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Wheel of Challenges


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45 minutes ago, lee737 said:

We were going to just streak this one and finish this weekend. But the addition of the solstice souvenir made us stop and rethink, and preserve a few finds for this week. We're up to 15, will nail 16/17 this weekend, then 18-20 next weekend on an out-of-town trip. This was we'll save some of the local stuff for whatever next month throws at us.... :)

 

You're doing a lot better than me :). So far I have 3 caching days for the Wheel and 0 finds for the solstice, but I'm hoping to at least trouble the scorer over the next few days, with an event in Newcastle tomorrow, a series of 5 new caches near home that appeared a couple of days ago that I hope to get to on Monday, and a train trip to Sydney while my car's being serviced on Tuesday.

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On 5/30/2023 at 11:26 AM, Max and 99 said:

From today's blog post:

 

Out and About (June Wheel of Challenges)

 

Out and About! This challenge is all about seeing how many days you can get outside and find a geocache. From June 5–July 2, you have the chance to earn three new souvenirs for easy, medium, or hard levels of the challenge.

Earn the easy souvenir for this month by logging a find on five different days. Earn the medium souvenir for this month by logging a find on ten different days. Earn the hard souvenir for this month by logging a find on 20 different days.

Challenge yourself to get outside, explore the outdoors, and earn some new souvenirs!

Tune in again on June 27 to find out what the fourth challenge will be. Share your Wheel of Challenges geocaching outings on social media using #WheelOfChallenges!

Read our Wheel of Challenges announcement blog post for FAQs and more information about the souvenir challenge.

 

 


This makes me want to re-log finds with new dates :-(
Especially the finds I logged all on one date but had placed as a volunteer and so the log date needed to be any date after publication. 
Sigh. 
Probably won't bother...

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From the blog post:

Wheel of Challenges #4: Streak Star

 

 

Streak Star! From July 3–August 6, see how long you can keep a find streak going and earn up to three new souvenirs for easy, medium, or hard levels of the challenge.

Earn the easy souvenir for this month by completing a two day find streak at any time from July 3–August 6. Earn the medium souvenir for this month by completing a seven day find streak at any time from July 3–August 6. Earn the hard souvenir for this month by completing a 28 day find streak within the timeframe of July 3–August 6.

This souvenir is not connected to the leaderboard. Premium members can keep track of streaks statistics in the Geocaching® mobile app and also see detailed statistics including streaks on the website.

Tune in again on August 1 to find out what the fifth challenge will be and don’t forget to share your #WheelofChallenges geocaching outings on social media!

Edited by Max and 99
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20 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Streak Star! From July 3–August 6, see how long you can keep a find streak going and earn up to three new souvenirs for easy, medium, or hard levels of the challenge.

 

Been there, done that for 404 days from the end of 2017, all of 2018, and into 2019, and we have no interest in trying to go for 28 days now.  It may be a good incentive for newbies, or those who have never done a "streak" to give it a try.  For us, not even going to try.  If we get any of the 3 it will be because it's what we normally would have done.

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9 minutes ago, Heidiekkroamer said:

This month, I participated in it because there were many new caches nearby. Why nearly the same challenge again? It's not enjoyable this way.

Driving by car every day to find a cache is also not environmentally friendly, which goes against what our hobby should actually be. Shame on you, Groundspeak.

I very much agree, even June's had me travelling by car for the majority of the caches. Not going to try for the hard level, but the medium level MAY be doable

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15 minutes ago, CAVinoGal said:

 

Been there, done that for 404 days from the end of 2017, all of 2018, and into 2019, and we have no interest in trying to go for 28 days now.  It may be a good incentive for newbies, or those who have never done a "streak" to give it a try.  For us, not even going to try.  If we get any of the 3 it will be because it's what we normally would have done.

110% agree. Really dislike streaks.

 

The best day of my 423 day streak was day 424 when I consciously said no more. Could I have gone out yes but it had become WORK. Lost the fun aspect.

 

Having cached out my immediate area nearest unfound traditional is 7 miles away which in reality is minimum half an hour each way. Definitely can't keep that up for 28 days. My preference is when I choose to cache to get a few in an area and head home. Had the same issue with this past challenge.

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You don't HAVE to earn the souvenirs. You don't HAVE to "drive by car every day to find a cache" if you care about the environment. HQ is not requiring people to be environmentally unfriendly. That is a call each person would choose to make on their own. Is the environment more important than the souvenir if earning it for you means violating your conscience? Then don't earn the souvenir. I'm sure HQ would agree.  For many, it can be attainable without "driving by car every day to find a cache".

 

That said, we did just do a streak(ish) challenge (but it's not a streak - just a day count within the period). I'm not surprised there's a lot of irking going on right now for a(nother, effectively) streak challenge. Probably could have at least held it off for another month or more :P

 

I'll probably try. If I miss a day and it breaks, oh well. No digital souvenir graphic for me. 

Edited by thebruce0
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3 hours ago, MNTA said:

110% agree. Really dislike streaks.

 

The best day of my 423 day streak [...]

:huh:

 

Anyway ... I will simply give the next month's souvenirs a pass. I'll get the "easy" one (on a weekend), but more is out of the way. The "20 caching days within 4 weeks" this month already felt like streaking, and I will just make it because of some lucky circumstances. But 7 days in a row, and let alone 28, is out of the question.

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1 hour ago, klossner said:

You can yammer that "you can just ignore the souvenir", but that misses the point that these souvenirs are meant to encourage caching.

 

I agree. And that's one reason streaks are limited to one year. I think TPTB are making an educated judgment based on their internal worldwide stats that a promoted souvenir streak up to a month is still encouraging more caching in the grand scheme than dissuading caching by those of us who may have 'cached out' our area. 

It's hard to look at something like this and not rely on our own anecdotal circumstance to judge the situation worldwide.  So it comes down again to our personal desire to earn the digital souvenir graphic for our profile, and whether it's worth the effort.  Because I'm willing to bet HQ believes that a vast majority do feel it's worth the effort (that is, that it actually encourages more caching by people who may get out finding them much less than one per day).

I consider it a greater challenge for myself than a relatively newbie. And other friends a bigger challenge who already get out daily and typically drive an hour or more for a caching trip. The souvenir will pose many difficulties across the smorgasboard of geocachers' and habits worldwide.

But again.

It's a digital graphic.

We imbue it a value of our own volition.

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When I saw the star on the wheel I thought it might have something to do with D/T stars, and thought 'cool'.... streaks..... I don't mind little streaks - they are fun, but we just did a month of streaking really, combined with an overlapped 21 finds in a week. We pretty much exhausted our areas resources! 

Saying that, we are on holidays for16 days in this period, but I suspect some areas will be cacheless. We'll see....

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5 hours ago, MNTA said:

Having cached out my immediate area nearest unfound traditional is 7 miles away which in reality is minimum half an hour each way. Definitely can't keep that up for 28 days. My preference is when I choose to cache to get a few in an area and head home. Had the same issue with this past challenge.

 

There are five new traditionals published last week near home that are a 13km drive each way, but as they're close to a new mystery cache I'm about to place, I was intending to do them today or tomorrow. My next nearest unfound traditional is about a 50km drive each way, down in northern Sydney.

 

Streak Week in 2019 was tough for me, in part due to the weather that week, although I still had a few unfound caches in my region and a couple of Sidetracked ones in northern Sydney I could get to by train, but I enjoyed the challenge and was glad I persevered. It's not about the souvenir, it's about participating, but that's difficult when almost all the promotions these days are about finding lots of caches over an extended period of time. The only one I managed to just scrape over the line on was the Favourites in May but that was mostly from FPs my caches received rather than any effort on my part. For the rest I've just been a spectator, watching how my friends in more cache-dense areas are going and cheering them on. I would imagine the same is true for anyone living in a region where there isn't an almost unlimited supply of unfound caches (or events) close by.

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Heat index is triple digits, with afternoon thunderstorms, almost every day. I haven't found any geocaches since the end of my vacation 43 days ago. I expect to keep that streak going until September unless some unseasonable weather arrives in Florida.

 

Edited by JL_HSTRE
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I've managed to avoid these so far, except for the FP challenge which I got through FP's.

 

I will easily manage to avoid this one, given that there are no unfound caches which I'm physically capable of doing within a one hour drive from home.

 

I'm not into participation trophies and these souvenirs have actually reduced (to nothing) the caching I've done since they started.  My last caching trip was back in March, and that was on holiday.

Edited by Gill & Tony
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9 minutes ago, Gill & Tony said:

I've managed to avoid these so far

 

I'm not going to "avoid" the new wheel challenge, but I will treat it as all the others - if it fits within my normal caching activity, all is good and the souvenirs will show up.  If I don't "get 'em all", oh, well!  Granted, we have made a small effort to reach 20 days of caching in the 28 days of this month's challenge, but the others we got (or not) with our normal caching activity.

 

I thought we had no chance for the Solstice souvenir, as it was running in conjunction with the 20 days, and we have so few locally we'd have to make a special trip to a new area to get 21 caches in a week and that wasn't in the plans....well, plans changed at the last minute and we ended up driving a carload of geocachers to Cachin' the Bay 2023, a Mega event an hour or so away from us on June 24, and grabbing 30 or so caches on the last day of the Solstice promo, so we overachieved on that one, unexpectedly.  Without the Mega, we wouldn't have got that one!

 

We (hubby, geopartner) look at what the challenge entails, and decide if we want to do it or not, and we've already decided we do not want to go for another "streak" - if it happens, we'll get a souvenir, maybe 2.

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10 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Wheel of Challenges #4: Streak Star

 

Hmm. I don't think this needs a PGC Challenge Checker -- mainly since the Statistics page and the mobile app display current streak progress. But if anyone would like one made, do let me know...

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1 hour ago, lee737 said:

It seems luck is with us.... our 16 days holiday should provide ample opportunities for finds, we just need to streak the 4 days either side.... I think that is manageable..... :D

 

I have a 25 night road trip for a wedding, that helps someone with one cache within 30km of home.

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"wasteful inefficiency"

Well, again, this only applies to people for whom it would be excessive use of resources to participate. For many it may be a matter of a healthy daily walk to the nearest cache, or a daily bike ride. So why must it be "wasteful inefficiency"? It's a very biased perspective.

 

 

9 hours ago, geodanimal said:

And since these forums are the place to share such feedback, I'm coming out of the woodwork to share it.

 

Absolutely :) Gripe away!

 

 

9 hours ago, geodanimal said:

YES, yes, I know -- people are free to ignore all this and cache in whatever way is comfortable for them -- but the point is THIS is what Groundspeak is incentivizing, and it's messed up.

 

It's a completely understandable perspective. Just remember it's a perspective. The other direction is seeing it as a challenge, a goal-oriented "can I do it?" activity.  It only becomes a "chore" when the value of having no longer outweighs the effort required to attain. It's no longer something you want to do.

So don't do it.

Culture today is so taken with trophies and rewards that many feel (effectively) that it should be a kind of right to be able to have what is offered; that the work required should not outweigh the value of having. "Everyone gets a prize!" is a cliche meme (from participation ribbons to Oprah's famous moment) but depicts the mentality well from the absurd extreme.

 

Yes, when it comes down to it, you don't have to do anything.

Remove the value of having the souvenir(s) and you're no longer in this limbo space of fighting your conscience to defend what you no longer want to do to have something that ultimately has zero value to you. On the other side of the fence, you have people who see it as a chance to have fun, be healthy and active, aim for and achieve a goal, etc.  So, who's right?  *shrug*

 

I'd be more upset about easy pointless souvenirs like finding 1 cache. That's the type that reduces the inherent value offered for the souvenir rewards because there's literally zero effort in doing what is already being done. (tho arguably, it could take effort if someone's closest 1 cache is 100 km away) So it still becomes a subjective position based on your own personal anecdotal experience and ability.

 

Instead of seeing it through tunnel vision eyes (legitimate as the concern may be), see that it can also be a positive for so many others.

 

 

All that said... I'm also kind of bugged that the souvenirs so clumped together this month all seem to be far too similar and kind of clashing, and I'm not surprised there's so much angst about them :P

And I am all for finding ways to encourage experiencing the adventure - not reducing geocaching to a numbers game and missing out on amazing experiences (and potentially stepping on others along the way as people find ways to "win" the rewards instead of taking in the totality of experience cache owners are putting out there). So I'm definitely not saying these are fantastic souvenirs!

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18 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

"wasteful inefficiency"

Well, again, this only applies to people for whom it would be excessive use of resources to participate. For many it may be a matter of a healthy daily walk to the nearest cache, or a daily bike ride. So why must it be "wasteful inefficiency"? It's a very biased perspective.

 

Streak challenges (souvenir or not) can be good if you live in the right area. They can help motivate exercise: I will walk/bike to this cache today, then a little further to the next cache tomorrow, then the next one after that...

 

The reality is that most cachers will soon find themselves having to drive out of their way for the sole purpose of getting a cache a day. One week it's 10 minutes out of their way. Then 20. Then 30.

 

Is it worth it to drive a half hour, find a skirt lifter, and drive home? If you think it is then you need to reconsider your priorities. 

 

Streak souvenirs also encourage cheating (find 10 caches in one day, but only log them as Finds 1 per day for 10 days) and placing of easy, meaningless hides - sometimes under sock puppets - that have no reason to exist except to help keep streaks going.

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10 minutes ago, JL_HSTRE said:

Is it worth it to drive a half hour, find a skirt lifter, and drive home? If you think it is then you need to reconsider your priorities. 

 

What about commuters? Is it really just hike/bike, or wasteful gas? There are SO many ways people may be participating without feeling forced, or feeling wasteful.  And priorities is so very subjective. To tell someone their priorities are out of whack for do something they may enjoy that you may otherwise not is very projecting. Let people decide for themselves. I would agree if it comes to practical, obvious, or moral or ethical decisions - like skipping your daughter's recital so you can drive an hour for the lamp post. Still, it's not my business to tell you "you bad!"  It was your choice, and I assume you've chosen to deal with the consequences - if any - of your decisions. Still this all assumes some of the worst circumstances to 'participate'.

 

10 minutes ago, JL_HSTRE said:

Streak souvenirs also encourage cheating (find 10 caches in one day, but only log them as Finds 1 per day for 10 days) and placing of easy, meaningless hides - sometimes under sock puppets - that have no reason to exist except to help keep streaks going.

 

I don't disagree that they make it easier for people to be less honest about their habits. But I would not say they encourage cheating. (tho "cheating" is a different discussion)  The souvenirs are there. You can do them. Or you can skip them. They may entice us to weigh the value of the effort needed to earn them. But they do not encourage cheating.  People who cut corners and are dishonest about their logging in order to earn them - they have made their choice. I certainly don't agree with their practices, and if they do things that are against enforceable guidelines, then they should be reported and dealt with (as per any discussion about TOU violations or whatnot).  If their stats are affected illegitimately, well that's their problem not mine.

 

Having said that, I'll reiterate - I am all for finding ways to encourage experiencing the adventure - not reducing geocaching to a numbers game and missing out on amazing experiences (and potentially stepping on others along the way as people find ways to "win" the rewards instead of taking in the totality of experience cache owners are putting out there).

Edited by thebruce0
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Interesting discussion - and I am all for setting goals.  This latest "streak" promo may encourage some to set a streak goal, and DO IT!  We set an ambitious goal of finding a cache every day in 2018.  Initially, it was fun. Where are we going to go caching today?  Along about October, it did become a chore - local caches were found, and we needed to drive out of town, every day unless we were already traveling, and plan the days ahead with a backup just in case one was missing....but the goal to us was important.  The goal of filling in that calendar and getting a year of consecutive days caching helped us to keep on caching when we hit that WALL.  We could have quit at any time, but we wanted to reach the goal, and the satisfaction of having done that was/is worth the "work" it had become.  At least to us, and it doesn't work that way for everyone.  That's OK!

 

So we're not going to set a goal to earn these streak souvenirs, but if it helps a new cacher or a ho hum cacher get motivated, it's all good.  It may encourage us, or other cachers to hide a few more for people to find.  That's good too.  Overall, these Wheel Challenges have been encouraging to new cachers, I think - to motivate and give them goals to reach for.  And even a couple of challenges to not-so-newbies, like the 100 caches in a month (that we didn't earn, but oh, well!  We didn't try!)  I'm interested to see what the next one will be...

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6 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

I'd be more upset about easy pointless souvenirs like finding 1 cache. That's the type that reduces the inherent value offered for the souvenir rewards because there's literally zero effort in doing what is already being done.

 

What about if that one cache was something that required some time or effort to find and took you out of your normal caching routine? I'm thinking of the Road Trip promotion in 2015 where, in each week, you had to log one find with particular qualities, specifically:

  1. Let's get extreme - find a D5 or T5 cache
  2. Fun with favourites -  find a cache with 10+ FPs
  3. Meet your road trip crew - attend an event
  4. High-five for the earth - find an EarthCache
  5. Put on your thinking cap - find a mystery cache

That was a fun promotion that didn't require having lots of unfound caches close to home (or making lots of trips a long way from home) like all the more recent promotions do.

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Yep, I thought that was a good one. Encourage people to do something that's a little less common. Broaden some horizons.

Personally it wasn't hard for me because my region is littered with all of those. But with so many reportedly new cachers likely using their phone in urban centers, those points probably required a little more effort :P

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We posted the following with most of our finds last month:

----------------------------

Turns out teleportation and time-travel are possible. In fact, they're one and the same phenomenon when it comes to geocaching. I knew the technology was out there, as some of my caching buddies have been making use of it for a while.

 

"Hey, I saw you bagged a cache in Orlando this morning, then got one in Tulsa after supper. Direct flight?"

 

"Teleportation."

 

"Wow. Which reminds me, are you gonna have to drive back down to Ozark tomorrow to keep your streak going?"

 

"Naw. A little time-travel will take care of it."

 

In fact, they even offered to set me up with the technology, but I demurred. For one thing, I didn't have any reason to dabble in such high-tech goings-on. And for another, the whole thing seemed a bit, well, "sketchy."

 

That all changed when HQ came out with this month's challenge. Challenges with a timer are verboten for you and me, but are no problem for the Grand Poobahs in Seattle. Add in the fact that their "20 different days" challenge coincides with $3.20 gas, and voila! HQ provides us with both motivation and moral justification!

 

So dust off that old flux capacitor, take the square root of -47, throw in a few dilithium crystals, and divide by zero. Reality has never been so subjective!

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I remember when souvenirs were introduced in 2010. The main complaint was, who cares?

 

Then souvenir challenges were introduced, and the main complaint was, they're too easy!

 

Then different levels of challenges were introduced, and the complaints are, they're too hard!

 

Just like not every geocache is for everyone, so too is not every challenge for everyone...

 

...also,

 

6 hours ago, The_Goldens said:

Challenges with a timer are verboten for you and me, but are no problem for the Grand Poobahs in Seattle.

 

Souvenirs aren't challenge caches. No changes have been made to the challenge cache criteria. Now, go find something else to complain about.

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What about ALCs?

I'm asking because I found a regular cache yesterday (Jul 3, afternoon UTC), and could only make it to an ALC waypoint today. If ALCs count, that would give me the easy souvenir - but it hasn't shown up yet. If not, I've spent two non-streak days.

Fortunately, this is a five-week challenge. Since challenges are supposed to be randomly selected, this one could have easily hit a four-week month (like June), without any chance to fix things for the hardliners among us.

 

Update: the discussion below the announcement suggests that others may have problems getting the souvenir too :( even with "pure" traditionals. So learning whether it works at all or not may be unnecessarily postponed. There seems to be a ticket open for this - anyone has the link?

 

Just another random thought: This challenge requires completing a streak - and an ongoing streak isn't complete yet; completion is only achieved by having a non-find day. If the rule is like this, there's close to no time to find out. (Once again, a matter of definition of "streak" - something the announcement doesn't even care to explain.)

Edited by LySt
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35 minutes ago, LySt said:

Just another random thought: This challenge requires completing a streak - and an ongoing streak isn't complete yet; completion is only achieved by having a non-find day. If the rule is like this, there's close to no time to find out. (Once again, a matter of definition of "streak" - something the announcement doesn't even care to explain.)

 

Technically, that'd only be true if they're considering a "streak" only after the day you don't have a find posted. But stats always show your day streak count. So the system knows if you have a current consecutive streak of x number of days. Given souvenirs are typically awarded on posting of relevant logs, I think it's safe to say you should receive it the moment (knock on wood) you post your 2nd day's first log, 7th day's first log, and 28th day's first log.

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20 hours ago, The_Goldens said:

Dear hzoi,

 

Who's complaining?!?  With our new geomobile/TARDIS, we're loving these challenges!  The harder the better!

 

Maybe we could go with you sometime.  You seem like a barrel of laughs.

 

😁

 

Apologies, I thought you were complaining about the time restrictions.

 

On further reflection, it appears that for some reason, you were more boasting about your lack of personal integrity.

 

My mistake.

Edited by hzoi
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24 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

the moment (knock on wood) you post your 2nd day's first log, 7th day's first log, and 28th day's first log.

There's no such thing as a log for LC waypoints, but in the past the mere "find" click (the one that successfully answers the question) did it. Ofc the traditional had its log sent yesterday, and today's find completed a LC (with a review, in case that counts - never saw that though).

So there's little to do but knock on wood and continue tomorrow.

@Hüghcan we have a checker just for the fun of it, pretty puhleeze?

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Yes, Adventure Location 'completions' don't use geocache logs and are a different function entirely because they're not geocache listings. But functionally similar on the backend - the souvenir check is done when you save a cache log (educated guess) and based on the log posting date. Similarly, the souvenir check (if it's applicable) would be done when you save a location completion.  So when it comes to streaks, the check would be done any time you "+1 smiley" to your stats (not the day after you have zero +1 smileys to mark the end of a "completed" streak).

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Just now, freddycougar said:

glad it's not just me.....just a bit frustrating as I know I won't be able to 'earn' the others.....not enough in my area and not enough time to travel for them...some people don't understand how tough these 'challenges' can be in non-cache-rich areas....I thought getting one of them would be good though

 

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4 hours ago, LySt said:

Hüghcan we have a checker just for the fun of it, pretty puhleeze?


Sure, but I’m going to wait until they sort out the issues since I worry that it would only confuse players more. 

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20 hours ago, hzoi said:

 

Apologies, I thought you were complaining about the time restrictions.

 

On further reflection, it appears that for some reason, you were more boasting about your lack of personal integrity.

 

My mistake.

Hey, don't feel bad, anyone can make mistakes.  What's important is that we learn from them 😁.

 

While we're on the subject of our lack of personal integrity, we might as well make another confession:  sometimes, on an Adventure Lab, if the answers are in multiple choice format, we JUST GUESS, rather than get out of the car to read the plaque in the pouring rain 😱.

 

And once, we took a Trackable from a cache that said its goal was to go North...but the cache we dropped it in was SLIGHTLY SOUTHEAST!

 

BWAH-HA-HA-HAAAH! 😈

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