Author Topic: RIP Challenges  (Read 433 times)

Offline walktall

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4038
  • Karma: +38/-7
  • the Peace of walking
    • View Profile
    • Yinglong
RIP Challenges
« on: December 05, 2012, 12:48:37 am »
Dear Geocacher,

In our effort to inspire outdoor play through Geocaching, we are often faced with decisions about what to focus on next, and what to focus on less. It is through these decisions that we explore opportunities to grow the global game of Geocaching.

Occasionally, during this process, we are faced with the reality that certain ideas don't catch on as we had hoped. In these situations we owe it to ourselves and to you to make tough decisions about the future of every project and the resources to be applied to each. Sometimes, as a result, cool features must become casualties.

In this spirit, we have decided to retire Geocaching Challenges.

This means that, effective today, we have disabled the ability to create new Challenges. We have also removed the Challenges application from all mobile application stores. In approximately 7 days, we will be removing all traces of the Challenges functionality and related content from Geocaching.com.

On an office wall here at HQ is a sign that reads, "Let's make better mistakes tomorrow." By accepting that we will sometimes get it wrong, we can allow ourselves to learn from and imagine new opportunities in the world of Geocaching. Our hope is we can take the lessons from Challenges and create better tools to guide you on your next adventure.

Sincerely,
Geocaching.com
Lets go for a CacheWalker  
CacheWalker & Cotswold Caching forums for the Cotswolds & beyond

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Offline Gackt

  • ABH Walker
  • *
  • Posts: 792
  • Karma: +12/-0
  • GeoVampire
  • Location: Cirencester
    • View Profile
    • about.me
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2012, 07:03:45 am »
As I wrote on Cotswold Caching; For me, it is a little bit disappointing. I did enjoy doing a few. But I don't feel the whole setup originally was as well thought out as it could of been, and as there have been no new development on them for a long time, it has come as no great surprise of this decision.

Offline Griff Grof

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4254
  • Karma: +40/-1
  • The joys of caching
  • Location: The Cotswolds, UK
    • View Profile
    • My Geocaching Blog
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2012, 07:54:36 am »
Well.... Maybe now they actually will bring back virtuals as was the request in the first place  :P

It's not really a shame for me, I found one just so I could have the icon for the day when they went  :) Logging one didn't inspire me to log another!  :o

Bring back virtuals! Bring back virtuals!  ;D ;D
~Caching in the Cotswolds and beyond ~
My Geocaching Blog ~ SUBSCRIBE

Offline walktall

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4038
  • Karma: +38/-7
  • the Peace of walking
    • View Profile
    • Yinglong
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2012, 10:02:17 am »
It does not surprise me that they are being axed. They were badly thought out and not what the geocaching community wanted - they want virtuals back.

  • As a CO, you lost control of the Challenge you created.
  • You don't get notified, like other caches you create when someone completes it.
  • You get a vague time stamp when you completed the Challenge.
  • You can't PQ for Challenges or download them.


I have enjoyed doing some, my favourite is The Part Fallen but action Challenge type was axed some time ago with the promise of other types that never happened :o
Lets go for a CacheWalker  
CacheWalker & Cotswold Caching forums for the Cotswolds & beyond

Offline walktall

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4038
  • Karma: +38/-7
  • the Peace of walking
    • View Profile
    • Yinglong
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2012, 10:29:13 am »
Will this mean that they can now spend time on Wherigos or will they get axed as well ??? :(
Lets go for a CacheWalker  
CacheWalker & Cotswold Caching forums for the Cotswolds & beyond

Offline Griff Grof

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4254
  • Karma: +40/-1
  • The joys of caching
  • Location: The Cotswolds, UK
    • View Profile
    • My Geocaching Blog
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2012, 04:01:24 pm »
Will this mean that they can now spend time on Wherigos or will they get axed as well ??? :(

I hope they do spend more time on them AND bringing back the grandfathered virtual cache type!  ;D

I still like to brag that I created the 1st UK challenge and 26th in the world  ;D ;D - I know what you mean about loosing control, absolutely rubbish.

I thought that if they wanted challenges then it should be integrated as a cache type not a separate thing - like a virtual cache was a cache type that you could log as found, and list as a normal cache, challenges would have worked more if they were like that  :)

Oh well... What's next? The community will obviously, like me, be begging them to bring virtuals back now that Challenges are gone - they'll say no, and introduce Geocaching Waymarks  :o
~Caching in the Cotswolds and beyond ~
My Geocaching Blog ~ SUBSCRIBE

Offline Bear and Ragged

  • Fell Walker
  • *
  • Posts: 636
  • Karma: +10/-2
  • *.*
  • Location: Land of the Bear and Ragged Staff!
    • View Profile
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2012, 09:27:55 pm »
RIP?
Good riddance more like!

Strange how most of the suggestions for new challenges were already waymarking categories...
I have a Geocaching problem...
Work gets in the way!

Offline Gackt

  • ABH Walker
  • *
  • Posts: 792
  • Karma: +12/-0
  • GeoVampire
  • Location: Cirencester
    • View Profile
    • about.me
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2012, 02:04:15 pm »
I do think if groundspeak completely wipe all traces of them, as I believe they intend to, a few people may be a bit miffed. Whilst a lot of people were not interested in them, and a lot of loggers were armchair loggers, and many only completed them in a half arsed fashion, there were a few that have taken them quite seriously and I have seen through their logs that have gone out and travelled quite far to complete challenges properly.

Offline walktall

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4038
  • Karma: +38/-7
  • the Peace of walking
    • View Profile
    • Yinglong
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2012, 02:17:27 pm »
They should be archived like Locationless (Reverse) caches were, so at least they can be looked at.

I have been grabbing all the data on the ones I've done just in case :)
Lets go for a CacheWalker  
CacheWalker & Cotswold Caching forums for the Cotswolds & beyond

Offline Griff Grof

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4254
  • Karma: +40/-1
  • The joys of caching
  • Location: The Cotswolds, UK
    • View Profile
    • My Geocaching Blog
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2012, 02:57:45 pm »
I didn't see what was wrong with Locationless, Webcam and Virtual caches ever - Groundspeak just made Waymarking, it seems to me, so that they could run a game they could call theirs - they didn't come up with Geocaching, so they wanted an original idea, which never took off. I bet more virtual caches have been logged on GC.com than Waymarks in all time  :o - take Bear and Ragged's Waymarks on Dovers Hill - 4 years old, and not even one log  :o

The whole point that they still can't be viewed like Locationless caches, is that they created a SEPARATE AREA for them - when you log a challenge (although it did originally) it doesn't add to your total count. It wasn't a cache type. It had a whole tab for itself, a whole page, a whole map! THIS was where Groundspeak went wrong - if they had made a "Challenge" a cache type, we wouldn't be saying RIP to them - we'd be logging them, and creating them.  :D

When will they learn  ::) ???
~Caching in the Cotswolds and beyond ~
My Geocaching Blog ~ SUBSCRIBE

Offline Bear and Ragged

  • Fell Walker
  • *
  • Posts: 636
  • Karma: +10/-2
  • *.*
  • Location: Land of the Bear and Ragged Staff!
    • View Profile
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2012, 07:43:25 pm »
Ah-hem...
Actually...
Two of the waymarks at Dovers Hill, both the National Trust one, and the Topograph, were visited by a fellow cacher whilst "In the area for the picnic in the rain event."  :P

It seems at the moment, most waymarkers are posting waymarks, and only visiting them if they are they are posting in the same category.
eg I post in the Victorian Post Box, National Trust and UK Trig Points. (I also log on Trigpointing UK) If I find one I post it, but if it's already posted I log a visit.

I think if GS had integrated waymarking better with the caching site, more cachers may have taken to waymarking.
Althouh Jeremy has said that waymarking hasn't gone the way h was hoping it would... Maybe he should have said how he wanted it to go, and had a firmer hand on leading it that way!

Interesting that a lot of the suggestions for challenges were for already existing waymarks...

Next time you cache, take a look at the link for Nearest Waymarks... There may be something there, that in the past might have been posted -had they survived- as a Virtual Cache, or even a Locationless Cache!
I have a Geocaching problem...
Work gets in the way!

Offline cx6

  • First Steps
  • *
  • Posts: 7
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Location: United Kingdom
    • View Profile
    • criminally insane
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2012, 09:09:59 pm »
And they're gone.  All traces removed, just as GS threatened.

Are you sad to have lost the UK's 2nd Challenge, Griff Grof, and the 38th in the world?   ;)

Offline Griff Grof

  • Administrator
  • CacheWalker
  • *
  • Posts: 4254
  • Karma: +40/-1
  • The joys of caching
  • Location: The Cotswolds, UK
    • View Profile
    • My Geocaching Blog
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2012, 09:25:45 pm »
Are you sad to have lost the UK's 2nd Challenge, Griff Grof, and the 38th in the world?   ;)

It's a huge loss  :'(  ;)

BRING BACK VIRTUAL'S
BRING BACK VIRTUAL'S
BRING BACK VIRTUAL'S
 
There's now a huge possibility that they will - Imagine the demand on the GS that must be emerging as I type  :o Although it will probably just be Waymarking integrated into the Site  ;)
~Caching in the Cotswolds and beyond ~
My Geocaching Blog ~ SUBSCRIBE

Offline cx6

  • First Steps
  • *
  • Posts: 7
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Location: United Kingdom
    • View Profile
    • criminally insane
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2012, 09:35:25 pm »
GS are impervious to customer opinion.  They won't bring back virtuals.  And, yeah, I'm a little peeved for having lost my challenge too.

Offline Gackt

  • ABH Walker
  • *
  • Posts: 792
  • Karma: +12/-0
  • GeoVampire
  • Location: Cirencester
    • View Profile
    • about.me
Re: RIP Challenges
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2012, 09:52:05 pm »
xJammmzy created one of the first challenges around our area, a daft planking one on a mosaic hare in the centre of Cirencester. It stood the time without getting archived by challenge dislikers, but popularity of doing that one died out many months ago. I don't think he's fussed about it being wiped out.

I am a bit miffed I didn't get to do a couple I had my eyes on, or get to finish one I started a long time ago. But nothing's stopping me from doing any of that still anyway.

 


CacheWalker - for those who love geocaching and walking
© 2012-2021 CacheWalker

Header Image: Trees © Griff Grof