The llamas are wrangled: Geodashing is back

[Lucien Van Elsen]

Hello fellow dashers,

I am writing to you today simply as a humble llama, hoping to help keep Geodashing alive for a new generation of players.

Like many of you, I followed Geodashing from its very early days and managed to participate in a few games back then. However, the usual demands of work and family ultimately kept me from playing as much as I would have liked. I had always promised myself that I would dive back into the game and play more once I retired.

That day has finally come, but alas, the original Geodashing site is no more. Since I am a software engineer by trade, I decided that reimplementing the game from the ground up with current web technology would be the perfect project to kick off my retirement.

I want to be fully transparent with the community: I did not have access to any of Scout's original code, the database, or even a working copy of the site to reference. I have rebuilt the engine entirely from scratch based on the rules and mechanics as we all remember them. Because of this, if you notice anything different in the dashpoint generation algorithms or the scoring rules from the original implementation, it is purely due to my own interpretation.

I did, however, reach out to Scout recently to share this project with him. I am thrilled to report that he has given the new site his blessing, and he even mentioned that he might participate in a future game! He was also kind enough to take a look at earlier beta versions of the site and offer some excellent suggestions that I have already integrated into this release.

The new site is currently up and running at https://geodashing.org . I have also set up a new email list specifically for players to connect, coordinate, and discuss the game. You can reach it at das...@geodashing.org .  A few intrepid cachers have already stumbled across the site on their own, and I thank them for their patience in waiting for this announcement.

I would be absolutely thrilled if you would take a look, explore the new interface, and perhaps even log a dash. I would deeply appreciate any and all feedback, especially from the veteran players who know the nuances of the game best. My goal is to recreate the experience as faithfully and respectfully as possible so that we can all keep dashing.

Thank you, and happy navigating,

Lucien

[David Ackrill]

Hi everyone,

I'm pleased that geodashing is back again, I have missed it over the last few years.

Just logged my first dashpoint, which I hope will be the first of many more to come.

_ _ ...  ... _ _
Morseman

[Morseman]

One request. Can the dashpoint reports be sent to the Google group, please?

One of the things that I really enjoyed on the old game was reading the reports by other players. The different countries, the different experiences, even when a dashpoint was not reachable the attempt had a story to be told. Plus, if two players scored the same dashpoint they rarely approached from the same direction, so even reading about a dashpoint you had scored, or scored after someone else, was interesting.

So far there’s just the two reports but to see the first one I had to scroll into the USA map and my browser kept complaining that the site was slowing it down and it took a while to get to the report. 

Thanks. 

Dave (AKA Morseman)

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[Lucien Van Elsen]

Thanks all!  I'm enthused that so many of you have created accounts and started to use the new site and log finds.  One really good suggestion several of you made was to send out an email whenever a dashpoint was found.  I'm working on that now, and hopefully will have it done in the next day or two.  I'll make sure the logs of the already-visited points get sent out as well.

If you're playing the new version, please do consider signing up for the new mailing list at https://groups.google.com/a/geodashing.org/g/dashers - it's where the logs will be sent.

Enjoy!

Lucien

On Sat, Apr 18, 2026 at 11:10 AM AquaDyne <aqua...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow, this is awesome!   Thanks for bringing this back, Lucien, and thanks Scout for giving your blessing!

Lucien: please inform the llamas that I live near Dash Point, Washington, and they really need to visit. ;)

I see one point I might be able to hit near the end of the month... 

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[Jens1964]

Hi Lucien!
Dear Geodashers!

It is great that this wonderful geo-game has a chance for a comeback after four years. Thank you, Lucien for your initiative and effort!
I began to get involved in a bit of geodashing here in and around Berlin, Germany in 2021, just one year before it ended. When I realized that it was over, I was kind of disappointed and a bit angry about myself, asking me why I did not manage to contribute more. Well, now the chance is there and I am happy about this good news.
What I like most is the deeper sense of doing so called senseless things out there, getting in contact with the nature and places which are special and unknown.

After geodashing "died" I got in contact with geohashing, which I enjoy very much as well. May be some geodashes and geohashes can even be connected to one tour.
For me it will be "slow geodashing" because I do all my tours by public transport plus walking. I do not have a car and do not need one in this part of Germany (in our house with 13 apartments, nineteen adults and ten children no one has a car) - what I like and enjoy. I am not sure if I will be able to log the first geodash in April, but I definetely want to contribute and I look forward to see the reports abd fotos of other geodashers.

Let`s dash!

Jens (Jens1964)

[Kelly Markwell]

In the game from 2001 through 2021, geodashers were able to log ATTEMPTS at a dashpoint, even if we didn't hit it. About 16% of the dashes I attempted were not scored. I still have the exported 21,571 dashpoint "hits" with their associated points, and I'm not alone in logging all of my attempts:
* 3 points: 18,031 (83.59%)
* 2 points: 1,160 (5.38%)
* 1 points: 127 (0.59%)
* 0 points: 2,253 (10.44%)

I was just trying to log GD001-AKYG, but I was stopped at the entrance to the campground more than 1383 meters from the point.  However, when I attempted to log my failure, with entering the closest coordinates, I received an error message "Too far away. You are 1383.3m from the dashpoint. You must be within 100m."

I'm not trying to claim any points for the visit, but I used to be able to tell my story and upload pictures, even if the attempt resulted in a failure.  Can the coding be altered so that rather than "prohibiting" the log, it marks the visit as an "attempt" instead of a "hit" and doesn't total any points?

Hopefully,

Markwell

[Lucien Van Elsen]

That sounds like a good idea, too!  I'll work on adding that shortly.

[Ronan O'Brien]

Looking forward to dashing with you all again! Thanks so much Lucien!

Ronan

rhomicron

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[Denise Tamura]

So excited to have geodashing back and see many familiar names! Thanx Lucien for putting this all together,

Looking forward to futures dashes and please make sure the llamas visit the Los Angeles area often :)

Denise (madt67)

[Lucien Van Elsen]

Hi-

  I've added the 'attempt' feature - please give it a try!  There should be a checkbox to mark a log as an attempt (and disable the range checking) when you click on a dashpoint to log it.