Teasel

D'Oh - post duplication!

Grrr - post triplication!

quote:Originally posted by Slytherin:I will though agree with el10t regarding the Trigonomy group. It's an excellent group with some very dedicated and experienced trighunters. Bearing in mind the ModAnt problems, there is a need to tread very carefully in there. I thought I was! I first contacted Jonathan (their admin) about a week ago to let him know about our site. He replied quite positively and requested I send him a copy of all our data (which, of course, I did). Only then did I make contact with the group as a whole, as a single post describing the site and asking if they'd mind me incorporating their data. This post is available on the Yahoo! group, if anyone wants to read it.

You beat me to it! I've just added an option to the cache search form on GeocacheUK to allow you to search by OS grid reference directly. I'm quite suprised it wasn't there already - thanks for the prompt! Cheers, Ian

quote:Originally posted by el10t: quote:Originally posted by Slytherin:...it looks as though caches that rely totally on reporting the FB number of a trig point are now redundant. A shame really. I agree with what Alex says here. Why does GCUK contribute positively to geocaching on one hand whilst helping to undermine a number of existing caches on the other? Seems completely twisted to me but there you go. I think I must have misinterpreted what Alex was saying. Since the data required to cheat is already freely available here, please could someone explain how FB numbers appearing on T:UK changes anything? My "crime" is to try to make trigpoint data, which is already available on the web, more integrated with geocaching (and thereby improve the trigpoint data too). If that's twisted, them I'm sorry. As someone else who was in a similar position to the one I find myself in once said... "I didn't invent the ... problem. I just optimised it." [This message was edited by Teasel on April 26, 2003 at 05:58 AM.]

quote:Originally posted by Slytherin:It will take a long time for TrigpointingUK to catch up (if ever). Perhaps a joint effort between TP:UK and Trigonomy would be the best course of action. Indeed! The trigonomy administrator has already contacted me and requested that I send him a file of data from T:UK, which I have done. I've also posted a message to the Trigonomy forum asking them for permission to include their data in the T:UK database. I've also been in contact with the New Triggers (the nmc-ramblers site which Naffita linked to above), and hope to be made member number 18! They're not prepared to do any wholesale merging of databases (in either direction), but think that collaboration would be useful to resolve number misreadings.

quote:Originally posted by Pharisee:Ummm... where, please? I can only find a link to Map Quest. I think they're talking about the cache pages returned by GeocacheUK when you click on the name of a cache in a cache list, or click a cache on the interactive map. G:UK will automatically insert OSGB grid references, with links to streetmap, into the GC.com cache description page. This includes all waypoints on the cache page, so it can be a useful way to find out where you're meant to park! The GC.com page is retrieved "on-the-fly" by G:UK, so the cache details page will always be up to the second, even though the stats pages themselves are only updated once per day.

quote:Originally posted by Slytherin:If you use a PDA then you don't get the photos. Out of interest, why not? Is it that they can't "do" photos, or is it that nobody's yet written a program to grab GC.com photos in a format that PDAs can cope with?

quote:Originally posted by el10t:It seems to me that hiding them from people who have not yet found the trigpoints gives an extra bit of incentive to people to go out and find them. It all adds to the voyage of discovery. I could certainly add an option for people to choose not to see FB numbers unless they'd logged them. Whether such voluntary self-denial would provide sufficient incentive to trudge up that hill, I can't say quote:Originally posted by el10t: Given the association between geocaching and trigpoints I'm sure there are quite a few caches out there that use this information as an integral part (I can immediately think of two off the top of my head). I think the owners of these caches would be a wee bit put out if the numbers were suddenly published for all to see, particularly on a website that has such a strong geocaching link. Well quite, hence why I started this thread! Some already are published, of course, and there are other sites, including the OS themselves, who hope to make all FB numbers publically available at some point. The issue is that T:UK is here now, and it's got a strong link to geocaching. Currently you can go to T:UK and search for trigpoints near to a cache, or caches near to a trigpoint. Shortly I intend to provide a link from the cache list on the stats page to T:UK so you can more easily jump between the two sites. People have said that they would be more likely to visit trigpoints if it was easier to combine it with a caching trip. I also hope to add a trigpointing link to the "transmogrified" G:UK versions of the GC.com trigpoint pages (the ones with the added links to streetmap), though I'll need to check that out with the guys at Groundspeak first. Jeremy had no objection to the streetmap links, when I asked, but it's a bit of a leap to insert links to my own website!

This discussion has been going round on G:UK for the last couple of days but I'd like to give it a broader airing... A number of people who go trigpointing would like to build up a public database of "flush bracket numbers" (the unique numbers on the metal plates on trigpoints). However there are a number of geocaches which use FB numbers either as a clue in a multicache series, or a proof of visit for a virtual. A number of cachers have expressed the worry that making FB numbers easily accessible on the web would make it easier for cachers to cheat, by missing out the first part of a multicache, or by claiming a find on a virtual that they've not visited. Currently, T:UK makes all FB numbers publically visible; JeremyP's site hides all FB numbers you've not personally logged. Neither approach seems to please everybody, so I'm looking for some sort of "middle way". To throw a couple of ideas into the pot... we could make FB numbers accessible only to registered users, or only to people who explicitly email me to ask for access. We could provide a button for people to say "this trigpoint is part of cache GCxxxx", which would cause that FB number and any close-up photos to be hidden from casual visitors to the T:UK site. What's the best way forward?

I think each cache placed should have something special about it. Sometimes that will be an interesting location, or an interesting container, or some sort of puzzle to piece together; sometimes it will be the walk, or the view, or the challenging terrain and this will naturally exclude various cachers, be it because they are in a wheelchair, or use a stick, or they simply don't have the necessary rock climbing / scuba diving equipment. IMHO, what is important is that people know what to expect in terms of accessibility before they leave the house. I know that Jeremy is working on a new set of icons which will include for example whether the cache is pram/wheelchair accessible, whether it's dog friendly etc. Hopefully these will become available with the "new look site" which should be coming soon. So long as there are always some caches that are too hard for me, some which are too easy, and plenty which are just right, I'll be happy

quote:Originally posted by Chris n Maria:If you have taken the picture in Portrait format you will need a second action that reduces by a different dimension (havn;t worked this out yet as I usually do it manually). If you're using photoshop, the <File><Automate><Fit Image...> menu option should cope with resizing both portrait and landscape photos. It's also useful to create a droplet, so you can drag and drop whole batches of photos onto it using windows explorer, then watch as Photoshop chugs through the lot, automatically saving them.

quote:Originally posted by poshandbecks:Also noted that the site uses a different numbering method for the waypoints than jeremyp. All our trig waypoints use jeremyp's numbers and if he pulls his site offline as hinted in a previous thread then we will be forced into changing all the waypoints to be compatable with this site. The entries in my trigpoint table were produced by merging five (soon to be six) separate sources of data, and attempting to remove duplicates where appropriate. At the end of this process, the waypoint names were assigned such that the number is the same as the ID of the table row (same as GC.com do, except they use hex, rather than decimal). Jeremy's waypoint names come from Chris&Maria's file, which contains duplicates eg see UKTP0009 and UKTP0010 (Not a criticism - I'd put money on there being lots of duplicates in my database too! Removing them is harder than it may at first appear!). Duplicates aren't a problem for the merging process, but it would cause problems if I'd tried to align the two numbering systems. To have ensured that the trigpoint numbers in my database were similar to Chris&Maria's numbers where appropriate would have been very difficult, and there are at least four other naming schemes out there as well as Chris&Maria's (though, naturally, C&M's are the best known within the geocaching community). All in all, it seemed a lot less work to come up with a new numbering scheme. The rights and wrongs of creating T:UK have been discussed before and I don't intend to get drawn into that. However, for anyone wishing to double-log their finds, the logging systems of both sites work by grid reference, so there should be little difficulty.

Well, for better or worse, the new trigpoint logging system, TrigpointingUK, is open for business! There are bound to be some bugs and there are still a few things still on the todo list, but most of it is in place. Many thanks to all the people who helped with the testing and also to Mark for providing server space. Cheers, Ian

Here is a list of the 20 caches nearest to Watford town centre. To get this list, I went to the GeocacheUK stats pages, clicked on "caches", clicked on "cache selection form", entered "a maximum of 20" on the first line and "watford" down by town centre. Click "Find Caches", then on the next page click "Go". As you can see, there are plenty in the area to choose from!

Give it time... Sooner or later we'll run infopop out of disk space Anyway the best off-roader I've ever used for geocaching is a G-reg 1.6 Astra. OK, so only 3 wheels survived the experience, but... Maybe I should have borrowed my wife's Maverick?

<plug>You could always try the UK section of the links database on GeocacheUK </plug> Alternatively, there's a larger list of links at the open directory project I can assure you the editors of both sites would be pleased to accept any contributions

Looking at the "logged on" date for Viaduct View, it seems like the long term future of geocaching is assured (in Hampshire at least!). Maybe down to Tim&June's hard work with the local council?

The GeocacheUK downloads contain the name, waypoint and location of the cache, but that's all. So while our queries offer the same sort of filtering capabilities as Pocket Queries, the end result is actually only the same level of detail as is provided by the free "EasyGPS" downloads on GC.com. If you want richer data - cache descriptions, logs etc - you should sign up for charter membership. Just wanted to emphasise that the extra features provided by G:UK are not intended to overlap with the charter members' features!

D'OH duplicate posting!

quote:Originally posted by Morseman:It might not be a plate! The original triangulation work, the 1st Triangulation of the UK, didn't use concrete pillars, it was before concrete came into common use. I thought it all began with the Newlyn datum and, later, OSGB36. Didn't realise there were scratches on gateposts and such beforehand! I was expecting it to be a steel plate - part of the network of fundamental bench marks (spot heights) which extended the Newlyn tide guage across the country. (The concrete pillars were for triangulation to extend measurements of glass rods on Hampstead Heath across the country.) I agree that building it back into the wall would be the best course of action. I was just wanting to make sure it didn't end up in some builder's skip! Anyone know of any good material on trigpoints and the like? I've read the OS coordinate systems blurb, and this site, but there must be more out there!

quote:Originally posted by Firth of Forth:I'm about to replace some stone copings, and was told by the stonemason that one had a OS marking on it. Does anyone know whether these are still used? Ooooh, make sure you keep the plate! (If you don't want it, I'll happily take it off your hands for you, saddo that I am!)

quote:Originally posted by Kouros:The Groundspeak/Geocaching logo guidelines can be found here Note that you need special permission to use the geocaching.com logo for runs of more than 25 items. Something to bear in mind if you were thinking of putting it on visiting cards...

quote:Originally posted by Chris n Maria:looks like we lost an entire page of stuff Might explain why my total posts figure has plummeted to 6. Perhaps this is the number of posts which actually survived the conversion?

quote:Originally posted by The Good Shepherds:Ooo... have they forgot to turn the censorship filter on for the new forum? Nope, sorry, the "free speech" checkbox settings seem to have survived the upgrade (unlike a large number of postings!) (The above posting was sent to the moderators for approval) [This message was edited by Teasel on March 28, 2003 at 08:57 AM.]