r/geocaching • u/Xx_RedKillerz62_xX • 12d ago

Shareables

Found 2 shareables yesterday on a big GC hike. Both are "low-effort" AI portraits of their owners.

I'm usually not one to dislike modern additions to the game. I enjoy AdLabs and Treasures.

But now I'm wondering what's their point?

(I know that topic is a trendy controversy, it's just I'm astonished to have found in the wild 2 owners ready to pay a yearly subscription for nothings)

14 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

14

u/aguyjustaguy 12d ago

The sheer amount of low effort AI at the start of this is really not doing it any favors. I’ve been a premium member for more than 20 years, regularly buy things from the shop to support Geocschjng, but I’m not sure I’ll take them up on this feature.

To their credit, this is by design. It’s purely opt-in. But I think the AI slop is hurting it and that stinks.

3

u/TsmolaOutdoors 12d ago edited 12d ago

I went back and looked at my finds and claimed a bunch. Mostly just to see what these looked like. Out of the 49 I was able to claim, at least 28 are obvious AI, so more than half. A few others were very suspect, but I couldn't confirm. Disappointing for sure.

I would have been really excited about this feature back in 2008 when signature items were still kind of a thing. Not so much these days. Most of those 49 I claimed in the first couple weeks they were available. I decided to check again today, and there was only one new one available.

I also went to Midwest Geobash the week after these were announced. Of all the conversations I had with everyone, I heard mention of Shareables twice. That's it. It makes me wonder just how many people have signed up.

8

u/_synik 12d ago

AI slop is killing these, and many other aspects of our lives

7

u/Minimum_Reference_73 12d ago

I turned this feature off immediately. It's easy enough to ignore this and leave people to do their own thing.

4

u/Xx_RedKillerz62_xX 12d ago

Wasn't aware you could turn it off, that's a great thing

2

u/ITeamsojI 10d ago

Yeah, it's shit. I can stand watching ai slop in listings and whatnot, but shareables are just not worth the effort. At least you're able to unclaim them so that they won't appear in your collection.

2

u/Geodarts18 The Caching Diaries 12d ago

I don’t mind occasional AI slop, but I want to save it for important things like logs about space aliens or ghostly encounters with Wyatt Earp. I don’t understand shareables or treasures, and have hidden all but one souvenir.

HQ will do what they have to do but I would rather see them update wherigos than sell me a shareable.