Treasure Hunts past ... and present

Buccaneer Box for participating in the 2014 LibraryThing Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://pir.librarything.com/treasurehunt2014.php)

Corsair Coffer for participating in the 2016 LibraryThing Treasure Hunt (Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/233115)

Looters Locker for participating in the 2017 LibraryThing Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/treasurehunt2017.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/270015)

Lovers Lockbox for participating in the 2018 Valentine's Day Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/valentinestreasurehunt2018.php ,Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/286809)

Golden Egg for participating in the 2018 Egg Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/egghunt2018.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/289366)

Plunderer's Prize for participating in the 2018 LibraryThing Treasure Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/treasurehunt2018.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/296731 )

Candy Commendation for participating in the 2018 Halloween Haunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt_halloween2018.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/297904#6613180 )

Golden Pear for participating in the 2018 Twelve Days of LibraryThing ( Clues and Answers : https://www.librarything.com/topic/300178)

Courting Casket for participating in the 2019 Valentine's Day Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/valentinestreasurehunt2019.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/303732 )

Librarians Locker for participating in the 2019 National Library Week Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt_2019-04.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/305699 )

Rainbow for participating in the 2019 Pride Treasure Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt_2019-06.php , Clues : https://www.librarything.com/topic/307936)

Privateer's Plunder for participating in the 2019 Talk Like A Pirate Day Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt_2019-10.php , Clues, Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/311271 )

Pumpkin Pie for participating in the 2019 Halloween Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt_2019-11.php , Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/312261)

Rogue's Rose for participating in the 2020 Valentine's Day Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt_2020-02.php , Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/316723)

Seedling Badge for participating in the 2020 Spring Treasure Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2020&m=04 )

Pride Flag for participating in the 2020 Pride Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2020&m=06 , Clues : https://www.librarything.com/topic/321777 )

Lucky Lobster for participating in the 2020 Maine Treasure Hunt ( Maine Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2020&m=08 )

Corsair's Crossbones for participating in the Talk Like a Pirate Day Treasure Hunt - Pelican Edition 2020 ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2020&m=09 )

Nest Badge for participating in the 2021 Children's Literature Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2021&m=05 Clues, Answers and Winners : https://www.librarything.com/topic/331926 )

Pride Flag for participating in the 2021 LGBTQ Pride Month Treasure Hunt ( Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2021&m=06 )

2021 Halloween Treasure Hunt (Hunt page : https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2021&m=10. Questions and Hints https://www.librarything.com/topic/336144 )

>1 Yamanekotei: Thank you, I needed this!

>1 Yamanekotei: Thanks! That's helpful because I seem to have lost my old treasure hunt badges.

>2 perennialreader:
>3 humouress:

You are welcome. Let me know if anything is missing so that I can add to the list.

Talk threads for treasure hunts (to check if you commented)

Talk Like a Pirate 2014; Buccaneer Box
https://pir.librarything.com/topic/180680

Talk Like a Pirate 2016; Corsair's Coffer
https://www.librarything.com/topic/232841#

Talk Like a Pirate 2017; Looter's Locker
https://www.librarything.com/topic/269682

Valentine's 2018; Lover's Lockbox
https://www.librarything.com/topic/286809

Egg Hunt 2018; Golden Egg
https://www.librarything.com/topic/289366

Treasure Hunt 2018; Plunderer's Prize
https://www.librarything.com/topic/296449

Halloween Haunt 2018; Candy Commendation
https://www.librarything.com/topic/297904
https://www.librarything.com/topic/298103 (2 pages)

12 Days of LibraryThing Scavenger Hunt; Golden Pear
https://www.librarything.com/topic/300178
https://www.librarything.com/topic/300474
https://www.librarything.com/topic/300739 (3 pages)

Heart Hunt 2019; Courting Casket
https://www.librarything.com/topic/303732

Spring Seedling Hunt 2019; Seedling Badge
https://www.librarything.com/topic/319272

Maine Treasure Hunt 2019; Lucky Lobster
https://www.librarything.com/topic/323452

Talk Like a Pirate 2020 (Pelican edition); Corsair's Crossbones
https://www.librarything.com/topic/324492

For the other badges, the Talk page links are in >1 Yamanekotei:

2022 Valentine Treasure Hunt ; Cupid’s arrows

Hunt page
https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2022&m=02

Questions and hints
https://www.librarything.com/topic/339568

2022 Pride Month Treasure Hunt - look for penguins

Hunt page
https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2022&m=06

Questions and hints
https://www.librarything.com/topic/342407

2022 Hallowe'en Treasure Hunt - look for ghosts.

Hunt page
https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2022&m=10

Questions and hints in Talk
https://www.librarything.com/topic/345140

2023 Valentine's Day treasure hunt - look for hearts.

Hunt page
https://www.librarything.com/hunt.php?y=2023&m=02

2023 Poetry Month Hunt — find the quills!

Hunt page
https://www.librarything.com/hunt/24

Questions and hints in Talk
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350259

2023 Pride Month treasure hunt - look for rainbows.

Hunt page
https://www.librarything.com/hunt/25

Badges have been awarded for 2023 Valentine’s Day, Poetry Month and Pride Day treasure hunts.

New hunt started today: LibraryThing Birthday Hunt!

The Birthday Hunt has ended. I hope you had fun!

Happy birthday LibraryThing.

The 2023 Halloween Treasure Hunt started today!

Questions and hints in Talk: https://www.librarything.com/topic/354465

>15 FAMeulstee: Thank you!

>15 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita!

We have two weeks, until 11:59pm EDT, Tuesday October 31st.

The 2023 Hallowe'en Treasure Hunt has ended. Badges will be awarded as and when the developers get around to it, so please don't worry that you haven't received yours yet.

The Commemorative Cake badges for the LibraryThing Birthday Treasure Hunt 2023 and the Jovial Jack o'Lantern badges for the 2023 Hallowe'en Treasure Hunt have now been awarded.

A new hunt started today! The 2023 Roundup Hunt.

Questions and hints in Talk: https://www.librarything.com/topic/355989

289 AbigailAdams : Hello All! The LibraryThing 2023 Roundup Hunt has now ended. Thank you to all who participated!

Participants who found at least two fireworks: Please be aware that badges are awarded manually, and may not appear in your badges for some time.

Regarding the banner: the developers are still aware of the ongoing problems with the banner's appearance, and the fact that dismissing it once sometimes seems to dismiss it forever, despite the member's wishes/preferences. The issue is on the list of things to be looked at, although I have no timeline to give on a resolution.

The 2024 Valentine's Hunt is now on! Open until Thursday February 29th at 11:59pm EST.

2024 Valentine’s Hunt thread

https://www.librarything.com/topic/358441

The 2024 TinyCat Birthday treasure hunt is now on, until Tuesday 30th April.

>24 humouress: Thanks

From the TinyCat 2024 Hunt thread:

182 AbigailAdams26T : Hello All! Our 2024 TinyCat Birthday Treasure Hunt has now ended. Thank you to all who participated!

Participants who found at least two TinyCats: Please be aware that badges are awarded manually, and may not appear in your badges for some time.

Regarding the banner: the developers are still aware of the ongoing problems with the banner's appearance, and the fact that dismissing it once sometimes seems to dismiss it forever, despite the member's wishes/preferences. The issue is on the list of things to be looked at, although I have no timeline to give on a resolution.

The 2024 Pride Treasure Hunt is on, folks! Collect your rainbows.

Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
If there's a rainbow on a page, you'll see a banner at the top of the page.
You have just under two weeks to find all the rainbows (until 12:59pm EDT, Sunday June 30th)

ETA: the hunt is now over.

From @AbigailAdams26

Our 2024 Pride Month Treasure Hunt has now ended. Thank you to all who participated!

Participants who found at least two Rainbows:

Please be aware that badges are awarded manually, and may not appear in your badges for some time.

Regarding the banner:

the developers are still aware of the ongoing problems with the banner's appearance, and the fact that dismissing it once sometimes seems to dismiss it forever, despite the member's wishes/preferences. The issue is on the list of things to be looked at, although I have no timeline to give on a resolution.

Check out this new game; TriviaThing! It's not a Treasure Hunt but it's fun.

The treasure is within your brain.

Please, no trepanning. Librarything will not be held responsible.

Here we go again! Trick or treat:

2024 Halloween Treasure Hunt
It's October, and the Halloween Hunt has returned!

We've scattered a hauntourage of ghosts around the site. You'll solve the clues below to find the ghosts and gather them all together.

Decipher the clues below and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a ghost. Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
If there's a ghost on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page.
You have two weeks to find all the ghosts (until 11:59pm EDT, Thursday October 31st).
Come brag about your hauntourage of ghosts (and get hints) on Talk.

The Hallowe'en Hunt for 2024 has ended.

Please note that badges are awarded manually and may not appear in your badges list for some time (a few months). The last one I have currently is for last year's Hallowe'en Hunt - so please be patient.

>31 humouress: Wow, I 100% missed the Halloween hunt. I haven't missed a hunt in years. How disappointing. :'(

>33 LibraryCin: Oh, I'm sorry about that. As you're a member of this group, don't the messages pop up in your talk tab?

>34 humouress: I usually just look at the ones I've already commented on "Your Posts". Occasionally I will look at "Groups and Posts", but not often. For the hunts, I usually rely on the banner at the top of the page, but somehow I missed it this time around.

Badges have now been awarded for the following hunts:

Firework Frill for participating in the LibraryThing 2023 Roundup Hunt

Pierced Heart Patch for participating in the 2024 Valentine Hunt

Cat Citation for participating in the 2024 TinyCat Birthday Hunt

Rainbow Reward for participating in the 2024 Pride Treasure Hunt

Spooky Sign for participating in the 2024 Halloween Hunt

A new hunt! for the winter holidays.

ETA: 'You have almost three weeks—until Monday January 6th at 11.59 pm Eastern Time—to find all the candles hidden around the site and gather them all together into one shining mint.'

>37 humouress: Thank you for the notification!

>38 LibraryCin: I am like you--I didn't see a banner for the Halloween Hunt! Was disappointed as well that I missed it.

You know, I'm not sure I've seen a banner for this one, either (at least not yet). After seeing the post here, I noticed it in the sidebar on my home page, but I'm not sure the banner has popped up yet.

I haven't seen the banner either.

I have a banner on all of the main pages - home, your books, groups, talk, my profile

Hmm. I dismissed the last banner, after I had already finished the Halloween Hunt. I wonder if hitting 'dismiss' for one hunt removes them all for every hunt going forward. I don't think that's the expected behaviour, but it may very well be what's happening to us.

>43 GraceCollection: If that's what's happening, it's a recent thing, as I'm sure I've dismissed it every time, but this year's Halloween hunt is the first banner I've missed.

Re the missing hunt banner(s)
I tend to reboot my computer every week to update the operating system patches and clean out the temp files in the cache on my browsers (Safari and Firefox).

This simple reset brings back the defaults on many websites without losing your preferences. As I understand it, the banner, which isn't affected by browser preferences, won't reappear until the browser restarts. You have to log in again to LT, of course.

>45 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks for the tip. I shut down my computer whenever I'm not using it, but maybe just resetting the cache and cookies might do the trick...?

Just for the record, I did my first computer shut-down/restart of the year, and the banner appeared in my browser again.... until I logged back into the site, at which point it disappeared again.

The 2024/ 2025 Winter Holiday Hunt has ended.

From the Talk Thread:

227 AbigailAdams26 Jan 8, 3:11 am

Regarding the banner: the developers are still aware of the ongoing problems with the banner's appearance, and the fact that dismissing it once sometimes seems to dismiss it forever, despite the member's wishes/preferences. The issue is on the list of things to be looked at, although I have no timeline to give on a resolution.

The Valentine’s Day 2025 Hunt Is on!

You have two weeks to find all the arrows (until 11:59pm EST, Friday February 28th).

Good luck finding your bow-and-arrows!

Thank you for this notice! Once again (for the 3rd time, I think), I am missing the banner!

You're welcome. It had only just popped up as I was doing other stuff on LT.

>50 LibraryCin: I didn't get a banner either, so like you, I think this is the 3rd one I missed.

>50 LibraryCin: My banner had been missing for quite a while. It reappeared sometime before the holiday hunt. For some reason I had gotten logged out and had to log back in. I don't know if that had anything to do with it or if that was just coincidence.

I do know I'm NOT dismissing the banner again!

I'm not sure if I'll end up doing this one or not. Would love to but just had a torn retina on the weekend. They lasered it on Monday, and was told not to watch tv, read, be online, etc. It's only been a few days, but this morning I was told it looks good and I can go back to those things, but I'm nervous and don't want to do too much too quickly.

This happened before in my other eye 14 years ago, and it took a few tries of the lasering to get it sealed and it still detached a couple of weeks later, so I'm wanting to be cautious and not spend too much time online or reading. I'll probably be nervous about it for a while, though.

>54 LibraryCin: I'm glad it's looking good. Take it easy and best of luck.

>55 humouress: It turns out there is more time left on this than I thought. I might not finish it, but I'll probably do a few today. :-)
And thank you.

The Valentine's Day treasure hunt 2025 has ended (actually, a few days ago on the 28th).

>56 LibraryCin: You're welcome :0) I hope the eye is fully healed now.

>58 humouress: Thanks! My eye seems to be doing well so far. I will have another follow up on March 19th.

I finished the 2025 Valentine’s Day Treasure Hunt but did not receive a badge. Did I need to do something else to receive it? Sorry, I’m new to this!

>60 julsdj: It can take a very long time for the badges to be handed out, since it’s done manually by LT staff. Most recently I got a whole year’s worth at one time.

Still missing my banner... To those unawares, there's another treasure hunt.

For anyone else missing the banner, the 2025 Spring Treasure Hunt is here: https://www.librarything.com/hunt/36

You have a little less than two weeks to find all the seedlings 🌱 (until 11:59pm EDT, Wednesday April 30th). Good luck!

Also still missing my banner, but I may not take time to participate on purpose this time. Had a detached retina 2 weeks ago and am just back online today. Online is hard on the eyes (well, currently still only one good eye), so I need to take it slow.

>64 LibraryCin:
I am so sorry to hear that. I hope your recovery is quick.

Thanks for being so organized, @humouress , as usual. I appreciate all the work you put into this group.

>66 norabelle414: You're welcome 😊

While I join in the Treasure Hunts because they are a lot of fun, and not really for the badges, I'm a little strartled that some badges seem to have disappeared and others never turned up.

What's going on?

(before this I don't have a list of what I did offhand)
LibraryThing Birthday Hunt
2023 Halloween Treasure Hunt
2023 LibraryThing Roundup Hunt
2024 TinyCat Birthday Hunt
2024 Valentine Hunt
2024/25 Winter Holiday Hunt (cardinal)
2025 Valentine’s Day Hunt
2025 Spring Treasure Hunt (I know this had serious issues)

>68 Kiri: Going by my badges, the last one to be awarded was for the 2024 Hallowe'en hunt (see >36 humouress:). I still have the badges for the ones before that (2023 Hallowe'en, 2023 LibraryThing Roundup, 2024 TinyCat Birthday & 2024 Valentine hunts).

I think your best bet is to get in touch with LT staff if you're missing badges.

>69 humouress: Thank you. I'll go and figure that out this weekend. =)

I'm missing the Time Travellers Hunt 2036 badge. I guess i'll have to wait.

>71 MrAndrew: Nah…you will have gotten it last year.

The 2025 Pride Treasure Hunt is now on!

You have just under two weeks to find all the rainbows (until 12:59pm EDT, Monday June 30th).

Ach! Still no banner for me...

>74 GraceCollection: I just released an update that SHOULD fix the banner issue regarding Hunts.

>75 conceptDawg: Sorry! Did not work for me. If it helps to know, I see the banner if I log out, but when logged in, it disappears. It has been that way for me since I stopped seeing it in the first place.

>76 GraceCollection: I am also not seeing the banner even after doing a refresh on the page.

Did I miss it? Or is it still going? Not sure if there was a banner for me (I didn't notice one).

I was offline again (due to a third eye surgery) for about 2.5 weeks until Monday. I'll head back to my home page and see if there is a blog post to see when this ends or if it's already over.

ETA: Oh, I do have until next week. Like last time, though, I am taking things easy online, so I'll just try to get a few. :-)

From https://www.librarything.com/topic/371626#8892238

"GOOD NEWS regarding the banner: the developers believe that they have resolved the ongoing problems with the banner's appearance. Going forward it should now appear for each hunt, even if dismissed in a previous one. Let us know when the next hunt commences, if this is not the case for you."

>79 norabelle414: YAY! Thank you for letting us know!

The LibraryThing 20th Birthday Treasure Hunt is on!

https://www.librarything.com/hunt/38

You have three weeks to find all the birthday banners (until 11:59pm EDT, Friday September 19th)

Once again banners appear not to be showing. I'm sure I've been to a few correct pages and I haven't seen even the announcement banner since I logged in.

>82 bookdude2: There’s an issue with the announcement banner and i think it might be affecting the answer banners. I’m going to leave it till tomorrow.

Looks like they're working again.

LibraryThing 20th birthday hunt (2025):
clues: https://www.librarything.com/hunt/38
Talk thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/373417

The Birthday Treasure Hunt has ended. Please be patient waiting for your badges; they are awarded manually so it may take some time, months even.

In the meantime, there is a Birthday Survey on what you think about LibraryThing, if you want to take part.

2025 Halloween Treasure Hunt

"It's October, and the Halloween Hunt has returned!

We've scattered a troupe of jack-o-lanterns around the site. You'll solve the clues below to find the jack-o-lanterns and gather them all together.

Decipher the clues and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a jack-o-lantern. Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
If there's a jack-o-lantern on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page.

You have two weeks to find all the jack-o-lanterns (until 11:59pm EDT, Friday October 31st).

Come brag about your troupe of jack-o-lanterns (and get hints) on Talk."

clues: https://www.librarything.com/hunt/39
Talk thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/374734

ETA: if you're sure you have the right answer but didn't get your pumpkin, try refreshing the page. Clue #5 especially seems to be a bit fussy this time.

If you're still missing your hunt notification banner, I've set up a separate thread for that: Where's my hunt notification banner?

If you're wondering if you should have received a treasure hunt badge for a past hunt, I've created a list of badges issued so far: Treasure hunt badges

The Hallowe'en Treasure Hunt has now ended.

Badges are awarded manually and not automatically so it may be a while before you receive yours. Please see Treasure hunt badges for a list of badges awarded for treasure hunts so far. As of today (2nd November 2025) the last badge to be awarded was for the 2024 Hallowe'en Hunt.

Badges have now been awarded!

>90 humouress: 🙂👍🏻🎉 Thank you! I can already see mine.

The Winter Holiday 2025 Hunt is on!

https://www.librarything.com/hunt/40

It's December, and we're hosting a special Winter Holiday Hunt!

We've scattered a stand of evergreen trees around the site. You'll solve the clues below to find the evergreen trees and gather them all together.

Decipher the clues below and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a evergreen tree. Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
If there's a evergreen tree on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page.
You have a little more than three weeks to find all the evergreen trees (until 11:59pm EST, Tuesday January 6th).
Come and brag about your stand of evergreen trees (and get hints) on Talk.

The Winter Holiday 2025 Hunt has now finished

AND

badges have been awarded:
the Coniferous Crest for participating in the 2025 Winter Holiday Hunt

That's gotta be a record time for receiving a badge. Maybe they're finally automated?

>94 norabelle414: I agree. That was surprisingly quick

So fun, thank you. Ready for the next one!

I was also pleasantly surprised by the speed by which the badges went out this time!

I'm not sure where to direct this but over in the Talk about LibraryThing group, @rgurskey mentioned that "April 2026 will be the 100th anniversary of the publication of Amazing Stories, the first American science fiction specific magazine." Any possibility of a treasure hunt around that?

>98 amdial7: I'm not sure whether LT staff read this thread. Your best bet would probably be to post on the Talk thread for the last Treasure Hunt: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376225

>99 humouress: thank you @humouress

>100 amdial7: You’re welcome.

The 2026 Valentine's Day Treasure Hunt has started!

You have a little more than two weeks to find all the strawberries (until 11:59pm EST, Saturday February 28th).

Sigh. Still no banner.

But thank you for letting us know!

The Tiny Cat 10th Birthday Hunt is on!

You have three weeks to find all the TinyCats (until 11:59pm EDT, Thursday April 30th).

>104 humouress: I thought I didn't get a banner, but I refreshed after a couple of hours and it showed up!

>105 MsMixte: I was happy to see a banner for this one!

In case you're wondering:

16 knerd.knitter answered: Do I have to subscribe to Tiny Cat to do this Hunt?

No, you do not.