How it works

From Geohashing
Revision as of 07:58, 23 January 2009 by imported>The ru (added some introduction, removed mentions about calculating coordinates)
Use this tool to find geohashing coordinates for a given area and date.

For a technical breakdown of the method used to generate coordinates, see The Algorithm. Every day a seemingly random location in your area is selected - geohashing is about visiting these locations, that you might not have had a reason to visit otherwise. The world is an amazing place full of interesting people to meet and adventures to embark on.

Unless you can accurately predict the stock market down to the penny, you can't figure out what the coordinates will be ahead of time. You can get a weekday’s coordinates at about 9:30am ET, and on Friday you can get the coordinates for each day that weekend. There is no need to calculate coordinates by hand.

In cases when it is unwise to attempt to access the generated coordinates within a graticule, a recent coordinate may be substituted, or users may suggest their own alternate meetup location.

When visiting geohash locations, please respect the area you are visiting. Absolutely do not litter or otherwise disturb the natural integrity of the area. However, if possible, creating some kind of a marker out of nearby materials (i.e. cairn of stones, blair-witch-style ‘stick figures’, etc.) is encouraged.


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.

Really Cool Expeditions

Sometimes to know how seriously cool a geohashing expedition was, a picture is insufficient. You may need a thousand words. Please contribute links to the Hall of Amazingness of “you have got to see this!” way cool expeditions that we might otherwise not hear about.

Then I realised, despite all my whining, my pain and exhaustion, my total lack of any positive thoughts at all, I was enjoying myself. I was having one of the most exhilarating times of my life. I was exploring a place that no one had ever been, seeing things no one had ever seen, pushing my body to its limit for a ridiculously pointless goal and loving every second of it.
There's probably only one IRC channel in the world where you can complain about the stupid forest not being cold enough at -9°C and everyone understands and agrees without raising an eyebrow.

Achievements

Sometimes you need to go above and beyond (or, perhaps, beneath and short of) the call of the GPS receiver to get to your hash. The Achievements page lists recognized wins (and fails) of geohashing and corresponding awards.