Re: Checker for Specific Souvenir(s)

I saw a post from about a year ago saying that there was never a script developed to check if a user has specific souvenirs because reviewers don't allow this. However, in the past year something has changed with souvenirs.

There are now specific souvenirs that are not time-limited and not based on a country.

I'm talking about the 'Celebrating 25 years' souvenir that everyone gets when they complete the coorsponding treasure collection, as well as the newer 'Making Memories: Crafty Cacher' souvenir. It seems like the trend will continue to release more permanent souvenirs that are awarded when specific treasure collections are completed.

I understand why reviewers have never allowed challenges based on specific souvenirs. Prior to this year the only permanent souvenirs were countries, it doesn't really make sense to have a challenge for these since it's just overcomplicating things. 'Find 1 cache in Canada' vs. 'Obtain the Canada souvenir'.

I do think there would be a valid reason to have specific souvenirs in challenges now though. The two challenges I have created myself are based on the criteria to unlock different treasure collections.

I personally think it would be fun to have a 'Crafty Cacher Challenge' with the requirement being the user has the Crafty Cacher Souvenir. It would be fun to celebrate getting a specific souvenir by being able to log a related challenge cache. As more of this type of souvenir is released, challenges could even be created that require multiple specific souvenirs.

I'm not sure if it will ever happen or be allowed but just wanted to share it's something I would appreciate :)

Challenge Checkers have always been able to test for specific souvenirs, but, as you say, it was not publishable so no one ever implemented it as part of a script.

I see a couple issues:

1. Some Treasure Collections are currently "gated" behind other collections, introducing a "daisy-chain" requirement (ie. first you have to find X in order to complete a prerequisite collection, and then once you've done that, you have to find Y in order to earn the souvenir). Similarly, the Treasures aren't retroactively awarded for previous finds. However, the guidelines require that you can't put restrictions on the date of finds used towards the challenge.
2. Players can opt to make private their earned Souvenirs. If they do this, then Project-GC is strictly forbidden from showing anything to do with that user's souvenirs (which is why, for such users, Challenge checkers will report zero souvenirs earned and same with Profile Stats). While of course existing checkers suffer as a result ("earn X souvenirs"), I guess it would be nice for future challenges about souvenirs not to have this weakness.
3. Phrasing the Challenge in terms of the souvenir is an extra level of "indirection", so to say. If the criteria can be written in terms of conditions on geocaches, then it's a lot easier for everyone to follow.

Yes, I didn't think about all those points. I don't think it's a good idea to allow specific souvenirs for a challenge then.