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Hidden Waypoints


bamageek

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Just a quick question, if you create a hidden child waypoint (i.e. Hide this waypoint from view except by the owner or administrator) can the users see ANY of the information on this waypoint? For example, if I were to use a hidden waypoint to store some critical answers for a puzzle cache in the notes section, is there any danger of a cacher uncovering these answers?

Edited by bamageek
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I think (but I could be wrong) that only the actual coordinates are hidden. Additional notes would still be visable.

I think you could be wrong. :D

 

There are three security levels for Additional Waypoints:

 

1. Show all information.

2. Show the information but hide the coordinates.

3. Hide all the information except for the owner and site admins/site volunteers.

 

I'm not aware of anyone being able to hack their way into an additional waypoint, and we've had them for nearly a year now.

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Once you've created a HIDDEN waypoint, to see it you'll have to go back to the top of the waypoints page and click "create a new waypoint". The page will refresh, scroll to the bottom, where you'll see your existing waypoint(s). Or you can see them if you click the waypoints link from the cache page.

 

For the cache owner, these points will come in a gpx. download. Handy way to store a bunch of data about your cache.

 

Not to mention the benefit of actually having your stage/puzzle solution coords in the database, protected from new nearby placements (oh, I did mention it). And a great help to reviewers, as they show up on maps and have the usual waypoint links, instead of being text to dig up out of archived reviewer notes.

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Palmetto is correct. I use these hidden child waypoints for all of my puzzle caches, and as far as I know, no one has been able to hack it.

 

Now if only everyone would use child waypoints so I could quit having to read through every description to see if there is parking coordinates or something else in the writeup that should be a child waypoint, but I digress.

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Not to mention the benefit of actually having your stage/puzzle solution coords in the database, protected from new nearby placements (oh, I did mention it). And a great help to reviewers, as they show up on maps and have the usual waypoint links, instead of being text to dig up out of archived reviewer notes.

I don't know if it's always been like this or if it's new, but if you are the cache owner and you go to the cache page and lick on the GPX download link, you'll get all your "secret" coordinates included with the download as additional waypoints. If you use GSAK or something that manages the child waypoints for you and can send them to your GPSr, that's very helpful as you don't have to bother with loading them up by hand if you have to do maintenance on one of the stages of your multi or the final of your puzzle cache.

 

Those don't seem to get included if you do a regular PQ that included your cache. You have to actually download the individual GPX file from the cache page.

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Reading this makes me want to ask the following question.

In the my finds pq could we also recieve the hidden child waypoints ?

That opens the door for cheaters. Just log a fake find and request a My Finds query before the cache owner deletes your find. If you are fast you can run out and sign the log and then make the owner check the log to see you really did "solve" the puzzle. :(

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Reading this makes me want to ask the following question.

In the my finds pq could we also recieve the hidden child waypoints ?

That opens the door for cheaters. Just log a fake find and request a My Finds query before the cache owner deletes your find. If you are fast you can run out and sign the log and then make the owner check the log to see you really did "solve" the puzzle. :(

 

True but it would be nice and would save me having to keep my own database of these things.

 

i did also ask ages ago if we could have a my hides pq Jeremy liked the idea but it has never come about

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Personally, I don't care about the locations of the stages of other people's multis. If I want to keep the actual final coordinates for puzzle caches or multis for future reference, I just use the Corrected Coordinates feature of GSAK to store them, although I believe with GSAK you can manually add child waypoints if you wish.

 

I agree with TZ above... It would open the door to cheating to have them pop up with regular PQs.

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