Note: After this article appeared in DailySocial/IN version, Koprol manually added HackerspaceBDG’s place. See below for additional information.
For me Koprol is more than just status updates and networking. Koprol is about places, public or business ones.
From location facility, one of the things that other services may not have is the Kurators, which is one the strength point where places submitted go through curation process before approved by selected people called Kurator.
DailySocial readers might still remember my previous article covering this curation process problem. My place submission was rejected several times and really, it frustrated me. After the article there were several talks between Kurators that I read but revealed no explanation or solution related to curation process or detail reasons as to what caused disapproval for my place submission. And if I asked the same question again, is curation process facility really that frustrating? I will still say yes.
Several days ago, Korpol release several new developments from their service, there were a lot of things they did in one feature release. From several new features, among others is related to Kurator. Koprol provide new looks for the Kurators that gives them easiness to play their part in curation process. Other than that, for rejected places, Koprol provides additional facilities for users to do second submission on the rejected location.
To test whether Koprol has fixed their curation process, I submit the same place like I did earlier, HackerspaceBDG, assuming that I am part of it so that I can claim its existence.
I filled location information as complete as I can, added a picture to ensure them, like usual I didn’t fill several columns like phone number and email address. The rest, I dutifully filled them.
Well what do you know? I got rejected. Again. The first notification was sent through email. Due to resubmit facility, I have faith on second chance. After checking what can caused the disapproval like perhaps lack of information (I still didn’t filled the column where I don’t have any data to fill them with), then I click resubmit option. After several days, it got rejected. Again.
From the email I received, they still didn’t tell me specific reason as to why the place was rejected. They only said that the Kurators still reject my submission, gave suggestions to add additional information to prove that the place is real and not a duplicate.
If what they mean is whether the place I submitted exists or not, the fact is IT IS. DailySocial even wrote about it several times. I added pictures to explain its existence and even didn’t forget to check whether there are any duplicates, which Koprol’s search column itself said there are none on their database. HackerspaceBDG only has business account and not the place.
If my data wasn’t complete enough, shouldn’t there be any detailed explanation as to what data I needed to add? Like a better picture or email address, please fixed the detail location on the map or maybe change the name into Indonesian name and more convincing one at that, anything at all that enable me to fixed the mistake Koprol thinks I made to get my place submission approved.
When new development and features appeared from Koprol a while back, I was kind of excited, hoping that I can get a more fun curation process facility. Koprol said that the available facility can give a more easy way for the Kurators to do their thing, which means addition of places can be increased, because Koprol is not about the people but also about places.
Since its existence, the Kurators have brought debates, between “limiting” place addition with curation process system and let places to be added without selection process. The path Koprol has taken is providing neater places, not duplicated, and real ones. Curation process do bring its own positive points, but it still needs its own strategy so that the process can be maximized.
So, at the end of this writing, I only wish that Koprol accept my place submission, not only so that I can check-in there, but also because I am a part of the place so that there are some features I’d like to try out. Now Koprol, please accept my place submission.
Disclosure: DailySocial’s Bandung office is located at HackerspaceBDG.
Translated by Nita Sellya.
Update:
From conversation on Aulia’s Koprol account, after this post (on DailySocial Indonesian version) published, Koprol manually added HackerspaceBDG’s place. There are several reasons I got from the thread, one of them is there’s a possibility that the Kurators do not recognize names such as Hackerspace or other unique or uncommon names. So most likely the Kurators reject the submission for that reason. Satya from Koprol, also explained that location with unusual names will be added manually.
One thing I would like to emphasize on this article is not just the matter of whether HackerspaceBDG needs acknowledgement from Koprol by enlisted on their location list. It is about the mechanism of curation process and places that becomes one of strength point Koprol wants to offer, which in my opinion still needs improvement. It just so happen that HackerspaceBDG become the example. This problem might also occur to other users.