thebruce0

Yes I think the 'nearest address' annoyance was fixed some time back; haven't seen that happen for a long time, at least while entering coordinates. However for navigation it will location the nearest end point depending on your travel method, but in my experience it provides a dashed arc between the closest access point and the desired coordinates. THAT is what you need to watch for with, for example, caches opposite a sound wall near a highway, where it may navigate to and stop you ON the highway as the closest road point - but it'll still give you the dashed line to the coordinates. 'Navigate' itself is really the function to make use of correctly if at all. Viewing coordinates in google maps should be fine.

Interesting, I've got that covered in an upcoming project of mine

Yes, I didn't define 'pre-downloaded' - it's not a function that one can "download" an AL, it's as you describe, effectively caching the AL within the app.

The first day or two is always hit or miss. Just have patience until they fix things. Undoubtedly they will retroactively reward legitimate completions if they didn't take due to the timezone issues (which they really do need to fix as it seems to happen with every new souvenir, people complaining they didn't earn it right away despite being locally within the earning window)

"First to be the 5th to find!"

Same, if I claim FTF (proper) on a cache with people who claimed FTF pre-publish, I'd just claim it and clarify FTF-post-publish (as most people consider a "true" ftf)

I don't rely on PGC for the ftf stats, I just add what I know I consider to be FTFs to a specific bookmark list. PGC can also use that as the source for FTFs. And yeah, there's no definitive guide for FTFs and people argue over them all the time. Use your definition and just stick with it. I include shared FTFs in mine, some don't; and I have my own limit of what I would consider 'shared' as teamwork, whether I'm signing the log first or someone else. I have declined claiming shared FTF with someone when offered if I felt I was too far away or didn't contribute at all to the search, but they didn't care; some people have different standards. "First" still means first, so there's literally a limit to what an FTF truly is, but it can also be classified - first to what? First to spot? First to solve? First to touch? First to sign? Before publication? After? yadda yadda. Decide for yourself, and if you want to avoid arguments, just describe what 'first' it is you're claiming. Done.

Yeah it can be confusing when you know there's a cache that's been around for a week, but the Placed date is a year ago because the CO created the listing and perhaps wanted to place a full series, only getting that done a year later. Placed 2022, published 2023. It happens...

To my knowledge, this is already how the app works - a pre-downloaded AL includes a hash of the available-to-answer questions (can't remember if that's also every sequential stage), and is able to tell you whether your answer is wrong. If it is correct, it then attempts to verify with the server, which is the point at which 'offline' ends; but this check is remembered so when you're back in mobile data range you can enter the code and it'll ping the success. So the difference would be as you suggest (highlighted), a change that allows the app to use the lighter 'offline validity' check to move on to the next stage for sequential ALs. I don't think that's so much a technical hurdle as a gameplay rule to minimize 'cheating'. What I think this boils down to more importantly, is that an AL creator should just consider that being a mobile-use location-based game, a place with zero mobile reception is not the place for an AL. Consider a multi with virtual waypoints that resolve a solution or puzzle to reveal final coordinates for a geocache - which doesn't even have to be placed nearby in the mobile dead zone. The final could be placed 3 cities over on your front porch if you want. No distance limits for multis.

@digby645 Yeah many of the older ones are out of stock. You could try this 24 foot pole, one of my go-tos.

And in this case, if not posting an OAR, then a reviewer would be able to make a judgment call based on records if the CO seems to be shirking their responsibilities and not fixing their caches the way they should be found. So I'd agree there are a couple of reasonable ways forward for this depending on how interaction with the CO goes.

I have been including them in the notes for my latest podcast episodes

For a MAJOR update since launch - Every stretch goal has so far been met, and the latest stretch goal: A SNAG THE TAG GAME There's officially still a week left before the campaign ends, and it needs your help to his that next goal! I am blown away!

*micdrop*

It'll be interesting to see a statistic of how many people on average complete Easy souvenirs and whether there's a noticeable dip in this month's due to the AL requirement.

It could be possible, though I haven't (yet) looked at the source scripts to verify, that they're hijacking any and all touch events - touch events in javascript are handled differently than mouse clicks which could explain why mouse right clicking works and seems the touch equivalent of right click doesn't (on a phone screen it's typically a two-finger tap). Does touch and hold work (or do anything differently for you) or is that blocked as well?

All the geocaching-related apps... just had to add that in there ;P

Oh, you brought it up again; I misread that as a new issue, not the same prior issue. How do you right click without a mouse? If you don't have a mouse, are you on touch screen? Trackball? Tap and hold doesn't allow you to open the link in a new tab/window? Even so, the right click shouldn't be script-hijacked. I haven't had any problems with in-description links on the website... left-clicking links in the description is just a pain anyway because 99% of the time I don't want to navigate away from the listing in that same tab

Oh then it's one of the link-but-not-a-link elements that use browser events rather than standard link actions? What listing, what link, and what browser/platform?

In a climate that ices over water, that's something to watch out for as ice can move and crumble which could rip and stretch any cord or cable (if the container is deep enough it may never be swallowed by ice). But great idea for perpetual unfrozen bodies of water. Found a couple like that around here, but I'm not sure what kind of maintenance they had to endure. Some ponds around here never really freeze (unless it's a really long and cold winter)

Or the more tedious right-click and open-in-new-tab

In that case any challenge could be described as encouraging that depending on who you ask and what their local area looks like for geocaching. You're effectively asking them to not issue worldwide challenges.

Yep I was just citing an example using the existing system, or else using whatever additional encryption you want to add for multiple hint steps. If you're concerned about the hint making the cache too easy, you could, in a sense, still offset the D by making the most helpful hint the hardest to decode on par with the listing D

Yes, and such hints actually tend to make the hunt worse because it's misleading - you'd be looking for something 'red', and if you don't find the cache you might think it's missing. That could lead to misleading DNFs or DNFs that aren't what they imply because the CO is chuckling and saying 'nope, it is there, I don't need be worried it might be missing' (but what if it actually is?). It just adds to so much more confusion when the hint has a directly misleading effect. You can add additional encryption to the hints so people don't 'accidentally' see the solution. Some people don't like that. That's why they allow the CO to block off text that should not be auto-decrypted. So if someone really wants the hint but not by accident, at least they need to do a bit more work; or if you offer multiple hints, the decrypt can show one while leaving the rest encrypted for people to choose to see manually, one at a time.

Fully agreed. I'll always emphasize that I prefer the phrase "everyone enjoys the activity differently" because even if everyone plays the game different, many of those people may absolutely be playing wrong. Enjoy it within the minimal ruleset that exists, and remember other humans play too.