Hidden Creatures - progress thread

July 15, 2018

This is our first souvenir hunt. We are 41 out from the World turtle. What happens if you make it all the way?

11.2k · July 15, 2018

8 minutes ago, NVFrrksen said:

This is our first souvenir hunt. We are 41 out from the World turtle. What happens if you make it all the way?

Then you collect all the souvenirs. That's it.

10.1k · July 15, 2018

But then I'll have found all the local Geotrails!

July 16, 2018

I got to the Dragon without too much trouble; getting twice as many to get the World Turtle is a real pain. There should be something in between, at 75 or so. I'm trying and might make it but I hate the pressure and having to use up so many easier ones. Unless they're all using geotrails, I don't get how some cachers "easily" get 25-100 in a day. It took me several hours each of the last few times I've driven around to get half a dozen to fifteen (my best yet) in our area.

Don't think there are many geotrails around here. Certainly no huge ones like I've heard of elsewhere. There's one of about ten caches along several miles of a bike path (most of which I got previously), and one of fifteen or twenty challenge caches (most of which I haven't earned and some of which I probably never will - think I qualify for three to five of them). While out looking for not-too-hard caches today so that I could get several, I found on the map what seems to be a trail of about eight that's maybe ten or fifteen miles from me as the crow flies (about a half-hour's drive by road). Might try it next week if I get desperate but I'd rather save it for a future run.

1.7k · July 16, 2018

We (hubby and I) are on a quest to find at least one cache a day every day of 2018. So far, we have done it. This Hidden Creatures promo (requiring an verage of 3+/day) started while we were vacationing in NY and Florida, visiting family, so finding more than one a day was very doable; there were plenty to find and we didn't need to worry about leaving some for another day. I need one more to unlock the Dragon, then 50 to complete all the souvenirs, an average of 4 or 5 a day. Now that we are back home, and have to drive several miles to get our COTD, we'll have to plan a hke or something out of the area to grab a bunch if we are going to get to the end. We'll see.

Previous promos we really didn't change our caching habits all that much and we were able to earn all the souvenirs. Maybe we sought out the higher fav points or puzzles more than we normally would have, but it made things interesting. This is sheer numbers - we may or may not get there. We will get our one cache a day, and keep up our own personal challenge, and if we happen to get all the souvenirs along the way, yay for us! If we don't, then we'll be content with getting all but the last one.

July 16, 2018

CAVinoGal - I'm similarly doing a streak (trying for 366 - am in the low-to-mid-100s right now), so Hidden Creatures is requiring a lot of extra effort to NOT grab caches that I might want/need during horrible weather days over the winter or sick days.

1.7k · July 16, 2018

2 minutes ago, frumiousb said:

CAVinoGal - I'm similarly doing a streak (trying for 366 - am in the low-to-mid-100s right now), so Hidden Creatures is requiring a lot of extra effort to NOT grab caches that I might want/need during horrible weather days over the winter or sick days.

Today is day 198 for us (we found a cache on 12/30/2017, then did 12/31/ and 1/1 for those 2 souvenirs, and have kept going since then. Good luck to you!

As I said, in order to get the final Hidden Creature, we need to go somewhere out of our area to grab several so we can leave those closer to home that will allow us to maintain our "streak" - it's gong to take some planning!

July 16, 2018

Good for you! I didn't start caching in earnest until the beginning of this year, when I started going up to a few days a week. I didn't go every day until something like late March so I have a long ways to go.

4.2k · July 16, 2018

I haven't been trying to get these souvenirs, but I checked, and I have 11 of them. As I haven't checked, I am not sure what I need to do to earn them; they just happened.

Added: I just checked what I require. Might not be difficult if I just cache as normal.

Edited July 16, 2018 by Goldenwattle
Added

1.1k · July 16, 2018

I never thought I would be able to get all of the Souvenirs but after a mad bout of Caching last Saturday (9 Hrs, 40km walking and 70 Caches found) I was able to pick up the last Cache required for all 13 yesterday. Hard work doing it and I will not do it again.

9k · July 16, 2018

I like the fac that there is a reasonably difficult high-end goal this time. If they're all easily accessible, there's no real challenge for a good portion of the community. Seems like if there is an aspect of a challenge for another portion of the community people get upset at not being able to get them all Maybe for the next one the presentation of the 'rewards' can be adjusted to indicate that not every rewad is for everyone? Maybe imply a difficulty rating as well, hehe.

One thing's for sure, it's great feedback to see what many people think of each of these souvenirs given their caching habits!

I just found the world turtle yesterday, but I was very specifically targeting themed caches and vlogging, so it was a little slower going than just hitting 100 finds as fast as possible.

July 16, 2018

I was planning to go for the Phoenix and I am 5 off from getting it. Also going for 100 this year, am at 84.

yesterday I planned out some quick park and grabs and found 6. Plus the first 3 had money in them I got myself a drink. But now running low on swag

July 16, 2018

Finally got that World Turtle today! Enjoyed the challenge [:)]

3.5k · July 18, 2018

On 7/16/2018 at 8:18 AM, thebruce0 said:

Seems like if there is an aspect of a challenge for another portion of the community people get upset at not being able to get them all

Reminds me of how I feel every time I read cachers complaining that 100 is too many to get the souvenirs - as if they aren't getting anything without finding all 100. Of course, if there was only souvenir at 100, then they would complain that there weren't any rewards along the way to 100. I often feel that there's no way for GS to win with these things, yet they continue to persevere, which is appreciated.

On 6/28/2018 at 2:47 PM, noncentric said:

I've only gotten 1 of the souvenirs so far, but anticipate getting all of them before the promotion ends. I'm not in a hurry though, so whether I get them next week or next month doesn't make a difference to me.

If I'm counting my Drafts correctly, then I need to find 14 more caches before the promotion ends to get the World Turtle. Should be doable.

July 18, 2018

I finished the Hunt yesterday! I've been able to to complete some trails and the weather was on my side as well. Not to hot and hardly any rain.

but the next challenge is out there!

July 18, 2018

56 minutes ago, Headbanger-Berlin said:

I finished the Hunt yesterday! I've been able to to complete some trails and the weather was on my side as well. Not to hot and hardly any rain.

but the next challenge is out there!

Congrats!! I still have 21 left. Maybe this coming weekend.

1.3k · July 18, 2018

I think I saw a note stating I was one log away from getting the Sphinx souvenir, so I don't see myself getting anywhere close to finishing.

While I enjoy these promotions when they are ongoing, if I don't find enough caches to get all the souvenirs, when the promotion is over it's not like I regret not getting all the rewards. It just becomes another souvenir in my digital dust bin that I rarely look at or remember.

9k · July 18, 2018

I don't value souvenirs much. But I value the fun and creativity it open up while enjoying my favourite hobby of geocaching For me it's not about finding 100 caches, it's not about getting little digital souvenir images, it's about making your own fun and to just enjoy it, y'all.

7.5k · July 18, 2018

2 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

I don't value souvenirs much. But I value the fun and creativity it open up while enjoying my favourite hobby of geocaching For me it's not about finding 100 caches, it's not about getting little digital souvenir images, it's about making your own fun and to just enjoy it, y'all.

Well said. A souvenir is meant to be a memento of the trip, not the purpose of the trip. These promotions blur that a little, but I think the point is still to encourage people to enjoy finding more caches, not mindlessly earn the souvenir.

9k · July 18, 2018

I thought this promo theme was super inspiring for having fun. I mean even if you don't do photography or make videos, you can still try to, say, find geocaches that are related to each creature... It's even better if you have kids with you to really have fun and play with the imagination.

I'm working on a video series progressing through the finds and creatures, and just published part 1 I'm really excited about it!

The caching? enh, just find a bunch of caches. What's the fun in doing a powertrail for 100 in a day to nab all the souvenirs, especially if you'd probably do that anyway? Throw some spice and variety into the hobby

10.1k · July 18, 2018

5 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

The caching? enh, just find a bunch of caches. What's the fun in doing a powertrail for 100 in a day to nab all the souvenirs, especially if you'd probably do that anyway? Throw some spice and variety into the hobby

Actually, I had been avoiding some of the local Geotrails. This sounded like a good opportunity. I actually did enjoy them. But I probably would have continued to avoid them then without this promotion. (Oh and there was a power trail too.) Now, I can go back to my two or three caches on a nice hike. I did think that this promotion was badly thought out, though. But I did get my world turtle!

9k · July 19, 2018

2 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

I did think that this promotion was badly thought out, though.

Yeah, practically, I agree. It's a very simplistic manner to get another 13 souvenirs. People are still upset about how hard it is to get them all.

Creatively, it's an original branding by Groundspeak for Groundspeak, it's very creative and artistic.

But it's very open ended, so it's really only as fun and memorable as you make it. It's not exactly the same as PP, but I see more like they're trying something new. I wouldn't say it's "bad", but it's loose enough that it could be meh, or crazy super awesome.

6.8k · July 19, 2018

Yesterday I hiked a 15km segment of the Sydney to Newcastle Great North Walk, finding the one cache along the way. Then, with a rare new one published locally this morning, I was able to earn myself a Kraken. The next segment of my hike has some nine caches along the way, a veritable power trail for me, so if I''m able to do that before close of play next Wednesday, I might score a few more creatures.

On the other side of the coin, I haven't noticed any increased activity on my hides that could be attributed to the promotion. With most having the takes more than 1 hour attribute, it's likely the promotion has been a disincentive for potential finders. I'm not complaining, just making an observation, that's all.

9k · July 19, 2018

10 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

With most having the takes more than 1 hour attribute, it's likely the promotion has been a disincentive for potential finders. I'm not complaining, just making an observation, that's all.

Oh man, given the series I'm doing, I sought caches that would thematically be appropriate for the creature. And there were a couple I did that were most definitely not park and grabs, like having the >1hr attribute or significant hike -- and I had an absolutely blast! I'd really love to encourage people not to just think of the static gain for completing a challenge (especially if it's just logging a find to get it), but the journey along the way. A lot of our imagination and creativity has been lost these days...

And sometimes the longer caches provide SO much more satisfaction given the added context of a theme like this

Maybe a future promotion will encourage more lengthy, invested geocaching goals? Finding those longer hikes or paddle caches. Unsure how likely, since that can reduce the accessibility of the challenge for a lot of people, but I think that's part of the issue - the promos have to (ymmv) appeal to as many people as possible, meaning they tend towards the lowest/easiest common denominator wrapped in a theme to add back to it.

I really thought this promo would be highlighting different attributes as each creature seemed to be sufficiently different in that regards to be effective. Alas it was just a find count challenge. Hopefully the next one will relate to something like that (even if it means some people will just add attributes to their caches to appeal to the reward-chasers).

13.7k · July 19, 2018

12 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

On the other side of the coin, I haven't noticed any increased activity on my hides that could be attributed to the promotion. With most having the takes more than 1 hour attribute, it's likely the promotion has been a disincentive for potential finders. I'm not complaining, just making an observation, that's all.

I've stayed away from this one because it'd change my caching behavior, preferring lengthy walks or higher terrain, and time just wouldn't allow (if I thought about getting all souvenirs).

The "creature"-to-finds chart shows it's a find-count promotion, so I'd think folks would attempt to get as many as possible.

One earlier who caches similar said they've been avoiding areas, and would have continued to do so, if it wasn't for this promotion.

- So yeah, I think that's a fair observation...

9k · July 19, 2018

I'm wondering why people would alter their caching habits or avoid areas at all unless they explicitly didn't want to get the souvenirs. I mean if you just didn't care about them, there's no reason not to cache as you normally would... or am I misunderstanding something?

July 19, 2018

53 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

I've stayed away from this one because it'd change my caching behavior, preferring lengthy walks or higher terrain, and time just wouldn't allow  (if I thought about getting  all souvenirs).

The "creature"-to-finds chart shows it's a find-count promotion, so I'd think folks would  attempt to get as many as possible.

One earlier who caches similar said they've been avoiding areas, and would have continued to do so, if it wasn't for this promotion.

- So yeah, I think that's a fair observation...

Have to say in a similar boat, though never found a true boat required cache. Just found my 60th cache and will not make it to 100. I don't mind these challenges that change my caching behavior just ever so slightly, but for the summer definitely like more of the walk in the park or forest caches. Looking at my find stats I do more volume PNG types in the rainy months, now that it's so nice out I like to head to the scenic areas and get outside.

Overall I really appreciate GS putting these fun challenges out there, I tried but not in the cards for me this time. Can't find or get them all but definitely going to try.

Have some great memories and found probably 2 of my most favorite caches ever got to spend some quality time with the kids.

GC2MNZA Eliot Glacier Earthcache

GC2C4DQ Cascadia Challenge

July 19, 2018

Hi everybody,

Frankly spoken I'm somehow disappointed by the simple scheme - summertime, hot outside, let's offer some souvenirs to those collecting caches. Time slot till ... and you have to earn x caches. I'd have preferred some real challenges, to find during a week a certain type of caches, to combine different icons, to attend events, to hide caches, to find caches at a specific distance of your home zone, to travel different countries, regions within a country, to reach difficulty/terrain combinations & ratings, to find a cache at its first publish day, etc. I'm too tired to collect just a 100 caches at a given period of time. I don't think that there's a real promoting action for Geocaching within this year's summertime souvenir series. Interested in reading statistics on the 2018 souvenirs. Nevertheless Happy Hunting/Geocaching....

Edited July 19, 2018 by Marc 3 Scapa

6.1k · July 19, 2018

19 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

I'm wondering why people would alter their caching habits or avoid areas at all unless they explicitly didn't want to get the souvenirs. I mean if you just didn't care about them, there's no reason not to cache as you normally would... or am I misunderstanding something?

I was also somewhat perplexed by @cerberus1's stance at first but figured "we all play the game differently" [:)].

Then when I was considering whether to go for the Turtle souvenir it occurred to me that Groundspeak might measure the success of this promotion by the number of people who achieve a particular level, or by the relative increase in caching activity over the period of the souvenir; therefore if, like me, you think this particular promo is badly thought out and implemented, then one wouldn't want to contribute to the perceived success and might therefore "stay at home" for the month in order to keep the numbers down a bit.

For the record, I got to Dragon by my normal activity, I did consider not getting 5 last night in order to not get the Dragon but decided to carry on as normal. If I go for the Turtle (and I'm still undecided) then it would mean making a special trip out to get ~50 which would be a change in my routine (though I have done 50+ in a day a few times).

1.7k · July 19, 2018

34 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

For the record, I got to Dragon by my normal activity, I did consider not getting 5 last night in order to not get the Dragon but decided to carry on as normal. If I go for the Turtle (and I'm still undecided) then it would mean making a special trip out to get ~50 which would be a change in my routine (though I have done 50+ in a day a few times).

We, too, reached Dragon without any extra effort, other than caching everyday for our own personal goal of a cache a day in 2018. Getting the Turtle will be a delicate balance - we want to leave nearby ones for our cache a day. We may go to a power trail (that we normally would not do!) several miles away just to get the #'s needed (I need 40 more). Unlike other promos where we really did nothing different and were still able to earn all the souvenirs, we are going to have to stretch to get the final one on this promo. IF we do it, we'll go Saturday and I expect we'll do the PT just long enough to get the souvenir. Unless we find ourselves enjoying it, in which case we'll continue and finish the trail.

13.7k · July 19, 2018

14 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

I was also somewhat perplexed by @cerberus1's stance at first but figured "we all play the game differently" [:)].

Then when I was considering whether to go for the Turtle souvenir it occurred to me that Groundspeak might measure the success of this promotion by the number of people who achieve a particular level, or by the relative increase in caching activity over the period of the souvenir; therefore if, like me, you think this particular promo is badly thought out and implemented, then one wouldn't want to contribute to the perceived success and might therefore "stay at home" for the month in order to keep the numbers down a bit.

Yep.

The other 2/3rds simply doesn't want souvenirs that she doesn't care for. A numbers-run promotion not on our list of fun souvenirs to receive.

- We didn't cache the "31 days" and quite a few others too.

Too many to ask daily/couple times a week for HQ to delete. Many don't even know that they'll do that...

We've done promotions, but think it's only fair if we could opt in or out of those we don't care to participate in. After all, it is just a marketing thing...

Marketing goes by their own stats for success. Though I'm just one person (but know I'm not the only one) maybe someone would eventually be curious enough to notice I'm again not caching during this promotion as well, "we're adding souvenirs to your ~~profile~~ dashboard, whether you want 'em or not".

I do similar off n on with my pm when a bit ticked too. I wouldn't think that's too tough to understand.

9k · July 19, 2018

2 hours ago, Marc 3 Scapa said:

Frankly spoken I'm somehow disappointed by the simple scheme - summertime, hot outside, let's offer some souvenirs to those collecting caches. Time slot till ... and you have to earn x caches. I'd have preferred some real challenges, to find during a week a certain type of caches, to combine different icons, to attend events, to hide caches, to find caches at a specific distance of your home zone, to travel different countries, regions within a country, to reach difficulty/terrain combinations & ratings, to find a cache at its first publish day, etc. I'm too tired to collect just a 100 caches at a given period of time. I don't think that there's a real promoting action for Geocaching within this year's summertime souvenir series. Interested in reading statistics on the 2018 souvenirs. Nevertheless Happy Hunting/Geocaching....

All of those are great ideas, IMO. Keep in mind that there are other periodic promo periods that Groundspeak runs, adn so far they each seem to have a different premise, different goals... this particular one was merely logging quantities of caches. I have no idea how they gauge success, but I wouldn't count on the next promo being identical to this one If you didn't like this one, cross your fingers that the next one will be more engaging for you!

(or like me, just have fun with it somehow anyway)

9k · July 19, 2018

1 hour ago, MartyBartfast said:

Then when I was considering whether to go for the Turtle souvenir it occurred to me that Groundspeak might measure the success of this promotion by the number of people who achieve a particular level, or by the relative increase in caching activity over the period of the souvenir; therefore if, like me, you think this particular promo is badly thought out and implemented, then one wouldn't want to contribute to the perceived success and might therefore "stay at home" for the month in order to keep the numbers down a bit.

Interesting, I can get that. Effectively this is like "voting with your dollars". If you don't like the promo or what its success might mean for the hobby, then the promo causes you to actively not participate in the hobby (like cutting yourself off from a store to make a statement).

That's unfortunate. But I suppose it's understandable.

However, I'd also question GS if they, presuming the numbers imply huge success, decide to change the game for everyone based on the results, in a manner that is actually worse for those who didn't contribute to its great success. Rather, at worst I'd see them launching other ideas that might be beneficial to people who really enjoyed this campaign while not being actively detrimental to anyone else. (unless of course such people might feel 'left out' if new stuff is produced catering to the other crowd)

Anyway all of that is based on a whole lot of presumptions. Realistically, I think GS may determine whether this promo caused more of a change in the period stats than say Planetary Pursuit or Mary Hyde did, and rather than 'changing the game' at all, I think the results might shape the next promo period in some way, and I don't think that would be actively bad for people who didn't like this promo.

9k · July 19, 2018

1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

We've done promotions, but think it's only fair if we could opt in or out of those we don't care to participate in. After all, it is just a marketing thing...

Yes! I think opting in to a promo period would be wildly accepted. I think that was a big point of contention when the friends list launched, and you could effectively be given souvenirs for your friends' activities...

1.3k · July 19, 2018

Completed 7/15.

3.5k · July 20, 2018

5 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

"we're adding souvenirs to your ~~profile~~ dashboard, whether you want 'em or not".

I think "profile" is actually more appropriate in this case. The Dashboard is just that one page that shows recent activity and has links to other pages. Other pages, like the pages that show souvenirs, are not the Dashboard.

4 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Anyway all of that is based on a whole lot of presumptions. Realistically, I think GS may determine whether this promo caused more of a change in the period stats than say Planetary Pursuit or Mary Hyde did, and rather than 'changing the game' at all, I think the results might shape the next promo period in some way, and I don't think that would be actively bad for people who didn't like this promo.

I agree, in that I don't think caching activity is the metric that will be used to gauge success of the promo. As with previous summer promos, there are products that match the theme of the promo being sold during the promotion. I would think that sales of those products, which creates actual revenue, would be the main target of the promotions.

10.1k · July 20, 2018

19 minutes ago, noncentric said:

I agree, in that I don't think caching activity is the metric that will be used to gauge success of the promo. As with previous summer promos, there are products that match the theme of the promo being sold during the promotion. I would think that sales of those products, which creates actual revenue, would be the main target of the promotions.

I thought that was quite obvious. Here's the new promo. Buy the Geocoin.

9k · July 20, 2018

I think it's absolutely great that GS is trying to create and promote their own internally created product. This one's not a marketing tie in, it's tied to themed promotional material for people who'd like to memorialize their experience by buying in to it, and supporting the company by doing so. Excellent idea.

Even though it seems like some people want to criticize them for marketing partnership products through the hobby, and want to criticize them for marketing their own products through the hobby.

All power to them, I say. As long as I'm not compelled to purchase but can choose to if I wish. Personally I loved the planetary pursuit geocoin set idea, and if I had the $ I'd grab at least a full set.

6.1k · July 20, 2018

5 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

want to criticize them for marketing their own products through the hobby.

I'm not criticising them for the marketing/sales side of the promotions, it's not something that interests me so I've never bought any of the products and don't ever expect to.

My criticism is that this particular "challenge" is tedious and boring compared to previous years, which have involved some variety of tasks to undertake (Planetary Pursuits, Mary Hyde, Geocaching Road trip, etc.) so I would like to encourage HQ to go back to the creative ideas rather than just "find 100 caches". However having said that, by creating 13 souvenirs this year that gives them 13 sales opportunities, which might have been difficult to achieve with the previous promos, which had fewer souvenirs up for grabs; so I hope it's not the marketing/sales opportunities that drove them towards this model.

3.5k · July 20, 2018

13 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

My criticism is that this particular "challenge" is tedious and boring compared to previous years, which have involved some variety of tasks to undertake (Planetary Pursuits, Mary Hyde, Geocaching Road trip, etc.) so I would like to encourage HQ to go back to the creative ideas rather than just "find 100 caches".

It seems like a lot of cachers couldn't understand the "variety of tasks" in previous years' promotions, so maybe this year was about keeping things simple.

I'd also assume that keeping things simple, based only on find count, minimizes how many developer resources were used to support the promotion - whereas the "variety of tasks" required more development to manage the scoring and especially when the Friend League was incorporated. And let's not forget the complaints about developer resources being used to support summer promos, instead of applying those resources to other issues with the website/apps/etc. With the simple promo format for this summer, then hopefully the devs have more time to spend on fixing bugs.

14k · July 20, 2018

18 hours ago, MartyBartfast said:

Then when I was considering whether to go for the Turtle souvenir it occurred to me that Groundspeak might measure the success of this promotion by the number of people who achieve a particular level, or by the relative increase in caching activity over the period of the souvenir; therefore if, like me, you think this particular promo is badly thought out and implemented, then one wouldn't want to contribute to the perceived success and might therefore "stay at home" for the month in order to keep the numbers down a bit.

I don't think that the promotion is necessarily badly thought out and implemented. I have notice that there are far fewer complaints about users not receiving souvenirs for which they've qualified. If ya'll remember the previous promotion (planetary pursuit), GS had to implement at least a couple of "hot fixes" and even had to extended the promotion period due to some glitches in the souvenir awarding processes. However, the promotion is based on quantity: the most caches you find, the more souvenirs you get as a reward. There may be some that recognize that GS might measure the success of the promotion by the number of people of achieving a particular level, which implies that success is measured on the quantity of caches people are finding. Some may choose to "boycott" the promotion simply to make a point that they object to GS promoting quantity over quality.

9k · July 20, 2018

If anything, the final stats of souvenirs earned will be bigly interesting to dataminers. Especially if they produce stats that compare users' prior caching habits (find rates) in relation to the promo period. In the context of motivation by souvenir promos, that would say a lot. It might be a little tougher to produce a similar report from cache types of the prior PP promo, but they could be compared. Are more people motivated by variety, or by quantity? That kind of result I think will primarily influence the theme and goals of the next promo.

I can't grok the complaint about this one being so simple and boring. I can understand the sentiment (based on the 1 simple ruleset - find 100 caches), but you can't forget that past promo periods were all different than this one. They're trying something different with this, which is great. This one being about find quantity alone doesn't mean the next one will be too, even if this one is a big relative success.

And I applaud them for taking advantage of the period for selling their own product (again). It's a great idea having the merchandise tie-in. Much more direct profit than a partner brand tie-in, all things being equal. (obviously a very very popular partnered brand tie-in could draw more activity and merch sales)

Mary Hyde, Planetary Pursuit, and Hidden Creatures all had their own related merch sales, but the goal concept for each was different, as well as the merch ideas. Props to GS for running these, and attempting to improve their geocaching activity tie-ins each time too (or at least providing variety on that front).

I fully expect attribute-related goals to be an upcoming promo theme

Edited July 20, 2018 by thebruce0

13.7k · July 20, 2018

3 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

There may be some that recognize that GS might measure the success of the promotion by the number of people of achieving a particular level, which implies that success is measured on the quantity of caches people are finding. Some may choose to "boycott" the promotion simply to make a point that they object to GS promoting quantity over quality.

Just your own stat page on the site shows that numbers matter to the site, and mentioned a few times that at mega events was asked my "find count" before my caching name.

- I looked at my stats just now because I needed to refer to the page.

The first line of stats is your find count, followed by what month you find the most caches, and what day of the week.

Quality vs quantity isn't a problem for me. I know what I like. I'm already a paid member. "Promotions" should be optional. Simple.

11.6k · July 20, 2018

6 hours ago, noncentric said:

It seems like a lot of cachers couldn't understand the "variety of tasks" in previous years' promotions, so maybe this year was about keeping things simple.

+1

I'd prefer a variety of kinds of challenges. Planetary Pursuit allowed me ways to complete the entire challenge, something I never managed on any such promotion. On this current one I've achieved eight souvenirs (to the Gryphon), and that will be about it.

But since this one is mostly about finding any caches, it did encourage me to place five new caches in the area. Locals who previously cleaned out the area might get a good start with new caches.

6.8k · July 20, 2018

5 hours ago, kunarion said:

But since this one is mostly about finding any caches, it did encourage me to place five new caches in the area. Locals who previously cleaned out the area might get a good start with new caches.

I placed a new cache during the promotion, a D2/T3 traditional that was published on the 4th, but in the two and a half weeks since then it's only had one find and that was by someone who saw an FTF up for grabs. It's about an hour's hiking each way to reach, though, so not suitable for anyone just wanting quick finds for the souvenirs. Maybe activity will pick up a bit after the promotion ends.

11.2k · July 20, 2018

On 6/28/2018 at 12:30 PM, BigBlueDot said:

I did one one the day of release. Sort of a kick off. But it was 110° around 5:30, after being at work all day, so I called it. I’m planning my weekend though!

We lived in Tucson, and know how dang hot it gets! Here's a pic of our time/temp today in central Oklahoma at 4:52 p.m.

(a little bit off on both time and temp, but close). Haha.

3.5k · July 21, 2018

On 7/17/2018 at 8:32 PM, noncentric said:

If I'm counting my Drafts correctly, then I need to find 14 more caches before the promotion ends to get the World Turtle. Should be doable.

After an ~8 mile hike and a few quick stops to wait out traffic afterwards, I have enough finds for the World Turtle!

I just have to get through my Field Notes to get them all logged.

July 21, 2018

I got the world turtle today, and I immensely enjoyed the challenge. I did a few power trails, which I had never done before, and which found me and my best friend who is a muggle going on a 12mile bike ride and finding ourselves reliving our childhood in which we did similar bike rides together. Then my husband and I spent time together doing a variety of different kinds of cache circuits, I also stepped out of my comfort zone and did several 'deep country' trails on my own, which was a big deal for me as I get nervous going on my own, but now I'm full of confidence! Finally today we drove out to Thetford forest for the day to complete the challenge, and it was beautiful out there.

All in all I loved the challange, it got me out far more than I usually would, I did trails I would never have considered before, and I spent quality time with people I love doing something I enjoy. To commemorate the event I also treated myself to my first ever geocoin, a world turtle one!

2.2k · July 21, 2018

19 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

We lived in Tucson, and know how dang hot it gets! Here's a pic of our time/temp today in central Oklahoma at 4:52 p.m.

(a little bit off on both time and temp, but close). Haha.

Did you Waymark it?

11.2k · July 21, 2018

9 hours ago, BK-Hunters said:

Did you Waymark it?

I sure did, years ago. The temp on someone else's visit showed 122, in 2012, the year our record high was 113. The day it showed 119 I had kids at marching band camp. They took temps of the running surface and warned the kids to wear thick soles shoes.

Edited July 22, 2018 by Max and 99

Hidden Creatures - progress thread

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