Challenges

[redhead3434]

I have come up with a couple of things that could improve challenges…

– Get rid of world-wide challenges. Challenges, like caches, should be location-specific.

– Use an ownership system like the one used for caches.

[Lostby7]

So long as the challenge totals are kept separate from our geocaching finds I could care less what they do with these. An ignore option would be nice though.

[Muggle B]

In the video did you see the first kids reaction when he asked him how he thought of his first challenge.

LOL, in the most boring drawn out voice he said “awesome”

just by the kids reaction I think its a flop

[GetMeOutdoors]

There’s now a pop-up when you go to the create Challenge page:

@Groundspeak wrote:

What makes a good Challenge?

Location-specific

The location of a challenge should be directly related to the action. “Take a picture of yourself with the Eiffel Tower” is location-specific, while “Take pictures of the night sky in Seattle” or “Find this/a geocache” are not. The goal of Challenges, and Geocaching, is to explore the world around you.

There should only be one location where you can complete the challenge. Worldwide Challenges are only issued by Groundspeak, but you can recommend new Worldwide Challenges on our feedback site

Straightforward

The Challenge should be easy to understand and not too complicated to do.

Appropriate

Keep Challenges clean so it reflects the family-friendliness of Geocaching.

Fun!

Like geocaching, Challenges should be a light and fun activity. Create Challenges that reflect this.

So…….. tell me again why they’re concerned about quality. With such specific and well thought out guidelines like that, how could this go wrong? (Yes, that was sarcasm)

[huffinpuffin2]

@-cheeto- wrote:

When you click on to add a challenge, now there is a little blurb of instructional text that wasn’t there before:

What makes a good Challenge?

. . .
Like geocaching, Challenges should be . . .

The nice part of the above statement, is that it makes the distinction between Challenges and Geocaching. => The two universes do not intersect. Venny Good……

[gotta run]

@huffinpuffin2 wrote:

@-cheeto- wrote:

When you click on to add a challenge, now there is a little blurb of instructional text that wasn’t there before:

What makes a good Challenge?

. . .
Like geocaching, Challenges should be . . .

The nice part of the above statement, is that it makes the distinction between Challenges and Geocaching. => The two universes do not intersect. Venny Good……

That is very interesting….it didn’t say like geocaches…big difference.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[GetMeOutdoors]

I got an update last night that the request to always separate out the cache / challenge counts is complete. Now when I go to my profile page, I see the 2 grey boxes for Finds and hides but the grey box where it used to say Challenges:0 is gone and there is a blank white space in it’s place. So that’s good.

I also see that on the cache detail page in the logs section, a cacher’s counts are separated and the challenges are not counted toward finds.

On the user profile page, under the Geocaches tab, Challenges are still in the list of cache types and are included with the grand total at the bottom but the total is called “Total Found/Completed” so at least it’s labeled correctly and is the place to go when you WANT to see the combined total if you don’t want to do the math yourself.

So I guess I’d have to say that I’m happy 😕 with the fix – but I still kind of wish that it was completely separate and not integrated with geocaching at all. This whole premise Jeremy mentioned about making the site into a “go somehwere and have fun” site is flawed. Keep geocaching geocaching. Keep waymarking waymarking. It’s great that they’re offering the fun, but when you try to over extend your “brand” you compromise the experience of everyone.

So… who’s going to create the challenges for the WGA picnic 🙂 Just remember these 2 simple rules:
1. Do whatever you want.
2. Refer to rule 1.

Don’t worry about duplicating a challenge that someone else has created.
Don’t worry about making it TOO location based and it doesn’t need exact coordinates, anyone with a mobile device should be able to participate. A GPS is NOT required. In fact, they are discouraged.
Don’t worry if you get 50 thumbs down. Give yourself a thumbs up and press on!
Don’t worry if it has no significance whatsoever or if it’s just a silly trick to play on your friends. Jeremy says that’s what challenges are for! Sounds like super hero material to me! 🙄

… Maybe I’m not as happy as I thought. 😈

[Lostby7]

I find my opinion of these is MUCH better now that they have spit them from official find counts…I’d still like them to go somewhere else but I’m willing to give them a chance as a stand alone activity.

I find them much easier to ignore / participate in since they don’t count for squat now.

[GetMeOutdoors]

Agreed.

[CodeJunkie]

I also noticed last night that when looking at a user profile where the “Challenges: xx” is you can’t click on the challeges to see what a user did like you can for all the other true geocaches. That seemed a little odd and something that perhaps just needs some tweaking.

I also still don’t see the distinction between “Photo Challenges” and “Waymarking”. Both require you to go to a generalized location and post a picture. As far as I can tell the only difference is that in waymarking YOU OWN the listing and Challenges aren’t owned at all.

[-cheeto-]

Groundspeak intended for the thumbs up and thumbs down ratings to be used by someone who has completed the challenge and wants to give their opinion so that others can use that to help them decide if they want to do the challenge.

It was not designed as a battle-field for people to just be arbitrarily voting up and down to keep the listing active.

I believe that some people are just voting down everything because they dislike challenges. This is not helpful to the folks who actually want to participate in this.

I also believe that some people are just voting them up because they actually want to do the challenge and are afraid it will be voted out of existence before they can do the challenge.

Please just play the game or not. We get it, some people like them and some do not. But to ruin it for those that do is very petty.

PS I’m posting this because I’ve seen new challenges get lots of votes before it’s even done once and because most challenges by me have way more votes than completions. Votes in both directions.

This could all easily be remedied by requiring a completion (or at least an acceptance) to cast a vote one way or the other.

[CodeJunkie]

Cheeto – I get where you’re going and would have to lean the opposite way I think based on my opinion of the “Favorites for geocaches”. There are many puzzles I’ve solved, but haven’t found that I’d like to consider a favorite based on the nature of the puzzle. I can’t though until I go and find roadsign or guardrail to make the experience “complete”.

I think an alternative on the “Challenges” would be something similar to the “Favorites / Premium Member” ration on geocaches. Maybe something along the lines of “Thumbs up / Completed” or “Thumbs down / Completed”. That would tell us the opinion of those that actually did it and we could use the rest as a gauge. Tying it to an accept might be a good idea also. It would be pretty obvious that an accept with a thumbs down is just bogus. A completed with a thumbs down is definitive that the user did it, but didn’t enjoy it. The thumbs up in either case would indicate that it has potential merit.

[huffinpuffin2]

@CodeJunkie wrote:

Cheeto – I get where you’re going and would have to lean the opposite way I think based on my opinion of the “Favorites for geocaches”. There are many puzzles I’ve solved, but haven’t found that I’d like to consider a favorite based on the nature of the puzzle. I can’t though until I go and find roadsign or guardrail to make the experience “complete”.

But isn’t that a form of ‘armchair-caching’? Ich weiß nicht. 🙂

[Team Black-Cat]

@CodeJunkie wrote:

There are many puzzles I’ve solved, but haven’t found that I’d like to consider a favorite based on the nature of the puzzle. I can’t though until I go and find roadsign or guardrail to make the experience “complete”.

Without finding the container (regarless of the hide quality) it’s not geocaching, it’s puzzle solving.

@huffinpuffin2 wrote:

But isn’t that a form of ‘armchair-caching’?

Only if the log starts “Greetings from Germany”. Hmmm… CJ is from Berlin…

@huffinpuffin2 wrote:

Ich weiß nicht.

Now you do.

[CodeJunkie]

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

@CodeJunkie wrote:

There are many puzzles I’ve solved, but haven’t found that I’d like to consider a favorite based on the nature of the puzzle. I can’t though until I go and find roadsign or guardrail to make the experience “complete”.

Without finding the container (regarless of the hide quality) it’s not geocaching, it’s puzzle solving.

@huffinpuffin2 wrote:

But isn’t that a form of ‘armchair-caching’?

Only if the log starts “Greetings from Germany”. Hmmm… CJ is from Berlin…

LOL – I guess I better remove some of my “favorites” then. If I’m supposed to base my like / dislike based on the find (ignoring the puzzle aspect) then there are many GREAT puzzles, but not a whole lot of good “Finds” (my apologies to the CO’s of these caches, but after 52 guardrails, sign posts, etc. they all start looking the same 😉 )

And its Berlin (bur-lin), not Berlin (ber-lin) 😉 Besides I live on the western side of the river and everyone knows the Germans all live on the east side of the river (jeeeezzzzz!!!)

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