Canal locks
Magichour78-PGO
Posts: 1 ✭
I've seen a number of people submitting lock gates on canals. To my mind, they need rejecting for two reasons. One, they're generic as far as canals go - too frequent to be a point of interest. Two, they're not very safe places for people to be congregating.
Am I missing something here? Is there something particular about lock gates that makes them eligible, in your opinion? Thanks for any views.
Comments
I agree with your points of view.
I don't know, but they regularly seem to get accepted in the UK. It may be the "well, I see ones in game already so I'd better vot "yes" otherwise my ratings will go down" problem.
Depends on the channel and the lock. I've gone out of my way (driving) to visit canal locks, but those were part of designated National Sites for a historic canal. Some smaller locks are good places to chill, with nearby unmarked park space and bland seating to wait or watch the lock in action.
But not all lock systems are set up for personal pedestrian use. Some don't have the pedestrian access. There are other locks in my jurisdiction that are essential tranport nodes in shipping routes that I consider industrial sites where gameplay could interfere with operations. It really depends on the individual setup.
I can't speak to other areas of the world, just locally. But I've got quite the mix.
The canal around here is big, passing billions of dollars worth of commercial traffic annually, and its active flight locks would be ineligible due to being Industrual Services. SOME of them have viewing platforms for the tourists, and those (and/or their signs) are definitely eligible. And being a lovely waterway (natural or not), it's got a long mixed-use trail along much of its length, with a mixed bag of trail signs and other such. For the most part, nearly everything eligible along its length that's related to the canal or the myriad of parks and trails are already in-game; but occasionally something new gets created to commemorate something historical, or the reviewers will randomly be especially lenient for a memorial bench with nothing else around.
But! the current working canal wasn't the only one. There were previous iterations dating back to the 1800's, all retired due to being too narrow and/or shallow to keep up with the increasing size of shipping vessels. For THESE cases, we have some very interesting and historical remnants. For the most part, the old infrastructure (ie. the locks) were dismantled, leaving just an artificial waterway and artificial waterfalls. The bits that are left are mostly limestone walls framing the former flight locks. They don't look like much to outsiders, but they do indeed have a special place in locals' hearts, and for historians and tourists.
MOST of those remnants are now in-game thanks to my personal efforts. The majority of those are alongside specially-created walking trails and parks. As @Hosette-ING already knows, I'm still having trouble getting the last few retired locks through Wayfarer, despite that they are indeed either in a public park or along hiking trails. But springtime is coming, and I'll be getting my nomination slots back again over the next few weeks. Maybe I'll be able to take some less-ugly pictures. Or replace my photospheres, so that those highlight both the trail AND the former locks at the same time; quite the difficult task really. These things kind of need 3-4 photos as proof, not just the normal pair: the POI, the sign for the POI, the trail leading to the POI, AND the very obvious access to the POI from the trail. You literally cannot get all of that into a normal supporting photo, but I tries.
In any case, for a live operating canal (ie. one that is passing commercial traffic), I wouldn't ever nominate the locks themselves. At best, signs and public viewing platforms, and anything along any possibly-existing trails along either side of the waterway. Good luck!
I'm not sure. I'm in the UK, where the towpath is generally a public footpath, I don't have concerns about safety. Some locks are more unique than others. Generally I find locks more interesting than trail-markers along a footpath; and in the trail-markers case they are generally accepted, even though there are many of the same type of marker along the same trail. I've not seen too many locks submitted, and I think I've given them 3 or more stars. So I would not reject just because it is a lock, but not accept it just because it is a lock either.