Special section for geocaching challenges?

[aaronpriest]

Hey, I got to thinking last night after reading the latest Delorme Natural and Unique challenge (very good one!), why don't we create a special section for challenges? Not everyone knows about the good old Delorme Challenge of finding a cache on every page of the Atlas (are there really caches on every page yet?), and I can think of a few more Maine challenges we could setup. How about finding at least one cache in every county? Or every hunting zone? We could set up quite a few easy and hard challenges. It would also be pretty cool to have a geocoin or some other prize made available for every person that acheived the challenge. I'd let the winner buy it if they wanted though so no one goes broke handing 'em out!

[brdad]

I guess I don't fully understand. Are you suggesting we have a separate section of these forums to discuss these challenges, or that the site submit some of them as a whole?

I do like these challenges, but I also promote variety. While we don't need 300 cache series in every town, I'm not fond of the idea of 300 DeLorme type challenges either. However, a few more won't hurt at all.

[team teebow]

I take it that he's looking for a seperate section for "DeLorme Challenges". I think that would be cool. It would also be quicker to see who, what, when, and where people are in the challenge if they are talking about it.

Team Teebow 1

[aaronpriest]

Yeah, we could come up with more than just Delorme challenges, like a couple ideas I mentioned in my first post. I thought it would be easier for people to post challenges and people to post their achievements if maybe we had a special topic for it. We could also do an awards things for achievers like geocoins or something, almost like the 100, 500, 1000 cache geocoin, etc.

[Haffy]

So who would put up the money to get these coins minted? We have a hard enough time to get the Maine coin minted every other year as it is....lol. Plus I doubt that it would be very cost effective and the number of people accomplishing these feats is very low making the cost of the coin very high I would surmise.

[aaronpriest]

Yeah, you're probably right. The die wouldn't have to change though and you wouldn't need a date, meaning you'd only have the die costs once, and people could buy the coins (if that's what we did) if they wanted them so you'd get reimbursement. Obviously that doesn't help with up front costs. If I managed to finish a challenge though, I'd get a coin made myself and keep the dies for anyone else that wanted one later on. Maybe others would be willing to do the same. That idea was only half of what I was suggesting though in setting up a challenges thread. You needn't worry about prizes or anything until there was enough interest in challenges to begin with.

[brdad]

That idea was only half of what I was suggesting though in setting up a challenges thread. You needn't worry about prizes or anything until there was enough interest in challenges to begin with.

That's right. I'd be just as happy with a certificate - or nothing. But I am not a coin fan either.

Are the challenges you're thinking about to be approved by geocaching.com, or just listed on this site? There is a lot more effort involved in listing it with gc.com, but there is a lot less appeal for many cachers if it's not.

You may just want to create and submit one yourself, but there is a lot of work involved from what I have seen.

[aaronpriest]

No, I was thinking more of us as a group coming up with some unique Maine challenges and posting them for others to try. If one was popular and worth going through the effort of a GC official stamp of approval, more power to ya! Wasn't really thinking that big right off the bat though...

[attroll]

It would also be pretty cool to have a geocoin or some other prize made available for every person that acheived the challenge. I'd let the winner buy it if they wanted though so no one goes broke handing 'em out!

That is an interesting idea. I like it. With no money coming in from GeocachingMaine.org we would not be able to do it.

[aaronpriest]

Yeah, we could worry about coins and stuff later honestly. Like BRDAD said, a simple certificate would suffice for starters as a prize.