View Full Version : Challenge cache type



cano
08-08-2011, 12:50 PM
Looks like virtual caches are not coming back, instead there will be a new type of a cache - a challenge cache.

brdad
08-08-2011, 03:12 PM
I was reading some about this the other day but did not fully understand it. It almost seems what we currently define as challenge caches may not fall into this category. That could be confusing!

JustPJ66
08-08-2011, 03:49 PM
its working so far.....I am confused!

no smart remarks!!! LOL

UMainah
08-08-2011, 10:32 PM
http://www.geocaching.com/my/challenges.aspx

Ekidokai
08-09-2011, 03:11 AM
By the looks of that the challenges is just going to be some more junk to plug up the system like the souvenirs.

JustKev
08-09-2011, 03:28 AM
By the looks of that the challenges is just going to be some more junk to plug up the system like the souvenirs.

Souvenirs plugged up your system, Mike? I wondered what had happened.

:)

Ekidokai
08-10-2011, 09:55 AM
Souvenirs plugged up your system, Mike? I wondered what had happened.

:)

What happened was you drove me away. Picking on me all the time. You should be ashamed. Bad Kev. Bad. lol

firefighterjake
08-11-2011, 07:42 AM
I've had my system plugged up . . . but it wasn't souvenirs . . . I'm blaming it on the cheese. :) ;)

UMainah
08-12-2011, 02:52 PM
http://blog.geocaching.com/2011/08/geocaching-com-challenges-coming-soon/

brdad
08-12-2011, 04:29 PM
Is it just me or does that video make anyone else less enthused about it (whatever "it" is)?

JustPJ66
08-12-2011, 04:58 PM
its just YOU!

Mainiac1957
08-12-2011, 05:17 PM
That seems to be the way all the follow up posts are leaning as well. I'll know more after the APE event next Sunday.

UMainah
08-15-2011, 03:57 PM
Here a new one from groundspeak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLoiMANuJ0M&feature=youtu.be

UMainah
08-15-2011, 04:01 PM
Geocaching.com is proud to launch "Geocaching Challenges" late in the week of August 15th

It's coming soon

Gob-ler
08-15-2011, 05:38 PM
There's a good chance that all this will do is give folks another way to inflate their numbers. Like it is not that difficult to do now anyways!

Want to elevate your find count? Just attend some of the events down this way and find the "Special" event caches that are placed all over the immediate area and then just log the event and extra time for each event cache you find!

Fun, Wow! NOT!

brdad
08-15-2011, 05:50 PM
There's a good chance that all this will do is give folks another way to inflate their numbers. Like it is not that difficult to do now anyways!

Want to elevate your find count? Just attend some of the events down this way and find the "Special" event caches that are placed all over the immediate area and then just log the event and extra time for each event cache you find!

Fun, Wow! NOT!

You'd better stop posting stuff like this or someone will accuse me of hacking into your account!

It is funny, about 5 minutes ago I was thinking of all these features they are adding to widen the spectrum of the game. While these features could end up being a good thing, I'd like to see them enhance "old school" caching somehow!

Haffy
08-15-2011, 08:35 PM
You'd better stop posting stuff like this or someone will accuse me of hacking into your account!

It is funny, about 5 minutes ago I was thinking of all these features they are adding to widen the spectrum of the game. While these features could end up being a good thing, I'd like to see them enhance "old school" caching somehow!

I liked the "Old School" caching the best. I think Groundspeak is really trying to add more junk now since "Open Caching" came along from Garmin and they are getting some extra competition from them. Just my 2 cents.

UMainah
08-18-2011, 08:52 AM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/challenges/id455444525?mt=8

Fins_Up
08-18-2011, 12:37 PM
I liked the "Old School" caching the best. I think Groundspeak is really trying to add more junk now since "Open Caching" came along from Garmin and they are getting some extra competition from them. Just my 2 cents.

I agree and I enjoy the "old school" caching where you hike in the woods and find a cache however, it is ultimately up to us how we play the game. Some people actually enjoy nanos :)

brdad
08-18-2011, 03:52 PM
From what I've seen so far, I doubt I'll be participating in either 'hiding' or 'finding' this cache type. :confused:

However, if it cuts down on crap caches I can live with their existence! :rolleyes:


Frequently Asked Questions about Geocaching Challenges (http://www.geocaching.com/challenges/faq.aspx)

team moxiepup
08-18-2011, 04:08 PM
Looking at mainacs profile pic it looks like Quiltingmom quailifies for the Kiss the Frog challenge already. The only challenge I saw posted. Not sure I want to get a smiley for kissing a frog. No offense mainac ;)

brdad
08-18-2011, 04:19 PM
If you scroll down you'll see other challenges people have logged. There must be an easier way!

http://www.geocaching.com/challenges/default.aspx

brdad
08-19-2011, 06:16 AM
While I still think these challenges have dumbed down the game even more, I can't help but feel bad for Groundspeak as they are taking quite a lashing over the subject.

No review process, no proof needed for the find, and often no need for a GPS in a game designed around the Global Positioning System?

JustPJ66
08-19-2011, 06:38 AM
I am sorry....those are STUPID....I will not be doing ANY of them.

firefighterjake
08-19-2011, 07:50 AM
I agree and I enjoy the "old school" caching where you hike in the woods and find a cache however, it is ultimately up to us how we play the game. Some people actually enjoy nanos :)

And I concur with Haffy and Fins Up . . . besides I'm quite dumb and never learned to play chess . . . with large frogs. ;)

cano
08-19-2011, 01:57 PM
I just created a new challenge!
http://www.geocaching.com/challenges/view.aspx?cx=CX9C8

We, paying customers, are not happy where this is going. We wanted virtual and challenge caches, but instead we got this. The challenge is to call your credit card company and dispute the charge for premium membership. Let's send a clear message to groundspeak for ignoring its customers.

UMainah
08-19-2011, 02:28 PM
I just created a new challenge!
http://www.geocaching.com/challenges/view.aspx?cx=CX9C8

We, paying customers, are not happy where this is going. We wanted virtual and challenge caches, but instead we got this. The challenge is to call your credit card company and dispute the charge for premium membership. Let's send a clear message to groundspeak for ignoring its customers.

After clicking the link...

This Challenge has been archived and is no longer available.

cano
08-19-2011, 02:50 PM
After clicking the link...

Groundspeak moderators are busy archiving challenges like this. Quite a few people managed to accept and complete the challenge though :)

Mainiac1957
08-20-2011, 08:25 PM
Looking at mainacs profile pic it looks like Quiltingmom quailifies for the Kiss the Frog challenge already. The only challenge I saw posted. Not sure I want to get a smiley for kissing a frog. No offense mainac ;) None taken. Of course she personally knew that frog.. (Shhhh, it was me)

team moxiepup
08-21-2011, 10:22 AM
We did do the one at the Block Party at Bensons, put out by anniebananie, because it gave you the coordinates and a task to do (take a picture). When virtuals were allowed it would have been a great one for it's history.
The down side to it was that it was hard to find the challenge page for it so we could log it. Logging it had way to many steps and and after we were finally able to log it we weren't quite sure if we had done all that needed to be done to complete it on line :(
1022

team moxiepup
08-21-2011, 10:25 AM
She probably won't log it because it wasn't a real challenge for her to do ;) She probably does do it all the time to get a smilie :)


None taken. Of course she personally knew that frog.. (Shhhh, it was me)

Ekidokai
08-21-2011, 02:32 PM
None taken. Of course she personally knew that frog.. (Shhhh, it was me)

So what you are saying is the frog did turn into a prince.

I made a challenge too. Don't know how to post it here though.

brdad
08-21-2011, 04:24 PM
I made a challenge for people to hide 10 nanos close to Mike's house. So far 12 people have accepted the challenge!


I made a challenge too. Don't know how to post it here though.

Here you go:
http://coord.info/CXED8

masterson of the universe
08-21-2011, 08:35 PM
So, having been there in the past and having completed whats in this challenge, I've marked it complete just to see what the process is. No offense to you Mike but challenges are just plain ridiculous. Unless there is some way for the challenge creator to delete logs for not doing whats asked exactly, there is no way to police this. Its actually a big waste of time. The should have just brought virtual caches back and made it so you have to have yourself in a photo with a GPS onsite to prevent arm chair caching. At least the challenges don't give you a smiley. I can't imagine how many finds that darn K-9 would be up to by the end of the year. This certainly will be something I'll fail to mention if someone every asks about caching.

brdad
08-22-2011, 07:07 AM
At least the challenges don't give you a smiley. I can't imagine how many finds that darn K-9 would be up to by the end of the year.

But the thing is, it does count towards your find count. On some pages it appears not, but on pages where it shows total caches challenges are included. for example, on your profile is shows you have 697 finds: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?u=masterson+of+the+universe (you may have to click on the "geocaches" tab)

Also here is the associated section of the FAQs I previously posted:

Do Challenges increase my Geocaching.com find count?
Yes. Challenge completions and geocache finds are combined in your total stats count. However, you can hover over anyone's count to see how many caches and challenges the user has found and completed.

It's funny benchmarks still do not count yet are 100 times more comparable to caching than most of these dumb challenges.

Mike's is a perfect example. Paul Bunyan is a good spot for a virtual. Caches have been hidden there before and they don't last. But he has no control over this challenge, he can't ask for verification and/or proof that anyone logging it was really there, nor can he delete the logs that are bogus. On top of that, the challenge does not really belong to him, he gets little or no credit for creating it.

firefighterjake
08-22-2011, 07:35 AM
I truly think these challenge caches are the dumbest thing to come along from groundspeak . . . and they smack of desperation to try to get folks fired up about caching . . . when will groundspeak listen to the vast majority of folks who want virtuals to come back? I understand there was an abuse of virtuals . . . but it seems to me that the screening process can eliminate a lot of the old virtuals of telephone poles and stop signs if they had a requirement that the virtual had to provide concrete information of some sort and there was a compelling reason as to why a physical cache could not be placed in the location.

firefighterjake
08-22-2011, 07:36 AM
Will folks end up doing challenge caches . . . I suspect many folks will . . . simply to keep their number count up if folks start to do them.

Ekidokai
08-22-2011, 10:42 AM
I agree completely with this being stupid. Holy crap I agree with Brdad, I'll have to adjust my medication. I created this one just to see what it was all about. I agree completely.

Virtuals would be ice with an added requirement to enter a pass code in order to log the cache, like asking what the last two words are on the second line of the front plaque. Something like that would lock out anyone that could not come up with the correct words. Something like earth caches.

Maybe they will come to their senses.

I really need to check my meds now.

Ekidokai
08-22-2011, 10:44 AM
i made a challenge for people to hide 10 nanos close to mike's house. So far 12 people have accepted the challenge!

aaaarrrggghhh!!!!!

UMainah
08-22-2011, 11:23 AM
Mike's is a perfect example. Paul Bunyan is a good spot for a virtual. Caches have been hidden there before and they don't last. But he has no control over this challenge, he can't ask for verification and/or proof that anyone logging it was really there, nor can he delete the logs that are bogus. On top of that, the challenge does not really belong to him, he gets little or no credit for creating it.

I'm not advocating for Challenges in anyway, but I suppose for Paul Bunyan you could create a "Photo Challenge" instead of an "Action Challenge" and require people to take a picture of themselves in front of Paul for proof. I'd have to think that groundspeak would give challenge owners some more control over logs and such in the future.

The real problem is that Groundspeak wants to branch out from geocaching to interest more people, but they integrate all these features under the geocaching banner because its what they are know for and is their only popular product. It would be much more logical to split things up into their own websites and have a central website at Groundspeak.com for example to display users statistics, profiles, etc. From Groundspeak's theoretical core website you would then navigate to geocaching.com to find geocaches, or waymarking.com, or benchmarking.com to log a benchmark, or challenge.com to do challenges. Challenges, benchmarks, virtuals, etc are not geocaches. Each activity should have its own unique site, yet still be able to integrate with the other activities under a central Groundspeak umbrella.

benandtina
08-22-2011, 01:12 PM
I think what bugs me the most about these challenges is the fact that they are community moderated. I feel like the moderators place a HUGE amount of value in caches because they follow up with owners as soon as a cache is marked as needing maintenance. Unless Groundspeak plans to get involved immediately when a challenge is flagged in inappropriate, I think we're going to end up wasting a lot of time chasing pointless challenges.

In general, my favorite caches are the ones worth driving, hiking, etc. to even if I'm going to DNF it (especially since the likelihood of a DNF for Ben and me is pretty high, LOL). I worry that without an actual moderator keeping track of these things it will be hard to have any confidence in whether or not a challenge fits that category.

masterson of the universe
08-22-2011, 06:27 PM
I created one just to play and see what would happen (and to kind of be a little bit of a stinker) if it wasn't liked by Groundspeak. The challenge was just to have your picture taken in West Market Plaza either picking your nose or your friends nose. In the description, it stated that Groundspeak's Challenge idea is to just "Go Somewhere, Do Something". I waited just to see what would happen and someone named Hemlock from California moderated saying people should vote it down as locationless challenges should be archived. The description of the challenge had coordinates and had an actual location and was just a photo challenge. I even had included a pic of a tool that could be used if you happen to be in a situation where you didn't have fingers...lol. Apparently, the moderators just dont want to see people picking their nose?
I ended up deleting it but will at some point will create a real one to see if that is going to be moderated as well. I really just think the virtual caches needed to be more thought out and like Dan said, under their own site. Geocaching.com should be for physical geocaches/earthcaching.

brdad
08-22-2011, 06:46 PM
But what is a real one? It doesn't matter if you ask them to take a picture or email you answers or dance with Elvis. You have no way of controlling bogus logs no matter how great an idea your challenge is. That in itself dumbs it down to the point it seems unworthy. I think groundspeak was trying to take some of the load of reviewers but this does not seem like a great way to do it.

brdad
08-23-2011, 06:14 PM
Well, this is a step forward:
http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2170499-don-t-make-completions-the-same-as-finds-

firefighterjake
08-24-2011, 07:30 AM
Agreed Brdad . . . a step in the right direction . . . still a dumb idea.

Bring back the virtuals!!!