Website Bug In Small-value Waypoints

[+ExTechOp]

When you log a find for mystery where the end point seems to be a bit off, you of course can't include the correct end point with your log. Until now, I've assumed you could log a small "delta" (difference) value as the location. Turns out this mostly works, but now I ended up logging a cache where the difference was N0°0.003' and E0°0.017' (around 25 meters off in these corners of the woods). On the website this was displayed as:

N 3E-05° 00.000 E 000° 00.017

Being a programmer I can sorta figure out where this comes from, but of course 0°0.003' is not 3E-05° since we are talking base-60 stuff here. A fix for the website so that it is able to display the difference as it was entered would be fine.

[Jeremy]

Do you have a cache listing for reference?

[+Prime Suspect]

When you log a find for mystery where the end point seems to be a bit off, you of course can't include the correct end point with your log. Until now, I've assumed you could log a small "delta" (difference) value as the location. Turns out this mostly works, but now I ended up logging a cache where the difference was N0°0.003' and E0°0.017' (around 25 meters off in these corners of the woods). On the website this was displayed as:

N 3E-05° 00.000 E 000° 00.017

Being a programmer I can sorta figure out where this comes from, but of course 0°0.003' is not 3E-05° since we are talking base-60 stuff here. A fix for the website so that it is able to display the difference as it was entered would be fine.

This seems overly complicated. Why not just post something like "I found it 45' NE from GZ".

 

If it seems really off, you should contact the owner by email about it.

[+ExTechOp]

This seems overly complicated. Why not just post something like "I found it 45' NE from GZ".

If it seems really off, you should contact the owner by email about it.

Since there is a ready almost-working feature on the website, why not use it?

 

In this case, we were clambering on a terrain 4 cliffside through which a 6-lane highway is cut about 20 meters down. The calculated point of the mystery seems to erroneously point down between the lanes, and I want to make sure that the people looking for it start on the correct side of the highway. Otherwise they'll have to climb down and walk quite a way to get around to the other side! Also, the cliffside is riddled with nooks and crannies, and then there's the undergrowth on the hillside, so looking for a "small" cache is pretty bad, specially given the terrain rating.

 

If the cache owner had updated the point appropriately based on earlier logs, there would be no reason to post this info, but it seems he's not terribly active these days -- so I'm mostly trying to help other cachers with my log.

Edited April 23, 2006 by ExTechOp

[+Prime Suspect]

This seems overly complicated. Why not just post something like "I found it 45' NE from GZ".

If it seems really off, you should contact the owner by email about it.

Since there is a ready almost-working feature on the website, why not use it?

Well, for one, because it's designed to show coordinates, not a coordinate offset (it was originally developed for locationless caches). For another, no one will understand what it means, unless you explain it in the log. And if you're going to do that, you might as well just use the method I mentioned.

[Jeremy]

Can't you just post the corrected coordinates? An offset seems more laborous and misses the intent of the coordinate feature anyway. It's like using a food blender to mix paint.

[+Tharagleb]

When you log a find for mystery where the end point seems to be a bit off, you of course can't include the correct end point with your log.

 

Jeremy: I think the OP wanted to say something like "the endpoint is off .005 in the N coord." by using the coordinate thingy, but since it was a mystery/puzzle cache didn't want to give away the final coords.

[Jeremy]

When you log a find for mystery where the end point seems to be a bit off, you of course can't include the correct end point with your log.

 

Jeremy: I think the OP wanted to say something like "the endpoint is off .005 in the N coord." by using the coordinate thingy, but since it was a mystery/puzzle cache didn't want to give away the final coords.

 

I can see why it was used that way. Thanks for pointing it out. Still, an email to the poster or a coordinate post in the log would be just as useful.