bigcall

I just got the latest updated CM file from Moun10Bike and have started parsing it again. Apparently we are down 9 more to 349 in total. We're also down another 7 to 279 of those who have an active cache. I'm pulling out the script I used before and will attempt to update the 14 bookmarks that I created and referenced on the 4 Nov 22 post. We'll see how it goes

The new challenge checker is in place now, so the task is a little harder. In the spirit of trying to make it easier, I created a series of bookmarks which contain all the Charter Member active caches. It only goes through caches that were published through mid-October. This was somewhat of a daunting task and I'm sure it's not perfect. I will say that I do not intend to update it frequently, or at all as caches become archived, transferred to new owners, or new one published. Hopefully it will help with finding Charter Member caches since I believe these should be able to be turned into pocket queries? I only made them shareable for the time being, so if there are comments and/or feedback, let me know before they are published as Public. I figured this forum topic was a good place to start. https://coord.info/BMBP0GM https://coord.info/BMBP0J4 https://coord.info/BMBP0MT https://coord.info/BMBP0ND https://coord.info/BMBP2BN https://coord.info/BMBP0K3 https://coord.info/BMBP0M6 https://coord.info/BMBP2JX https://coord.info/BMBP2MB https://coord.info/BMBP2HT https://coord.info/BMBP2MG https://coord.info/BMBP2NF https://coord.info/BMBP2NN https://coord.info/BMBP2QD I know it's a lot to wade through. I tried to make it as regional as possible, but there was overflow beyond the 1000 cache limit in some cases so I either split it up by year or stuck them in the catch all is "Everything Else" which includes most of the rest of the world as well.

I would prefer not to start a firestorm by posting publicly who was added and subtracted especially since it wasn't my decision and I don't know the rationale/reasons. I can send a personal note if you desire?

I just updated the Bookmark list. https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM2DVKX?sort=name&sortOrder=asc&skip=0&take=500 Lost 64 and gained 4 from what I had before. Shot a note to Project-GC to see what the process is to request to update the checker. Looking at the code, it seems like it could be as easy as copying a new list in, but it sounds like it would run faster with Cacher ID #s? Given some of the changes, I may need to get busy to get back up to 50 myself...

I'm not sure how to grandfather that in other than not updating it? Perhaps a solution is for anyone working on it to document their current progress before the updates go into effect? I went through the new spreadsheet (gotta love Power Pivot) and there are only 286 Charter Members with active caches, so if someone were to start today it would be even harder. I will ask the checker folks about changing the output slightly since I agree with you, that sort of information would be very useful. BTW, Geocaching HQ is no longer on the list.

Is the google drive file updated? I was going to update my bookmark and see if I can get some of the automated checker tools updated

The last update from Mou10Bike back in January showed 430 "real" charter members, 390 of whom ever owned a cache, and 336 who still own one.

I just finished updating the bookmark list - it was a semi-painful process, but I believe it matches up with Moun10Bike's spreadsheet now: https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM2DVKX?sort=name&sortOrder=asc&skip=0&take=500 There were quite a number of changes, mostly subtractions as noted, but several additions as well. I left off Geocaching HQ and for some reason could not add CherokeeThree (I think it's due to their having only 3 archived event caches to choose from?) I checked a couple of the Project-GC checkers and they appear to be in need of an update now as well as fizzymagic's GSAK macros. I'm not sure how to get the ball rolling on those...

I'll update my bookmark list to reflect the changes. It's only a single selected cache per Charter Member, but hopefully it fulfills the purpose

My methodology was to pick the cache with the most opportunity for a found log. I suppose it might be better to pick the one with the most logs? Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash. I don't have a problem with adding one you want to the list though - just let me know. I have two Challenge caches in the queue awaiting approval - one requires 13 different Charter Member finds (easier depending on your location), the other requires 50 (harder). I was a little surprised at how many Charter Members didn't have active caches or any cache at all (and therefore are not in my bookmark list). I suspect that the actual number to choose from will be a good deal smaller than the 491 - maybe that's why I'm stalled at 281 now (282 with fizzymagic)? Interesting. If I could chose one of mine to be representative of my list, I guess I'd go with "Yellowstone - Shoshone Nickname". It's the oldest virtual cache in Yellowstone National Park, and since I'm now living and working in the park, just seems a better one to be my "list cache". Thanks, Mac Mac Took me a while, but I changed it on my bookmark list

I would be happy to use something like that - I'm probably not best qualified to create such an image though.

Regarding GC4005. Texas-Jacksons didn't show up on Moun10Bike's spreadsheet (see post #109) and my slogs through various caches to find Charter Members didn't catch them either. Not sure if they were a "late" addition due to admin, but they just didn't show up at that point in time. I'll add them to my bookmark list now though. As far as adoptions go, the intent was to make it easy to administer. Deciphering the original cache placer is sometimes not that easy to do so I opted for the easy way and let adopted caches count. I'm not sure when Annie! adopted GC1D, but I know that I have been the caretaker for GC175 for nearly 12 years so I think there's something to be said for ownership. Plus, in most cases there are multiple caches these Charter Members have placed that would also qualify. The GSAK macro goes by the Owner ID # (a column that can be shown in GSAK) which is a somewhat better indicator than the owner name. Hope that helps with any confusion?

Since no has chimed in a week. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that new Challenge have to allow, (the underlined), under the newest guidelines. Older challenges rules are grandfathered in. I guess I have not checked back in on this in a while... I can't speak for all of the variants, but at least in my version of the Challenge all previous finds count, archived or not. However, in order to make tracking easier, the cache in question must list the Charter Member as the owner. This stipulation causes some confusion especially in the case of adopted caches, but generally if you find/found a cache and the owner is currently listed as being a Charter Member, it would count - I believe Fizzy's Macro checks this via the owner ID #. Now if someone used to be a Charter Member and is no longer in that category, they would no longer be identified as such and therefore their caches wouldn't count towards the total. I know of a couple of cases where administrative issues caused the lapse and it was allowed to be reverted.

431 matches my number on the bookmark list - good to know they synch up. Not sure how easy it will be to keep track of it in the future though?

Done!

I think I have most of them just by going through the owner ID #'s manually, but it would help to double check my work.

My two oldest caches are adopted. Schenley 1, which is on the list for me, was adopted over to me by Jeremy himself way back in 2002. I would much prefer listing the first cache that I hid myself: Elves in the Forest, hidden 8/1/2002 and still active. I remember feeling guilty at the time because my cache was so close to the parking lot. Nowadays you can find three other caches between the parking lot and my cache. Besides, all the caches I've hidden have the word "Elves" somewhere in the cache name, and I know that will enrage Fizzymagic. I went ahead and changed it to Elves - sorry Fizzy. Trying to add more CM's with only archived caches to match up with Moun10Bike's list

The macro worked great; thank you for letting me test it, and for your time in putting it together. I wouldn't want Geocaching HQ to "count" in any challenge based on Charter Members. This could be taken care of by the qualifying rules for any challenge cache based on this concept. (I am thinking of copying the idea here in Pennsylvania, and would certainly name it the "Bigcall Challenge.") My adopted caches don't bother me and I can exclude finds on my own caches easily enough when calculating compliance with any challenge cache's requirements. I *LOVE* the filter! I was enjoying the list in my browser and was wishing for a filtered list of all the caches summarized in the list. I tabbed back over to GSAK and BOOM! there it was. Smart people will see it. You can also call out this feature in the GSAK macro library once this macro goes "official." Wow indeed! My total of 52 charter members (including finds on caches I adopted, and finds on Geocaching HQ caches) is a bit more mainstream. I continue to believe that 50 charter members is a good qualifying number for any challenge cache based on this concept. It will still require some travel, I bet, as the remaining charter members are scattered all over the place. There are 20 states represented among my cache finds that were hidden by charter members. I ran a rough test based on the entire list and found 15 Charter Members with caches within 100mi of me (Northern VA), so my 13 Challenge was doable. I had 51 in my list that included several that are now archived over my wanderings for the past 12 years. With this newfound knowledge and moderate effort, I think I could add another 25 easily. Getting up to say 100 would require Jasmer-like planning over a few years. Leprechauns, thanks for the thought - I would be honored!

Done! Hopefully I can get some more feedback like this so that my list highlights the owner's favorites not just the oldest one that I arbitrarily picked

Send me a check and I'll put you on the list!

OK, everyone: the list has currently active caches from 383 charter members. I'm not sure why my number is one off from Moun10Bike's. That means that there are 93 or 94 current charter members with no active caches. They may have had active caches in the past, though, so if you have been around for a while seeing if you qualify for bigcall's challenge might be a little more difficult. I'm working on a GSAK macro for this. FYI, I just updated the spreadsheet to include cache owner IDs. SQL is still giving me a count of 384 distinct charter member owners. That will greatly help with GSAK I'm sure! I just finished updating the bookmark list, I have 405 total (407 in the list, but I'm in there 3 times since I added the Charter Member Challenge Caches to it). My list includes those Charter Members that I was able to find manually that only have archived caches. I haven't done much QA to it yet so I would still call it a work in progress.

I have 20+ Charter Members on my current list who only have archived caches. I've come across at least another 10 with no caches listed. I'm sure there are more of each variety out there. Fizzy, thanks for the work on the macro - I think it will be invaluable given the comments I've received. I did get a question essentially about if one could freeze their list in time so that a current Charter Member cache could count even if it lost it's "status" in the future? I'm leaning towards allowing this via a post or bookmark list - thoughts?

Already on it and making nice use of the Excel filter function - up to 320 so far on the bookmark list.

My methodology was to pick the cache with the most opportunity for a found log. I suppose it might be better to pick the one with the most logs? Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash. I don't have a problem with adding one you want to the list though - just let me know. I have two Challenge caches in the queue awaiting approval - one requires 13 different Charter Member finds (easier depending on your location), the other requires 50 (harder). I was a little surprised at how many Charter Members didn't have active caches or any cache at all (and therefore are not in my bookmark list). I suspect that the actual number to choose from will be a good deal smaller than the 491 - maybe that's why I'm stalled at 281 now (282 with fizzymagic)? The one you picked for me isn't particularly popular. It's a long hike for the average cacher so most of the finds seem to be from Boy Scouts coming from the nearby Boy Scout camp. Which would you like to change it to?

Changed, thanks!