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Recreation.gov

recreation.gov

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Re: Recreation.gov

#131

Post by ilikehurdles »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #106
ben174 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it was some crazy bot net trying to make money off camping slots. It’s simply a bunch of Silicon Valley nerds that figured out how to automate the booking system for the most desirable camping spots in the bay. But a few of them got greedy I think. Not sure why. One of my coworkers wrote a bot and shared it around the company. Not sure how far that bot spread but I’m sure other people did the same. And…

> The parks really should have had better defenses. Requiring a deposit payment at time of booking is a pretty easy one. Make it non refundable if it continues to be a problem. Increase the price if it still is a problem. If the goal then is to make it fair for everyone regardless of ability to afford it, require a legible scan of ID or passport and restrict each person to reserving 1 spot in the future at a time, an…

Years ago in Texas I wrote a simple selenium webdriver script to check on the status of available camp spots in a popular state park and notify me when one became available. Kind of a last ditch effort to camp as people would book months ahead of time but would sometimes cancel their reservation when they realized they can’t make it. I think they’d do it before their small deposit became non-refundable.

The alternative of manually checking every day would have likely resulted in never getting a spot. I was using my skills to hack together a solution for myself in a crappy situation.

Re: Recreation.gov

#132

Post by michaelt »

degenerate wrote: post #117
ginko wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuff like this seems like a clear example where a lottery would make a lot more sense than a FCFS system.

What good is a lottery when it's a few hundred people vs. 20,000 bots? Online camping spot reservations need to ask for your name at the time of reservation, and ensure the name matches your ID when you arrive at the park. This is how many ( non-Ticketmaster ) concert e-tickets work.

Presumably ginko means a lottery between people who've provided IDs

Re: Recreation.gov

#133

Post by m_t »

skbohra123 wrote: post #97
m_t wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a lot of recreational properties managed by the government in India? The only time I went there O mostly stayed at guest houses and hotels.

There are definitely enough properties maintained by Indian and State governments here. Each state government has a tourism website where we can book some of these properties.

Thanks, I'll make sure to have a look at those, state by state!

Re: Recreation.gov

#134

Post by 24gttghh »

neurobashing wrote: post #109
bitexploder wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience many of the best camp sites I have been to have been in federal forest land on forest roads. The tougher the road the better (limits traffic). I have found some amazing places in Colorado that you could never reserve and they don’t exist as official camp sites. You find a good spot and you camp. Camp grounds with packed in sites are... good for some things. I acknowledge this is a problem for some hi…

Around here in the East it’s often called “dispersed camping”.

Yup. For example, one can camp > 1/4 mile from shelters/huts and more than 200ft away from of a body of water/trails/trailheads just about anywhere in the White Mountain National Forest in NH and Maine. Below alpine zone of course, except for winter (where you camp on greater than 2 feet of snow, but not many folks are that adventurous :)

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb53637...

Re: Recreation.gov

#135

Post by RandomBacon »

Kye wrote: post #125
majos wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not knowing anything about this topic, I’m curious about why this comment is downvoted.

They might be reactive downvotes over the domain name.

Geez, there are threats involving boobie traps and explosives in the comments. Some people...

My guess it's downvoted because maybe some readers here are offended that they're being called out.

Anything to feel superior I guess.

Re: Recreation.gov

#136

Post by CrazyStat »

baddox wrote: post #89
kpennell wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are using bots to grab the spots as soon as they become available

Yes, and that’s definitely shady. But what are the shenanigans one must go through to reserve a campsite?

Using a bot to reserve it before all the other bots snap it up.

Re: Recreation.gov

#137

Post by atwebb »

brailsafe wrote: post #93
ben174 wrote: post #16

I worked in the bot defense space for quite some time, and it’s insane how much of the bot efforts were dedicated to getting camping spots. I’m happy to see this being recognized because I had many summers ruined because I couldn’t just get my old favorite camp spot.

Hang on. Is this hyperbole or are you saying you've actually had not one, but multiple summers ruined just because you could get a particular spot? Seems like too rigid a definition of a summer to enjoy the very nature of summer.

The bots on the good camping sites are insane, it's clearly a few people who have figured it out. Some even sell alerting services. Keep in mind, in some places, there aren't any other options, looking at the most commonly watched ones they are in very unique places like the Florida Keys. They get resold on the secondary market or you pay someone a premium upfront to bot the reservation for you. Call the parks, they will acknowledge it (or did to me), it's also obvious when all spots are booked in milliseconds.

Re: Recreation.gov

#138

Post by Kihashi »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #129
dogecoinbase wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hypothesis was that a lot of folks (myself included) have started going hiking/etc on Black Friday instead of participating in the commercial aspects of the day? Anyways, I upvoted. Our parks/wilderness are one of the really great things about America.

Outside of southern states, a lot of us are well past the hiking/camping season this time of year, except for folks well experienced and equipped for winter recreation or just heading to local city parks.

If you're day hiking (and not camping or backpacking), this time of year is still great for hiking even in the northern states. Most people I know that go hiking in the local parks won't stop doing that until a few weeks from now.

Further, it's the start of hunting season in a lot of places, which means lots of people are out hiking and camping to hunt.

Re: Recreation.gov

#139

Post by wil421 »

bitexploder wrote: post #73
ben174 wrote: post #16

I worked in the bot defense space for quite some time, and it’s insane how much of the bot efforts were dedicated to getting camping spots. I’m happy to see this being recognized because I had many summers ruined because I couldn’t just get my old favorite camp spot.

In my experience many of the best camp sites I have been to have been in federal forest land on forest roads. The tougher the road the better (limits traffic). I have found some amazing places in Colorado that you could never reserve and they don’t exist as official camp sites. You find a good spot and you camp. Camp grounds with packed in sites are... good for some things. I acknowledge this is a problem for some hi…

I have this experience in North Georgia as well. WMAs and National Forests with roadside camping. Preferably roads without RV access. They call them dispersed campsites.

State parks are terrible from the fees, crowds, and rules. It’s more like camping in a grass parking lot than anything else.

Re: Recreation.gov

#140

Post by wil421 »

bluntfang wrote: post #123
peller wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had this experience out west too. But anecdotally at least, these spots can be harder to find on the east coast.

there's a network of national forests that sprawl the east coast where I've never had an issue finding a mostly secluded campsites close to water and beautiful terrain.

I second this. It’s been very easy to find National Forest and WMA campsites in North Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Chattahoochee and Nantahala National forests and my favorite.
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