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Comment by nerdponx | Hacker News Reader

I get the impression that this is a system wherein honest mistakes and failure to adhere to strict rules are punished, while outright cheating is allowed simply because it's difficult or impossible to catch. Meanwhile, the strict rules exist in part in order to try to make cheating harder, but don't actually seem to make it harder to cheat, they just make it harder to complete the trail in an honest fashion.

As such, this seems like a cautionary tale for a wide variety of human-designed systems, especially centrally-administered systems such as in governments and corporations.

That said, I love the idea of a trail like this, and I love the idea of collecting stamps along the way.

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"Stamp rallies" in Japan are so common that they invented their own pseudo-English word for them. The OG is the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage, which requires you to collect stamps from 88 different temples, preferably by walking 1200 km:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage

Although there's no prize or verifying authority for completion.

> Although there's no prize or verifying authority for completion

There’s only one way to restore your honor if you cheat on a stamp rally!

Ah, yes, the ancient ritual of Stamppuku.

committing sudoku?

> Although there's no prize or verifying authority for completion.

And that solves many problems stated in the article. Rewards are tricky and create a willingness to optimize on how to obtain the reward instead of enjoying the experience.

And like the article also mentions, the stamps are very much like the concept of "gamification" in software where people enjoy getting badges of achievements even if they serve no real purpose in themselves.

I got into audax/randonneuring a couple of years back. It's almost just going for long bike rides, but with enough structure to make it interesting and keep pushing yourself. I navigate by GPS (and, frankly, couldn't handle using a paper routesheet like the real traditionalists do), but I love the physicality of having your brevet card and getting it stamped at the control points, and getting it back as a souvenir later with another stamp on (once it's been sent to Paris for official recordkeeping).

In this case it doesn't seem so bad, as long as the cheats aren't massively damaging the reputation or enjoyment of the trail. Let them have their petty triumphs.

It reminds me a bit of the current popularity of Escape Rooms. A lot of the ones in the UK will rank your time and keep track of monthly or overall records. Of course, it's easy to get the record just by doing it twice, or first listening to how your friends did it. But who would bother?

> But who would bother?

Oh sweet summer child

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