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BadgeGen The author

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Question regarding changes to BadgeGen The author.

If I understand it correctly, it will not count repeated patterns of characters and smileys. Will the algorithm also evaluate the same and similar words in each logo? Therefore, if I log a powertrail of several hundred caches, where it is not possible to write anything other than the copied log for each cache, then I am out of luck and the algorithm will evaluate it as worthless words? Does this BadgeGen even make sense then? And what if I start copying texts from books in all languages, different in each logo of course? How does the algorithm deal with this? And isn't that cheating? Some of my friends also use the same logos repeatedly and still get higher scores. How is it possible? A lot of geocachers used these image logos as their business card, and even my logo was unique because of that. And I didn't mean to cheat, I just liked it that way. Now I would say that this news is rather demotivating and my first reaction to this change was why should I continue to support Project-GC when it is going against us. I will go back to geocaching in 2006 and the statistics will cease to interest me. I will just enjoy visiting interesting places and finding caches. So thank you for your insight and you have one less customer. And as I observe it in the Czech geocacher community, I won't be the only one.
in Miscellaneous by seiza (120 points)

1 Answer

0 votes
You have misunderstood the badge. It counts all words but it removes some things such as "Lorem ipsum"-text and emojis.
by Pleu (45.2k points)
I don't even use "Lorem ipsum"-text and emojis. Still, I dropped from diamond BadgeGen to sapphire BadgeGen after modding. So to better understand, if I write similar logos, with the same words, then this algorithm will not compare the similarity of the logos? Therefore, if each logo has 100 words, but the similarity of the logos will be 80%, will it still count 100 words per diamond? Thank you for answer.
by seiza (120 points)
There was some bugs in how some things were handled (such as numbers, weblinks etc) but if you write _actual words_ you shouldn't have an issue. The similarity of the logs is not taken into account in the algorithm for the author, that's only calculated for the separate log similarity score.

The current practice you seem to have going with adding quotes in different languages is honestly embarrassing and will not help your case in anyway. Project-GC already know that cheaters are going to cheat in any way possible.
by Pleu (45.2k points)
Thanks for the reply. I agree that the use of quotation marks in the text is probably awkward, but definitely not intentional on my part. I have the paid version of Project-GC and found a hobby in getting diamonds in BadgeGen. This change deprived me of one, and since I already have a lot of finds, I basically have no chance to get a diamond. So it's basically my kind of protest that it's a pointless BadgeGen when it's mobile and basically forces the geocacher who wants to get it and keep it to cheat.
by seiza (120 points)
Looking at your old logs the only thing you need to do is remove the spaces in "T F T C" to make it TFTC instead and you should probably be fine with your old template.
by Pleu (45.2k points)
And nobody is forced to cheat. A more reasonable way to handle this would be to edit your earlier logs according to my previous comment, you don't need to add all your words to new logs you know.
by Pleu (45.2k points)
Thanks for the help, which is certainly well-intentioned, but counterproductive in my case. These are hundreds and certainly thousands of logos that I would have to edit one by one. It is already a matter of several days, weeks and maybe even months. Furthermore, every modification of the log of the caches I found is for the owner of the cache, who has a paid Project-GC, the certainty of an information e-mail and a change of the log. This is also not a very reasonable argument. If this algorithm wasn't applied backwards, it would save a lot of trouble. I don't know how many geocachers it affected, but they certainly aren't as happy about it as I am.
by seiza (120 points)
Well, the easy solution would have been to earn the badge in an honest way from the beginning. Instead of covering up your cheating with new cheating.
by Pleu (45.2k points)
Yes, that would be a fair way, but when I started playing Geocaching in 2006, there was no Project-GC, it was only created in 2015, so I didn't have to deal with 100-word logs. And when BadgeGen the Author came, I had no chance to reach this diamond again. because in nine years of playing, that's a lot of caches found again. And here we are again at the pointlessness of this BadgeGen.
by seiza (120 points)
Considering how much time you're spending on cheating for it you don't seem to find it pointless at all.
by Pleu (45.2k points)
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