The rules and terms

Playing costs nothing and there is nothing to sign up to. Sending in a video is the only moment you hand us anything, so this page is mostly about that moment.

The game

At noon, New Zealand time, one pin stands in each of the thirteen regions. Its exact coordinates are on the page. The day goes to the first person whose video reaches our server and holds up when we check it.

A pin stays where it is until somebody reaches it. It does not move overnight. If nobody reaches it for a fortnight it retires unclaimed and the region moves on.

We don't judge your fitness or the season. We do respect official warnings, the same as any event does: during a MetService Red Warning or high avalanche danger for a pin's area, the day is held and the pin waits. Nobody takes it while it is held, and the days it spends held are added on to its fortnight, so waiting costs the pin nothing.

The clock is the upload

The only time that counts is the moment your file finishes arriving on our server. We stamp it here. We do not use the time on your phone, the time in your video, or any location your phone reports, because all three can be changed by anyone who wants to change them.

Videos that arrive within fifteen minutes of the first one are a photo finish and share the day. Minutes decide it; seconds never do. That is deliberate, so that nobody films while walking, drives faster, or uploads from behind the wheel.

Two of you? Film one each, side by side, upload within the band. You both take the day. Nobody has to hang back so the other one can have it.

A party, and only one camera? One video is enough. Say up to four names aloud in it. Everyone named gets the find, and the day is shared between all of you.

What makes a video hold up

• One unbroken selfie take, with you in frame.
• You say “The pin is mine” to camera.
• The pin's own code, written down and clearly in shot. Every pin carries its own code, shown beside it from the moment it drops until the pin is taken, which is what makes older footage hard to pass off. We ask for it written rather than spoken because audio is trivial to dub over old video and pixels in an unbroken pan are not.
• A full spin showing the place around you, with real depth and parallax.
• Light and shadow that match that spot at that time of day.

We check videos strictly in the order they arrived, until one holds up. That one takes the day, and we publish which checks it passed. There are no votes, likes or scores from other players, because anything popularity-based can be organised by a group chat.

If we turn a claim down we tell you why, privately, and you have fourteen days to argue with us. We keep the video for those fourteen days so there is something to look at again. One line to the address at the bottom is enough, and a person watches it a second time.

Nobody can move the pin, not even us

Tomorrow's pin is drawn before calls open, and a fingerprint of it is published at the same moment: a short string that could only have come from that exact pin. The key that proves the two match goes up at noon with the pin itself. So the pin cannot be moved after your call, by anybody, and that includes us.

What you agree to when you send a video

1. It is your own video, filmed by you or by somebody with you who is happy for you to send it.
2. You were actually at the spot.
3. You are 16 or over. If you are under 16, go with somebody over 16 who sends it in, and we will never publish a video with an under-16 in it.
4. You went out at your own risk, having read the safety page.
5. Everyone identifiable in the video is happy to be in it. If a stranger walks through shot, that is life; if you have filmed somebody who would not want it published, do not tick “show it”.

What we may do with your video, and what we may not

You keep it. It stays yours. What you hand over is three separate permissions, and you decide each one on its own:

• Always, because there is no game without it: we store your video, watch it to check the claim, and keep the record of what we decided. If it took a day we keep the video itself for twelve months, even if you never let us show it, because it is the evidence for a result other people raced against.
• If you tick “show it”: the clip appears on that pin's page and on that day's page, with your first name and your time. Nothing else about you, and nowhere else. You can untick it later from your receipt link.
• If you tick the second box, which is separate and comes after we have confirmed your find: we may cut a few seconds of your clip into the game's own videos. In plain words that means shortening it, putting a title or a caption on it, laying our own music or graphics over it, and posting the result on this site and on the game's own channels, which means giving those platforms the ordinary permission to pass it on that they demand before they will host anything at all. You are credited by your board name. You can withdraw it whenever you like: that stops every new use, but it cannot pull back a film that has already gone out.

Nothing is ever sold, licensed to anybody else, put in an advertisement, or used to train a model. If we ever want a clip for something outside those three lines, we ask you first and you are free to say no.

One favour while you are out there: please don't have music playing at the pin. Platforms block the clip, and the sound of the place is part of how we check it.

Taking it back

When you send a video you get a receipt link. It shows what happened to your claim and it has a delete button. Pressing it removes the file from storage immediately. Nobody has to approve it and you do not have to explain yourself.

Your name comes off everything on request, the same day, and nobody asks you for a reason. That includes a day you took. The result itself stays, because it happened and other people raced against it, but it reads “Withdrawn at the finder's request” where your name was.

What we can remove

We will take down anything unlawful, anything filmed somewhere it was not allowed to be filmed, anything that puts a person at risk, and anything obviously staged. We would rather explain a removal than pretend it did not happen, so we will tell you why.

Glory only

There is nothing to pay and no cash prizes. No paid advantage, ever. Nothing you can buy will help you take a day. What you get is your name on a spot and a number that grows. If that ever changes, this page changes first.

Fair warning about the boring bits

This is a small game run by one person. We do not promise the site will always be up, that the drop will always be exactly on time, or that a spot will always be as pleasant as it looks on a contour map. We do promise the score is fixed when the pin drops, that the clock is the upload, and that we will not quietly change a result.

Nothing here takes away rights you have under New Zealand law, including the Consumer Guarantees Act and the Fair Trading Act, and nothing here asks you to give up the right to complain to the Privacy Commissioner. New Zealand law applies.

Getting hold of us

One address for everything, including takedowns, corrections, complaints and “that result looks wrong to me”: jhustler@me.com. A person reads it.