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How does Headquarters determine the order in which country souvenirs are created?


guamgirl46

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When I saw that Antarctica was the latest country souvenir, I was quite disappointed.  With only 50 caches and a difficult place to get to, it seems illogical that this would be selected over other places in the world that have more active caches, cachers, and ability to reach the area to pursue this activity?  How does Headquarters determine what countries will get the next souvenirs because this seems contrary to what I was told at Headquarters as to what determined countries given precedence for souvenirs.

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13 hours ago, guamgirl46 said:

When I saw that Antarctica was the latest country souvenir, I was quite disappointed.  With only 50 caches and a difficult place to get to, it seems illogical that this would be selected over other places in the world that have more active caches, cachers, and ability to reach the area to pursue this activity?  How does Headquarters determine what countries will get the next souvenirs because this seems contrary to what I was told at Headquarters as to what determined countries given precedence for souvenirs.

 

We were told a number of years ago that the list of countries that have souvenirs was  based on the number of caches available in each country.

Guess that's changed...

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12 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

We were told a number of years ago that the list of countries that have souvenirs was  based on the number of caches available in each country.

I don't remember anyone saying that it was strictly based on such things. I recall only that such things were among the factors that they considered.

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14 hours ago, guamgirl46 said:

How does Headquarters determine what countries will get the next souvenirs because this seems contrary to what I was told at Headquarters as to what determined countries given precedence for souvenirs.

 

If you were given some details when you were at HQ, then you already know more than we do.

 

Personally, I have no problem with Antarctica being released now. The draw for a souvenir like that is its rarity and lack of accessibility.

 

Which souvenir would you be more proud to tell people that you had earned? The United States one that 2.7 million cachers have, or the Antarctica one that only 339 have?

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3 hours ago, The A-Team said:

 

If you were given some details when you were at HQ, then you already know more than we do.

 

Personally, I have no problem with Antarctica being released now. The draw for a souvenir like that is its rarity and lack of accessibility.

 

Which souvenir would you be more proud to tell people that you had earned? The United States one that 2.7 million cachers have, or the Antarctica one that only 339 have?

That souvenir would surely be tempting to the armchair loggers - if it hasn't happened already.

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4 hours ago, The A-Team said:

 

If you were given some details when you were at HQ, then you already know more than we do.

 

Personally, I have no problem with Antarctica being released now. The draw for a souvenir like that is its rarity and lack of accessibility.

 

Which souvenir would you be more proud to tell people that you had earned? The United States one that 2.7 million cachers have, or the Antarctica one that only 339 have?

I agree; getting the Antarctic souvenir would be special. Although I haven't been able to get the souvenir, I managed to get a TB a visit to one cache. It's aim was to visit Antarctica and I knew someone who was visiting there, so they took the TB there and got appropriate photographs of it visiting there. After all that effort the CO couldn't be bothered to contact me to comment on it. Silence until I contacted them to ask if they had seen the photographs of their TB visited Antarctica. I have had polite thank you messages for far less than that concerning TBs.

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I had a look at a few Antarctic caches and it looks as though fake logging has been occurring for some time. t would appear some COs are not checking validity of found logs. It was easy to spot them; one or two word logs where genuine finds have a story to tell. Others logging caches in other countries on the same day. One example logged Spain, Antarctica, Indonesia and China in a day.

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On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 5:24 PM, Goldenwattle said:

Although I haven't been able to get the souvenir, I managed to get a TB a visit to one cache. It's aim was to visit Antarctica and I knew someone who was visiting there, so they took the TB there and got appropriate photographs of it visiting there. After all that effort the CO couldn't be bothered to contact me to comment on it. Silence until I contacted them to ask if they had seen the photographs of their TB visited Antarctica.

They probably just didn't notice that the TB had made it to Antarctica. Trackable owners don't get notifications for visits, and a special visit like that one can get easily buried by countless automatic visits even if the owner is looking at the TB page occasionally. Personally, it could take me up to a couple of years to realize one of my trackables had made it to Antarctica if nobody told me about it.

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6 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

They probably just didn't notice that the TB had made it to Antarctica. Trackable owners don't get notifications for visits, and a special visit like that one can get easily buried by countless automatic visits even if the owner is looking at the TB page occasionally. Personally, it could take me up to a couple of years to realize one of my trackables had made it to Antarctica if nobody told me about it.

It was a note on the cache, which gave the TB a visit. With photographs. That's the best I could arrange, as the person who took it there, was not a geocacher and I wasn't going to log the cache when I didn't visit it myself. I didn't want Antarctica on my list when I hadn't visited it.  However, notes generate emails and the owners should have received that.

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1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

It was a note on the cache, which gave the TB a visit. With photographs. That's the best I could arrange, as the person who took it there, was not a geocacher and I wasn't going to log the cache when I didn't visit it myself. I didn't want Antarctica on my list when I hadn't visited it.  However, notes generate emails and the owners should have received that.

 

The owner of the cache would have gotten a notification for the note log, but the trackable owner still wouldn't get a notification for the visit. You would have had to additionally post a note log on the trackable itself, for which the trackable owner would receive a notification.

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20 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

 

The owner of the cache would have gotten a notification for the note log, but the trackable owner still wouldn't get a notification for the visit. You would have had to additionally post a note log on the trackable itself, for which the trackable owner would receive a notification.

I can't check anything at present, as the geocaching site has blocked my access, as it won't accept my 'I agree' tick. You are likely correct, but I would have liked to check to confirm this. However, I do remember the cache owner appearing under whelmed and showing little interest when I contacted them, which was disappointing, considering the effort I had made to get their TB to its stated goal.

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1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

It was a note on the cache, which gave the TB a visit. With photographs. That's the best I could arrange, as the person who took it there, was not a geocacher and I wasn't going to log the cache when I didn't visit it myself. I didn't want Antarctica on my list when I hadn't visited it.  However, notes generate emails and the owners should have received that.

 

I assume what you are saying is a note on the cache that included the TB being dropped into the cache, and then subsequently retrieving the TB?  If so, then yes of course the TB owner gets a notification.  They just don't get a notification if it was a "Visited" rather than a drop and retrieve.

 

However, as nice as it was of you to arrange this, I don't think you should be doing it just to get "thanked", and I'm not saying you did... but don't get miffed because the TB owner didn't get back to you.  People can be busy, you know, just be happy that you were "part" of a visit to Antarctica.

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25 minutes ago, funkymunkyzone said:

 

I assume what you are saying is a note on the cache that included the TB being dropped into the cache, and then subsequently retrieving the TB?  If so, then yes of course the TB owner gets a notification.  They just don't get a notification if it was a "Visited" rather than a drop and retrieve.

 

However, as nice as it was of you to arrange this, I don't think you should be doing it just to get "thanked", and I'm not saying you did... but don't get miffed because the TB owner didn't get back to you.  People can be busy, you know, just be happy that you were "part" of a visit to Antarctica.

I know I would have thanked a person doing this for me, so I guess I expected the same polite consideration back. I have taken a number of TBs to their goals, and usually I have received messages from the owners. One I returned to the owner's house (they have a wonderful TB hotel on the front porch and that was the TB's final goal), and when I knocked on the door they gave the most enthusiastic reaction I have ever had. I was grabbed and hugged (it was an elderly lady, so not threatening :), just friendly), invited in for coffee, even told I should have been staying with them rather than in a motel, and then taken on a tour of the person's own caches. Very warm welcome. They were thrilled I had taken the TB to its goal. The TB had written letters home in some of its logs, and there were lots of photographs too of the TB completing each part of its goals, and other photographs. I do put some effect into some TBs journeys, if I think I can assist and the TB interests me. Another I picked up in the UK while I was holidaying there and brought home to Australia (the TBs goal). I had planned to just leave it in a cache near where I lived, as at least I had got it to the country that was requested, but then I read the goal more thoroughly and saw it wanted to be left in a suburb of Sydney, which is about 300 kms from where I live. My brother lives not far from that suburb, so I decided to visit my brother and fully complete the TBs journey.

As for the Antarctica goal, I can't check what sort of logs I made while the geocaching site is not allowing me to use it.

Edited by Goldenwattle
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On 12/31/2019 at 2:41 PM, niraD said:

I don't remember anyone saying that it was strictly based on such things. I recall only that such things were among the factors that they considered.

Some of the first country based souvenirs were chosen by user vote.  

Countries have generally been chosen  based on the number of hides in the country that criteria has hasn't been strictly been followed for a long time.  Personally, I like seeing "rare" souvenirs created, rather than a souvenir for which everyone is going to qualify.

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On 12/31/2019 at 3:50 PM, The A-Team said:

Which souvenir would you be more proud to tell people that you had earned? The United States one that 2.7 million cachers have, or the Antarctica one that only 339 have?

 

While rarity is certainly a factor, at the end of the day it's more about the story you have. Anyone can fake a find and "fake" a souvenir; but nobody can 'fake' the memories!

IMG_1170.png

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6 hours ago, tom1996 said:
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I have been requested to archive this cache. Sadly, it has to do with the increasing number of people showing up on the Antarctic continent and leaving a trail of trash and destruction behind them.

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people heading into natural areas who have no idea how to treat natural areas with respect. This is one example. :(

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6 hours ago, tom1996 said:

 

Off-topic, but it's a shame that the cache was picked as "contributing" to whatever "trash" issue the area already had, but there wasn't even a FTF at the time...

As the CO even stated, "The problem is not that the cache itself has been generating a trail of trash, but rather the problem is the general increase in trash created by people doing adventure tourism and extreme sports in general. "

 

 

Edited by cerberus1
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15 hours ago, The A-Team said:

 

There's one for Puerto Rico, though it's only a country in the context of this site, not in the broader non-Geocaching.com sense. Cuba is the only other one that has a souvenir so far.

 

Coincidentally, Cuba is the only Caribbean island I've ever visited.  Personally, I think it would make sense to add souvenirs for other Caribbean islands.   They're vacation destinations for many in the U.S., so even if there aren't a lot of geocaches on most of the islands, they're locations where geocachers on vacation might visit.   

 

The ISO-3166 standard actually *does* list Puerto Rico as a country (country code: PR).

 

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I don't disagree with many of the comments, however, it would be nice to have a souvenir from where you live.  I totally understand the concern of many for souvenirs for the Caribbean Islands.  If there are caches to find there, then there are cachers there as well.  I live on Guam and cache on Guam as do many tourists from Japan, Korea, and visitors from Europe, as well as many military personnel stationed here or here on temporary assignment.  It's nice to see a souvenir for your home.

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