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Forum or Not?


T0SHEA

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Recently, there were two new categories in peer review.

 

Some of the comments were about that it was not discussed on the forum.

 

Are discussions on the forum helpful, constructive or beneficial to the development of a proposal?

 

If these two categories were discussed on the forum, perhaps Panda Restaurants would not have been sent to peer review. Fishing Ports would of benefited with some helpful suggestions on the writing of the proposal.

 

There was earlier this year a category that passed peer review that was on the forum, however there was no discussion for over three years. When it was submitted to peer review, it was not posted on the thread. How helpful was that for those of us that came to the forum after January 2013?

 

So are discussions helpful?

 

Only if the ones who read the proposal actually post a comment. Most times there are over 100 sometimes up to 300 views and only a few comments. Even if the reader likes or even dislikes the proposal; it is important to know with some clarification.

 

Even if someone has already posted “your” thoughts on the proposal, it is important to know others agree or disagree.

 

Then there is the issue of preconceived ideas of what the proposal is, only to wait for peer review to voice these, or after it is approved.

 

There are a few proposals that still have possibilities. Why are they not brought up again for further discussions?

 

If a draft of a proposal is posted, consider it as a MOCK peer review. This is the time to post your objections or positive comments rather than later during peer review; when it can not be edited.

 

If comments positive or negative and/or suggestions are not posted on the forum: then WHAT’S THE POINT?

 

To later vote nay, because it was not discussed on the forum.

Edited by BK-Hunters
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This is an excellent discussion, the way to suggest new category should progress

 

here is my own experience, i found an idea, i created a group.

And you have steps that explain how to proceed.

 

Nowhere it's written you have to discuss your idea in the forum !!

This can be a first change, new step, improve your category in the forum

 

A friend of mine said you must improve your idea in the forum before Peer review but Good Luck "they shoot at sight" (french expression) !!

With a lot of Paranoia, it seemed that everybody was against my idea, it was only a fight and i made a lot of mistakes (too agressive, bad comparisons, misunderstood sentences, etc..) and after few days and helps of Chickilim things change and also the idea but not enought

This is the main problem of the forum, it's not always the place to help you to improve your idea, it's a peer review before the peer review but comments in peer review are sometimes more relevant than in the forum because more people are involved.

 

When you create a category the last step was "Activate your category", unfortunately it does not work like this now, the category is created, you do not receive any email and it's already activated. It's a pity because depending on the peer review comments you could take into account comments and modify description before activation.

May be this can be fix, only because it's the way it was supposed to be.

 

I did not know the leader and officers of "Découvreurs de Ports de Pêche" group, i asked them to join the facebook group of french waymarkers, it was a pleasure to meet unknown french waymarkers and they explained they did not want to go to the forum because no one speak english.

I agree that category description must be in english but if you want to promote Waymarking outside the english speaking world you should help non speaking english people even if you are not officer of the category.

 

To conclude, I agree that category must be discussed first in the forum and may be it can be explained when you create a group. Or activate the peer review only if discussion is created in the forum (that suppose to create a link between the forum and the website).

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I think it is good to bring a category to the forums for discussion even though not many people will comment. First it helps if the proposal is duplicate of an existing category that the new group was not aware of, in this case there may be only one comment needed, and it saves the group a lot of time. Second, I think it can help others understand what the category is really about and help the group develop the category description to better explain what is desired, this is especially true if the idea is a bit different or if the terms used have significant regional differences in meaning. Third, I think in general people like to have the opportunity to input rather than being "blind sided" by a having some unknown category show up in peer review, whether they give input or not, I think most at least like that opportunity.

 

As far as the steps on category creation, the site used to send an email with the vote and comments when the administrator approved or declined a category, somewhere along the way this functionality stopped working. It was an automatic function which the administrator did not have to do anything except approve or decline category. I know that the administrator will sometimes now send an email to the group leader any comments that may help fix issues identified in the category. As far as the category going active automatically after the administrator approves the category is not quite true, it will go active then if anyone has clicked activate category at any point before the administrator approves the category.

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Alfouine, Though we live in Canada, a bilingual country, I do not speak French and sometimes have difficulty speaking and writing Canadian. :lol:

 

We do not criticize, or most times do not even point out a misspelling or grammatical error. When reviewing a submission that was transcribed to English online, we do make very minor corrections. Most times we enjoy reading the submissions and posts to the forum.

 

"A friend of mine said you must improve your idea in the forum before Peer review but Good Luck "they shoot at sight" (french expression) !!

This is the main problem of the forum, it's not always the place to help you to improve your idea, it's a peer review before the peer review but comments in peer review are sometimes more relevant than in the forum because more people are involved."

 

You said it better than I did: "They shoot on sight" and agree not enough involvement while on the forum.

 

We learned this the hard way, it was only after peer review and the category was approved did the dissatisfaction rear its head. We changed the category description, which was not the original intent for the category as proposed. No one ever brought it up either in the forum or peer review.

 

This is the major drawback to posting proposals on the forum, most generally few participate in the discussion.

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As far as the category going active automatically after the administrator approves the category is not quite true, it will go active then if anyone has clicked activate category at any point before the administrator approves the category.

It will be more logical that the leader groupe decides to activate or no his category.

 

Alfouine, Though we live in Canada, a bilingual country, I do not speak French and sometimes have difficulty speaking and writing Canadian. :lol:

I am sorry i do not speak canadian :P

 

No one ever brought it up either in the forum.

I did but it was too late.

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Often there is little response to category proposals in the forum, but if there is then it can be helpful. No answer can be a sign for lack of interest and support. Some answers can be biased and it is not easy to see if requests for changes or general negative comments do reflect the opinion of the majority at all. It is like a peer review before Peer Review, that's true and that's the way it should be, because it gives you the chance to react and enhance the text before the real thing.

 

All in all, although it may not help a lot, it can make a difference and it's always better than not even trying it.

 

The result of Peer Review is usually more negative than the general opinion in the forum and it's better to be prepared for it. So I do not see any reason to not have it here first. And there is a significant difference in the success rates. Many proposals fail although having been in the forum, but I do not remember a single one having succeeded without a forum discussion. The simple fact of not having been to the forum will have a negative impact to your scorecard.

 

I usually even start with a forum entry, long before creating a group. You see if it's worth it at all and if it is, here is the best place to find good officers.

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