Does anyone think the APP should have more of a reward element to it?

[+The McCoys UK]

I cycle a lot and use an app called Strava. If your not familiar with this app it records and logs your Rides, Runs, Hikes, Walks etc etc..

 

It rates and awards you based on time, distance etc. It also compares you to other users, you can do small comparisons just amongst people you follow and groups or with everyone.

 

Its very good and adds a healthy competitiveness to your chosen sport a well as it helps you try to beat yourself.

 

Also you can view other peoples profiles and also follow and create groups.

 

Do people not think that we should have a more social media and sport/game like theme to our app.

 

I for one would love to be able to click on other users profiles view their pictures and share with them, its would be great to see when and where local users are going and maybe become friends.

 

It would also be good if maybe the app record the amount of GC's you collect daily, weekly, monthly etc It could give your Personal Bests and encourage you to find more, maybe you get points based on difficulty and awards for Terrain and Difficulty? Distance Covered awards? Would it be so difficult for the app to start recording the time from the 30 ft notice to the point you log it and you get XP's or rating based on how quick you managed to discover it??

 

It could even offer Levels like a game so as you do better you become a Level XXX user, maybe as you reach higher levels it unlocks other features or you just the ability to buy higher level loot, or clothing.

 

I appreciate not all these idea could work but its worth considering some of them and making the app a much better experience especially for new users.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

[+JimJinks]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

[+on4bam]

Do people not think that we should have a more social media and sport/game like theme to our app.

 

No. I'd go for less

[+Touchstone]

I use Strava, and I could really care less about the competitive aspects of the site. The one feature I do enjoy, and one I wish they would implement on GC.com would be the tracklog features. I enjoy seeing where other people have gone to plan my own trips. I wouldn't care to see every single track, but just something people could turn off/on when they like, to post a cache run, and share with the Community if they like.

[+T.D.M.22]

Why? It does exactly what it's designed for.

 

You like the features of another app, then use that app. This isn't facebook, we don't need likes and friends and such. It isn't strava, we don't need any of that stuff. It isn't Geocaching.com we don't need stats or the ability to hide a cache. It's an app made to find geocaches. The more other stuff it does, the less it works overall and more it costs to develop.

[+wimseyguy]

No. This is geocaching, not foursquare, pokego, etc. that requires badges and rewards. The reward is getting outside to explore fun and interesting new places and if you're lucky finding a cache at the end of the outbound journey.

 

 

Well except for those silly souvenirs they added a few years ago.

[+The Leprechauns]

There is a LOT of functionality that I'm waiting to see migrated from the Geocaching Classic app to the new Geocaching® app, before I'd worry about badges, statistics and competition.

 

It sounds like the OP would enjoy spending time at Project-GC.com -- a site I like so much that I bought a membership there. My stats are updated daily and I can run challenge checkers as many times as I want, in order to find challenge caches to keep geocaching interesting for me.

 

I also use the badges and "level" belts to challenge myself to achieve new milestones. That helps keep geocaching interesting for me, after 14 years. Note that I do NOT display all that statistical and badge information on my profile page. I use those things only to challenge myself. Others use them as part of a perceived or actual competition with other geocachers. That's fine, too. But with the functionality available elsewhere, it doesn't need to be in an app whose purpose is to help someone find geocaches in the field.

[+dartymoor]

Christ, No. Never do this!

 

I get the RPG element you mean, but in a game like Geocaching where it's mostly based on trust not to abuse the systems, that would lead to widespread cheating.

 

You can't cheat Strava (well, I can because I have an ebike, but a fat middle aged bloke beating the lycra whippets' times on uphill sections does rather stand out on the local leaderboards), but you can cheat geocaching no matter how you want to try and do it.

 

And besides, the App is not Geocaching - it's just one tiny, expensive and badly featured window to this world.

[ohgood]

I cycle a lot and use an app called Strava. If your not familiar with this app it records and logs your Rides, Runs, Hikes, Walks etc etc..

 

It rates and awards you based on time, distance etc. It also compares you to other users, you can do small comparisons just amongst people you follow and groups or with everyone.

 

Its very good and adds a healthy competitiveness to your chosen sport a well as it helps you try to beat yourself.

 

Also you can view other peoples profiles and also follow and create groups.

 

Do people not think that we should have a more social media and sport/game like theme to our app.

 

I for one would love to be able to click on other users profiles view their pictures and share with them, its would be great to see when and where local users are going and maybe become friends.

 

It would also be good if maybe the app record the amount of GC's you collect daily, weekly, monthly etc It could give your Personal Bests and encourage you to find more, maybe you get points based on difficulty and awards for Terrain and Difficulty? Distance Covered awards? Would it be so difficult for the app to start recording the time from the 30 ft notice to the point you log it and you get XP's or rating based on how quick you managed to discover it??

 

It could even offer Levels like a game so as you do better you become a Level XXX user, maybe as you reach higher levels it unlocks other features or you just the ability to buy higher level loot, or clothing.

 

I appreciate not all these idea could work but its worth considering some of them and making the app a much better experience especially for new users.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

 

yup that would be cool.

 

you'll get a lot of resistance to your idea because the folks that use stand alone GPS units won't have the ability to participate or compete until they step up to the smartphone world. there is already resistance to updating as it is.

 

it's easy enough to turn on those kinds of statistics, upload GPX tracks of the outing, and similar stuff (Strava/Google health/similar), but i don't think you'll ever see ground speak put that much effort into the site.

 

some of the apps let you share your route directly on Facebook, which works pretty good if you setup a group to handle who gets access. it's pretty slick.

[+cerberus1]

you'll get a lot of resistance to your idea because the folks that use stand alone GPS units won't have the ability to participate or compete until they step up to the smartphone world. there is already resistance to updating as it is.

That's odd, I know for fact most of the people against this idea so far (I'm one also) have and use a smartphone.

Please explain.

[+L0ne.R]

I cycle a lot and use an app called Strava. If your not familiar with this app it records and logs your Rides, Runs, Hikes, Walks etc etc..

 

It rates and awards you based on time, distance etc. It also compares you to other users, you can do small comparisons just amongst people you follow and groups or with everyone.

 

Its very good and adds a healthy competitiveness to your chosen sport a well as it helps you try to beat yourself.

 

Also you can view other peoples profiles and also follow and create groups.

 

Do people not think that we should have a more social media and sport/game like theme to our app.

 

I for one would love to be able to click on other users profiles view their pictures and share with them, its would be great to see when and where local users are going and maybe become friends.

 

It would also be good if maybe the app record the amount of GC's you collect daily, weekly, monthly etc It could give your Personal Bests and encourage you to find more, maybe you get points based on difficulty and awards for Terrain and Difficulty? Distance Covered awards? Would it be so difficult for the app to start recording the time from the 30 ft notice to the point you log it and you get XP's or rating based on how quick you managed to discover it??

 

It could even offer Levels like a game so as you do better you become a Level XXX user, maybe as you reach higher levels it unlocks other features or you just the ability to buy higher level loot, or clothing.

 

I appreciate not all these idea could work but its worth considering some of them and making the app a much better experience especially for new users.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

 

The problem is it doesn't take in to consideration the people who hide the caches. Pokeman and Strava do not rely on the volunteer contributions of cache owners. Where is the reward for the cache owners? Where is the incentive to hide more then a leaky micro with a moldy scrap of paper? Where is the incentive to hide quality well-maintained caches?

 

There is almost no incentive now. More emphasis on the numbers will mean all that would be left to find will be set-em-and-forget-em caches with tattered moldy piece of paper in a leaky container. At least currently there is the hope that in a day of caching there might be one quality cache container out there that makes it worthwhile.

 

[+cerberus1]

I for one would love to be able to click on other users profiles view their pictures and share with them, its would be great to see when and where local users are going and maybe become friends.

Maybe it's just me, but if I was dumb enough to say online where/when I'm going to be somewhere (and we see idjuts do just that on social sites...), I'd probably deserve an unpleasant consequence someday.

 

You can already access profiles, to look at pics and stats (if they choose to allow it).

There's always the Friends function.

- Though I know no one personally (my real friends) who uses the Friends List.

[+Manville Possum]

This sounds a lot like the features of the Pokemon Go app. As a geocacher, I would not want these features on my geocaching app.

[+on4bam]

Maybe some people would be interested to see other cacher's tracks. Saves them from solving mysteries and doing multi's WP by WP

 

Besides, as cerberus1 stated, do you really want others to see where you are in real time?

[ohgood]

you'll get a lot of resistance to your idea because the folks that use stand alone GPS units won't have the ability to participate or compete until they step up to the smartphone world. there is already resistance to updating as it is.

That's odd, I know for fact most of the people against this idea so far (I'm one also) have and use a smartphone.

Please explain.

 

"we always did it this way" is what i hear normally, from the stand alone crowd. it's just normal, people like their brands, wether it's trucks/cars/watches/whatever.:-)

 

the OPTION of using the plugin like Strava living to an application sounds like a good idea to me, but I'm sure some people will disagree. :-)

[+The McCoys UK]

Wow didn't expect to meet so much resistance and negativity to the idea. Not sure why people have made a comparison to Pokemon I haven't played that nor do I intend too.

 

And like I said i'm not suggesting we adopt all the features mentioned but just think about what are some of the best points of other apps and maybe think about taking that info on board... Also to the person who suggested we def DONT want it to be more like social media and we don't want to share or make friends.. REALLY??? You see this as an Anti Social activity??? Gosh I see it quite the opposite as an opportunity to go out and thank and message Cache makers and users.

 

As for the Strava element I think the ability to Follow, Like and Compare yourself to other users as well as the monthly Challenges it operates would be awesome... Off the top of my head if each month we had a challenge which you could opt into for Most Caches Found, Most Distance Covered, Most 4-5 Rated etc etc etc. Surelt that would be fun?? NO?

 

And going back to the last post about change... I have a small business and we have a saying it goes "But we've always done it this way" is the most destructive phrase in business!!!

[+MartyBartfast]

Wow didn't expect to meet so much resistance and negativity to the idea. Not sure why people have made a comparison to Pokemon I haven't played that nor do I intend too.

I think the comparison to Pokemon was because there were similar threads just before yours along the lines of "wouldn't it be great if we made Geocaching more like Pokemon Go".

 

And like I said i'm not suggesting we adopt all the features mentioned but just think about what are some of the best points of other apps and maybe think about taking that info on board...

Geocaching isn't about the app, it's about going and finding stuff, the game itself has adopted some of the better aspects of other games over the years, e.g. adding a smartphone app to armoury instead of just a GPS, adding the ability to log online in the field etc.

 

Also to the person who suggested we def DONT want it to be more like social media and we don't want to share or make friends.. REALLY??? You see this as an Anti Social activity??? Gosh I see it quite the opposite as an opportunity to go out and thank and message Cache makers and users.

The social side of Geocaching is much more about meeting people face to face, at events or days out, than social media. Anyway social media is already somewhat integrated, with the ability to post activity to facebook, these forums, and GC.com's facebook pages. As for the opportunity to thank cache makers - you can do that by writing a good log.

 

As for the Strava element I think the ability to Follow, Like and Compare yourself to other users as well as the monthly Challenges it operates would be awesome... Off the top of my head if each month we had a challenge which you could opt into for Most Caches Found, Most Distance Covered, Most 4-5 Rated etc etc etc. Surelt that would be fun?? NO?

I think most of the resistance is coming from those who, like me, don't think Geocaching should be a competitive game, and so NO this wouldn't be fun.

 

And going back to the last post about change... I have a small business and we have a saying it goes "But we've always done it this way" is the most destructive phrase in business!!!

 

It's not a case of "we've always done it this way" it's a case of "this is what the game is, if you want to play a different game then go and do so, don't try to make this game into another one". As I hinted above Geocaching has come a long way since 2000, with the advent of smartphone apps, changes to the cache types, mega events (social enough for you?), souvenirs, challenges, etc. And it will continue to evolve no doubt, but I hope GS are very careful about how it does evolve and stays away from anything which would make it inherently competitive.

Edited July 28, 2016 by MartyBartfast

[+AnnaMoritz]

No, thank you. I don't need more competition. And no levels, please. No pay for cheat eh levelling up please.

 

If you want something like strava, use strava.

 

There is enough competition if you are into that, FTF, statistics pages like project-gc.com, badges. FTF-hunts will let you meet other people that maybe are like-minded.

 

For socializing there are also Events, regional geocaching clubs and social medial groups etc. where you can arrange whatever activity.

 

Besides privacy concerns - more than half of the caches I visited during the last year were not at the posted coordinates, e.g. Multi-caches, Unknowns, Letterboxes with clues, Wherigo etc. Most owners won't be happy if I share my tracks with the whole world to allow skipping, especially of long multis and difficult puzzles.

Edited July 28, 2016 by AnnaMoritz

[ohgood]

Wow didn't expect to meet so much resistance and negativity to the idea. Not sure why people have made a comparison to Pokemon I haven't played that nor do I intend too.

 

And like I said i'm not suggesting we adopt all the features mentioned but just think about what are some of the best points of other apps and maybe think about taking that info on board... Also to the person who suggested we def DONT want it to be more like social media and we don't want to share or make friends.. REALLY??? You see this as an Anti Social activity??? Gosh I see it quite the opposite as an opportunity to go out and thank and message Cache makers and users.

 

As for the Strava element I think the ability to Follow, Like and Compare yourself to other users as well as the monthly Challenges it operates would be awesome... Off the top of my head if each month we had a challenge which you could opt into for Most Caches Found, Most Distance Covered, Most 4-5 Rated etc etc etc. Surelt that would be fun?? NO?

 

And going back to the last post about change... I have a small business and we have a saying it goes "But we've always done it this way" is the most destructive phrase in business!!!

 

agreed, especially the last sentence

[+Yorkshire Yellow]

In a word, no.

[+kunarion]

Not sure why people have made a comparison to Pokemon I haven't played that nor do I intend too.

Go pay play that. Don't you know that "But we've always done it this way" is the most destructive phrase?

 

People in App stores stage protests when Apps by design have no online competitive feature. The App gets rated "One Star until you add 'Gamecenter'". The number is everything. It's fun when you can use a glitch to publish an impossibly high score. It's no fun as the game itself. They require the App to be online, connected, and therefore high cost (If you aren't paying, somebody is, a lot). It's not even enough that there already exist other Apps exactly as required. The "destructive" offline non-freemium Apps aren't left alone to destruct in peace. Nothing is allowed to be as it was, it's all required to become pokemongo. I see Geocaching headed this way. The App is positioned to do this, and it could be unlimited pay freemium, using the Waymarking database similar to what Ingress did. One hurdle is licensing just the right franchise. Because even Ingress wasn't wildly popular as "a game", a popular franchise was added.

Edited August 3, 2016 by kunarion

[+dplobo1986]

sorry to chuck my 2 pence in I don't think it needs more rewards the reward is the find but I would like some form of confirmed find is it is possible.

[+SoggyMoggy]

Err... No thanks.

 

For us, the reward is getting out, getting some exercise and finding some Tupperware or funny magnet things... It's competitive enough for us with the statistics, county completion maps, FTF races etc. And our interactions take place face to face at events - not by hours and hours on a PC. I have no desire to "level up" or advertise my day out to all and sundry. Also I think it would create ability for cheating the system to take place, it would kind of ruin all those puzzle caches that others work so hard to create and we work so hard to solve!!

 

PS I'm not an old school cacher resistant to changes or am only using a GPS like a previous poster said people who didn't want this were... I have and use a smartphone at the moment but it's got so many limitations... so we are getting a GPS after almost 500 finds...