Bushwalk Australia

The purpose of this topic is to discuss the idea and gauge the interest in starting a “Where am I” KNP (Kosciuszko National Park) game.

The GAME: Where am I (Tasmania), has been going for over a year and a half and shows no signs of slowing down, I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at the photos and the thread as a whole, but as a mainlander who rarely bushwalks in Tasmania I am unable to participate and I do not think I am alone amongst mainlanders.

I would like to start a mainland based Where am I, but as Australia is a big place many times the size of Tasmania, I think a Where am I mainland might be too difficult, so I am suggesting starting a Where am I KNP (Kosciuszko National Park).

Why KNP, it is one of the most popular bushwalking areas in Australia and is visited by a lot of Bushwalk.com members, as pointed out to me by one of the admin members we need to be able to get enough people interested to keep the Where am I game rolling along long term.

Having discussed the idea with the moderation team, who by the way think this would be a good idea, have asked me to post a thread to gauge interest.

A possible variation to KNP is to include all of the Australian Alps national Parks. As defined on the Australian Alps site, this would include all alpine areas in Victoria, NSW and ACT.)

Comments and ideas will be welcome and appreciated.

Tony

I guess with a lot of people in NSW & Victoria it would be a focal point, but I would prefer a wider competition.
A bit personally biased - as I only went for 1 walk in KNP and I don't have any photos to hand [maybe a couple of slides].
To widen it you only have to go back to the original walkinTas rules - the photos need to be panoramas! - or at least wide angle with a good section of recognisable skyline in them.
Note that the current Tassie game has left those rules well and truly abandoned, but given a wider all-Australia scope, I would suggest panoramas would last a lot longer, and it would enable all us lesser folks to participate. Another starter rule would be from National Parks only.

Hi Eggs,

eggs wrote:I guess with a lot of people in NSW & Victoria it would be a focal point, but I would prefer a wider competition.
A bit personally biased - as I only went for 1 walk in KNP and I don't have any photos to hand [maybe a couple of slides].
To widen it you only have to go back to the original walkinTas rules - the photos need to be panoramas! - or at least wide angle with a good section of recognisable skyline in them.
Note that the current Tassie game has left those rules well and truly abandoned, but given a wider all-Australia scope, I would suggest panoramas would last a lot longer, and it would enable all us lesser folks to participate. Another starter rule would be from National Parks only.

Thanks for your comments.

A wider all Australia comp would be good but I am unsure how a wider comp would go, as mentioned mainland Australia is a very big place and most of us do most of our walking close to home, I worried about the comp being stuck in a area where only one or two members walk, a state base comp might be better but there are very few active Bushwalk.com members from SA, Qld and WA and compared to Tasmania you could also add Vic and NSW.

If the comp gets off the ground the rules that could be worked out later, for a start I was thinking of using the Where am I Tas rules.

I did have one thought about a all mainland comp, that if the photo and location information is also placed on Google Earth, it may work. Some comments on this idea would be welcome.

With the interest shown so far I doubt this comp idea will get any further.

Tony

I would play Tony. Although my knowledge of KNP wouldn't be as extensive as yours I've walked around there quite a bit, primarily around the main range and a handful of other spots. Whether there would be a high enough participation to make a KNP game viable is hard to say. It would be an interesting experiment. The Tassie game seems to have slowed a lot lately. I suspect success is likely linked to areas with larger numbers of walkers. I think the Tasmania "where am I" has worked because it's a comparatively compact area and people (with their own transport) can get to more places compared with the mainland and its vast distances. I'm guessing that a state based comp might work but the focus is likely to be around the major population centres as there are more walkers in those locations, and I assume forum membership would mirror that to some extent. Then again I could be totally wrong (wouldn't be the first time)...

Clearly participants would have to have their own photos to put up.
That is why I favour a wider scope.
But I suspect those giving the answers will not have needed to have been there.
Just as I have had a modicum of success on the Tas game with places I have never been to - due to a bit of research & a love of photos and reports from all over, the same would be true around Australia.
Especially if major parks are the target and the photos are pretty clear (rather than the more obscure ones the tassie comp can sometimes attract)

As a check on my rough stats to July 2010 [ie 13 months of playing] -
"The Game" had put up around 786 photos and 58 different players had either guessed correctly and/or posted.
The top 14 players had contributed 72% of the posts/answers. I note that a few of these - including myself - are not from Tas.
Around 20 have popped in for 1 or 2 goes only.
After 19 months, there are times when a few days go by without a post and yet we can still get days with several in the one day.

It would be realistic to expect about half this traffic for an all Australia comp - but I suspect it will be a lot less if it was restricted to KNP.
There would still need to be a degree of self moderation to ensure some variety is maintained so it doesn't just settle down into one small group.

Now we need others to simply pop in and register interest.

Didn't read the whole thread but reckon an alpine national park topic would be a better idea. Get more visitors and ppl from 3 or 4 states visit fairly regularly.

+ 1 for an All Australia "Where Am I".

For what it's worth, I think it's a good idea. As a regular player of the Tassie version I would watch with interest on the mainland version. Not having done much walking up that way I probably wouldnt play, but would love to see more photos of all the lovely places around our country.

I'd like to still see the Tassie version running as it is though.

Give it a whirl Tony.

The backcountry forum on http://www.ski.com.au has had one going for many years and it is great to see the pics, the areas and the fact that almost all are guessed correctly.

Hi Eggs,

eggs wrote:Clearly participants would have to have their own photos to put up.
That is why I favour a wider scope.
But I suspect those giving the answers will not have needed to have been there.
Just as I have had a modicum of success on the Tas game with places I have never been to - due to a bit of research & a love of photos and reports from all over, the same would be true around Australia.
Especially if major parks are the target and the photos are pretty clear (rather than the more obscure ones the tassie comp can sometimes attract)

As a check on my rough stats to July 2010 [ie 13 months of playing] -
"The Game" had put up around 786 photos and 58 different players had either guessed correctly and/or posted.
The top 14 players had contributed 72% of the posts/answers. I note that a few of these - including myself - are not from Tas.
Around 20 have popped in for 1 or 2 goes only.
After 19 months, there are times when a few days go by without a post and yet we can still get days with several in the one day.

It would be realistic to expect about half this traffic for an all Australia comp - but I suspect it will be a lot less if it was restricted to KNP.
There would still need to be a degree of self moderation to ensure some variety is maintained so it doesn't just settle down into one small group.

Now we need others to simply pop in and register interest.

Many thanks for doing the stats for the Tas game, they are very enlightening.

I have been a bit disappointed by the response so far, but not surprised as this is the way these things can go. There has only been 6 members respond and at the moment I am not sure if the Bushwalk.com admin will consider that enough to start a competition.

After reading the responses, it is 50/50 whether to have a all mainland or a KNP/Alpine NP comp.

At the moment to get the numbers I would go with an all Australia comp, but I do have some concerns with the comp getting stuck in a little known and walked area.

Thanks to all who have responded.

Tony

Tony wrote:I have been a bit disappointed by the response so far, but not surprised as this is the way these things can go. There has only been 6 members respond and at the moment I am not sure if the Bushwalk.com admin will consider that enough to start a competition.

Just give it ago, if no one jumps on board just close the topic, it cant hurt.

I personally think the KNP idea wont work, the answer is in the title.... Q: Where am i? A: KNP, on one tall hill looking at another tall hill! im looking forward to the game proving me wrong.

Give it a whirl Tony, I'd prefer it being a whole of Oz, national parks game but even then I'd have limited options to post, but I'd have a guess if I had half a clue....
Would be good to see some more of the places you mainlanders walk

I am very supportive of you giving this a go. As I said to you privately, I think size does matter. Too small and you will be repeating lots of places, too large and people will loose interest a bit because they don't know any of the places. We were just lucky that Tassie happens to be about the right size.

When I first put "where-am-I" up I expected a picture would last 3 to 7 days. That's why I put rules in that said you had to give a clue every 24 hours and people should post a guess and wait for an answer. I never expected multiple guesses per hour or per minute. So don't be disappointed if the new game is as slow as the slowest parts of the current game. Most of these games are slow at times.

This sort of game can be played two ways. Where-am-I (where is the photographer), and where-is-this (where is the subject of the photo). I think I lucked it with the Tassie version when I chose the where-am-i approach. IMHO its the better way to go.

Nik, or Adam or I can create you a starting post when you are ready. Just send one of us the start-up image. I can also create you a rule page on the wiki with a copy (or modified version) of the Tassie rules (if you want this).

I occasionally check out the 'where am I' when it comes up and one day I saw a view I hadn't seen in person but recognized from one of my walk books of Tas. I finally got one - I could name the peak but not where the photo was taken from. I was too late anyhow, by the time I'd checked it someone had answered.
I'd be into a NSW game.

I suggested this to Nik and he replied it's not a bad idea and might be worth posting here...

I wrote:What about the idea of giving an Aus comp a go, and we can see what interest certain areas generate.
Then we can revise and see whether we should set up a comp just for an area...
Also make it 3 days instead of 1 where a response is required in the game, just a thought.

I am happy to start with all of mainland Australia comp, if things do not workout we can then try a smaller area like the Alpine parks.

I have just read the Where am I Tas rules and I think the same rules should apply, I like WalkinTas and Tasadams suggestion of a 3 day no progress forfeit.

Tony

We could make it a bit easier by letting the poster ask either "where am I" or "where is this" - ie be able to use both options.
That way a notable peak can be used where it might be very hard to locate where the photographer was.

eggs wrote:We could make it a bit easier by letting the poster ask either "where am I" or "where is this" - ie be able to use both options.
That way a notable peak can be used where it might be very hard to locate where the photographer was.

Good idea, We could call the comp "Where am I/ Where is it Australia"

Tony

eggs wrote:We could make it a bit easier by letting the poster ask either "where am I" or "where is this" ...

It would make it a lot easier. If you think back on the Tassie game folk have often easily guessed the subject of the photo, but its taken a lot more time to work out where the photographer was (which is why I say I think that's the better approach). It made the Tassie game a bit harder and a bit more interesting. The same approach for the whole of Aussie might be too hard. Either (both) approaches might be better in the Aussie version. Can always try it and see.

Here are a few other examples

• Where is it?? Photo Game Thread!
• Forum Game - Where's That Landmark?
• Where-am-I-Now (WAIN) Game

Tony wrote:I have been a bit disappointed by the response so far, but not surprised as this is the way these things can go. There has only been 6 members respond and at the moment I am not sure if the Bushwalk.com admin will consider that enough to start a competition.
Tony

I bet a lot of people would be interested in participating. They probably just haven't seen the topic yet.

The new game is now on the Games Board. It is called Where-is-it (Aussie). I will leave this post open for discussion.

An idea whose time has come.
I mentioned the possibility of this shortly after the Tassie version started, but people either weren't interested or thought it wouldn't work due to the vastness of the area covered. I'm in. I've even recognised some of the places that have been posted so far. Just a pity I've not been here to play.

Mind you, I've been to some veryobscure places . . .