Groundspeak Portal

I'm a huge fan of the "Fail" blog that shows off photos of things that didn't go so well.
Ever seen a staircase that ends at a wall? What about a door with the steps that lead up to it 10 feet away?

So, I'm thinking of a category that will entail finding something that could only be described as a "Human Error" and waymarking it. Naturally, I'm not interested in duplicating the unintentionally funny signs group.

I'm looking for input on this before I go and create a category. Perhaps we need to limit it to 'construction' mistakes, perhaps not.

I think it would certainly make for some interesting photos.

Would this include things like a door on a second or third story building with no apparent means to reach it from the outside? Although, (in most cases), I'm sure it probably had a stairway leading to it at one time, however, it was later removed or fell down. I have seen this a couple of times, kinda makes you wonder what the unsuspecting person opening the door from the inside thought, as they opened the door to step through.

Be sure to point out that no waymarks at or including the Winchester Mystery House will be included.

The house was not an error, it was designed that way on purpose.

Love it!!!

 

By the way, Fail stickers are now available!

ptcrazy:

Would this include things like a door on a second or third story building with no apparent means to reach it from the outside? Although, (in most cases), I'm sure it probably had a stairway leading to it at one time, however, it was later removed or fell down.

Usually there was a porch or widows walk that fell down.

I'm thinking more Leaning Tower of Pisa: Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction. The tower presently leans to the southwest.

I like it, it has potential.  But are you only looking for construction-type things?  You might get a lot of people posting where they wrapped their car around a telephone pole.

0ccam:

Be sure to point out that no waymarks at or including the Winchester Mystery House will be included.
The house was not an error, it was designed that way on purpose.

I agree. The category should be something that could have been corrected if someone was paying attention.  Auto accidents, etc are momentary errors.

Dead end roads would not count since someone had it going somewhere in a master plan. However two roads that did not match when they were build from different directions I think would be considered.

If you need help with this one I would be available.

Plus, we would not want to encourage reckless driving and causing accidents just to get a waymark! ...

University of British Columbia Library - Examples of Engineering Failures has a database of interesting information to consider in regards to both inclusion and exclusion.

I like what I'm reading here so far. Particularly like that UBC link from Redneck Parrotheads.

I do not want to include what I'll call personal errors like a car accident or some temporary thing like that. Need to figure out a good way to phrase that for the category description.

Next question -- do we want to waymark current errors (easiest to document with photos), or do we want to include historical errors, like that Tacoma Narrows bridge. I definately had the Leaning Tower of Pisa in mind when I started thinking about this category.

As for second story doors, they'd have to be an error of some sort. There's a lot of them around here that were meant for tossing stuff into trucks and boats from above ground level - so I'd want some clarification about how it's an error before assuming it is.

The To Err is Human group is open and recruiting... although I'll be keeping the Officer population down to a reasonable population until we go to Peer Review.

0ccam:

Be sure to point out that no waymarks at or including the Winchester Mystery House will be included.

The house was not an error, it was designed that way on purpose.

Are you kidding? That place is a comedy of errors! What'sherface was one crazy chick!

you mean something like this?

Cool! I've cued in if you decide to take on more officers after Peer Review.

You should call the category "Too Air Iz Humun." I'd love to be a Ossifer.

It does sound like you're looking primarily engineering/construction errors.  Would that be clear enough for the writeup?

team farkle 7:

0ccam:

Be sure to point out that no waymarks at or including the Winchester Mystery House will be included.

The house was not an error, it was designed that way on purpose.

Are you kidding? That place is a comedy of errors! What'sherface was one crazy chick!

I'll not dispute that Mrs. Winchester was extremely eccentric, but none (as far as we know) of her house was an error.  It was done that way because that's how she paid to have it done.

That's VERY different than, say, the NASA Mars mission that failed catastrophically because one team on the project was using the Metric system and another team was not.  And how do we waymark that??

I have to agree the Winchester Mystery House is not in the spirit of the category. When you spot the error, the first word that comes to mind should be "Whoops!".

The NASA Mars mission could be waymarked at the launch site (Presumably Cape Canaveral but I'm not sure).  Good opportunity to stack waymarks there though

northernpenguin:

The NASA Mars mission could be waymarked at the launch site 

While I agree that loosing a $125 mil. spacecraft, because one engineering team used English units of measurement while the other team used the metric system is a really big "Whoops", the space enthusiast in me has to comment on this:

First: It was not "THE" NASA Mars mission. NASA has conducted a number of really incredible missions to Mars, from the first pictures from Mars in 1964 over the first successful landing of an unmanned probe in 1976 to the two tough rovers that were designed to work for six months and are still running after more than five years in Mars' hostile environment.

Second: All the way to the insertion into Mars Orbit, NASA did everything right in the planning of the Mars Climate Orbiter mission. It was a sub-contracted engineering team at Lockheed Martin, that didn't know the difference between pound and kilogram.

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

Sorry if this all sounds a little bit smartass, but I'd like to keep the record straight and blame only those who deserve blame. So, if you want to log this one, go to Lockheed Martin's headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland

I'd really prefer to visit Human Errors I can actually photograph. Otherwise we could have a lot of submissions of the White House in DC and other government buildings. They can be blamed for a lot of errors.

Bernd das Brot Team:

I'd like to keep the record straight and blame only those who deserve blame. So, if you want to log this one, go to Lockheed Martin's headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland

Facts are important. Thanks for giving the scoop on where things went wrong! I'm not sure about waymarking Lockheed Martin's HQ. I mean, if the category's about waymarking the errors themselves and not the people to blame, it'd be ideal to have a location that best reflects the waymark. If someone wanted to waymark Titanic, wouldn't we pick a museum, a port that it launched from (or one it was supposed to arrive at)... not the original location of White Star Line? I guess that's something else for northernpenguin to work into the wording.

scooter bill:

Otherwise we could have a lot of submissions of the White House in DC and other government buildings.

LOL!!!!!

I agree, we should stick to pictures.  but then again, I have a waymark called "The biggest OOps in American Naval history."  It was about Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones wrongfully assuming that the US were at war with Mexico. On October 19, 1842, Jones sailed into then Mexican Monterey, California Harbor, raised the American flag and demanded that the governor surrender California to the United States. Two days later, he received a newspapers and learned that there was no war (at least not yet). He quietly replaced the American flag with that of Mexico, wrote a note to the governor and sailed out of the harbor. It is now logged as a battlefield, but I'd love to logg it as Oops

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM1H0X

I like the idea for this category. I've seen a million things that would fit in here.

luc & Sweety:

I like the idea for this category. I've seen a million things that would fit in here.

A million? That's rather prevalent... let's scrap the whole idea. Obviously this wasn't well thought out or designed

Kidding of course... I think this idea, if documented as to showcase permanently viewable design flaws would be a hoot.

BQ

the blue quasar:

I think this idea, if documented as to showcase permanently viewable design flaws would be a hoot. BQ

Squeeze me? Bacon powder? Did you say viewable design flaws would be a hoot?

Well, I'm sorry, but I don't see any flaws

Oh wait, the second from the left has a pimple.

Well, it seems the waymarking Gods are not without irony.....

Human Error passed Peer Review, and, after making a few adjustments to the category description from some of the constructive peer votes (I *always* read them!)... I hit that "Activate" button.

Guess what comes up now when I try to view the category .....

Your request has resulted in an error.

You may choose to retry your previous request.

Or you may tell us what you were doing when this error occurred.

No, you can't waymark that screen.

northernpenguin:

Well, it seems the waymarking Gods are not without irony..... Human Error passed Peer Review, and, after making a few adjustments to the category description from some of the constructive peer votes (I *always* read them!)... I hit that "Activate" button. Guess what comes up now when I try to view the category .....

Your request has resulted in an error. You may choose to retry your previous request. Or you may tell us what you were doing when this error occurred.

No, you can't waymark that screen.

That's poetic.