Talk:Retro expedition

Changes in categories to current use

I suggest the following changes for more stringent categorising. These are already included in the page draft.

• Remove Category:Expeditions from retro expedition pages. This makes sense because the Expeditions category is evaluated automatically for statistical purposes (most active, active graticule map...) and yields wrong results if retro expeditions are included. They are still included in Category:Retro meetup

• Unify Category:Failed - Incorrect date and Category:Origin reached into new Category:Retro coordinates reached as an equivalent to Category:Coordinates reached.

--Ekorren 17:59, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I think if you allow Category:Expeditions with photos, that implies it's an Expedition, and it should get the Expedition category. If someone is going to retro hashes in an area, I think that area's still active. We're not getting enough ativity to really be picky about these things. --joannac 20:03, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course it's an expedition, but not a regular one, and the date shown in the name is not the date of the expedition. A human or a program flipping through the category pages should rather not include it. That's why I would take them out of Category:Expeditions. A category "Retro Expeditions" is actually not needed because it would contain exactly the same pages as Category:Retro meetup which is the replacement for "Meetup on YYYY-MM-DD". So, reading both Category:Expeditions and Category:Retro meetup would still return all expeditions. --Ekorren 20:23, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree with this, Ekorren. I don't know if you've already done it or not. The only reason to separate Retro meetup from Retro expedition would be to separate planned retros from completed ones. Are retros allowed Category:Expedition planning?-Robyn 20:22, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Third retro achievement

I suggest a third (and probably last) retro achievement:

Generic Example Geohash - visit the coordinates (fractions, in any graticule) of the example in the original comic. (Suggestions for a better name are welcome)

--Ekorren 17:59, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I like the idea -- how about these suggested names:

• Original [Web]Comic Geohash Achievement: I like it, and go either with "Webcomic" or "Comic".
• OG Achievement: no, not original gangsta, but original geohash.
• Epoch Geohash Achievement: Epoch of the Geohash webcomic, although that's not specified.
• [XKCD] Epoch Geohash Achievement: might be confused with the epoch of the [XKCD] webcomic itself.
• [XKCD] Geohash Epoch Geohash Achievement: doesn't sound great with the two "Geohash" words.
• Namesake Epoch Geohash Achievement: somewhat ambiguous
• Webcomic Geohash Achievement: Somewhat more precise, but which webcomic?

--Wenslayer 20:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

XKCD-centurion

Should we allow getting XKCD-centurion along with the other achievements (although, not Last Man Standing, obviously). The origin and wedding achievements will not be available to all participants, obviously (unless the 2 married people travel independently of eacy other). --joannac 20:03, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually in terms of the Centurion (and possibly the XKCD-100 honorable mention and Migration geohash, see discussion there) it doesn't matter where the coordinates came from. Alternate coordinates are allowed there if you actually meet someone at the official time. Whether these alternate coordinates are actual retro coordinates or voted arbitrary coordinates is meaningless, so of course these can be combined. Could be clarified a bit, surely, I didn't think enough about that case :) --Ekorren 20:23, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Appropriate date range for retro hashes

I'm wondering what constitutes a valid date range when contemplating a retro expedition. For example, this site lists Geohash coordinates dating back to 1928. However, Geohashing didn't really start until May 21 2008.

Would you consider a reaching a retro hash from 1930 to be:

1. Perfectly acceptable
2. Bad form, except for notable dates in history including the Origin Geohash (please provide examples)
3. Not acceptable before date X (please supply date (could be relative to the Geohasher, Origin Geohash exempted)

The reason I ask is that I can see at a glance all the retro hash coordinates using my KML Generator, and would make it easy to hit up a ton of retro-hashes.

Thanks for your input!

Congratulations! You just found the reason why retrohashes are frowned upon. Except of very special dates like the origin hash, they aren't considered to be true geohashing expeditions at all. Visiting the coordinates of a specific day on just that day is the central aspect of the sports of geohashing.

Any retrohash is basically wrong, any counts as "not reached", almost all of them are not considered worth going or reporting on. This is not a point of date range. It's not really a geohashing expedition if you pick the point where to go. It's meant to be the algorithm who picks the point for you. --Ekorren 18:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree with everything Ekorren says there. Rather than looking for a cut off date for valid retro hashes, realize that all of them have expired and are no longer valid, except for your origin and wedding anniversary. We decided that retrohashes on Geohashing Day were acceptable just to ensure that everyone who wanted to celebrate the occasion could find somewhere accessible to go. Doing a commemorative retro hash for something else, (e.g. the day you bought your house, on the day you paid off your mortgage) might be a fun adventure, and we wouldn't nastily delete it from the wiki if you reported it, but cherry picking a good location and then finding an event to commemorate is not geohashing. So while it's fun to look at where you could have gone had you known or had geohashing been invented, the spirit of the Internet rests in each place for one day only. -Robyn 20:17, 15 June 2009 (UTC)