Talk:Geohashing Day

As Discussed

The talk below is the discussion of celebration of the first Geohashing Day, in April 2009.

The Algorithm as shown in xkcd comic #426, published on 21 May 2008.

Discuss here, then when we have either a consensus or a joyous riot of ideas, we'll organize them here and move the discussion to the associated talk page for posterity. -Robyn 20:29, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

The Algorithm that defines the sport of geohashing was first published on 21 May 2008. The anniversary of that date is approaching, and begs to be celebrated. Definitely we should geohash, but ...

Updated with what seems to be the most popular/best consensus suggestions.

Date of Celebration

• Should it be celebrated on May 21st, or on the nearest Saturday?

  Both May 21st and the nearest Saturday should "count" as celebrating.

• How should it be celebrated?

  Try to have a unique adventure and make a special effort to publicize the sport to others

• What should it be called? Algorithm Day? xkcd Day? Geohashing Day?

  • I think that "Geohashing Day" is the better option to communicate geohashing to others. Inside our community, we understand what The Algorithm is, but for anyone else we celebrate the creation of geohashing. -- relet 20:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

    • Relet's argument convinces me. I'm calling it Geohashing Day (including moving this page) unless anyone else has a more compelling argument otherwise.

• There will be a ribbon.

Whoa, hive mind. Just this morning I thought about this and added a new geek- holiday to my calendar (following Pi-Day, Pi-Approx.-Day, Towel-Day, ...). I simply named it Geohashing Day, but I also like Algorithm Day. I'd opt for celebrating it on May 21st, not on Saturday. If we make an achievement ribbon for this, the next Saturday might qualify for a honorable mention. Besides, another day coming up to celebrate, is Towel Day (May 25th). Someone should make a ribbon for knowing where your towel is while Geohashing. Koepfel _talk 21:26, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I would recommend the nearest Saturday (May 23rd), because the original intention of the comic was that "Game Day is Saturday," and many people can't geohash on weekdays. -Robyn 21:37, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

The intention of the comic was to visit certain coordinates on a certain day. The saturday meetup was just the mouse-over text ;) I do see the point of people being busy (I myself probably won't have the time on that day), but the anniversary is on May 21st. This is why I thought of a honorable mention, maybe also for retro-expeditions on Saturday. Koepfel _talk 21:46, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. Not only was 'Saturday is game night' only the mouseover text, but the example given in the comic is for a Thursday. -- Benjw 05:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Heh. Maybe May 21st (Algorithm Day) to May 25th (Towel Day) is now the Geek Week (tm) holiday? I should take that as an excuse to take those days off and go hashing :D --dawidi 22:20, 20 April 2009 (UTC) (with the towel over my shoulder, of course)

Maybe "Algorithm day" the 21st, and "Algorithm day (observed)" the next (or nearest?) Saturday, to mimic moveable statutory holidays, with either counting as attending the anniversary celebrations? -- Rhonda 03:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I was already planning on creating a "Geohashiversary" achievement for making an expedition on the 21st. I like the idea of getting the achievement by just making an effort, because that's the spirit of geohashing: getting out there and doing something you wouldn't normally do, it doesn't matter if you make the coordinates as long as you have an adventure! Thepiguy 05:00, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree with adventure trumping just reaching the coordinates, but you should have to do something, perhaps tell three non-geohashers about it, perhaps`something zanier. -Robyn 05:12, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Bear and I like the idea of a "Algorithm day" on the 21st, and "Algorithm day observed" (or an honorable mention-type) on the Saturday. We are also drooling over both suggestions here - attempting a unique adventure and trying to involve non-geohashers. Perhaps a special ribbon? :-) -- NCBears 16:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't think we should add any other requirements. Dragging people along is always a win, so there's no need to specificially do it on this day. For the honorable mention, chould it also be acceptable to retro-hash to the 21st's coordinates on the next Saturday or should they use Saturday's coordinates? Koepfel _talk 21:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I'm liking this, that's the hook for Algorithm Day: you can geohash the May 21st 2009 coordinates on May 21st, the May 21st 2009 coordinates on the Saturday, or the the May 21st 2008 coordinates on either May 21st or the Saturday. Also, why are there only four people involved in this discussion. Is the Main Page announcement box not as visible as I hoped? -Robyn 22:07, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Oooh: What about two holidays. Personally I think the Saturday is much more important... And it shall be called [drum roll/role] Mouse Over Day! Observed on the Saturday after the comic anniversary. _talk 14:27, 24 April 2009 (PDT)

Why? -- relet 14:38, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Regarding the visibilty, did you read my idea to put it at the Recent Changes page (see the template's talk page)? Koepfel _talk 22:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's a great idea. I'll ask Joannac. -Robyn

Or for bonus points, do both 2008 and 2009 hashpoints :-) -- Rhonda 00:06, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Retrohash

For graticules that have a land location, a retrohash of 2008-05-21 is being considered. Warning to all - this was before the 30W changeover. --Thomcat 15:19, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

I really like the idea of a 2008-05-21 retrohash, either on the 21st or the following Saturday. it would be fun to go back to the saem point and possibly find a marker someone left from the year before. Also in keeping with tradition, I'm notfixing spelling errors :-P -- Jevanyn 19:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

You're gonna be jealous: The Newark, New Jersey geohash for 2008-05-21 is three-four blocks from Sesame Place. -- Jevanyn 19:39, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I am against the retrohash idea on its own, as my graticule, Palm Beach, Florida, has an inaccessible hashpoint for that day. Also, while it is great to relive a good moment from the past, the entire point of geohashing was to go out and do something new, go somewhere new. One possible idea, which I would support, is to meet up at (or as close as possible to) the retrohash, and do a mass-migration to the new point for the day. Sort of a reliving the past, but also moving towards the future kind of thing. *shrug* --aperfectring 22:59, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Maybe we could have the hashpoint on May 21 2009 go to that same day, but on Saturday do a retohash to May 21 2008, since more people could celebrate the start of geohashing on that day instead. (Also, i'm more fond of Geohashing Day, personally) --Crazycaveman 12:33, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Jealous? We have a retro hash just off Ocracoke Island (NC Outer Banks) in the Sound. (We're gonna have to borrow Robyn's kayaks!) A Retro at the beach can't be beat! :o) -- NCBears 19:30, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Cake

Celebrating geohashers should be encouraged to bake a geobirthday cake and take it along to the hashpoint (bonus points if you cycle or hike there with it intact!). There should always be cake. I like cake. -- Benjw 17:51, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed...cake good -- NCBears 19:15, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Mentioning "hash" and "cake" in the same sentence when offering pastries to strangers should illicit interesting reactions ;) --PacoBell 22:05, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Page ready

As promised, I have synthesized a Geohashing Day page out of our discussion. I hope it is to everyone's liking. The hardest part was to include everyone's feelings on retrohashes, but I think I have a good balance there. -Robyn 18:06, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Mouse Over Day?

Just to make the question a bit more visible. Grrarg, Robyn, why did you choose this name? Maybe I don't get the reference. -- relet

I can't answer definitively, but I guess it's because the original comic was not specific to any particular day. The example given in the comic was for a Thursday. It was the "mouseover text" that appeared when the reader moved his/her mouse pointer over the comic that mentioned Saturday. Hence Mouseover Day for the version of the anniversary that is specific to the Saturday rather than to 21 May. -- Benjw 21:03, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Benjw's explanation is the way I understood it; I didn't think the reference was obscure. "Geohashing Day (observed) seemed to have more general support, but no one objected to the Mouse Over Day suggestion, so why not include it as an alternate name. It's more fun than just "observed", and the more people's contributions, the better. And I spelled it as two words, rather than as one word or hyphenated because that's the way Grrarg suggested it, and I didn't see any reason to prefer one of the other spellings. -Robyn 02:40, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Ah, ok. Thanks! I thought it was just a reference to xkcd comics having mouse over texts in general. I agree that it's more fun than "Geohashing day observed". -- relet 08:06, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

We love it too...I would have just said "observed" or some other boring title...but "Mouse Over Day" is excellent and in the XKCD spirit. Thank God for people with creativity, 'cause I ain't got much! :o)--NCBears 01:23, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Now we just need creative people to help design ribbons. -Robyn 04:31, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Actual public holiday...

Seems no one noticed that up to now (or at least, noone posted it)... I just became aware that this year May 21st actually is a public holiday, in many european countries at least. So there is no excuse and not really a reason to shift it to Saturday ;) --Ekorren 22:31, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

When Geohashing Day falls on a Monday it is Victoria Day, be a A public holiday in most Canadian provinces. -Robyn 22:42, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

May 26 = Example Day?

It just occurred to me that, while May 21st is Geohashing Day, the date in the comic is May 26th. At the risk of starting a schism, this should be an observance, too, no? -- Jevanyn 18:33, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

The down side to this might be to distract/divide the folks taking part in Geohashing Day. The up side would be that learn about geohashing at Geohashing Day have another event they can take part in. I suspect that having another "event" day won't hurt us. Jiml 16:21, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Table of future dates

Is there worth in including a small table of when exactly Geohashing Day is? Example below:

Year	Geohashing Day	Mouse Over Day
2010	Friday	May 22
2011	Saturday	-
2012	Monday	May 26
2013	Tuesday	May 25
2014	Wednesday	May 24
2015	Thursday	May 23

This came to mind because I was looking on this page to see if it said when next month's Mouse Over Day was, and where it was in relation to Geohashing Day. Alternatively to the table with the next five years, perhaps just a line in the description that says what days the next events will take place. --Dvdllr 01:08, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

good idea, I added it Koepfel _talk 14:45, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Can Mouseover Day precede Geohashing Day?

What if Geohashing Day falls on a Sunday? In such a case we would learn the Saturday coordinates at the same time as the Sunday ones, and Mouseover Day could conceivably be celebrated on the preceding Saturday. I think that makes sense. What do you think? We have at least five years to decide. :-)