Groundspeak Portal

I see there is a new category up for peer review for public benches... benches where you can rest,  is this a joke or something?  Any city park may only have a couple hundred or a thousand of these.  In front of my office building we have 3 and 4 behind it.... What is next cracks in sidewalks?

Don't we already have categories for Dedicated Benches and Artistic Benches?  Wow, a category for Public Benches is worse than USPS Blue Boxes!  Based on the write up, its either a total joke or someone completely new who hasn't found any WM's yet.

Why not, we seem to have a category for everything else!

I don't think it's a good catageory either, but they are global, they are prevelant, it is informative (everyone needs to sit sometime), and redundant? well not really. I keep voting against proposals but they pass anyway. I expect this to pass also.

It is sad that we have to wonder if this is an honest attempt.  It does say a lot.

Can't say that I'm surprised based on what we've allowed to go through in the past.  Geocaching has the same issue with micros placed just any old place.  At least we can ignore a category.

However both games do illustrate what people really want, which also is sad.  Fortunately for me, and those that share my beliefs, there are still many listings that are of interest and value to my personal definition of fun and interesting.  Not everyone can be a celebrity.

 

BQ

fatcat161:

I don't think it's a good catageory either, but they are global, they are prevelant, it is informative (everyone needs to sit sometime), and redundant? well not really. I keep voting against proposals but they pass anyway. I expect this to pass also.

Yes they are global.  Prevalent has two sides... Too Few and Too Many.... this one falls in the too many.   Informative... are your ever going to ever use your gps to tell you where you can sit?  If it is information that no one would ever remotely use is it informative?  Redundant... well I guess it is a superset of two other categories.

Using the same logic for sidewalk cracks:   They are global.  They are prevalent, they are everywhere.  Informative... well it is nice to know where to raise my foot up because I never like to step on one   Redundant... we don't have a category for sidewalk cracks so it would not be redundant.  It does not mean we have a category for them.

BruceS, I agree with you.  This Category is not "unique or interesting."  Of course there are so many Categories approved lately that also are not "unique or interesting."

After looking at their group, there's 5 members and of the 3 officers they have 1/8, 0/16 and 0/0 placed/visit ratios and they appear to be in Europe. So now I'm thinking this is just plain ol' INEXPERIENCE. 

We've dealt with this so many times in the past, and now I'm thinking Groundspeak may need to update their how to start a group and how to create a category pages to REALLY EXPLAIN how the process works.  If I was a newbie and just read the current directions, I'd probably gather up my geocaching buddies and start a group by throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping it stuck.

On GC.com, don't they have a link to Geocaching University which walks you through the process?  Why can't we do the same?

dopeyduck:

On GC.com, don't they have a link to Geocaching University which walks you through the process?  Why can't we do the same?

Geocaching and Waymarking are two different things. On GC the rules are simple. Not near train tracks, playgrounds, and more than 0.1 from another cache. You can place a cache in a park with three sentences, and it'll pass. You can place one in a lightpole base in the same park with three paragraphs and it'll pass too. With Waymarking it depends on us. How we feel that day. Waymarker A can vote for a category and Waymarker B can vote nay. It's all subjective.

Oops...forgot to mention Artistic Benches in my Nay vote ;)

Different strokes I guess. Just like GC, I've gotten kind of particular about which Cats I like and which ones I ignore. This one will quickly go on the ignore list, but Hey! Whatever floats their boat :)

saopaulo1:

...It's all subjective.

I'll go along with that. How "McDonald's" ever became a category is beyond me. Personally, their food is enough to make me turn vegan. But that horse left the barn long ago, and there's still plenty of people who *do* like their stuff. Retail categories... big yawn.

But, that's another discussion for another thread. Surely there are exotic, hand-crafted benches out there that deserve to be WMs, but since dedicated benches, artistic seating, and sit-by-me statues already exist, and because the category description is so vague, I'll vote nay.

I saw this before leaving for work and also thought it was a joke.  i drive about 20 miles to work and counted about 100 benches just on the main highway.  Talk about  useless waymarks and wasting web space!

saopaulo1:

Geocaching and Waymarking are two different things. On GC the rules are simple. Not near train tracks, playgrounds, and more than 0.1 from another cache. You can place a cache in a park with three sentences, and it'll pass.

Stuck to a...bench.

saopaulo1:

You can place one in a lightpole base in the same park with three paragraphs and it'll pass too.

I would caution people to give valid feedback on the decline, reguardless of whether you think it a joke or not.

It could be a real beginner, and some of the typical feedback responses could turn them off to waymarking forever, when it would be a good place to give direction.

globetrotters.us:

I would caution people to give valid feedback on the decline, reguardless of whether you think it a joke or not.

It could be a real beginner, and some of the typical feedback responses could turn them off to waymarking forever, when it would be a good place to give direction.

That's probably the best advice I've heard. These forums, although somewhat less heated than others, can still be a harsh place for new users. Real, honest feedback combined with a constructive suggestion or two is a good course of action. To paraphrase the old adage, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

globetrotters.us:

I would caution people to give valid feedback on the decline, reguardless of whether you think it a joke or not.

It could be a real beginner, and some of the typical feedback responses could turn them off to waymarking forever, when it would be a good place to give direction.

I also caution that you do not indicate with more work this category will make it through.  Even a well written category accepting all benches is still a category category about benches... it still has the same problems.  A sow's ear in a silk purse is still a sow's ear.

BruceS:

fatcat161:

I don't think it's a good catageory either, but they are global, they are prevelant, it is informative (everyone needs to sit sometime), and redundant? well not really. I keep voting against proposals but they pass anyway. I expect this to pass also.

Yes they are global.  Prevalent has two sides... Too Few and Too Many.... this one falls in the too many.   Informative... are your ever going to ever use your gps to tell you where you can sit?  If it is information that no one would ever remotely use is it informative?  Redundant... well I guess it is a superset of two other categories.

Using the same logic for sidewalk cracks:   They are global.  They are prevalent, they are everywhere.  Informative... well it is nice to know where to raise my foot up because I never like to step on one   Redundant... we don't have a category for sidewalk cracks so it would not be redundant.  It does not mean we have a category for them.

I agree with you completely on this. I just see other categories that are getting passed recently and view them as equal to this. I'd like to see the category explosion slow down.

Fatcat

globetrotters.us:

I would caution people to give valid feedback on the decline, reguardless of whether you think it a joke or not.

It could be a real beginner, and some of the typical feedback responses could turn them off to waymarking forever, when it would be a good place to give direction.

They are beginners and have placed only 1 WM between the 3 officers.

Thanks for your reminder about turning them off and instead providing a direction. I just edited my comments to include a lot of helpful advice. If we all want higher quality categories, we have to lead by example.

dopeyduck:

globetrotters.us:

I would caution people to give valid feedback on the decline, reguardless of whether you think it a joke or not.

It could be a real beginner, and some of the typical feedback responses could turn them off to waymarking forever, when it would be a good place to give direction.

They are beginners and have placed only 1 WM between the 3 officers.

Thanks for your reminder about turning them off and instead providing a direction. I just edited my comments to include a lot of helpful advice. If we all want higher quality categories, we have to lead by example.

Definitely! If we come off as elitist, things will only be worse. Nurturing and Supportive.. that's the ticket!

BQ

I'm watching this one closely.  If it passes I'm moving forward with my "crosswalks" category

briansnat:

I'm watching this one closely.  If it passes I'm moving forward with my "crosswalks" category

- was alerted to read this yesterday, which reminded me of ----
Whatever happened to the proposed "Pothole" Category? 

No, this is no joke. But maybe I translated the category not very well. I wanted to learn somting more about waymarking. But I see newbies are not wanted/allowed....

kogamiyata:

No, this is no joke. But maybe I translated the category not very well. I wanted to learn somting more about waymarking. But I see newbies are not wanted/allowed....

Newbies are always wanted/allowed.  However, the best way to learn about Waymarking is NOT to jump in and create a category.    If you are truly interested in learning about Waymarking then visit and/or submit several Waymarks in different categories to get feel how Waymarking works and what is expected in different categories.  Once you have done this you will see why this category proposal would have been viewed as a possible joke. 

By trying to create a category before learning about how waymarking works would be like trying to write a book and send it to a publisher before you learned the alphabet and before you knew how to read,   your success is is not likely.

kogamiyata:

No, this is no joke. But maybe I translated the category not very well. I wanted to learn somting more about waymarking. But I see newbies are not wanted/allowed....

There is no need to be so dramatic. For any activity some research should be done before hand.

There's more to joining a rock band than just owning a guitar. For one thing, you have to know how to play it.

BQ

and what do you think of the category ANWB paddenstoelen ???