Commons talk:Wiki Loves Monuments 2020/Participating countries

Disqualification of Belgium

Why should Belgium be disqualified completetly? Subquestion 1: is the duration of an individual competion for one month only chisseled in stone? After all the month of September doesn't seem to be an obligation anymore. Subquestion 2: Belgium has extended the scope beyond immovable national heritage, i.e. monuments. But they are still included and also categorized specifically. So all uploads in the category of national monuments are still elligible in my eyes. --Wuselig (talk) 19:02, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Wuselig: I see that Romaine had already replied on his talk page, I would like to add few points to answer these questions. I will put them point-wise:

• I will reiterate Romaine's words; it is not disqualification, but it is just not a fit for WLM.
• The competition duration has been 30 days since its inception. It is for various reasons; firstly, every year national organizers have to submit their winners to the international pool by 31 October. So they need at least a month after the competition ends on 30 September. Otherwise, various countries would have different durations, a month, two or even three, and the international jury would get infinitely delayed, and not actually concluding a year's WLM. It is an overall framework to have consistency at the international level, and it is fair for participations of various countries have the same amount of time (for example, it wouldn't be fair if participants of one country had 30 days and others had 60 days, and both are considered for the international jury). Having said that, generally, a few days of leeway is just fine, if local situation demands. For example, Iran generally takes a day or two extra. But it shouldn't too much.
• September obligation has been done away with for this year only, keeping in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because the situation of the health crisis is very much different from country to country, while some countries have sort of recovered and some are at their peak. This extension is to give organizers enough space so that they would able to work around the pandemic, organize the competition in the best time possible. However, 30 days is still applicable to make it fair for participants from all the countries.
• Again as Romaine had already mentioned, there is a difference between natural and cultural; WLE is for the former, while WLM is for the latter. We generally follow the national lists, but not everything that is included in the national lists. For example, sometimes a river bank may be in the national heritage list, but it won't fit for WLM. But in some cases, caves were included. Many times the distinction is not very clear, and that is fine until we clearly try to provide the reasoning.
• Picking up from the conversation on Romaine's talk page, yes, there is a possibility that relevant parts of Wiki Loves Heritage could be considered for WLM. Here, I would like to direct you to Austria's model. WikiDaheim is conducted from 1 July 2020 and 4 October 2020 with a much wider scope than that of WLM. However, part of it that is intended for WLM, in 2019, was conducted from 1 Sept to 6 Oct, to be in line around 30 days - again a few days of leeway is fine. Images submitted in this timeframe are judged separately and submitted to the international pool. So if something similar can be done by WLH, it is in principle okay to include the cultural heritage bit into WLM.

That is it from me, for now. I hope that helps. KCVelaga (talk · mail) 06:59, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. I posted here, because Romaine hadn't replied yet (he has by now). I posted with rhetorical questions and your answer is just fine and leaves open the options of how parts of WLH in Belgium could be incorporated into WLM, if they only chose to. I think the idea of WLH is great, especially in places where after 10 years of WLM everything has been photographed over and over again. Just not yet by everybody, you might add. But not even that is true, because most photographers return to the places most accessible to them. So I do welcome everything that keeps a good idea running on a global level, even if at the local level it is beginning to run itself out. Because I think if the big players leave the contest one by one, the whole contest will eventually fade, even in those places where there is still big potential. And great ideas like WLH and WikiDaheim don't get a global coverage and miss the opertunity to draw in the international traveler who has visited the country recently or pass on the idea to organizers in places where they are discussing the raison d'etre of a contest that is starting to become boring and repetive. I am happy for this short moment WLH was advertized here, because I would have missed it. I think we should adapt our national contests where necessary and also to keep the common parts running. This way WLM will stay on, because world-wide we have not yet reached the saturation point. --Wuselig (talk) 10:01, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Egypt, Algeria

@Bachounda, Mohamed Ouda, and دنيا: The links to the Algerian and Egyptian landing pages are still missing. Romaine can't activate the banner without it. Please ping Romaine when it's there. It may cause a delay of 24h. Effeietsanders (talk) 21:08, 30 September 2020 (UTC) @Effeietsanders and Romaine: The page is now online and ready to starting the contest in algeria - i will to update the egyptian page in waiting that mohammed ouda complete the job --Bachounda (talk) 21:54, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

@Effeietsanders and Romaine: The Egyptian landing page is ready here now. There is no need to delay.دنيا (talk) 22:17, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

@دنيا and Bachounda: Please ask another native speaker to test the page (or help each other :) ). In the case of Egypt, I think the big blue button is not working correctly, for example? Also step 2 and 3 seem a bit confusing to me (it tells to select a monument, but then links to the list in the next step?), but that may be in part due to me not speaking the language. Lets make sure that the landing page is as good as possible, because often people will not return a second time, if they get confused. So it's important to have it right on day 1 :) Effeietsanders (talk) 22:39, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

I fixed the blue button. Romaine (talk) 23:06, 30 September 2020 (UTC)