Thank you for your comments and your diplomacy. When I started posting on Outbounding.org this week I did not peruse the guidelines. The site was directed to me by a colleague who suggested I post my work here. Outbounding.org has done a very good job (and perhaps too good of a job :) ) of making it easy to get started and begin to submit article URLs. So I have only posted my articles so far (including two more today before I noticed this discussion thread). I have noted point No. 2 on your guidelines.
That said, Outbounding.org opens itself up to an unending debate about what constitutes "great" content. It is subjective. Alastair, for example, has posted among his submissions articles from his site that are more than 24 months old. I don't consider that "great" travel content. Part of being great, I think, is timeliness. Also, one of the articles he posted from his site included a list of the top 10 pools in Paris submitted by a single writer. I think that also does not reach the threshold of "great" content.
What makes the article I posted about the Top 50 Restaurants in Canada great in my opinion is the amount of people who respect the list, particularly the restaurant industry in Canada and the general public, who use the list as a resource for their dining choices when they travel from city to city. The list has had the impact on Canada similar to the World's 50 Best List, and many of the people who contribute as judges to that list are also contributors to the Vacay.ca list. While the byline on the article is mine, the list is not. It is a compilation created by 35 judges -- including some of the top chefs in the country -- and more than 10,000 votes from the Canadian public. It is an undertaking created without any commercial sponsor and without any payment made to any of the judges. The public votes were vetted by a small team, which included replies by me or another team member to every public voter, and we also monitored the voting for duplicate votes to ensure there was not ballot stuffing for any one restaurant. It was an arduous exercise undertaken to champion Canada's culinary scene and provide a resource for readers to turn to for their dining choices. No guide like it exists for Canada. It is not advertorial. It is, in many ways, a labour of appreciation for Canada's chefs and innovators in the restaurant industry. I believe the project in its entirety to be great content.
I would appreciate if both you and Alastair looked at the project anew and in the context of those facts.
Hello Ethan,
Thank you for your comments and your diplomacy. When I started posting on Outbounding.org this week I did not peruse the guidelines. The site was directed to me by a colleague who suggested I post my work here. Outbounding.org has done a very good job (and perhaps too good of a job :) ) of making it easy to get started and begin to submit article URLs. So I have only posted my articles so far (including two more today before I noticed this discussion thread). I have noted point No. 2 on your guidelines.
That said, Outbounding.org opens itself up to an unending debate about what constitutes "great" content. It is subjective. Alastair, for example, has posted among his submissions articles from his site that are more than 24 months old. I don't consider that "great" travel content. Part of being great, I think, is timeliness. Also, one of the articles he posted from his site included a list of the top 10 pools in Paris submitted by a single writer. I think that also does not reach the threshold of "great" content.
What makes the article I posted about the Top 50 Restaurants in Canada great in my opinion is the amount of people who respect the list, particularly the restaurant industry in Canada and the general public, who use the list as a resource for their dining choices when they travel from city to city. The list has had the impact on Canada similar to the World's 50 Best List, and many of the people who contribute as judges to that list are also contributors to the Vacay.ca list. While the byline on the article is mine, the list is not. It is a compilation created by 35 judges -- including some of the top chefs in the country -- and more than 10,000 votes from the Canadian public. It is an undertaking created without any commercial sponsor and without any payment made to any of the judges. The public votes were vetted by a small team, which included replies by me or another team member to every public voter, and we also monitored the voting for duplicate votes to ensure there was not ballot stuffing for any one restaurant. It was an arduous exercise undertaken to champion Canada's culinary scene and provide a resource for readers to turn to for their dining choices. No guide like it exists for Canada. It is not advertorial. It is, in many ways, a labour of appreciation for Canada's chefs and innovators in the restaurant industry. I believe the project in its entirety to be great content.
I would appreciate if both you and Alastair looked at the project anew and in the context of those facts.
Cheers,
Adrian