Monthly Update - November 2024

The Festive Fetch Calendar

On December 1st, our annual advent calendar competition returns. There's an amazing prize every day from the 1st to the 24th, with prizes from loads of different companies, including ASICS, dryrobe, Adidas, Wahoo, Gorewear and many more. And besides the usual sporty offerings, there's also a box of 12 Cornish pasties up for grabs behind one of the doors.

To enter, all you need to do is enter your email address in the relevant box and I pick a winner at random. Your email doesn't get used for anything other than letting you know if you win. But there's also a tickbox that says e.g. “ASICS can add you to their email list”. The more ticks, the easier it is for me to gather prizes each year.

This will be the eleventh(!!!) edition of the calendar, and it's usually a bit of fun. There's an extra challenge behind each door too, to earn yourself more tickets in the hat. Think 'online multiplayer taskmaster'. Good luck!

Tell A Friend for a chance to win a £100 Amazon voucher!

Last week, $trava made some changes that caused consternation amongst their users. You can read my blog about that here. Fetcheveryone offers a great alternative, but I don't have millions of marketing dollars. So I thought I'd see what the power of the Fetcheveryone community can achieve. I've made a special link that you can share with your friends. And for each friend that joins using your link, you get an entry into the hat for the chance to win a £100 Amazon voucher. Ok, so it's not a fortnight in the Seychelles, but £100 is the most I've ever spent on marketing – so please do give it a go. Find out how to share the details here.

Escape from Meriden

A couple of weeks ago, me and my boy met up in a little village just outside Coventry, just before midnight. We were joined on the village green by a couple of hundred other nutters in orange boiler suits. At midnight, the crowd dispersed. Everyone went in a different direction, with the goal of getting as far away as we could within 24 hours. I'd never done anything like this before. Neither had my boy, but at least I'd done some training! Find out how we got on.

It's Not Actual Betting!

A couple of years ago, the Fetch bank account got audited by my bank. I had to explain all about my foreign investors, including the £4 donation I received from a user in Russia. And they took a nosey around the site too – and were very interested in our betting game. I had to explain that it wasn't real money – just a fun game with no real-world consequences. Anyway, I've given it a revamp. I used some whizzy maths to take into account the age and gender of the competitors. You start with 1000 credits, and have to figure out which horses (aka runners) will beat their recent best times. If you pick a winner, you earn credits and make your way up the leaderboard. And if you get it wrong, it literally doesn't matter!

KML Export

As part of my planning for our Meriden escape, I used the Fetch Route Plotter a lot. I started with the straightest possible line from Meriden towards home, then made loads of little adjustments. I bypassed busy roads; diverted past 24 hour shops; and found petrol stations with toilets. During the planning I found that Google Earth was great for assessing pavements and paths alongside the busier roads. So to allow me to send my Fetch route across, I built a KML export option. You'll see the KML button on any of your saved routes.

Blog Improvements

I've made some improvements to our blogging interface. When you're writing a blog, it's now easier to incorporate text formatting, insert images, and tag other users. Fetchies write about 15,000 blogs every year. It's a great way to learn more about your fellow runners, and the comments you receive can be very useful and encouraging. If you've never written a blog before, give it a try. You could review your achievements in 2024, or talk about your plans for the coming year. Or write stories inspired by your life in a small town with a vastly disproportionate number of murders that seem to happen on a weekly basis.

Fetch Shop

Our anniversary kit arrived earlier on this month – and it's pretty awesome. Except for one little thing. Due to an error at the manufacturer, there was a spelling mistake on the back. Thankfully the manufacturer has admitted responsibility, and I'll be sending out replacements soon to the folks affected. I've also launched the Fetch Shop where you'll be able to buy shirts and vests soon. There are a few bits of merch in there already – you'd be very welcome to buy something and support the site.