Anybody taking August off?

[gpsblake]

They got 31 flash mobs in 31 days around Augusta, GA.. Pretty cool idea although for me, driving 100 miles round trip for each flash mob isn't feasible. I'll try to get to one or two though including the 17th.

[+6NoisyHikers]

You know what would be cool? If each souvenir looked like a picture frame with the date in the corner and you could upload a picture of your cache adventure that day into the frame. Or the name of the cache and/or a pic from your log was automatically added in the graphic. That would make them unique!

 

Back on topic - I'm using it as a way to get the other NoisyHikers outdoors every day. We're planning a bunch of mini-excursions to new places in our area. I don't look at our souvenir page very often so I'm not worried about graphic clutter. I just like the excuse

[+Kacher82]

I'd like to be able to specify which tabs are displayed in the first place, let alone get to decide what goes on them.

You can choose what to show on your statistics tab. It would be nice if you could for souvenirs, too.

[AZcachemeister]

Letting souvenirs affect whether you geocache or not is just plain silly.

 

Word

[+Roman!]

Letting souvenirs affect whether you geocache or not is just plain silly.

 

Word

 

I thought te word was silly.

[+Crow-T-Robot]

Letting souvenirs affect whether you geocache or not is just plain silly.

 

Word

 

I thought te word was silly.

 

No, the word is "SERIOUS BUSINESS"

[+Roman!]

Letting souvenirs affect whether you geocache or not is just plain silly.

 

Word

 

I thought te word was silly.

 

No, the word is "SERIOUS BUSINESS"

 

That's 2 words and there's nothing serious about drinking and caching.

[+SwineFlew]

They got 31 flash mobs in 31 days around Augusta, GA.. Pretty cool idea although for me, driving 100 miles round trip for each flash mob isn't feasible. I'll try to get to one or two though including the 17th.

Hosted by the DGS? :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

[+Roman!]

Hmmm......

 

 

Taking August off has a whole new meaning, I'm all for it.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Roman!

[Mr.Yuck]

They got 31 flash mobs in 31 days around Augusta, GA.. Pretty cool idea although for me, driving 100 miles round trip for each flash mob isn't feasible. I'll try to get to one or two though including the 17th.

 

You know, I went to the "Ohio" page yesterday to look up Midwest Geobash (this weekend). It shows up on the 5th page of new caches though, because there are daily August Flash mobs all over the State. Rather than "pretty cool idea", I think this is an "incredibly lame and cheesy idea". But whatever floats the numbers crowds boats.

[Mr.Yuck]

I won't change my caching habits for August, but I do think this campaign is evidence that souvenirs have jumped the shark.

 

Groundspeak promoting 31 day caching streaks? THE GEOCACHING BLOG as it recently rebranded itself, promoting LPC's as "perfect for streaks", and promoting finding caches at 11:55 PM and 12:05 AM for 2 days of streaking? Geocaching itself may have jumped the shark.

 

By the way, to answer the question in the OP, no, I'd never consider taking August off just because there are souvenirs each day.

[team tisri]

And here I thought you all were taking the month of August off from work so you'd be able to grab all 31 souvenirs.

 

I suggest the next leap year, 2016, be the official year of Geocaching with 366 new souvenirs.

 

I like it. Perhaps we could make 2015 the official training year, with 365 new souvenirs. You know, so people can get some practise in. Apparently on July 13 I needed some practise for the 31-day streak, real or imagined, that I had coming in August. So to make sure I got some appropriate practise I found a film pot in a tree. It was a dry film pot, I didn't know if I could handle the excitement of a soggy film pot without building up to it first.

[+elrojo14]

Taking August off? I just planned an event for every day in August (that was available because I didn't get the idea until two weeks before the 5th)!

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?tx=69eb8534-b718-4b35-ae3c-a856a55b0874&u=elrojo14

[+-CJ-]

Perhaps we could make 2015 the official training year, with 365 new souvenirs

 

So a souvenir for Russia will be introduced at about 2022-24. Too much work, too much work.

 

As I'm not planning any foreign trips for August I don't think that this "souvenir madness" will influence my geocaching schedule much. However I'm also thinking about an event on Aug 17 (Geocaching Day). As far as I understood attending this meeting will also bring a "daily" souvenir for Aug 17, right? If it is so, I will probably log all geocaches found in August at this very date.

 

And yes, maybe this issue is taken too seriously but we here are at that stage when people are getting involved into the game and make their acquaintance with different aspects of it. Introducing them a long list of "daily" souvenirs as common practice may lead to misunderstanding so folks don't catch the idea of souvenirs at all.

[+mikemtn]

I would about bet that a large percentage of cachers that don't do the forums or read the newsletters even know there's such a thing as souvenirs.

[+Don_J]

I won't change my caching habits for August, but I do think this campaign is evidence that souvenirs have jumped the shark.

 

Perhaps Groundspeak and today's style of geocaching in general has jumped the shark? The recent experience of a new cacher in another thread really has me wondering how healthy the game is. Is it to the point that Groundspeak has to have almost a monthly gimmick just to get the rest of those 5 million cachers to go out and look for caches?

 

It's all about the smartphone now, and the numbers. Just turn on the phone and there will be a cache less than 500' away. It was placed there for no other reason than to be found, and after finding it, if you want another, just drive to the other side of the parking lot. Oh, there's three in the lot across the street as well. I wonder how many cachers never realize that there is more to the game and simply die off from boredom. Hey! Let's dangle a shiny new souvenir in front of them and see what happens. Better yet, 31 of them.

[+Don_J]

This might work for me:

 

Write note 13 Aug 13

Found blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

 

Found it 31 Jul 13

Actually found on Aug 13. Don't want August souvenir, long story.

 

What about the cache owner? I would prefer to have the chronology and the statistics of my placed caches to be as accurate as possible. I'd hate to see that altered because someone feels the need to protest something that would take much less time and effort to simply ignore.

 

I also don't think that I would like to see someone pushing an agenda in their logs on my caches.

[team tisri]

I won't change my caching habits for August, but I do think this campaign is evidence that souvenirs have jumped the shark.

 

Perhaps Groundspeak and today's style of geocaching in general has jumped the shark? The recent experience of a new cacher in another thread really has me wondering how healthy the game is. Is it to the point that Groundspeak has to have almost a monthly gimmick just to get the rest of those 5 million cachers to go out and look for caches?

 

It's all about the smartphone now, and the numbers. Just turn on the phone and there will be a cache less than 500' away. It was placed there for no other reason than to be found, and after finding it, if you want another, just drive to the other side of the parking lot. Oh, there's three in the lot across the street as well. I wonder how many cachers never realize that there is more to the game and simply die off from boredom. Hey! Let's dangle a shiny new souvenir in front of them and see what happens. Better yet, 31 of them.

 

I suppose the people who pay whatever it costs for the official iDoodad app pay their money, get bored after a few weeks of finding soggy film pots behind signs and delete the app don't cause Groundspeak any concern for as long as there's another person ready to hand over a few bucks to give "this new game" a try. If new people are signing up as fast as existing players are getting sick of soggy filmpots and power trails there's a steady stream of income.

 

Unfortunately the relentless push towards twitface integrations seems like the kind of thing that could easily turn around and bite back with a vengeance, if a critical mass of users start asking what the point of geocaching is when the overwhelming majority of caches are lamp post caches or soggy film pots behind signs. If that ever happens the chances are Groundspeak will fade rapidly into the history books whatever cute gimmicks they put on profile pages. Once people are bored of finding film pots behind signs the chances are they'll need more than a pretty graphic to say they found a film pot behind a sign on a particular date or in a particular area to keep playing.

[+Ericles]

Let me first just say that I love geocaching for all that it was and all the wonderful places it has brought me. Alas, I'm afraid the game I love so well is being killed by Groundspeaks bumbling attempts at marketing. They chose August?! Arguably the WORST month for caching? When all of the green has been bleached out of the leaves and nearly all of the flowers are burnt? The month that features the most ticks, most poison plants and thickest thickets? The hottest month where we are most likely to suffer heat stroke? August when the harvest mites swarm out in the billions? They can't be serious!

 

Groundspeak promoting 31 day caching streaks? THE GEOCACHING BLOG as it recently rebranded itself, promoting LPC's as "perfect for streaks", and promoting finding caches at 11:55 PM and 12:05 AM for 2 days of streaking? Geocaching itself may have jumped the shark.

 

When I first heard about this "promotion" - leaked through some bloggers - I thought it couldn't possibly be real because Groundspeak couldn't possibly be that stupid as to actively promote visiting illegal caches at unsavory hours. Wishful thinking.

 

Perhaps Groundspeak and today's style of geocaching in general has jumped the shark?

 

It has definitely jumped the shark and it pains me to admit it so I react with anger. But what else can I surmise when almost nobody writes a real log, every third find on the front page of the site is on a power-trail, a majority of the new caches are just plain lazy in every aspect and the company that started by playing in the woods has tried to go metro, failed, and has now become desperate enough to try and temp us with badges while simultaneously cheapening them to the point of mockery. I like to think that Groundspeak runs their operation like a business and caters to the aspects that bring in the most revenue but I'm not so sure. If the success of the business hinges on people getting excited about souvenirs then the company is doomed. If, rather, the company makes tons of money selling branded swag at the block party then at least this makes business sense. Did they just want a quick buzz? Who knows. They're just never going to compete with Munzee. Not unless they find a way to monetize double-point-souvenir weekends.

 

Yes, I will be taking August off in protest of this lame marketing tool.

...

I have no objection to August cache maintenance though, unless they offer a souvenir for that too.

...

This doesn't have to make sense to anyone else. It only has to make sense to me.

 

Makes sense to me. I know you've stood for getting geocaching back to it's roots (and the rest of the trees) for a number of years. This is an excellent opportunity to check out the other cache listing sites and/or perform Cache Maintenance (love that idea). No amount of protest would ever reach Groundspeak's ears because it wouldn't hit them in the wallet. There is no money in traditional geocaching. It's all about getting more people to pay the $10 for the app and hopefully buy-up to premium before getting burned out on parking lots hides. Or is it? If enough cachers get arrested and enough bomb squads are called out during this awful promotion then all parking lot caches will have to be archived and maybe that's all part of the master plan! Genius!

 

But seriously (was I kidding?) geocaching for me isn't what it used to be. I see too many lazy finders and lazy hiders. I'll just keep following the handful of cachers that actually put out caches that I enjoy and leave the new crowd to do their silly numbers tricks and their bragging about streaks and numbers. Ask anyone who has just completed a long streak or long power-trail and they'll tell you they are glad it is done. There is no better way to ruin a game than to make it a chore but that seems to be the way the marketing is pushing. I'll just do what I normally do in August - go out and find a cache or two around a dozen times. I'll presumably get a handful of souvenirs. Maybe I'll time my finds so the numbers turn out a useful set of coordinates to be used in a future puzzle cache. If I need to fill in the gaps I'll log a random cache or flash mob in foreign lands, get the souvenir(s), then delete the log thus preserving my stats and further cheapening the souvenirs.

[+SwineFlew]

This might work for me:

 

Write note 13 Aug 13

Found blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

 

Found it 31 Jul 13

Actually found on Aug 13. Don't want August souvenir, long story.

 

What about the cache owner? I would prefer to have the chronology and the statistics of my placed caches to be as accurate as possible. I'd hate to see that altered because someone feels the need to protest something that would take much less time and effort to simply ignore.

 

I also don't think that I would like to see someone pushing an agenda in their logs on my caches.

Base on the guideline, the CO cant delete those logs for wrong dates. That would be silly to do that in my opinion.

 

However, deleting an agenda log is in the gray line. (not that I am going to test it as a CO)

 

All in all, deleting logs only cause more problems that you dont need.

 

As a CO, I learned to have the CARELESS attitude about logs. As long its not extreme. Borderline, let it go. Its not worth it.

[+ItTakesAThief]

Somewhat of a Newie and going to give it a go for 31 days in August, what does it hurt, and i dont mind the souvenir's either...

[+tomfuller & Quill]

No I will not be taking the month off. I will not go out of my way to find a physical cache on all 31 days.

I may find virtual and Earth Caches to fill in a few dates. I am going to add a new state to my icons - Wyoming.

I will find a few virtuals and Earth Caches in Yellowstone. I will be working on a project for 5 days where there is only 1 cache available. I am attending an event on IGD in Idaho on my way home.

I will find a cache on August 31 since that will be the 8th anniversary of my first cache find.

[4wheelin_fool]

I won't change my caching habits for August, but I do think this campaign is evidence that souvenirs have jumped the shark.

 

Groundspeak promoting 31 day caching streaks? THE GEOCACHING BLOG as it recently rebranded itself, promoting LPC's as "perfect for streaks", and promoting finding caches at 11:55 PM and 12:05 AM for 2 days of streaking? Geocaching itself may have jumped the shark.

.

By the way, to answer the question in the OP, no, I'd never consider taking August off just because there are souvenirs each day.

 

The goal is to create more obsessive compulsive addicted cachers. It's sort of like Anheiser Busch trying to shut down all of the AA meetings.

[medoug]

They got 31 flash mobs in 31 days around Augusta, GA.. Pretty cool idea although for me, driving 100 miles round trip for each flash mob isn't feasible. I'll try to get to one or two though including the 17th.

 

You know, I went to the "Ohio" page yesterday to look up Midwest Geobash (this weekend). It shows up on the 5th page of new caches though, because there are daily August Flash mobs all over the State. Rather than "pretty cool idea", I think this is an "incredibly lame and cheesy idea". But whatever floats the numbers crowds boats.

 

I now see that some people are now hiding 31 physical caches specifically for people to find during the 31 souvenier days of August. I've found that everytime people hide mass numbers of caches (as part of an event, for a powertrail, 29 caches for leap day, etc.) they are pretty much 100% lame caches. Understandably, it's just too hard to come up with 31 unique ideas, clever containers, and new great locations in that timeframe. I guess as long as there's still lamp posts and guardrails spaced further than .1 mile apart, this will continue. In my opinion, geocaching had jumped the shark long ago.

[+Don_J]

This might work for me:

 

Write note 13 Aug 13

Found blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

 

Found it 31 Jul 13

Actually found on Aug 13. Don't want August souvenir, long story.

 

What about the cache owner? I would prefer to have the chronology and the statistics of my placed caches to be as accurate as possible. I'd hate to see that altered because someone feels the need to protest something that would take much less time and effort to simply ignore.

 

I also don't think that I would like to see someone pushing an agenda in their logs on my caches.

Base on the guideline, the CO cant delete those logs for wrong dates. That would be silly to do that in my opinion.

 

However, deleting an agenda log is in the gray line. (not that I am going to test it as a CO)

 

All in all, deleting logs only cause more problems that you dont need.

 

As a CO, I learned to have the CARELESS attitude about logs. As long its not extreme. Borderline, let it go. Its not worth it.

 

Where did I say in there that I would delete logs? I just said that I probably wouldn't like it.

[+SwineFlew]

This might work for me:

 

Write note 13 Aug 13

Found blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

 

Found it 31 Jul 13

Actually found on Aug 13. Don't want August souvenir, long story.

 

What about the cache owner? I would prefer to have the chronology and the statistics of my placed caches to be as accurate as possible. I'd hate to see that altered because someone feels the need to protest something that would take much less time and effort to simply ignore.

 

I also don't think that I would like to see someone pushing an agenda in their logs on my caches.

Base on the guideline, the CO cant delete those logs for wrong dates. That would be silly to do that in my opinion.

 

However, deleting an agenda log is in the gray line. (not that I am going to test it as a CO)

 

All in all, deleting logs only cause more problems that you dont need.

 

As a CO, I learned to have the CARELESS attitude about logs. As long its not extreme. Borderline, let it go. Its not worth it.

 

Where did I say in there that I would delete logs? I just said that I probably wouldn't like it.

No you didnt say anything about deleting, but base on your posts in the past, you are quick to the gun to say delete the logs over alot of little silly things.

[+SwineFlew]

For those that wanna cheat, just find a owner less virtual and log and delete the log everyday.

[+briansnat]

I think I've looked at my souvenir tab maybe twice since they were introduced. It doesn't matter to me what's on that page so I won't let them change a thing about the way I cache.

[4wheelin_fool]

This might work for me:

 

Write note 13 Aug 13

Found blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

 

Found it 31 Jul 13

Actually found on Aug 13. Don't want August souvenir, long story.

 

What about the cache owner? I would prefer to have the chronology and the statistics of my placed caches to be as accurate as possible. I'd hate to see that altered because someone feels the need to protest something that would take much less time and effort to simply ignore.

 

I also don't think that I would like to see someone pushing an agenda in their logs on my caches.

 

And what about the cacher that does that to obtain all of the souvenirs? Every Saturday someone finds a dozen caches but dates 6 or so for different days during the week. Viajero Perdido may have a purer motive, but he is doing essentially the same thing.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Not quite. My example above is being dishonest only to the GC.com computers, but honest to any humans reading the logs.

 

If I cared about honesty to computers, I could simply leave out the wrong-date Found log, but still document my finds with Notes.

 

And, "long story" is to avoid dragging an agenda into it.

[+Mudfrog]

I think I've looked at my souvenir tab maybe twice since they were introduced. It doesn't matter to me what's on that page so I won't let them change a thing about the way I cache.

 

It's kinda funny how we all think. What's important for some of us, isn't for others. We just took a little vacation that took us two states away from my home state. Adding the two new states to my stats was something that i looked forward to doing. Getting the souvenirs, on the otherhand, was not important at all.

 

Everything i want to see is on my stats page. Souvenirs do not provide any additional information that i'm interested in and the page they're on seldom gets a look see from me.

 

Nope, i'm not taking August off. It's business as usual out this way!

[team tisri]

Not quite. My example above is being dishonest only to the GC.com computers, but honest to any humans reading the logs.

 

If I cared about honesty to computers, I could simply leave out the wrong-date Found log, but still document my finds with Notes.

 

And, "long story" is to avoid dragging an agenda into it.

 

How is flipping your Find and Note logs any different?

 

How about this:

 

13 August: (Found it). Loved the cache, lovely walk on a beautiful sunny day. Thanks for bringing me to this amazing park that I never knew existed. Took a trackable, topped up the cache with some new swag

 

18 August: (Write note) Actually found on August 18, logged as found a few days earlier to get the souvenir. Long story.

 

It's dishonest to the GC computers while being honest to any humans who read the log. It just flips the situation around with the souvenirs.

[+suchanana]

if the heat index is bearable, i'll be caching whenever possible and logging finds when i can remember to do them...at my age, the memory and health conditions dictate ...What-ev-er on the souvenirs except for the international day...this thread has some great suggestions from fellow posters for gc.com to consider - we all know this is just marketing for the newbie phone generation...try to pin down those twitterers to 31 days of consistent caching - i dare ya gc.com - well, they're trying

[+Viajero Perdido]

What a goofy game this has become.

[AZcachemeister]

What a goofy game this has become.

 

Well, the core game is still there, and is still the most important part for some of us.

 

But, 'tis true that a lot of pointless fluff has built up around that little ammo can in the woods.

[+elrojo14]

Man, some of you are making a big deal out of nothing. Geocaching is still the greatest game on earth because it is still what you make it. IF you don't like power trails, don't go get them. If you want to have the most caches found in history, go find them. If you just want to cache on vacation, then do that. IF you don't care about souvenirs, then continue to ignore that page none of us hardly look at.

 

Geocaching is not going to die and all the new light pole skirts in your neighborhood isn't going to kill Geocaching. No matter what people do, I will still plant my Geocaches in interesting places. If hardly anyone finds them, I didn't plan them for the numbers. I planted them for the experience. As long as there continues to be some Geocachers like me out there, I will continue to enjoy the game.

 

The 31 Days of August has no bearing on that. However, I did put together a bunch of unique and interesting events for it. I might be the only person at some of them. Again, I don't care. I am going to have fun with it.

[+tozainamboku]

What a goofy game this has become.

Hasn't it alwaya been a goofy game

 

Despite all the posts from people claiming that for them there is a basic difference between getting a souvenir for caching in a particular state or country (good) and getting one for each day in the month of August(bad), it still comes down to some links to some image files appearing on some tab on your profile that wasn't even there a few years ago.

 

The who idea of souvenirs seems to have come from some Groundspeak lackeys who saw them being used on other websites as a marketing tool to drive up the number of hits. Whether or not this works may be debatable. However my guess is that experience has shown there is an increase in the number of logs for date related souvenirs, while the increase due to country based ones is hard to measure (and probably is negligible). Should be pretty obvious why new country based souvenirs are not being issued and why Groundspeak is releasing a boatload for August.

[+usatxmom]

I'm going about my geocaching as usual. I just love the game with all it's quirks.

[AZcachemeister]

...that wasn't even there a few years ago...

 

 

And back when they suddenly appeared, I'd bet there was a huge outcry about resources being wasted on stuff we didn't ask for.

[+MisterE250]

I think I am. Kinda discouraged. Had a geocache planned and someone placed a random micro with no story or use other than being another cache to find nearby. Location dependant on mine. Thus is geocaching.

[+MisterE250]

Souvenirs mean nothing to me.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Souvenirs mean nothing to me.

 

So why bother even posting to this thread? The whole premise behind the thread is for those that *do* care about souvenirs, enough that they might consider taking the month of August off from geocaching to avoid having what the feel are pointless souvenirs cluttering up a page that they *do* occasionally look at. Unfortunately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of people that don't care about souvenirs belittling those that do.

 

 

[+MisterE250]

Souvenirs mean nothing to me.

 

So why bother even posting to this thread? The whole premise behind the thread is for those that *do* care about souvenirs, enough that they might consider taking the month of August off from geocaching to avoid having what the feel are pointless souvenirs cluttering up a page that they *do* occasionally look at. Unfortunately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of people that don't care about souvenirs belittling those that do.

 

Sorry if it sounded that way. I apologize. Sure, I know they do to some. I'll rephrase. It'll be interesting to get a few, however in the long run they aren't as interesting as the caching and reading about finds and gratified to me.

 

If I had the means, I'd participate, just not enough energy.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

What a goofy game this has become.

Hasn't it alwaya been a goofy game

 

Despite all the posts from people claiming that for them there is a basic difference between getting a souvenir for caching in a particular state or country (good) and getting one for each day in the month of August(bad), it still comes down to some links to some image files appearing on some tab on your profile that wasn't even there a few years ago.

 

No it doesn't. Perhaps you only see souvenirs as some links to images files that go onto a profile tab. Why is it so hard to understand that some people can differentiate the subject matter of those images such that some images have more value than others? According to your profile you have uploaded 740 photos (image files) to the site that now appear in your Gallery. Apparently you care enough about the subject matter of those photos to take a picture and enough that you chose to upload them to the site where you and others can see them? How is that different from preferring to have souvenirs with a specific type of subject matter (a representation of a country or region) over souvenirs which one might consider meaningless.

 

 

The who idea of souvenirs seems to have come from some Groundspeak lackeys who saw them being used on other websites as a marketing tool to drive up the number of hits. Whether or not this works may be debatable. However my guess is that experience has shown there is an increase in the number of logs for date related souvenirs, while the increase due to country based ones is hard to measure (and probably is negligible). Should be pretty obvious why new country based souvenirs are not being issued and why Groundspeak is releasing a boatload for August.

 

Do you have any evidence to support your contention that Groundspeak created souvenirs as a marketing tool to drive up the number of hits? While there are some that seem only to considering Groundspeaks profit margin when evaluating various features on their web sites, when I pay my premium membership fee annually (as you do) I am more concerned with the level of service they're providing than their profit margin.

 

 

[+tozainamboku]

What a goofy game this has become.

Hasn't it alwaya been a goofy game

 

Despite all the posts from people claiming that for them there is a basic difference between getting a souvenir for caching in a particular state or country (good) and getting one for each day in the month of August(bad), it still comes down to some links to some image files appearing on some tab on your profile that wasn't even there a few years ago.

 

No it doesn't. Perhaps you only see souvenirs as some links to images files that go onto a profile tab. Why is it so hard to understand that some people can differentiate the subject matter of those images such that some images have more value than others? According to your profile you have uploaded 740 photos (image files) to the site that now appear in your Gallery. Apparently you care enough about the subject matter of those photos to take a picture and enough that you chose to upload them to the site where you and others can see them? How is that different from preferring to have souvenirs with a specific type of subject matter (a representation of a country or region) over souvenirs which one might consider meaningless.

Sadly (IMO) cache owners can now delete individual photos attached to logs on their cache page. Previously they could only delete the entire log. Because I was going to point out thatnot every cache owner will care about the images I post. They may in fact have little to do with the cache. In the past cache owners had little control of what pictures are in the gallery. Happily for you, Groundspeak has given cache owners control over what pictures are in the gallery of their cache. I suppose the rationale was to prevent spoilers, but if a cache owner doesn't like dogs I suppose they could delete all the pictures of dogs.

 

I suppose the argument could be made that souvenirs are like photos posted to a cache gallery, and like a cache owner, you should be allowed to delete any souvenirs you do not like. However, I'd like to think that cache owners are only supposed to delete photos that are spoilers or ones that are inappropriate for a family website.

[AZcachemeister]

Souvenirs mean nothing to me.

 

So why bother even posting to this thread? The whole premise behind the thread is for those that *do* care about souvenirs, enough that they might consider taking the month of August off from geocaching to avoid having what the feel are pointless souvenirs cluttering up a page that they *do* occasionally look at. Unfortunately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of people that don't care about souvenirs belittling those that do.

 

For the same reason that you are posting to this thread...to express an opinion on the subject matter.

 

Climb down off that horse buddy, it's about to topple over.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Souvenirs mean nothing to me.

 

So why bother even posting to this thread? The whole premise behind the thread is for those that *do* care about souvenirs, enough that they might consider taking the month of August off from geocaching to avoid having what the feel are pointless souvenirs cluttering up a page that they *do* occasionally look at. Unfortunately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of people that don't care about souvenirs belittling those that do.

 

For the same reason that you are posting to this thread...to express an opinion on the subject matter.

 

Climb down off that horse buddy, it's about to topple over.

 

The subject matter of this thread is not about souvenirs in general and whether or not one likes them. If that's what some people want to talk about they can create a "Do you Like Souvenirs?" thread. This thread, as well as the 4-5 other threads related to the subject, is about a specific set of souvenirs and whether or not some might change the geocaching behavior in August to avoid (and I suppose to acquire) them. If trying to stay on topic, and suggesting that others stay on topic as well puts me on a high horse, then so be it.

 

 

[+cerberus1]

Does anybody else think that flooding the souvenir page with date-souvenirs is totally watering down the whole concept?

 

Is anybody planning a break in August, or planning to log all of August as found in September?

With the proliferation of C&Ds in our area and our caching has dwindled to one every couple weeks, yeah, we'll skip it.

CJ really liked the souvis and left calendar reminders for me to run for important (to us) dates when she couldn't run out herself.

Now, not so much.

We already skipped July 13th and the Month of August will be easy.

We realize that Groundspeak apparently could care less and the only one who'd notice might be Cardinal Red .

[+irisisleuk]

We've decided not to find any caches in August, except on International Geocaching Day.

 

I was hoping that my request in the Feature Discussions and Suggestions-forum(to make the souvenir page editable per souvenir) would be read by Groundspeak. But since there was no response I can only assume this won't happen, which means that we have no other option than to stop geocaching for a month.

 

Other suggestions like to log finds on a later date to avoid unwanted souvenirs we don't like, since our logs are also like a diary for us. But we like the souvenirs for the countries/states (just got a new one for our trip to Iceland last week!), and we don't want to see this page cluttered with (for us) meaningless souvenirs.

 

But not going out to find some caches is not the end of the world. In fact it gives some free time to work on our long non-geocaching related to do-list. And it is also a perfect time for reflection and experience what it would be like when we decide to stop geocaching completely. The hobby geocaching is changing, some things for the good, some definitely not, so we probably one day will decide to stop playing the game. As a geocacher you can decide what elements of the game you like and you can ignore the other ones. As CO it's less easy, for instance when you see logs change from real logs to just an abbreviation.

 

When the day will come that we'll completely stop, we don't know, since geocaching is something we can combine perfectly we our other main hobby: travelling and exploring other countries. But we managed finding the interesting locations in other countries also before we started geocaching. For a while geocaches helped us to make this easier, and we have lots of great memories because of geocaches we (not) found all around the world. But when the game changes, when it's more and more about quantity than quality, geocaches won't be our ideal travel guide in the future any more.

 

For now we're still "addicted" to geocaching, but in a positive way, so we can also stop geocaching for (almost) a month.

 

ps: for us it wouldn't have been a problem to find caches each day during August. There are lots of geocaches (we don't like) within short distance and next to this there are already many daily events planned to get the daily souvenir. So it wouldn't have been a challenge anyway. Not going out to find geocaches will be much more of a challenge!

[4wheelin_fool]

Souvenirs mean nothing to me.

 

So why bother even posting to this thread? The whole premise behind the thread is for those that *do* care about souvenirs, enough that they might consider taking the month of August off from geocaching to avoid having what the feel are pointless souvenirs cluttering up a page that they *do* occasionally look at. Unfortunately it seems to have devolved into a bunch of people that don't care about souvenirs belittling those that do.

 

For the same reason that you are posting to this thread...to express an opinion on the subject matter.

 

Climb down off that horse buddy, it's about to topple over.

 

The subject matter of this thread is not about souvenirs in general and whether or not one likes them. If that's what some people want to talk about they can create a "Do you Like Souvenirs?" thread. This thread, as well as the 4-5 other threads related to the subject, is about a specific set of souvenirs and whether or not some might change the geocaching behavior in August to avoid (and I suppose to acquire) them. If trying to stay on topic, and suggesting that others stay on topic as well puts me on a high horse, then so be it.

 

Meaningless souvenirs for every day of August may yet be another reason why they mean nothing to many. Who wants just a few souvenirs for a few odd days in August anyhow? Either get the whole set, or have clutter. And the whole point of the entire set is what exactly? To change geocaching day of Aug 18 to geocaching month?

 

This is a rather prime example of why interest in souvenirs is waning. It would make more sense to have just one souvenir for those cachers that found caches every day of the entire month.

Edited July 29, 2013 by 4wheelin_fool