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TommyGator

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Everything posted by TommyGator

  1. Just played the one free game, courtesy of gc. Did all ten locations and got the tracking code. Apparently, that one free game is all you get unless you pay for a monthly subscription (can be paid yearly), for which I'm not interested. Got the "free" souvenir, and that's that. Of course, others may like it enough to pay for it----personal choice.
  2. The difference is that one can look for the first (or any subsequent) stage of multiple multis without having to change or reinitiate apps. I do it all the time, since I have the coordinates for the beginning stage of multiple not-yet-started multis as well as updated coordinates for subsequent stages as I accomplish them, and can easily do them in any order I choose. Further, I can easily map-out the next stages of multiple multis and plan my day accordingly---and I don't have to remember where each original starting location was. In fact, I have a number of "not yet complete" multis where I've found some stages but not the final----and have the coordinates for the next unfound stages in GSAK ready to be loaded into my GPSr whenever it suits my fancy. And when I find a stage and get another set of coordinates, I merely update the multi to those new coordinates. In case this hasn't yet been seen, one can update the coordinates on any cache web page. Once you update the multi's coordinates to the next stage, it is then "all set" for the next time you want to continue that multi. (Is this premium-only??) Same can't be said for ALs which have no web page and are dependent on resuming from the original starting point (yes, there are work-arounds, but I'm limiting my comments to the "official" method). Of course, a purist would not do any caching while doing just one and only one AL from start to completion----and in that case, it would indeed be mostly similar to doing just one and only one multi from start to completion. Guess you have to choose what kind of cacher you want to be, and make allowances for those who see things differently.
  3. I believe the OP is stating a different problem, in trying to resume (in the field) a partially-completed Adlab which consists of widely-separated stages. I have encountered this situation a number of times. For example, consider this hypothetical (for illustration purposes) example: Suppose a CO created a five-stage non-sequential Adlab in the state of Texas, with the first stage in Houston, then subsequent stages in Laredo, El Paso, Amarillo, and Dallas. This is the "adventure" that the CO wants you to have, and "purists" will insist that you shouldn't be doing any other Adlabs while this one is in progress (to which I don't agree, but that's another topic). You happen to be in Houston and discover this Adlab and begin it in earnest, but note the distances involved and are only able to complete the Houston stage, leaving the other stages for "some other time." Some months later, after living geo-life, accumulating lots of other caches and Adlabs, you find yourself in El Paso and suddenly remember that there is an Adlab stage there from some Adlab you started a long time ago. You open up the app and it shows you in El Paso. You search around El Paso, but the stage doesn't show up because the starting location (to resume) is back in Houston, a fact that you might have forgotten. So, you start scrolling the map around the state of Texas trying to find that starting location again---and then suddenly remember it was in Houston! You scroll to Houston and are greeted by what seems a zillion green pins, one of which might be the one you are looking for. You utter a few incomprehensible and choice comments, but change to the "list view", and then start scrolling scroll through the seemingly endless list of Adlabs trying to remember the name of that pesky Adlab---and somehow stumble upon it, select it, and resume the Adlab, and you can then look for that El Paso stage. What a fun adventure! You can indeed (as previously stated) open a web browser, login to your "my labs" page, scroll around looking for the stage you already completed, click on the link that takes you to the Adlab starting page (on the web), then use your handy-dandy QR-code reader to activate the app with that particular Adlab. Doable, but not particularly user-friendly in the field when all you have in your hand is your smartphone with the app. Of course, there are a number of work-arounds involving other websites, GSAK, etc, but the point here is to identify issues as a result of exclusively using the app. ***************************************** Having said all this, the OP asked for recommendations. Here's my input for your next Hwy 401 stage: 1. Before leaving home, find the Adlab on your "my labs" page as described by Max & 99. Print out the QR code and take it with you. 2. Embark on your trip. Then, anytime you want to load that particular Adlab, you only need to scan that QR-code and the app will open right to it, and you can do that as often as needed. Clunky, but it works----remember, you are having an adventure!
  4. Something I've learned via frustrating experience is that if you are going to an area with questionable data reception, it is best to load the AdLab while you still have a decent signal. It is frustrating when you wish to start an AdLab and then find you have no signal with which to get the App to load it---and then you can't even start. Even worse, if there are two (or more) overlapping AdLabs and you exit one to grab a stage from another, you might find that not only will the second AdLab not load, but you might not be able to reload the the original in order to resume. Now, you might think that this would somewhat solve the problem. Well, it kinda does---until the app "hangs" and you have to do a reload (seems to happen quite a bit) and you find that you don't have enough signal for that to happen---midway through your "adventure!" Remind yourself that you are having an adventure----and wandering around trying to get a signal is de facto part of that adventure.
  5. My first guess would be that you were having problems with data reception----either you were in an area with weak or no signal, or perhaps you didn't have your data turned on. I've done that a time or two. If you aren't receiving data, the App can't download info from the server in order to start the AdLab.
  6. Congratulations on discovering that you need either two devices or switch between two different apps to look for geocaches and AdLabs at the same time. There are many discussions in this forum complaining about this issue, but it appears that the intent of the current AdLab philosophy is to stress the use of the AdLab app rather than support the use of a stand-alone GPS, or to fully incorporate AdLabs into the official geocaching app. AdLabs can only be logged via the AdLab app, while you can log standard geocaches from a geocaching app or from the geocaching.com website. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to get the AdLab stages downloaded into your GPS directly from geocaching.com However, if you have access to GSAK, you can download your standard geocaching.com Pocket Queries into GSAK, then make use of several GSAK macros (available in the GSAK Macro Index) to add some AdLab data to your GSAK database---unless geocaching.com intentionally disables their API against such use, which has already been done for some macros. Hopefully some of the newer macros will work. Anyhow, once you have a GSAK database with combined geocaches and AdLabs, you can then download the database from GSAK into your GPS and then go look for AdLabs and caches---but you will still have to use the AdLab app to log any AdLab finds, and to recognize each individual geofence in order for the AdLab app to accept the answer. Others may offer better advice.
  7. I suppose that is the "adventure" that the COs want you to experience.
  8. The precise argument against time penalties. Poorly worded multiple choice questions can and do result in trial-and-error answers. Yes. A noble goal. That's why penalties, which make ALs less fun (except, perhaps, for the CO), should not be considered.
  9. And many would undoubtedly appreciate that! I've seen that trend is already well underway---and sometimes by design, no less.
  10. You are entirely correct. The Builder Guide does indeed say that the question is to prove you were there----and disregards that the purpose of the geofence is to do the exact same thing. Draw what conclusions from this that you might. One might have thought that the purpose of the AL was to have an adventure related to the story---rather than to travel to a random location to complete a mundane task----but that is for others to philosophise about.
  11. Doesn't look dumb at all---I presume this is Maitland Bay, and there is probably a big backstory in your AL about the sinking of the Maitland. I'd look up your AL if it weren't so cumbersome to do so---but if I were in the area, I'd be intrigued by the story and might appreciate a look-see at the places involved. The purpose of the question is NOT to prove you were there, as that is the purpose of the geofence that prevents credit until your actual presence is registered (GPS spoofers notwithstanding). You can easily ask a question from the text you provided in the write-up for that stage. This would add to the adventure by causing the adlabber to actually read your excellent write-up rather than merely skip the write-up, travel to the location, and merely answer some irrelevant (to the story) question, and then move on to the next location. As many have already found, there is little need to read the stage writeups since the only thing often necessary is to travel to the location and answer a question about how many bolts are on a sign, or something equally exciting. Asking a question from your own text might actually draw someone's interest into the story that you were trying to tell. Just my opinion.
  12. I must disagree. I've been to far too many AdLab stages where the question was either vaguely worded or did not reference a crystal clear and unambiguous answer---requiring multiple attempts until I finally worded (or spelled) the answer in the manner required by the CO, while standing directly in front of the object supposedly containing the answer.. That, by itself, was immensely frustrating. Adding a time limit might just be another disincentive for doing AdLabs. Unfortunately, guessing has become an integral part of AdLabbing, often the result of poor question design, or even by CO intent---which, without a review process or user feedback mechanism, isn't going to change anytime soon, and may even get worse.
  13. Had the same thing happen to me yesterday. It is quite aggravating, because the app tends to "hang" (i.e., become unresponsive for some period of time) and not getting a response from a "submit" looks just like another "hang." It was particularly annoying when one of the required answers was not clearly defined from the info at the spot and I had to keep trying many different ways of saying the same thing, in an attempt to find the one the CO used. It took several app restarts (along with some choice comments to myself) before I realized that the app wasn't "hanging," but just ignoring me. I, too, hope it is merely a bug, and not an intended "feature."
  14. Bl4ckH4wkGER, If you already know what is wrong with the PQs,, please disregard. However, if you need assistance in debugging, I have two different runs of the same PQ, obtained 9 and 27 Oct 22, which I'll be glad to send you to compare and analyze. If you want them, please send an email through my profile with return address enabled so I can reply with attachments.
  15. I came to this thread because, all of a sudden, my PQs that I have been running for years are now only providing a fraction of the returns that they were just a month or so ago. I noticed this when I wentr to update a (caches along a route) GPX with a PQ that I have run for years, and the PQ returned only about half of the caches. I have not changed or messed with the PQ, but after filtering out the ones that did update (using GSAK), I was left with a substantial number of un -updated caches that are clearly within the bounds of the PQ selection criteria. Please note that I only used GSAK to do the filtering to determine what was going on. I ran the PQ from the website, then downloaded the result directly to my computer desktop. I then loaded a previous (older) route file into GSAK, loaded the PQ, and found that 94 out of 154 valid, current caches were not contained in the new PQ. My original GPX, containing prior results of the exact same PQ, had 154 caches along the route, and I checked to make sure they were all still valid (i.e., not archived, already found, etc), but the new PQ only contained 60 of those caches. I also noted that the name of the PQ download file was exactly the same as a previous run from yesterday (8380642_Texas_Rt_IN_IL.zip), which also only contained those same 60 caches. I tried another PQ for a different route and had a similar experience. This wasn't happening in July, which was the time prior that I checked these PQs. I've provided the PQ name and have a GPX of the previously downloaded caches that the new PQ didn't contain.
  16. Hugh, Thanks---I wasn't aware of that. Here's the list of my most recent caches with total. The big total on top is 10,908 My 12Kth cache was the W.C.O.G. event cache which I logged at 12,000.. Note that it is listed on top, not five below the 12,005th (which is the one right below it).....but that's another issue. There's also a difference of 4, but I'm aware of that, which is from long ago, probably retracted or "bonus" smilies that were allowed way back when. It would be handy if the "results" on top reflected the actual count. Also note that determining the nth milestone cache from this list is virtually impossible since the Adlab finds are interspersed in the "real" count but not listed in the chronology. I had been depending on my own notes as well as the locked milestone statistics. It was this top banner, along with the lack of 11k and 12k milestones, that caused my belief that something was amiss. Thanks to all who responded and relieved my anxiety.
  17. Now that Adventure Labs seem firmly embedded in the geocaching psyche for many if not most geocachers, isn't it time to include AdLab finds in the "real" find count, because those tallied on our individual profile pages are NOT the same number that appears on our day-to-day find count as displayed with our avatar and on our dashboards? For those who have complained about the 1 vs five (or other stage count) method of counting finds, please bear with me a moment, as my point applies regardless of this issue. At present, the find count published with our avatar and on our dashboards includes AdLabs. The find count on our profile page does not. As a result, our idea of how many finds we have may in no way resemble what GC considers "finds" unless you have taken the time to go to your profile page and see what number they are using, as opposed to the one displayed with our avatar. If you've never done any AdLabs, or you've only done a very small number, these "find totals" won't be much different. However, if you live in an area with LOTS of AdLabs, have taken the time to get involved in Adlabbing, and have well over a thousand AdLab finds as I do, the "find totals" are markedly different. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't routinely take time to click over to my profile page to see how many finds GC credits me with. Maybe you do, but that's a lot of repetitive effort for day-to-day caching, when our find count is so nicely displayed with our avatars and on our dashboards. This thread is about milestones----so what's the issue? Regardless of whether you are a new or experienced cacher, if you've been doing Adlabs, you've included them in our hobby regardless of what some may think about the righteousness of so doing. I can tell you that Adlabs are a popular discussion topic at events in my area and, at least around here, Adlabbing has become integral to what we do as geocachers. Milestones are another way by which we measure progress and experience, and many of us choose specific caches with which to celebrate particular milestones. Some have even involved an event for the purpose of watching an individual attain a particularly difficult cache as a milestone find. Unfortunately, what you think is a milestone find and what GC considers a milestone find can be two different things, and therein is the rub. I'll just give you a personal example: In my daily caching, I noticed I was approaching 12,000 finds and wanted to be sure and do something special for that find. So, I carefully chose a cache, then adapted a geocaching run to ensure that that particular cache was accomplished and logged in the appropriate order. My wife even took pictures. Afterwards, I wanted to see the results of my efforts on my profile milestone page and saw something was amiss. Not only was my 12,000th find not listed, neither was my 11,000th, for which I have a nice engraved memento 11,000-find geocoin sitting in front of me. It took some looking around, but I finally found out that GC doesn't recognize Adlabs in milestones, and as a result, with my well-over 1000 Adlabs, my GC-find count hasn't reached 11,000 yet! Now, I don't know about you, but I've spent a lot of gas money driving to Adlabs, sometimes solely for them. I've put effort into finding them. I've had fun at events discussing them. I've done them at Mega events. In short, Adlabs are part of my geocaching. To ignore all of that effort makes any further milestones based on GC Adlab-less numbers meaningless to me. Milestones celebrate effort and accomplishment. Adlab-less find numbers fall far short on both counts, at least to me. It's not just high-number cachers that have this issue. Newbies who have just gotten into geocaching with their smartphones, and have gotten excited by getting some geocaches under their belts as well as some AdLabs, will likely be dismayed when, after bragging at an event that they finally got 100 caches, they find that GC didn't count any of the Adlabs and the find count that they saw on the app and on the website was just a mirage. My recommendation (that of others may vary)? As far as I can see, Adlabs are now part of geocaching in the minds of geocachers around me and I suspect that is true pretty much in general. GC wove finds into the overall find count they display, and people have become accustomed to that. It is time to count them in the milestone figures as well, especially if we want milestones to mean anything. Thanks for listening.
  18. Rather than use a list to load your GPS, you could download multiple PQs and/or lists to GSAK, which can easily handle thousands of caches, then either send from GSAK directly to your GPS or, as I do, export a GPX file to your computer and then copy it to the appropriate folder on your GPS. You would be limited only by the maximum number of geocaches your GPS can accept. My GPS is limited to 5000 geocaches, but that varies depending on make and model. However, for smartphones, this will not work, as (to the best of my knowledge) the Official App does not provide for the use of GPX files----you have to use lists with the Official App. But, there are other geocaching apps that work quite nicely with GPX files (iPhone & Android). Good luck!
  19. I don't believe many folks would object to linearity if it were used for reasons of safety, for more efficient stage sequencing, or in support of an obvious theme----and a few AdLabs clearly use them for that purpose, as attested by some of the comments in this thread. What frustrates people, though is when linearity has no obvious (to the AdLabber) purpose, or merely to hide bonus coordinates---with the ensuing frustration of needless back-and forth or otherwise inefficient driving. The latter seems to be more prevalent than the former. The elimination of the linearity option would force COs to hide bonus coordinates in a different manner, which has been amply-described in other threads. Of course, the AdLab app could be changed to add a completion screen in which bonus coordinates could be hidden, and that has been repeatedly suggested---but apparently hasn't risen high enough on the change list. Then again, one could hope that COs exercise more care when choosing linearity, and not using it for the mere convenience of hiding bonus coordinates----but that method DOES happen to be the easiest, and ..... well, this thread gives evidence as to how that has been working out. My guess is that bonus caches were probably not part of the original AdLab concept, and instead were the result of ingenious cachers who found the bonus a novel use for AdLabs. The fact that AdLabs are, by design, limited to the app with only basic information (unlike caches, which are individually hosted in great detail on geocaching.com), reinforces this perception. While bonus caches seem clearly important to geocachers, they may be of minimal importance to the AdLab design concept---and hence the frustration.
  20. That's the point. Your GPSr suggests, but the AdLab app selects the next stage automatically and, if you have reason to go elsewhere, you have to override the app's decision. You are very correct that fooling with the phone while driving is a no-no---something the developers should keep in mind, such as in keeping the map screen from timing out and making the map otherwise uncluttered with minimal user enroute interaction.. Ideally, you would set up the map while you are parked, then drive to the next stop using the map. Unfortunately, shortly after getting back in traffic the screen times out. It's up to you what to do then.
  21. That's an issue for me as well. The app chooses the next stage for you and, although it is possible to re-direct to a different stage, the process can be cumbersome. This happens to me a lot when I'm doing an AL in an urban area and notice that, beccause of the roads, traffic, or whatever, it might be more advantageous to drive to a different stage other than the nearest (as the crow flies). I end up having to pull over and park so I can fight with the app to re-direct, then pull back into traffic. It becomes even more fun when the map "times out" while you're driving and you have to poke the app to get it back on.
  22. A clarification: By "enhance my experience," I mean that my experience would have been enhanced if I were to exclaim, "Now that this is AdLab complete, I'm really glad that it was sequential, because it just wouldn't have meant as much to me otherwise." That hasn't happened yet, but there's always hope!
  23. Several responders have stated that linearity is important to their own AdLabs and I believe them. However, of the 240 linear stages I've thus far completed (out of 1,024 total), I can only say that in no cases did the linearity appear (to me) to enhance my experience---at least as far as I noticed. However, I will note that five of them were along an urban one-way street and I guess the linearity was beneficial since I was driving, although I believe I'd have noticed the one-wayness anyhow. Many of the linear AdLabs hid bonus coordinates in one of the stages (usually, but not always, the last stage), and that appeared (to me) the only reason for the linearity---which could have EASILY been avoided and would have eliminated "linear aggravation" had the app provided a "completion message" within which the CO could have hidden the bonus info. I believe this has been mentioned before. I'm all for linearity if there is a no-kidding thematic reason for doing so----but that seems to be a rarity---at least from my experience. Others may differ.
  24. Since you already have an account, I recommend you contact some local cachers and ask for some guidance. You might even get invited to accompany them on a caching run, and maybe make a few geo-friends in the process. Try to attend a local event where you can meet other cachers and discuss/ask anything you like. Geocachers tend to be happy to share advice. To find some other cachers, simply use either the app or geocaching.com to identify a cache near you. The logs for that cache will identify those who have already found it, and odds are that many of those previous finders will be local. Simply click on their name and send them a message. Welcome and good luck!
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