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Personal "Rules" for Waymarking


vulture1957

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Does anyone else have, and want to tell, a personal rule they have when Waymarking? I have a few.

1. Wikipedia Entries and News Article Locations - I try to waymark places that can't be waymarked in another category. (Not a hard and fast rule, as I have broken it for News Article). I am getting ready to post a waymark for a Abstract Sculpture. I am referencing a news article in my long description. I won't be doing a News Article Location waymark on this. (My thoughts, maybe one of thhe other local waymarkers will go visit the sculpture, and then THEY can post the News Article. Gives them a reason to do the visit.)

2. When waymarks in a category are limited in my area, I will only post one waymark, leaving the others for waymarkers to come. (When I first started Waymarking, I was a bit put off. I'd see a category, think "Oh, Blah-de-Blah would be great for that category." Go there, take pictures, start my posting and then get the dreaded screen "There is already a Waymark within .1 mile. Do you still want to continue?" It was already marked, and  I had to do a visit. Of course, this will happen, but if I can't find a single waymark in a  town, I'd be very put off.)

 

Now, don't get me wrong. This is how I am playing the game. I don't expect everyone else to do this. I just thought out some things, and have decided that is how I'd like to work.

 

So, I'd like to hear if anyone else does this, what they "rules" are, and why.

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I haven't posted a waymark for a while I mostly do visit (a good chuck from someone on this tread). But I agree that some categories accept anything. Wikipedia entries (too many), Satellite imagery oddities (regular statue is strange on Googlemaps?), Unique steeples (many basic), worldwide cemeteries (remote village) and Quebec historical markers (3-4 on the same monument) come in mind for waymark that for some of them there aren't anything special that is worth a detour. 

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Yes, I do have some rules.

  1. I don't post new waymarks and visit them at the same time. I only log a visit, if I go there again after a while (for example Festivals, that I visit almost every year). I might one day break that rule, if I post a waymark in a (for me) very hard to find category and doubt that I will ever have a chance to log a visit in that category, but until now this hasn't happened.
  2. I crosspost quite often. I try to create waymarks with the local language, which is often a language that I don't know at all. So, at first I have to find a - let's say - Italian text for my waymark. I then have to translate it, to know, if all the text is necessary or which part of the text includes the Information I want. Then I search for an English text. Fortunately, my English is good enough to understand most of the text I find, but sometimes I still have to translate it to understand everything. So, I have to spend a lot more time to create a waymark than - for example - a British waymarker who is able to write down some English description and doesn't need to translate anything. Therefore, I'm happy if I can use my photos and text more than once.
  3. I don't concentrate on one category. Instead I try to fill my category grid as much as I can. That way I "force" myself to learn about subjects that I usually wouldn't even know and learn a lot about my hometown and the places we visit on holiday.
  4. I don't post waymarks that I haven't seen personally. But if someone from a foreign country would ask me to take some photos for a waymark in the Austrian and Swiss National Heritage Sites category, I would do it.
Edited by PISA-caching
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I will go for the first location I will find for any category in a new region. No matter how boring the category and this specific location is. I will not search for them, no effort at all, just whem I come across one and have the camera ready...

 

So my category/region combination count is now over 2000 for posts alone.

 

Apart from that, I have some rules for certain categories, none of them are hard rules. These are my rules anyway.

 

I hardly ever post to the Wikipedia category, usually only when I do not find another suitable category. I limit my submissions to the Superlatives category to the global or continental scope. (No Largest X in town or county, it has to be the largest of Europe or the world.) And there are a lot of other categories where I only post occasionaly, but except for commercial categories (after the icon) I do not completely ignore any.

 

In some categories I have my rules how to create the waymark. Like City and Town Halls: first a description of the town, then of the building, clearly separated. Or Municipal Flags: They always start with a blason (Yea, meanwhile I can speak blason :huh:)

 

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I usually only have the rule that I like to find a town that has an interesting Historic District that I can get a bunch of pictures, and then get them taken.  From there, I usually like to find old cemeteries - it'll be especially bittersweet since my Waymarking buddy Mountain Woods won't be sending back the approvals from now on...  Also, if I can get a visit or six to fill up BruceS's inbox, that always also makes me pretty happy.  Other than that, I take the waymarks as they come - if I get to post, great; if they get listed as visits, that's great also!

I'm planning a trip in September to Southern Utah.  I should get to fill LOTS of peoples inboxes with visits.  It's going to be so weird to actually fly somewhere since I haven't been on a plane in 26 years.  We're then going to take a rental car and drive it like we stole it around the states of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.    Hopefully, I can also get some waymarks posted in Arizona and Utah to add two new states to the collection!

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6 minutes ago, iconions said:

I'm planning a trip in September to Southern Utah.  I should get to fill LOTS of peoples inboxes with visits.  It's going to be so weird to actually fly somewhere since I haven't been on a plane in 26 years.  We're then going to take a rental car and drive it like we stole it around the states of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.    Hopefully, I can also get some waymarks posted in Arizona and Utah to add two new states to the collection!

You can ALWAYS find a WalMart, or McDonald's to get the state. But since there are separate categories for the Historical Markers from each state, that's what I try to get. And Post Offices, City Halls. Utah, a good category should be Names From The Bible. And National Parks.

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Reading the previous posts here, I got to thinking that our personal rules are changing slightly of late. Reason? I've decided that I want to try for 1,000 Lucky 7s. After one has done a certain amount of Waymarks, a goal is often required to keep one going - boredom can set in quite easily without a goal to strive for.

This means trying to find at least 7 departments at each stop. In a typical small town this would mean finding, at the least, a church (buildings, structures), stained glass, sculptures or murals (culture), war memorials or citizens memorials (monuments), a park (nature, recreation [playground, ball diamond, tennis court, etc.]), something historical (history), a welcome sign, neon sign or UR Here Map (signs), a museum (entertainment) or a cemetery (monuments). We'll almost never pass up a town hall or a courthouse, or even a post office. They're often good for more than one department. In a pinch I'm not above looking for a Waymarkable business to fill out the Lucky 7. If I'm still short of the requisite seven departments Wiki (technology) or a news item (another goal - 1,000 news items?) (multifarious) or even an old photo (multifarious again) may come to the rescue.

 

I've also come across things like churches, hydro dams, museums and cemeteries that can complete a Lucky 7 on their own. These are pure gold! Seven departments in one location sometimes requires quite a bit of research and luck, though.

Keith

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I rarely plan ahead. usually the extent of planning consists of checking the list of WMs in an area I am visiting to see what's been covered, but that might happen 2-4 times per year. And I don't have data so once I'm out it's a guess. most WM photos are taken while traveling for other purposes, only a few times do I actually go out to some location just for  Waymarking (although I may stop "along the way" just for WM photos but I can only do that so many times before I get into trouble with the rest of the family).

 

I try to limit my cross-posting. Generally if a waymark can go into two very similar (to my opinion) categories - like churchyard cemetery and cemeteries of the world, or Anglican church and This Old Church, I usually choose the more exclusive of the two (i.e. churchyard cemetery and not cemeteries of the world, This Old Church and not Anglican church). It's not a strict rule, sometimes I will do both to gain a category or to increase numbers posted to a certain state etc.

 

I don't care about my numbers Posted and Visited, so that's part of why I don't do a lot of cross-posting. Once I have shared something that I felt was interesting, I just don't see value in repeating it 2, 3, 5 more times. Now if it brings out some interesting new feature, then I might be interested.

 

I almost never visit my own waymarks (maybe a few times, can't remember 100%, but it would be less than 10 visits in total)

 

I almost never post a waymark unless I have been to the spot / location myself and took the photos myself. 2 or 3 cases outside this rule (one was an uncategorized waymark, the others were not my photos but I had been to the location and had permission to use the photos).

 

I posted one waymark to wikipedia entries and probably will never post another one, to me it's just way too vague and very few things can be posted there that cannot be posted to another category.

 

Most times if I visit a location and take pictures to waymark, and find it's already posted, then I post a visit.

 

And above all, I am inconsistent. Not on purpose, but this is a hobby and I enjoy it the best when I play it the way I want. And the way I want changes over time.

 

By far the biggest challenge to me with Waymarking is the pathetic number of page visits - I can spend an hour or more on a single waymark and then 5 years later see that the page was visited maybe 2 or 3 times. Never mind physical visits to waymarks I post, that's an even smaller number.

 

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New Waymarker here — it’ll be three months tomorrow — so most everything I’m doing is still in the “Figuring Things Out and Creating Logical Systems” mode. A few personal guidelines I’m using so far:

 

1) “Make your Waymarks enticing to others” (or something like it) stuck out to me in a category instructions section or the general WM FAQ so I...  

    a) Shoot and Move. Make lots of photos of each location and then post at least four pictures and often six, eight, or more. Going by what I was taught was a news photographer’s adage to help tell the story, I take a few establishing shots to put the thing in perspective of place; several medium and close-up shots for showing more details; and look for different angles among all of them. I also aim for framing well-composed and well-lit images. Combined, those all test and improve my creative eye to boot!

    b) Write Long Descriptions that are substantially different from and expand on the Quick Description. My approach is to combine several interesting bits of information with an easy-going writing style, a hint of engaging vocabulary (thanks, Thesaurus app!), and an alliteration or two.  

 

1.5) Though I can grab a bunch of photos quickly, it’s important to me to walk around, through, over, inside a location. Awareness, mindfulness, and observation are part of the fun...along with capturing valuable details, ensuring that when I get home there will be sufficient visual items to work from.

 

2) I added visits to some of the initial WM’s I created because I wasn’t clear about how the game worked. My thinking was that those needed to be two separate entries. I’ll focus on keeping visits to pre-existing WM’s from now on.

Edited by 401Photos
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11 hours ago, 401Photos said:

New Waymarker here — it’ll be three months tomorrow — so most everything I’m doing is still in the “Figuring Things Out and Creating Logical Systems” mode.

 

Welcome to Waymarking. 

I did look at some of your waymarks: Well done :rolleyes:

 

Even your first waymark is impressive.  

 

As far as "Figuring Things Out" you are well on your way. 

 

It took us a long time to understand Waymarking. Looking at some of our first waymarks to now, they show our evolution. 

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On 2/21/2019 at 10:04 PM, PISA-caching said:

Yes, I do have some rules.

  1. I don't post new waymarks and visit them at the same time. I only log a visit, if I go there again after a while (for example Festivals, that I visit almost every year). I might one day break that rule, if I post a waymark in a (for me) very hard to find category and doubt that I will ever have a chance to log a visit in that category, but until now this hasn't happened.
  2. I crosspost quite often. I try to create waymarks with the local language, which is often a language that I don't know at all. So, at first I have to find a - let's say - Italian text for my waymark. I then have to translate it, to know, if all the text is necessary or which part of the text includes the Information I want. Then I search for an English text. Fortunately, my English is good enough to understand most of the text I find, but sometimes I still have to translate it to understand everything. So, I have to spend a lot more time to create a waymark than - for example - a British waymarker who is able to write down some English description and doesn't need to translate anything. Therefore, I'm happy if I can use my photos and text more than once.
  3. I don't concentrate on one category. Instead I try to fill my category grid as much as I can. That way I "force" myself to learn about subjects that I usually wouldn't even know and learn a lot about my hometown and the places we visit on holiday.
  4. I don't post waymarks that I haven't seen personally. But if someone from a foreign country would ask me to take some photos for a waymark in the Austrian and Swiss National Heritage Sites category, I would do it.

 

Interesting, but I realized I can just copy your "rules" and say "me too" :ninja: .. not from the start, but I get to similar style gradually.

Sadly, Waymarking felt down in pecking order of my hobbies in last 2-3 years, but I still follow it & play as time allows. I think idea & structure of this game is great, so I hope it will continue ..

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Another of my rules:

 

In things like "E-85 Fuel Locations", if I have already listed a certain chain, I will try not to post it in a different location. I figure that stating the chain has it, other places in teh chain may also. I use the same idea for "Regional Chains". Also, on "Regional Chains", I try to find a different chain that hasn't already been waymarked by another waymarker (If What-A-Burger was already listed in "Regional Burgers", I went for Smith's Garage.)

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On 2/22/2019 at 1:51 PM, BK-Hunters said:

 Where are you going to be in Arizona? 

Williams and Page.  I'm actually doing the Utah Great 5 National Parks and I hafta go see that big ditch in Arizona.  We're flying into Vegas and renting a car and we're gonna try to put some serious miles on it! 

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On 3/13/2019 at 4:58 PM, iconions said:

Williams and Page.  I'm actually doing the Utah Great 5 National Parks and I hafta go see that big ditch in Arizona.  We're flying into Vegas and renting a car and we're gonna try to put some serious miles on it! 

What you want to do when you go to the big ditch is take a piece of paper with you. Make a paper airplane and launch it from the observation point on the north rim. i did that many, many years ago and my airplane went for miles and miles. It sailed clean out of sight. You'll never sail a paper airplane farther than you will from there. It's really a kick!

Of course, today, you might get arrested for littering. Such activities are no longer as "socially acceptable" as they were back then.

Keith

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On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 8:24 PM, BK-Hunters said:

What you want to do when you go to the big ditch is take a piece of paper with you. Make a paper airplane and launch it from the observation point on the north rim. i did that many, many years ago and my airplane went for miles and miles. It sailed clean out of sight. You'll never sail a paper airplane farther than you will from there. It's really a kick!

Of course, today, you might get arrested for littering. Such activities are no longer as "socially acceptable" as they were back then. 

Keith

 

Arrested? Really? What about letting some balloons fly? Is that still allowed?  Balloons will also come down sooner or later and end up somewhere in the wild as litter. I think that some rules nowadays are quite ridiculous. For example: Every fireworks produces lots of smoke and dirt, and is a horror for many animals, but (fortunately) noone has yet tried to prohibit fireworks. Smoking cigarettes is prohibited in more and more locations,  but many other activities that produce a lot more smoke are not prohibited. My impression is, that some decades ago you could have used common sense to "guess" what is allowed or not. Today, you have to read the laws or ask someone who knows them.

 

PS: I really wish we had an Off-Topic-Waymarking-Forum :-)

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On 3/21/2019 at 2:50 AM, PISA-caching said:

Arrested? Really?

 

Well, given that the "big ditch" is in the U.S. and this is not yet 2020, maybe a better choice of words, rather than arrested, would have been deported. Dunno whether an LOL or a sad face should go here. You pick. :) :(

Keith

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I personally don't log my waymarks.I know others do and that's fine. Most of my current Waymarking is related to filling my placed and found matrix and the website let's me combine them for viewing if I so choose. 

 

When I log or place a cache I like to visit it personally. If my picture is to far away to be a valid visit I won't log. This also means visits while in motion are excluded. 

 

I was researching a new waymark a couple years and thought I had found a new category  to place. I researched it a bit before realizing it was already waymarked. So I viewed the waymark and one of the pictures looked familiar. Sure enough after re-researching I found the exact pics on the locations business sight. A little frustrated I sent an FYI note to the approver. 

 

Oh well. I guess you play your way I'll play mine has its limits. ☺

 

Paul

 

P.s. what's up with a that 5 year restriction on making a waymark for a famous persons grave site. I could say maybe 30 days but 5 years....seems extreme. I would say getting someone to visit a grave site is a good thing but that's just me....3 years down and 2 to go ?

 

Happy Waymarking 

Edited by mTn_biKer65
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