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silverquill
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Joined on 11-11-2006
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Cheonan, Korea
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Posts 810
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Re: Have you had an existing waymark stripped from you?
 wicked witch of the west coast:I am thinking of quitting Waymarking
My last words - People, it's a GAME!!!!!
Well, I have a lot of sympathy for your position.
Whether or not this is so egregious that you want to go play somewhere else is your decision to make. But, "it's a game" works both ways. If that is true, what do we do when we get fouled? Well, we get no free throw (shucks), but we might cool on the bench for awhile instead of heading for the locker room. After all, it's just a game.
I've been to that point, over an entirely different issue, and it took me quite a bit of bench time to feel like I wanted to get back into the game at all. But, part of what helped me was realizing that I was letting someone else rob me of something that I truly enjoyed! I wasn't going to let them have that power over me, right or wrong.
Anyway, I recently joined this management group because they needed some help rewriting the description, and I haven't gotten around to working on it - format, not content. Now I'm embarrassed. I may reconsider.
Basically I think it is poor policy to go back and archive waymarks in this manner. I understand what they are trying to do, I think, but it seems to me there are better solutions. One could find any number of categories where there are waymarks that never should have been approved - ones that just don't meet the requirements, or where there are subjective criteria and it seems that whoever accepted the waymark was wrong.
Let's take some examples. Unique Weathervanes (a legacy category I inherited). I can go back and say, "Hmmm. This one doesn't look unique to me by our criteria. It should never have been approved three years ago. I guess I'll archive it." Bad policy. Or, maybe a category requires two photos, or a photo of a sign, or whatever. And, I find some that don't meet those requirements - somehow got through (maybe it was me who accepted it). But, I wouldn't archive it! If it was something that was really important, and could reasonably be fixed, I might send a note to the waymarker and/or whomever approved it to see if it could be remedied. Or, I might do nothing at all. But, I wouldn't summarily archive it.
Now, if I found a duplicate waymark, or maybe a waymark that was clearly outside the scope of the category, or had serious deficiencies that could not reasonably be remedied, then I might archive it, but would first contact the waymarker to discuss the issue.
Even in such cases, what would be the harm in letting the waymark stand? If you think having a substandard waymark in the category sets a precedent, just add a prominent note in the description - something like, "In a subsequent review this waymark was found to be deficient [or whatever the case might be] but has been grandfathered in."
Archiving a waymark, especially one that has been approved for months, or years, is an extreme measure and should be reserved for extreme cases. It is doubtful whether it should be used as a way of cleaning house for an entire category.
Just my initial reactions without really digging into the issue. But, I do think it is an important discussion.
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