Typically, I wouldn’t make a post on something like this, but my brother from another mother deserves credit for the idea.
Jerako: Walk With Me! has been updated to change kCal to $tep (Step Bucks) and will be Pa$ in French. Whatever languages it might otherwise come out in will (hopefully) get their own localization with appropriate assistance.
The reason for this is because Jerako: Walk With Me! is simply not a serious health app and the way it’s intended to track activity stops abruptly at the steps you take when you’re not involved in something else. While some effort was made to use kilocalories as a base to differentiate it from Watts as are used in similar pedometer games that shall not be named for legal reasons, it was done with the understanding and explanation that it would not be an accurate count.
That made sense to me, but the feedback on that was immediate when I actually started talking about it out loud to someone who knows me and knows exactly the kind of trouble I can cause myself. I can say it’s not accurate until I’m blue in the face; people don’t read and they’re going to assume it’s accurate and think it’s useful for actual health tracking.
Changing it to Step Bucks avoids that potential misrepresentation. Jerako: Walk With Me! may not be a health app, but the last thing I want it to be is harmful to anyone’s health. Making someone think they haven’t burned as much energy as they have is a dangerous prospect. If the point is to get up and get moving, Step Bucks are an appropriate reward for what’s counted in them (steps) and what they are (currency) with a name that’s simply easier to type to reflect that in plain text ($tep or Pa$ without the stylization).
The World of Jerako page has been updated to reflect this change, including an updated image, because somehow that hadn’t been touched since I had added kCal to the interface.
Happy walking!