A geocache Challenge

[philgn]

How much interest would there be in a geocache challenge, where perhaps all participent's, would report a new cache 2 days before a pre-arranged date, but hide the cache on the day of the hunt, then wizz off to find as many as possible between 8am and 8pm.The winner and new geocaching champion, would be the one who finds the most. Idea is in the hat, open to suggestions. Could the system cope.

[+Lost in Space]

I think it a great idea, however somewhat unfair since Herts seems to have the greater abundance of Geocachers, and espescially as a certain cacher that I know of, charges all his petrol/fuel costs as a tax write-off.

 

[This message was edited by Lost in Space on July 22, 2002 at 02:44 AM.]

[+SimonG]

Go for it!

 

I was looking at the events board yesterday - there are loads in the US, but none in the UK. Why should they have all the fun?

 

SimonG

[+Kouros]

Sounds like a really good idea. Personally, I would love to take part (petrol costs be damned).

 

Perhaps after the event, a knees up could be organised (as a social exercise only, of course )

 

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O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

 

Hamlet, II.2 252-253

[+Kouros]

Sounds like a really good idea. Personally, I would love to take part (petrol costs be damned).

 

Perhaps after the event, a knees up could be organised (as a social exercise only, of course )

 

------

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

 

Hamlet, II.2 252-253

[+McDeHack]

Would it be a national event? If so as mentioned, there are a large number of cachers that come to the Hertfordshire area. (As I do) As there are a large number of caches hidden here. So the cache placements could be greater here than in other areas.

I think that a handicap rule would have to be applied. How this would work I have no idea.

Maybe this could be confined to one county for the first time, and all comers welcome.

Can we look to other countries that have had events such as this for advice?

[+Icenians]

We would definatly have to travel. There are only 11 caches in Norfolk. We set 4 of them, 1 has been nicked, and I've done the rest.

 

Not much of a challenge there.

 

Like the idea though and it could generate a lot more caches.

 

What about a sponsered cache hunt? Get sponsorship per cache and see how many can be done in 24 hours. Could raise a lot for a charity.

[+jeremyp]

You could solve the distribution problem by weighting the score each cache gives you based on some function of its average distance from all the other caches. So maybe doing 10 caches clustered in Hertfordshire would score the same as doing the one cache that was placed in Norfolk.

 

Also, you could have each participant automatically score for their own cache. This does two things: first it handicaps the participants in densely clustered areas. i.e. the guy on the Northern tip of Scotland who has to drive nine hours to get to any other caches gets a head start (unless he decides to place his cache in Hertfordshire). Also it gives an incentive to the Herts cachers not to place their caches together in a cluster as they get extra points for placing their cache away from the centre.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[+Kouros]

It strikes me that a sponsored cache hunt would be better suited as an individual event, rather than a national challenge.

 

Perhaps to somewhat reduce the benefit of living in densely cached areas, a scoring system could be introduced for the challenge.

 

E.g. Each participant places their cache at 8a.m the morning of the event. However, for the course of the event, they may only log finds in caches that have been placed as a part of the event.

 

Or,

 

Five points awarded for event caches, only one for standard caches.

 

That way, very quickly people would need to travel in order to get the most points.

 

Just an idea.

 

------

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

 

Hamlet, II.2 252-253

[philgn]

A points system could be a fairer way because of the distance some might have to travel. Another idea could be to award points for county boundaries, the more counties you go through, in a straight line, to the cache'site, the more points scored. Could be a lot of planning involved which would make it more fun. Rules would be made with a majority agreement. Must say the view/replies ratio is a bit dissapointing, will it ever get off the ground

[el10t]

I'm going to play devils advocate here and be the one who is not very keen on taking part in the national competition idea. I like the non-competitive nature of geocaching.

 

Additionally, you might find that racing across the country in an attempt to get as many caches under your belt as possible within a short time frame invalidates your car insurance.

 

Just another point of view.

 

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el10t

mobilis in mobili

[Ben Pid]

quote:

---

What about a sponsered cache hunt? Get sponsorship per cache and see how many can be done in 24 hours. Could raise a lot for a charity.

---

 

 

Have you not heard of The pit stop charity cache for that! lol

 

Yes I think the points system would be the best scenario..makes it fairer. (What Jeremy said)

 

Pid

 

Watch out its a Golfcourse... (Team Dan and Pid)

[+jeremyp]

quote:

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Originally posted by el10t:

Additionally, you might find that racing across the country in an attempt to get as many caches under your belt as possible within a short time frame invalidates your car insurance.

 

Just another point of view.

---

 

Hmm, yes any type of competition that rewards driving your car at unsafe speeds is probably a very bad idea.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[philgn]

Rule 1 bycycles only ?

[+Icenians]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kouros:

 

E.g. Each participant places their cache at 8a.m the morning of the event. However, for the course of the event, they may only log finds in caches that have been placed as a part of the event.

---

 

How would we find out about them? Someone would have to OK the cache page and if a lot of people do this that could take quite a time for them to become available for general viewing.

[+Kouros]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kouros:

 

E.g. Each participant places their cache at 8a.m the morning of the event. However, for the course of the event, they may only log finds in caches that have been placed as a part of the event.

 

Originally posted by Icenians:

 

How would we find out about them? Someone would have to OK the cache page and if a lot of people do this that could take quite a time for them to become available for general viewing.

---

 

The Caches could be uploaded onto the system several days beforehand, but not physically placed until the day of the hunt. That way, even if someone decides to check out the area, they won't be able to find the cache.

 

This would stop people pre-finding caches, but only logging them on the day of the hunt, or just quickly dropping by to the exact location of the cache (knowing full well exactly where it is).

 

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O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

 

Hamlet, II.2 252-253

[philgn]

Below is a question (I thought) to contact@geocaching.com

 

I would like to know how many new caches the sytem could cope with on one day. I have an idea about a geocaching challenge which would mean possibly several new cache reports on the same day, how many days before the hunt day, would you suggest the new cache report day. Thanks Philgn

Below is the answer

 

I don’t know what your question is. We receive many cache reports each day.

 

Jeremy.

 

So now we know