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Inactive Leaders / Abandoned Categories


jhuoni

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I understand. I just was curious because of two things:

1. It's my first submission, and I was nervous as to whether I had gotten things right. Which I had not.

2. I saw that there was activity going on, but since it wasn't on my Waymark, I was wondering if I could help out after I understood the category enough.

 

Not a big deal. I know how they can pile up on ya.

 

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Dunkin Donuts seems to have dunked way under. I've also have had waymarks in there for months and have contacted the group leader with no response. I live in Dunkin country again (New England) although we had many of these in Korea too. But, I've held off submitting any more until this one is back on track. I'd be more than happy to lead it. We run on Dunkins!

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Dunkin Donuts seems to have dunked way under. I've also have had waymarks in there for months and have contacted the group leader with no response. I live in Dunkin country again (New England) although we had many of these in Korea too. But, I've held off submitting any more until this one is back on track. I'd be more than happy to lead it. We run on Dunkins!

I've been hankerin' for some Tim Horton's - but, a)Kansas is WAY too far away, and B) it's off topic... Lemme know if you need help with the Dunkin category - they just put one in about a mile from my house that I want to waymark...

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Dunkin Donuts was another unresponsive category. After waiting months, emailing the leader, all without response, I sent in an official request and was appointed leader. So, I immediately cleared the long queue (including two of my own, so don't be aghast) and updated the description, promoted some new people and opened it up for more to join. We'll work on clearing out the inactive officers and keep this category running.

 

There is absolutely no reason why a category shouldn't have at least 3 ACTIVE officers who will share the reviewing tasks. If they are checking in even once a week, no waymark should wait beyond the 72-hour threshold, or at least not very often.

 

My rule of thumb is that I wait at least a week before making inquiries, depending on the category. There are often reasons we have no knowledge of that can affect reviewing time. Hard to believe, but there really is more to life than Waymarking.

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Although like most everyone else, I don't usually approve my own waymarks, in this case, I heartily agree on your approving your own waymarks immediately after the take over. I suppose you could have waited until other officers got into place; but it sounds like you had waited looooong enough!! It was time to cut the C* and get things moving. Good for you.

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You can add Rock-Hounding to the list. I submitted a Waymark back in June, and it's still waiting. Three of the four officers all have similar names, and may be either family members or sock-puppet accounts for one person. Between the officers, there's a total of 17 Waymarks posted and 5 visited, so they're clearly not active in Waymarking (one actually has 0 posted, 0 visited!). The group is closed to new members and the four officers are the only members. I contacted the leader a week and a half ago, but have gotten no response. This group is well and truly dead and there doesn't appear to be any likelihood of that changing at the moment. It's going to take outside influence (read: forced takeover).

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You can add Rock-Hounding to the list. I submitted a Waymark back in June, and it's still waiting. Three of the four officers all have similar names, and may be either family members or sock-puppet accounts for one person. Between the officers, there's a total of 17 Waymarks posted and 5 visited, so they're clearly not active in Waymarking (one actually has 0 posted, 0 visited!). The group is closed to new members and the four officers are the only members. I contacted the leader a week and a half ago, but have gotten no response. This group is well and truly dead and there doesn't appear to be any likelihood of that changing at the moment. It's going to take outside influence (read: forced takeover).

7/11/2012:

 

"Hi Neos2,

i'd like to help as a "Rock-Hounding" officer if you like.

Warm regards,

Andreas aka lumbricus"

 

7/13/2012:

 

"Hi Andreas,

The category only gets about one submission a year. We think there are sufficient officers to handle that load. We do appreciate the offer, though. I take it you are a keen rockhound?

Thanks"

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I would like to add "Bicycle Shops" to the list of inactive leaders. The leader of this group Last Visit: Friday, May 18, 2012. I have contacted the leader and the second officer on the list requesting our waymark be reviewed. Also offered to join the group and be an officer to help out. NO RESPONSE from either one of them. Even cancelled the submission, made minor changes and resubmitted three times, still did not get anyone's attention.

 

So, What Now?

 

I will add that the majority of reviewers do a great job and need to be complimented and acknowledged for their time devoted to Waymarking: a great place to be.

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You can add Rock-Hounding to the list. I submitted a Waymark back in June, and it's still waiting. Three of the four officers all have similar names, and may be either family members or sock-puppet accounts for one person. Between the officers, there's a total of 17 Waymarks posted and 5 visited, so they're clearly not active in Waymarking (one actually has 0 posted, 0 visited!). The group is closed to new members and the four officers are the only members. I contacted the leader a week and a half ago, but have gotten no response. This group is well and truly dead and there doesn't appear to be any likelihood of that changing at the moment. It's going to take outside influence (read: forced takeover).

7/11/2012:

 

"Hi Neos2,

i'd like to help as a "Rock-Hounding" officer if you like.

Warm regards,

Andreas aka lumbricus"

 

7/13/2012:

 

"Hi Andreas,

The category only gets about one submission a year. We think there are sufficient officers to handle that load. We do appreciate the offer, though. I take it you are a keen rockhound?

Thanks"

One of the officers finally came out of hibernation today and approved a couple of Waymarks in this category. Maybe they'll go back into hibernation for another year and approve one or two submissions a year from now! :laughing:

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I would give it a week, if you hear nothing, then politely email the latest officers who have signed on. Sometimes what happens is they just assume someone else was going to approve the waymark or the category owner goes MIA.

 

Or some groups as loaded with officers who are officers in countless dozens of other categories (you'll see the same names over and over and over) and they overlook the waymarks also. I personally think those officers should resign and/or suggest recent posters to those categories be elevated to officers. That would also clear up some of the mess of approvals.

 

A month is a completely unreasonable amount of time to approve a waymark.

 

I know we had auto-approval once before and it didn't work out due to abuse, but I think a premium member who post a waymark after a week should get an automatic tentative approval, would end a lot of the nonsense of non-attentive category owners. I think the week delay would help enhance the game as well as discourage spammers.

Edited by gpsblake
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I would like to add "Bicycle Shops" to the list of inactive leaders. The leader of this group Last Visit: Friday, May 18, 2012. I have contacted the leader and the second officer on the list requesting our waymark be reviewed. Also offered to join the group and be an officer to help out. NO RESPONSE from either one of them. Even cancelled the submission, made minor changes and resubmitted three times, still did not get anyone's attention.

 

So, What Now?

 

I will add that the majority of reviewers do a great job and need to be complimented and acknowledged for their time devoted to Waymarking: a great place to be.

 

Tough one. I think this may have been one of the original Groundspeak categories. The current category leader has obviously abandoned Waymarking. 2012? The second in line is our own Groundspeak lacky, bootron. Sean has other priorities these days. I would try Scrambler390. He used to be more active.

 

But, it is a category that clearly needs some more active officers. There was a designated person to notify in the case of nonresponsive categories, but that person left, then there were rumors he/she was back, and someone else was designated. And, that isn't documented anywhere. But, there is intervention to replace a leader in a situation like this. The normal procedure of promoting from the regular members doesn't work because you need at leas one active officer to put a name up for vote and then enough officers voting to make it happen!

 

Hope you can find a solution.

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Tough one. I think this may have been one of the original Groundspeak categories. The current category leader has obviously abandoned Waymarking. 2012? The second in line is our own Groundspeak lacky, bootron. Sean has other priorities these days. I would try Scrambler390. He used to be more active.

 

But, it is a category that clearly needs some more active officers. There was a designated person to notify in the case of nonresponsive categories, but that person left, then there were rumors he/she was back, and someone else was designated. And, that isn't documented anywhere. But, there is intervention to replace a leader in a situation like this. The normal procedure of promoting from the regular members doesn't work because you need at leas one active officer to put a name up for vote and then enough officers voting to make it happen!

 

Hope you can find a solution.

 

Heh heh heh, operation coup d'état! :ph34r: I like a challenge! (I also have a waymark pending in this category) Would anyone like to be an officer as soon as I succeed?

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Heh heh heh, operation coup d'état! :ph34r: I like a challenge! (I also have a waymark pending in this category) Would anyone like to be an officer as soon as I succeed?

If you still require assitance with the revolution, I could be an officer.

 

I have sent out the obligatory e-mails. I need to wait a while in order to justify taking this to the next level.

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I would like to help as a Officer/Reviewer in:

- Plane Crash Sites

- Firehouses

 

- Plane Crash Sites.

I posted one on 1/30/2015 and send a mail to the leader on 2/20/2015.

Ask in the mail for a review of my posting and ask him if i could help him as an active Officer.

No response yet.

1 Leader and 2 Officers in this category.

The Leader and one Officer logged in on Geocaching almost every day but not on Waymarking. :blink:

One Officer is sleeping since 10/18/2013.

B.t.w. do i see a special Waymarking avatar at this Leader or is it fake ?

 

- Firehouses.

Posted one on 2/6/2015 and send a mail to the Leader on 2/20/2015.

Ask him also in the mail for a review of my posting and ask him if i could help him as an active Officer.

Also no responce on my mail.

Several Officers are sleeping since 2011.

And one Officer is logging in on Waymarking every day but is not interested to review my posting.

 

As I've said before I wish to offer my help in these groups.

What is the next step to follow?

John

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I would like to help as a Officer/Reviewer in:

- Plane Crash Sites

- Firehouses

 

- Plane Crash Sites.

I posted one on 1/30/2015 and send a mail to the leader on 2/20/2015.

Ask in the mail for a review of my posting and ask him if i could help him as an active Officer.

No response yet.

1 Leader and 2 Officers in this category.

The Leader and one Officer logged in on Geocaching almost every day but not on Waymarking. :blink:

One Officer is sleeping since 10/18/2013.

B.t.w. do i see a special Waymarking avatar at this Leader or is it fake ?

 

- Firehouses.

Posted one on 2/6/2015 and send a mail to the Leader on 2/20/2015.

Ask him also in the mail for a review of my posting and ask him if i could help him as an active Officer.

Also no responce on my mail.

Several Officers are sleeping since 2011.

And one Officer is logging in on Waymarking every day but is not interested to review my posting.

 

As I've said before I wish to offer my help in these groups.

What is the next step to follow?

John

 

I think you need to be willing to take over complete leadership. As I understand it, you should send an e-mail to waywizard. I have done so for the bicycle shops category. Waiting now for some movement from Groundspeak.

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I would like to help as a Officer/Reviewer in:

- Plane Crash Sites

- Firehouses

 

- Plane Crash Sites.

I posted one on 1/30/2015 and send a mail to the leader on 2/20/2015.

Ask in the mail for a review of my posting and ask him if i could help him as an active Officer.

No response yet.

1 Leader and 2 Officers in this category.

The Leader and one Officer logged in on Geocaching almost every day but not on Waymarking. :blink:

One Officer is sleeping since 10/18/2013.

B.t.w. do i see a special Waymarking avatar at this Leader or is it fake ?

 

 

mtn-man (and J.C. the puppymonster) used to be very active on the forums. (Believe he was a Reviewer and Mod, certainly mod'ed on the UK caching forum for a while) and just seems to have 'dropped out'

(Believe J.C. the puppymonster was a cache reviewer??? One of the many dogs that review caches...)

 

As such, any 'special Waymarking avatar' could well be from HQ and genuine.

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I noticed the same thing about Firehouses, since I had one posted on 8 February and it was still not reviewed by the 27th, even though, as you said, some officers had been logging in (and ignoring it). I sent a message to an officer that had actually logged in that day (the 27th) and asked if there was a problem with the waymark. He approved it right away, but mentioned that he had been away from Waymarking.

 

All very well and good. But the purpose of having multiple officers is so that someone can be on hand to approve waymarks, even if someone else is gone on a month's vacation. But I was a bit annoyed by two things: officers actually logging in but ignoring the waymarks, and a bunch of inactive officers with no one doing anything about it.

 

If the active officers are too busy, they should go ahead and vote out the inactive officers and promote some active Waymarkers from the ranks into being officers. That should go without saying.

 

This is the same issue with Worldwide Cemeteries, which has only one active officer and, from past correspondence, will not consider voting out any of the long-gone officers and bring in new. I really do not understand that (lack of) reasoning. Fellow officers are an excellent concept. Why "hoard" a category all to yourself. Fortunately it usually takes only about a week for waymarks in that category to be approved.

 

But, as we've discussed in these forums before, having to wait a week is one of the things that discourages new Waymarkers. There's really no call for it if the active officers would just take a few minutes to boot the inactive ones and promote some active Waymarkers into office.

 

The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

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The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. This is really selfish behavior.

 

I have always frowned upon category hogs, but most of these people are the very few that came here in the beginning and kept this site alive.

If it were not for these "horders", GS would have pulled the plug on this site several years ago.

 

I do agree that Waymarking has new members that are interested in keeping the course, and GS should work with us.

 

I really think that Wherigo is more important than Waymarking, according to company business, and it don't look so good for Wherigo.

Maybe they will move tose to this site? :laughing:

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The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

 

Most Waymarkers that have many categories inherited them either planned or unplanned when other previously active Waymarkers left the game or when groups were first formed and the person that started the category did not want to continue. If these Waymarkers had not stepped up these categories would have been inactive years ago. In many cases group leaders may want to promote some more officers but if they are not premium members they can not be promoted.

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The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

 

Most Waymarkers that have many categories inherited them either planned or unplanned when other previously active Waymarkers left the game or when groups were first formed and the person that started the category did not want to continue. If these Waymarkers had not stepped up these categories would have been inactive years ago. In many cases group leaders may want to promote some more officers but if they are not premium members they can not be promoted.

 

Personally, I have never had a problem recruiting new officers after having taken over leadership of a category. OK sometimes you have to seek them out but they are there. I don't see any real good reason why someone who took over an abandoned category hasn't cleaned out the dead wood and started with fresh officers. In my experience doing so can completely take care of the lone officer problem.

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...The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

Really? Am I ruining this game?

 

Although I am not an English native speaker, I believe this is an unfortunate choice of word. I think he's referring to members who accumulate categories and hold them as personal property, keeping ghost officers who are not active and not seeking active members to replace them.

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...The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

Really? Am I ruining this game?

I noticed that my quote has been taken completely out of context by everyone who has quoted it.

 

If you'll kindly read the paragraphs before the bold text, you'll notice that I'm talking about folks who are in a group where all of the other officers are inactive, but they are not doing anything about it.

 

I have no problem with folks like you, lumbricus, or silverquill, or BruceS or anyone else who has a lot of categories. We are having a problem with folks (perhaps with just a few groups that they are officers in) who will do nothing about the dead wood in those groups.

 

Next time, please be sure you read and understand the full post before quoting and responding to it. And I don't mean just you, l, but everyone else who took it out of its context.

 

Thanks you.

 

Edit: Perhaps horders was not the word I wanted. It wasn't the accumulation of a large number of categories that I was talking about. At all.

Edited by MountainWoods
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...The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

Really? Am I ruining this game?

 

To a point, yes it does. Because it locks newer and active waymarkers completely out of any input in the game as same people monopolize the categories. No one is saying you should resign all your positions. But sharing would be a huge improvement.

 

What you should be doing that would greatly help the game is notice those who are submitting new submissions to a category and offer them your spot as an officer and/or owner in the group and then allowing them to participate.

 

That's one way you could stimulate more interest in the game. and take some of the load off yourself.

Edited by gpsblake
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Thank you for clarifying which group of category leaders you intended to offend.

I'd sure like to know how my original comments were offending anyone. Or if they were, then "if the shoe fits..."

 

I've just pointed out the insidiousness of group officers who do nothing about their group not being able to handle a normal flow of Waymarks, because they let dead wood around. If that sounds like an offensive complaint, then so be it.

 

Like I say, and stand by my statement: this is one of the things ruining the game.

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...The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

Really? Am I ruining this game?

 

To a point, yes it does. Because it locks newer and active waymarkers completely out of any input in the game as same people monopolize the categories. No one is saying you should resign all your positions. But sharing would be a huge improvement.

 

What you should be doing that would greatly help the game is notice those who are submitting new submissions to a category and offer them your spot as an officer and/or owner in the group and then allowing them to participate.

 

That's one way you could stimulate more interest in the game. and take some of the load off yourself.

Really? The right way should be that Waymarkers, which are willing to help, drop me a mail/message to show their interest. I'm really behind that all the categories I'm a member of are pretty fast in reviewing the new Waymarks. I often promote new Waymarkers, I have absolutely no problem with that. I'm not a friend of categories with more than 5 officers (except all of the officers are very active), cause that often slows down the publish time. Sometimes there is a week I can't review a Waymark, if I go to the queue I see categories with waiting ones the result is that I promote a new officer. If a category abandoned I start the steps, clean up and promote new officers. You would be surprised how many new officers start very active and after a few weeks or month the interest drops down and there are prettey active Wamarkers I friendly asked if they would like to help as an officer and the answers have been "No".

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I'm happy to help out wherever I can. I'm enjoying the groups in which I'm an officer.

 

The problem is how to handle the situation that I accidentally called "hording" but should really be called, I think, Group Kingpins. You know, the ones with only one active officer, and that officer won't let anyone else in.

 

The Catch 22 is that you can only do something about those situations if you are an officer and can vote. But how do you become an officer in a group where the Kingpin won't let anyone else in???? One case with which I'm most familiar won't even let regular members in! It has open enrollment off, and only one active officer. And a polite offer to help out after I had many, many WMs in the category, was just as politely but firmly negatived.

 

I know. I've been told that you can send an email to a WM lackey who can pry open the door and let other officers in, which would then fix the situation. But I've tried that. On three separate occasions I have sent clear, polite emails to WM folks about such specific group situations, and I never heard anything back at all! As I recall, one of them was when I was still pretty new to Waymarking (about 2.5 years ago), and it was about the group that manages Unoccupied Buildings Shacks and Cabins; which I am told is now fixed (perhaps someone with more "pull" was able to do something about it).

 

So there you have it. How do you get around the Catch 22? If an email really can fix the situation, great! But that hasn't been my experience, yet. And without a "higher power" allowing new officers to come in and fix a group, I don't see any other recourse.

 

(BTW, I do see your point about too many officers, lumbricus. That can cause "committee lockup" with everyone expecting everyone else to do anything. Good point.)

 

Edit: Your description of what you do, lumbricus, is fantastic, and it is what a good officer should do. The big problem is groups where that is not being done. And what to do about them. Thanks for describing how you do this. It is good learning material to those of us who are still relatively new officers!

Edited by MountainWoods
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Back to the track... anyone interested in taking over Pirates category, if it turns out necessary? So far I didn't hear back from the leader and my WM is still waiting... for two months. I will request a takeover in Best Kept Secrets if necessary and it that happens new officers will be needed.

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The right way should be that Waymarkers, which are willing to help, drop me a mail/message to show their interest. . . .You would be surprised how many new officers start very active and after a few weeks or month the interest drops down and there are pretty active Wamarkers I friendly asked if they would like to help as an officer and the answers have been "No".

 

I love this hobby -- it is a lot of fun and makes you look at the world differently, with more eye for detail. That's why I post a lot of waymarks in a lot of categories.

 

I appreciate all the officers that work the categories. Thank you all

Edited by Benchmark Blasterz
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...The category hoarding mentality is one of the things that is ruining this game.

Really? Am I ruining this game?

I noticed that my quote has been taken completely out of context by everyone who has quoted it.

 

If you'll kindly read the paragraphs before the bold text, you'll notice that I'm talking about folks who are in a group where all of the other officers are inactive, but they are not doing anything about it.

 

I have no problem with folks like you, lumbricus, or silverquill, or BruceS or anyone else who has a lot of categories. We are having a problem with folks (perhaps with just a few groups that they are officers in) who will do nothing about the dead wood in those groups.

 

Next time, please be sure you read and understand the full post before quoting and responding to it. And I don't mean just you, l, but everyone else who took it out of its context.

 

Thanks you.

 

Edit: Perhaps horders was not the word I wanted. It wasn't the accumulation of a large number of categories that I was talking about. At all.

 

Yes, the way you explained it was the way I understood it.

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I think you need to be willing to take over complete leadership. As I understand it, you should send an e-mail to waywizard. I have done so for the bicycle shops category. Waiting now for some movement from Groundspeak.

 

waywizard? Not checkmark as explained here (http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=309195) ?

You can contact both.

 

Well, here's what I've done so far in my attempt to take over the Bike Shops category :

 

I sent messages to the two officers who still seem to be active - no replies

I sent a message to Waywizard - no reply

I went to the Groundspeak page and opened a ticket - no reply

 

Am I just unreasonably impatient? Any ideas anyone on how to get someone to respond?

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I think you need to be willing to take over complete leadership. As I understand it, you should send an e-mail to waywizard. I have done so for the bicycle shops category. Waiting now for some movement from Groundspeak.

 

waywizard? Not checkmark as explained here (http://forums.Ground...howtopic=309195) ?

You can contact both.

 

Well, here's what I've done so far in my attempt to take over the Bike Shops category :

 

I sent messages to the two officers who still seem to be active - no replies

I sent a message to Waywizard - no reply

I went to the Groundspeak page and opened a ticket - no reply

 

Am I just unreasonably impatient? Any ideas anyone on how to get someone to respond?

 

Having successfully taken the leadership in several categories, the biggest thing is PATIENCE.

 

 

 

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Category: Best Kept Secrets

Waiting for one since 12th November. 23rd February. Just mailed the leader.

 

Category: Pirates

Waiting for one since 3rd January. 23rd February. Just mailed the leader.

 

Emailed Checkmark ten days. No reply.

 

All this is a bit upsetting. It makes me feel like Waymarking is a floating wreck.

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