Talk:Achievements

I don't think this exists anywhere, by no means is it a complete list, i hope its in the spirit of geohashing. zorg

Award Icons?

It might be nice for someone (not me, I leave for Paris in 12 hours) to make some small icons representing the awards, which users could, say, post on their user page after having completed each. Any takers? Matt 14:27, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, definitely. Preferably small icons that could be put on the page for the specific hash,next to everyone who's been around. Might have a look at it next week if no one else bothers with it, got another GH related challenge to work on tomorrow. Nazgjunk 21:08, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

I almost made a page for each individual Geohash achievement, where there can be a list of people who have gotten it. I'll chuck that up, and time giving, will add an icon. I'll make them all at the same time so they're the same style though (better to be xkcd style right?) (about halfway through this, but i can't think of a good way to draw public transport geohash) --zorg

I converted the land (standard) icon into an vector format image (in order to print poxel-free geohash-signs). Uploading SVG is disabled, but you can find it here --Hermann 16:20, 27 May 2008

I uploaded the water icon, feedback anyone? --Zorg 04:59, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Now the "going deep" one. This is great procrastination guys. --Zorg 05:19, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Those are great, man! I particularly like the underground one! Could the public transit one maybe have two busses going opposite directions with two GeoHashers high-fiving out the window? ...or even someone sitting in a plane? AshleyMorton 05:42, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!! :) Hehe the highfive one is cool, i'll make the sign on the bus be coordinates, instead of a location name aswell :D Thanks! --Zorg 05:51, 23 May 2008 (UTC) ... just uploaded the couch potato one :) --Zorg 07:21, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Wow! I suggest the idea, go off the grid for ten days, and come back to find it implemented! Thanks, guys. I'll be working on organizing the achievements section and fleshing out the missing pages and icons over the next few weeks. Anyone up for compass icons for the farthest north/south/east/west geohashes? Matt 15:20, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I drew an Icon for the Bicycle Geohash Achievement: Image:Bikegeohash.png. Gosh, I'll become a famous artist one day. --Hermann 10:50, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Widdershins 00:29, 26 May 2008 (UTC) - The next obvious step is to use these icon images in templates intended for people's user profiles. I have made the templates for {{mnimb geohash}}, {{land geohash}}, {{water geohash}}, {{goingdeep geohash}}, {{twister geohash}}, {{snowman geohash}}, and {{goingup geohash}} (and now the {{mnb geohash}}). I also added the Origin Geohash achievement and corresponding template {{origin geohash}}. Ideally, we should have the icons mentioned above to cover all of these. So please, get to work :D

These templates are great. How are you creating these? I want to make one for the Police Geohash. -- Jon

Proof

How do you submit the proof? Post it on this site?
and how do you do that with the public transit version....
And.... does it count for every single day or are the saterday meetings the only ones allowed? :) (Come to think of it, how can you be at exactly 4pm at a pub. transit location? :P) --Evo-- 22:42, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

I envisioned that you would post it on your talk (make that your kind of 'profile' page), along side a photo. Achievements can count for any day of the week. (Hey maybe we could have Monday GeoHash.... Tuesday Geohash... ect ). And proof isn't always necessary, it'd be most of a personal achievement Really this should have a website more complicated than a wiki, with profiles and stats n whatnot. So we can compete for Geohasher of the month/week/year. zorg

For the public transit version, I pictured a photo of a watch and a GPS doohickey, your smiling face, and a background that is clearly the inside of a bus. But really, I'm not going to check. AshleyMorton 23:08, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

I added a proof section to the page, Is watch, location & you is enough?

Also I realise this means nobody has won a Geohash award yet :/ zorg

And for time zone challenged locations (where it is physically impossible for me to get to a weekday geohash without a time machine), are we allowed to show time proof of the next day, or should we set our watches to a foreign time zone? --Phire 04:41, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm in melbourne, so I understand your worry, but if you guys decide to all use the previous days DOW opening, if thats what gets decided then you can still get achievements. I think we've all got to just trust everyone to claim these only when they have earnt them, if you want to fake it and earn an achievement you didn't get.... well, meh. So totally go ahead and take photos of whatever you decide to do. Thats my opinion. But don't go to mondays geohash on like... friday. That wouldn't count. --Zorg 04:54, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me y'all are over-thinking this. It's A Good Thing that some people will have "loose" ethics around their proof and others will say "only <foo> counts" -- it's all the more community! If the author of an achievement wants to limit it, they can. If not, not. It's all pretty-much honor system, anyway; it's not as if anyone's going to get a celebrity endorsement for having the most geohashing awards, or anything :) By way of example, I loosened the "on the spot" criteria for Air Geohash to account for the fact that it's pretty darned near impossible to hit an exact spot within a meter in an airplane. Ted 02:32, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I wanted to add a Blind Geohash achievement, for getting to the exact place without a GPS unit, but still proving you're in the right place. Jevanyn 10 June 2008

Community

I added a community achievements section. Also, a achievements category. zorg

Two Different Kinds of Achievements

I was in the IRC and someone suggested a 'highest geohash' achievement. Should achievements for which only one perosn can hold them at a time have a seperate section, or be on this page aswell? (we also came up with alot of different ideas, eg - Most Precarious, Sexiest (Strip Club), Most Inconvineint, Most Unlikely (Randalls House) so there would definitely be a fair few things people could try and go for. What do you think? Can you think of anymore ideas for that section? --Zorg 08:03, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Sure, the more the merrier - the only thing would be that if we end up with a lot, we'll have to find a way to format this page a bit better. One aspect of that formatting would be that we could put the "high prestige" (Most Successful GeoHashes, Largest Meetup to Date, ...) and the "gateway", easy to get, ones (Land GeoHash, maybe one or two more) at the top, because, really, the rest are just displays of our own weird senses of humour, not real awards. AshleyMorton 10:07, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

I made a massive change to the way the page is organised, but I think it was neccessary because the page was getting huge. Now we can have HEAPS of achievements in the one place :) --Zorg 01:21, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

We need a Rick Astley Achievement. In Denver we played and sang Never Gonna Give you Up in the woods.

Repeating my thoughts from below...Seems kinda silly to me to have an award for every single mildly interesting situation that might happen during a geohash. For example, "do Z while at a geohash" is not really enough to need an award. Let's keep it simple. --Joel 20:21, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Youngest / Oldest / etc

So, a ten-month old geohasher scouted the 37, -121 spot with me today. Can he claim youngest geohasher? And, for that matter, anyone want to claim eldest? --Tapin 05:37, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Time sensitive awards...

How about awards for being at the geohash location at midnight say, or at sunrise/sunset?

Listifying

I've listified much of the page. Perhaps there should be some slight guidelines that if you are going to add an achievement add some explanation of what you mean, and create a page. Evil Monkey 11:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Ideas

Seems kinda silly to me to have an award for every single mildly interesting situation that might happen during a geohash. Looking at the list below, I think perhaps Double Geohash is the only one worth keeping, maybe not even that one (no offense to whoever came up with them). What's the point of having five hundred achievements? Keep it simple. --Joel 20:13, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

• Double Geohash - reaching two in one day
• International Geohash - go to a different country (easiest for people in say 43, -79)
• Martyr - injured reaching a geohash (double points if combined with Couch Potato or Cubicle)
• V.I.P - geohash in a members-only or pay-to-enter location
• Passing Through - went through geohash but couldn't stay. Examples include going through it on a train, plane, or chased by wild animals
• Party Crasher - Interrupted a social event (i.e. wedding)
• Hammer Time - Reached geohash using the MC Hammer Slide
• Tape Measure Geohash - Have a tape measure extending contest at the geohash
• Cross Country Geohash - Travel from point A to B at the rate of one Lat/Lon quadrant a day, reaching the respective Geohash each day.

I disagree, at least for now. Let's let this evolve in "brainstorming" mode, and let it self-organize for a while. After some time has passed, we can see how things are shaping up and then present ideas for organization. For now, though, I'd hate to quash anyone's creative muse just because someone else thinks it's too silly. Heck, it is the Spontaneous Adventure Generator, after all, and a silly-grin is part of the proof-photo requirement...! Ted 02:28, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Double was the only one I was serious about really :P --Geekthras

Restricted Geohash

I would discourage having an award for a "restricted area" geohash, as it is clearly against the disclaimer

Disclaimer: When any coordinates generated by the Geohashing algorithm fall within a dangerous area, are inaccessible, or would require illegal trespass, DO NOT attempt to reach them. Please research each potential location before attempting to access it. You are expected to use proper judgment in all cases and are solely responsible for your own actions. See more guidelines.

Scottkuma 19:17, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I added the disclaimer to the page. Still, as long as the person has legal access (most likely a member of the military) this award is fair game. Matt 15:20, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

My understanding of the R.A. achievement is that it is qualified with "...to which you have legal access." So, for example, if you work on a Military base and the spot is on-base, or similar. Ted 15:42, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

When I wrote this achievement, I briefly considered adding a wink-and-nod reference to people trying this who don't have clearance, but decided to leave that out. We should definitely not be encouraging illegal activities. Being in the "I'm better than you" section, it would follow that only a person in posession of legit access to the site would be able to claim it. Thanks, Matt for putting the disclaimer on the page.

The original idea came from a story told by my wife about one of her classes. She had an asshole professor who was only teaching because he had to. His main task was doing Important Research at a university-related off-campus lab accessible only by badge and he decided that he would set his office hours at that site, thereby eliminating the possibility that any students would show up. The Mrs just so happened to be working at that facility as part of a separate project, so she did have access and showed up with her homework one day. The prof did a doubletake, asked her how she got in. When she waved her badge, he smiled and gracefully helped her out with her questions. FunkyTuba 20:41, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

When I wrote my objection, I don't think that the clarification had been made that you need valid, legal access to the site. Now that the requirement has been clearly noted, I withdraw my objection. -- Scottkuma 16:03, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Highlander Geohash Achievement?

As a fencer, I may be biased in considering this idea mildly awesome. Further, there are definite safety, liability, and standardization concerns which need to be considered before it could be successfully implemented.

Off the top of my head: (no pun intended)

-Safety concerns being most important, it should go without saying that only practice weapons are permitted. Standard padded practice attire (or acceptable analogues thereof) and facemasks for both participants are also a necessity. There are some concerns specific to fencing outdoors like weather conditions, ground conditions, heat stroke in the warmer climates, and public safety which must also be considered. Further, it stands to reason that attempting to attain a Highlander achievement would increase the likelihood of the geohashers involved satisfying the requirements necessary for a Police achievement. Thus, it would behoove any such geohashers to know their rights beforehand, and conduct themselves with the dignity, honor, and respect that their noble schools have no doubt instilled in them. Note, however, that it is always unwise to challenge an officer of the law to any duel or fencing contest in response to a perceived lack of the above mentioned virtues on their part.

-Different weapons and scoring techniques would make competition between foil and sabre practitioners (for example) difficult to judge. This problem would only be compounded by the inclusion of Kendo or other fencing traditions, yet their inclusion is essential to a true replication of highlander conditions. Possible solutions might be standardized rules of engagement, inclusion of other geohashers as arbiters, or agreement on specific terms before the contest. A combination of these solutions may be ideal.

-Really, anybody who bouts at geohash coordinates deserves an achievement, yet there can be only one. Perhaps there might be one achievement ribbon for the victor, along with a slightly less cephalic ribbon for the less fortunate participant?

-Depending on the size and population density of the naval craft being used as a venue, it may be inappropriate, unsafe, or illegal to attempt to earn both the Water achievement and the Highlander achievement in one go. That said, given the existence of a Restricted Area achievement, a "Swashbuckling" achievement for the few pirates who have the means (Oil drill workers? Cruise ship crew? Messiahs?) seems to be indicated.

I look forward to the day when graticule pages come complete with the names of local duelists, so as to facilitate travel for epic battles in far-away lands ^_^

Er... also how about a Holy Hash achievement, when geohashers arrive at coordinates and find a place of worship?

Award Suggestion

In the event that a geohash coordinate ends up on a golf course, geohashers can/are required to play a round of golf on the course. If they can plan it so that they're playing the hole the coordinate's on at 4:00, they can get special mention? And a similar award for other sporting areas could work as well?

Maybe that could be the Sporting achievement? -- Scottkuma 14:39, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I would like to suggest a Time-Travel Geohash Award.
If the coordinates fall in a "renaissance faire", or a historic re-creation town (like "Colonial Williamsburg"). But not for some place that just looks (or even is) outdated. -- m5rammy 8 June 2008

Actually, a time-travel geohash should be for going to a geohash site of some date in the past, preferably in period garb. Since the algorithm is based on the Dow, how about BlackMonday, 1929? -- Jevanyn 10 June 2008

This one's out there, but here goes: My friend coined the abbreviation "GHH" for GeoHasHing, also because GH is guitar hero. But what if the geohashers play guitar hero at the point? GHHGH! That should be an achievement for sure. Maybe if you're in the Golon Heights you could get it a bit easier. --MarkTraceur

Hash Counts

I visited the "Centurion" page only to sadly discover it's part of XKCD-100. Seems like we need some sort of Hash Counter and Saturday Hash Counter (or awards). I just hit my 5th hash (with only one Saturday meetup), and I'll keep going to 100, even if they aren't all Saturdays (or all at 4:00pm or ...) Thomcat 13 June 2008

Awards and their Organization

I really like the awards, yet I understand the concerns of the people who don't want an award for every stupid thing you can do at a geohash. I think no matter how many awards you have it will still be clear that the people who parachuted onto the geohash seriously outcool the people who wrote a postcard at the geohash, but it's all fun. The only one I really frown on is the "Smoking" especially as the "and get away with it" implies that the person is suggesting that you smoke somewhere it is illegal to do so. What's next, the shoplifting, assault and arson geohashes?

I do want to reorganize them a bit, but I agree with waiting a bit to see what alll we end up with.

Basic is fine, clarifying that any geohash you reach qualifies for one of the five basic types: you're there on land, water, underwater, underground, or overhead. (Interesting that any one geohash could qualify for three different awards, depending on whether you walked, flew or tunnelled.)

There should be a category for how you get there, one for what you do there (many of which are dependent on where it is, e.g. pub, snowman) and some purely for what you find there.

Oh and you saw my consolation prizes. Does anyone not like them?

I think it's fun and celebrates the diversity of the places the geohashes are. -Robyn 19:00, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I fall a bit on the side of "the more the merrier." True, I occasionally see an entry and think "now that's just silly!" (the dozens of slurpie awards come to mind) but, really -- is there any harm in it? Folks are having fun, and that's what it's all about.

Also, I didn't create the page, but did update the tag-line for smoking, which I think is more in keeping with the spirit of the Geohash. Please, let's not turn this into a pro/anti religious war -- if people can enjoy themselves at a geohash and do so politely in the company of other polite people, I think we've achieved our goals. Yay! Ted 19:11, 25 July 2008 (UTC)