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Complete August?


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It is now the 24th August, and I have managed to collect at least one cache everyday so far this month, but looking out of the window the weather is not so great. But I shall be out there to complete the month, and then see how far into September I can go.

 

How is everyone doing?

 

Best of luck to those completing.

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A clean sweep so far, although I haven't been out today.

 

As I've mentioned both in a log and on a different post here, I'm finding it a bit of a slog rather than a thrill, but there's something addictive about keeping going despite that. I think this log sums it up well:

 

My link

 

:ph34r:

 

It's entries like that which make me wish we could award favourites to logs :lol: .

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Well done to those who have chosen to go for it and have kept it up.

 

I am not doing. I have only found a few caches this month so far, but almost all of them have been really good ones, including a proper night cache, a few new Below Aboves, and a hide which was something quite different :) I am more than happy with what I have achieved even though I don't have many profile souvenirs to show off.

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With regard to the previous log, here's a copy of a reply I received from Groundspeak on the subject of boring August souvenirs

 

Thank you for writing us at Geocaching HQ. We like your honesty and appreciate that everyone enjoys geocaching in their own way. While we're disappointed 31 Days of Geocaching isn't how you prefer to geocache, we understand. To that end, we're considering creating a way for people to customize their souvenirs, and as you mention, potentially delete souvenirs. This feature is only a hypothetical at this point in development. We appreciate your input and please know that we are working to support a positive experience for all your fellow geocachers (6 million geocachers worldwide!)

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As happens so often with Groundspeak, they have a good idea and then throw it away without developing the potential. Hard-earned souvenirs could have been very collectable, and some of the rarer ones highly sought-after. But getting 31 just for logging any old cache every day for a month devalues the souvenir concept. Now they may as well offer souvenirs for almost anything, particularly if they're going to allow deletion.

 

It's a real shame that they have a stranglehold on geocaching. I'm sure that others could have developed a version that has many more exciting dimensions, but with gc.com so dominant it's not worth the effort.

 

So we have to put up with a series of half-baked ideas that get abandoned, ignored, or spoilt before they really flourish.

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I debated whether to do this August thing because of the number of souvenirs which imho somewhat devalues some of the other ones. But just reading these posts, I wonder whether they couldn't have either given one only to those who did complete all 31 days or produced a souvenir square a bit like an advent calendar (or even the 366 day calendar in the stats) where those days which qualify get a little bit of colour and those which don't are blank. So those who complete maybe get something like a complete smilie in a square, whereas those who don't get missing teeth or one eye, or whatever!

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As happens so often with Groundspeak, they have a good idea and then throw it away without developing the potential. Hard-earned souvenirs could have been very collectable, and some of the rarer ones highly sought-after. But getting 31 just for logging any old cache every day for a month devalues the souvenir concept. Now they may as well offer souvenirs for almost anything, particularly if they're going to allow deletion.

 

It's a real shame that they have a stranglehold on geocaching. I'm sure that others could have developed a version that has many more exciting dimensions, but with gc.com so dominant it's not worth the effort.

 

So we have to put up with a series of half-baked ideas that get abandoned, ignored, or spoilt before they really flourish.

 

It does seem like a depressingly recurring theme.

 

Wherigo seemed like a great idea at first, spoiled by a lack of development.

 

Challenges could have turned into something really good but when the best the creators could come up with was "kiss a frog" it doesn't bear much hope for the future.

 

It's harder to see how souvenirs could ever have become particularly desirable given they can't be traded and in most cases can be gained by cheating. Nobody can tell for sure what date you really found a cache, whether you actually found the skirtlifter cache that got muggled or whether you found the information for a virtual with Street View and so on. Even a 5/5 cache with an owner who diligently checks every online log against the physical log book there's nothing to guarantee you didn't get a friend to find it and sign it for you. So if someone really wants the souvenirs the chances are it's going to be easy enough to get them.

 

Even the game of geocaching is morphing from something focussed on getting into the great outdoors and hunting something you might be pleased to find, to something focussed on cramming as many film pots behind signs as possible even if there's nothing even remotely remarkable about any given cache location.

 

It would be nice to see some more meaningful competition in the game, that's for sure.

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It's harder to see how souvenirs could ever have become particularly desirable given they can't be traded and in most cases can be gained by cheating. Nobody can tell for sure what date you really found a cache, whether you actually found the skirtlifter cache that got muggled or whether you found the information for a virtual with Street View and so on. Even a 5/5 cache with an owner who diligently checks every online log against the physical log book there's nothing to guarantee you didn't get a friend to find it and sign it for you. So if someone really wants the souvenirs the chances are it's going to be easy enough to get them.

 

Even the game of geocaching is morphing from something focussed on getting into the great outdoors and hunting something you might be pleased to find, to something focussed on cramming as many film pots behind signs as possible even if there's nothing even remotely remarkable about any given cache location.

 

It would be nice to see some more meaningful competition in the game, that's for sure.

I don't think that it would matter much if people cheated. It's not really the competition element that counts, it's the collecting. I'm sure that plenty of birdwatchers cheat and claim to have seen something when they actually weren't sure; but except in limited circumstances it wouldn't affect others in their collecting. That souvenirs can't be traded is a good feature.

 

So if you're interested in collecting souvenirs then it won't bother you if someone else claims the Ape Cache souvenir (for instance) even though their log is fake. Few people are going to do that anyway.

 

As far as the "film pots" rant goes, that's not really relevant to this argument. You might want the France souvenir and be grateful for a micro behind a sign if you're only on a day trip to Calais (do people still hide film pots?). So souvenirs could be seen as encouraging hides made for convenience rather than scenic splendour.

Edited by Happy Humphrey
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Wherigo seemed like a great idea at first, spoiled by a lack of development.

 

Disagree totally on that point!

 

Yes, Groundspeak and Garmin may have given up on it but it's still going strong with the phone based players and web-based development tools.

 

We've =Wherigo+Cache&hidden_fromyyyy=&hidden_frommm=&hidden_fromdd=&hidden_toyyyy=&hidden_tomm=&hidden_todd=&bml_owner=&bml_guid=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter"]set a few and =Wherigo+Cache&fromyyyy=&frommm=&fromdd=&toyyyy=&tomm=&todd=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter"]found a few and the range of ideas for game play never ceases to amaze me! :)

 

Mark

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Agreed - I like Wherigos. There are only about 4 in Scotland, and I had thought they were the only ones in the UK, but I put myself right about that in March when down in England where there are heaps. Didn't have time to do any, but they're definitely worth giving a go, if you like the imaginary side of caching.

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Wherigo seemed like a great idea at first, spoiled by a lack of development.

 

Disagree totally on that point!

 

Yes, Groundspeak and Garmin may have given up on it but it's still going strong with the phone based players and web-based development tools.

 

We've =Wherigo+Cache&hidden_fromyyyy=&hidden_frommm=&hidden_fromdd=&hidden_toyyyy=&hidden_tomm=&hidden_todd=&bml_owner=&bml_guid=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter"]set a few and =Wherigo+Cache&fromyyyy=&frommm=&fromdd=&toyyyy=&tomm=&todd=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter"]found a few and the range of ideas for game play never ceases to amaze me! :)

 

Mark

 

Rather defeats the object of it being hosted on the geocaching site if it can't be accomplished using our prime seeking device.

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Rather defeats the object of it being hosted on the geocaching site if it can't be accomplished using our prime seeking device.

 

Depends on what you use. I use the Oregon 450 for Wherigo's.

 

As did I. Annoyingly, it's not included on Garmin's latest incarnation of the Oregon series (600's), which does not bode well.

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Wherigo seemed like a great idea at first, spoiled by a lack of development.

 

Disagree totally on that point!

 

Yes, Groundspeak and Garmin may have given up on it but it's still going strong with the phone based players and web-based development tools.

 

We've =Wherigo+Cache&hidden_fromyyyy=&hidden_frommm=&hidden_fromdd=&hidden_toyyyy=&hidden_tomm=&hidden_todd=&bml_owner=&bml_guid=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter"]set a few and =Wherigo+Cache&fromyyyy=&frommm=&fromdd=&toyyyy=&tomm=&todd=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter"]found a few and the range of ideas for game play never ceases to amaze me! :)

 

Mark

 

If you lived anywhere near me you'd have a load more to play if only the builder worked. I spent half an hour trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, then gave up.

 

Like I said I think Wherigo has a lot of potential, but it was spoiled by a lack of a decent builder and at least an early lack of reliable applications to run it. I remember in the early days when the Android app would crash if someone called while playing a cartridge and the last I heard no development of anything had taken place for many years. Which would be fine if it were a mature product but from the exposure I've had to Wherigo caches it's far from a mature product.

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Yes I did like that Video, did make me giggle a little!

 

Well I am pleased to say that I managed my 31 days - just need to log them first, and a massive congratulations goes out to everyone who did it, and now to work out what to do with all those pesky souvenirs, that appear at the top of the list.

 

Now can I do the 30 days of September?????

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