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Planetary Pursuit?


J Grouchy

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On 03/03/2018 at 3:25 PM, Michaelcycle said:

Given the weather, how many people are likely to go out for a whole day in 5-8°C rainy conditions (your area) just to log a bunch of caches?  Of course some people would but I suspect more people would wait for better weather...which is more likely in many parts of the more geocaching-intensive parts of the world in a few weeks when this promotion starts.

A review of the logging statistics after the fact should give us some idea of how it worked out (I recall seeing monthly data somewhere a while back)

I did, but not for this challenge but because I wanted to go out and explore a new area.

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53 minutes ago, niraD said:

With the scoring system of Planetary Pursuit, I think the folks who dislike Visited logs will get their wish. A lot of trackables are being dropped and grabbed during this promotion.

There's already a thread started by one who noticed a cacher "visiting" has now changed to dropped/retrieved to every hide .  I guess they're new enough that they didn't realize that's simply the way it was done before visit logs.  Got that "noticed there's now two logs for what was once one - on every cache..." thing.   :)

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54 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:
1 hour ago, niraD said:

With the scoring system of Planetary Pursuit, I think the folks who dislike Visited logs will get their wish. A lot of trackables are being dropped and grabbed during this promotion.

There's already a thread started by one who noticed a cacher "visiting" has now changed to dropped/retrieved to every hide .  I guess they're new enough that they didn't realize that's simply the way it was done before visit logs.  Got that "noticed there's now two logs for what was once one - on every cache..." thing.   :)

Yep. Definitely a case of "Be Careful What You Wish For". :)

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3 hours ago, niraD said:

With the scoring system of Planetary Pursuit, I think the folks who dislike Visited logs will get their wish. A lot of trackables are being dropped and grabbed during this promotion.

 

I tried it today, with five of my own Trackable items (four of which are new, which I'll leave in caches at some point).  I found seven caches, and logged "Drop/Retrieve" on the Trackables at each cache.  I then received more than 60 emails.

"Dropping" was easy.  I did all the logs manually, and that took a while.  Now at less than 200 points, I'd have to do this all over again almost three more times to reach 500.  That's a lot of paperwork!  Plus I never just make boring Visit logs on Trackables.  I at least post photos related to each cache on a Trackable's log, whether or not I own it (I don't do the popular unending robot Visits either, I drop them off well before the page fills up).  I can't imagine trying this with a hoard of 500 kidnapped TBs, even with software to log them for me.  That would be a ton of email notifications.

It's quite a bit less work to do occasional Visits to notable caches, while finding more caches.

Edited by kunarion
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18 hours ago, ZeppelinDT said:

Lol, one of our locals dropped over 300 TBs into an event.  Got over 1200 points in one shot.  Must have been pretty tedious picking them all back up though....

I can just see a line of geocachers dropping and grabbing the same TBs until everyone at the event has the number of points needed for every souvenir.

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6 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I can just see a line of geocachers dropping and grabbing the same TBs until everyone at the event has the number of points needed for every souvenir.

I can neither confirm nor deny... Oh, heck. Let's just say there weren't a lot of trackables being discovered at the event I attended recently.

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6 hours ago, niraD said:

I can neither confirm nor deny... Oh, heck. Let's just say there weren't a lot of trackables being discovered at the event I attended recently.

I guess the folks around here have more willpower. There's been a slight increase in trackables being exchanged at events, but I haven't seen any locals doing the drop, retrieve, drop, retrieve, lather, rinse, repeat... That method was briefly discussed at an event on the first day and unanimously dismissed as silly almost immediately.

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2 hours ago, The A-Team said:

I guess the folks around here have more willpower. There's been a slight increase in trackables being exchanged at events, but I haven't seen any locals doing the drop, retrieve, drop, retrieve, lather, rinse, repeat... That method was briefly discussed at an event on the first day and unanimously dismissed as silly almost immediately.

I haven't seen one person dropping and retrieving a trackable over and over. But I have seen a trackable get dropped, passed to someone else who retrieved and dropped it, passed to someone else...

Really, it's the same thing as discovering trackables, except it scores you points in the Planetary Pursuit promotion.

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2 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

Three Nor'Easters delivering over four feet of snow makes this difficult!

Lol, tell me about it!  Especially when you've already found all caches within 15 miles of home nearly every 15+ point cache within an hour's drive in every direction :/

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21 minutes ago, unclerojelio said:

So are Wherigo caches worth anything in the Planetary Pursuit?

Each Wherigo cache should be 5 points unless it has 10 or more favourite points and then it will be worth 15.

 

Edited by elyob
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When this promotion came out, I never ever ever thought I could reach 500 points. If the friend league was helping me out, yes. But on my own? No way. It just wasn't going to happen. Impossible.  But then I decided to do a Geotour, and boy does that help!  I didn't quite finish the tour, but I did snag 13 new Souvenirs, including the Planetary ones.  The Planetary Promotion spurred me on. 

 

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11 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

You currently have 6 Planetary Souvenirs

Goodness me, I swear they've not been there for flipping days and then the moment I post about it, *bam* there they are. Typical, haha. Thank you for looking, it was nice to log on and see that they were finally there! 

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I've seen some TB drop abuse.  Someone in my friend league managed to get over 500 points, mostly from TB drops.

After hitting a number of caches in a geo art series, I have all but the last two.  I have a road trip planned next week and should have no issues getting to 500 points without resoirting to shenanigans.

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This planetary Pursuit has prompted me to move a TB I dropped 6 months ago  in one of our caches that has had very little attention. And also drop a couple we've had for a while. As for dropping and retrieving others in our possession, I really can't be bothered, it's not like were playing for sheep stations (ranches).

There's a Mega happening locally next weekend so I may drop a few more that don't have a specific goal that I can help with.

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8 hours ago, hzoi said:

I've seen some TB drop abuse.  Someone in my friend league managed to get over 500 points, mostly from TB drops.

If it is acceptable under the rules, how does it qualify as abuse?  Here are the rules.  I'd say that it was poorly designed to allow this.  But it does allow it, so it is acceptable.

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I accidentally stumbled across another interesting way to game the system.

If you log a "Found" or "Attended", then change the log type to a "Write Note" log, you keep the original points from the first log, but you're still able to post a new "Found"/"Attended" log, and you'll get new points for the new log.  (I discovered this when I accidentally logged the wrong event because of stacked pins, and when I realized my mistake I initially edited my log into a "Write Note" and noticed my points had stayed the same).

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19 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:
On 3/26/2018 at 10:57 AM, hzoi said:

I've seen some TB drop abuse.  Someone in my friend league managed to get over 500 points, mostly from TB drops.

If it is acceptable under the rules, how does it qualify as abuse?  Here are the rules.  I'd say that it was poorly designed to allow this.  But it does allow it, so it is acceptable.

:rolleyes:

I recognize that it is possible to continually pick up and drop off the same TB 125 times in the same geocache in order to rack up points.  I am willing to bet you assumed I knew that, and yet here we are.

The site formerly allowed one to log finds on one's own caches - a practice you once described as not poor design, but "cheap and beyond contempt."  They're both gaming the system.  Why is one an ethical failure, but the other is some programmer's fault?

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5 hours ago, hzoi said:

:rolleyes:

I recognize that it is possible to continually pick up and drop off the same TB 125 times in the same geocache in order to rack up points.  I am willing to bet you assumed I knew that, and yet here we are.

The site formerly allowed one to log finds on one's own caches - a practice you once described as not poor design, but "cheap and beyond contempt."  They're both gaming the system.  Why is one an ethical failure, but the other is some programmer's fault?

Certainly not quite what I said, and that was eight years ago.  Cacher moved a thousand miles west, then logged all his caches.

But logging caches, and trying to fulfill the requirements for a souvenir are two quite different things.  May I drop/retrieve trackables into many caches?  Not against the rules for acquiring souvenirs.  As I said previously:  Very poorly planned souvenir hunt.  

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On 3/26/2018 at 7:57 AM, hzoi said:

I've seen some TB drop abuse.  Someone in my friend league managed to get over 500 points, mostly from TB drops.

After hitting a number of caches in a geo art series, I have all but the last two.  I have a road trip planned next week and should have no issues getting to 500 points without resoirting to shenanigans.

To drop a TB, then immediately retrieve it from the same cache, just to get the points, does seem like "gaming the system" - but if that's how someone wants to "earn" their planetary souvenirs, well, it works so I would guess it's "allowed".  Personally, I would rather go find a bunch of highly favorited caches, or a bunch of puzzles, log the finds and earn points that way.  I've dropped one trackable in a cache so far this promotion, and I left in the TB hotel where I logged the drop!!

We, too, have a road trip planned that will see us returning home on April 8, and I expect we will have earned and surpassed 500 points by then, just with our "normal" caching as we travel and as we try to maintain our "streak" of finding at least one cache each day in 2018.  Without doing much more than filtering local caches we have yet to find and targeting puzzles and those with high #'s of fav points, we are on pace to easily earn all the souvenirs.  And on the road trip, we won't have to limit our numbers in areas to "leave a few" for rainy days, as we do here at home rigth now.

How you earn the points is ultimately up to you, and if you can find a way to earn them and it may seem like cheating or gaming the system to some, well, if the system allows it and you are OK with it, then you've got the points and souvenirs.  Me?  I like to feel I earned it, by finding those caches and racking up points by solving and finding puzzles, looking for those special caches with a lot of favorite points, and going out walking, hiking, driving to places and signing log books!

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"Gaming the system", heh.
Don't you folks realize the system is gaming you?

You're letting a marketing department push you around.  All in the cause of - what - more engagement and therefore premium membership renewals.

I'm already a paying member and fully engaged, but slowly getting turned off by the marketing antics of late . Remember when geeks ran the show?

Maybe I'll keep playing, but stop logging...
 

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40 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

"Gaming the system", heh.
Don't you folks realize the system is gaming you?

You're letting a marketing department push you around.  All in the cause of - what - more engagement and therefore premium membership renewals.

I'm already a paying member and fully engaged, but slowly getting turned off by the marketing antics of late . Remember when geeks ran the show?

Maybe I'll keep playing, but stop logging...
 

I don't feel I'm beng "pushed around by a marketing department" -"in the cause of more engagement and premium membership renewals" - I may be a bit more engaged than I otherwise would have been, but not much more so.  Just a bit more targeted in the caches I am finding these 3 wqeeks is all.  And I'd renew my premium membership regardless - has nothing to do with this promotion.  I can ignore the promotion; just like with Mary Hyde we actually did nothing more than our usual caching and easily earned all the sounvenirs and got a free trackable code out of it.  You choose not to redeem it, OK, it doesn't affect you at all.

Keep playing, log or not as you choose - I'm not seeing the "marketing antics" affecting my caching; I log my finds for my own records.  

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Nope. I'm not feeling games either. I can opt in or out as I wish. I already pay into the company for the features of PM. If I want to pay into the company to buy what they're offering branded with this promotion, then I can. For now, I can enjoy the theme as I wish, have fun, at no additional cost to me (except which I choose to spend on travel).  They're not getting anything out of me by participating, other than perhaps a little exposure, which by sharing my fun and experiences is by nature something I want to do.

Nope, not feeling gamed by the Marketing Man at all.

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Why I'm here:
Anyone else seeing their Friend League show up in other languages? Or not getting points for trackable drops?

While I'm here:
Interesting discourse as always. I'm not inspired by the marketing any more than I am by challenge caches. I pick and choose the ones that interest me. Had they chose to exclude Pluto I would have avoided logging anything for the 3 weeks because no planetary souvenir collection is complete without Pluto (or possibly Eris, Haumea, Makemake...)

Because this is a game that we all play by our own rules I have chosen to drop my traveling coin collection into events I am attending as opposed to just letting people discover them. It's the only realistic way I'll get to 500 points in the allotted time. This is just busy work really but less than many puzzles I've enjoyed over the years. It'll be worth it to celebrate my favorite little planet... but only possible if the log jam breaks and points start getting awarded again. :P

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2 hours ago, Ericles said:

Why I'm here:
Anyone else seeing their Friend League show up in other languages? Or not getting points for trackable drops?

Yes to both of your questions. 

While my language preference was set to English, the friend league page appeared in German. I selected English at the bottom of the page (it was already highlighted) and the page reloaded in what I believe was Finnish. I then selected Italian and I got what I asked for. At last, I selected English again and this time it was okay. 

I dropped a travel tag last night and didn't get any point for this. 

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I did get points for TB dropped today.   I tried refreshing the Friend League page to see if the points went through, and it loads randomly in French, German, or English.  I may just give up on this promo and stay stuck somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn...

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2 hours ago, Tungstène said:

Yes to both of your questions. 

While my language preference was set to English, the friend league page appeared in German. I selected English at the bottom of the page (it was already highlighted) and the page reloaded in what I believe was Finnish. I then selected Italian and I got what I asked for. At last, I selected English again and this time it was okay. 

I dropped a travel tag last night and didn't get any point for this. 

 

1 hour ago, elyob said:

Me three, I am getting points for visits but not drops...in random languages.

 

1 hour ago, dixiedawn said:

I did get points for TB dropped today.   I tried refreshing the Friend League page to see if the points went through, and it loads randomly in French, German, or English.  I may just give up on this promo and stay stuck somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn...

I've got the same issue as well...I just dropped a sizeable bundle of TBs and all I'm getting for my effort is Chrome asking my politely if I want to translate the page!:huh: Hopefully it will clear up soon...although ironically I'm stuck between Jupiter and Saturn too!

Edited by Saved by God's grace
Adding more...
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1 hour ago, Ericles said:

My points have finally been awarded! Nearly a day later but I'm now on my way to Neptune. :cool:

 

1 hour ago, Tungstène said:

Ditto. It happened during the last 30 minutes, for sure.

 

1 hour ago, The A-Team said:

Someone at HQ must have seen all the reports of issues and given the hamsters a swift kick in the rear.

I've got mine too...Neptune and Pluto, here we come!:D

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On 3/27/2018 at 9:50 PM, CAVinoGal said:

Personally, I would rather go find a bunch of highly favorited caches, or a bunch of puzzles, log the finds and earn points that way.

I personally would rather do that as well.  The problem is that I don't really have that option because I've exhausted all the high FP caches and all the puzzles in my local area (i.e., within less than an hour's drive in any direction).

I guess I understand their wanting to promote FP's and puzzles and more "high quality" caches, but the flip side of that is that this approach encourages limiting caching activities during other times of year (which, interestingly, is one of the main things Groundspeak said they wanted to prevent when revamping the Challenge rules).  I'm seeing local cachers more and more frequently starting to say things like "Oh, that EarthCache looks really cool, but I don't want to do it because I want to reserve it for the next EarthCache day" or "I know that cache has lots of FP's, but I haven't looked for it yet just in case there's another promotion where we need to get caches with high FP ratings".  The entire promotion makes me feel like I'm being "punished" for being an active cacher during other non-promotional times of the year.

Edited by ZeppelinDT
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17 minutes ago, ZeppelinDT said:

I guess I understand their wanting to promote FP's and puzzles and more "high quality" caches, but the flip side of that is that this approach encourages limiting caching activities during other times of year (which, interestingly, is one of the main things Groundspeak said they wanted to prevent when revamping the Challenge rules).

This was one of the first things I commented about when the promom began. But... Challenge caches are regular caches that are intended to have shelf life. They put that rule in place so that on the long term, geocachers wouldn't be encouraged "not to cache" at any arbitrary point in time.  This promo is a short run 3 week stint, so if for the period between the announcement and the promo start people hold off on some finds just for points, it's not a long term "loss", just a shift of finds for a short period of time, which is why I believe they had no concern about it in this context.

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