It's September 1st

[+Chrysalides]

Rule-followers get very uncomfortable, even bothered, when they encounter rule-breakers.

I tend to be a rule follower, and my own personal caching tends to be in line with the more puritanical interpretations of things, but I am not at all bothered by this.

Good observation. I also noticed (not in geocaching) that some of those who are most bothered by rule breakers are themselves rule breakers - though they always have what they think are good justifications for doing so.

[+sbell111]

Again confirm what a Spanish player said: "Geocaching is a game of cheaters"

How does the mere fact that some people cheat confirm the allegation (or suggestion as this might be a language issue) that all geocachers cheat? Further, if you are of the belief that all geocachers cheat and you are so obviously against all forms of cheating (based on the last dozen or two threads that you have created), why do you call yourself a geocacher?

[+narcissa]

Rule-followers get very uncomfortable, even bothered, when they encounter rule-breakers.

I tend to be a rule follower, and my own personal caching tends to be in line with the more puritanical interpretations of things, but I am not at all bothered by this.

Good observation. I also noticed (not in geocaching) that some of those who are most bothered by rule breakers are themselves rule breakers - though they always have what they think are good justifications for doing so.

 

Maybe we should feel *more* proud of our true geocaching accomplishments, knowing that other people somehow find them prestigious enough to lie about them.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I thought that it was a bit strange that I had to visit a page in order to get a souvenir.

 

Frankly, I wish all souvenirs worked that way. If I qualify for a souvenir send me an email message with a link (maybe that might get more people to validate their email address) with a link which lets me "claim" the souvenir. That way, I can opt in on the souvenirs I want and don't have to "hide" those I don't.

[+Chrysalides]

Maybe we should feel *more* proud of our true geocaching accomplishments, knowing that other people somehow find them prestigious enough to lie about them.

Problem with that line of reasoning is that then we'd actually have to care about what those who lie thinks

[+sbell111]

Maybe we should feel *more* proud of our true geocaching accomplishments, knowing that other people somehow find them prestigious enough to lie about them.

Problem with that line of reasoning is that then we'd actually have to care about what those who lie thinks

We'd pretty much have to pay attention to other people's souvis and analyze their performance to decide whether they 'cheated'.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Again confirm what a Spanish player said: "Geocaching is a game of cheaters"

How does the mere fact that some people cheat confirm the allegation (or suggestion as this might be a language issue) that all geocachers cheat? Further, if you are of the belief that all geocachers cheat and you are so obviously against all forms of cheating (based on the last dozen or two threads that you have created), why do you call yourself a geocacher?

 

I think that may be the meat of JPreto's objection to cheating. I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

Personally, I would go so far to claim the Geocaching is a game of cheaters but just based on casual observations I'm pretty convinced that there is a growing trend to game the system in order to obtain "awards", whether they be an increment of ones find count, or the addition of a souvenir or unique icon to ones profile. I suspect the percentage of geocachers which do try to game the system is relatively small but the number of people that seem to condone a lack of integrity in playing the game seems to be increasing and if the trend continues, will likely result in me (and perhaps others) feel less inclined about wanting to be associated with a community of people which call themselves geocachers.

 

 

 

[+Chrysalides]

Maybe we should feel *more* proud of our true geocaching accomplishments, knowing that other people somehow find them prestigious enough to lie about them.

Problem with that line of reasoning is that then we'd actually have to care about what those who lie thinks

We'd pretty much have to pay attention to other people's souvis and analyze their performance to decide whether they 'cheated'.

We may (or may not) care about what they do, that does not mean we care about what they think. Personally I'm more interested in the mechanism rather than the act (or the perceived reward) itself.

[+JPreto]

Again confirm what a Spanish player said: "Geocaching is a game of cheaters"

How does the mere fact that some people cheat confirm the allegation (or suggestion as this might be a language issue) that all geocachers cheat? Further, if you are of the belief that all geocachers cheat and you are so obviously against all forms of cheating (based on the last dozen or two threads that you have created), why do you call yourself a geocacher?

I think that may be the meat of JPreto's objection to cheating. I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

Thanks for understanding my point of view!!!!

[+narcissa]

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people care about the stuff inside the cache, or compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people care about the stuff inside the cache, or compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.

 

Are you actually trying to equate caring about what is inside a cache with lacking integrity and honesty?

 

Perhaps if there was a perception that geocachers used geocaching containers to distribute drugs you might have a point. But there isn't..so you don't.

[+sbell111]

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people care about the stuff inside the cache, or compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.

 

Are you actually trying to equate caring about what is inside a cache with lacking integrity and honesty?

 

Perhaps if there was a perception that geocachers used geocaching containers to distribute drugs you might have a point. But there isn't..so you don't.

There was more to that post than just the 'stuff inside the cache' part.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people care about the stuff inside the cache, or compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.

 

Are you actually trying to equate caring about what is inside a cache with lacking integrity and honesty?

 

Perhaps if there was a perception that geocachers used geocaching containers to distribute drugs you might have a point. But there isn't..so you don't.

There was more to that post than just the 'stuff inside the cache' part.

 

I know, and I haven't been able to grok the sentence fragment after the last comma. Perhaps the subtlety of the last part was lost in the snarkiness of the first part.

 

 

[+Roman!]

Wow, this topic is way off topic, my original question was, why if according to GS rules:

1.10. I found all the souvenirs in August, but I didn't log my geocache finds until September. Do I still earn the souvenirs?

 

You'll be able to receive the first 6 souvenirs by back-dating your logs to the correct date.

 

However, the Achiever souvenir will only be issued to those who have earned all 6 souvenirs and then visit their Trophy Case during the month of August

 

Why has the count of awarded achiever souvenirs been going up well past the cut off?

 

The link at the top of the page on GC.com is gone but the page is still live.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Roman!

[+Chrysalides]

Why don't we take bets on where the number will stop? Winner gets bragging rights. I pick 66,666.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Well, I was 54957th to get The Achiever! The Sightseer was easy. The Puzzler wasn't hard. The Explorer was a nasty bushwhack! Not that many multis about. The Collector was tougher. Found most of the Webcams and virtuals, so we went 20 miles off for a Letterbox Hybrid. Only 20 miles, two hours, and $2.50 in tolls, each way. Great Letterbox Hybrid! The Nature Lover... Still some EarthCaches that we hadn't found. Went looking for an interesting one. Enjoyed it. The toughie was The Socializer. Most events seem to be at night. We don't go wandering about at night! Had planned to visit my sister in Maine who promised to take us to a bar event in Saco. But a nasty case of Lyme put the kibosh on that trip. (Okay. I'm not very social...) Second choice was an event by a visitor to The City. $3.00 each way on the guagua, and $2.50 each way on the subway. Great event, and delicious Dutch Windmill cookies! And that's how we qualified for The Socializer. And The Achiever! 8/30/2014.

[+sbell111]

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people care about the stuff inside the cache, or compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.

 

Are you actually trying to equate caring about what is inside a cache with lacking integrity and honesty?

 

Perhaps if there was a perception that geocachers used geocaching containers to distribute drugs you might have a point. But there isn't..so you don't.

There was more to that post than just the 'stuff inside the cache' part.

 

I know, and I haven't been able to grok the sentence fragment after the last comma. Perhaps the subtlety of the last part was lost in the snarkiness of the first part.

I though that she was pretty clear. Try it like this and see if you can't figure it out:

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people:

1. care about the stuff inside the cache, or
   
2. compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.
   

Edited September 3, 2014 by sbell111

[+sbell111]

Wow, this topic is way off topic, my original question was, why if according to GS rules:

1.10. I found all the souvenirs in August, but I didn't log my geocache finds until September. Do I still earn the souvenirs?

 

You'll be able to receive the first 6 souvenirs by back-dating your logs to the correct date.

 

However, the Achiever souvenir will only be issued to those who have earned all 6 souvenirs and then visit their Trophy Case during the month of August

 

Why has the count of awarded achiever souvenirs been going up well past the cut off?

 

The link at the top of the page on GC.com is gone but the page is still live.

I think that the reason that the thread wandered is because the answer to question in the initial post was answered early and was kind of self-evident.

 

The numbers continued to go up because TPTB didn't cut it off right at the end of the month. This decision was likely made to give people some time to log all of their August finds. Once a reasonable time has passed, I have little doubt that TPTB will disable the process that awards the achiever souvi.

[+narcissa]

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where cheating is acceptable.

 

I'd like to call myself a geocacher, without the presumption that I'm associated with a community where people care about the stuff inside the cache, or compete with each other in a sense that it is actually possible to cheat.

 

Are you actually trying to equate caring about what is inside a cache with lacking integrity and honesty?

 

Perhaps if there was a perception that geocachers used geocaching containers to distribute drugs you might have a point. But there isn't..so you don't.

 

My point is that I think that people who care about swag quality are terrible misguided and perhaps they should go shopping instead. I don't want to be associated with that sort of materialism.

 

And yet, I find ways to enjoy geocaching anyway, despite the fact that some people do it in a way that is very much at odds with my own principles.

 

See, people who whine about swag are puzzling, but they have no material impact on the way that I choose to play the game.

 

Similarly, people who are silly enough to write fake logs to get digital images on their profiles have ZERO impact on me, my logs, or my profile. If they put fake logs on my caches, I have the power to delete. There is no need to pay them any mind at all. They're the trolls of geocaching, and every time there's a thread about them, they win at trolling.

Edited September 3, 2014 by narcissa

[+Ben0w]

The numbers continued to go up because TPTB didn't cut it off right at the end of the month. This decision was likely made to give people some time to log all of their August finds. Once a reasonable time has passed, I have little doubt that TPTB will disable the process that awards the achiever souvi.

My software engineer senses tell me that they - according to their schedule - cut off the link to the trophy page exactly at 31-AUG midnight but simply forgot to deactivate the mechanism to get the Archiver souvenir when reaching the trophy page somehow on another way...

[+Roman!]

The numbers continued to go up because TPTB didn't cut it off right at the end of the month. This decision was likely made to give people some time to log all of their August finds. Once a reasonable time has passed, I have little doubt that TPTB will disable the process that awards the achiever souvi.

My software engineer senses tell me that they - according to their schedule - cut off the link to the trophy page exactly at 31-AUG midnight but simply forgot to deactivate the mechanism to get the Archiver souvenir when reaching the trophy page somehow on another way...

 

Actually the link was still there when I started this thread on September 1st and yes it was September 1st everywhere in the world.

[+Chrysalides]

66,612 now. Since no one else is guessing, I win by default and I get full bragging rights.

 

Unless someone from GS jumps in to explain what's going on, this thread will continue to wander wherever it wants to go.

 

(train derailed image here - too lazy to go search for one)

[+The A-Team]

66,612 now. Since no one else is guessing, I win by default and I get full bragging rights.

 

Unless someone from GS jumps in to explain what's going on, this thread will continue to wander wherever it wants to go.

 

(train derailed image here - too lazy to go search for one)

Ask, and it will be given to you...

-Matthew 7:7

[+Chrysalides]

Ask, and it will be given to you...

-Matthew 7:7

LOL I like this one way better than the ones I found on Google Image Search. Thanks!

[+The A-Team]

Ask, and it will be given to you...

-Matthew 7:7

LOL I like this one way better than the ones I found on Google Image Search. Thanks!

I was originally going to use the Montparnasse crash where a locomotive smashed right through the station and onto the street, but then realized a woman on the street was killed in that incident. I decided to go with a much more light-hearted Thomas image.

[+mvhayes1982]

66,612 now. Since no one else is guessing, I win by default and I get full bragging rights.

 

Unless someone from GS jumps in to explain what's going on, this thread will continue to wander wherever it wants to go.

 

(train derailed image here - too lazy to go search for one)

Ask, and it will be given to you...

-Matthew 7:7

 

This is EXACTLY the image for a geocaching forum jumping the tracks. Job, well done.

[+Roman!]

66,612 now. Since no one else is guessing, I win by default and I get full bragging rights.

 

Unless someone from GS jumps in to explain what's going on, this thread will continue to wander wherever it wants to go.

 

(train derailed image here - too lazy to go search for one)

 

Now 66,621, looks like they're going for 67,000.

[+mccachers_46814]

Where is my Trophy Case?

[+Roman!]

Here

[+sbell111]

It looks like they've locked it down.

[+Roman!]

It looks like they've locked it down.

 

Looks the same to me, the count is now up to 66,630.

 

The pop up has been there since September 1st.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Roman!

[+CanadianRockies]

It looks like they've locked it down.

Looks the same to me, the count is now up to 66,630.

The lock must be easy to pick. Count is now 66,665.

[+cerberus1]

It looks like they've locked it down.

Looks the same to me, the count is now up to 66,630.

The lock must be easy to pick. Count is now 66,665.

Yep.

Even though the pop up says, "August has ended and, unfortunately, that means the 7 Souvenirs of August are no longer up for grabs. We hope you had fun exploring more of the geocaching world with us this month! ", one in a thread earlier tried it today and it gave him the achiever.

- Everybody gets a trophy.

[Andronicus]

Off topic

Edited September 4, 2014 by Andronicus

[+Chrysalides]

69260. An additional 2500+ added since last night.

[+sbell111]

69260. An additional 2500+ added since last night.

That's quite a bit compared to the amounts recorded from the last few days. I suspect that this means that tptb is querying the database to assign any missing 7th souvis.

[+NeverSummer]

August has ended and, unfortunately, that means the 7 Souvenirs of August are no longer up for grabs. We hope you had fun exploring more of the geocaching world with us this month!

 

So how come the count of those achieving the achiever souvenir has been going up all day.

Grumble, grumble...

 

I choose to ignore this issue, and try to remember why I personally "bother" to geocache at all anymore. I've mostly ignored the souvenirs since they came out, as they are buggy, and have proven to be a poor motivator for the behaviors we all seem to loathe, and bring up here in this forum at least once a month.

[+MKFmly]

66,612 now. Since no one else is guessing, I win by default and I get full bragging rights.

 

Unless someone from GS jumps in to explain what's going on, this thread will continue to wander wherever it wants to go.

 

(train derailed image here - too lazy to go search for one)

 

Now 66,621, looks like they're going for 67,000.

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

 

69696

[+The A-Team]

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

...if there ever is a "final" number. We have no way of knowing how many times, for how long, or even if Groundspeak will run a manual check. For all we know, they'll run the check every few months until the end of time, because theoretically they'd have to since people could still be late logging and back-dating. Alternatively, they could pick a random date after which they won't do the check anymore, leaving any late loggers out-of-luck. We just don't know.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

...if there ever is a "final" number. We have no way of knowing how many times, for how long, or even if Groundspeak will run a manual check. For all we know, they'll run the check every few months until the end of time, because theoretically they'd have to since people could still be late logging and back-dating. Alternatively, they could pick a random date after which they won't do the check anymore, leaving any late loggers out-of-luck. We just don't know.

 

Ah! I thought they had that set for September 1? Log The Achiever by September 1, or lose the opportunity?

[+NeverSummer]

Well, I haven't looked at my "trophies", but I did finally catch up on my logs after a trip to Oregon from Alaska. This meant that I logged all types necessary for the fancy-pants badges. However, when I came across this thread, I looked and had only "achieved" some of the badges so far. So add 1 more to the list to grumble about I guess, eh Roman?

[+Chrysalides]

Well, I haven't looked at my "trophies", but I did finally catch up on my logs after a trip to Oregon from Alaska. This meant that I logged all types necessary for the fancy-pants badges. However, when I came across this thread, I looked and had only "achieved" some of the badges so far.

Hey, thanks for the info. From your profile I see :

 

The Achiever

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

The Collector

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

So :

 

1) Congratulations, you got all 7.

2) It proved conclusively that Groundspeak is continuing to give out the Achiever souvenir after 8/31.

 

Conspiracy theory : Groundspeak thinks that if more people get the Achiever souvenir, they can sell more Achiever geocoin.

[+The Jester]

Well, I haven't looked at my "trophies", but I did finally catch up on my logs after a trip to Oregon from Alaska. This meant that I logged all types necessary for the fancy-pants badges. However, when I came across this thread, I looked and had only "achieved" some of the badges so far.

Hey, thanks for the info. From your profile I see :

 

The Achiever

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

The Collector

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

So :

 

1) Congratulations, you got all 7.

2) It proved conclusively that Groundspeak is continuing to give out the Achiever souvenir after 8/31.

 

Conspiracy theory : Groundspeak thinks that if more people get the Achiever souvenir, they can sell more Achiever geocoin.

There's a geocoin? Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, there's a coin for just about everything... I wonder if Moun10Bike would have minted his if he know where it would lead to...

[+NeverSummer]

Well, I haven't looked at my "trophies", but I did finally catch up on my logs after a trip to Oregon from Alaska. This meant that I logged all types necessary for the fancy-pants badges. However, when I came across this thread, I looked and had only "achieved" some of the badges so far.

Hey, thanks for the info. From your profile I see :

 

The Achiever

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

The Collector

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

So :

 

1) Congratulations, you got all 7.

2) It proved conclusively that Groundspeak is continuing to give out the Achiever souvenir after 8/31.

 

Conspiracy theory : Groundspeak thinks that if more people get the Achiever souvenir, they can sell more Achiever geocoin.

Rather conclusive then, yeah? The "trophy" is tied to the date when you actually get around to logging your finds (in my case, 3 days after getting home from a trip), yet the find that leads to the "trophy" is found on an other date within the parameters for awarding the "trophy".

 

So, what will be more super-mega-ultra-anxiety inducing will be to see who finally gets around to logging (back-logging, or possibly <shriek> intentionally back-dating) a find later and later, and then end up getting the "trophy" months or years from now.

[+cerberus1]

Well, I haven't looked at my "trophies", but I did finally catch up on my logs after a trip to Oregon from Alaska. This meant that I logged all types necessary for the fancy-pants badges. However, when I came across this thread, I looked and had only "achieved" some of the badges so far.

Hey, thanks for the info. From your profile I see :

 

The Achiever

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

The Collector

Acquired on Sep/04/2014

 

So :

 

1) Congratulations, you got all 7.

2) It proved conclusively that Groundspeak is continuing to give out the Achiever souvenir after 8/31.

 

Conspiracy theory : Groundspeak thinks that if more people get the Achiever souvenir, they can sell more Achiever geocoin.

There's a geocoin? Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, there's a coin for just about everything...

Well, at the end of the Congrats spiel on the achiever souvi, there is, "Once you earn all six, you’ll be among the super-cachers that unlock a special seventh souvenir. Then you’ll be all set to show off your status with swag from Shop Geocaching"

Clicking on Shop Geocaching leads to coins, tags, patches...

[+JPreto]

Grumble, grumble...

 

I choose to ignore this issue, and try to remember why I personally "bother" to geocache at all anymore. I've mostly ignored the souvenirs since they came out, as they are buggy, and have proven to be a poor motivator for the behaviors we all seem to loathe, and bring up here in this forum at least once a month.

I really agree with this and I had:

 

"I think souvenirs increase the number of people that enforce bad geocaching practices, either by logging fake logs or placing caches without quality."

[+Roman!]

66,612 now. Since no one else is guessing, I win by default and I get full bragging rights.

 

Unless someone from GS jumps in to explain what's going on, this thread will continue to wander wherever it wants to go.

 

(train derailed image here - too lazy to go search for one)

 

Now 66,621, looks like they're going for 67,000.

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

 

69696

 

69,307

 

They're going backwards now.

[+CanadianRockies]

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

 

69696

69,307

 

They're going backwards now.

I think 69,696 was MKFmly's guess for the (virtual) premium membership contest, not the displayed count.

[+Roman!]

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

 

69696

69,307

 

They're going backwards now.

I think 69,696 was MKFmly's guess for the (virtual) premium membership contest, not the displayed count.

 

Oops, although it wouldn't have surprised me if it was going backwards.

[+NeverSummer]

Maybe Groundspeak can fork over a premium membership (instead of Roman) to whomever guesses closest to the final number?

 

69696

69,307

 

They're going backwards now.

I think 69,696 was MKFmly's guess for the (virtual) premium membership contest, not the displayed count.

 

Oops, although it wouldn't have surprised me if it was going backwards.

Owners are deleting fake logs!

 

Let's make some more wild guesses!