Amidst the current heatwave in France, I would like to revisit the topic of my water fountain nominations on this forum. This quintessentially French model was rejected at both the initial review and the appeal stage, and I fail to understand why a source of drinking water is deemed invalid. Furthermore, the acceptance criteria explicitly cite fountains—alongside water features—as examples of “ideal places for socializing.” Do you understand why this appeal was rejected?
The fountains that are described as “ideal places for socialising” are decorative fountains.
A drinking fountain is not the same as a decorative fountain, except for sharing a common word.
The documentation clearly states “fountains and water features” without specifying the intended use or size, so how can you assert this with such certainty?
I asked Gemini to clarify if there was a difference between English and French: “The term ‘fountains and water features’ encompasses any interior or exterior aquatic installation, ranging from functional and decorative spouts, drinking taps, and architectural fountains to static or moving water elements like ponds, reflecting pools, artificial waterfalls, and water walls of all types and scales.”
Gemini can say whatever it likes, but is definitely not authoritative and this doesn’t change the basic criteria of Explore, Social, Exercise.
For a functional drinking fountain to be eligible under Social criteria, it has to be one that people intentionally go to because that fountain is a good thing to socialise at (as opposed to being a convenient location). This will fail.
For it to be eligible for Exploration, it needs to be something that people would be excited to find and tell others about and show it to them, beyond being a thing to get water from. This will fail for a standard drinking spout.
Exercise is obviously not relevant.
I’ll go ahead and link the clarification for water fountains since nobody else has
In general, the type of fountain that is eligible would be decorative fountains, especially those that are visually interesting or historic. A drinking fountain could meet criteria if it were particularly historic or visually interesting, but they aren’t really what is meant by “fountains and water features”. Most are basic utilities.
I can appreciate this may be something that could be worded better, but the wording as it currently is implies that the fountains in question are the water feature type, not the drinking type, hence them being listed directly beside other water features. The clarification that you’ve already been linked to somewhat solidifies this implied definition.
Thanks for the feedback. I initially felt the wording was too generic, but your comments helped me understand that it is better to focus on the three main criteria, and it’s all much clearer to me now:
An ideal place for exploration
An ideal place for exercise
An ideal place for socializing
Personally, I consider the Bayard fountains—with their hand-crank mechanism and long history—to be a piece of French history, though I acknowledge that this is a subjective view.
It’s a perfectly valid view and I have a lot of sympathy with it, as they are a potential point of exploration, especially if old. if you wanted to resubmit, focus on exploration not not on socialising.
