[Cheesehead Dave]

Every physical object that you place, be it the final container, bison tubes or tags hanging from branches for intermediate stages, etc. must be at least 528′ away from other caches, or intermediate stages of other caches that aren’t “virtual stages”.

The only exception is that within your own multicache, if you feel like placing the stages 50′ apart, you’re good to go.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Spring 2002:

11140 active caches in 98 countries

[Cheesehead Dave]

Score!

New cache containers! by Cheesehead_Dave, on Flickr

[Cheesehead Dave]

I’ll start entering coordinates into it, but it will really be useful once it gets incorporated into PQs.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Wow… I vaguely remember a thread many years ago where people were amazed whenwe hit 1000 caches in the state.

[Cheesehead Dave]

In that case, I’d say yes, you did find (what was left of) the cache. That’s a big difference from not finding anything at all and just assuming that the cache was gone.

I’d sign whatever scrap of log I could find to make it “official”, gather up the geo-litter, then post a Needs Maintenance log along explaining the situation along with my Found It log. I would leave it up to the CO whether they want to put out a replacement container or not, though.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@gotta run wrote:

Here are some scenarios for challenges that don’t appear to be prohibited by the rules:

Go to these coordinates and look in this particular spot. The spot happens to be the final location of a puzzle cache.
Go to these coordinates and take a picture. The location is the final location of a mega-stage multicache.
Go to these coordinates and do a particular action. The action has the effect of revealing a particularly challenging hide.

As far as I can tell none of those meet the reasons a cache could be flagged, yet I could see they would all be possible based on past behaviors and actions by cache vandals.

There might not be a valid reason to flag them, but you can still give them a thumbs-down, and enough of those can trigger a review/archive.

[Cheesehead Dave]

If I’m one of the first finders and nobody has mentioned the situation, then I assume that maybe my GPSr is off and the posted coordinates are accurate. If there are several previous logs saying “the cache was 50′ away from GZ!” though, then I will post my coordinates and make a mention of them in my log in case the CO wants to use them.

[Cheesehead Dave]

If the cache isn’t there, then it’s a DNF; whether the cacher chooses to log it as such is up to them. I’d thank them politely for the info that the cache is gone, and maybe return the favor by emailing them with a heads up that the cache has been replaced so they can get first crack at it before I re-enable it, but I wouldn’t tell them they can log the DNF as a Find.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@CodeJunkie wrote:

I was listening to the Podcacher Podcast from last Wednesday (8/17) and it has an interview with Jeremy & Brian. Very interesting perspective on where they’re expecting this to go.

And there’s another problem: They explained it very well on the podcast, so if you happened to hear it, you knew what the goals of the new game were. Unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as clear on the site.

I wonder how different the reaction would have been if they had held off on introducing the Worldwide Challenges for a few weeks? I think “Kiss a frog” really set a bad example and all the non-location-specific Challenges were created based on that.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@lone_gunman wrote:

Here’s a question…..how does one create a worldwide challenge? or is that groundspeak only?

Right now, it seems that only Groundspeak can create the worldwide ones.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Jeremy’s blog post on Challenges: http://blog.geocaching.com/2011/08/the-eureka-moment-challenges/

It looks like the idea was to find something that would appease the still-vocal masses who want Virtuals returned, but would not bring back all the angst and problems that they brought.

One note that many early Challenge creators are missing is that these aren’t exactly Locationless caches; you must tie your Challenge to a specific location. So if you feel the need to create a planking challenge, it has to be “Post a picture of yourself planking on this specific park bench” and not “Post a picture of you planking on a park bench anywhere.”

That said, I’m not sure why this was folded into the full site and not made into a separate game like Waymarking or benchmark hunting.

Just for fun, I published one anyway: http://coord.info/CX287

[Cheesehead Dave]

Thanks for all the responses! I know who is going to adopt the cache, pending him deciding if/where he can move it.

And to take the thread back off-topic: Many DeLorme owners have said the same thing: They would log the cache if they became eligible to find it. The goal of the challenge is not really to find the final, but the journey in qualifying for it, so if the owner makes the effort to travel around the state, they’ve earned it.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Answers to FAQs:

The calculator is written in PHP and draws from a MySQL database. If you’re a programmer and want to give it a shot, I can send the files to you, however they are very lightly commented, and the class that actually does the GPX file parsing will make your eyes water.

Everything is fine on my end; with my three kids getting older and getting involved in their activities, I just haven’t had as much time for things as I used to. Rather than see this cache languish, I’d like to have someone give it the attention and care that it deserves.

[Cheesehead Dave]

#49073 – April 2002.

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