A beautiful day indeed, too bad I was pretty much stuck inside until after 8 pm, and it was a bus kind of day, schedule-wise

Hopefully it won’t be too rainy and dark after work tomorrow and I’ll get to the tag!

oops sorry about that. Here it is:

Round 4, tag 2

Posted: Tuesday, Mar 8, 9:20pm

Expires: Friday, Mar 11, 9:20pm

National Aviary (to go with the Conservatory; my pick for the best pic thereof being the one by jeg).

I think you were supposed to choose someone who grabbed your tag, not post another tag I’m out of town anyway, so I’ll forfeit my Phipps entry.

Rules… bah. Just like manuals.

Well then, jeg gets to pick the next tag!

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, formerly a post office (who knew?).

Whew, got home just in time!

Nice work. I have randomized all of the entries for this tag and the next tag setter gets to be (drumroll……)

jeg!

Actually, jeg, I think you get to set both of the new tags! From the dry comfort of your own home!

National Aviary

Thanks, whoever made these last two tags all of three blocks from each other!

After posting I realized that the aviary was set by mistake? Oh well, I just doubly claimed my right to set the next one!

Pseudacris tells me I have two tags to set. I haven’t had dinner yet, and I’m hungry! So….

Tag 1

Posted: Wednesday, Mar 9, 8:30 PM

Expires: Sunday Mar 13, 8:30 PM

Reyna Foods for some delicious homemade tortillas and guacamole.

Tag 2

Posted: Wednesday, Mar 9, 8:30 PM

Expires: Sunday Mar 13, 8:30 PM

Young’s Oriental Grocery for all kinds of tasty Asian foods.

Nom nom nom!

We didn’t want to mess with all the green drunk paraders in the strip, so here’s half:

Nice day for a LOOP!

Young’s

Reyna

Nate, you were wise to avoid the revelers. My bike is covered in confetti (or, my helmet was for a while there).

Next setters (Round 6?):

Tag 1 – Nate (flipped a coin-oid object)

Tag 2 – Pseudacris

If I’m reading the rules correctly, since there were only two tag getters, they would each get to set one regardless.

Nyaargh… Too late.

I guess this makes up for that Aviary thing.

The Picasa collage doo-dad seems to have cropped out my bike (just to the right of the frame in the Young’s).

One of those days…

Round 6, tag 2

Posted: Sunday, Mar 13, 10:57pm

Expires: Wednesday, Mar 16, 8:00pm

The Mellon Institute

4400 5th Avenue

Easy to find. Looking forward to seeing some interesting photos.

Round 6, tag 1

Posted 2011/03/14 10:45

Expires I don’t know what are the rules again? Let’s just make it the same time, Wednesday dusk.

Lake Elizabeth, the Civil War Monument

Read the inscriptions, don’t fall in the water. If it’s warm enough (hah) get a lemon ice.

Ok, so I’m determined to get it right this time.

Sadly, it seems that I don’t really understand the collage thing in Picasa (it autocrops your pics and I haven’t figured out how to override it). My current plan is to look into what Photoshop can do (but not tonight). So apologies for the (maybe) oversized pics:

I also got this. It looks like some kind of improvised communal dog run, but I wasn’t about to ride through it.

(No bike in this crop.)

The Mellon Institute

Not gonna get to the other tag by the deadline, unfortunately, but I’ll be there on Sunday if you give it an extension.

Coin flip time.

heads = ahlir

tails = jeg

and the next tag setter is………………………………………………………………………………………….

Ahlir!

Thanks to you both for 2 views of the Mellon Institute I had not seen before. I doubt either of you had to look it up on street view, but I did it just for fun and was surprised to see a cyclist working on a flat or a loose chain or something.

just for the record, I really like jeg’s pic. Nice composition.

+1 on that.

So where are the new tags? should I bring my camera to work or not?

It looks like both Ahlir and Jeg got one in the previous round, and nobody else. They should pick the next tags, yea?

I think Nate gets to randomize the setter for the other tag, but since there’s only one person who got it, looks like Ahlir might have two to set. (unless Ahlir wants to give one to jeg?).

According to the instructions in the first post, by Steven, it doesn’t make a difference which tag you get, it goes by rounds. If you get both tags, you have two chances for the next round, but each person can only get selected once (unless nobody else plays, of course). Round 6 was:

Ahlir

Ahlir (again)

Jeg

Each tag setter from round 6 should randomly select 1-3 from the above list, and pick again if they select the same person. I’ll save you the trouble of rolling your 3 sided die a bunch of times, it will end up being Ahlir and Jeg.

In any case, just post new tags.. I am back, with my bike, and a camera!

Oh, makes sense, thanks!

Ahlir, Jeg, time to toss us a new round. Crickets!

Well, the rounds concept only works if both tags have a similar time frame.

I’m playing this particular game because I DON’T have a smartphone and 24/7 internet access. Patience, folks!

Round 7, Tag 1

Posted: Thursday, March 17th, 2:40 PM

Expires: Sunday, March 20th, 2:40 PM

Highland Park Pool

In honor of the warming, sunny weather, Pittsburgh’s 50 meter outdoor public pool, sadly empty both in streetview and today.

topping this in case anyone is looking for a sunny-day destination

Highland Park Pool

I’m thinking this game might benefit from some rule changes (or replacement by a revised game), to address a lack of ready-to-go tags and make it simpler. Roughly, every time you post a photo in a round, you can set a destination for the next round. All destinations set in round N are available in round N+1, so there can be many active tags. And each round lasts a week, through Friday 3 PM say, so there’s always a weekend in it. Sound reasonable?

Yea. It needs something. We only had one tag this round. If everyone getting a tag gets to set a tag right then, then I see two problems: we get an exponential growth of tags, and people can start to get tags early, before the previous round is over.

That said. There is no new tag and it is a nice day. I’m riding over to highland park.

Lake Elizabeth Monument

(Better late than never–this tag already expired!)

It definitely needs some tweaking. The exponential growth of tags seems like it would quickly become unmanageable, though I like the standard round time and agree that lack of active tags at a given moment is a problem now.

For now, Steven gets to set the next tag.

Here’s one more idea of how to tweak this:

Tag 1: Expires Saturdays at midnight. First volunteer who feels like it “randomizes” all the entrants for that tag & picks the next tagger. This would probably happen some time on a Sunday morning.

Tag 2: same thing, except the tag expires Tuesdays at midnight.

Maybe these could have separate threads? “Wednesday–Tuesday Wheelset of Fortune” and “Sunday–Saturday Wheelset of Fortune.”

That, but keep the same thread, for now. I like only having to hunt for the one thread. I’d’ve been in this game already were it not for a combo of income tax & bad weather.

Having a Saturday and a Tuesday tag helps some, but doesn’t address the problem of a player getting the right to set a tag, but not returning to do so, as happened in round 7. I think it’s better if the game doesn’t require that person X will return to a thread before time T, as much as possible. Instead, get people to post a new location with their photo. Then the issue becomes limiting the number of new locations, so it doesn’t get unwieldy.

How about this: If you’re one of the first two or three players to post a photo in a given round, you should post a location with your photos. Maximum of one new tag per person per round. If we don’t get a sufficient number of new tags in a week (two? one?), the round continues for another week.

So say dwillen and Pseudacris have already posted two photos apiece in round 47. Per the proposed rules, each supplied one new location for round 48 with his or her photos. Then when jeg posts his photo, he has the option of adding a third tag for round 48, or not.

While we’re discussing this, though, it’s time for new tags!

Round 8, Tag 1

Posted 8:30 PM Sunday.

Expires midnight Saturday March 26th.

Butler Street entrance to Allegheny Cemetery

Round 8, Tag 2

Posted 8:30 PM Sunday.

Expires midnight Saturday March 26th.

“Monument to the Steelworkers” sculpture at the south end of the Hot Metal Bridge

(Trying a week to see how much a longer period helps.)

I was just checking out that sculpture during a run this weekend. Should definitely have time to get both of these by Saturday!

I like that idea Steven, though having the “first person” thing makes it more like tag-o-rama though, and creates a sense of a race. That combined with knowing the tags a week in advance will make a mess of the game. It won’t be a bike race, it will be a race to post your archived photo.

How about anyone can post one new tag per round with one of their photos, only if they choose to do so. I propose that the round doesn’t end until the time limit is reached AND all the tags have been grabbed at least one time (I think this was part of the original trophy bike idea?). This should keep the peer pressure on people not to post overly difficult tags, or posting the 15th tag in the round, but everyone who wants to post a tag will have at least one person who rides there. Anyone checking the thread should do a housekeeping post when the round ends, summarizing the tags for the next round.

Yea, you’ll still know the tags in advance of the next round, but without people checking back in, or some scripting magic, I don’t see a way around that.

I agree about the racing issue.

An alternative that addresses it (at the price of a bit more complication):

The first two people who post a photo must also suggest a tag for the next round (maximum one per person, not per photo). Suggesting a tag is optional but encouraged once there are at least two proposed tags for the next round.

After the round ends, anyone may post a housekeeping message: List all the proposed tags for the new round, randomly draw 2 of them (as in Pseudacris’s proposal), and declare the start of the new round. If your proposed tag wasn’t picked, you can propose it again later.

I don’t think knowing tags in advance will be a problem. The rules will just state that you can only use photos taken during the round, not old ones.

the round doesn’t end until the time limit is reached AND all the tags have been grabbed at least one time

That could lead to two folks setting out on day 8, and only the first to post getting his photo in before the round ends. I think it’s better to extend the round, if necessary, in fixed increments: a week, or maybe a day. (But it’s good to have rounds always end on a particular day of the week.)

I suggest extending a round (by a week) if there aren’t enough tags yet for the next one, but not just because one tag was neglected, so long as a sufficient number of people took pictures of the other. Maybe it was an ill-chosen tag. If the proposer is convinced it’s a great tag, he can just propose it again in a later round. Extend the round only when there’s an insufficient number of new tags.

Monument to the Steelworkers sculpture

Butler Street Entrance to Allegheny Cemetary

Sheesh it was cold out there this morning! I retired the baclava a bit too soon.