FairmountWaterWorks
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Posts posted by FairmountWaterWorks
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11 hours ago, dprovan said:
Even if someone said, "I'm disappointed there was no bonus cache," I would take them as merely suggesting an improvement, not saying they were honestly disappointed in the experience.
If the average score were 5 stars, I might agree with that. But it's four stars, and I can't tell how many of the 20+ people downgraded, nor why. Suggestion for app improvement: put the stars next to the logs. If there were a couple of 2-star votes bringing it down, I wouldn't take it as seriously as if there were 20 4-star votes.
This isn't a huge deal or deal-killer for us, as I"m about to work on my second AL (yay a new credit came yesterday!), but I do think the ALs should be purely virtual for reasons I've detailed. Probably won't put a bonus on the next one either, because of the high amount of muggles in the two or three spots I could squeeze one in (already checked), very cache-clogged area.
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On 6/15/2021 at 2:20 PM, dprovan said:
By "gripes", do you mean "Too bad there's no bonus cache" or "I wasted my time on your stupid AL that didn't even have a bonus cache"?
If people are rude about your AL for whatever reason, then I understand why you're upset, but you should be upset about them being rude, not about them wanting a bonus cache. The good news is that no one reads the activity logs, so you're the only one that will notice the complaint.
If someone just suggested a bonus cache because they like them, that's not a gripe, and, like any advice, you are free to ignore it. Unfortunately, the nature of ALs makes it difficult to explain why you don't have a bonus -- so, in this case, both because you couldn't and you didn't want to -- because people doing the AL would tend to scan over anything not related to following the adventure, so you'll just have to ignore the never ending requests for a bonus cache.
As it happens, I'm a big fan of bonus caches on ALs because it attaches the AL to geocaching, in particular, providing a real log where people can share their experience instead of just putting them in the AL "review" where no one (except maybe the AL owner) will see them. So I admit I've mentioned that in my AL log once or twice because there's so much more I'd like to say about my experience, but I'm not going to try to do it out in the field with a dumb phone interface.
Hi, sorry for delay responding. Just realized I didn't have my email notifications set. Had a big deadline the last month and didn't think to go checking the forum.
Anyway, no, the commenters weren't rude, just disappointed. And I wasn't upset, just disappointed that they were disappointed. It doesn't seem like we can see which commenter gave less than 5 stars, so I don't know if one person gave one or two stars to bring it all down, or many people gave 4 stars, or what. I probably made a mistake starting this AL in May. It would be all 5 stars if it started in November after the foliage calmed down!
But I hated to waste a summer, especially when our Interpretive Center still isn't open to the public. And, some people don't seem to enjoy challenging questions as much as others might. In defense of AL, the app does say that we should make the questions easy to answer. I get that and should probably edit two of my questions to give hints. Wish we could put a difficulty rating so people aren't disappointed though. Just want everyone to be happy!
Regarding the bonus, my area is absolutely clogged with physical caches. So I had two constraints with this AL - can't place inside a Nat'l Park, and can't find a decent open spot along the Schuylkill River. So the AL format is wonderfully freeing for the CO. I mean, the ALO.
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On 6/15/2021 at 10:02 PM, barefootjeff said:
The average length of my logs on the 15 AL bonus caches I've found is 851 characters, over twice the 400 character limit on AL activity logs. My longest is 1743 characters, so the 400 character limit wouldn't have got me far on that one, plus on many of them I've posted photos of my adventure, something you can't do in activity logs. Maybe 400 characters is enough for ALs that are just about reading sign posts along a city block but most of the ones I've done have had a lot more meat to them than that. So yes, the big plus of bonus caches is the ability to write proper logs.
Thanks for explaining, I didn't know all that. It would be great if AL logs could be as substantial as regular logs. However, some of the AL logs I get are far more substantial than some of the TFTC logs we get on the geocaches. I still think AL should just be AL and not try to be a quasi-geocache or excuse for a geocache.
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On 6/14/2021 at 8:36 PM, CAVinoGal said:
I may be an exception, but specifically because I know I don't get notified about "finds" on my AL, I DO go to the activity tab on the app and I DO read the logs folks leave and I check it about once a week or so.
Thanks for your post. Same here. I've changed my AL to reflect some of the complaints and suggestions.
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Thanks, good points! (Sorry to take so long replying. Still getting the hang of things.)
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Thanks! There's an 11th log (sort of) from today, and you're undoubtedly right that some others found it and didn't log it.
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I looked everywhere! Where are they? Can't believe with a week of nice weather and a brand new AL there has not been an 11th find. I dimly recall reading posts on this issue but maybe things have changed since then. Would be great to see continuing feedback on how people are doing with this one, since I did change the descriptions, hopefully to make the Adventure more enjoyable.
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Thanks for the discussion, everyone.
Yes, the Nat'l Park in question is free, to park and to enter.
Max and 99, yes I did go back to my descriptions and make it more obvious that a couple of locations have some overgrowth this time of year. Also I suggested that instead of randomly bursting through the brush they should look for existing side paths, as there are plenty. But, to answer Question #2 they would encounter some poison ivy right now, so I don't mind them commenting on it just to warn others.
I do read the logs (or will I only see the first ten?) but wish there was a way to respond to the loggers to ask followup questions about their concerns. Not "why are you a dope crashing through the poison ivy in shorts" but "what route did you take and how could we make it better." I tried to add a waypoint just to keep them on the trail, but couldn't figure out to do that.
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Worked really hard on our first AL and tried to send people to cool unusual places and now the gripes are coming in because there is no Bonus.
We could not place a physical cache in a Nat'l Park, nor did we want to place one as part of the AL. One thing that attracted us to AL is that the creator doesn't have to deal with the physical thing and its endless maintenance – we've placed several of those over the past 5 years and it's getting expensive, as we buy very nice containers and toys and they get washed away occasionally. Also with AL the user doesn't have to touch anything infectious or worry about muggles. We are in a very cache-congested area and there aren't many spots left to put a physical cache along the river for 50 miles. It's so freeing to have the AL able to go anywhere!
Pretty sure some others feel the same, we wish the Bonus Cache could be disallowed and keep the AL virtual. And, a difficulty and terrain rating would help the users not be disappointed or frustrated. I guess we could add our own, but if users aren't expecting such things, they may miss that information.
Just some gripes of my own as I read the gripes.
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Yes, I selected Private. I wanted to be on site and play the game the way anybody else would, can you do that in Test Mode? At the time I did not notice where to select Test Mode. I see it now. Thanks!
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Oh OK, maybe it wasn't fencing then. It let me play, for whatever reason...
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Now I see the Leaderboard on the AL home page. Screenshot attached (for the benefit of other newbies).
Surprised to see that I'm the FTF on the four locations I tested. Wouldn't it make more sense to have only the first Public completions listed on the Leaderboard? After all, I already knew where they were. At least I left one unfinished for someone to get one FTF.
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I posted an AL in a National Park that doesn't have an entry fee. I wrote to our regional reviewer first, and they said I didn't need permission.
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I posted my first AL and the FTF was posted on my Activity page yesterday. With our regular geocaches, I like to call out and congratulate the FTF team on the description page. Is that the done thing with ALs? Is there somewhere I should be posting FTF besides in my introductory page? And finally, where is this Leaderboard of which you speak?
Thanks
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I made the dumb error of trying to test my first AL while still at home. That didn't work. Once I got on site, it responded to the coordinates and geofencing, and let me play.
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Hi, that's an old question, but just in case you are still stuck, or someone else is:
I tested my first AL last week, and had some of the same troubles at first, but then realized (duh) you can't test it from home, you have to be actually on site doing the Adventure yourself on your phone.
Once I got on site, it worked perfectly and I was so happy. Made it public, and yesterday the FTF was posted in the Activity Log. It does show on the map after it was made Public.
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OK, I think I'll go back to the sites and add another one before making it Live. At first, I couldn't find another appropriate location near there, but I'll try harder. Thanks for your advice!
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2 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:
Just fyi, you can edit almost everything on the adventure lab. What you should never do is add a stage or delete a stage. That will cause problems!
Will people be incensed if there are only 4 stages? I thought I could add one later, but I read another thread that explained why that's bad – previous completers feel ripped off. This seems like another reason to only give one point for the entire thing, as others have suggested. I didn't do much to get 25 points!
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1 minute ago, Max and 99 said:
On the very very rare occasion that the river level is too high, you can edit the coordinates and the question to give them something different just during that time. You can change it again as soon as the river level goes down and they can access what you want them to. Easy!
Oh I see, actually change it for a few days! OK that's a possibility. Thanks so much.
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2 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:
They will get a geocache find credit for each location they answer correctly. They cannot leave a log until all locations are visited and questions are answered.
I don't understand this puzzle thing.
By puzzle I meant question. Wish they could be more puzzly.
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59 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:
In the builder there's a switch to set whether it has to be played sequentially or not.
If you set that slider to OFF (left position), the loacations can be visited in any order so players would still be able to complete your remaining four locations.
Thanks, yes, I did see that switch. I just didn't know what the ramifications would be of skipping one in a sequence. It is dire!
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Thanks folks! If they can't leave a log, does that mean they don't get credit for the other three points? Also, I had set the geofencing low, at 20 on most and 40 on another. If I set it wider, and have a secondary puzzle within that area, how do we keep them from just answering that and never going to the ultra cool place that is underwater once every five years?
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Hi all, I'm almost done building my first AL. Location 2 would be inaccessible during a flood stage of a river. A rare occurrence, but still, my instructions advise them to skip that question if the river is very high. Will they be able to access Location 3 without answering Question 2? I've done a bunch of ALs as a player, but can't remember if you can skip around. I prefer they go in sequence for the story.
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We are wondering how many people visit our cache pages, even if they don't post a Find or DNF. I looked on my dashboard and on the pages, but don't see anything. Thanks!
But I hated to waste a summer, especially when our Interpretive Center still isn't open to the public. And, some people don't seem to enjoy challenging questions as much as others might. In defense of AL, the app does say that we should make the questions easy to answer. I get that and should probably edit two of my questions to give hints. Wish we could put a difficulty rating so people aren't disappointed though. Just want everyone to be happy!
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Bonus griping
in Creating Adventures
Posted
Thanks for the discussion guys. I agree that 5 stars should be exceptional, but it seems not to be, kind of like airbnb where hosts pressure you to leave 5 stars and only praise. There is no pressure from GC HQ when I've done ALs, but they were mostly averaging 5 stars before I went on them, even though their content definitely was not (in my view, of course). So again my only problem here is that _probably_ some people would have rated our Historic Schuylkill Infrastructure higher (even a 4 instead of a 3, for example) if there had been a bonus or if they had worn long pants.
So it is interesting that we weren't supposed to get another credit unless we were 4.7 or higher? We were only at 4.0. Well, thanks for the credit anyway, this one will be fun and easy without any poison ivy. And oh yeah without any bonus. What can ya do.
Cheers, FWW