Locationless caches

[+BaSHful]

I was very pleased to see 3 new Locationless caches published over the last 3 years as it had been a quest of mine for a long time to collect as many different cache types as I could. For other people with similar ambitions, and because they're fun caches to do, I ask Geocaching HQ to publish 1 a year (each available for 1 year) for the foreseeable future. I'm confident you can continue to come up interesting / worthwhile / fun ideas.

[+cerberus1]

I'll pass thanks...

Maybe it's just me, but I never saw any sense in "recreating/reinventing" cache types (the new ones aren't like the originals at all BTW...) just to fill in people's stats. 

Now that the hobby is played by many as a game, there really needs to be winners and  losers.

"Stats" mean nada when someone meets a goal needed for it, and it gets "re-presented" years later for one who didn't meet those goals to earn that icon/souvenir earlier...

For example, many folks years later were asking about reissuing the 10 years Geocaching event.      

 - It got bad enough the name was changed on to "community celebration" event.    Stats...

[+Jayeffel]

What would the difference be between a Locationless cache and a Virtual Cache?

May be that the Virtual has definite identifiable coordinates at a specific geographical spot and the Locationless does not?

 

Seems to confuse the idea of geocaching - go to a defined spot,  locate a container and sign a log in that container, replace the container and move on.

[+cerberus1]

42 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

What would the difference be between a Locationless cache and a Virtual Cache?

May be that the Virtual has definite identifiable coordinates at a specific geographical spot and the Locationless does not?

 

Well, yeah...   Unlike these new things, the original ones had to be a different spot (coordinates) than any previously.

Groundspeak gave a certain time frame for them to be sent to Waymarking if COs wanted.  Closest to the cache type...

I have a few examples under Geocaches in my profile if you're interested.

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by cerberus1
explainification... added

[+Hügh]

1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

It got bad enough the name was changed on to "community celebration" event.    Stats...

 

If I had to guess, that happened because introducing a new cache type (assuming that HQ wanted to introduce a special cache type) would be a breaking change for many systems (GPSrs, the GPX format, but also all the API partners like Project-GC, GSAK, Cachly, Geooh Go, etc.) So they rebranded the type, while leaving the internal "type ID number" intact. As a consequence, people who didn't get to attend one in 2010 "got the stat point".

 

4 hours ago, BaSHful said:

I ask Geocaching HQ to publish 1 a year (each available for 1 year) for the foreseeable future.

 

They said on a podcast episode a while back that (this is off the top of my head, someone fact-check me): they are not planning on continuing annual Locationless caches, because it was originally intended to be only 1 (for 2020) but got extended to 3 (2021, 2022) because pandemic.

 

That said, I think it would be neat. One idea I had was: "Introduce a friend/muggle to geocaching" (loosely inspired by GC4DJRM.)

[+niraD]

28 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

What would the difference be between a Locationless cache and a Virtual Cache?

May be that the Virtual has definite identifiable coordinates at a specific geographical spot and the Locationless does not?

Yes. And as the Geocache Types page describes Locationless (Reverse) Caches: "A Locationless Cache could be considered the opposite of a Traditional Cache. Instead of finding a hidden container, you locate a specific object and log its coordinates. New locationless geocaches are now Waymarks."

 

What isn't mentioned is that only one person was supposed to be able to log each location once for a given Locationless Cache. So if the goal was to find a fire station and log its coordinates, then you had to find a fire station that no one had logged yet.

[+Harry Dolphin]

We enjoyed Locationless Caches!  We had a lot of fun searching for Viquesney Doughboys that no one else had found.  You try finding a street sign with your name on it if your name is Jesus!  Found one in Carmel, New York.  

The new ones were added for new cachers to get the cache type.  But they weren't really Locationless Caches.  One find per location.  Yet many people logged Signal The Frog at the same Mega-Event.

Yet, we old-fashioned geocachers who only use a GPSr were discriminated against with last month's Wheel of Challenges that required finding an Adventure Lab.

[+baer2006]

As has been pointed out, the 3 new Locationless Caches (LLC) were fundamentally different from the original concept of LLCs. And in today's geocaching ecosystem, where everyone is apparently entitled to everything, an original-style LLC would simply not work: Checking whether the location logged in the latest log is different from all the others in all previous logs (soon to be many thousands) would become impossible. In the end, most cachers would simply log the LLC with anything, regardless of the logging requirement. The three new LLCs are probably the listings with the highest proportion of non-conforming "find" logs .

[+JL_HSTRE]

3 hours ago, baer2006 said:

The three new LLCs are probably the listings with the highest proportion of non-conforming "find" logs

 

This so much.

 

The Signal the Frog locationless was very clear in the description about what qualified. Mostly a photo with the mascot at an event.

 

The requirements were flagrantly ignored in a variety of creative ways.

 

Much like Webcams, the Locationless return was a fun idea steadily ruined by entitled cachers.