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Anybody taking August off?


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I'm trying it just to see how it is. With almost half a month experience now, most probably I won't participate in another months streak again after doing the first one now.

 

So far this August "challenge" at least led me to one cache I had on my ToDo list for a long time, now did it with extra motivation to get into that swamp, I feared a bit before. It was fun...

 

Just beeing curious I identified around 80 caches with moderate D/T ratings on my way to the office, which I haven't found yet - those now will be candidates for the days I have to work. I was surprised that there are so much. This list probably never would have been compiled if it wasn't for that challenge.

 

All in all, this marketing twist means for me:

1. Something new to try out.

2. An additional motivation to go out caching today and not only tomorrow or maybe this weekend.

3. A personal list of caches I can do in business clothes.

 

#1 and #2 most probably will be gone after August, I'm not that silly, it seems. It's still fun at the moment, but I can't imagine going for another streak of days in future. This would cross the border to addiction or implement some kind of stress, both I don't want to become part of my geocaching game. Aditionally the disadvantages of searching every day a single cache are to be concerned (transport logistics including environmental and financial issues).

 

However, I would have been more impressed if Groundspeak had implemented more pretty country souvenirs instead of those simple number icons. Nothing of them are really important, but those 31 days pieces are even missing some effect: I simply can't see much painting nor much programming art.

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I'm here to apologize. I thought people were overreacting to the idea of a bunch of August souvenirs. I just assumed Groundspeak had some brilliant new technique that would have a single, elegant souvenir for whatever each of us managed to do in August.

 

Boy, was I wrong. Man, those things are lame. And there are so many of them! The least they could have done is schedule this for September so they'd all be listed down further in the alphabetized list. I don't even care about souvenirs, and even I find these August souvenirs are clutter.

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It does clutter my souvenir section, but I don't really pay it any mind. I geocache when I have time, and if I don't have any time on a particular day, then I'm not really worried if I miss the souvenir or not. It would be nice if they could compress all the souvenirs for this month into a separate folder or something because they do take up a lot of space.

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I am very proud of our 19 state souvenirs and our 4 county ones as well. While I am not thrilled with the August promotion and the related "clutter", I will give our friends at Geocaching.com some grace here and appreciate the many fantastic innovations, creative ideas and hard work that make the sport we love possible.

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It does clutter my souvenir section, but I don't really pay it any mind. I geocache when I have time, and if I don't have any time on a particular day, then I'm not really worried if I miss the souvenir or not. It would be nice if they could compress all the souvenirs for this month into a separate folder or something because they do take up a lot of space.

I should have mentioned that I care as little as you do, but my point is that all those people that do care about souveniers were absolutely right to be worried about what these would do to their collection. And, in particular, those that I laughed at for taking August off because they didn't want to mess up their collections have been vindicated.

 

While I am not thrilled with the August promotion and the related "clutter", I will give our friends at Geocaching.com some grace here and appreciate the many fantastic innovations, creative ideas and hard work that make the sport we love possible.

Yeah, I agree with that, too. I apologize for dismissing the naysayers' concerns, but I don't mean to complain about the attempt to do something new.

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The souvenirs themselves are a bit cluttery. But we're doing the challenge anyway because it's got us out caching again. We'd had a long slump the last several months for various reasons. When we heard about this challenge, we decided it was a great way to get us going again. So I can live with the clutter. We don't have very many other souvenirs anyway so it doesn't bother me that much. But I do agree that it might have been better if they just awarded one souvenir for the entire month rather than one every day.

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I have a bit of O.C.D. and so I'm finding this month very difficult. Not caching for a whole month is not an option for me. I can't stand the thought of missing just one or two days and having a gap in my run of souvenirs. And no, fudging the dates (backdating or whatever) is not an option for me, as all of my statistics have to be accurate. Argggh! I'm sure the whole point of the August Souvenirs, was to get people out caching and increase their love of the hobby. Unfortunately, it's having the opposite effect on my girlfriend, who is getting fed up of the situation. She had been enjoying geocaching with me, but now we are having to go out in the rain some days, she is not so impressed. Ultimately, I think that the souvenir a day challenge is cheapening the concept of souvenirs.

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I had successfully avoided the malaise of the August Souvenir until a couple of new caches published a few miles away from home. D/T of 4.5/3.5 and 5/3.5 that the local FTF hounds hadn't logged in the 38 hours since publishing. I couldn't help myself! I had to make a run at the FTF on those two. I got a FTF Certificate and a few foreign coins when I signed the blank logs. And I got this .....

c3a5b139-4a37-47d8-955b-e05de894cafd.png

At least the smiley has color. :ph34r:

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I rarely look at the souvenirs tab, I'm not going to change my caching ways just because there is a silly promo next month. I plan to find caches, and log them accordingly. My memories are in my logs and pictures.

Agreed 100% I have zero interest in souvenirs or most challenges for that matter and wish I could remove that tab. Im not going to bust on the people that love them or created them Im sure they are proud of their work . So I am sticking to Letterboxing this month :anitongue:

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I attempted the 31 day souvenir, but I had a DNF or so and missed a day or so, but figured that I could backdate a couple and nobody would notice, but then decided that it was completely insane to obsess over that and let it go. :D

 

I've gone caching one day this month and that was only because I was in a State in which I had not yet found a cache (Missouri). I've got an AdBlockPlus setting that hides the August Souvenir but it leaves a blank spot on my souvenirs page.

 

For those that are trying to find a cache every day in August I hope that you're all enjoying it and wish you luck at completing your personal challenge. To call this a challenge, however, is a bit of a misnomer. Generally, when accepting a challenge you either complete it (and perhaps get some sort of award) or you don't. Typically you don't get "partial credit" for not completing a challenge but that is exactly was GS is doing by giving out a souvenir for each day you find a cache, even if you don't find a cache every day.

 

For the person that has 80 unfound caches in between their home an office, this "challenge" is made for you. Now imagine if you lived in one of the 100+ countries in the world that have fewer than 31 caches in the entire country?

 

 

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For the person that has 80 unfound caches in between their home an office, this "challenge" is made for you. Now imagine if you lived in one of the 100+ countries in the world that have fewer than 31 caches in the entire country?

(That's me): I wouldn't do the streak then. So simple.

 

Most probably I wouldn't have started geocaching anyway with less than 31 caches in a certain range (my 20km range has more than 900 caches in it, and the next big city is only 25km away), but I see the meaning of your question. It's my sole personal decision based on my personal possibilities.

 

In my opinion, the 31 day caching is nothing to worry about. I try it because it happens to be easy for me, beside my usual daily activities, and I consider it fun at the moment. I don't know if I will do it again in any other month, most probably not.

 

I understand the concerns of many, but don't agree with the conclusions. Geocaching as a whole will not get seriously damaged by such activities, it still remains a game everyone may take his/hers own route. The bunch of non-quality caches especially thrown in the woods for this "challenge" already is outnumbered by other non-quality caches thrown out in the woods far before August. And the whole souveniers thing is just annoying if you don't want them showing, but that won't totally changing peoples caching habit as well.

 

Well, yes, the ressources could have been spent on other things, but to be honest, I can't see much programming and design resources beeing spent on that 31 day thing. ;)

 

BTW, the forums are filled up with discussion about this topic, a clever marketing outcome to hold up visible activity in the target group. The next step is already in the line to fill the gap after August: new cache type "Lab Cache", soon in a discussion forum thread near you!

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Everybody has their own personal preference, here's mine. I have always wanted to do a 30 day streak, this provides a convenient oportunity to pursue that goal. Would have I done it just for the souveneirs? probably not. Would I have done it in August just for the streak? probably not. Put them together and you betcha I'm doing it.

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Everybody has their own personal preference, here's mine. I have always wanted to do a 30 day streak, this provides a convenient oportunity to pursue that goal. Would have I done it just for the souveneirs? probably not. Would I have done it in August just for the streak? probably not. Put them together and you betcha I'm doing it.

^ ^ ^

This.

 

I changed my mind after my first post in this thread. I found at least one cache the first three days of August, got on a roll, and decided to see whether I could see it through. So far so good. At the end of the month, I'll take a look at my Souvenirs page, think something like "That's cool", then not go back to that page for another six months.

 

I'm having fun and getting exercise with or without the souvenirs. And that's what counts.

 

--Larry

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I was already working on a streak, and it is fun extending it through August. There will come a day when I can't get one, and I won't fret about breaking the streak, but it has been fun, and I do enjoy the souvenir aspect as well. I don't look at them very often, but I like to see the new one pop up, and I have checked the tab a few times this month.

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I must admit I like the souvenirs because it reminds me of the places I have Geocached-afterall, isn't that what a souvenir is? I must also admit that I like a challenge. I don't do a lot of Geocaching, mainly because I have so little time to do it, but when I saw this, I decided to challenge myself-add another thing to the "to do" list. So far, I have found a cache each day in August and it hasn't been easy for me, since most of the time I cache alone. I was in several different states and in areas I wasn't familiar with at all! Plus, this has been the rainiest August I can remember. Caching in the pouring rain wasn't that much fun. So, I guess in answer to your question-NOPE-I plan on caching the whole month of August.

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Congratulations! You played a big part in a grand geocaching adventure. 31 Days of Geocaching celebrated the spirit of geocaching during the entire month of August. Geocachers collected souvenirs for each day they logged a “Found it” or an “Attended” during the month. The calendar-style collectibles showcase the wildlife, scenery and tools that empower geocachers as they explore the outdoors.

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Because of the August souvenirs we decided to stop geocaching this month, except for international geocaching day.

 

It gave some interesting "extra" free time, in which we did some things we wanted to do but didn't get around to like visiting several museums. Especially those museums near caches we like to do! Also did some shopping, since we saved a lot of money on gas this month. The non-geocaching-things-to-do-list is still long, so we're not getting bored.

 

I also entered a contest and won a Nintendo 3DS, which I then sold to be able to buy a second hand Wii with balanceboard and several games and attributes. We decided on buying this, because geocaching was something we did to make sure we got some exercise and this compensates nicely or even better. But there is still some geocaching addiction: when I jogged through the virtual Wii island (Wii Fit plus) I couldn't help thinking how nice it would be if I could find a cache during the run :D !

 

When the month started I wanted to use the extra time to work on some new caches to get published and the design of a geocoin. But the motivation I had for making them went away during the month. Maybe next month or maybe we stop making them completely, we haven't decided yet. International geocaching day was less fun than last year, it gave a bit of negative feeling now, although we had a great day out. But this is because of the totally stupid need we felt to rush things. Since we went caching on the other side of the country we wanted to do as much as possible since we won't there again soon, but this time we couldn't use the next day (sunday) to finish the caches we didn't get around to on Saturday.

 

Now I'm curious what others who took August off did/are doing. Something special you like to share?

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Now I'm curious what others who took August off did/are doing. Something special you like to share?

Just kinda relaxing really...

Did a bit of landscaping around the pool and back yard. Didn't realize river rocks were so heavy. The second truckload did me in. :laughing:

CJ picked up interior paint (that honeydo list thing), but that's a rainy day thing for me.

Fly fished a bit on some of the local creeks and cleaned and lubed our rifles/shotguns. Hunting season's around the corner.

Waxed and lubed the hybrids for a good bike run next Month on a series continuation (we were FTF on the first one last Month).

With CJ now busy on days (we were both night-shifters), all the notifications of new hides (the reason we became PMs) aren't even looked at until she's already home.

The majority are caches we'd rarely consider today anyway.

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No, not taking it off. I can not not cache for that long. Thought the souvenirs were lame at first, but they kind of grow on you. I really do not care about SOUVENIR clutter. I am not that dramatic. Having said that, one team member really wanted to do it. So I have been doing the streak and am almost done. What is not to like about a streak in August. No brutal weather, blizzards, ice, freezing temp and frozen cache containers to deal with. I think the idea of a short streak appealed to me more than the souvenirs. It is increasing my activity level for August and that is a good thing. LOL. Does anyone really care?

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No, not taking it off. I can not not cache for that long. Thought the souvenirs were lame at first, but they kind of grow on you. I really do not care about SOUVENIR clutter. I am not that dramatic. Having said that, one team member really wanted to do it. So I have been doing the streak and am almost done. What is not to like about a streak in August. No brutal weather, blizzards, ice, freezing temp and frozen cache containers to deal with. I think the idea of a short streak appealed to me more than the souvenirs. It is increasing my activity level for August and that is a good thing. LOL. Does anyone really care?

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