Contest Poll Results and Task Quest
The results are in and 60% of those who voted on the format for the Come Out & Play contest preferred the option where there is an equal focus on both finding and hiding caches. So that’s what we’ll go with. We agree and feel it’s the best choice for appealing to the largest number of cachers. Thanks to all who voted and/or commented and to Zor for posting the poll for us. 🙂
The next step is to create the tasks. Last year in the post-season wrap-up we heard some ideas and suggestions for tasks so here is your chance to get them into the game. Either post them in a reply here or, if you want to keep them private, send us an email (milosheart@gmail.com) with your suggestions. We have no problem using some of the tasks from last year but wanted to freshen up the game a bit so your input is invaluable to us. You won’t know if your task has been chosen until the contest rules and tasks are published so there is no advantage to any individual player. The more new tasks we have to chose from, the better!
For those who aren’ t familiar with the contest or didn’t play last year but would like to participate this year, please submit your ideas, too. An example of some tasks from last year are; “find a cache with a kid friendly icon”, “find a cache while wearing shorts”, “find a cache a day for 7 consecutive days” or “hide a puzzle cache”. This link (https://www.cacheupnb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ContestRevisions.pdf) will show you the rules/tasks from last year for more info and examples.
To keep things as simple as possible for everyone most of, if not all, the tasks will be doable for finders and hiders and scored the same for both finders and hiders. For example: “find or hide a kid friendly cache” or “find or hide 3 caches on the same day”. This keeps the total number of task options down and makes the scoring as easy for us as it was last year.
So, put your thinking caps on and send us your ideas! 🙂
Couple of tasks ideas maybe. 1) Hide the most caches: 1 point per cache hidden with every 20 hidden giving you an extra 5 points or something, so you hide 20 caches you get 25 points. 40 hidden = 50 points and so on, with a bonus that if you hid the most overall being another 5 or 10 points. Its just a thought, you can take the idea and run with it.
2) Best cache series hidden: minimum of 20 caches in the series, have it based on votes at the BBW event, some of the criteria could be: original ideas and thought gone into series, Longevity and survivability of the series (Containers suitable for longterm placement, etc)
3) Most caches found in 1 day overall for points?
4)Find an ammo can cache and take your picture with it balanced on your head with no assistance and no hands =D
5)Take your pet for a walk. Take a picture of your pet with a geocache and your GPSr.
6)Find a puzzle, multi, traditional and earthcache all in the same day.
Thats all i got for now… they might seem wierd i dunno
The only problem I see with a “hide the most caches” task is someone going out very early and hiding 200 less than stellar caches and taking up all the space in a specific area and then no one else has room to hide. Maybe make it a set number of points for 10 hides each month? The tasks need to be Geocaching based and available to everyone so any “other” requirements may limit some people, like those who cache alone or don’t have a pet. Have you seen Zonker’s head, no way he could balance anything on that round melon. Maybe you could have a task or two specific to the new Challenges?
Last year I only completed about half of the required number of caches and they were all the ordinary type of challenges like find 5 on one day or hide a cache, I didn’t do any of the ones that were different like wearing shorts or punch Paulandstacey. Maybe I am old fashion but I like to just go geocaching, all the other things don’t interest me but that is just me. If the other task are popular and make people happy, by all means do them but give us “purist” enough to do as well. Either way I will try to complete it if possible.
I’m not too worried about tasks like “cache with a pet,” since there will be (or were last year, so I’m assuming will be again!) a lot of tasks to choose from. There were some last year that we couldn’t do, either – just a matter of picking the ones you can / want to do, and going out to have some fun!
I definitely like the idea of multiple cache types in a day. Perhaps a task like “Find as many different cache types in a day as possible. Score = (D*T of the highest valued) + 2*(number of different cache types) OR 10 – 2*(number of different cache types) [for those who are going for low score]. So, if you found 4 cache types, and one was a 3/3, it would be worth 3*3 + 2*4 = 17 points. If you found 7 cache types, and one was a 5/5, it would be worth 5*5 + 7*2 = 39. Or, if you were going for low score, the first example would be worth 2 points, the second, -4 points.
When the new challenges came out I was thinking about trying to get one for removing GeoTrash. I soon realized that it would be difficult as it would have to be voted on and accepted…
However, Maybe it could be added to this challenge. To try and make myself clear I’m not talking about GeoJunk that you come across while Geocaching. I mean a cache that has been archived and left to ‘decompose’ for the next 500 years in the woods.
All you would need to do is look for an archived cache and determine if it was removed of not. Many of you already know where some are as there are plenty. When you learn of one you simply go out and retrieve and properly dispose of that cache in the best way possible. Maybe you could reuse parts of it and recycle others. Once that is done maybe we could right a note on the cache listing to say it way removed. The points could work the same as to what ever that cache has for terrain and difficulty.
Just an idea and I’m sure this will not be a popular one as I can see many problems arising. Actually it would probably open up a can of worms with puzzle cachers etc. Regardless, I wanted to share my idea anyway to see how others would feel about it…
Thanks
Teta,
Both you and Rev have mentioned having a task that somehow incorporates the new geocaching challenges. Having not done any, created any or particularly cared about them I’m not sure how we’d do it. From what I saw, with just a quick look at some of them, there’s no way to tell when they were done, no date on them that we could use to verify. It takes forever to scroll through all those who have completed them to find a specific cacher; way too difficult to verify that way. We’d love to include a task built around them but we just have absolutely no idea how to do it. If you guys can come up with a simple task that can easily be verified, please do! Let us know. 🙂