Both will return on the board again when we are discussing Europe, I'll make sure.

Wouldn't it make more sens to discuss external territories of European countries in their geographical continent rather than politically? Especially as most of the propose sites might be natural or indigenous rather than colonial.

I agree that it would be helpful to have a determination on how we approach this in the future, particularly with the Asia and the Pacific region, where France, the UK, and the US have territories that may be under consideration. I like the idea of including the overseas territories in the region where they may be found since we are making recommendations for each region.

Our two and a half weeks for Asia-Pacific were hardly enough. I know this might look unfair but I am afraid two weeks are not going to be enough for Europe-North America.

I tend to disagree. We should time box our efforts. Otherwise, we will never get done. And I feel the Asia discussion has run it's course.

I suspect Asia will have the most proposals. And also am in favour of keeping up the time-frame, more sites will not make it better.

I guess I will have to plan my time carefully then :)

I think Europe/North America will be the most sites, but faster. Africa required a lot of research, Asia also required some. For Europe and North America the gaps are clear and I expect very lengthy initial posts. i am already writing mine and have loads of ideas. Even for Germany :)

I would like to see proposals accompanied by some explanation, as it enables me to learn more about all these great sites being proposed. It also enables us to evaluate better the OUV of sites proposed.

It's very difficult for me to make up my mind about a list of proposals that just constitutes the name of the site, with no further explanation.

I try my best to follow this, because I know for many of us, the Europe and North American Region is most familiar and well-travelled. I would propose being open to more opposing dialogue that make a polite argument why a proposed site is perhaps deserving of inscription, but not Top Missing. We could easily come with 200 sites in this region that strong arguments can be made for inscription, but are they "world class", filling a major gap, or contributing something new to the list? Let's raise the standard to really highlight some of the most exceptional places in Europe and North America. I think we are doing that now, but maybe a tad over-excited to make proposals (myself included in my ambitious first post).

I agree in theory. I think we may find that this is the region that is curated the most closely, though. Many proposals for previous regions were brainstorming exercises, and I had been assuming that they would later be whittled down to what would be most deserving for "Top Missing".

@Colvin I think the brainstorming is where the issues come from. For all previous regions we didn't have a 200 entry list at the ready. So, we had proposals and brainstorming mixed. And we thought a little bit about what gaps we were wanting to fill.

For Europe, most go directly to the proposal and no brainstorming. I think that's a pity.

One idea would be to separate the official proposal thread from the brainstorming and discussion thread.

Thought some more about it. What do we expect the Top Missing list to deliver in the end?
1) Identify sites that are as of now overlooked (special interest topics of community members, path less traveled in less tourist areas, e.g. Africa)..
2) Identify sites of inactive countries (Ireland, USA).
3) Identify sites that should be but aren't due to some external reason (e.g. Oxbridge, Washington D.C. Panmunjon).
4) Identify future sites that are not yet on Unesco's radar.

I don't really look forward to a second tentative rating.

So are we doing the moratorium for 1 day? I proposed the idea, Els would this help? During this time the Missing 2020 document could be updated and more users could get additional time to review the forum posts.

Let's say Monday Paris time 6pm?

This would shift our time frame slightly (1 day).

Europe and North America: Proposal Period 5/2 - 5/16
Latin America and the Caribbean: Proposal Period 5/16 - 5/30

Anyhow, just want to say that even with all the discussions, I think the Top Missing selection is going well. I have already learnt a lot about the world, which is great! Thanks to everyone!