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Re: Hill-fort Survey
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thesweetcheat wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
There are going to be precisely 0 people bothering to fill out that form if they haven't a clue or interest in what they are doing (your example about 'bumps').
I'd like to think of it as inclusive and an attempt to harness the considerable potential of armies of enthusiasts, who may do this stuff already anyway.


The "bumps" example was obviously exaggerated, but the principle behind it is not. I have lots of enthusiasm and as someone who spends as much time out at sites as I possibly can, I may be seen to "do this stuff already", but I have zero training in surveying (although I can accurately draft plans to scale) or in archaeology. So whatever I would add is just a layman's amateur reflection of what I see. Fine for a site like TMA - in fact the whole reason for TMA - but not necessarily going to stand up to rigorous analysis by a professional or as a comprehensive addition to a database for future research.

You know yourself that an amateur may have a pet theory and can easily be blinded into thinking they've "cracked it", but sadly enthusiasm and unshakeable self-belief is probably not enough for this project to really produce something worthwhile.


The responsibility in this case lies with the designer of the form, who must restrict the laymans/amateurs options in such a way as to make them meaningful.
Of course it would be a nightmare if the general public were asked to write their own reports, it would become very difficult to handle and it may contain lots of essentially useless information, but if the academic has done his/her job well here, the form should help with these issues. Also the suggested reading material.


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Evergreen Dazed
Posted by Evergreen Dazed
9th July 2013ce
21:09

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Re: Hill-fort Survey (thesweetcheat)

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Re: Hill-fort Survey (thesweetcheat)

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