Are health centers, fitness centers, and sports-related places operated by individuals or companies not suitable for standards?
Hi, there is no categorical eligibility in Wayfarer, it would always have to be reviewed on a case-to-case basis and with the full context for the nomination. That said, generally, many of these sound like great places to exercise, and “exercise” is one of the “great place to socialize / great place to exercise / great place to explore” eligibility criteria options. It is up to you to see if the submitter showed that it does in their nomination and whether they convinced you.
If you are reviewing one and would like input, don’t hesitate to share it on here in full, the community will be glad to take a look. It’s always easier with examples.
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I believe that for places that help us exercise like gyms and sports facilities that we dont even apply the generic business critieria, because regardless of whether the gym is owned by a large company or not, it is still a great place to exercise, and things like exercise classes and group gym sessions are also a great place to socialise!
So yes these kinds of places can make great waypoints!
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This is something that has confused me somewhat. I have always seen chains of gyms (e.g. The Gym Group, David Lloyd, Gold Gym, etc) as being generic businesses, even though they are a place of exercise. I don’t recall rejecting any yet, but am now wondering if I should change my mindset on this.
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As @frealafgb said - there is no rule that all chain businesses always have to be rejected.
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I like to think generic business means a chain that also doesn’t meet any critieria at all. Like a big brand supermarket, or a large clothing store. Generic and uninteresting from a critieria point of view. I think if the business is linked to exercise, socialise or explore, then the branding becomes less relevant.
I think gyms, given they are not very common (unlike for example coffee shops where you mighthave 10 or 20 in a coupleof streets) are all a great place to exercise (and be social sometimes), and the branding doesn’t matter. In fact often the big chain gyms have very good equipment and a range of classes etc, making them even better sometimes than an independent
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the tool tip for “Appropriate” definitely needs to be rewritten. i also feel like this is what they meant by “generic business” - that it has no fit in the three criteria of exercise, exploration, or being social. i think “chain” was meant to illustrate Walmart, not Workout Anytime or Dave & Busters.
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My personal understanding of the tooltip for “Appropriate” is that all the words in it matter - sure it mentions chains, but the key part is “not significant to the community”.
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But I can easily see how someone could take this to mean that being a chain is a reason to reject on the line item for “Generic”
The word “or” normally indicates if it is this, this, or this - reject.
I see that they probably intended the part after the “or” to apply to any of those first three things, but it reads like we should reject these:
generic business
chain
franchise that is not uniquely important to the local community.
I think it should say
A business that is not uniquely important to the local community and does not promote exercise, exploration, or being social.
The word “chain” should be left out.
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When they begin to work on tooltips, than please do something for “safety”.
In the german tooltip is noted, that every leading over water is dangerous.
A publicly funded Leisure Centre for me meets the criteria as the community pay for it via taxes and is relatively unique to the community. A gym chain can be found in many locations and in most cases members can use any of them, which meams that it isn’t as unique (in the loose terms) to the community. But if Gym chains are the exception to the rule, I won’t argue against it.
I am going to stop editing this post since it has been commented on, but the more I look at it, the worse it is. The rejection reason is “Generic Business” but the explanation in the tool tip is for “Generic” and then the definition starts off with “Generic business.”
And the way @Xenopus put it as
is much better than the text I copied of “uniquely important” because “unique” could rule out so many places that would meet criteria.
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I agree with you, and would like to see it (and many others) smartly reworded in a way that excludes all ambiguity (including grammatical) in all languages (assuming the intent is to convey what you and I seem to understand and agree on) without being prescriptive and leaving space to judgement. It’s not an easy task.
In the meantime, I think the way it historically evolved from “Generic Business” with no context on the review page → no such rejection reason at all → this one with a tooltip and some context at the very least suggests there’s room for nuance.
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Smaller, community-focused gyms like the non-profit YMCA are preferable to large, for-profit corporate chains like 24 Hour Fitness or Planet Fitness as those are closer to generic business category.
Disagree. They are all great places to exercise. And many of the chains are open 24 hours, so you can go when suits your schedule, rather than just when the YMCA is open.
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Yeah I really agree
We have an independent gym near me, and a large brand gym (the brand is called Better)
The Better has not just a gym but cycle studios, badminton, swimming, diving, soft play, dance studios, classes, and personal trainers. It costs ÂŁ32 per month because the town council subsidise membership. It has parking and disabled facilities
The independent costs ÂŁ300-ÂŁ400 per month and is just a gym with personal trainers. No parking. Hard to access.
Both are really popular, but you can’t really argue that the independent one is the only great place to exercise- both are very good, but the Better has more facilities and is way more accessible. It’s also a nice place to socialise as it has a cafe and lots of seating
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Preferable to who? There is no such criteria.
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