2024 GTA Photo Tag!

Jayell

Jayell

Well-known member
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It's a new year and a clean slate! Photo tag doesn't take the winter off! Who's brave enough? Newcomers are encouraged! It’s a great excuse to go for a ride. As always, please ride safely and have fun!

I should make it clear that I am neither the owner nor administrator of the game; I've merely copied and pasted the rules from years past.



Rules

The rules are pretty simple:

1. Post a picture of any place in the Greater Toronto Area that you have ridden to. That becomes the “go-to” spot for others.
2. Your bike must be in the picture.
3. The go-to spot has to be somewhere anyone can safely ride to (no private property etc.), on roads (paved or gravel), no trails.
4. The first person to post a photo at - or “tag” - the current go-to spot (including their bike) on this thread gets to post a photo for the next go-to spot.
5. No old photos, must be current.*
6. When tagging the go-to spot, “current” means you took the photo (not just edited or Photo-shopped it) after the time the current go-to spot was posted. Simple.
7. When posting the next go-to spot for others to find, “current” means you took the photo of the next go-to spot within approx. the last 3 months.
8. As a courtesy to others, ensure that your photo of the next go-to spot is indeed current, for example, the business you took a photo of and posted hasn’t since relocated or closed up shop, or the farm field you took a photo of and posted isn’t now a sub-division construction zone.


* The person who tags the current go-to spot has a 3-hour exclusive window to post their photo of the next go-to spot, otherwise their exclusive window ends. At that point, someone else can attempt to tag the current go-to spot AND post the next go-to spot before the original tagger. To clarify: the second tagger gets a 3-hour exclusive window against everyone else except the original tagger.
* When tagging the current go-to spot, the post s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ must include the word “Old: ” and a proper mailing address.
*If a go-to spot is out-of-bounds: If someone posts that it is OB before anyone tags it, the OB go-to spot is disqualified. The previous go-to spot remains current and, if its 3-hour window has expired, some else can attempt to tag it as described above.
* If no one else notices that the go-to spot is OB before someone tags it, it counts even though it was OB.

The goal is to get out riding and have fun, so don’t place any go-to spots that are impossible to find, that defeats the purpose. Please try to include some identifier in the photo that makes it easy to locate within a reasonable amount of Google searching.

Boundaries:

Regional_Map_Large.jpg
 
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Some FAQs/tips about the game. They’re not part of the rules – just some things learned in the past:

9. Why does the game include Georgina, but not Orangeville? Yup, this has been debated and the short answer is that the game works well as is. Invariably, someone will post from Great Blue Heron casino or Newtonville, and someone else needs to ride out there and bring it back, which might slow things down occasionally. It’s just part of the game. Expanding the borders would slow the game down even more. Besides, officially the “GTA” is Durham, York, Halton and Peel, so why confuse matters more?

10. That said, watch out for the northern limits of Halton and Peel: Halton does not go as far north as Peel, and Peel (and the west side of York) do not go as far north as eastern York. If you’re north of Caledon, the upper limit generally is Hwy 9, but it gets complicated around Orangeville. West of Winston Churchill, the northern limit drops way down. So, yes, Belfountain is in-bounds, and Erin is out-of-bounds. (I still haven’t completely figured out Eden Mills.)

11. How hard should it be to find the next location? Opinions differ on this one. Me personally, I get frustrated if I can’t find the location within about 10 minutes of Googling so I always make sure the photos I post include an easy identifier. Others like the investigative part and enjoy a photo with virtually no clues. In my view, the game shouldn’t come to a standstill for days because no one can figure out the location. After a few hours have passed, I’ll admit defeat and ask for a hint if I’m itching to get out.

12. The photo of the next location does NOT need to be taken after grabbing the previous location. It only needs to be a “current” photo, meaning you took the photo within the last 3 months and the place today still looks the same as when you previously took the photo. This enables you to keep some photos “in the bank” for those times when you’re time-pressed to post the next location.

13. It’s not prohibited to post the same location twice. It happens (usually accidentally) sometimes, but we try to avoid it.

14. If we remember, at the end of the year we’ll nominate someone for most creative location, and someone else for most photogenic location.

15. Remember that the main thing is this game gives you an excuse to get out and ride, often to someplace you’ve never been to before. It’s also surprising what you can find through this game that you never knew existed here.
 
As I mention repeatedly through the year, I don't run this show; it's not my game. I just get the thread going. We're all in this together. The goal is to ride and have a good time.

However, I ought to take the opportunity to speak of the so called "banked tags". They just rub me the wrong way. If you're going to do it, at least put in an effort and make it believable. For example, a rider might pick up an old tag in Pickering, at dusk, and ten minutes later the new tag is in Oakville under bright sunny skies. How does that happen?

Similarly, if a new tag is posted, and I'm sitting in the office at work, but just happen to have the same tag in the bank, is that okay? I don't think so.

If you don't have time to find a new tag, then perhaps you shouldn't be picking up the old tag.

Just my two cents.
 
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Jayell said:
As I mention repeatedly through the year, I don't run this show; it's not my game. I just get the thread going. We're all in this together. The goal is to ride and have a good time.

However, I ought to take the opportunity to speak of the so called "banked tags". They just rub me the wrong way. If you're going to do it, at least put in an effort and make it believable. For example, a rider might pick up an old tag in Pickering, at dusk, and ten minutes later the new tag is in Oakville under bright sunny skies. How does that happen?

Similarly, if a new tag is posted, and I'm sitting in the office at work, but just happen to have the same tag in the bank, is that okay? I don't think so.

If you don't have time to find a new tag, then perhaps you shouldn't be picking up the old tag.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...
The banked tags don't really bother me. The rule that states is must be within the last three months seems fair.

IMO, we would just have tags surrounding the homes of the most active players as they would tag on the way home.

Personally, I think I have only used banked tags once or twice so changes would not affect me but I am leery of rule changes that raise the bar of entry and would make someone decide not to go for a tag.
 
We've had 30h of sunshine this year. So mostly rain, cold, overcast and a tiny bit of snow.
Steadily increasing the sun exposure today though so that's nice.

But still too cold in the forecast to get the bike out lol
 
Nice timing for the picture
 
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