On my
waymarking profile, I have the following defense of visiting waymarks, which I think I originally posted years ago in the waymarking forums. (Many waymarkers only create their own waymarks, but never visit others'.)
56 reasons why visiting is better than posting.
- It's easier. You don't have to spend a bunch of time looking up information on when the sculpture was created, or the web site of the library...
- It's deeper. After your visit, the waymark page will have more than one perspective on it, possibly including pictures from different seasons, or as the site changes.
- It connects you with someone else. You get to see the site through the eyes of the person who posted the waymark.
- It connects someone else with you. The person who visits the waymark will (probably) be happy that someone else has enjoyed it.
- It acts as a double-check. While in San Diego recently, I found a couple of waymarks where the coordinates were off by about a mile. I pointed that out in my log, so the owner apologized and corrected.
- You don't have to wait for approval to post a visit.
I haven't posted a waymark since
August, but lately I've been considering the other side of the equation -- namely, what do I get out of my posted waymarks? Well, for one thing, I get notifications every time someone visits my waymark. In particular, it's fun to think that some German guy posted the above photo to verify that he had been at the waymark. Of course, for
this waymark (Roman ruins in Cologne), he had taken the picture
to log a virtual geocache. Because of the geocache, it's probably my most-visited waymark, but consider my
Tim Horton's waymark in Ontario.
This guy undoubtedly took this goofy picture not as a souvenir of nabbing some delicious Canadian donuts, but rather to post to my waymark. Awesome. It makes me want to post more waymarks. Of course, this only works if other people buy into the idea of visiting them. So I'll try to do both on my upcoming trip.
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