Talk:Tron achievement

I think it's cute. It's a neat challenge for people in easy graticules where they don't have much doubt that they will reach the point, or for precision in tracking in bush graticules. It would be funny doing this on the ferry, sitting there watching the GPS and hoping that it wouldn't cross its own track. Searching for a weakness in it, I see a risk that it would encourage people to do something stupid, like ride on the wrong side of the road, or cut through private property to avoid crossing their track. Also I think that if you go down one side of a dead end street and back up the other without crossing your trail, you should be okay. -Robyn 22:11, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Robyn, any achievement (or geohashing in general) carries the risk that someone may take it as an incentive for stupid behavior. The way I see it, this achievement rather encourages good planning (choosing a suitable route for both ways) and map usage (to avoid going into dead ends). And, sure, if you manage to get yourself back out of a dead end street and continue without crashing into your imaginary wall, that is ok - but you will probably only be able to do that on dead ends that are ($YourCountry.Traffic.RightHanded ? "right" : "left") turns from your route ;) --dawidi 16:21, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Exactly. That was the image I had in my mind as I typed that. A (for me) left turn into a dead end would be unrecoverable, unless I went back on the original route and found a completely different street to approach on. To remove the ambiguity from my comment, I support this achievement because I think it will encourage expeditions in otherwise boring graticules. Your point about advance planning is well-taken, too. -Robyn 16:43, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I've actually already done this.  :-) On my bicycle hash, I went the way indicated by Google maps, which turned out to be an A-road with a 60mph speed limit and no cycle paths. And on the way back, I took a route (drawn out in advance, just in case the road was awful) which started off by going in the other direction from the hash, and ended up coming back into Cambridge from a different direction. For the last 500m or so, I deliberately took the long way round to approach my house, just so that my outward and inward routes wouldn't overlap at all. I guess geohashers think alike... <grin> And it was great. The "byway open to all traffic" (a.k.a. a grassed track between fields) that I took on the way back was the best fun I'd had all month. Even if it did give my bike a slow puncture which I only discovered when I tried to use it to go to work. -- Benjw 22:19, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I love it. Pity I'm such a bad bike rider...-- UnwiseOwl 23:36, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

This achievement is probably best done walking anyway :P --Ekorren 23:39, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I like the idea, and I'm sure I've already mostly done it. Mostly because it would already invalidate the achievement to park the bike a few metres from the hash before walking out on the meadow, to make a photo, search a cache, buy a bottle of water... I think there should be some exception for local loops which are not part of the way itself. Also, what about local loops like on motorway junctions? Doing that achievement with public transport could really get interesting, due to the line and hub nature of public transport networks. In my mind I just pictured how to depart from platform 12 and arrive at platform 13 over another line, avoiding to cross the passengers tunnel while on the train, and using different station entrances for ways home ;) --Ekorren 23:39, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I would not want to allow routes with local loops (motorway junctions etc.) for the "strict" version of the achievement, but I would concede that not having any loops with circumfences larger than, say, 0.5% of the entire expedition might qualify for an honorable mention... if that doesn't water it down too much. The point of this achievement (finally I can say that, because I came up with it and I know what I meant ^_^) is, after all, that in some cases you may have to take very silly detours to complete the expedition under these specific rules. --dawidi 16:21, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't want to allow motorway junctions and similar. Of course the taken route should not intersect at any place. It's more the "park your bike and walk in" thing which forces to go back to the same point and thus invalidates the achievement, whatever it was where you needed to walk in. Also, such violations could easily and without any traces be edited out from the tracklog. I think there should be a rule that allows them, because otherwise you can't really even get a bottle of water or stop to take a photo on the way. And not making any photos would be boring, wouldn't it? Maybe a rule could be added like "temporarily leaving a road/way e.g. to enter a building, get to a better photo point, or reach the actual hash; and then returning to the same spot to continue the actual route, does not invalidate the achievement", maybe also include a maximum distance (100m?). --Ekorren 16:59, 20 April 2009 (UTC)