Jump to content

Planetary Pursuit?


J Grouchy

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Kalkendotters said:

They seem to have quietly added an extra pointoption:

Will this be in additon to the normal points you get for a cache (5,10,15) or just replace them ?

Interesting. It reads to me that it will be in addition.

They also amended the wording to clarify that one has to collect the points individually. 

Link to comment
14 hours ago, Nessie42 said:

They also amended the wording to clarify that one has to collect the points individually. 

Yeah, tho "Points needed on the Friend League (individual)" just feels weird grammatically.  I take it that the promo is using the Friend League page to help track points, but friends have nothing to do with it. To me it seems like the wording "Individual points needed on the Friend League" would flow better.  *shrug*

Link to comment

I just read on fb that 15 points is the maximum you can get for one find. If you find a Mystery cache you will get 15 points irrespective of how many favorite points it has. If you find a Trad, 10 or more favs will boost your points on the promotion from 5 to 15.

Link to comment
17 minutes ago, Nessie42 said:

I just read on fb that 15 points is the maximum you can get for one find. If you find a Mystery cache you will get 15 points irrespective of how many favorite points it has. If you find a Trad, 10 or more favs will boost your points on the promotion from 5 to 15.

I don't like that.  I was hoping the favorites would be additional points.

Link to comment
28 minutes ago, Nessie42 said:

I just read on fb that 15 points is the maximum you can get for one find. If you find a Mystery cache you will get 15 points irrespective of how many favorite points it has. If you find a Trad, 10 or more favs will boost your points on the promotion from 5 to 15.

It would be great if TPTB would post their clarifications here in the Forum. Not all geocachers are members of other sites.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
14 hours ago, Nessie42 said:

I just read on fb that 15 points is the maximum you can get for one find. If you find a Mystery cache you will get 15 points irrespective of how many favorite points it has. If you find a Trad, 10 or more favs will boost your points on the promotion from 5 to 15.

According to The Geocaching Junkie it won't work like that, as (I quote in full):

"Note that each action cannot be combined to earn more points. For example, if you find a mystery cache that has more than 10 favourite points, you will earn 15 points in total. I have verified this with Geocaching HQ directly, as it was not clear from the FAQ."

:)

From here: https://thegeocachingjunkie.com/2018/03/06/planetary-pursuits-souvenir-promotion-explained-the-geocaching-junkie/

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, ZeCryptic said:

According to The Geocaching Junkie it won't work like that, as (I quote in full):

"Note that each action cannot be combined to earn more points. For example, if you find a mystery cache that has more than 10 favourite points, you will earn 15 points in total. I have verified this with Geocaching HQ directly, as it was not clear from the FAQ."

:)

Yes, that is how I understood Groundspeak's statement on fb too, and what I was trying to explain in my post that you quoted. ;)

Link to comment
1 hour ago, ZeCryptic said:
15 hours ago, Nessie42 said:

I just read on fb that 15 points is the maximum you can get for one find. If you find a Mystery cache you will get 15 points irrespective of how many favorite points it has. If you find a Trad, 10 or more favs will boost your points on the promotion from 5 to 15.

According to The Geocaching Junkie it won't work like that, as (I quote in full):

"Note that each action cannot be combined to earn more points. For example, if you find a mystery cache that has more than 10 favourite points, you will earn 15 points in total. I have verified this with Geocaching HQ directly, as it was not clear from the FAQ."

:)

My reading of both those statements is that they effectively  say the same thing.

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

At the blog page it reads:

Quote

Simply visit the Friend League page to activate your scoring control board and prepare to lift off on March 19.

On this page Lackey Annika replied to the question what's behind this activation:

Quote

There is no extra step required. Once you visit the Friend League page once, you start collecting points and are all set up for the space adventure starting March 19.

In case it is true that without doing this opt-in step one would not collect the souvenirs could we please also have an opt-out step. Apparently I clicked the link to see what's it all about without knowing that I could have prevent my souvenir page to accumulate additional IMHO pointless pictures.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

Some clarification from the "Launch Support (FAQ)" page:

Quote
Action Point value
Log a Found it on any geocache (Traditional, Virtual, Webcam, Wherigo) 5
Log a Found it on a Multi-Cache or Letterbox Hybrid 10
Log a Found it on a Mystery Cache or EarthCache 15
Log a Found it on a geocache with 10 or more Favorite points 15
Attend any event 15
Drop off trackable 4

* The max number of points you can earn for any cache log is 15 points.
 

Even if 15 points is the max per cache, that's only 34 caches required over a three week period. No hill for a stepper!

Edited by K13
formatting quote
Link to comment
22 minutes ago, K13 said:

Even if 15 points is the max per cache, that's only 34 caches required over a three week period. No hill for a stepper!

 

It would be a bit more of a challenge for those of us that only seek traditionals, and those with 10 or more FP's are rare in my area. I see it as a good way to promote those other cache types. Locally there is just no interest in puzzle caches or multis. 

I'm just a casual geocacher and won't be taking part. B)

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Hynz said:

In case it is true that without doing this opt-in step one would not collect the souvenirs could we please also have an opt-out step. Apparently I clicked the link to see what's it all about without knowing that I could have prevent my souvenir page to accumulate additional IMHO pointless pictures.

I didn't understand that as well.  I "visited" without adding or creating a "friends" league.  If just visiting (clicking that link), as many curious what this thing's about would do (since the site was leaving cryptic hints about it for a while...), entered me in the promotion, I'm more than miffed,

We didn't cache an entire month once when a "30 day" marketing promotion was going on, when we found folks received souvenirs for it whether you wanted them or not.  We do have souvenirs on things we are interested in...     I'd appreciate an opt-out as well.

Link to comment
15 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

You know you can hide souvenirs you don't want displayed.

ETA: Hold up. Where'd the hide function go on the souvenir page? What'd I miss? Is it still possible to hide souvenirs?

Oh, even worse. I can't hide any, but the ones hidden aren't showing up for me, not even grayed out, they're just gone!

Link to comment
46 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

You know you can hide souvenirs you don't want displayed.

ETA: Hold up. Where'd the hide function go on the souvenir page? What'd I miss? Is it still possible to hide souvenirs?

Still works fine for me, on both Firefox and Internet Explorer.  On my sock puppet, I re-enabled its hidden souvenir and then hid it again; and on my PM account, I disabled and re-enabled the 10-10-10 souvenir without any issues.

Are you looking at your souvenirs from the link on your dashboard, or from the tab on your public profile?  If the latter, they're not going to show up, as the general public shouldn't be able to hide them for you.  :laughing:

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
2 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

You know you can hide souvenirs you don't want displayed.

ETA: Hold up. Where'd the hide function go on the souvenir page? What'd I miss? Is it still possible to hide souvenirs?

From my personal profile dashboard it doesn't really "hide" anything, but just lightens them a bit.  Not the same.

Link to comment

d'oh, right. That's the link I missed, from the dashboard header.

On the public profile view, it should still be possible to show the 'hide' links, since the website knows if you are logged in and the profile owner.  Alas, I don't recall that ever being an option, I just couldn't remember how to get to the page with the links (which of course, is from the dashboard header, heh)

Link to comment

Just wondering, it says it ends at noon UTC on the 9th of April, but there's no time zone qualifier on the starting date, it just says it starts on the 19th of March. Since noon UTC is 11am the following day here, I'm wondering whether any caches I find here on Monday the 19th of March will count, or if I'll have to wait until the Tuesday afternoon to begin.

Link to comment
On 3/7/2018 at 10:32 AM, K13 said:

Some clarification from the "Launch Support (FAQ)" page:

Even if 15 points is the max per cache, that's only 34 caches required over a three week period. No hill for a stepper!

In this part of East Texas, there is one earth cache, 4 mystery caches and 6 multi caches within 30 miles. Those eleven total 165 points. Then I'm left with 495 traditionals to pick from. Easiest route is to find the ones that have more than 10 favorites which count as 15 each. If such an animal exists in these parts. The only one I know is the Bed and Breakfast with 54.

 

Link to comment
10 hours ago, ekhoc said:

Somewhat unfortunately timing for this challenge/pursuit.  It would have been great to have it in the spring instead of winter ... we're expecting up to 20 cm more snow and temperatures below zero by the end of next week :P

Yikes! There are hundreds of mystery caches within 15 miles of me and the temps are expected to be in the low 80s. Come on down y'all.

Link to comment
On ‎3‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 4:55 AM, ekhoc said:

Somewhat unfortunately timing for this challenge/pursuit.  It would have been great to have it in the spring instead of winter ... we're expecting up to 20 cm more snow and temperatures below zero by the end of next week :P

Only the first day and some of the second day of the promotion are in the northern hemisphere's winter. The rest of it is in spring.

For the southern hemisphere, most of the promotion period is in autumn.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
5 hours ago, The A-Team said:

For the southern hemisphere, most of the promotion period is in autumn.

One thing for folk in Australia and New Zealand to note: caches logged on Monday 19th don't count because Groundspeak still can't handle time zones.

Unless you hold off logging until 8pm or so in Oz maybe 11pm in NZ

Edited by Gill & Tony
  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
On 3/11/2018 at 5:03 PM, garyo1954 said:

In this part of East Texas, there is one earth cache, 4 mystery caches and 6 multi caches within 30 miles. Those eleven total 165 points. Then I'm left with 495 traditionals to pick from. Easiest route is to find the ones that have more than 10 favorites which count as 15 each. If such an animal exists in these parts. The only one I know is the Bed and Breakfast with 54.

 

I see 15 caches having at least 10 FP within a 30 mile radius. I only have 4 of them. There are 54 if you make it a 45 mile radius.I have 10 of those.

Then there's this one... GC3T7W8 Just a Micro in a Cemetery It's a little further away, but worth the drive, I think.

You can also look for upcoming events.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

It looks like it's now official that the friend league won't start recording points until noon UTC on the 19th, effectively excluding any finds logged on the first day for those of us in Australia or New Zealand. Even just saving a draft prior to that time will exclude the find. Not sure if we pick up an extra day at the end or not, as it probably won't accept finds dated the 9th of April. What a convoluted mess it's turned into.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
On 3/13/2018 at 5:09 PM, Gill & Tony said:

One thing for folk in Australia and New Zealand to note: caches logged on Monday 19th don't count because Groundspeak still can't handle time zones.

Unless you hold off logging until 8pm or so in Oz maybe 11pm in NZ

Thanks, and @barefootjeff

From my calcs PP starts 1am Tue 20th in New Zealand, and finishes midnight Tue 10th (because we move out of daylight savings on the 1st April).

Start & end times for PP are both given in UTC, so sounds like it's the date submitted, rather than the found date, which will be used?!

What a mess.  Think I'll avoid the start & end periods; and log the same day.  Oh, and only drop trackables into trads lacking in FPs.

Edited by barefootguru
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
On 3/13/2018 at 0:34 AM, K13 said:

I see 15 caches having at least 10 FP within a 30 mile radius. I only have 4 of them. There are 54 if you make it a 45 mile radius.I have 10 of those.

Then there's this one... GC3T7W8 Just a Micro in a Cemetery It's a little further away, but worth the drive, I think.

You can also look for upcoming events.

That does sound quite interesting. About a couple of hour drive from here.

4th Annual East Texas get together is 4/22 in Tatum. That's about midway. I'll shoot for that.

 

Link to comment
6 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:
7 hours ago, barefootguru said:

Oh, and only drop trackables into trads lacking in FPs.

What's the issue there?  Is there something I missed?

I suspect just to avoid wasting points.  You can only get 15 points maximum on any one geocache.  So if you log a find on a cache with 10+ favorite points, you'll get 15 points for it, and dropping a trackable isn't going to affect your total. If you need a boost, then, better to drop trackables into caches with less than 10 FPs.

Edited by hzoi
Link to comment
3 hours ago, hzoi said:

I suspect just to avoid wasting points.  You can only get 15 points maximum on any one geocache.  So if you log a find on a cache with 10+ favorite points, you'll get 15 points for it, and dropping a trackable isn't going to affect your total. If you need a boost, then, better to drop trackables into caches with less than 10 FPs.

The blog says that there is a 15 point limit for each geocache log.  I took that to be separate from trackable logs.  Something else that needs clarifying?

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

The blog says that there is a 15 point limit for each geocache log.  I took that to be separate from trackable logs.  Something else that needs clarifying?

Well, dropping a trackable is only possible when one logs a geocache, right?  Though I suppose under the list as it reads, one could expect points for writing a note or owner maintenance log and dropping trackables into one's own cache.  Maybe I'll try it after 19 March to see.

As far as whether this begs another blog edit...  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

The blog says that there is a 15 point limit for each geocache log.  I took that to be separate from trackable logs.  Something else that needs clarifying?

The 15 points for a cache with 10 or more FPs wasn't in the original version of the scoring which I printed out.  When Groundspeak introduced it people started getting confused as to whether or not this meant 15 points in addition to the 5, 10 or 15 for the cache type so they attempted to clarify it with the 15 point limit statement only to generate further confusion.  Surely dropping a trackable counts as another task in " Earn points when you log a cache, attend an event, or complete another geocaching task. The number of points vary depending on the task at hand. " and the points are independent of your Found/Attended log ... just like the Friends League scoring to date?

Link to comment
36 minutes ago, MBFace said:

The 15 points for a cache with 10 or more FPs wasn't in the original version of the scoring which I printed out.  When Groundspeak introduced it people started getting confused as to whether or not this meant 15 points in addition to the 5, 10 or 15 for the cache type so they attempted to clarify it with the 15 point limit statement only to generate further confusion.  Surely dropping a trackable counts as another task in " Earn points when you log a cache, attend an event, or complete another geocaching task. The number of points vary depending on the task at hand. " and the points are independent of your Found/Attended log ... just like the Friends League scoring to date?

At this point, we'll just have to wait until the promotion starts and figure out how things work on-the-fly.

Link to comment

For technical complexity, I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume the points are awarded by log - a Find log on a cache will generate points based on the cache listing it's connected to. Trackable logs are disconnected from Find logs (and there's no way, afaik, to tell which were posted together apart from near-identical timestamps), so Drop logs would generate 4 points on their own.  Any wa to connect a Find log with a TB log in order to limit points for that 'action' to 15 would be a heck of a lot of assuming for comfort. (same log owner + same listing + same timestamp +/- ms?)

Link to comment

I've found this from a Lackey on Facebook
" 4) Sorry about the confusion. Any cache type with 10 or more Favorite Points will earn you 15 points total. That is not additional to the points earned for each cache type.
5) You collect 4 points for each trackable you drop in a cache."

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
13 hours ago, garyo1954 said:

That does sound quite interesting. About a couple of hour drive from here.

4th Annual East Texas get together is 4/22 in Tatum. That's about midway. I'll shoot for that.

 

The Trifecta Day in Tatum is only a few mile from that cache. You will have a GREAT day if you attend those events. Plan for an entire day of activity. I have missed the last 4 years due to a Scouting activity on that weekend, but will be able to attend/participate again this year.  We would LOVE IT if you can make it this year.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
11 hours ago, K13 said:

The Trifecta Day in Tatum is only a few mile from that cache. You will have a GREAT day if you attend those events. Plan for an entire day of activity. I have missed the last 4 years due to a Scouting activity on that weekend, but will be able to attend/participate again this year.  We would LOVE IT if you can make it this year.

Doing my best to be there!
 

Link to comment
19 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Trackable logs are disconnected from Find logs . . . so Drop logs would generate 4 points on their own. 

Are they?  Is there a way to drop a trackable in a cache that is separate from leaving a log on the cache? 

It's part of the logging process on the website.  I know that using the app to log trackables involves a separate screen, but is this really separate from the logging process, or just a subsequent part of it?

(Not trying to be pedantic - I really don't know; I don't use the app often enough to be that familiar.)

Edited by hzoi
Link to comment
15 minutes ago, hzoi said:

Are they?  Is there a way to drop a trackable in a cache that is separate from leaving a log on the cache? 

It's part of the logging process on the website.  I know that using the app to log trackables involves a separate screen, but is this really separate from the logging process, or just a subsequent part of it?

The process may be linked, but as far as I know the Find and Drop logs are entirely distinct and separate. Apps have the same logging process from what I've seen; posting a TB drop log requires supplying the GC, or at least sending it with the cache log.  But I suppose the process behind the scenes could be coded to allow for awarding of 4 points per TB Drop log during the log publish on a cache listing (which I'd guess would work via web or API, since I don't know of any method to drop a TB without posting a GC log or editing an existing one). After that though, the Find and Drop logs I believe are completely separate.

So I guess it could be a moot point, if the points are awarded after the entire logging process, rather than as a count of log types and related caches. If the latter, no way to link a drop log to a find. If the former, points awarded immediately and the 4 could be counted in the total for the logging.

Interesed to find out for sure!

Link to comment
1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

The process may be linked, but as far as I know the Find and Drop logs are entirely distinct and separate. Apps have the same logging process from what I've seen; posting a TB drop log requires supplying the GC, or at least sending it with the cache log.  But I suppose the process behind the scenes could be coded to allow for awarding of 4 points per TB Drop log during the log publish on a cache listing (which I'd guess would work via web or API, since I don't know of any method to drop a TB without posting a GC log or editing an existing one). After that though, the Find and Drop logs I believe are completely separate.

So I guess it could be a moot point, if the points are awarded after the entire logging process, rather than as a count of log types and related caches. If the latter, no way to link a drop log to a find. If the former, points awarded immediately and the 4 could be counted in the total for the logging.

Interesed to find out for sure!

But only Find logs generate points, while Notes can be used to drop TB's.  You don't have to Find a cache to drop a TB (I've dropped TB's into a Hotel that I found previously), so I can't see how they could be "linked".

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, The Jester said:

But only Find logs generate points, while Notes can be used to drop TB's.  You don't have to Find a cache to drop a TB (I've dropped TB's into a Hotel that I found previously), so I can't see how they could be "linked".

It all depends on the process by which the points are awarded. If the process is running during the submission of the log, then it could potentially watch for a Find + TB drop and decide to only award a max of 15 points. If it's waiting until after the logs are created, then it may see both the Find and a separate TB log and award a max of 15 + a separate 4 points.

...and so we wait...

Link to comment
11 hours ago, hzoi said:

 

On 2018-3-15 at 0:41 AM, thebruce0 said:

Trackable logs are disconnected from Find logs . . . so Drop logs would generate 4 points on their own. 

Are they?  Is there a way to drop a trackable in a cache that is separate from leaving a log on the cache? 

 

(my bold), They're not strictly connected to "Find" logs, but are connected to logs in general. If the maximum points for any log is capped at 15 such  that dropping a TB as well doesn't bump it up to 19, then  I expect it would be possible to log the find for 15 points, then write a note to drop off the trackable for an extra 4 points.

 

Only just noticed The A-Team said pretty much the same thing.

Edited by MartyBartfast
Link to comment
7 hours ago, MartyBartfast said:

(my bold), They're not strictly connected to "Find" logs, but are connected to logs in general. If the maximum points for any log is capped at 15 such  that dropping a TB as well doesn't bump it up to 19, then  I expect it would be possible to log the find for 15 points, then write a note to drop off the trackable for an extra 4 points.

Ok, I did gloss over the "find" part of that and write more generally about cache logs.  I know you can drop a trackable with just about any log on a physical or event cache.  (edit: or virtuals - after all, one of our coins is sitting in Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Museum.)  I was not sure whether the app had created a means to drop TBs that was independent of logging a cache, which was more what I was getting at.  But many thanks for responding.

I'm still not sure from the language of the blog post whether TB drops via notes or other logs will rack up points, or whether they need to be tied to a cache find.  I guess we'll see Monday.

Edited by hzoi
  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
On 17/03/2018 at 4:11 AM, hzoi said:

I'm still not sure from the language of the blog post whether TB drops via notes or other logs will rack up points, or whether they need to be tied to a cache find.  I guess we'll see Monday.

Yeah it’s terrible wording.  Thought I’d experiment:

I dropped a trackable into a mystery (with 10+ FPs) today using a single Found log entry in Cachly, and received 15 points for the cache plus 4 for the trackable.

Link to comment
On 03/03/2018 at 10:19 AM, dprovan said:

You don't even have to cheat. Just take lots of TBs with you and drop them off and pick them back up for each cache you find. It sounds like a mere visit won't work, but what's the difference? As far as I can see, that would be perfectly legal even though all of us would go, "huh?"

Perhaps the scoring algorithm doesn't count drops followed by retrieves. That would make sense as a way to enforce the spirit of the "drop a tb" reward, and I can imagine implementing that restriction without bothering to spell out that detail when listing the ways to score.

One of our locals has ‘taken 2 trackables’ with him (one’s his personal), and is dropping & then immediately picking up them up in every cache he visits, for an additional 8 points.  Huh.  Well it’s always been about how you play the game…

Edited by barefootguru
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...