Virtual Rewards!

[Sanders_Sooners]

The Virtual Rewards (https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2017/08/virtual-rewards/) program that was announced today.
There are currently 4,593 active Virtual caches. GC Volunteers were rewarded with the opportunity to place a Virtual cache over the next 12 months. They also used a secret algorithm to determine the top 1% of cache hiders to also receive a Virtual cache.
I am excited about 4,000 new Virtual caches, it will almost double the amount of virtual caches. At the same time, the Virtual Rewards program stays in the hands of those who really care about quality and we should see some great new Virtual caches.
The GC blog post and podcast (https://www.geocaching.com/blog/podcast/episode-7/)had a FAQ section (https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2017/08/virtual-rewards/) but still left me with some questions.....

Is there a list of cachers who received the Virtual Reward? Just curious on who they are and would like to congratulate any I know with the honor.
Insight on the algorithm would be great. I have seen some very average caches in metro areas with a lot of finds and favorite points mainly because they have a lot of traffic. This might put cachers from smaller towns at a major disadvantage.
Is there going to be another round next year?


What are your thoughts on Virtual Rewards?
Do you know anyone other than our volunteer reviewer, "Chuck Walla" who was rewarded with one?
If you see any new Virtuals published, please provide the GC code on this thread.

[MathSeeker]

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?ot=4&types=4... (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geocaching.com%2Fplay%2F search%3Fot%3D4%26types%3D4%26sort%3DPlaceDate%26a sc%3DFalse%26fref%3Dgc&h=ATOu5835ltJ5-67VJYukEFIRHLdSdiXu2hjS6KCqBoYmePF7LcteJ9eN6zPXrXo U7VjYy1P-gVSxQcSxr_o0FDu3pl1RvyxdmUjkszJteq5258qOXdRFcB9y6D nomeztPPo2xLkVUg)

The above link shows all active virtual geocaches. It is from the most recent to the oldest. Most of the new virtual geocaches have post a picture as the requirement for logging the cache.

[MathSeeker]

The following are geocachers from Arkansas or close to Arkansas that said on FaceBook that they received a virtual reward.

Ted Spears aka GPSCOWBOY1 from Dog Patch, AR
Brandon Labat aka Night_Hiker from Clinton, AR
Joe Birner aka Brandy-jack from Neosho, MO

I look forward to finding their virtual geocaches once they are published.

[OldRiverRunner]

The first Virtual Reward cache in Arkansas has been published! It is owned by Yazz and is GC7B72R (https://coord.info/GC7B72R).


Congratulations to Yazz on this honor!


Also, here is a link (https://project-gc.com/Tools/MapCompare?profile_name=swedenreviewers&nonefound=on&onefound=on&hidden_fromyyyy=2017&hidden_frommm=1&hidden_fromdd=1&type%5B%5D=Virtual+Cache&submit=Filter) to a world map on Project-GC which shows all the new virtuals that have been published. It is neat to be able to see where they are popping up!

[OldRiverRunner]

From the Geocaching Blog article on Virtual Rewards:


We understand people might be interesting in knowing who received a Virtual Reward, but we are not going to publish a list of names. The reason is recipients aren’t required to use their Virtual Reward, and we don’t want them to feel pressure to create a Virtual Cache if they’re not interested in doing so. We’re going to leave it up to recipients to decide whether to share the news with others.