It's always been my policy to praise publicly but to offer constructive advice privately.
I'm going to break that rule now and make a public suggestion that events might want to post an email address where feedback can be given. As we've seen time and time again Attackpoint feedback discussions can so easily take a wrong a turn. If feedback gets sent to a single person via email it I'd so much easier to get your message across clearly and you can have a one on one discussion about what the problem was without other people chiming and confusing the conversation. After that the person on the other end of the email (the meet director?) can tactfully approach the team of volunteers responsible for the area being criticised and can move forward for future years.
If I were the meet director I might then share much of that feedback on Attackpoint afterwards so the community can gain from it but I think its first important to approach feedback in a tactful and positive way where there's less chance of volunteers (and potentially staff) being needlessly and unintentionally injured by public comments.
Thoughts?
Agreed. And your suggestion is a lot more constructive than my perhaps snide comments made elsewhere, for which I apologize.
@Canadian This is a very good idea. Even constructive criticism of events after the fact does little good for the community. Insights from participants can be helpful in in making better future meets and the biggest impact is from getting the feedback to the director and course setters.
The meet director might not want to have their email be public so it might be worth considering an email address being set up for comments for each (large) meet.
Excellent idea, Canadian, with a good suggestion by mintore. I will suggest that this be done for my club's upcoming A-meet at the end of this month.
Canadian, can you please post your email address here? I have an email to send you with regards to your idea.
tRicky, I'm assuming you're beings facetious but if ever yoi want to send me an email for any reason you're more than welcome to. My email is in my AP profile :)
It's never clear to me if tRicky is being facetious, factious, fractious, fascist or E) All of the above.
It's no clearer in person. :)
If I were one to lead a thread further astray, I would say the only thing clear about tRicky is that he is quite tricky!
BUT he is a very pleasant young man to talk to in person. Pity his legs aren't as fast as his mind.
I was quite fast today! Well faster than >1/2 the field anyway ;-)
Anyway yes I was being a knob. I don't think I could ever be fascist.
Constructive criticism can only ever benefit orienteering I would imagine, more so if the person on the receiving end is the one in a position to make changes!
Agreed. Enforcement is the key: those found guilty in non-constructivizm, posting snide remarks, etc shall be ordered to write an essay about the event in question, with 100+ uses of words synonymous to “wonderful”, and post it here.
@ tinytoes - I've done several Adventure Races and rogaines with tRicky. I was under the impression that he didn't actually talk in person.
Sure does - especially to people he doesn't know.
@Fletch, what's going in is an intense wild and varied conversation and witty observations within the confines of his head, but in AR events all of that is suppressed by the navigation neuron (in fact, I think he has 3 of these now). Trouble is, via the total anonymity of attackpoint it all comes sailing forth - leaving us who know him in person either (i) perplexed; (ii) smiling grudgingly; (iii) groaning internally. Thankfully, the 'regulars' are coming to love him too... :-)
Do you really need to put the @ there?
Do you prefer it after the name? "Fletch@" ;)
Tooms - am I at the vanguard?
I like the idea of the public admission site associated with Bare Bones. Its a great read, and I suspect it might also defuse grumpiness. BTW, if I turn up at a Bare Bones, can I get a T-shirt if I complain. Great memento to take back home.
This discussion thread is closed.