20th Anniversary of Geodashing and announcement of last game

[Scout]

Game 240 marks the 20th anniversary of Geodashing. Game 240 also marks the last game of Geodashing. It's been a great run, but all good things must come to an end and, unfortunately, that time has come for Geodashing and the other games at GPSgames.org. Activity on the site has been declining for years and hasn't been helped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The website and game engine have been in need of a rewrite for years, which didn't help in the need to attract new players.

As I look back, I realize the game accomplished what was intended all those years ago. At the time, there weren't many games to play with a GPS receiver. Geocaching was still in its infancy and in many parts of the world, there weren't any geocaches to find. Geodashing was designed to give people something to "hunt" no matter where in the world they were. It did that, but there's little need for that today. And, so, it's time.

So what changes after June's game ends? Most importantly, no new dashpoints will be generated. The game engine will still run, so for now you can look at the scoreboard and research old dashpoints. Eventually, even that will go away. I don't expect anything to change for the rest of 2021, but the game engine might be turned off December 31, 2021. There's nothing special about that date, but I want to warn people that nothing is forever. If the website still exists after that date, consider it a bonus.

What about the other games? For now, nothing. Their games engine are still running, but consider them completely unsupported beginning July 1, 2021. Like Geodashing, they are at risk of disappearing after December 31, 2021.

Thanks for all the great reports over the years. You've taken me to a lot of great corners of the world, to forests, seashores, deserts, mountains, even paddocks and cornfields. Best of all, I've gotten to go to all those places with some great people. The best thing about this community is how friendly it has been, year after year. There aren't many Internet communities I can say that about. Just know how much I appreciated it.

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Dashpoints for June's game 240 (FK) are available for review in the usual place. Scroll to the list of games at the bottom of the home page at http://geodashing.gpsgames.org .

As usual, no points will be awarded for visits to any of these points before game start on the first day of next month.

No points will be awarded for visits to the current game's dashpoints after the last day of this month. All visits should be reported promptly, but if your travel delays Internet access, late reports of visits completed before the end of this month will be accepted for scoring through the third day of next month. After that, you can still report your visit, but no points will be awarded.

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Scout

[Roger Barnes]

While I am very disappointed by this news, I am not surprised.  I have been winning games that a few years ago would have left me far behind.  Geodashing has been a big part of my life since that lunch hour visit in my work clothes to a random spot in April of 2003.  That's over 17 years of enjoyment that I have gotten from visiting random places on the globe.  And equally important was being able to read about other random points all over the world.  I give many thanks to Scout and his band of virtual llamas for keeping it going as best as he could.  

Roger

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[Geoff Jamieson]

I'm also very disappointed but completely understand the decision.
It was probably the main reason I bought a GPS way back in 2001, and introduced me to competitive sight seeing.
My main interest slowly moved over to Geocaching to the point where I virtually stopped dashing, but my interest rekindled a little recently.
There have been a few adventures along the way and I've seen many sights I would not have otherwise seen.
And it was fun being part of such a diverse group, all over the world.
We all owe you a debt of gratitude Scout.

Thank you mate.
Geoff

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[Morseman]

I'm also sad to hear that Geodashing and the other GPS Games will end at the end of the year, but I can quite understand.

Maybe those that want to keep in touch can either swap email addresses, or else start up a group? I'd like to try and keep in touch with people who I've seen posting reports if it can be arranged.

Now that I've had my second 'jab', and if the UK restrictions continue to be eased, I'll try to make an effort to reach a few more dashpoints over the final few months.

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Morseman

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David Ackrill

[Daniel Widdis]

I somewhat expected this, as two other sites I frequent, with people I’ve interacted with for over two decades, have recently transitioned to new ownership.  Two decades is long enough to be a llama-wrangler.  Thanks for all the fun and interesting times you’ve provided, Scout!

 

I hope the (small, now) community will continue to live on through this mailing list, posting occasional random travels even if “scoring” doesn’t happen.

 

For those of us who do want to reminisce, is it possible to make the database available for download / preservation somewhere so we can search old reports in our old age when we’re telling our grandkids about when GPS was a new thing?

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[chaosmanor47]

I've spent a lot of this holiday weekend working on a fun, but complex, photography project, and only just saw the notice that next month will be the last for Geodashing. I am sad but also not at all surprised. As Scout has noted, interest and activity has been declining for a long time; Like Roger, I've won, or been close, in several months over the past couple of years, something which would have been unthinkable even four or five years ago, let along a decade or more. My real regret in this decision is that I won't be able to pester my wife to let me take a "minor" diversion for a DP on our vacation in September ;-)

I want to thank you for a lot of great (and a few not-so-great) adventures over the past almost-18 years. I, sometimes with my wife Sharon along, have discovered a lot of really interesting places because of this and your other games :-) May the road ahead of you lead to fulfillment and joy.

Jim (chaosmanor)

[Daniel Widdis]

For the record…

 

I’ll be hitting one dashpoint in June.

 

Dash Point will be a short detour on the way.  While the llamas never found their way there, I will on my final dash.

 

It will be epic.

 

Getting there will be all the fun.

 

From: <geoda...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Scout <Sc...@gpsgames.org>
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 7:49 AM
To: Geodashing <Geoda...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Geodashing] 20th Anniversary of Geodashing and announcement of last game

 

 

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Scout

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[Ian Kelly]

Scout,

Sadly, this is an appropriate time to end your great game of Geodashing. We are currently in the middle of a 14 day “lockdown” during which we have a limit of 5 - 10 km on the distance we can travel from our home in Melbourne.

 

Our team, GeoTerriers, has been competing regularly for almost 20 years. During geodashing expeditions, we have seen plenty of spectacular sights in many countries, including Italy, France, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom as well as Australia.

Madam Dash and I have met and communicated with many great people during this period. Some particular geodashers and highlights come to mind, including Scout and Mrs Scout (who we met for dinner in Melbourne), SoccerFanatics (who we met for dinner in Melbourne, along  with his wife Linda  and his daughter Amanda), geoffj3191 (who introduced us to Geodashing about 20 years ago, and travelled with us to many far-flung, random destinations), Tom Arneson (a good friend and loyal team member) and Dave Hinns (who met us for a special dashpoint hunt north of London, picking us up in central London in his work van on a working day (in 2005, 20 days after the 7/7 London bombings)).

All the reports, from the ordinary to the spectacular, are recorded for posterity on this website.Thanks to all the Geodashers who participated and took us along on their monthly adventures.

Thanks again for your initiative, leadership and wise counsel, Scout.

Regards,

Dashing Dog Mac and Madam Dash

Ian Kelly

2/6 Webb Lane

East Melbourne

VIC  3002

mobile: 0412 215 171
email:  igke...@gmail.com

skype: iangkelly

[Scout]

The deadline for Game 240, the last game of Geodashing, will be extended until August 31.

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Scout

On Sat, May 29, 2021 at 9:49 AM Scout <Sc...@gpsgames.org> wrote:

[Scout]

Reminder: June's game of Geodashing is the last. There will be no new dashpoints published in July. Instead, June's dashpoints will remain active until the end of August. Visits and reports before then will be counted in Game 240. Dash on.

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Scout

On Sat, May 29, 2021 at 9:49 AM Scout <Sc...@gpsgames.org> wrote:

[Douq Millar]

It's taken me a while to be able to express my disappointment about the end of geodashing, but simultaneously to express my appreciation, foremost to Scout for all these years of work, but also all the other players who I've come to know, some even F2F. I really somehow couldn't imagine life (at least travel) without geodashing. I'm planning on a trip to Ohio next month and I have no idea what route to take because it was always the path of reachable dashpoints that told me where to go and all the interesting discoveries to make along way (try driving I-80 from Omaha to Ohio and you'll quickly see how much better a geodash would be).

I started geodashing at a time when I really needed this. Having lived in San Francisco Bay Area, where a one hour drive can go to all sorts of places, moving somewhere where a daylong drive is still just cornfields and I thought there was nothing ever to see and that was quite depressing. But the geodashing slogan, getting there is all the fun, proved to be true and it's amazing what one can discover when you get out in nowhere. I'd sometimes leave in very tense mood and the miles of driving melting that away, the literal excitement as the distance counted down to scoring range of the dashpoint, created a real stress relief and I'd return, sometimes exhausted, but rejuvenated.

By coincidence I worked with a fellow who got the job as hardware manager at Trimble, a company started by some HP people in the division where I had worked. So I heard about GPS long before it was a consumer device. I rode my bike to my job seeing these people walking around with strange backpacks with tall antennas and learned they were the engineers testing the first commercial GPSr. Never did I imagine I'd have such a thing or even more unimaginable use it for this strange geodashing recreation. I think it's sad that everyone didn't try it and find out how much fun it can be.

So again, thank you Scout (I'm jealous of the GTs that they met you), to my team members present and past, especially to the ones I was lucky enough to meet.

If geodasher is listening perhaps he'll appreciate this story. deodasher and I planned to be in Oregon and go through Bend, so naturally geodasher suggested we do a joint dash. Beyond that he invited us to stay in his house. Just outside Bend we both kinda realized we had never met this person and until a few days before didn't even have a real name and here we're going to spend the night. It's sometimes hard enough to get along with new people but we couldn't have had a better time (thanks to both of you, who know who you are). I'd never done something like that before and it was geodashing that made that possible.

I never met Jack Frickey but I had multiple email exchanges. It turns out we reached a DP very near where he went to college, so he wrote me about that; and also we got a DP in the small town in Nebraska where he grew up and we talked about that. So we had some connection. I still remember though what a fierce competitor he was. One month when I was convinced I'd outscored him for the month, late at night he reports one more point, far from home. I think it's an outstanding idea to honor his memory as the most successful geodasher ever and I was still a long way from catching him. RIP!

So farewell to all, glad to have traveled the same road with you!