Souvenirs

[+AWESOME WAFFLE]

I am pretty sure this has been discussed before, but why are countries like China and places like Guam not on the Souvenirs list?

Mahalo

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I am pretty sure this has been discussed before, but why are countries like China and places like Guam not on the Souvenirs list?

Mahalo

 

In order for a Country based souvenir to get on the list, and to be awarded to those that have found a cache (or attended an event) in a specific country it has to be "released". There are basically three things that must be done to release a souvenir.

 

First, the graphic artwork must be created. That includes a thumbnail image and a full artwork image and is done by graphic artists that work at Groundspeak. The artwork is original and will represent in the country in some way, which may require a little research about the country.

 

Secondly, there would be a small amount of programming/configuration that would be required to recognize that the country is has a souvenir so that anyone that finds a cache (or attends an event) in the country is awarded the souvenir.

 

Finally, a software process has to be executed (which has already been written) which will retroactively award the souvenir to anyone that has found a cache (or attended an event) in the country in the past. This process can take awhile to run when you consider that it must check every user profile and then check if that user has logged a find/attended for the country. Groundspeak has been reluctant to release too many souvenirs at one time as this process is quite compute intensive.

 

A couple of other things...

 

The countries which currently *do* have souvenirs were chosen based on voting in the old Feedback site. Countries like Poland and Slovakia have souvenirs simply because more people voted for them.

 

A while back (sorry, don't have the exact date) Groundspeak announced that they were going to put the release of new souvenirs on the backburner to work on other things. There have been a couple of event based souvenirs since then but none that were region based (countries, states, provinces). However, there's a flickr page that that has been posted here a few times which shows the artwork for *all* of the region based souvenirs, including some for quite a few countries which have not yet been released. I don't think that China or Guam were included (which is too bad, as I've found a couple of caches in China) .

 

About all we can do is let Groundspeak know that we want more country based souvenirs and perhaps they'll eventually start releasing them again.

[+AWESOME WAFFLE]

I am pretty sure this has been discussed before, but why are countries like China and places like Guam not on the Souvenirs list?

Mahalo

 

In order for a Country based souvenir to get on the list, and to be awarded to those that have found a cache (or attended an event) in a specific country it has to be "released". There are basically three things that must be done to release a souvenir.

 

First, the graphic artwork must be created. That includes a thumbnail image and a full artwork image and is done by graphic artists that work at Groundspeak. The artwork is original and will represent in the country in some way, which may require a little research about the country.

 

Secondly, there would be a small amount of programming/configuration that would be required to recognize that the country is has a souvenir so that anyone that finds a cache (or attends an event) in the country is awarded the souvenir.

 

Finally, a software process has to be executed (which has already been written) which will retroactively award the souvenir to anyone that has found a cache (or attended an event) in the country in the past. This process can take awhile to run when you consider that it must check every user profile and then check if that user has logged a find/attended for the country. Groundspeak has been reluctant to release too many souvenirs at one time as this process is quite compute intensive.

 

A couple of other things...

 

The countries which currently *do* have souvenirs were chosen based on voting in the old Feedback site. Countries like Poland and Slovakia have souvenirs simply because more people voted for them.

 

A while back (sorry, don't have the exact date) Groundspeak announced that they were going to put the release of new souvenirs on the backburner to work on other things. There have been a couple of event based souvenirs since then but none that were region based (countries, states, provinces). However, there's a flickr page that that has been posted here a few times which shows the artwork for *all* of the region based souvenirs, including some for quite a few countries which have not yet been released. I don't think that China or Guam were included (which is too bad, as I've found a couple of caches in China) .

 

About all we can do is let Groundspeak know that we want more country based souvenirs and perhaps they'll eventually start releasing them again.

 

Thanks for the detailed info. Hopefully one day there will be more souvenirs.

[+Fianccetto]

It would make more sense to award souvenirs for places with fewer caches, and harder to travel to places.

 

I hope there is a plan in progress to have a souvinir for every country, eventually. What would be great is if Groundspeak could then employ native artists to design souvenirs for the regions within their country. It would be a shame to start something like this only to abandon it unfinished, so I really hope all countries get souvenirs.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

It would make more sense to award souvenirs for places with fewer caches, and harder to travel to places.

 

I hope there is a plan in progress to have a souvinir for every country, eventually. What would be great is if Groundspeak could then employ native artists to design souvenirs for the regions within their country. It would be a shame to start something like this only to abandon it unfinished, so I really hope all countries get souvenirs.

 

I agree. I see Souvenirs sort of like "collectables". When collecting stamps, coins, baseball cards, etc. It's the rare ones that are most desired. A "California" souvenir is going to be really common because it has such a high number of geocachers and geocaches that can be found to acquire the souvenir. A souvenir for, say, Zimbabwe would be much less common (though I would have one if GS released a Zimbabwe souvenir).

[+scrapcat]

I have a question on this topic. Why, when you look at your souvenirs, do the American ones have this generic icons (you must click in to see the pretty artwork) but the Canadians have the pretty icons on your profile page? Minor.... But it took me 10 months of caching to realize there was art hidden behind my Michigan souvenir.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I have a question on this topic. Why, when you look at your souvenirs, do the American ones have this generic icons (you must click in to see the pretty artwork) but the Canadians have the pretty icons on your profile page? Minor.... But it took me 10 months of caching to realize there was art hidden behind my Michigan souvenir.

 

All souvenirs have a thumbnail image that appears on your profile page and a "full artwork" image that you see when you click on the thumbnail. I have no idea why the U.S. State thumbnails are so generic. The German "state" souvenirs also have generic icon thumbnail images but some pretty nice artwork for the full images.

[+Isonzo Karst]

It would make more sense to award souvenirs for places with fewer caches, and harder to travel to places.

 

?? The website should spend money on developing things for one of the smallest sets of users?? this "makes more sense" how, exactly?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

It would make more sense to award souvenirs for places with fewer caches, and harder to travel to places.

 

?? The website should spend money on developing things for one of the smallest sets of users?? this "makes more sense" how, exactly?

 

The way I figure it, every person that is paying for the services that Groundspeak provides is spending the same amount of money for those services. If GS only caters to the masses, those that happen to live in densely populated areas are going to get more for their money. They probably don't see a problem with that because they are reaping benefits that others, living in sparsely populated countries my not have. Consider that almost all of the "special category" souvenirs are the in Pacific northwest it just seems more equitable to make these awards available for those that live, or visit more remote parts of the world. Perhaps is makes more sense if GS only cares about the bottom line and doesn't care about providing equitable services to their customers but I can only hope that they care about *all* of their customers, not just those that live in heavily populated areas in close proximity to their headquarters.

[+sshipway]

Surely, a souvenir for a more out-of-the-way place is more 'valuable' (measured in kudos) than one for, say, mainland USA. I know I'd be more proud of a 'China' souvenir, simply because it is far harder (and riskier!) to get. Easy souvenirs, such as for highly-populated or cache-heavy locations are less interesting (like doing a 5/5 would give you more bragging rights than a 1/1).

 

However, everyone plays this game differently. For the time being, I just ignore souvenirs, until such time as they become of more interest to me.

[+Brian~!]

Here's the flickr link for those that are interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geocaching_com/sets/72157627767218578/with/6189302461/

[+Fianccetto]

Here's the flickr link for those that are interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geocaching_com/sets/72157627767218578/with/6189302461/

 

Thanks! That's great. So many beautiful souvenirs.

[+The Spindoctors]

When are these souvenirs (especially the Australian ones) being implemented?

[+Meandering WA]

Wow I didn't know about clicking on the icon to see the full souvenir

 

the WASHINGTON state on is beautiful

 

I was disappointed to come home from vacation and see there is not a release for England

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Surely, a souvenir for a more out-of-the-way place is more 'valuable' (measured in kudos) than one for, say, mainland USA. I know I'd be more proud of a 'China' souvenir, simply because it is far harder (and riskier!) to get. Easy souvenirs, such as for highly-populated or cache-heavy locations are less interesting (like doing a 5/5 would give you more bragging rights than a 1/1).

 

I agree. I see collecting souvenirs similar to other types of collectables such as coin/stamp/trading cards. Souvenirs such as the 10/10/10, International Geocaching Day are okay but almost everyone has one. I *have* found a cache in China and have finds in Zimbabwe and Tanzania but it'll likely be a very long time (if ever) if souvenirs are created for those countries.

[+EXMAN]

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Edited July 23, 2012 by EXMAN

[+jellis]

I could give or take them, but a fellow cacher asked how to hide or get rid of all of them.

[+wimseyguy]

Simple, just don't click on that tab.

[+captnemo]

Wow I didn't know about clicking on the icon to see the full souvenir

 

the WASHINGTON state on is beautiful

 

I was disappointed to come home from vacation and see there is not a release for England

I too didn't know about clicking on the icon, wow there is some great artwork there.