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Souvenir idea


nessker

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Milestones are fun things to celebrate, for sure! :D We are working on some ideas around this concept to make sure all your hard caching work does not go unrecognized. Until then...keep up the great caching, gang! Post your fun "milestone" pics up on our facebook page. We would love to cheer you on!

 

This idea has been suggested before but a digital award for a milestone doesn't really fit into my idea of a souvenir. To me, a souvenir should be more about geocaching in a specific place (i.e. country based souvenirs) or attending a specific event, just as one might bring home a real world souvenir after visiting the grand canyon or keeping the ticket after attending the super bowl. A digital award for accomplishing a task like achieving a milestone or completing a streak (yes, I'm looking at you, August souvenirs) feels to me more like an achievement badge.

 

I'm not suggesting that getting some sort of digital artwork for a milestone is a bad idea, but I'd rather see souvenirs and achievements separate (although they could be rendered in separate sections on a Souvenirs/Achievements tab). For example, one could get a souvenir for finding a cache in South Africa and get an achievement badge for finding caches in 5 different countries.

 

The only issue I have about an achievement badge for milestones is how to make them equitable. In some ares, getting to 1000 finds is pretty common, while those living in cache sparse countries might spend a long time just getting to 100. Achievement badges should not just be for those that have the luxury of living in a cache dense environment.

 

 

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I would like to suggest a new souvenir idea. It would be cool to get souvenirs for milestones. I would suggest this to the correct forum, but I'm not sure to where to place it. Thanks

 

Well this can be a can of unfulfilled expectations. For some one just starting out the big 100 is a big milestone. Do you continue each 100 after that? For someone that has been caching for a while it might be 500, or 1000, or 5000. The combinations are certainly guaranteed to displease.

 

I would much rather see the efforts put into making the unused country souvenirs available and maybe expanding the country souvenir list.

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The issue with souvenirs is complex. The system was initially built as a gameplay feature in a mobile app and was commandeered to be used for the souvenir system you see today. However, it is very clunky and inefficient for the job. It can only trigger off a specific date, a specific cache ID or set of IDs, or a specific country and/or state. This means that we can't even do a souvenir for "England", for example, since our country/state system doesn't include a discrete country/state selection for that entity.

 

In addition, each country-based souvenir adds a new layer of load to this already creaky system. Unlike event-based or date-based souvenirs, which can quickly check a cache ID or log date and then move on, the country-based souvenirs have to check the country and state IDs for every cache log that comes through and determine whether or not to award the appropriate souvenir. Country/state souvenirs have to operate indefinitely, while date and event souvenirs essentially spike briefly and then fall out of use.

 

On top of this, nearly every time we release a new country souvenir, we get complaints about the text or picture. Not errors (which are easy enough to fix), but complaints about offensive imagery or content. Many Germans felt that the font used for the German state souvenirs was stereotypical and hearkened back to WWII; we had a Norwegian vow to never log another cache in Norway because of the "propagandistic" nature of that country's souvenir; some French users felt that the use of a rooster on the French souvenir was a stereotype; and so on, and so on...

 

Given all of this, we have been extremely conservative when it comes to releasing new country souvenirs. We know that it seems inconsistent, but the bottom line is that the system is just not built well for how it is being used. What really needs to happen is an overhaul of the feature that eliminates the downsides while at the same time encouraging interest in exploring new areas. That's why you'll here us talk about an "achievements" system that will include various badges including a new system of souvenirs for visiting states/countries that does not offend the sensibilities of various users around the world.

 

I hope that this helps explain the situation.

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I would have liked to have seen this posted to the "Continue releasing country based souvenirs" and edited to just describe the country souvenir issues...

The issue with souvenirs is complex. The system was initially built as a gameplay feature in a mobile app and was commandeered to be used for the souvenir system you see today. However, it is very clunky and inefficient for the job. It can only trigger off a specific date, a specific cache ID or set of IDs, or a specific country and/or state. This means that we can't even do a souvenir for "England", for example, since our country/state system doesn't include a discrete country/state selection for that entity.

 

I knew about the England/Scotland issue. It might have been more diplomatic to release souvenirs for the sub-regions (East Midlands, London, Northern Wales, etc) in the UK in addition to the regions in Ireland. Just saying...

 

In addition, each country-based souvenir adds a new layer of load to this already creaky system. Unlike event-based or date-based souvenirs, which can quickly check a cache ID or log date and then move on, the country-based souvenirs have to check the country and state IDs for every cache log that comes through and determine whether or not to award the appropriate souvenir. Country/state souvenirs have to operate indefinitely, while date and event souvenirs essentially spike briefly and then fall out of use.

 

I always assumed that country based souvenirs involved two processes: One to award them retroactively when it's released (which would involve iterating over each users cache logs) and a different process that was tied to when a person logged a cache. It would seem to me that the "indefinate" process would only need to check if the cache was in a souvenir region, if the user has not yet been awarded the souvenir for that region, and if both tests are true, award the souvenir and set a flag in their profile to indicate that they have been awarded that regions souvenir. Yes, that's a bit of overhead, it doesn't seem to me to be that compute intensive.

 

On top of this, nearly every time we release a new country souvenir, we get complaints about the text or picture. Not errors (which are easy enough to fix), but complaints about offensive imagery or content. Many Germans felt that the font used for the German state souvenirs was stereotypical and hearkened back to WWII; we had a Norwegian vow to never log another cache in Norway because of the "propagandistic" nature of that country's souvenir; some French users felt that the use of a rooster on the French souvenir was a stereotype; and so on, and so on...

 

I guess no matter what you do someone is going to be offended. On the other, it seems to me that a *lot* of people were complaining about the August souvenir but that didn't stop GS from sending out almost daily posts promoting the campaign.

 

Given all of this, we have been extremely conservative when it comes to releasing new country souvenirs. We know that it seems inconsistent, but the bottom line is that the system is just not built well for how it is being used. What really needs to happen is an overhaul of the feature that eliminates the downsides while at the same time encouraging interest in exploring new areas. That's why you'll here us talk about an "achievements" system that will include various badges including a new system of souvenirs for visiting states/countries that does not offend the sensibilities of various users around the world.

 

I hope that this helps explain the situation.

 

Has there been any thought about soliciting development of a third party app by a partner that used the API to manage souvenirs?

 

 

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Thank you Moun10Bike for posting an explanation for the sudden stop of our beloved souvenirs.

I understand that if there are technical difficulties in maintaining the system it needs to be worked out, and hopefully in time the GS system will be able to handle it.

I for one would rather have 1 souvenir for a country rather than multiples for little states in another and give up that 1 country. For example I was disappointed to not have one for China, a HUGE part of the world. Then again, I am in the USA and we already have our states. I imagine that folks in little countries are just as tied to their 'state' awards and wouldn't want to give them up for 1 big country one.

 

On the other hand, we in the USA have some beautiful artwork state awards that may as not even be because we can't see them anyway. Is it possible to just have countries be generic like our "state" ones, without the photo...and that would keep from offending people? Again, I would rather have that than none. I for one appreciate and love the artwork and individuality of the art, but would give it up to simplify and have more.

 

You cant please everyone, but keeping it simple may help. Better to have simple and every country/continent recognized, than elaborate and too many issues.

When I go to Germany next summer I would LOVE to get a souvenir for every area I cache in (not the point of the trip but I hope to grab a few if I can) , but I would be content with just one for Germany if it came down to it....and getting my 1 for China, and another for Hong Kong.

 

Would there be a way to program the site so the user is responsible for 'grabbing' their own souvenir? Honesty isn't an issue because anyone can log a 'find' and get a souvenir anyway without ever being in the area if they wanted to....

 

rrc

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