Get ready for Streak Week

[+barefootguru]

2 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

I'm curious, this morning I went out and made a find for day 2 of the streak, logging it about an hour ago, yet when I go to my dashboard statistics page, it says my current streak is one day with a find on the 25th. Is this a timezone issue and if so, did my find yesterday morning (the 25th) not count because it was still only the 24th in Seattle?

 

The stats page was way behind for me:  my find logged on the 25th didn't show in the streak until morning of the 26th — signed, your Kiwi neighbour.

[+barefootjeff]

2 hours ago, barefootguru said:

The stats page was way behind for me:  my find logged on the 25th didn't show in the streak until morning of the 26th — signed, your Kiwi neighbour.

 

Now that it's past 5pm local time (Monday), which is midnight Sunday in Seattle, my statistics are showing 2 days of streak and in my public profile those two finds now appear as "Today" and "Yesterday", so it looks like those parts of the website at least are working on Seattle time. I'm still not sure whether it means I started this promotion a day early or not, I guess if I make it through to Saturday I'll find out then.

[+VAVAPAM]

While I understand that it's never safe to assume anything, usually the souvenir challenges begin and end at noon UTC.

[+barefootjeff]

5 minutes ago, VAVAPAM said:

While I understand that it's never safe to assume anything, usually the souvenir challenges begin and end at noon UTC.

 

If that's the case I'm scuttled as my find yesterday was logged at what would have been about 3am UTC. Noon UTC is 10pm here, which is a bit late for caching.

Edited August 26, 2019 by barefootjeff

[+VAVAPAM]

1 minute ago, barefootjeff said:

 

If that's the case I'm scuttled as my find yesterday was logged at what would have been about 3am UTC.

 

Then, I hope it's not the usual - which is quite possible, because they really didn't give a start/end TIME in the faq as they normally do, and the end time especially is very open-ended.

[+barefootjeff]

2 hours ago, VAVAPAM said:

 

Then, I hope it's not the usual - which is quite possible, because they really didn't give a start/end TIME in the faq as they normally do, and the end time especially is very open-ended.

 

In one of last year's promotions (Hidden Creatures I think), the Friend League Leader Board started and ended at noon UTC but there was also a requirement that the log dates had to be within the date range to generate the souvenirs, so effectively this part of the world had one less day than those in the western hemisphere. If that's the case with this one, does that mean we have to do a 7-day streak in 6 days? Some clarification from TPTB would be appreciated.

 

Edit to add: The previous weekend's International Geocaching Day souvenir just went off the logged date with no noon UTC stuff so here's hoping they're using the same part of the system for this one.

Edited August 26, 2019 by barefootjeff

[+VAVAPAM]

3 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Some clarification from TPTB would be appreciated

True.  Even though it sounds as if you're getting credited for your find on the proper day, it would be reassuring to know that it's all good, rather than worry for a week that it might not be.

Edited August 26, 2019 by VAVAPAM
+++

[+LizzyRN]

Use the date that you found the cache. If you have a cache from each day in the streak, you'll be awarded the souvenir. I don't see any restrictions/requirements about logging the the day found, or when your logs must be complete.

 

From the blog  FAQ's:

"Do I have to log my finds by August 31, 2019?

No. As long as you found a cache every day from August 25 – 31, 2019 you will be awarded a souvenir as soon as you log all finds online."

[+ZeppelinDT]

On 8/23/2019 at 6:42 PM, Crow-T-Robot said:

These are the kind of promotions I wish Groundspeak would treat like a "lifetime achievement" award, the way video games do, and not tie it to any specific week or range of dates. So, like in a video game, if I accomplish this set list of tasks, regardless of how long it takes me,  I am awarded the achievement.

 

This is a great idea.  This would be a much better way to handle this sort of thing.

[+thebruce0]

To my knowledge these date-related souvenirs make use of the date portion of the log not the time portion. When the promo starts and ends does depend on timezone, but the qualifications only care about the date. Now IANAL, so can't confirm, but if you logged a cache without including the timestamp, it would absolutely be unfair and very absent-minded if they checked the time and timezone and forced such logs to a time that only half the world would make valid.

[+rosebud55112]

I think this is nice.  24 hours in, and I already know I'm not going to qualify for it, so I don't get that angsty/antsy feeling as time ticks down.

[+Max and 99]

My husband forgot to get a cache where he teaches in another city, and I don't have a car. He was teaching in town tonight, when all the sirens went off, with very strong winds,  the most severe lightning I've ever seen, and a possible tornado about 2 miles north of where he was teaching. Since all the warning sirens went off the students were able to leave a little early!

Time's running out. Then we talk and figure out that all day long my account was locked, and now I can't see the coordinates of a geocache to tell him how to navigate there. Little panic. I frantically tried to jump thru all the GC hoops, and finally got my account back up. He'll be finding a cache on the way home, in the dark in the pouring rain and hope he doesn't get struck by lightning!

[+BugLuv]

I lost before I even realized it. That really does not hurt too bad. 

 

Thank God I can relax now!!  ha. ha

[+kunarion]

9 minutes ago, BugLuv said:

I lost before I even realized it. That really does not hurt too bad. 

 

Thank God I can relax now!!  ha. ha

 

I got a streak of one.  I think that's my shortest streak, but I'll have to check my stats to be sure.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by kunarion

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

My husband forgot to get a cache where he teaches in another city, and I don't have a car. He was teaching in town tonight, when all the sirens went off, with very strong winds,  the most severe lightning I've ever seen, and a possible tornado about 2 miles north of where he was teaching. Since all the warning sirens went off the students were able to leave a little early!

Time's running out. Then we talk and figure out that all day long my account was locked, and now I can't see the coordinates of a geocache to tell him how to navigate there. Little panic. I frantically tried to jump thru all the GC hoops, and finally got my account back up. He'll be finding a cache on the way home, in the dark in the pouring rain and hope he doesn't get struck by lightning!

 

Gosh, talk about doing it the hard way! We have heavy rain and possible storms forecast for Friday and Saturday, but hopefully nothing quite that severe. There's a couple of P&Gs I should be able to get to if I'm still in the running at that stage. I got number 3 today (although my stats page still only shows a streak of 2 days), a nice little Sidetracked multi at one of Sydney's northern railway stations, and I'm planning to do similar ones tomorrow and Thursday. A handy quirk in our railway's electronic ticketing system is that if you start your return journey within an hour of reaching your destination you don't get charged for it, so I need to make sure they're quick finds .

[+lee737]

Does anybody know for sure if the individual finds within an Adventure Lab count as finds for this promo - ie, can we do a location each day in an AL to help with our streak? I ask because my profile stats still only show a 3 day streak so far, rather than 4 (we found some on Saturday too).

[+Ambrosia]

5 hours ago, lee737 said:

Does anybody know for sure if the individual finds within an Adventure Lab count as finds for this promo - ie, can we do a location each day in an AL to help with our streak? I ask because my profile stats still only show a 3 day streak so far, rather than 4 (we found some on Saturday too).

 

This is from the blog post of Streak Week: https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2019/08/streak-week-august-2019-faq/

 

Quote

I don’t see Adventure Labs in my Statistics, help!

Adventure Lab finds count toward your Find Count and the Streak Week: August 2019 souvenir but will not be reflected in your Geocaching.com Statistics.

 

[+lee737]

4 hours ago, Ambrosia said:

 

This is from the blog post of Streak Week: https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2019/08/streak-week-august-2019-faq/

 

 

Thanks, I didn't think to check the blog!  The question now should be - 'Geocaching - why aren't they in our statistics?'.....

[+Michaelcycle]

4 hours ago, lee737 said:

Thanks, I didn't think to check the blog!  The question now should be - 'Geocaching - why aren't they in our statistics?'.....

 

Because they do not have assigned difficult and terrain ratings?

[+K13]

Adventures now have a separate app, no container, no D/T ratings, and are not reviewed prior to publishing. The question is "Why are they even included in Geocaching at all?" They have evolved into a separate entity at this point.

Edited August 28, 2019 by K13
Speelinh eras

[+lee737]

9 hours ago, Michaelcycle said:

 

Because they do not have assigned difficult and terrain ratings?

We still get a find/smiley. Project GC manages to incorporate them into statistics....

[+lee737]

6 hours ago, K13 said:

Adventures now have a separate app, no container, no D/T ratings, and are not reviewed prior to publishing. The question is "Why are they even included in Geocaching at all?" They have evolved into a separate entity at this point.

So, remove them from GC? Take away the smileys? I think the whole AL concept would die a rapid death at that point.....

[+K13]

3 hours ago, lee737 said:

So, remove them from GC? Take away the smileys? I think the whole AL concept would die a rapid death at that point.....

If You read the latest Lackey posts in the Adventure Fourm, it seems like they have big plans. I just don't see it being the same as Geocaching, more like a combo of virtual Waymarking, with the possibility of an educational aspect added.

[+thebruce0]

12 hours ago, K13 said:

Adventures now have a separate app, no container, no D/T ratings, and are not reviewed prior to publishing. The question is "Why are they even included in Geocaching at all?" They have evolved into a separate entity at this point.

 

Yep. I'm not against Adventure Labs as a concept; definitely the best implementation to date. But I wish they wouldn't call them Labs (any more), and the +1 smiley (especially multiple +'s per Lab) seems so superfluous, and really more about getting people to do them because they're shown in the stats (minimally).

But I'm coming from an OCD perspective where I want all my stats to add up. I even have one find from years ago that's counted in my smileys, and in my Finds PQ and stats, but there is NO way to get the data from the website any more; the GC does not exist. Project-GC doesn't have it in their rendering of my stats. Inconsistency! It eats at me

 

Labs have no stats to track. Only a +1. It's not geocaching, it's basically a location-based mobile game that can incorporate geocaching activities (or not).  They can be really creative and fun, or not. They lose their lustre when you're with a group at an event, and one person shouts out the code for everyone to claim it, and the vast majority of people do that, rather than the lab.  That gets my nickers in a twist.

 

The activity concept is great, but it's at this point probably the most detached activity from geocaching-proper, yet they include them in stats. =/

But whatev.

[+cerberus1]

13 hours ago, K13 said:

Adventures now have a separate app, no container, no D/T ratings, and are not reviewed prior to publishing. The question is "Why are they even included in Geocaching at all?" They have evolved into a separate entity at this point.

 

I kinda agree, but notice many have angst over at Waymarking and Wherigo over how "their own" areas have been maintained...

I'd like "lab" to be removed from the name as well, and remain a temp thing as a review/test of new cache types.

There's still enough confusion in the hobby like what's happened to challenges/challenge caches, and this collectible/not collectible in trackables.

 Or, just throw in VR and AI, and set 'em loose !    

[+barefootjeff]

The things we do for a souvenir...

 

[+colleda]

3 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

The things we do for a souvenir...

 

I've got 7 caches I was going to place today but they can wait until this has passed. Had over 100mm of rain here last night and it's still raining now. This will help in  starting regeneration of the bush  that was burnt out last week.

[+barefootjeff]

I'm sure this is the most rain we've had in one day all year, but I did manage to get out and grab one, a P&G on the Old Pacific Highway.

 

[+colleda]

2 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

I'm sure this is the most rain we've had in one day all year, but I did manage to get out and grab one, a P&G on the Old Pacific Highway.

 

I found parking was tricky for some of those, depending on which direction you're coming from. I've done some of those on my big Yamaha which was a little easier. Good to see somebody out and about today. I often ride it, or my GoldWing to Patonga for fish and chips.

[+Ellteejak]

streak week accomplished!!

[+_Quasi_]

Good afternoon all;

As a relative neophyte to the more structured aspects of this hobby, I have a question or two. I don't always log my caches since, for me, it's more about discovering places I would normally never see than racking up numbers of finds. Not to imply that getting large numbers of finds is better or worse than other ways of participating in the hobby; to each, his own. I was intrigued by "Streak Week" and decided to do it.
Question 1: Does one need to "pre-register" in order to participate?

Question 2: Is there any indication on the website as to  participants' progress?

Question 3: Is there a place on the website to review the different events outlining dates, rules, etc.?

Thanx,

_Quasi_

[+cerberus1]

22 minutes ago, _Quasi_ said:

 I was intrigued by "Streak Week" and decided to do it.
Question 1: Does one need to "pre-register" in order to participate?

Question 2: Is there any indication on the website as to  participants' progress?

Question 3: Is there a place on the website to review the different events outlining dates, rules, etc.?

 

Nope.  One of my issues with this hobby now, is you get souvenirs for promotions just because you met a goal, playing or not.

Depending on the promotion, the site might tell you with a souvenir on your profile for each stage of it.

 - Most we know who participate a lot in these things keeps track themselves.

The official blog usually mentions promotions and events, as well as what you'll need to play,  the newsletter too.

 - To get either you'd need to get notifications with your email information.

The blog is also on your profile dashboard,  under "community" on top.

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by cerberus1
addification

[+Max and 99]

24 minutes ago, _Quasi_ said:

Good afternoon all;

As a relative neophyte to the more structured aspects of this hobby, I have a question or two. I don't always log my caches since, for me, it's more about discovering places I would normally never see than racking up numbers of finds. Not to imply that getting large numbers of finds is better or worse than other ways of participating in the hobby; to each, his own. I was intrigued by "Streak Week" and decided to do it.
Question 1: Does one need to "pre-register" in order to participate?

Question 2: Is there any indication on the website as to  participants' progress?

Question 3: Is there a place on the website to review the different events outlining dates, rules, etc.?

Thanx,

_Quasi_

Good questions, Quasi.

I stopped logging all my finds many years ago. You're not alone. 

 

I think setting up notifications for the newsletter and blog is the best way to get notice of upcoming souvenirs and promotions. However, the most notice anyone got on Streak Week was less than 48 hours. Most of the time we know about opportunities in advance. 

 

I personally have not found a place that showed my progress for Streak Week, but it was only for 7 days and I knew my dates were correct. 

 

Here's a link that shows known upcoming events and souvenirs:

 

The A Team's list of Souvenirs

[+cerberus1]

36 minutes ago, _Quasi_ said:

 I don't always log my caches since, for me, it's more about discovering places I would normally never see than racking up numbers of finds.

 

Similar, if there was a way to log caches "found" without a find count, that would've been done years ago.  

Curious, noticed the few finds, but how are you able to keep track ?   Do you think you'll be able to keep track even more years down the road ?

I haven't figured a way to delete the caches I find from search without a "find" yet.

[+Harry Dolphin]

3 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Similar, if there was a way to log caches "found" without a find count, that would've been done years ago.  

Curious, noticed the few finds, but how are you able to keep track ?   Do you think you'll be able to keep track even more years down the road ?

I haven't figured a way to delete the caches I find from search without a "find" yet.

 

Put them on your Ignore List?

[+Ambrosia]

I had a fun week. I normally don't like forcing myself to cache every day, but I made it work, and had a good time. There is a local cacher here who works long shifts, and he didn't think that he could do it. But when he posted on facebook that he was going for it, I decided that I had no excuse and could do it to.

 

I had some pretty good variety: an event, group caching, a multi, a puzzle, great hikes, and only two park and grabs. My favorite of the week was a tree climbing cache in a tall magnolia.

 

 

 

[+barefootjeff]

5 hours ago, Ambrosia said:

I had some pretty good variety: an event, group caching, a multi, a puzzle, great hikes, and only two park and grabs. My favorite of the week was a tree climbing cache in a tall magnolia.

 

I tried to mix mine up a bit, with a couple of bushland hikes (a T2.5 and a T3) and an urban multi, but bad weather over the last three days restricted me to P&Gs on those.

 

Something I noticed is that, across my 38 active hides, none saw any activity at all during the promotion. Wondering if it was just me or something more widespread, I looked at the number of finds on caches in my region (the New South Wales Central Coast, Australia), dividing them into two groups (T1-2 "urban" and T2.5-5 "bushland") and tabulating the number of weekly finds in each group for the promotion and the four weeks preceding it. These are the results:

 

            Week                            T1-2             T2.5-5

28-7-2019 to 3-8-2019            77                   36

4-8-2019 to 10-8-2019            53                   26

11-8-2019 to 17-8-2019          77                   15

18-8-2019 to 24-8-2019          44                   37

25-8-2019 to 31-8-2019          89                    7

 

So it looks like the promotion was boosting the finds on the lower T-rated caches (the predominately urban hides) at the expense of the higher rated ones (the predominately bushland hides). And of those 7 finds during the promotion on the higher rated caches, 5 were on T2.5 caches and the other 2 on T3 ones. None of the 83 T3.5 or above caches in the region got any finds at all during the week of the promotion.

Edited September 1, 2019 by barefootjeff

[+Ambrosia]

Interesting. I know that I got lots of visits to my caches during the Mystery at the Museum promotion, with people mentioning the promotion in their logs. I don't think I got anything extra on my caches during Streak Week that I could obviously tell. And my caches are mostly relatively easy.

 

[+colleda]

13 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

I tried to mix mine up a bit, with a couple of bushland hikes (a T2.5 and a T3) and an urban multi, but bad weather over the last three days restricted me to P&Gs on those.

 

Something I noticed is that, across my 38 active hides, none saw any activity at all during the promotion. Wondering if it was just me or something more widespread, I looked at the number of finds on caches in my region (the New South Wales Central Coast, Australia), dividing them into two groups (T1-2 "urban" and T2.5-5 "bushland") and tabulating the number of weekly finds in each group for the promotion and the four weeks preceding it. These are the results:

 

            Week                            T1-2             T2.5-5

28-7-2019 to 3-8-2019            77                   36

4-8-2019 to 10-8-2019            53                   26

11-8-2019 to 17-8-2019          77                   15

18-8-2019 to 24-8-2019          44                   37

25-8-2019 to 31-8-2019          89                    7

 

So it looks like the promotion was boosting the finds on the lower T-rated caches (the predominately urban hides) at the expense of the higher rated ones (the predominately bushland hides). And of those 7 finds during the promotion on the higher rated caches, 5 were on T2.5 caches and the other 2 on T3 ones. None of the 83 T3.5 or above caches in the region got any finds at all during the week of the promotion.

I noticed activity with finders of my caches  picked up during the week.

[+VAVAPAM]

24 minutes ago, colleda said:

I noticed activity with finders of my caches  picked up during the week.

 

I noticed no unusual activity at my caches during either of the summer souvenir activities. 

Most cachers actually living in this area are fairly new, so I'm guessing they do not receive notices of promotions.

I've thought about messaging some local new cachers that have found my caches about an upcoming promo, but how creepy would that be?

[+barefootjeff]

1 minute ago, VAVAPAM said:

Most cachers actually living in this area are fairly new, so I'm guessing they do not receive notices of promotions.

 

Assuming they're mostly app-users, there are notifications that pop up in the app around the start of each promotion so you don't have to subscribe to the newsletter or blog to know about them.

[+colleda]

Just now, barefootjeff said:

 

Assuming they're mostly app-users, there are notifications that pop up in the app around the start of each promotion so you don't have to subscribe to the newsletter or blog to know about them.

I have the app on my phone but have not noticed any messages pop up on it. I do get emails which I can also view on my phone.

[+VAVAPAM]

Just now, barefootjeff said:

 

Assuming they're mostly app-users, there are notifications that pop up in the app around the start of each promotion so you don't have to subscribe to the newsletter or blog to know about them.

 

You assume correctly. 

 

Thanks for that intel.  I guess they're just not that interested or are otherwise engaged.  I'll stick with not being creepy, then. 

[+VAVAPAM]

1 minute ago, colleda said:

I have the app on my phone but have not noticed any messages pop up on it. I do get emails which I can also view on my phone.

 

This seems to relate to an issue where the app gives a notice, but disappears after opening it  - though it does show up in email.

Hmmm. I'm still going to go with "not creepy". 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 8/31/2019 at 1:59 PM, cerberus1 said:

 

Nope.  One of my issues with this hobby now, is you get souvenirs for promotions just because you met a goal, playing or not. 

 

 

Agreed.  I wish that they would stop calling them souvenirs.   A souvenir in the real world is something that one *chooses* to acquire as a token of remembrance, not a reward for completing some criteria.  I have also suggested that they should implement a souvenir claiming mechanism.   Instead of pushing a souvenir into a profile, whether the users wants it or not, send out a "you have qualified for this souvenir" to the message center or email, with a simple "click this link" that allows one to claim it.