New "Geocaching Challenges" caches

[+drsolly]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

[+dfx]

I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

 

Good luck with that

[+Fianccetto]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

[+figures]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

That happened to me with my Book Challenge 'cache' at King's Cross. Reckon it's a bug

[+drsolly]

You'll be pleased to hear I have another challenge all teed up and ready to be published. "Do a silly walk outside Amersham tube station."

 

I can't publish it yet, on account of the one per day rule, but I thought I'd mention it now in case you're right now speeding towards Amersham Tube station to kiss a frog, so that you can, at the same time, (or shortly afterwards) do your silly walk, and then log it later when the challenge is published. Two for the price of one!

[+Fianccetto]

I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

 

Good luck with that

Yes...you can't delete the logs.

[I!]

The advent of Challenges should be a wake-up call to everyone that Groundspeak's philosophy really is "The Language of Location" (by whatever interpretation) and not "Traditional Geocaches R Us"; and that your $30/year (if you're a super-duper member) goes towards development of the whole LoL concept. Pretty hard to take if you thought your money was going to maintaining or finessing of the original Geocaching game. Well, now there's a new LoL game that needs a chunk of that income to fuel its development.

 

If there was a way to nominate how your premium membership fees were allocated, say a five-way split Geocaching / Waymarking / Benchmarking / Wherigo / Challenges, then I wonder how much the newer LoL games would get given.

[+drsolly]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

 

It isn't a cache it's a challenge. Amersham tube station is at the end of the Metropolitan line, so get on a train at Baker street, and get off at Amersham. Exit the station, kiss a frog, do a silly walk, and there you are!

[+drsolly]

I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

 

Good luck with that

Yes...you can't delete the logs.

 

I'll flag it as "inappropriate" or "offensive". That should do the trick.

[+drsolly]

Also coming soon - Amersham Cuckoo. You have to make a sound like a cuckoo, outside Amersham tube station.

[+figures]

Also coming soon - Amersham Cuckoo. You have to make a sound like a cuckoo, outside Amersham tube station.

 

Whilst doing a funny walk? Just so I can plan for these things

[+NattyBooshka]

Also coming soon - Amersham Cuckoo. You have to make a sound like a cuckoo, outside Amersham tube station.

Darn it... Did that last year.

 

No bomb scares with challenges... But how long before someone is sectioned?

[+drsolly]

Also coming soon - Amersham Cuckoo. You have to make a sound like a cuckoo, outside Amersham tube station.

 

Whilst doing a funny walk? Just so I can plan for these things

 

For Health and Safety reasons, we recommend that you do these challenges one at a time.

[+NattyBooshka]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

[+Fianccetto]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

 

It isn't a cache it's a challenge. Amersham tube station is at the end of the Metropolitan line, so get on a train at Baker street, and get off at Amersham. Exit the station, kiss a frog, do a silly walk, and there you are!

 

Right. Challenge, not cache. Of course, how silly of me to forget that so soon, how embarrassing. I'm going off these a bit now, I have to say.

 

So I need to get the train from Gloucester to London and then...Wait, I know how to get to Amersham! I just can't find my way to the web page to accept the challenge. I wouldn't accept a challenge like that if it were in my town, so I'm not going to go to Amersham for it. The silly walks one piques my interest a little, if we were in the area.

[+drsolly]

Also coming soon - Amersham Cuckoo. You have to make a sound like a cuckoo, outside Amersham tube station.

Darn it... Did that last year.

 

That's fine, there's nothing in the challenge that says you have to do it *after* the challenge is published. But you won't be able to log your achievement until after it's published, and I'm limited by the one per day rule.

 

To find the Amersham Station series of challenges, search for 51°40.455'N 000°36.425'E. It's actually W, but the current version of the software seems to be changing all Ws to Es.

 

Is anyone else publishing challenges?

[+drsolly]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

 

It isn't a cache it's a challenge. Amersham tube station is at the end of the Metropolitan line, so get on a train at Baker street, and get off at Amersham. Exit the station, kiss a frog, do a silly walk, and there you are!

 

Right. Challenge, not cache. Of course, how silly of me to forget that so soon, how embarrassing. I'm going off these a bit now, I have to say.

 

So I need to get the train from Gloucester to London and then...Wait, I know how to get to Amersham! I just can't find my way to the web page to accept the challenge. I wouldn't accept a challenge like that if it were in my town, so I'm not going to go to Amersham for it. The silly walks one piques my interest a little, if we were in the area.

 

So create a silly walk challenge in your area, and then do it.

[+Fianccetto]

If I don't publish one today, can I publish two tomorrow?

[+Fianccetto]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

 

It isn't a cache it's a challenge. Amersham tube station is at the end of the Metropolitan line, so get on a train at Baker street, and get off at Amersham. Exit the station, kiss a frog, do a silly walk, and there you are!

 

Right. Challenge, not cache. Of course, how silly of me to forget that so soon, how embarrassing. I'm going off these a bit now, I have to say.

 

So I need to get the train from Gloucester to London and then...Wait, I know how to get to Amersham! I just can't find my way to the web page to accept the challenge. I wouldn't accept a challenge like that if it were in my town, so I'm not going to go to Amersham for it. The silly walks one piques my interest a little, if we were in the area.

 

So create a silly walk challenge in your area, and then do it.

Gosh no, don't want a challenge like that around here! :laughing: I'm not wanting to get people beaten up!

[+drsolly]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

[+NattyBooshka]

Also coming soon - Amersham Cuckoo. You have to make a sound like a cuckoo, outside Amersham tube station.

 

Oh yeah... There's lots of stupidity out there!

 

Just killed my PM though and only a couple of days left... So I won't be able to play.

Darn it... Did that last year.

 

That's fine, there's nothing in the challenge that says you have to do it *after* the challenge is published. But you won't be able to log your achievement until after it's published, and I'm limited by the one per day rule.

 

To find the Amersham Station series of challenges, search for 51°40.455'N 000°36.425'E. It's actually W, but the current version of the software seems to be changing all Ws to Es.

 

Is anyone else publishing challenges?

[+drsolly]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

 

It isn't a cache it's a challenge. Amersham tube station is at the end of the Metropolitan line, so get on a train at Baker street, and get off at Amersham. Exit the station, kiss a frog, do a silly walk, and there you are!

 

Right. Challenge, not cache. Of course, how silly of me to forget that so soon, how embarrassing. I'm going off these a bit now, I have to say.

 

So I need to get the train from Gloucester to London and then...Wait, I know how to get to Amersham! I just can't find my way to the web page to accept the challenge. I wouldn't accept a challenge like that if it were in my town, so I'm not going to go to Amersham for it. The silly walks one piques my interest a little, if we were in the area.

 

So create a silly walk challenge in your area, and then do it.

Gosh no, don't want a challenge like that around here! :laughing: I'm not wanting to get people beaten up!

People who do silly walks in your area get beaten up? What about people who make a sound like a cuckoo?

[+NattyBooshka]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

That's the spirit! Looks like we'll ve needing some real butters though to cope with the insanity they'd be exposed to.

 

Ok... That's me in then.

 

But... Jeremy says it's geocaching... So I need a judgement from the GAGB as I wouldn't like to tread on their toes... Unless there's a "tread in the GAGBs toes" challenge out there.

Edited August 18, 2011 by NattyBooshka

[+Fianccetto]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

 

*Steps back. Looks side to side. Steps back some more*

[+agentmancuso]

Here's one good one though

 

Challenge the challenge

Whatever it was it appears to have been killed by Big Brother... Freedom of speech and Groundspeak don't get on it seems.

 

The challenge was to upload a screen shot of how many people had voted to kill challenges:

 

 

Here's a better one, though I'm sure they'll kill it shortly. If they do, I'm cancelling my premium membership, which is due for renewal in about a week.

 

An Even Worse Idea

 

 

They've archived my challenge too, despite the fact it already had more finders than most of my caches. Oh well, that's my Premium Membership cancelled.

[+NattyBooshka]

Here's one good one though

 

Challenge the challenge

Whatever it was it appears to have been killed by Big Brother... Freedom of speech and Groundspeak don't get on it seems.

 

The challenge was to upload a screen shot of how many people had voted to kill challenges:

 

 

Here's a better one, though I'm sure they'll kill it shortly. If they do, I'm cancelling my premium membership, which is due for renewal in about a week.

 

An Even Worse Idea

 

 

They've archived my challenge too, despite the fact it already had more finders than most of my caches. Oh well, that's my Premium Membership cancelled.

Put it on another listing site!

 

Oh... Hmmm... Ok... Is lamegame.com already registered?

[team tisri]

Oh oh oh, this thing could get *so* silly. I wonder if Groundspeak realise just how silly this could get.

 

I think they do, because their own challenges pretty much top the silliness scale

 

But... but... but... they're just wanting to show how much fun you can have while picking your nose in 1000 different places and making sculptures with the results... or whatever it is they're doing now.

[+drsolly]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

 

*Steps back. Looks side to side. Steps back some more*

Thank you for volunteering to sit on the temporary steering committee. The first topic for discussion is: what should we call the committee?

[+Fianccetto]

When I gave the coords for Amersham Frog, Groundspeak changed W to E, and my attempts to edit it didn't work. So when you attempt my chapllenge, please bear that in mind.

 

There's already one person who has accepted the challenge. If the kiss the frog in the wrong place, I won't accept that as fulfilling the challenge, and I'll delete your log.

I don't know how to find your cache. Whatever location I search under, it locks to my home coordinates (I 'allowed' Groundspeak to know my location) and so I can only see the 2 challenges which have been published near where I live.

 

It isn't a cache it's a challenge. Amersham tube station is at the end of the Metropolitan line, so get on a train at Baker street, and get off at Amersham. Exit the station, kiss a frog, do a silly walk, and there you are!

 

Right. Challenge, not cache. Of course, how silly of me to forget that so soon, how embarrassing. I'm going off these a bit now, I have to say.

 

So I need to get the train from Gloucester to London and then...Wait, I know how to get to Amersham! I just can't find my way to the web page to accept the challenge. I wouldn't accept a challenge like that if it were in my town, so I'm not going to go to Amersham for it. The silly walks one piques my interest a little, if we were in the area.

 

So create a silly walk challenge in your area, and then do it.

Gosh no, don't want a challenge like that around here! :laughing: I'm not wanting to get people beaten up!

People who do silly walks in your area get beaten up? What about people who make a sound like a cuckoo?

Ask them the time?

[+NattyBooshka]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

 

*Steps back. Looks side to side. Steps back some more*

Thank you for volunteering to sit on the temporary steering committee. The first topic for discussion is: what should we call the committee?

Jasmine?

[+Fianccetto]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

 

*Steps back. Looks side to side. Steps back some more*

Thank you for volunteering to sit on the temporary steering committee. The first topic for discussion is: what should we call the committee?

Jasmine?

British & Irish Association for Challenges (Temporary Committee Hearing) for Steering.(Location) (Action) (Photo)

[+Pharisee]

 

As for it being "utter trash", I'm prepared to wait and see how it all develops over the next few weeks. The experience of having to find a suitably compliant frog to kiss, taking a photograph, uploading it and writing a brief comment log was marginally more interesting than finding some film pot in an un-inspiring location and trying to sign the obligatory damp log strip.

 

MrsB

 

Did it turn into a handsome Prince?

[+drsolly]

Is there a GAGB guideline covering challenges yet?

Challenges aren't Geocaching. We need a committee to cover challenges. The Challenges Association of Great Britain needs to be set up. Any volunteers to help set up a temporary steering committee to get this important work started, so we can set up a proper committee?

 

*Steps back. Looks side to side. Steps back some more*

Thank you for volunteering to sit on the temporary steering committee. The first topic for discussion is: what should we call the committee?

Jasmine?

British & Irish Association for Challenges (Temporary Committee Hearing) for Steering.(Location) (Action) (Photo)

Sounds good to me, and we can call it "Jasmine" for short.

[+thekennelat79]

I prefer "Campaign Of Challenge Kancellation - UK Platform"

[+agentmancuso]

I prefer "Campaign Of Challenge Kancellation - UK Platform"

 

I'm in. If they don't sort this out pronto I'm archiving all my caches and moving them to Opencaching.org.uk

[+drsolly]

I prefer "Campaign Of Challenge Kancellation - UK Platform"

Now look here, I've gone to all the trouble of creating the Amersham Frog challenge, and I've got Silly Walk and Cuckoo in the pipeline. OK, admittedly the system seems to confuse East and West, but I'm sure Groundspeak will soon sort out that little problem and we'll be all set.

[+thekennelat79]

I prefer "Campaign Of Challenge Kancellation - UK Platform"

Now look here, I've gone to all the trouble of creating the Amersham Frog challenge, and I've got Silly Walk and Cuckoo in the pipeline. OK, admittedly the system seems to confuse East and West, but I'm sure Groundspeak will soon sort out that little problem and we'll be all set.

 

I'm very sorry, but I will have to disagree with you on several of your points.

 

Your challenge has not been particularly well thought out.

Until you can get the Amersham Cuckoo to do the Silly Walk while whistling "Yankee Doodle", I rather doubt that serious cachers will look favourably on your challenge.

Indeed, they might even go so far as to give it a "thumbs down"

 

As to the East/West debacle, I think that you are missing the point.

All that you have to do is turn your GPS upside down.

North then becomes South, and East becomes West - Simples.

 

As for certain parties being willing to extinguish any criticism which may be aimed at them; will you remind them of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, or shall I?

 

(Edited to correct my "late at night" speeeeling)

Edited August 18, 2011 by thekennelat79

[+Fianccetto]

Well, could we please have a different name from Jasmine. The name Jasmine has...associations for me. It's rather complicated and I don't want to talk about it.

 

Does this unusual East/West confusion mean I can nip out of my front door and do a quick night cache in Bishop's Stortford?

[+Malpas Wanderer]

I think Groundspeak's navigation went a bit astray and put them p hit lley.

 

Now there's a challenge touch your toes whilst bog snorkelling.

 

Lets hope we all have some sense and never publish any and the whole thing will go away.

 

Not what a lot of us wanted which was a quality listing arrangement on a par with earth caches.

 

Look forward to it all being a dream...slim chance of that, fully awake and working throughout the night.

 

I wonder how long Groundspeak would support the non-premium members if all the premium members pulled out?

 

Wherigo, chirp, souvenirs, challenges, they are all nails in the coffin of my membership.

[+smart451]

.

Edited August 19, 2011 by smart451

[+drsolly]

 

As for certain parties being willing to extinguish any criticism which may be aimed at them; will you remind them of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, or shall I?

 

The First Amendment to the US Constitution does not apply to any speech which is inappropriate, offensive or spam.

[+drsolly]

Well, could we please have a different name from Jasmine. The name Jasmine has...associations for me. It's rather complicated and I don't want to talk about it.

OK, would you like to suggest an alternative?

[+drsolly]

Lets hope we all have some sense and never publish any and the whole thing will go away.

 

Too late. Amersham Frog already has someone who has accepted the challenge. And I plan to publish other caches in the Amersham series. I'm hoping that thousands of people will visit Amersham station to do various challenges and earn themselves hundreds of smileys.

Edited August 19, 2011 by drsolly

[team tisri]

Not what a lot of us wanted which was a quality listing arrangement on a par with earth caches.

 

Even things like the old locationless caches were often a bit of a challenge. I remember the "pair of quintuplets" cache and looking at the map for places that qualified (I ended up at N 50 33.333, W 3 55.555) and which were accessible to the public. Even the less challenging ones required the finder to actually go out and look for something.

 

With the advent of Google Street View an increasing number of virtuals can be claimed from an internet search and every once in a while people post a multi with stages that don't need to be visited because you can work out the final coordinates by deduction but to design a "new game" that can apparently be played without ever leaving your armchair seems pointless. Hmm... wonder if that would make a challenge in and of itself.

 

I wonder how long Groundspeak would support the non-premium members if all the premium members pulled out?

 

Wherigo, chirp, souvenirs, challenges, they are all nails in the coffin of my membership.

 

Personally I don't see an issue with Wherigo caches in principle, it's just a shame that what could have been a good idea clearly wasn't really supported. Chirp seems to be a problem desperately seeking a solution, and souvenirs are just something that turned up one day and don't seem to make any difference to anything. Challenges (and the new changes to log formats) just seem to be the latest in a long line of Groundspeak ignoring things that might be useful, not fixing things that could be a good idea (eg Wherigo) and just dumping some new random idea on us, causing the site to slow to a crawl yet again.

 

What's most likely to send me to an alternative listing site is less the challenges in and of themselves but the constant tinkering with stuff that works and the way so many new features are introduced but clearly don't work all that well. When so many issues in the past have boiled down to a lack of bandwidth it just seems boneheaded to create a new game that will soak up a huge amount of bandwidth.

[+drsolly]

I know I'll never get this, but I'd really love to know the process within Groundspeak by which the idea of challenges was proposed, debated, defined and accepted. I can see that it must have started from a generalisation of the idea of Virtuals, and when proposing ideas, I've always felt that it's OK to have even daft ideas, but then there's a filtration process before the original idea becomes accepted, and a discussion process before the idea becomes a concrete product.

 

I'd also like to know who thought up the "Kiss a frog" challenge, and what their thinking behind it was. I can, of course, tell you what my thinking behind the "Kiss a frog in Amersham" challenge was, although not on this forum, as that would be inappropriate.

[+Happy Humphrey]

The crazy thing about Photo Challenges is that we already had them here, in a rather nicer format.

 

Even things like the old locationless caches were often a bit of a challenge. I remember the "pair of quintuplets" cache and looking at the map for places that qualified (I ended up at N 50 33.333, W 3 55.555) and which were accessible to the public. Even the less challenging ones required the finder to actually go out and look for something.

 

Of course, we still have that type of thing here.

 

Why Groundspeak didn't simply make a couple of tweaks so that these were more easily accessible to geocachers I just don't know.

[jadenrich2101]

How long untill the challenge arrives along the lines of this one - Plank on either of the Lions outside Leeds town hall - must have photo????.............................Once i figure out what the hell this is all about ill publish it

 

If us new and newish cachers get on this challenge thing we could be taking over the counts of the far more experienced cachers, i dont think this is right, i actually enjoy going out and using the gps to find tupperware in the woods, i thought thats what it was all about when i started in April.....now everything seems to be changing!!!

 

Maybe people will think twice before constantly bitching about micros and powertrails....cause look whats happened Groundspeak have added something stupid now!

 

Ill see if theres a challenge near me, check out what the crack is

[+NattyBooshka]

I had 14 people complete my challenge before Groundspeak deleted it. I can see this in the app. I can't see the challenge at all in the web page, and I didn't get copies of "logs" in my email... So I don't know what was done ;(

 

Ah well... Just gone midnight in Seattle... Best just list it again then

Edited August 19, 2011 by NattyBooshka

[+Amberel]

I know I'll never get this, but I'd really love to know the process within Groundspeak by which the idea of challenges was proposed, debated, defined and accepted. I can see that it must have started from a generalisation of the idea of Virtuals, and when proposing ideas, I've always felt that it's OK to have even daft ideas, but then there's a filtration process before the original idea becomes accepted, and a discussion process before the idea becomes a concrete product.

At present they are suppressing pretty much anything they find that expresses a dislike of the concept or the implementation. If they did the same thing during the filtration process, it's not surprising they end up with such a mess.

 

Rgds, Andy

Edited August 19, 2011 by Amberel

[I!]

What the heck? They deleted my challenge without any explanation. And there are no guidelines for me to refer to that might help me understand the reason. Perhaps it wasn't sufficiently location-specific (go to Crickley Hill Country Park, find a particular set of five walking-trail signposts), but I've no way of knowing that.

 

I had CX6, too