Not for me, no.

Would it not be tough to pick out the fast updates.
As crazy as it seems to us, someone just may not log in that regularly so register a couple of years worth in one go?

Of course you can very legitimatly pick up 200-400 in a year or so if you take a year off and just drive around Europe (like Shandos and Joel did) though I guess we have verification on that anyway, but perhaps the people may not speak English and thus not be part of this wider WHS community, but like to register their numbers here.

On Els list of 44 they seem valid to me.

Just a quick question on Mbanza Kongo, on paper it doesn't seem that tough to visit, is it just that tourist numbers in Angola are so low that it doesn't have many visitors?

It's a very costly country for tourists.
A high cost, little reward WHS

Els already said no, so no. I would be easy. We do yearly comparisons anyhow.

To me fast updates are not a concern. My peer group consists of people I personally know, not people that have created a random account on a website once.

Only issue is Top 10/3. But seeing Els is one of those impacted the most (being Top 10), I am perfectly fine with her choices.

I don't want to focus on policing. At least with the "impossible" review mandates, we all get something positive out of it = more reviews of little visited WHS.

I do like the current approach and hope it keeps the wrong people out. The focus should remain on the community and helping each other. I like meeting and interacting with others from this community. I don't care how many "ticks" they have as long as they also like talking about WHS. But if an obvious fraud hijacks the list, action should be taken.
In my opinion it should rather how it worked for the last case. Some of the high profile travelers (looking especially at Thomas) raise suspicion and Els (or a deputy) approach the person to clarify.
The "review needed" approach makes sense, in terms of helping the community. Don't know if it helps in preventing frauds. I would support it in general, that if someone covers an unreviewed site (excluding new entries after the sessions), a review should be mandatory. the goal should be to have tips ready for every site. And those who do the ground work get the respect. this is true value for me.

A lot of these overlap with my list of difficult sites (although I have a separate system for sites with travel advisories). The only one I wouldn't include would be Taputapuātea, but I guess it's a lot closer to Australia, our home. We're considering French Polynesia for our 10th wedding anniversary - so I should be able to provide a photo in January 2024!

For me, "community" concerns people who are discussing on this forum. We are pretty sure that people posting messages here are serious. Hence I think we should make a ranking with only people who have posted at least one message, rather than reviewing WHS. In my case, i never wrote any "Review" because of my poor english, and we can guess i'm not the only one. I don't know if it's possible to implement a such solution (exclusion of ghost members), but it's maybe a better solution for all of us. Who cares of ghost members? If these members make the effort to check a WHS, they also can write a message on this forum even if their english is worse than mine lol.

Valid points, jeanbon, however, I view them a bit differently:

Lots of people actively contribute to this website and they do so in many ways. There are people who send me loads of valuable photos of WHS where we did not have them yet, others keep track of WHS news, send me ideas for connections etc. I value them all. So, the forum certainly isn't the only criterion of being an active member.


Still, you wrote 7 sentences of perfectly fine English in the post above. Don't be modest or afraid: reviews have become longer over the years, but it is not necessary to write a full essay. For the 44 sites on the "Impossible" list, I would be perfectly happy to just have a photo plus a few sentences about how you got to a place and how the experience was for you. And in the end, there is always Google Translate or I can help out.

I think allowing people to track their WHS and have a nice map to go with it, is one of the mission statements. Some may want to write reviews, post forum posts, ... meet up. Others dont. Btw, you are welcome to connect in whatsapp or in real life. Ping me, if you ever make it to Hamburg.

Only accounts I would clean out are inactive ones. That is people who created a profile years back and never dealt with it again. We had a one year filter in, but to keep Iain in we relaxed that.

The main issue was a single former community member scoring unrealistically. For Top 10, I would prefer people being a) real (2 degrees of Els) and b) being active. I would like to look at the top 10 and get inspired.

But they didn't write any message here? Otherwise exemptions are also possible...?

good point, it's a possibility. However it's still easier to write a message than writing a "review".

I understand, but it's not very costly to write a presentation or whatever in this forum...no?

Thank you, that's true i never think to contact this community when i'm travelling. In fact, i don't know who lives where and want to meet members of the community. We could make a map for that or a visible topic if it doesn't already exist...I suggest lot of things but i'm totally unable to do it lol...

I understand, but in my mind, somebody who writes something in this forum, juste one message and no more, shouldn't be a cheater. Maybe i'm wrong, but it matches better with the idea of community...
I don't know what the rate of "active" members among the whole "community"...

It was just a suggestion, i will never be concerned by the impossible WHS ahah!

I like the idea, would make it a private site for community members showing who is pingable and where (WHS Greeters!). Easiest is just to join the whatsapp group (mail to Els). We generally align there if someone is somewhere and wants to have drinks.

I will open a new topic.