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Abandoned Categories?


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When there are FTF races for newly-published waymarks, I might be more motivated.

This will most probably never happen. You should not think of Waymarking as virtual caches. That's history. Waymarking is another game. It's about posting. And we do want these posts to be published in a timely manner, 72 hours seems to be the generally accepted limit. Most waymarks will never be visited, because most of us do not care much about visits. Some officers do not understand this fundamental difference between the two games.

 

The geocacher's approach is understandable from a historic point of view, unfortunately it causes a lot of unnecessary anger.

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When Groundspeak makes pocket queries available for waymarks, or includes them in an overall "find count," I might be more motivated. Instead, we see published waymarks languish for months or years before their first visit, and site development all but abandoned.

 

Yes this "When Groundspeak" - just take a look at forum "Waymarking.com Features & Functions", where i post three new topics. And GS response? After one week - nothing -only posts from another annoyed waymarkers, who claiming, that these errors are more than 2 years old... It's like all these stuff of challenges, souvenirs or Wherigo... From beginning it was all "big" but after couple of weeks we could see only GS resignation... I want to understand that policy, but i unfortunately don't...

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You should not think of Waymarking as virtual caches. That's history. Waymarking is another game. It's about posting. And we do want these posts to be published in a timely manner, 72 hours seems to be the generally accepted limit. Most waymarks will never be visited, because most of us do not care much about visits. Some officers do not understand this fundamental difference between the two games.

 

The geocacher's approach is understandable from a historic point of view, unfortunately it causes a lot of unnecessary anger.

I first learned about Waymarking in September 2003 (that's right, 2003), was a site beta tester in 2005, and was the founder of four categories in the first two rows of the category grid.

 

Thanks for letting me know that I've been doing it wrong all this time. I can't believe I misunderstood things for nine years! Enjoy your waymark postings.

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I think we should not wonder, why we have less officers who review more than ca.5 categories or stay away from reviewing Waymarks.

 

Few weeks ago, I got this message.

 

"P.S. - Either u approve this waymark or not, this is the last contribution I am posting in this category. Perhaps this will make you think what is driving people away of Waymarking. Declining waymarks due to arguable reasons is definitely one of the most important reasons for the global failure of Waymarking and you do incarnate perfectly this spirit."

 

It's kind of demotivating if you read these lines.

 

This is a big off topic but if that's what you want here it goes. It's no problem naming the sender of messages. The sender was me. And it was not a message, in the sense we usually use the word, as an e-mail. It was a note in the waymark form, in a re-submission. I keep all it says there, word by word. Declining waymarks due to arguable reasons is definitely [amongst many] one of the most important reasons for the global failure of Waymarking and you do incarnate perfectly this spirit.

 

Oh! I correct something. It's not you, personally, who incarnate the spirit. It was your attitude in this specific occasion. Declining a waymark asking the submitter to describe what is already described by proper pictures, that was the specific thing. More recently I got a declined waymark because I didn't provide a website for the Research Institute. I explained there is no website. No reaction. So, if a research institute does not have a website it's not a research institute, or simple doesn't deserve to be waymarked? Anyway, yes, it's this declining attitudes that pulled many people out of Waymarking, and I am not saying this because I am pissed off with these specific cases. Which I am not, specially weeks after. It's really because when I think of conversations with people who tried Waymarking and stepped out, most of the reasons I hear gravitate about this. As to me, it has been a long time since I got really angry on account of these things. Now, each time I got a declined one, I look at the pointed reasons. If I take it as fair, mostly because I missed a requirement, I do what I can to fulfill it, otherwise I delete it, no worries. If it's a nonsense, the category goes to my "blacklist", where are at this moment about 6 categories, including Town Halls, because I am not going to be forced to describe something which is shown in the pictures and I am not going to discard a Town Hall because I couldn't find solid information about the building itself.

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There are many categories only one officer is doing the whole work.

 

You say it! I can't understand why I have to wait for days for an approval in a category with 13 officers!!!

-> Official Local Tourism Attractions

That is beyond my comprehension!

 

In my opinion, the whole system with the leaders and Officers doesn't work!

It's too complicated to revive an orphaned category.

Edited by Tharandter
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@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.

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What's the rush? When there are FTF races for newly-published waymarks, I might be more motivated.

 

Let me try to explain my philosophy about Waymarking and see if you think there's anything you might be willing to adopt. For most of us, there are three communities in Waymarking - waymark visitors, waymark posters and category creators/managers/officers. Technically, another community might be the Groundspeak people who oversee WMing and mingle with us as moderators, lackeys and such, but most of us do not operate in that realm.

 

One way to recognize which communities you participate in, is by looking at your overall totals, waymarks visited, waymarks posted and waymarks approved (though the last one is hard to obtain). They could be balanced among all three or weighted towards one or two communities.

 

• Some people focus on just one community. There are people who only log WM visits (and have 0 posts). We even see category officers with no posts or visits!

 

A fair number of WMer's enjoy the finding, research, creation and posting of waymarks. These people are the high profile people here, who spend a lot of time and effort on this website. Without these active people, there wouldn't be any waymarks to approve or to visit. These people are the backbone of Waymarking. They probably write the most in these forums angling for the causes of their community. They don't create waymarks thinking everybody's going to come visit the WM (as in a geocache find). If others do log visits, then great, it is a place worth Waymarking. I believe one reason they do it for the small notoriety of being first-to-post a WM for a neat place.

 

This is why the WM poster community wants active and timely support from the category managers. Not every geographic area is competitive or overrun with waymark posters, but I'm sure every waymarker who does postings, gets a feeling of delight when a special place is approved and knowing it was you who got the first-to-post.

 

There is no formal first-to-visit a waymark distinction. Anyway, would it be the first visit logged or the earliest date of a visit log? I don't think it really matters. There will probably never be a race to visit a waymark, like a FTF geocache. It's not the same at all.

 

I believe there's a first-to-publish thrill that waymark creators are seeking. So category managers who let waymarks languish for weeks and months are not giving good and timely feedback to the WM posters. It's very unsatisfying waiting a long time for an approval.

 

I've pleaded this case with you before, listing 3 other important reasons in this thread http://portal.Groundspeak.com/forums/permalink/37642/37641/ShowThread.aspx#37641, so I won't repeat those points again here, assuming that you've already read them.

 

• A few people are really active in all three communities at once. These folks need to balance their time. You can't spend all your time posting WMs and logging visits, and delaying categories with submissions awaiting approval.

 

• Some people work in a couple of communities. Anyone who first posts waymarks, starts to wonder how the category management and approval process takes place. Many people who create waymarks, naturally get involved with the approval process to understand how it works. My suspicion is that categories with active posters as officers, probably have better response times than categories with less active waymarkers (posters, visitors or geocachers).

 

I don't know how many waymark visit logs are created each day, but we can see hundreds of new waymarks being created and approved each day. It just makes sense that category managers need to be as active as the people submitting them and process the queue of submissions on a timely basis. It's their duty in the process.

 

Oh, I just thought of another offshoot community - those whose only read these forums and don't do anyway Waymarking.

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Ironically, the category "Unoccupied Buildings, Shacks, and Cabins" has - like the edifices it describes - been abandoned. I submitted a waymark for this category back on 22 December 2012; sent an email (with copy back to me) to the category creator back on 11 January 2013, and yet today (19 February 2013) nearly 3 months later no action at all has been taken on the waymark or on the email.

 

Being of a melancholic disposition, I really like this category (and others like it - nostalgic). I'd really hate to see this category remain stagnant.

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I was pointed to this thread by a friend and I am not sure what email or wayamrk you are referring too. Can you give me a specific waymark please. I went through today and do not see any by you. As far as I know everything has been reviewed, or there is a glitch. I also have not seen any email from you.

 

 

Ironically, the category "Unoccupied Buildings, Shacks, and Cabins" has - like the edifices it describes - been abandoned. I submitted a waymark for this category back on 22 December 2012; sent an email (with copy back to me) to the category creator back on 11 January 2013, and yet today (19 February 2013) nearly 3 months later no action at all has been taken on the waymark or on the email.

 

Being of a melancholic disposition, I really like this category (and others like it - nostalgic). I'd really hate to see this category remain stagnant.

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Here is the link to the waymark, which I submitted almost 3 months ago: http://www.Waymarking.com/waymarks/WMFZD0_Van_Zandt_School

 

The email message that I sent you on January 11 (with a copy to myself) was done through the Waymarking.com method of contacting a person through their profile. I can send you another copy of the email or copy/paste it here. If your email address is not correct within your Waymarking.com profile, I would suggest updating it so that you do receive email messages.

 

EDIT: I see that someone has finally approved the waymark today. Thank you. It really shouldn't take 3 months, though. :rolleyes:

Edited by MountainWoods
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Here is the link to the waymark, which I submitted almost 3 months ago: http://www.Waymarking.com/waymarks/WMFZD0_Van_Zandt_School

 

The email message that I sent you on January 11 (with a copy to myself) was done through the Waymarking.com method of contacting a person through their profile. I can send you another copy of the email or copy/paste it here. If your email address is not correct within your Waymarking.com profile, I would suggest updating it so that you do receive email messages.

 

EDIT: I see that someone has finally approved the waymark today. Thank you. It really shouldn't take 3 months, though. :rolleyes:

 

I see he approved two others along with yours today, one that was even older.

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...There are far too many categories that are very slow or don't review waymarks at all.

 

Dear kJfishman,

 

I don't think that there are too many categories with problems.

Perhaps some small special categories, but the big ones are all working good.

 

At the moment we are getting a lots of submissions. Two days ago I reviewed 170 Waymarks, today I reviewed about 80 so it's really work and some officers could be more active. Perhaps the Waymarkers go more outdoor now so the computer stuff has to wait.

 

If there are waiting times longer than 1 week write it here in the forum and we will help togehter getting the category back.

 

-lumbricus

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I have two waymarks that have been waiting since 2 March 2013, which is over 3 months (this time -- sorry I got confused a while back and said 3 when it was only 2 for that abandoned building). Then there is another waymark that has been waiting since 5 May 2013, which is over 1 month. If the group doesn't like them, I don't mind if they get denied (for good reasons). But it's a little annoying having them sit in limbo.

 

If there is too much work for the reviewers, some of us wouldn't mind becoming officers in some groups that we really like so that we can help out. But I don't have any idea how that would come about.

Edited by MountainWoods
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I have two waymarks that have been waiting since 2 March 2013, which is over 3 months (this time -- sorry I got confused a while back and said 3 when it was only 2 for that abandoned building). Then there is another waymark that has been waiting since 5 May 2013, which is over 1 month....

 

So please tell us the categories

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The 2 over-3 month waymarks are both Country Churches.

The 1 over-1 month waymark is a Missouri Marker.

 

I do get emails for everything. And I do occasionally check these waymarks to see if any comments were left for me, or if any vote was taken.

Edited by MountainWoods
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"Ghosts, paranormal, and hauntings" is another abandoned group. This is happening way too often.

 

CoinsAndPins - Leader

[view profile]

 

status:

call number: 1

last login: 2/14/2013

[send message]

no message

TumbleWeed - Officer 1

[view profile]

 

status:

call number: 6

last login: 5/8/2009

[send message]

no message

TeamTGF - Officer 2

[view profile]

 

status:

call number: 2

last login: 9/20/2011

[send message]

no message

GEO*Trailblazer 1 - Officer 2

[view profile]

 

status:

call number: 3

last login: 5/8/2013

[send message]

no message

dawgs - Officer 2

[view profile]

 

status:

call number: 4

last login: 5/19/2013

[send message]

no message

kokopop1 - Officer 2

[view profile]

 

status:

call number: 10

last login: 6/27/2003

[send message]

no message

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Yes. Thanks. I've been so busy posting new Waymarks that I always seem to have a backlog waiting to be Approved. My backlog is keeping yourse guys's backlogs up. But that's good. We're all getting somewhere.

 

I should start another thread about Startling Fast Approvals to counterbalance this thread.

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...I should start another thread about Startling Fast Approvals to counterbalance this thread.

 

Nice! One time I published a Waymark under 30 seconds, could someone beat that :anibad:

 

Sometimes I get a waymark approval email before I get the waymark confirmation email. Some of those reviewers are fast! :D

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This seems as good a thread as any to post this, so:

Anyone noticed that "Sprayparks" has disappeared? Went to post one yesterday and POOF, it was nowhere to be found.

Also, our category grid read a total of 1068 categories either yesterday or 2 days ago and reads 1063 total today.

Did 5 categories just up and disappear this week?

Edited by BK-Hunters
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This seems as good a thread as any to post this, so:

Anyone noticed that "Sprayparks" has disappeared? Went to post one yesterday and POOF, it was nowhere to be found.

Also, our category grid read a total of 1068 categories either yesterday or 2 days ago and reads 1063 total today.

Did 5 categories just up and disappear this week?

Occasionally categories pop up that have not been passed peer review and they get removed as soon as they are identified. I am not sure what a sprayparks is so don't remember seeing that one. I am aware of one category removed in last couple days not five.

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This seems as good a thread as any to post this, so:

Anyone noticed that "Sprayparks" has disappeared? Went to post one yesterday and POOF, it was nowhere to be found.

Also, our category grid read a total of 1068 categories either yesterday or 2 days ago and reads 1063 total today.

Did 5 categories just up and disappear this week?

Occasionally categories pop up that have not been passed peer review and they get removed as soon as they are identified. I am not sure what a sprayparks is so don't remember seeing that one. I am aware of one category removed in last couple days not five.

OH - OK - Then what was the name of the one category removed?

A Spraypark is usually found in a city/municipal park. They consist of several steel structures with water nozzles, some fixed, some aimable, which kids use to spray themselves and each other to cool off in the summer. It's kinda like playing with the garden hose at home but sanctioned by all concerned. They're getting popular - there are a few of them in this area. We had 2 or 3 of them (AGE THING - can't remember for sure)approved and they've disappeared.

Question - If a category appears on the "New Categories" list, but not on the category grid, could that mean that it has not yet passed peer review?

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Question - If a category appears on the "New Categories" list, but not on the category grid, could that mean that it has not yet passed peer review?

You never know, but I have not seen this case yet. The ones that I have noticed were all categories that had failed peer review.

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Question - If a category appears on the "New Categories" list, but not on the category grid, could that mean that it has not yet passed peer review?

You never know, but I have not seen this case yet. The ones that I have noticed were all categories that had failed peer review.

A category should not appear in either the category list or the grid that has not passed peer review. There is one category the Seattle Art and Seek category which shows only in the category list and not the grid. It is a special category for a program run in Seattle a few years back.

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The 2 over-3 month waymarks are both Country Churches.

The 1 over-1 month waymark is a Missouri Marker.

 

I do get emails for everything. And I do occasionally check these waymarks to see if any comments were left for me, or if any vote was taken.

 

I am an officer in both of these, and I check my review list every day. One thing, to keep in mind is I am the ONLY officer reviewing submission in some of my categories.

I even email the leader of country church and asked her to add a couple officer (one being you) so I could get some help.

I quit Waymarking for almost 3 years, but still kept up my responsibilities of reviewing submissions.

My pattern now is to review 5 to 6 submissions every day. Some days I have over 60 submissions, and you can see that will take me about 10 days to get to the last one.

Another issue is Charles Britton (GEO*Trailblazer 1) passed away and no one knew it. When I found out, I got command of Missouri and got everything caught up.

Country Churches is another matter. We have three officers. One has not logged in in a few years. The other our leader has slowed down a lot and the third is me. I have 4 submissions lingering in there myself. I will not review my own. I have email twice and asked her to add officers, but have not received even a reply.

YoSam.

Edited by YoSam.
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I have a question of my own.

If you read my reply to MountainWood, you will see I was gone for a while, now I have playing again.

 

What do I do with categories, where I make a submission and check the officers, and it usually has only 3 - and the latest one has even logged onto the site has been YEARS....or in one case, none of the officers had logged in in over 4 months....I know my submission will not be reviewed soon.

 

Yo

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Hi Yo,

you can promote new officers, vote with Yea and wait three days, that should help.

If the open enrollment is off you can only promote one of the group members.

-lumbricus

 

Alas! cannot. I thought of that, but she has the settings that the officers can only review submission and review visits...they have no other power.

PS This also goes for the Iowa Historical Markers category. She has logged on last 10/14/2013...so she is around, but has not reviewed submissions - other officers in Iowa logged in 6/10/2013...and the third some time in 2007. (Really?)

MNSearchers needs to clean up her categories.

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I have a question of my own.

If you read my reply to MountainWood, you will see I was gone for a while, now I have playing again.

 

What do I do with categories, where I make a submission and check the officers, and it usually has only 3 - and the latest one has even logged onto the site has been YEARS....or in one case, none of the officers had logged in in over 4 months....I know my submission will not be reviewed soon.

 

Yo

 

When this happens to me, I start thinking about a category take over. There is an established procedure to follow if you are interested in ousting deadbeat officers and taking over the management of the category. I have found the procedure to be fair to all (I have started the procedure and as a result, the leader was "woken up" by Groundspeak. I and others in this forum can help with more details.

Edited by RakeInTheCache
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I have a question of my own.

If you read my reply to MountainWood, you will see I was gone for a while, now I have playing again.

 

What do I do with categories, where I make a submission and check the officers, and it usually has only 3 - and the latest one has even logged onto the site has been YEARS....or in one case, none of the officers had logged in in over 4 months....I know my submission will not be reviewed soon.

 

Yo

 

When this happens to me, I start thinking about a category take over. There is an established procedure to follow if you are interested in ousting deadbeat officers and taking over the management of the category. I have found the procedure to be fair to all (I have started the procedure and as a result, the leader was "woken up" by Groundspeak. I and others in this forum can help with more details.

 

Would be definately interested. The two categories I have in mind are "Country Churches" and "Iowa Historic Markers" both have the same leader. She is a nice person, I use to communicate with her a lot (2010 and before) but lately I do not get a response. I have 4 in each and they are going no where.

I have several categories of my own, but I am willing to take over a couple more. I review only 5-6 each day so my brain can breath. If I do too many I get lazy and sloppy, so with that in mind. where do I go from here? and thanks.

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I'm starting to get impatient about a waymark I submitted to the cityscapes category on October 5. The last approved waymark was on September 30. Anyone else had a problem with Cityscapes? There are three officers and it seems that only the leader is actively approving waymarks. One of the three officers is definitely inactive in Waymarking. I sent an e-mail to the leader on October 18 but no reply. I think in this situation the leader should be obliged to take on additional officers in hopes of a faster turnaround.

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I'm starting to get impatient about a waymark I submitted to the cityscapes category on October 5. The last approved waymark was on September 30. Anyone else had a problem with Cityscapes? There are three officers and it seems that only the leader is actively approving waymarks. One of the three officers is definitely inactive in Waymarking. I sent an e-mail to the leader on October 18 but no reply. I think in this situation the leader should be obliged to take on additional officers in hopes of a faster turnaround.

 

I have the same problem, waymark submitted in October 14th.

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04/23/2012

Hi tozainamboku,

i'd like to help as an officer in the "Cityscapes" category.

All the best,

lumbricus :)

 

-> No answer

 

-----

 

06/07/2013

-- Copy of email sent to tozainamboku --

Dear tozainamboku,

I would like to help as an officer in the "Cityscapes" category.

Thank you, all the best,

lumbricus

 

-----

 

-> no answer

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Apple stores are closed for a long time :(

 

I have a waymark waiting to be reviewed for two months :(

 

I also had the same experience. I wrote the manager about a languishing waymark and offered to help out with the category. No response…

I wrote Checkmark about the overdue waymark, my lack of response from the category officers and my desire to help out with the category.

He chose to approve my waymark, but took no further action within the category, regarding additional managers.

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Even some of the officers are active, nothing is happening with category Monarchs of the World. I sent last week mail to the leader and yesterday to Checkmark. Hope it will move little bit :)

Sorry about that. I'm an officer in a lot of categories that I have considered to be pretty much ceremonial. But I'll go in here and there and try and pick up waymarks that are behind in being reviewed. I'm pretty good at publishing if I'm emailed, as well.

 

Because of this thread, I popped in and reviewed all the monarch waymarks (and other categories, at the same time).

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