Souvenirs – Friend or Foe

This article was originally published on Cache Up NB. It has been mirrored here for archive purposes only.

If I did the math right, I have 96 souvenirs. When did that happen?

In October of 2010, Groundspeak announced the release of Souvenirs. Since then, souvenirs have become something that many have sought after, and many couldn’t have cared less.

Souvenirs are described as (taken from Groundspeak’s official page on the subject):

Souvenirs are virtual pieces of art that you can discover and display on your profile page. They are associated with a particular location and may also be bound by time.

Souvenirs come in many flavours. For each new state or province you find a cache in, you get one. For every mega you go, you get one. For every special weekend or other time period defined by Groundspeak, you get one. As long as you find a cache or attend an event, or do whatever the souvenir requirements are, you are granted that souvenir.

For the most part, people see them as the equivalent of “achievements” from various other types of games. A stamp that says you did “something” of value. In geocaching, these souvenirs represent your geocaching activities at certain times over the course of your caching career.

However, for some, it seems these are really just another colossal waste of time. Some view them as yet one more thing Groundspeak has tried to add to geocaching that has not really improved the sport at all.

What’s your take on this aspect of geocaching?