Release Notes (Website: Benchmarking retirement) - October 17, 2022

[+Geocaching HQ]

These pre-release notes give advance notice of an upcoming change to Geocaching.com. On January 4, 2023, we will remove Benchmarking from the Geocaching.com website.

 

We understand this is disappointing to those who enjoy benchmarking. However, benchmarks are only available in the United States, and were added to the website when geocaches were less available. Today, they are not in line with the global game geocaching has become. In addition, because benchmarks are not owned by community members, “maintenance” is not possible like with geocaches. Many benchmark listings refer to marks that were removed or destroyed long ago, which makes for an uneven game experience. Therefore, we have decided to retire them from Geocaching.com.

 

These changes will remove the following pages:

• mark/default.aspx
• mark/details.aspx
• mark/gallery.aspx
• mark/limage.aspx
• mark/log.aspx
• mark/nearest.aspx
• mark/upload.aspx
• my/benchmarks.aspx
• my/logs.aspx?s=3&lt=2
• my/logs.aspx?s=3

 

These changes will include updates to the following pages:

• Old dashboard
• Cache details pages
• Public profile
• Help Center
• Public forums

 

The “NGS Benchmarks” entry and find count on public profiles will be retained to preserve statistics and player accomplishments.

 

 

Since logging benchmarks on Geocaching.com will no longer be possible, any challenge caches requiring finding and logging benchmarks will be archived on January 2, 2023. We will post this information on challenge caches we have identified which require finding and logging benchmarks.

 

Players who wish to continue finding and logging benchmarks are welcome to do so on Waymarking.com, which offers categories for U.S. benchmarks and Canadian benchmarks.

 

Sven (Bl4ckH4wkGER) is watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.
 
Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!
 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Geocaching HQ
The original post is edited to include the exact retirement date (January 4, 2023).

[+The Snowdog]

That is truly unfortunate. I have always enjoyed hunting for and photographing benchmarks. But I suppose that all good things must come to an end...

[+trekkerdmc]

I am very disappointed by this sudden and seemingly random decision with virtually no warning.

 

There are many of us that have worked hard on benchmarking and completing challenges.

 

Just because some areas don’t have benchmark and some do, what’s the difference?

 

It’s really no different than 5 star puzzles that 90% of the caching population can’t solve or a 5 star terrain that many many cachers can’t accomplish. Doesn’t that seem unfair or unbalanced also?

 

If you’re going to base decisions on whether things are totally fair you are going to wind up with only 1/1 caches everywhere.

 

I think your decision to do this seems pretty random and not well thought out.

 

Seems you should spend more time getting glitches out of the Geocaching app rather than things like this.

 

Let the market decide.

[+Chalupa_Dad]

5 minutes ago, trekkerdmc said:

Let the market decide.

If the market should decide whether Benchmarks should stay or go, then the market seems to be indicating it should go. It's by far the least utilized part of Geocaching. I found over 100 of them for a challenge and almost all of them hadn't been found in years, many hadn't been found for a decade or more. 

[+Forest-Ghost]

Seriously?! Benchmarks were one of the last things I found interesting in the area since there are rarely any new caches any more. I had ten different benchmark challenges I was working on. What good does it do to get rid of them? I have always found benchmarking interesting, you had to do a little research and sometimes they are hard to find and other times they are really old--this was all part of the fun. I was planning on many happy years of benchmarking but I guess that's gone now.

 

This news is extremely disappointing to me and I know many players who will find it disappointing as well. I find less and less desire to contribute to a game where the rules and setup of the game are constantly being shifted and changed. If the reasoning is because benchmarks aren't global, then that should have been thought through before they were added to the website in the first place. It's not fair to keep changing the game after the fact. 

 

Since most players don't even use the website to geocache, does it really make a difference to get rid of them? I have spent many hours benchmarking and I know some players who have spent HUNDREDS of hours benchmarking. It seems all the news we ever hear from HQ is stuff going away or being retired. I wish this was the opposite. But it seems that as geocaching "progresses" it only become less and less enjoyable.

[+thebruce0]

5 minutes ago, trekkerdmc said:

I am very disappointed by this sudden and seemingly random decision with virtually no warning.

Well, this is the warning.   The change will be coming sometime between Nov 1 and Dec 31, with January 2 being the challenge cache update.  It may not be as early a warning as you'd prefer, but it is a notice. Maybe they should have given a warning about the upcoming warning, so we'd all be prepared to be prepared 

 

 

But seriously... it may be a sad day, but remember, as mentioned, that is only a US-specific side-feature to the geocaching hobby which is a worldwide game. I don't see why it couldn't have been grandfathered in and deactivated, but it's kind of in that area right now as in the grand scheme (worldwide activity) there must be so little activity on that section, that cleaning it up and out is better than keeping it available and locked. 

 

And even other than Waymarking, there are other alternatives now that can be made available worldwide - make Adventures out of benchmarks you find. Or Virtuals. But as I like to say with Adventure Labs, they're not geocache( listing)s. So I'm not opposed to this move, fundamentally speaking.

[+elrojo14]

My main concern is what about the countless hours of research I’ve performed on benchmark logs? I can handle you are going to kick us off to stupid Waymarking, but to lose those old logs is a huge disservice to all of us who spent so many hours on those logs and enjoy going back to see them again. 
 

What is the cost of leaving benchmarking there? What about a benchmarking paysite? Some of us really, really enjoy it. 

[+trekkerdmc]

20 minutes ago, Chalupa_Dad said:

If the market should decide whether Benchmarks should stay or go, then the market seems to be indicating it should go. It's by far the least utilized part of Geocaching. I found over 100 of them for a challenge and almost all of them hadn't been found in years, many hadn't been found for a decade or more. 

How is this the Market deciding? It's something geocaching HQ came up with. Least utilized or not, I didn't see any forum call for opinions from the geocaching community about this. To me that is NOT letting the market decide, but a unilateral decision based on "fairness"? I suspect it's more of a cost cutting move than anything.

[+hustlermoe]

Pretty lame since there are a bunch of geocaching puzzles that pertain to benchmarks, they aren't used just found challenges.  I live in the US, but if I were a foreigner and visiting, it would be an added incentive to the game.  I find it interesting too how different states use benchmarks.  While in Seattle, it was awesome that a lot were monuments and building s I would have never discovered otherwise.  Also, when you clear out an area, benchmarking gives us setting else to look for.  

[+Run&Hike]

This is disappointing! By choice, we have researched and found over 400 Benchmarks, some from the 1700's, many of them with unique names. We prefer the old-fashioned detective work necessary to find a Benchmark to using a cellphone to do an Adventure Lab. Yes, that is merely a choice, but it's our choice. We're sad to see Benchmarks go!

[+sillywillie]

Very disappointed with this decision.  I have found over 1400.  If it ain't broke, don't "fix it"

[+Stachey Pete]

Benchmarking has been a regular part of all of our caching trips for years. I don't mind that the logging process was never upgraded because it was worth it to me. We have enjoyed finding so many types and so many old ones. Now we get a warning that it is all going away in two months or less. That is a very short time for many who are working on challenges involving benchmarks. For me it is a very short time to achieve personal milestone goals. Poorly conceived and poorly communicated decision in my opinion.

[+Chalupa_Dad]

Just to illustrate how little the feature is used . If you look at the home page for benchmarking, in the last 7 days, only 211 benchmarks have been logged by 75 users (as of when I posted this). It's a very tiny niche feature that makes sense is being retired, even though I will miss it (I've personally found over 100).

[+bluesnote]

I agree with everyone else, this decision seems it wasn't well thought out. Removing them entirely is just bad taste in my opinion. I enjoy finding and logging them, and many others that I have talked to do too. This decision is such a disappointment. At least give us a year's notice to give the community time to find the last benchmarks they want to hunt. This will effect some Waymarking categories since we depend on the weblinks provided by geocaching. So this poor decision doesn't just effect geocaching. I really hope HQ reconsiders this mistake. 

 

Here's an idea: send out a community poll before removing benchmarks. I'm convinced the vast majority of us still prefer them to be apart of the geocaching website. I'm sure HQ underestimates how many geocachers enjoy benchmarks. The benchmark website has not been updated for as long as I can remember. Maybe revamp it? Add a map feature like with the geocaching map or intergrade it with the app. But please do not remove benchmarks entirely. That to me seems like a terrible idea.

[+gumshoeDOTus]

4 hours ago, Geocaching HQ said:

However, benchmarks are only available in the United States

 

 

I wonder if they will get rid of the cache types

Geocaching HQ Geocache, Geocaching HQ Celebration, & Geocaching HQ Block Party

 since the rest of the world can not experience it. The interesting thing is, the rest of the world can experience it when they visit the US... just like the benchmarks.

[+The Snowdog]

3 hours ago, elrojo14 said:

My main concern is what about the countless hours of research I’ve performed on benchmark logs? I can handle you are going to kick us off to stupid Waymarking, but to lose those old logs is a huge disservice to all of us who spent so many hours on those logs and enjoy going back to see them again. 

 

If the logs are deleted as well, that would be a great loss. I imagine there are countless benchmarks out there for which the only photos in existence are on our logs. That is a national treasure, right there.

 

And don't say "Well just use Waymarking." I set perhaps one in twenty benchmarks as waymarks; they have to be both interesting and reasonably accessible to the public. A never-photographed disc that requires a two mile hike along a railroad line really can't be waymarked, but at least the photos are (or, soon, were) there on the site.

Edited October 18, 2022 by The Snowdog

[Nylimb]

4 hours ago, elrojo14 said:

My main concern is what about the countless hours of research I’ve performed on benchmark logs? I can handle you are going to kick us off to stupid Waymarking, but to lose those old logs is a huge disservice to all of us who spent so many hours on those logs and enjoy going back to see them again.

I agree with that completely.  Losing the ability to log benchmarks makes me sad, but having all of my logs disappear makes me angry!

 

Geocaching HQ, please reconsider this decision.  Or at least guarantee that the change won't happen so soon.  If our logs are going to disappear from the site, then I want to save mine offline.  That's a time-consuming process, and the 2 weeks between now and November 1 may not be enough.

[+dprovan]

4 hours ago, trekkerdmc said:

I am very disappointed by this sudden and seemingly random decision with virtually no warning.

I'm also disappointed and consider it random and without any real justification. But I'd feel the same no matter how much warning they gave.

 

4 hours ago, trekkerdmc said:

There are many of us that have worked hard on benchmarking and completing challenges.

I've never encountered a challenge based on benchmarking and would consider such a thing kinda lame. Encouraging people to find benchmarks for any reason other than enjoying finding benchmarks doesn't strike me as a good idea, mainly because benchmarks are often in areas that are, for various good reasons, off limits to geocaching. And I also don't have much patience for "amateurs" filing inaccurate logs. So I wouldn't have a problem with them archiving challenges based on benchmarking even if they weren't getting rid of benchmarks themselves.

 

2 hours ago, Chalupa_Dad said:

Just to illustrate how little the feature is used...

I'd be more interested in how much benchmarking was used if I had a feel that they were saving effort by eliminating them. As far as I can see, they could continue to ignore them just like they've been ignoring them for 20 years without any effort. but they'll have to do a lot of work to wipe them out. But I guess they don't see it that way.

[+sammydee]

I guess we have a month to scrape database off the website and host it somewhere else then. Since Groundspeak doesn't care about it and it's public data anyway I'm sure they will have no objection.

[+david&diana]

GC1C9MV Surveyor's Delight: Benchmarks Challenge (100) is an example of a challenge cache that uses benchmarks.

[+essap2]

5 hours ago, Forest-Ghost said:

Seriously?! Benchmarks were one of the last things I found interesting in the area since there are rarely any new caches any more. I had ten different benchmark challenges I was working on. What good does it do to get rid of them? I have always found benchmarking interesting, you had to do a little research and sometimes they are hard to find and other times they are really old--this was all part of the fun. I was planning on many happy years of benchmarking but I guess that's gone now.

 

This news is extremely disappointing to me and I know many players who will find it disappointing as well. I find less and less desire to contribute to a game where the rules and setup of the game are constantly being shifted and changed. If the reasoning is because benchmarks aren't global, then that should have been thought through before they were added to the website in the first place. It's not fair to keep changing the game after the fact. 

 

Since most players don't even use the website to geocache, does it really make a difference to get rid of them? I have spent many hours benchmarking and I know some players who have spent HUNDREDS of hours benchmarking. It seems all the news we ever hear from HQ is stuff going away or being retired. I wish this was the opposite. But it seems that as geocaching "progresses" it only become less and less enjoyable.

Existing software still requires maintenance over time. I'm sure that this was a calculated move from a numbers and funding perspective. Anecdotally I only know a single cacher who will actively search for them and only a handful that will log them even if there is a geocache placed on top of one. 

[+DragonsWest]

Things which have contributed to the richness of the Geocaching experience continue to be stripped away, like layers of an onion.

 

When I get bored of seeking out pill bottles and film cans I turn to the challenge of benchmarks, many of which have been out there over a century and present considerable challenge to locate as the surface of the land has changed character greatly in some areas, less so in others and presents a very entertaining search and has provided some very memorable hunts and hikes over the years.

 

I'll miss benchmarking more than I'll miss geocaching.

[+cachestacker]

Ironic that you include Wherigos on there.  Talk about something you all have let stagnate forever that had so much potential that just became quizzes and reverse solvable before you go junk.

 

Benchmarks are a part of history.  No move of a level playing field, actually.  It's there or it's not.  Just like a cache.  OMG what a concept.  And even when it's not people still log it as a cache.  

 

Cool - so other parts of the world don't have benchmarks.  SO?  Kinda like a HQ or Maze or Giga icon.  Sure, maybe they get around, but to the masses?  Rationale for this is weak.

 

 

Nobody:  

 

Nobody:   

 

Cachers:

 

Benchmarkers:

 

Newbies:

 

Literally nobody ever in any way shape or form:

 

Groundspeak:  Yeah, let's go ahead and stop doing something that takes us literally no effort and that, while only a small group of people love it they really do love it, and just up and cancel it for no reason whatsoever with nominal notice and call it 'progress'.

[+02Bhkn]

One of my favorite challenge caches required finding benchmarks. In meeting the challenge, I found out how much fun the benchmarks were - no moldy logs, no cracking plastic, and in some cool places. I hope GCHQ will reconsider both the benchmark removal and the challenge cache archival.
 

I'm also wondering how we will find the benchmarks associated with numerous puzzle caches if the "find closest benchmark" feature is gone.

[+Jffok]

Will our previous found challenge caches that involved bench marks be deleted from our found caches?  That would not be fair at all.  

[BlueRajah]

3 minutes ago, Jffok said:

Will our previous found challenge caches that involved bench marks be deleted from our found caches?  That would not be fair at all.  

 

No, the caches will just be archived.  So your finds will still be there. 

[BlueRajah]

I have found a number of benchmarks, and recovered some buried and hidden.  They were treasure hunts.  However, as a player I know that it does not warrant work when no one is using it, there is no owner to check logs, and it is decades out of date.   I do not know this for sure, as I have heard no discussions, but eventually you have to put work into it or it breaks as you update the rest of the site.  Your coding is decades out of date and will require a major overhaul.  And it is for the 75 people that used it in a summer month to log 200 of them.   One of those people was myself, finding a half dozen.  Sad to see, but I could see it coming  years ago, just sad we finally got there.

[+Web-ling]

Very disappointed with the decision. I've been enjoying the benchmark aspect of the game from the beginning. 

[+niraD]

32 minutes ago, BlueRajah said:

I do not know this for sure, as I have heard no discussions, but eventually you have to put work into it or it breaks as you update the rest of the site.  Your coding is decades out of date and will require a major overhaul.  And it is for the 75 people that used it in a summer month to log 200 of them.

That was my thought when I read the announcement. Groundspeak has been working to refactor the ancient code from the early days of the site. Once that ancient legacy code is gone, it will be easier for them to move forward with future improvements to the site. And the benchmark code has to be some of the oldest code, and it has some of the least return on the effort to refactor it.

[+Goldenwattle]

 

5 hours ago, gumshoeDOTus said:

I wonder if they will get rid of the cache types

Geocaching HQ Geocache, Geocaching HQ Celebration, & Geocaching HQ Block Party

 since the rest of the world can not experience it. The interesting thing is, the rest of the world can experience it when they visit the US... just like the benchmarks.

I have logged HQ Geocache and I'm not American. Lots of non-Americans have logged it. The others I just think of them as meet and greets, and I bet lots of non-Americans have logged them too. Many people do travel.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Goldenwattle

[+Goldenwattle]

What is a benchmark? Is it just a trig, or any survey mark?

 

I log trigs in Australia and NZ on another site. Only trigs; survey marks are not counted for this. I have logged 857 trigs.

 

4 hours ago, The Snowdog said:

I imagine there are countless benchmarks out there for which the only photos in existence are on our logs. That is a national treasure, right there.

If a benchmark is a trig, here in the ACT (the Territory surrounding and including Canberra) trigs are considered heritage. I was told that the local authorities find the logged trigs a useful site because they check the photographs to see what condition the trigs are in, and if they see one needing maintenance, they send out a crew to fix the problem.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Goldenwattle

[+bluesnote]

2 hours ago, BlueRajah said:

Your coding is decades out of date and will require a major overhaul.  And it is for the 75 people that used it in a summer month to log 200 of them.  

 

The very same thing can be said for the Waymarking site, which hasn't had a major overhaul in years. And many bugs have appeared and were left unfixed for months, sometimes years. There's probably less than 75 active users per month and I'm one of them. I understand the benchmark feature is widely underused. But that should not be a reason to discontinue and remove them entirely from the site. Maybe create or move the database to a separate website, as what occurred with locationless caches to Waymarking in 2005/06. 

 

For the same reasons, people years later wanted to log/find locationless caches. Groundspeak listened. Two new ones were added, with a third several months ago. I am positive benchmarks will follow the same route. 

 

All we (the community) are asking is not to remove them entirely. At least keep the database accessible to view with the option to log them if others plan to in the future. Like others have mentioned, for the majority of benchmarks, the geocaching site is the only place to view photos of them. We shouldn't destroy and loose historical documentation because of this. I really hate to beg here, but please save this important data.

Edited October 18, 2022 by bluesnote

[+Hynz]

When visiting the US I enjoyed looking for some benchmarks and if they would be a thing in my home country I probably would be an active benchmarker.

I have no idea about the necessary efford for GS to keep the database active but I somehow understand that benchmarking on the webpage is retired.

But I'm strongly opposing that previous logs and pictures were about to become inaccessible 

[+lullabye4u]

Benchmarks are so historical and so precious. Once lost they are gone forever. Finding them didn't increase your total finds so I don't really understand how it was an unfair advantage with them being US only. I will use Geocaching even less without the ability to keep track of my finds and look for spoiler pics off other's logs. Very disappointed. 

[+TyroneShoelaces]

11 hours ago, dprovan said:

I've never encountered a challenge based on benchmarking and would consider such a thing kinda lame. Encouraging people to find benchmarks for any reason other than enjoying finding benchmarks doesn't strike me as a good idea, mainly because benchmarks are often in areas that are, for various good reasons, off limits to geocaching. And I also don't have much patience for "amateurs" filing inaccurate logs. So I wouldn't have a problem with them archiving challenges based on benchmarking even if they weren't getting rid of benchmarks themselves.

 

Don't be so quick to judge a benchmarking challenge cache as lame if you've never actually encountered one yourself.

 

The challenge cache that got me interested in benchmark was quite interesting, as it required finding 15 different TYPES of benchmarks.  At the time, I didn't realize benchmarks were anything else than the bronze disk you come across from time to time.  Turns out benchmarks can be signal lights along waterways, marks chiseled into stone, embedded metal rods, church spires, water towers, just to name a few.  It was fun finding these, especially when I had cleared out my area of geocaches.

 

[+elrojo14]

8 minutes ago, TyroneShoelaces said:

 

Don't be so quick to judge a benchmarking challenge cache as lame if you've never actually encountered one yourself.

 

The challenge cache that got me interested in benchmark was quite interesting, as it required finding 15 different TYPES of benchmarks.  At the time, I didn't realize benchmarks were anything else than the bronze disk you come across from time to time.  Turns out benchmarks can be signal lights along waterways, marks chiseled into stone, embedded metal rods, church spires, water towers, just to name a few.  It was fun finding these, especially when I had cleared out my area of geocaches.

 

The benchmark challenges were fun and I did not just log them to log them. It took some serious work because I take benchmarking seriously. I enjoy logging destroyed more than found it quite often. Here are the best benchmark challenges. 

1. 250 BMs
2. 500 BMs
3. 50 BMs in a Day
4. 15 Landmark BMs
5. Five 25 BM Days
6. 100 Years of BMs
7. Alphabet BMs
8. Altitude BMs

[+stevendede]

This is a terrible punch in the gut. I discovered so much joy in Benchmarking during the pandemic. It felt safe, and interesting, and challenging.

 

I have logged over 700 benchmarks since the pandemic started, and I've grown to really love researching the marks, learning more about the history of surveying, and visiting old courthouses,  post offices, etc on Geocaching trips. Groundspeak has a huge and valuable database of benchmark logs, especially photos and GPS coordinates. I frequently see surveyors have log benchmarks here, occasionally thanking previous finders for their documentation.

 

This semi-neglected part of Geocaching has brought so many people legitimate JOY over the years DESPITE the fact that the logs don't count toward any statistics. I personally have brought JOY to several non-US cachers by helping them log their first benchmark to earn that icon. You know, like the Groundspeak HQ icon that is only available in the US.  Like the APE caches only available in 2 countries. People make life-goals out of hard-to-earn accomplishments. Some things are fun, interesting, and compelling because they are difficult.

 

I can't believe that Groundspeak is choosing to remove this joy from my life. Finding joy in this world right now is really hard.

 

Please, at the very least, I beg you: don't remove our logs and our photos.  I've worked so many hours researching, finding, documenting these marks in the last 2 years, and reading and enjoying other loggers' posts.  Or, make benchmarking pay-to-play.  I'd gladly add a premimum benchmarker's rate to my membership if it had to be.

[+hrothroc]

14 hours ago, gumshoeDOTus said:

 

 

I wonder if they will get rid of the cache types

Geocaching HQ Geocache, Geocaching HQ Celebration, & Geocaching HQ Block Party

 since the rest of the world can not experience it. The interesting thing is, the rest of the world can experience it when they visit the US... just like the benchmarks.

You have hit the nail on the head. There are lots of niches in geocaching. That’s what makes it challenging and rewarding. I will have much better luck finding a benchmark than a lot of other special types. This is not motivated by fairness and that is obvious. 

Edited October 18, 2022 by hrothroc

[+stevendede]

5 minutes ago, hrothroc said:

You have hit the mail on the head. There are lots of niches in geocaching. That’s what makes it challenging and rewarding. I will have much better luck finding a benchmark than a lot of other special types. This is not motivated by fairness and that is obvious. 

Groundspeak does seem to be dumbing everything down. Earn a souvenir without even trying. No Challenge caches unless lots of cachers already qualify. Log 5 Adventure Lab locations without getting out of your car. That's all great for beginners, I suppose, but people create life-goals around difficult challenges that are legitimate accomplishments, not orange slices and participation trophies. Hard accomplishments, life-goals, those are the things that keep making the game compelling.

[+hrothroc]

5 minutes ago, steve.n.erin said:

That's all great for beginners, I suppose,

Honestly, I would not have continued with geocaching if my first experiences had so little challenge. Even lifting your first lamp skirt was more exciting than multiple choice lab questions you can do from your car. The game should be accessible for all players but still leave challenges for players that want more. Benchmarks were one way to add more interest and exploration to the game. 

[+chaosmanor]

18 hours ago, Chalupa_Dad said:

If the market should decide whether Benchmarks should stay or go, then the market seems to be indicating it should go. It's by far the least utilized part of Geocaching. I found over 100 of them for a challenge and almost all of them hadn't been found in years, many hadn't been found for a decade or more. 

The very nature of the things is that they often go for years, even decades, without being found. They are reference points used for various civil purposes; if no one needs one for any such purpose, then it is not surprising that no has found it. And the fact is, the data on GC is very out of date, as far as Recoveries are concerned. This does not invalidate them; it merely recognizes that the Recovery process on the NGS site is different than the Find process on GC.

[+chaosmanor]

13 hours ago, sammydee said:

I guess we have a month to scrape database off the website and host it somewhere else then. Since Groundspeak doesn't care about it and it's public data anyway I'm sure they will have no objection.

We don't need to scrape it off GC; if someone wants to host a website for benchmarking, contacting the NGS for the current file is the way to go. That's how the current info on GC got on it in the first place. 

[+chaosmanor]

1 hour ago, elrojo14 said:

The benchmark challenges were fun and I did not just log them to log them. It took some serious work because I take benchmarking seriously. I enjoy logging destroyed more than found it quite often. Here are the best benchmark challenges. 

1. 250 BMs
2. 500 BMs
3. 50 BMs in a Day
4. 15 Landmark BMs
5. Five 25 BM Days
6. 100 Years of BMs
7. Alphabet BMs
8. Altitude BMs

Thank you very much for this list, Wes; much appreciated!

[+chaosmanor]

My biggest complaint about this has to do with the plain, true fact that Geocachers have become a very valuable partner of the NGS, as thousands of solid Recoveries have been filed. I've done over 100 of them, and I know one person who has done nearly 500. By eliminating the file, even as old as it is, the NGS will lose an active documentary asset. I would respectfully request that GC-HQ rethink this decision; keeping Benchmarking on the site would be a "good citizen" thing.

[+chaosmanor]

1 hour ago, steve.n.erin said:

"I'd gladly add a premium benchmarker's rate to my membership if it had to be."

Make that two of us!!

[Moun10Bike]

For those of us who enjoy benchmarks, you can still register recoveries directly with the NGS here: https://geodesy.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/mark_recovery_form.prl

[+Forest-Ghost]

The irony is that because the benchmarking website was never updated, and because they don't count towards geocache finds players don't use them as much. If they did count towards finds and there were an update, then TONS of players would benchmark. The same is true for Wherigo and Waymarking.

 

Perhaps rather than killing off products whenever they become inconvenient, there could be great worth in incorporating these valuable treasures more into geocaching. One gets the feeling that the leadership at HQ has no respect or value for the very people who created the game.

[+Bl4ckH4wkGER]

Thank you all for sharing your passionate and candid feedback with us. Please continue to share your feedback with us in the comments. Let me address some of the points that were made so far:

 

22 hours ago, trekkerdmc said:

I am very disappointed by this sudden and seemingly random decision with virtually no warning. 

I can understand that it comes as a surprise because historically Geocaching HQ hasn't completely retired many site features or pieces of game content. Hence, when we do, it appears more significant than it might be for other organizations which do so much more regularly.

 

I can however assure you that this decisions was far from random:

 

Benchmarking was identified as a dependency for another project that is currently in-progress and nearing completion. We aren't quite ready to share more details about it, yet, which is why it wasn't mentioned in the pre-release notes.

 

At the time, a decision had to be made to shift course and accommodate this new dependency or to not do so and retire benchmarks. The cost to accommodate benchmarking far exceeded the cost of retiring it and so after reviewing usage data and ongoing maintenance costs, the respective decision was made. Please see further context below.

 

22 hours ago, trekkerdmc said:

Let the market decide.

Before making this decision, we carefully reviewed information regarding benchmark finds and the number of distinct players who found benchmarks in the past years.

 

Both have been on a steady decline since 2010 and even more significantly since 2015.

 

Most recently in the last 365 days, only ca. 2500 distinct players have logged a benchmark. This represents ca. 0.13% of players who have logged a find during that same period.

 

21 hours ago, hustlermoe said:

Pretty lame since there are a bunch of geocaching puzzles that pertain to benchmarks, they aren't used just found challenges.

Puzzles will remain solvable if the puzzle requires finding information on the actual benchmark plaque or the associated information. Those are still available by visiting the location or via research on the NGS website.

 

Puzzles relying on finding information in benchmark logs on geocaching.com will indeed become unsolvable and should be archived. I can assure you though that this affects a very small number of caches.

 

16 hours ago, cachestacker said:

Groundspeak:  Yeah, let's go ahead and stop doing something that takes us literally no effort and that, while only a small group of people love it they really do love it, and just up and cancel it for no reason whatsoever with nominal notice and call it 'progress'.

 

20 hours ago, sillywillie said:

If it ain't broke, don't "fix it"

The fact that you never noticed how broken it actually was if anything is a testament to the hard work of HQ's engineers who frankly don't receive a lot of love here.

 

As correctly noted by @essap2, maintaining these old pages requires significant resources. These resources can then not be spend on other improvements, including new exciting features and long standing community requests.

 

To the point made by @niraD, Geocaching HQ is making an ongoing effort to "get the house in order". This requires updating several old code bases. While I understand that this is hard to hear, not all of them are salvageable or worth the considerable work to migrate them to a new environment.

 

14 hours ago, Web-ling said:

I've been enjoying the benchmark aspect of the game from the beginning. 

I understand the disappointment that comes with a beloved part of the game going away.

 

While I understand that it isn't completely the same, I encourage you and everybody else to check out the Waymarking.com benchmark categories for U.S. benchmarks and Canadian benchmarks.

 

Alternatively, you can obtain the data from the NGS directly. There are also different apps out there dedicated to benchmarking for both Android & iOS.

 

17 hours ago, sammydee said:

I guess we have a month to scrape database off the website and host it somewhere else then. Since Groundspeak doesn't care about it and it's public data anyway I'm sure they will have no objection.

Scraping the website constitutes a violation of the terms of use and you risk a suspension of your account if you opt to proceed this way.

 

If you want to make this information available to others, please go the route proposed by @chaosmanor and contact the NGS directly. They'll also be able to provide you with a much more up-to-date file. The geocaching benchmarks database hasn't been updated for quite some time.

 

12 hours ago, bluesnote said:

All we (the community) are asking is not to remove them entirely. At least keep the database accessible to view with the option to log them if others plan to in the future. Like others have mentioned, for the majority of benchmarks, the geocaching site is the only place to view photos of them. We shouldn't destroy and loose historical documentation because of this. I really hate to beg here, but please save this important data.

I understand that it is disappointing. Unfortunately, this is an all-or-nothing situation and nothing isn't an option in this case.

 

You and all others who feels strongly about their benchmark logs and photos have some time to save them for yourself. Starting with the List of your benchmark logs on https://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=3 is a good starting point.

 

2 hours ago, Forest-Ghost said:

The irony is that because the benchmarking website was never updated, and because they don't count towards geocache finds players don't use them as much. If they did count towards finds and there were an update, then TONS of players would benchmark. The same is true for Wherigo and Waymarking.

I understand the frustration and agree that there are lots of opportunities in the geocaching world and how other platforms could be integrated in it.

 

Unfortunately, with a finite amount of resources we have to be selective in which ones we pursue. At this point benchmarking isn't one of them due to its locally restricted nature when the game as a whole becomes more and more global.

[+AltyZuma]

I hope this new dependency is something as interesting and has historical value represented by benchmarks. I'm pretty sure I'm one the 2500.

[Vixen42]

Oh this is so sad - I am always so delighted to find a cache AND a benchmark in the same place. I don't hunt benchmarks just by themselves, but they are such a wonderful adjunct to my caching activities. It just seems this discontinuation is all part of the "caching only from the car" type of mentality that, IMO, spoils the game. Again, so sad!