This topic contains 11 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by 
rawevil 6 years, 4 months ago.
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So, here’s my rant. We took the time to set up a campfire event while we were going to be at Governor Thompson State Park for the Spring Campout, even got it published. Then, a couple of days later the reviewer disables the event and says that she quickly received emails from complaining about event stacking and that the event shouldn’t be allowed. Really appreciate the courtesy of (or lack of) whoever sent the emails to the reviewer. Simply contacting us would’ve been a good start. After arguing with the reviewer (who seems to barely know the rules) and getting nowhere, we decided to move it one day to the left, the WGA doesn’t have anything scheduled that day. Again, the reviewer denies it.
So I filed a formal complaint with Geocaching HQ and unbelievably they upheld the reviewer’s position. They can’t be clear why though. I’m still emailing back and forth with them trying to get a satisfactory answer on why we can’t have an event on a different day than the WGA at the same State Park. My latest questions to HQ revolve around how far away do we have to be, on a different day, to have an event where there might not be some of the same cachers at the event. Not sure they know that cachers sometimes drive 10, 20, even 50 miles away to attend an event the next day.
I’ll stop with this thought: As I continue to try and get this event enabled again, I can’t help but think what bothers me more about this game for me these days? All the continuing rule changes from HQ or people who just can’t seem to mind their own business?
That’s my rant. Steve
Hey Steve,
The new event stacking rule is a pain. For years the WGA held a pancake breakfast event the day after the Spring camp out. Last year we were told that we couldn’t have a separate event the next day in the same place because of this new rule.
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
I agree with Big Jim the new event stacking rule is a major pain. In my opinion if they don’t want event stacking they should not make special exceptions for mega events, etc. All should be treated equally whether you are hosting a simple meet and greet or a mega or giga event.
It is too bad that whoever reached out to the reviewer behind your back simply couldn’t have reached out to you first. This behind the scenes communication is just another reason gaining trust nowadays is so difficult. How hard is it to reach out to someone personally to notify/remind them of Groundspeak’s rules before sending that message up the ladder?
Now, with that being said, why is it necessary to earn another “attended” smiley at an event which you are already attending. Is the intentions of your campfire event to include or not include other people who are already in attendance at the WGA event? Can’t you just have a campfire and invite other without the need to gain another smiley? Same with the pancake feed. The intention of the breakfast is to feed those already attending the campout. So, why is it necessary to gain that extra smiley?
I guess I don’t see this game as a game in which it is necessary for me to pile up as many smileys as possible. I do it for the enjoyment of getting outside, being in nature, spending time with the kids, meeting new people and catching up with old friends. We all play for our own reasons, but at the end of the day we should all be grateful for the organization and the people in it that make these events happen in our state. Go home from the campout in a few weeks with a feeling of gratitude and not one of sourness.
I don’t understand the need for the stacking rules.
To answer the question of why do we need more smilies? We don’t, but hosting an event is designed for meeting people. It seems that was the case for the campfire.
Creating an event would be an excellent way to get the word out to the masses. As far as an event for the pancake breakfast, it’s an added convenience for the planners that have to estimate the amount of food they need to purchase.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
The stacking rule has been in place for how long now, and the reviewer still published the campfire event? I remember at the Green Bay GIFF event, one of the co hosts couldn’t get a lunch even published because of the event stacking rule. No, I’m not the one who went to the reviewer, but rules are rules.
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
I don’t understand the need for the stacking rules. To answer the question of why do we need more smilies? We don’t, but hosting an event is designed for meeting people. It seems that was the case for the campfire. Creating an event would be an excellent way to get the word out to the masses. As far as an event for the pancake breakfast, it’s an added convenience for the planners that have to estimate the amount of food they need to purchase.
I agree that an event is held to meet people. The campfire event was an event within an event (which is already designed for the purpose of meeting people). So why is there really a need for another event to meet people at the same place? And, I can kind of get your reasoning for the explanation for the pancake feed if it were one of the first years of the event. But it has been happening for enough years now to have a good enough gauge for numbers from past events. Plus, it seems like it has been easy enough to ask those attending the campout to post on that page whether or not they will be eating pancakes on Sunday.
I remember last year’s campout when the pancake breakfast got denied. If we would have submitted the campout & pancake breakfast events one week earlier it would have been ok. Then, Iowa tried to post the pancake breakfast even after I said it wasn’t going to work. We kinda both got talked to by the reviewers . . .
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
I prefer not to stack my pancakes. With stacking, you get good coverage of butter and syrup on the first layer, but the layers underneath don’t get the same saturation. I generally spread out two or three on the same plate, with a slight overlap at the center of the plate. Granted that doesn’t leave much room for sausage or bacon, but that’s how I usually roll. 😉
I do wish they would have allowed the campfire event, but I guess the reviewers are likely under directives to not allow it. It will be a big blow to the WGA and to me if they do not allow the WGA pancake breakfast event the day after the Cache Ba$h mega event. Hopefully it’s kind of grandfathered in. My guess is that somewhere on the globe there were those who were abusing the stacking of events, and HQ put a stop to it. I do recall the time that GONIL (Illinois) folks had their Big Yellow Bus Tour of Wisconsin (a group of about 40 for a fun day-trip). They sponsored numerous events all in one day starting with
(1) 6am breakfast event (Illinois)
(2) 6:45am Bon Voyage flash mob (Illinois)
(3) 11am Lunch event at Devils Lake (WI)
(4) 3pm Flash mob @ Merrimac Ferry (WI)
(5) 4pm Supper Club event @ Lake Wisconsin (WI)
(6) 6pm Madison coffeeshop (WI)
(7) 10pm Nightcap event (IL)
We were some of the few Wisconsin-based cachers who participated in it (the Merrimac & Lake WI events) and we thought it was excellent. No harm done, lots of fun & adventure. But I would guess at times that others somewhere may have stacked 5 or 10 events, all in the same location; that would be strange.
West Bend was getting a little out of hand with pre-Bash events, night cache events, post-Bash events, etc. I think that one year there were 7 or 8 events in the four days surrounding the Mega.
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
To calm any fears of the WGA Pancake breakfast not happening in West Bend, last year was the first year of the event stacking rules, and after much back and forth with Groundspeak we were able to continue to host the breakfast as its own event. It is our hope that there will not be any need to renegotiate our position with Groundspeak again this year, and we will continue to serve up some super sausages and fantastic pancakes for our members.
My posts should in no way be considered as the views or opinions of the WGA or its Board of Directors. All posts made under my name are my personal opinions only.
To calm any fears of the WGA Pancake breakfast not happening in West Bend, last year was the first year of the event stacking rules, and after much back and forth with Groundspeak we were able to continue to host the breakfast as its own event. It is our hope that there will not be any need to renegotiate our position with Groundspeak again this year, and we will continue to serve up some super sausages and fantastic pancakes for our members.
Can’t wait for my 4th year!
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
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