reviewer who is familiar with the various local land policies can't review caches there if they live 200, or 2,000 miles away.

 

And why would a reviewer need to know anything about local geocaching groups? They enforce the guidelines and local policy (if existent) and that is all they need to know.

 

I'm a member of the NNJC and I don't know if my reviewer knows that, or even if he knows that the NNJC exists. I really don't care either. What is important to me is that the guidelines are enforced fairly and my compliant caches are published promptly. If the reviewer can do that, he can live in Alaska for all I care.

[+Glenn]

I'm not sure what your beef is, but there is no reason a reviewer who is familiar with the various local land policies can't review caches there if they live 200, or 2,000 miles away.

 

And why would a reviewer need to know anything about local geocaching groups? They enforce the guidelines and local policy (if existent) and that is all they need to know.

 

I'm a member of the NNJC and I don't know if my reviewer knows that, or even if he knows that the NNJC exists. I really don't care either. What is important to me is that the guidelines are enforced fairly and my compliant caches are published promptly. If the reviewer can do that, he can live in Alaska for all I care.

Ain't that the truth. When I started geocaching I lived in Italy and my reviewer was physicaly located in the USA. He had no problems reviewing my caches. Years later when I moved to Hawaii I found that I had the same reviewer! I moved half way around, had the same reviewer, but I still wasn't any closer to my reviewer. Even though he lives in the USA he doesn't live on any of the Hawai'ian Islands, he lives in Georgia. I doubt distance is a problem. Different reviewers however do take a little getting used to because sometimes they have different opinions than the reviewer that you are used to.

[+welch]

...

 

I value the work that the reviewers do but being over 200 miles away in areas with nothing in common with the Central San Joaquin Valley doesn't seem like things are equal. Our reviewers that I know of are either in Sacramento, the Bay Area, or LA the only thing in common is that we are within the borders of the Great State of California.

 

A reviewer commented to me today that he didn't realize we had an organized group of geocachers in Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings Counties. It seemed to me as out of touch, perhaps it was me! It got me thinking does someone 200 miles away know or care about the area that we are in when they have so many ties to their own regions. I realize in certain areas population and cache concentration aren't an issue so 200 miles doesn't seem much but with 8000 caches in the Bay Area or 10000 caches in the LA Basin some of us feel overlooked, undervalued, and out of the mainstream.

 

Signed Frustrated in CSJV

I guess I don't understand what you mean by 'know the area'. I mean I understand it would be cool if everyone could say "yea I know my reviewer, he lives down the street from me, and we meet at the local pizza events all the time", but is that really necessary to be a reviewer?

What is a reviewer's job? Read the descriptions for submitted caches for guidelines violations, plot the coords on various maps, check for promixity to other caches, compare the location to whatever known park permission policys the area has, and react/respond to whatever things people email them, right? Those all sound like things that could from far away.

Yes, you could say that if they were 'local' they would know that those RR were abandoned years ago and have been turned into a trail. Which is why the cache is only 40ft away from them, but a quick explaintion would fix that.

Yes, you could say that if they were 'local' they would know all the parks policies better, and since many reviewers are usally active in their areas might be true. But even if the 'local' reviewer in is a state with many reviewers, so they are to oversee just a 1/4 of the state, there could still be dozens or hundreds of city, county, and privately owned parks to try and keep up with. Not to meantion whatever state and national areas might be in their area. They still probably can use help from local cachers or orgs to point out new policy or problems with exisiting caches.

[+fresgo]

I did ask several questions perhaps I asked too many at once...

 

 

How many volunteer reviewers are there and what is their concentration?

What criteria need to be met when a new volunteer is needed in a certain region?

Is there any requirement that reviewers know the area in which they are reviewing?

Can the Fresno area (perhaps centered here and including an area of 100 miles in diameter) please have a local reviewer that knows the area and the people that cache here?

Do the reviewers know or care anything about the geocachers that they are reviewing, or is it squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing?

Do distance or region barriers come into play when info is disseminated and what is the cure for this?

Does Groundspeak value local and regional geocaching groups such as those of us Yahoo Groups? Or should we just give up in deference to the Bay Area, LA, or Sacramento?

 

 

Based on the replies so far I think I have what I need. Thanks for repsonding