Hello,
I’ve been hunting street art in Marseille for a while and I’ve been on SAC for almost a year now. I’ve asked to be added to several cities where I’m sure I’ll be coming back and taking pictures.
On the other hand, I have quite a few other works in stock, but I find the process of requesting to be added to a city rather repetitive, if I only have to add one or two works, knowing that I may never set foot in that city again in my life.
Could you perhaps think of a way of adding a city field when adding a photo, to allow works to be added that aren’t in the cities we follow? Maybe even just after a certain level of participation, to make sure you don’t pollute hunters’ posts?
Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Florian
Florian,
Thank you for sharing this question. I guess many of you know why we started out with the hunt-in-your-hometown approach from day 1. We sticked to that in the first few years, but started to be more flexible as the community grew. However, we keep receiving questions for even more flexibility. I saw @Claudiane.OP ask for the same a few days ago.
I think we have to see how we can offer this flexibility automatically to hunters that 1. know how the platform works, 2. travel alot and want to document while traveling.
I love your proposal of at least offering the ability, when meeting a certain level of usage and understanding of the platform.
@Noa_Heutz is preparing a research among all groups of users on the platform. And he’ll improve different parts of Street Art Cities afterwards, based on outcome of the research. This should definitely be involved. Good point Florian, please hang in there while we try to improve and be on the look out for an e-mail from Noa!
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Dear Bart,
Thank you very much for your answer, I will wait for the message from Noa.
Best regards,
Florian
Hey,
Just a quick question. How has this progressed? I might have an idea, like a hunter submission system:
- Go through the process of adding an artwork into a city (same process as before)
- Instead of hitting Save artwork, it will say ‘Submit artwork’, and you can designate which city it will be located in.
- That submitted artwork will be sent into the inbox (where the community notes go), where the hunters of the city can review the information.
- Then they can either provide feedback or accept as is and have the hunted information credited to the submitter and on the map!
There are a couple of artworks that the hunters in Melbourne haven’t gotten to yet that I’d like to add, but when asking to join the Melbourne to add my photos and works, I wasn’t added because they “have a good hunter team there.”
I’m concerned my contributions might not be accepted in a city that is already on SAC with a big team (i.e. Tokyo with its five hunters). I like to be the type of hunter that fills in things. Finds everything in the in-between and then some. Or in the far corners of a town where most people don’t typically go to. That’s the sort of hunter style I’d look for if I were to join another team.
Or even just a day pass when I’m temporarily added, and then can add my things and then leave. A lot of the Asian cities and Pacific Islands are not particularly well-documented on SAC. I want to change that, but can I really be a ‘hunter’ for all of these cities?
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We’re still working on this topic, as a matter of fact the core team will work on it this weekend. So to be continued.
I’m a frequent traveller too, and I would like to add all the missing art I can find where ever I go. But there are some things we need to take in account.
One of the things that is starting to raise some concerns is the ‘number of uploads’, it’s becoming a way too important. Even more than adding a good description. So adding everything that’s missing in a city that you visit encourages this hunger for numbers.
Although we love to brag about the numbers on our platform, uploads still need to add quality too.
Another thing we might forget when uploading in another city is the sensitivity when ‘invading’ somebody’s hunting grounds. It could cause some misunderstandings. Some hunters might feel like they’re not doing a good job, some hunters might have a system in place and don’t like the interference, etc.
We’ve learned these delicate issues the hard way, so we understand we need to thread here with due caution.
So the question hunters need to ask themselves: How do you feel when visiting hunters hunt your area?
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There really is a fine balance. To be real, seeing Sydney’s number of hunted artworks on last year’s T-shirt brought me back in. Which made me think: “I was significantly part of this.” - reeled in by the gamification. I do try to strike a balance between both the quantity and quality that I upload. A lot of the research is indeed quite comprehensive and time-consuming; lots of investment is really needed with an ongoing project like this!
When this topic of adding works to a different city first came up, I was keenly waiting for a response. The whole thing about the ‘hunt-in-your-hometown’ approach I will understand, but when seeing so much of my state unmapped, it is difficult to just let it stand idle.
When I’ve asked myself the question, a few thoughts come up:
"Fantastic, I’m looking forward to working with them and hunting together. "
“Whoa, it’s so good to see so much undiscovered artworks! Crowdsourcing really works out so well. I follow many Sydney-based street art photographers and I appreciate all of them and our friendly, cooperative nature. I wish I could bring them to SAC.”
“Hmm, some of their additions are missing information. Wait, is this a third-party photo? That’s okay, I’ll edit. Maybe I’ll try to nudge them towards the right way. Hold on, why is it quite difficult to get in contact with them? They don’t have their Instagram or website linked.”
“There’s the possibility of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. The last thing we want is to discourage new hunters by breathing down their neck and watching over them like a hawk, so I will re-evaluate my approach and rapid editing with fellow hunters to ensure they stay on the platform. Stef knows.”
As a collaborative, I’d like to remain as harmonious as possible. Mainly the reason why I’m venturing to places that don’t have many hunters or artworks. So although I love Tokyo to bits, Osaka in Japan is where I’ll focus my mapping in the end of May as a city not existing yet.
I’ve gotten Noa’s email for the research, so I will start to think of some ideas for it.
I think I’ll reach out to Andrew Haysom from Melbourne and see what their team’s best approach is to getting my Melbourne stuff added.
I appreciate your thoughts and look forward to what solutions you might bring. Balancing growth with sustainability. I will be more patient and focus more on the unmapped cities/places. Like regional NSW!
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