Step cap in detail
Without a cap, one marathon day or one dubious number can decide a team's fate, and the quieter participants conclude that the challenge is not for them. The step cap prevents that by counting steps only up to a set number per day. Participants can walk further, of course, but the excess does not add to the challenge totals. The cap works with other fair-play settings: manual-entry exclusion ignores steps typed into a health app, unusual-day flags queue implausible days for review, and admin-added steps are recorded separately. The cap value is a design choice with real consequences. Set low, it rewards consistency and favours ordinary walkers; set high, it rewards athletes. Many programmes also report consistency and improvement rankings, which are largely immune to extreme days anyway. Announce the cap at launch so nobody discovers it after a heroic Sunday.
How Sociana uses it
Caps are configured with the goal, start date and sync rules for a step challenge. They sit beside unusual-day flags and manual-entry exclusion as fair-play controls.
Example
A team walking programme capped daily steps so one very active day could not decide the standings.