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Bring back country based souvenirs


NYPaddleCacher

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Since a thread was recently started about creating a souvenir for Mingo I thought I post an official suggestion to start releasing Country based souvenirs again. I know that the artwork has been created for quite a few countries for which a souvenir is not currently available and that the basic code already exists for releasing country based souvenirs. Granted, some people could care less about them, but I suspect there's a reasonable amount of interest in Souvenirs and the release of Country based souvenirs shouldn't require the allocation of much in the way of resources.

Edited by NYPaddleCacher
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I like souvenirs too.

 

There were a lot of people who put them down on the main forums. I hope GS isn't just listening to the big mouths.

 

I'd love to see some nicer ones for each State. They're pretty boring right now.

Some of them are so pretty, like the one for Germany. I'd love to see some really nice pretty state ones. Oh, I guess that's another thread.

 

I didn't realize the souvenirs had gone away. I haven't gone anywhere lately that would have gotten a new one. I'd like to see GS keep them. I'd suspect a lot of people like them, even though they wouldn't admit it among the original uproar.

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I like souvenirs too.

 

There were a lot of people who put them down on the main forums. I hope GS isn't just listening to the big mouths.

 

Agreed. Hoping that the vocal nay-sayers don't drown out those of us who do like souvenirs.

 

I'd love to see some nicer ones for each State. They're pretty boring right now.

 

Some of them are so pretty, like the one for Germany. I'd love to see some really nice pretty state ones. Oh, I guess that's another thread.

 

The problem with the US ones are that a generic graphic is shown, and you need to click it to see the actual state souvenir. I'm not sure why it's that way. Seems kind of odd to me.

 

 

B.

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... I didn't realize the souvenirs had gone away. I haven't gone anywhere lately that would have gotten a new one. I'd like to see GS keep them. I'd suspect a lot of people like them, even though they wouldn't admit it among the original uproar.

 

They haven't completely gone away - We got a new one a couple of weeks back for attending the Geolympix Mega in Oxford. I think it's just the country and state/regional souvenirs that are on hold for now. MrsB

 

65d73eca-ff2f-45d5-a40d-ea4fd67eb35f.png

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I like souvenirs too.

 

There were a lot of people who put them down on the main forums. I hope GS isn't just listening to the big mouths.

 

Agreed. Hoping that the vocal nay-sayers don't drown out those of us who do like souvenirs.

 

I'd love to see some nicer ones for each State. They're pretty boring right now.

 

Some of them are so pretty, like the one for Germany. I'd love to see some really nice pretty state ones. Oh, I guess that's another thread.

 

The problem with the US ones are that a generic graphic is shown, and you need to click it to see the actual state souvenir. I'm not sure why it's that way. Seems kind of odd to me.

 

 

B.

 

Actually, *all* souvenirs have a thumbnail image and the full artwork. It's just that the thumbnail images for the U.S. States are kinda boring, and look nothing like that full artwork. Since they've already created souvenirs for all the U.S. States I'd rather see them start by releasing Country based souvenirs for those that they've created art work (there are actually quite a few), then continue to create and release souvenirs for the remaining countries. It would be really interesting to see a souvenir for a Country in which there does not yet have any caches (for example, Liberia). Personally, I would find the rarer souvenirs more interesting that a token reward for playing the game on a specific day.

 

As someone else pointed out, GS only suspended development on regional based souvenirs, but there have been a few created for mega events and a few special dates (i.e. International Geocaching Day).

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You ever see those pins you can pick up/trade at Disney World? If gc.com offered those, that would be a souvenir worth displaying.

 

disney_pins_2.jpg

 

An interesting idea. Perhaps GS could create a pin for every country and other region, and once one has qualified for the pin it could be purchased for a nominal cost. If, say the sold them for $3 a pin, how many people are just going to place an order for $3. More likely they're going to add a trackable tag, maybe some log books, and even a t-shirt. Heck, I'd probably buy a hat or vest I use to hold all my souvenir pins.

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Suggestions for items that Groundspeak could sell probably should be in their own thread.

 

If the artwork is already completed for various countries, it should be rather simple to release them, shouldn't it?

 

I find it amazing that there are no souvenirs for England, France, Australia, etc. when there are souvenirs for each German state. I didn't like the "vote for the next souvenir" idea at all. And I wondered why GS took that approach when it would have been much more sensible to create souvenirs for all countries.

 

 

B.

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You ever see those pins you can pick up/trade at Disney World? If gc.com offered those, that would be a souvenir worth displaying.

 

disney_pins_2.jpg

 

An interesting idea. Perhaps GS could create a pin for every country and other region, and once one has qualified for the pin it could be purchased for a nominal cost. If, say the sold them for $3 a pin, how many people are just going to place an order for $3. More likely they're going to add a trackable tag, maybe some log books, and even a t-shirt. Heck, I'd probably buy a hat or vest I use to hold all my souvenir pins.

How about making the pins with tracking codes, that would add to the attraction of them and find a ready market in the Geocoin collectors. Maybe even stimulate visits to new countries.

Since the artwork exists, maybe the Geocoin makers could start without much fuss and GC could simply sell them. Qualification would be simple, check the Souvenir awarded list online, if it is there, sell it! Only to the qualifier.

 

Doug 7rxc

Edited by 7rxc
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I like souvenirs too.

 

There were a lot of people who put them down on the main forums. I hope GS isn't just listening to the big mouths.

 

Agreed. Hoping that the vocal nay-sayers don't drown out those of us who do like souvenirs.

 

I'm perfectly sure that in the case of the suspense of the country/province-based souvenirs the opinions of cachers did not play any role. Moreover, I think that much more people complained about the Facebook links on logs and other annoying features and they are still there.

 

I guess it was easier for them to suspend country/province-based souvenirs when just coming up with a few further ones that are already finished and receiving too many requests from those who did not get what they want to have.

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The artwork for souvenirs for the Australian States and Territories have already been created. I would love to see these implemented ASAP. I'm sure plenty of international geocaching visitors would love to receive souvenirs for caching in Australia. Please Groundspeak, will you activate all the souvenirs for Australia and elsewhere where the artwork currently exists.....please????? :D

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I've cached in a few European countries and though it was odd that I have a souvenir for the Czech Republic, but not for Ireland or Spain. What was the reasoning for stopping the release of these?

 

Groundspeak didn't give any reason why that stopped releasing country based souvenirs other that they wanted do redirect development resources to other areas.

 

The reason that you have one for the Czech Republic and not Ireland or Spain is because souvenirs for the countries which were chosen to be release were based upon suggestions and voting using the old Feedback system. Apparently a lot of people from the Czech Republic (and Slovakia, Poland) voted as those are a few of countries for which we have souvenirs available.

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I am all for country based souvenirs. I have cached in both Japan,and Guam so far and yet nothing is noted but a blip on a map that most people don't bother with. It would be really cool to see a page dedicated to the well traveled cacher via Souvenirs . Besides Souvenirs are pieces off art and who doesn't like art?

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Getting souvenirs is such a great experience that i don't understand why Groundspeak stopped introducing them.

Especially for us in Europe they are wonderful, since its so easy to cache abroad.

I have cached in Switzerland, France and Austria and didn't get any souvenirs... :mad:

So going to cache in another country just isn't that appealing any longer.

 

Get back to give us souvenirs guys!!!!

 

There are already real nice ones, that belong to Groundspreak: use them!!!

 

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The artwork for souvenirs for the Australian States and Territories have already been created. I would love to see these implemented ASAP. I'm sure plenty of international geocaching visitors would love to receive souvenirs for caching in Australia. Please Groundspeak, will you activate all the souvenirs for Australia and elsewhere where the artwork currently exists.....please????? :D

 

Yes, please, activate the souvenirs for Australia !

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Shows you how much I pay attention to souvenirs - I thought the US State ones were just the blue/yellow state outline. I never realized that if you click on them you get to see a different image.

 

You're not the first person to say that, JH!! :P

 

I'm not a rabid fan, but I like souvenirs, and I think there are a lot of people out there who like them, and would like further development on Country-based ones. I fully support NYPC's suggestion.

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So going to cache in another country just isn't that appealing any longer.

 

 

Sorry, but really ? You would not go caching in another country simply because you didn't get a GC.com souvenir ? Really ?

 

Wow. just...wow.

 

I like the idea of souvenirs and all, but to not go caching simply because you wouldn't get a souvenir ? Well, whatever floats your boat I guess.

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I like souvenirs too.

 

There were a lot of people who put them down on the main forums. I hope GS isn't just listening to the big mouths.

 

I'd love to see some nicer ones for each State. They're pretty boring right now.

Some of them are so pretty, like the one for Germany. I'd love to see some really nice pretty state ones. Oh, I guess that's another thread.

 

I didn't realize the souvenirs had gone away. I haven't gone anywhere lately that would have gotten a new one. I'd like to see GS keep them. I'd suspect a lot of people like them, even though they wouldn't admit it among the original uproar.

We tools trip to stay with family in Germany this Sumer: we collected souvenirs in each district we cached in - amazing ones too. We were disappointed though that there were no souvenirs for Denmark, Holland, Belguim or France that we also cached in whilst on our holiday.

 

1- Could Groundspeak let us know why some places have them and some don't please?

2- If they did get released, would we be able to get them automatically, retrospectively, as we had already cached there? If that makes sense at all [:)]

 

It is a great way to celebrate each county or district in their own right. In the UK we have counties which are very much smaller than those on Germany. We just happened to stay In one of the largest districts in Germany [:)] niedersachsen is especially a beautiful souvenir [:)] thank you to the people who illustrated them [:)]

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We tools trip to stay with family in Germany this Sumer: we collected souvenirs in each district we cached in - amazing ones too. We were disappointed though that there were no souvenirs for Denmark, Holland, Belguim or France that we also cached in whilst on our holiday.

 

1- Could Groundspeak let us know why some places have them and some don't please?

 

I don't work for Groundspeak but I can still answer that question. When GS first started releasing regional based souvenirs they started with the U.S. States, releasing them in the order the state entered the union. Shortly after they created the first German state (Bundesland), presumably because of the large geocacher population in Germany and then they started on the Canadian provinces. Souvenirs were released a few regions at a time about every 1-2 weeks. Then Groundspeak decided to start releasing Country based souvenirs. The old suggestion system (UserVoice) was used for geocacher to suggest and vote for souvenirs for specific countries. The only reason that there is a souvenir for Poland and not one for countries like France, Italy, Spain, etc. is that more people voted for a souvenir for Poland. Eventually, all of the U.S. State, Canadian province and German bundesland souvenirs were released and it was about that time the Groundspeak decided to put regional based souvenirs on the back burner. Since then there have been a few event and special location souvenirs released but nothing new based on a Country/State/Province.

 

Also keep in mind that souvenirs can only be released once the artwork has been created. Even though there are only a handful of existing country based souvenirs there *is* artwork for a lot of other countries that has already been done. See post #22 in this thread.

 

2- If they did get released, would we be able to get them automatically, retrospectively, as we had already cached there? If that makes sense at all [:)]

 

It is a great way to celebrate each county or district in their own right. In the UK we have counties which are very much smaller than those on Germany. We just happened to stay In one of the largest districts in Germany [:)] niedersachsen is especially a beautiful souvenir [:)] thank you to the people who illustrated them [:)]

 

So far every regional based souvenir has been retroactive, that is, if you've found a cache or attended an event any time in the past you'd get awarded the souvenir. I doubt that would change if GS started releasing more regional based souvenirs.

 

I doubt that souvenirs would get created at the county level but most countries have some notion of administrative regions, whether they call them States, Provinces, or just Regions (i.e. Alsace in France). Actually it looks like GS has recognized the different Australian states as well even though they have not released and souvenirs for those states.

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I am unaware if the amount of work that goes into making the souvenirs available once the artwork has been created.

Or the process of creating the artwork.

 

As for creating the artwork for counties in the UK as we are such a small country compared to most, what about some sort of competition where Cachers who 'live' in the county could create the artwork? Eg you would have to live in Dorset to enter artwork for a Dorset souvenir etc

 

Do you think that would be possible? - just a thought.

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So going to cache in another country just isn't that appealing any longer.

 

 

Sorry, but really ? You would not go caching in another country simply because you didn't get a GC.com souvenir ? Really ?

 

Wow. just...wow.

 

I like the idea of souvenirs and all, but to not go caching simply because you wouldn't get a souvenir ? Well, whatever floats your boat I guess.

 

Even though we would not get a souvenir for Denmark, we still wanted to get a few caches there. It may well have been out only chance. It was this aim that resulted in us spending a couple of days in Denmark and visiting Lego land: I'm so pleased we did as we have some fantastic memories. :)

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So going to cache in another country just isn't that appealing any longer.

 

 

Sorry, but really ? You would not go caching in another country simply because you didn't get a GC.com souvenir ? Really ?

 

Wow. just...wow.

 

I like the idea of souvenirs and all, but to not go caching simply because you wouldn't get a souvenir ? Well, whatever floats your boat I guess.

 

Even though we would not get a souvenir for Denmark, we still wanted to get a few caches there. It may well have been out only chance. It was this aim that resulted in us spending a couple of days in Denmark and visiting Lego land: I'm so pleased we did as we have some fantastic memories. :)

 

Exactly.

 

To miss out on that, just because there was no souvenir ? I don't get it. Especially when souvenirs are retrospective anyway, so if you log a cache in another country and later on, a souvenir is released for there, it's added to your profile automagically.

 

That said....Groundspeak, please, at least release the souvenirs for those places where the artwork has been done (like Australia !! :angry: )

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I love the souvinirs to be honest! I'm from Germany and we've got one for every Federal State. When I went to England for a month I was really disappointed that there are no souvinirs to gather there. The same with Italy. I'd love to have them for every country and Federal State!

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I'd like them to resume implementing these. Odd that so many have been designed yet no new location-based souvenirs have been implemented for over a year, just the date- or event-based ones. Anyone know a reason, other than resource allocation?

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I was so excited to get a new souvenir when I left the country for the first time! Needless to say I was really disappointed to find out that there wasn't one after I logged that first international cache. :(

 

I feel your pain. I have finds in 17 different countries but the only ones for which I have a souvenir is for a "State" in Germany and, of course, souvenirs for the U.S. States in which I've found a cache.

 

In order to make this feature request (which, so far, seems to have have very good support) a little more specific, I would suggest using the following criteria for bringing back country based souvenirs.

 

Use the list of countries from the "by Country" select list on the "Hide and Seek a cache" page. Note that when selecting some countries (i.e Australia, France, Italy, ...) in that list it will take you to the Advanced Search page, where you can Search by State/Province. For those countries, create State/Province souvenirs rather than a Country based souvenir (similar to how we already have Canadian Province souvenirs but no souvenir for Canada).

 

From that list, start releasing souvenirs for which artwork has already been created. Then the forums could be used to solicit suggested countries and, perhaps, a few GS selected countries that might produce a few rare souvenirs (i.e. a souvenir for a country that has very few caches).

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I think that the reason why they stopped country based souvenirs was problem with their releasing. There were too many cachers that did not get these souvenirs retroactively even though they found caches in the souvenir countries/states. These cachers were sending so many e-mails to Groundspeak that after releasing US states, Canadian provinces, German states + 4 EU countries they decided to stop it.

 

The question is: Is it possible to fix this problem? If yes, why it is taking so long to continue with these souvenirs. If not, why not to omit just retroactive releasing. I know that many cachers would be disappointed since they´ve already found cache in some countries, but it is better to get souvenirs this way than get nothing. :)

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I think that the reason why they stopped country based souvenirs was problem with their releasing. There were too many cachers that did not get these souvenirs retroactively even though they found caches in the souvenir countries/states. These cachers were sending so many e-mails to Groundspeak that after releasing US states, Canadian provinces, German states + 4 EU countries they decided to stop it.

 

That happened on a couple of occasions and mostly when they tried to release 10 souvenirs at once.

 

The question is: Is it possible to fix this problem? If yes, why it is taking so long to continue with these souvenirs. If not, why not to omit just retroactive releasing. I know that many cachers would be disappointed since they´ve already found cache in some countries, but it is better to get souvenirs this way than get nothing. :)

 

I think a lot of people would be pretty disappointed if they started releasing country based souvenirs but didn't make them retroactive. I know that I'll probably never get another chance to visit some of the countries in which I've found a cache. Even if I do, some of those countries have very few caches. I had to travel a considerable distance to find the closest cache the first time I was in Tanzania.

 

Retroactive rewarding of souvenirs is likely a real compute intensive process but if it ran at a low priority and ran for 2-3 countries at a time, it might take awhile but it should accurately award souvenirs to all that have retroactively earned it.

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I think a lot of people would be pretty disappointed if they started releasing country based souvenirs but didn't make them retroactive. I know that I'll probably never get another chance to visit some of the countries in which I've found a cache. Even if I do, some of those countries have very few caches. I had to travel a considerable distance to find the closest cache the first time I was in Tanzania.

 

Retroactive rewarding of souvenirs is likely a real compute intensive process but if it ran at a low priority and ran for 2-3 countries at a time, it might take awhile but it should accurately award souvenirs to all that have retroactively earned it.

 

Oh well, you can ask yourself whether it is better to accept less and have something or to want everything and have nothing. I have also visited many foreign countries but I am still planning to visit new one and sometimes those I have already been to. But it is still better for me to have souvenir from my future travel than have nothing. ;)

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I think a lot of people would be pretty disappointed if they started releasing country based souvenirs but didn't make them retroactive. I know that I'll probably never get another chance to visit some of the countries in which I've found a cache. Even if I do, some of those countries have very few caches. I had to travel a considerable distance to find the closest cache the first time I was in Tanzania.

 

Retroactive rewarding of souvenirs is likely a real compute intensive process but if it ran at a low priority and ran for 2-3 countries at a time, it might take awhile but it should accurately award souvenirs to all that have retroactively earned it.

 

Oh well, you can ask yourself whether it is better to accept less and have something or to want everything and have nothing.

 

That's a good question and I can answer it with a concrete example where geocachers asked for something and were given something less. Geocaching Challenges. People wanted Groundspeak to reinstate virtual caches and we got Challenges instead. It think it's pretty clear how successful Challenges are and it's probably resulted in more criticism of Groundspeak than if they had not created the feature.

 

I have also visited many foreign countries but I am still planning to visit new one and sometimes those I have already been to. But it is still better for me to have souvenir from my future travel than have nothing. ;)

 

All the countries I have visited where I found a cache (currently 17) were from business related travel, and due to the nature of the work I do, it's often to "hard to get to" (and expensive) places where it's unlikely I'll get a repeat visit. I also don't live in Europe where travel to other countries is relatively inexpensive.

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I would also like to add my vote for the return of country based souvenirs.

 

Sadly it seems that Groundspeak starts several different projects and never intends to finish these correctly. And they hardly listen to their customers anymore

 

Let's face it:

* They created Wherigo caches, released a beta builder and never ever made it to a final version. Now 3rd party programs can do more and better

* They created webcam and locationless caches, removed these types and reintroduced them as Waymarks. Although you can download individual waymarks, there is no option for waymark pocket queries (although the people, who enjoy Waymarking really ask for it).

* They added Facebook links and hardly anyone wants these (at least none that I know).

* They created Challenges and just implemended them half into the geocaching structure.

* They created souvenirs and stopped after some countries and states although the community is begging for a return.

 

I have gone so far and edited the pre-created images for the not-yet released souvenirs into my profile, but I would like to see them on my souvenir page, too.

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