Adventure Lab® platform update: reduced geofence limit

[+Geocaching HQ]

Adventure Lab® platform update: reduced geofence limit

 

Today we are announcing a change to the Adventure Lab® platform. As of a few weeks ago, all new Adventures and edited Adventures are subject to a maximum geofence of 500 meters for each stage. In the near future, we will be retroactively reducing the maximum geofence to 500 meters (0.31 miles) for all Adventure Locations that currently have a geofence limit higher than 500 meters. Adventures with geofences within 500 meters will not be affected.  

 

Adventure Lab is intended to be a location-based game; this is core to our vision for the platform and to Geocaching HQ’s mission to inspire and enable outdoor adventure, exploration and community. Our intent with this geofence adjustment is to require players to physically visit the Adventure Locations in order to complete an Adventure, as opposed to completing them without having to physically visit the locations.  

 

We recognize that this change may negatively impact some existing Adventures with larger geofences. While this is regrettable, we believe that this change is in the best long-term interest of the Adventure Lab platform. If you have created an Adventure that will be unplayable as a result of this change, for any reason, you are welcome to archive your Adventure, fill out this form by August 1, 2023, and we will issue you a new credit to create a new Adventure after August 1st.

 

If you wish to archive your Adventure, please visit the Adventure Lab builder, open your Adventure, and click the "Delete" button. If you archive your Adventure, you can always view all of the descriptions, location data, journal entries, Activity Logs, etc. in the new "Archived Adventures" section of the builder. Please note that, once archived, Adventures can not be unarchived. 

We genuinely appreciate all Adventure creators and players who help us shape the future of this experimental platform. We are working hard to bring new features and functionality to the Adventure Lab platform and we are very excited to share future developments with all of you. We look forward to granting more opportunities to create Adventures in the near future. Thank you!

[+ta68]

Does geofence in this case indicate how far from the coordinates of the question you need to be to unlock the question?

500 meter seem ridiculously long in that case.

Or is it 500 meter between stages? But that can't be retroactively changed.
 

[+MIKEY MAC]

5 hours ago, ta68 said:

Does geofence in this case indicate how far from the coordinates of the question you need to be to unlock the question?

500 meter seem ridiculously long in that case.

Or is it 500 meter between stages? But that can't be retroactively changed.
 

500 meters will now be the maximum allowed by the lab builder tool. Considering the current allowance is much larger, I think HQ is trying to curtail the number of AL geoarts that have popped up, especially those that don't have anything required to read or observe. 

[geoawareUSA9]

I have merged two comments into this post, but no more will be added.

[Frau Potter]

Update from Geocaching HQ: 

 

For the time being, we have decided not to retroactively reduce the maximum geofence to 500 meters (0.31 miles) for existing Adventure Locations that had a geofence limit higher than 500 meters. We may revisit this decision about retroactive changes in the future. 

 

We still encourage Adventure creators to archive existing Adventures with geofences greater than 500 meters. You can fill out this form by August 1, 2023, and we will issue you a new credit to create a new Adventure after August 1st.

 

As a reminder, as of July 3, 2023, all new Adventure Locations are limited to a geofence no greater than 500 meters.