| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| markpeace |
Foraging GameHi all,I'm in the middle of writing a new GPS-game based on foraging, and thought it might or might not appeal. You basically email a Geotagged photo of the thing you've found, with the type of find as the subject, to the website - the community then vote on whether the find is accurate, and you receive points based on various criteria (first to find, first in location, etc). Its all very rough and ready at the moment, but the whole thing is community-driven, and I need a micro-community to get it started, so if anyone fancies playing, the website is ... http://www.foragable.com (faq available at http://www.foragable.com/foragable/faq/) At the moment, you can only upload things if you've can Geotag photos (in other words, if you have a phone with GPS) - but you can earn points by confirming other people's finds. I'm aiming to launch it properly next spring, and I'll need to monkey around with it in the meantime, but I'm going to try and ensure that items people post aren't lost. All the best, Mark. |
||||
| RichardW |
Wont this cause the locations to become over foraged?
Also most foragers like to keep their best locations under their hats. |
||||
| markpeace |
I'm trying to avoid this in a few way: most importantly, I'm not going to include any way of downloading GPS coordinates, and the map shows 'patches' of finds rather than individual locations. I'm in half a mind to delete the map altogether. I'm also going to build a 'Foray Pack' feature, in which people put a coordinate of a place they're going to visit and receive a list of 'likely finds' based on what other people have found, together with some images and identification info. I this begins to address the sustainability issue - I'm also including a commitment to sustainable foraging in the terms and conditions of the site. I also think its in the spirit of the idea that part of the fun is in the hunt!
I've thought hard about this one and come up with a possible solution. Every type of item will have a 'rarity' score (based on how many times people have posted it). Rarer items are only displayed to users who themselves have posted rare items; post only brambles, and you'll see only brambles - share good sloe patches, and receive other people's good sloe patches. The lack of ability to download exact coordinates is also important in this dynamic too. Any other suggestions happily received 
|
||||
| GrillMonkey |
I kind of like this idea but I think that while I would love to find other peoples foraging patches, I'd be lothe to give mine away (selfish I konw). Especially then there has been a low harvest such as there are some years. | ||||
| bingo |
You having a giraffe? | ||||
| Pilsbury |
oh go on Bingo, tell us the exact GPS co ordinates of your £50 a kilo morel spots, promise we wont strip them bare in less than a day  
|
||||
| RichardW |
So if I basically lie & say I have found this or that rare item in place X I get access to other peoples sites (or lies in my case)?
I think that this is one of those good ideas that will never work in practice. Ask any forager for his/her top sites & you wont like what they say. Richard |
||||
| bubble |
it took me 4-5 years to find my best morel site and I wont mention it even on the phone,and this person thinks people are just going to hand him sites willy-nilly????He is either not an experienced forager[ie. ignorant ] or a fool or both!!! | ||||
| hedgehogpie |
I'll honest with you. I'm less concerned about maybe losing a favourite foraging site than I am about the potential damage caused by letting hundreds of inexperienced and greedy people loose in the countryside when they have done little or nothing to learn about the craft.
Sorry I can't imagine anything more horrible. Foraging isn't a game/sport/pastime for me and how it's practised matters a great deal to the environment. |
||||
| cab |
Its an advance on the occasionally suggested online database of foraging locations. It might be that the 'you're in the neighbourhood of...' type of information would be an interesting tool, but to make this fly and to get the input of the more experienced foragers you'd have to get over their innate secrecy.
Makes me suspect that maybe this well intentioned idea hasn't got legs. Sorry. |