+IlliniPhil Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I have tried to accept 6 or 7 challenges today and in minutes they are no longer available and have been archived. How and why is this happening? This morning, I was really excited to give this a try...now, I am more frustrated than excited. Quote Link to comment
+dfx Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 They're archiving those which aren't location-specific enough. Quote Link to comment
+IlliniPhil Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 And that's to avoid Challenges becoming another version of the locationless caches from days gone by? Or a repeat of Waymarking? Quote Link to comment
+Earl B. Fisk Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 This whole challenges thing reminds me of the "New Coke" fiasco back in 1985. Quote Link to comment
+JJnTJ Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) This whole challenges thing reminds me of the "New Coke" fiasco back in 1985. It's worse. Coke gave in when their customers complained. Edit: actually, they didn't. They took the opportunity to swap sugar for corn syrup in "Classic" Coke. Edited August 19, 2011 by JJnTJ Quote Link to comment
+Ecylram Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'm thrilled with how proactive Groundspeak has been in archiving questionable challenges. If they didn't there would be no chance of challenges would catch on. Quote Link to comment
+Cool Cow Cachers Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 And that's to avoid Challenges becoming another version of the locationless caches from days gone by? Or a repeat of Waymarking? Is there really any difference? Quote Link to comment
+Panther&Pine Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Interesting, I notice that "Kiss a Frog" is gone from the Worldwide list now. I'd also love to know what this activity has done to their server load. Quote Link to comment
+Ecylram Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 This whole challenges thing reminds me of the "New Coke" fiasco back in 1985. New Coke was a replacement for the old Coke. It was not only different but was taking away an old standby. Challenges is an additional "product", not a replacement product, and at 26 hours of life I'd say its way too early to proclaim it a failure. The success of Challenges is dependent on Groundspeak being nimble enough in its decision-making to get through this startup period. Quote Link to comment
+Team GatorOKC Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Interesting, I notice that "Kiss a Frog" is gone from the Worldwide list now. I'd also love to know what this activity has done to their server load. Quote Link to comment
+Team GatorOKC Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I know it has slowed way down in my area Quote Link to comment
+BuckeyeClan Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Interesting, I notice that "Kiss a Frog" is gone from the Worldwide list now. I'd also love to know what this activity has done to their server load. Yes, looks like it's been archived. You can't even go to the original listing and see all the picures, or read what people posted. Quote Link to comment
+cheech gang Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'm certainly glad I unkissed the frog when I had a chance. Quote Link to comment
+hazumu Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Perfectly good challenges are going missing and how can things be more specific... its a farce.... Ground speak need to think carefully to make this work..... Quote Link to comment
+thecaswellfamily Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Interesting, I notice that "Kiss a Frog" is gone from the Worldwide list now. I'd also love to know what this activity has done to their server load. As unpopular as it may be, this makes me sad. I wanted to kiss a frog. I thought long and hard about just which frog to kiss. Today on my way to my daughter's preschool, I pulled over at the Frog Pond grocery, set the timer on my camera, and made an idiot of myself next to a busy highway for 10 seconds in order to get JUST the photo I wanted. But by the time I got home, the challenge is gone. These challenges do not affect my stats page, and if someone cares enough about my numbers to click on my profile they will see just how many real CACHES we have found. *sigh* I wish people would just put their big girl panties on and grow up about the whole thing, it could've been some harmless fun. Quote Link to comment
+DinaWorks Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I have no problem with Groundspeak archiving the challenges they have archived. There is a problem though. I posted a couple of completions, just to see how the whole thing works. Now the challenges have been archived and I can't delete my logs which I would very much like to do. I hope they change this. Quote Link to comment
+cheech gang Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 *sigh* I wish people would just put their big girl panties on and grow up about the whole thing, it could've been some harmless fun. I tried doing that and just got some odd stares. Should have made it a Challenge! Quote Link to comment
+Sladdeballa Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Me and three other Norwegian players made an effort to create challenges that was * Location-specific * Straightforward * Appropriate * Fun (in my case, for trainspotters) They where all archived for no apparent reason. If this how it is going to be, with no explanation why hard work is wiped out, I guess Challenges will have a very short lived life. Don't we deserve to get a message why they where deleted? This is very, very unprofessional and do not in any means encourage me to make any more. Is it the thumbs up/down that decides? Mine was a Challenge that probably only trainlovers would like. Is it fair that some couch-cachers gets it archived with thumbs down because they don't like it? That does not seam fair to me. I never experienced Virtuals, but thought this Challenge-thing was a very cool idea. As of now, I just hope this stuff dies. And Groundspeak are doing quite a good job killing it by themselves. Quote Link to comment
+kalohepirate Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Or better yet how do you unaccept the challenge? I still see the Kiss the Frog challenge on my to-do list. I could see quite quickly the abuse of the system. Even a photo challenge I created someone logged completed but without a photo. I thought that was not going to be possible. Quote Link to comment
+The Cheeseheads Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Me and three other Norwegian players made an effort to create challenges that was * Location-specific * Straightforward * Appropriate * Fun (in my case, for trainspotters) What was it, exactly? Quote Link to comment
I! Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Me and three other Norwegian players made an effort to create challenges that was * Location-specific * Straightforward * Appropriate * Fun (in my case, for trainspotters) They where all archived for no apparent reason. If this how it is going to be, with no explanation why hard work is wiped out, I guess Challenges will have a very short lived life. Don't we deserve to get a message why they where deleted? This is very, very unprofessional and do not in any means encourage me to make any more. Is it the thumbs up/down that decides? Mine was a Challenge that probably only trainlovers would like. Is it fair that some couch-cachers gets it archived with thumbs down because they don't like it? Most of the above applies to me, too. I had CX6 - Crickley Hill Bingo. It disappeared overnight. I have no idea why, and have appealed. I worked for hours on that prior to Challenges being introduced. Hmph. Quote Link to comment
GOF and Bacall Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Me and three other Norwegian players made an effort to create challenges that was * Location-specific * Straightforward * Appropriate * Fun (in my case, for trainspotters) They where all archived for no apparent reason. If this how it is going to be, with no explanation why hard work is wiped out, I guess Challenges will have a very short lived life. Don't we deserve to get a message why they where deleted? This is very, very unprofessional and do not in any means encourage me to make any more. Is it the thumbs up/down that decides? Mine was a Challenge that probably only trainlovers would like. Is it fair that some couch-cachers gets it archived with thumbs down because they don't like it? That does not seam fair to me. I never experienced Virtuals, but thought this Challenge-thing was a very cool idea. As of now, I just hope this stuff dies. And Groundspeak are doing quite a good job killing it by themselves. Give us a quick description of your challenge. Perhaps someone can spot the problem and help you solve it. Quote Link to comment
GOF and Bacall Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Me and three other Norwegian players made an effort to create challenges that was * Location-specific * Straightforward * Appropriate * Fun (in my case, for trainspotters) They where all archived for no apparent reason. If this how it is going to be, with no explanation why hard work is wiped out, I guess Challenges will have a very short lived life. Don't we deserve to get a message why they where deleted? This is very, very unprofessional and do not in any means encourage me to make any more. Is it the thumbs up/down that decides? Mine was a Challenge that probably only trainlovers would like. Is it fair that some couch-cachers gets it archived with thumbs down because they don't like it? Most of the above applies to me, too. I had CX6 - Crickley Hill Bingo. It disappeared overnight. I have no idea why, and have appealed. I worked for hours on that prior to Challenges being introduced. Hmph. Same here. What was the challenge? Maybe we can help. Quote Link to comment
+res2100 Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I am guessing from reading the FAQ that the Kiss a Frog and many other Challenges are getting automatically archived. http://www.geocaching.com/challenges/faq.aspx How do I report a Challenge that is inappropriate? On each Challenge page there is a link to flag the Challenge as spam, unplayable or for offensive or prohibited content. If a Challenge is flagged enough times it becomes permanently unavailable. There has already been a lot of abuse of the challenges and I am sure that people who don't like the concept are going around flagging the caches in hopes that there will be enough flags to get them automatically archived. This is also very apparent by the amount of people who gives some of these challenges a "thumbs down", and yet they have not even attempted the challenge. Groundspeak needs to remove the negativity of the thumbs down and the auto archiving if it gets too many flags. We should be focusing on the positives of these new challenges. Quote Link to comment
+t4e Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'm thrilled with how proactive Groundspeak has been in archiving questionable challenges. If they didn't there would be no chance of challenges would catch on. well that makes a lot of sense doesn't it?...they refused to bring back the old virtuals because reviewers wanted nothing to do with them so they opted for this new format to ease the burden on the reviewers...instead it looks like GC's time is now spent archiving challenges instead of fixing other more important issues talk about famous last words We also know in the early days that there won’t be many Challenges, so we’ll be issuing Worldwide challenges daily. http://blog.geocaching.com/2011/08/the-eureka-moment-challenges/ Quote Link to comment
I! Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Same here. What was the challenge? Maybe we can help. Thanks for the offer. I really want to hear back from the lackeys (or whoever archived it), but some words of wisdom from the forum regulars would be no bad start. This isn't an exact replica, but is a near-clone in anticipation of just this conversation TIA Uploaded with ImageShack.us Quote Link to comment
+DanOCan Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 ...at 26 hours of life I'd say its way too early to proclaim it a failure. I wouldn't. I'm willing to go as far as to even proclaim it an epic fail. Quote Link to comment
+t4e Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 There has already been a lot of abuse of the challenges and I am sure that people who don't like the concept are going around flagging the caches in hopes that there will be enough flags to get them automatically archived. This is also very apparent by the amount of people who gives some of these challenges a "thumbs down", and yet they have not even attempted the challenge. Groundspeak needs to remove the negativity of the thumbs down and the auto archiving if it gets too many flags. We should be focusing on the positives of these new challenges. finally someone has the same view as i do, which i've been trying to get across in another thread and its like talking to the walls Quote Link to comment
+Sladdeballa Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Same here. What was the challenge? Maybe we can help. I made an photo Challenge, and it was location specific. You had to go to a train station and take a photo of a train passing by (it can't have been archived because it is dangerous? That would be pretty ridiculous)... In the description I used quite a lot of time to write down the stations history in Norwegian and English. I also spent some time on the phone to get permission to use some old photos of the station. This challenge was pretty much directed towards trainspotters... if anyone that doesn't like trains (or challenges) can flag this and get it deleted... what is the point in ever spending any time trying to make challenges? It is not possible to make every one happy... and it seams that "every one" has way to much power here. I haven't been into Geocaching long enough to have any experience with Virtuals, but these Challenges I thought was pretty cool when I heard about it... until today =) Quote Link to comment
+Kybritymom Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I just got home from kissing a frog and the challenge isn't there anymore. Quite annoying. OK, he kissed me, and he didn't want to, but that still counts, right? Quote Link to comment
GOF and Bacall Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Same here. What was the challenge? Maybe we can help. I made an photo Challenge, and it was location specific. You had to go to a train station and take a photo of a train passing by (it can't have been archived because it is dangerous? That would be pretty ridiculous)... In the description I used quite a lot of time to write down the stations history in Norwegian and English. I also spent some time on the phone to get permission to use some old photos of the station. This challenge was pretty much directed towards trainspotters... if anyone that doesn't like trains (or challenges) can flag this and get it deleted... what is the point in ever spending any time trying to make challenges? It is not possible to make every one happy... and it seams that "every one" has way to much power here. I haven't been into Geocaching long enough to have any experience with Virtuals, but these Challenges I thought was pretty cool when I heard about it... until today =) Hmmn. Don't get discouraged yet. As I understand it your challenge was to visit a specific station, not any station. Is that correct? If so it is possible you challenge got caught in the crossfire, so to speak. Try writing to appeals@geocaching.com. And I don't think you need to be a hardcore trainspotter to enjoy a challenge like that. I may try something like it around here. Quote Link to comment
+Scruffster Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I completed two challenges and they are no longer online. I'm guessing that the local challenges submitted by members can only have an FTF. Once someone claims the challenge, they are archived. This is only a theory but it seems to be what is happening in my area. Quote Link to comment
+TheAlabamaRambler Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) I completed two challenges and they are no longer online. I'm guessing that the local challenges submitted by members can only have an FTF. Once someone claims the challenge, they are archived. This is only a theory but it seems to be what is happening in my area. Nope. This afternoon I was the third to complete this challenge that was created yesterday. Edited August 19, 2011 by TheAlabamaRambler Quote Link to comment
+Sladdeballa Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Hmmn. Don't get discouraged yet. As I understand it your challenge was to visit a specific station, not any station. Is that correct? If so it is possible you challenge got caught in the crossfire, so to speak. Try writing to appeals@geocaching.com. And I don't think you need to be a hardcore trainspotter to enjoy a challenge like that. I may try something like it around here. Yes, it was required that you had to go to a specific station, and I added coordinates to the Challenge as well. I had plans for other stations as well, like take a picture of a TB with a train, log a cache nearby (or write a note if you visited it before), things like that... fun for trainlovers =) As things are now, I will not do it... maybe wait for a while and see how this side game works out. Quote Link to comment
+NanCycle Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Or better yet how do you unaccept the challenge? I still see the Kiss the Frog challenge on my to-do list. I completed it yesterday, but then, after I "slept on it" I decided I wasn't going to participate in Challenges unless I thought they were worthwhile. So I "Uncompleted" it, which left it still "Accepted", but then when I clicked on "Leave this Challenge" it went away. This was before it was archived, so I don't know if it wold still work the same. Quote Link to comment
+BuckeyeClan Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Same here. What was the challenge? Maybe we can help. I made an photo Challenge, and it was location specific. You had to go to a train station and take a photo of a train passing by (it can't have been archived because it is dangerous? That would be pretty ridiculous)... In the description I used quite a lot of time to write down the stations history in Norwegian and English. I also spent some time on the phone to get permission to use some old photos of the station. This challenge was pretty much directed towards trainspotters... if anyone that doesn't like trains (or challenges) can flag this and get it deleted... what is the point in ever spending any time trying to make challenges? It is not possible to make every one happy... and it seams that "every one" has way to much power here. I haven't been into Geocaching long enough to have any experience with Virtuals, but these Challenges I thought was pretty cool when I heard about it... until today =) Hmmn. Don't get discouraged yet. As I understand it your challenge was to visit a specific station, not any station. Is that correct? If so it is possible you challenge got caught in the crossfire, so to speak. Try writing to appeals@geocaching.com. And I don't think you need to be a hardcore trainspotter to enjoy a challenge like that. I may try something like it around here. Yeah, that sounds like a good challenge, (as does I!'s above). I hope people that experience this don't get discouraged. Hopefully as the excitement dies down, the people purposely trying to ruin it will get bored and stop. Maybe wait a few days and then resubmit it, and see what happens. I would love to hear some clarification about the archival process from a lackey. But then they probably can't be too specific, or else risk telling people exactly how to work the system. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 ...at 26 hours of life I'd say its way too early to proclaim it a failure. I wouldn't. I'm willing to go as far as to even proclaim it an epic fail. I'm going to have to agree with you there. With any luck, they'll all get archived. Or moved over to WhyMarking. Quote Link to comment
GOF and Bacall Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Same here. What was the challenge? Maybe we can help. Thanks for the offer. I really want to hear back from the lackeys (or whoever archived it), but some words of wisdom from the forum regulars would be no bad start. This isn't an exact replica, but is a near-clone in anticipation of just this conversation TIA Uploaded with ImageShack.us Sorry I!. In my haste to get caught up with today's events I missed this post. I think you should also file an appeal. Quote Link to comment
+hike4familyfun Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Or better yet how do you unaccept the challenge? I still see the Kiss the Frog challenge on my to-do list. So, do these "accepted" challenges, that are archived ever disappear from our list???? I accepted the "Kiss a Frog" challenge just to see what the procedure was, but thought it too stupid to complete... so now, it is going to sit there annoying me and reminding me of my mistake... forever????? Quote Link to comment
+BigAl437 Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'm glad I just sat back and watched. It's interesting watching and listening to what everyone has to say. It's a Challenge not to laugh. Quote Link to comment
+Max and 99 Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 I accepted the "Kiss a Frog" challenge just to see what the procedure was, but thought it too stupid to complete... so now, it is going to sit there annoying me and reminding me of my mistake... forever????? Yep. Forever and ever and ever!! You might as well just start another account. (just kidding) Quote Link to comment
+BuckeyeClan Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 Or better yet how do you unaccept the challenge? I still see the Kiss the Frog challenge on my to-do list. So, do these "accepted" challenges, that are archived ever disappear from our list???? I accepted the "Kiss a Frog" challenge just to see what the procedure was, but thought it too stupid to complete... so now, it is going to sit there annoying me and reminding me of my mistake... forever????? From the feedback topic, they are fixing that today. link Quote Link to comment
+dorqie Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 They're archiving those which aren't location-specific enough. *long sigh of relief* For some reason, I feel like I can move on. Quote Link to comment
+Racettes Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 6 accepted challenges on my profile - 3 are Archived - I just want to remove those three from my Accepted list!?! Anyone..... Thanks Racettes Quote Link to comment
+thecaswellfamily Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 *sigh* I wish people would just put their big girl panties on and grow up about the whole thing, it could've been some harmless fun. I tried doing that and just got some odd stares. Should have made it a Challenge! LOL! Oh thank-you, I needed that little bit of levity! Thanks for the smiles. Quote Link to comment
+Dgwphotos Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 I'm certainly glad I unkissed the frog when I had a chance. How does one unkiss a frog? Isn't that like unringing a bell? Quote Link to comment
cezanne Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 (edited) There has already been a lot of abuse of the challenges and I am sure that people who don't like the concept are going around flagging the caches in hopes that there will be enough flags to get them automatically archived. This is also very apparent by the amount of people who gives some of these challenges a "thumbs down", and yet they have not even attempted the challenge. Groundspeak needs to remove the negativity of the thumbs down and the auto archiving if it gets too many flags. We should be focusing on the positives of these new challenges. finally someone has the same view as i do, which i've been trying to get across in another thread and its like talking to the walls It would make much more sense to refrain from automatic archival than to do away with the voting possibility. Human decisions cannot be automatized, that's a fact. Moreover, I think that it may even be possible that the same user is flagging a challenge twice (the system does not show that one has already flagged a challenge or that someone else did) and this might count more than once (I am only speculating). I also think that if they separated challenges from geocaches (they can be on the same site, but do not effect each other), the protest reactions would be much milder. Until they do not change how the challenges count, I guess that there will always be many ardent opponents of the challenges. Cezanne Edited August 20, 2011 by cezanne Quote Link to comment
+CacheDFish Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Perfectly good challenges are going missing and how can things be more specific... its a farce.... Ground speak need to think carefully to make this work..... For sure! I have "accepted" several challenges, to return home and log and find them archived for one reason or another (never stated). Even ones I completed with friends, but they were able to log before I got to my computer, and me being too late. Really... Challenges have only been out for a few days, can't there be a more extensive review process, or a way to remove ONLY the inappropriate postings, so that more people can enjoy them? Kiss a Frog, and Take a Hike really aren't that big of a deal I don't think. On the other hand, I have seen a challenge for what might as well be, "Find geocache GC####" and I have flagged it, but it is still available... come on! Either make a cache, or make a challenge... NOT BOTH. Quote Link to comment
GOF and Bacall Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Perfectly good challenges are going missing and how can things be more specific... its a farce.... Ground speak need to think carefully to make this work..... For sure! I have "accepted" several challenges, to return home and log and find them archived for one reason or another (never stated). Even ones I completed with friends, but they were able to log before I got to my computer, and me being too late. Really... Challenges have only been out for a few days, can't there be a more extensive review process, or a way to remove ONLY the inappropriate postings, so that more people can enjoy them? Kiss a Frog, and Take a Hike really aren't that big of a deal I don't think. On the other hand, I have seen a challenge for what might as well be, "Find geocache GC####" and I have flagged it, but it is still available... come on! Either make a cache, or make a challenge... NOT BOTH. Agreed. Quote Link to comment
The Pirate King Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 6 accepted challenges on my profile - 3 are Archived - I just want to remove those three from my Accepted list!?! Anyone..... Thanks Racettes Same here. I accepted both "Meet the Lackeys of Groundspeak" and "Washington State Ferry Ride" before they were toasted, and now I can't get rid of them. Most annoying. Quote Link to comment
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