Split South African caches by province

[+GeoCRAt]

I refer to my posting in a different forum (under suggested changes to the geocaching website) - - - http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=161079

 

I would like to see a feature whereby if you choose to see caches in South Africa (which now has 1,700 caches) there would be a further split by province. Just as is done for the caches in the USA, Canada, Australia (and some more countries I suspect), I would like to see caches sorted by the 9 provinces in South Africa. This will make it a lot easier to plan your cache hunting.

 

Thanks,

 

 

GeoCRAt.

(It is really good, however, to see geocaching becoming so popular in my home country)

[+cownchicken]

Couldn't agree more.

Would make planning those long trips a whole lot easier!

[+Fish Eagle]

Also agree 100%

 

Don't know what criteria are used by GC for making the decision because there appears to be some inconsistancy - for example....

 

UK - no subdivisions - 17,363 caches.

Belgium - 10 subdivisions - 1,873 caches, ranging from 71 to 417 per area.

 

Possibly considered only if the countries caching community asks for it?

 

Maybe we should use this thread as an SA opinion poll, and if the concensus is to go for it, then throw our weight behind the request to GC mentioned above.

[+QFC]

As far as I heard GlobalRat has been down this path and requested it many times!

 

but this is no reason for the rest of us not to try/ revolt

[+M@X Meerkat]

A great idea! We're for it.

[+GlobalRat]

Yes I have ever since I started publishing the provincial listings on my website. I ceased the listing a month or so ago and had some further discussions at that stage.

 

keep the pressure up

[+NotBlonde]

I second that - let us get some provinces!!

[+NotBlonde]

I asked our favorite cacher in USA about this and this was his reply.......

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Erik [mailto:erik@xxxx.xxx]

Sent: 01 May 2007 09:01 PM

To: juan@brunette.co.za

Subject: RE: [GEO] NotBlonde contacting erik88l-r from Geocaching.com

 

Don't hold your breath.

 

The UK folks have been asking for that for years. I'm sure it's on the

"wish list" somewhere, but the people in Seatle are running around trying

just to keep up with the demands on the system as the sport grows. With so

many "time outs" and "server busy" problems on weekends fixing performance

issues is the prime concern.

 

There is one country, and I wish I could remember which, where everyone is

conditioned to add the name of the province to their cache name.

So you might have a cache named "Go Find It (Gauteng)" or "Evil Micro (Free

State)"

 

Not a real fix, but somewhat of a workaround. Maybe it's the UK that does

it that way...

 

Regards,

erik

[+warthog]

If I search hard, I will maybe also find my communications with the Geocaching team on this one. It never materialised even though they did say it got onto there priority list. Last emails never even got answered, when I was checking on progress. This occured during 2005.

 

I then started using one of the "user data" fields in GSAK to manually enter the province code. I then filter on this code to find caches per province. A bit heavy work first time round, but once you have done the first work, keeping it up to date every week is easy.

[+cownchicken]

Have added the Province onto the name of all our caches.

Hope it is of some help to other cachers.

It is not showing yet but I am sure it will later today (once America wakes up!)

Edited May 3, 2007 by cownchicken

[+Fish Eagle]

I think the country Erik is referring to is New Zealand.

They have a gc.com split between South Island and North Island, but they also add the province/region to every cache name.

 

Just thinking aloud.....

If we do something like this, I guess that we should put the province in front of the cache name to support sorting/searching by province?

 

Would also suggest using an abbreviation - eg: MP, GA, WP, etc - to not clutter up the cache name too much.

 

Perhaps something like....

"MP: Cache Name" or

"[WC] Cache Name"

 

For it to work effectively, we'll all need to standardise on the same presentation.

[Geoff Ogden]

How about doing a search by co-ordinates. Using the 100 mile radius I put in the central co-ordinates of the area in which I'll be going to.

[+warthog]

My few cents on this:

 

I like the idea from Fish Eagle on the abbreviations. Something I have noticed, is that the searching does a full word seach and not only the front portion, so the abbreviation or identifier can be placed anywhere in the cache name. However to make it affective it should be enclosed by something to make it unique, i.e. *MP*, *WC* or [MP], [WC]. This should resolve any issues where similar characters appear in another word in a cache name. My view is to add it to the end of the cache name.

 

A bigger problem will be to contact cachers not on the forum to inform them of our 'suggested' format.

 

Suggested abreviations for the nine provinces and enclosed by **:

Eastern Cape - *EC*

Free State - *FS*

Gauteng - *GP*

KwaZulu-Natal - *KZN*

Limpopo - *LIM*

Mpumalanga - *MP*

North West - *NW*

Northern Cape - *NC*

Western Cape - *WC*

[+Tricky Vicky & Mickey]

We have gone ahead and labelled all our caches with *WC* where appropriate and hope others will follow and do the same. Will definitely make life so much easier when planning a trip.

[+Goofster]

My personal preference would be a [WC] suffix rather than prefix. Will get on it right away!

 

I also support the call for GC.COM to split caches into a provincial level BUT we should perhaps wait and see what becomes of the recent suggestions by senior government officials to consolidate SA into 4 provinces again.

 

Just when you thought things were running smoothly . . . !

[+triptrick]

Hi All,

 

So is it a suffix then right?

But is it *GP*? or [GP]?

 

Think the [xxx] would be better?

[+vespax]

Let's get a final agreement before we all go changing our caches and things get scrambled from confusion.

 

I think the *xxx* looks better, but for programming purposes the [xxx] might be better. Either way, let's just decide.

[+warthog]

As there is not much difference between the two choices, and the first one selected was *WC*, I suggest we stick with **

[+QFC]

As there is not much difference between the two choices, and the first one selected was *WC*, I suggest we stick with **

 

Not that you possibly proposed this option.... [] is prettier

[+cownchicken]

Hey Folks,

Please enlighten us. What the heck is the difference between "quotes",*stars*or (parentheses)?

We all use GPS'rs and we know how to use these complex facilities. Surely we are all bright enough to know that Western Cape and WC refer to the same place and that Gauteng and GP refer to Die Ou Transvaal.

After all, we're all only running after Ice Cream containers hidden in the bush.

While everybody has been debating *debating* (debating) this thorny issue, very few have done anything about it.

[+triptrick]

Hey Folks,

Please enlighten us. What the heck is the difference between "quotes",*stars*or (parentheses)?

We all use GPS'rs and we know how to use these complex facilities. Surely we are all bright enough to know that Western Cape and WC refer to the same place and that Gauteng and GP refer to Die Ou Transvaal.

After all, we're all only running after Ice Cream containers hidden in the bush.

While everybody has been debating *debating* (debating) this thorny issue, very few have done anything about it.

 

Enlightenment below:

 

Very Briefly; "*" is a reserved character and any "[" or "]" is not.

 

Yes, We are all bright enough, but attention to detail is one of the things that separate a high-quality product or service from the mediocre masses. You can't achieve a quality product or service without a first-class design, implemented with taste and a reasonable degree of technical mastery. So attention to details gives a product or service the professional polish that it takes to rise from good to great.

 

One of these design details that deserves attention in this particular case, is typography, which is the art and science of creating attractive and readable waypoints (in our case.) (This may not be the strict dictionary definition of typography, but it's pretty close to the generally accepted connotation of the word.) Typography transforms plain text into something that is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.

 

What is a reserved character?

The path in the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier, the generic term for all types of names and addresses that refer to objects.) has a significance defined by the particular scheme. Typically, it is used to encode a name in a given name space.

 

Some of the reserved characters have special uses as defined here.

 

THE PERCENT SIGN

The percent sign ("%") is used as the escape character in the encoding scheme and is never allowed for anything else.

 

HIERARCHICAL FORMS

The slash ("/") character is reserved for the delimiting of substrings whose relationship is hierarchical. This enables partial forms. Substrings consisting of single or double dots ("." or "..") are similarly reserved.

 

HASH FOR FRAGMENT IDENTIFIERS

The hash ("#") character is reserved as a delimiter to separate the URI of an object from a fragment identifier.

 

QUERY STRINGS

The question mark ("?") is used to delimit the boundary between the queryable object, and a set of words used to express a query on that object. When this form is used, the combined stands for the object which results from the query being applied to the original object.

 

OTHER RESERVED CHARACTERS

The astersik ("*") and exclamation mark ("!") are reserved for use as having special signifiance within specific schemes.

 

Reserved Characters in a Search String

Asterisk *—Specifies any number of alphanumerical characters.

For example: corp* returns corporate, corporation, corporal, corpulent, etc.

 

Question mark ?—Specifies any single alphanumerical character.

For example: ?an returns ban, can, dan, fan, etc.

 

Anyway, it's far too late on a Friday Night (it's sad that I am on here in the first place at 11PM) to be discussing nonsense like this. But I do agree that something should be implemented and yes, "we're all only running after Ice Cream containers hidden in the bush" but lets make a standard that is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.

 

So I vote for [nnn] instead of *nnn*

 

My rather lengthy 2c worth anyway... (more like R5.00 worth)

 

Que Sera Sera.

[+QFC]

• [] is reserved in Geocaching.com logs to dictate smilies or encripted text
  

It is also used in searches that make use of regular expressions.... Sorry, couldn't help but stir the pot.

 

Chill C&C, breath in the the sweet Cape Town air and look at the mountain

Triptrick go find the a cache, you are sounding fed up

[+triptrick]

Triptrick go find the a cache, you are sounding fed up

 

Thanks QFC, Thats all the motivation I needed... Right after the following comment:

 

I am not fed up at all, just thought I would try and help shed some light (or not). But as you rightfully (in a stirring sort of way ) say, [] is also reserved... Now What? And does it really matter any way as cownchicken said.

 

Lets not make a mountain of a small mole hill (to late?). But lets implement something if everyone feels it is needed.

 

Anyhooo, Let me go find something.

 

Enjoy the Weekend Everyone!!

[+batsgonemad and his squirrel]

Come come now people whats it to be i cant sit here dilly dallying about stars or questionmarks, here in the SANDPIT we cache so decide chop chop theres plenty new caches here in Durbs i need to find so dont have time to sit infront of this computer.

[+cownchicken]

Wow, Triptrick - thanks!

At least we now know that % is an escape character. This is what one has to do when you see that 10% on your restaurant bill.

The rest is unfortunately Greek to the uninitiated like ourselves.

Good to see that you have modified your caches.

As this whole string was initiated by an expat, perhaps we should also be mindful of the fact that visitors from yonder might not be familiar with NW, LP or NC etc.

Edited May 5, 2007 by cownchicken

[+triptrick]

As this whole string was initiated by an expat, perhaps we should also be mindful of the fact that visitors from yonder might not be familiar with NW, LP or NC etc.

 

True, but then would they not just look at the Wayoint or Cache on thier Screen, Chase it down and Find it, then log it. Would they really care what it is called? Or that is has funny thingies at the end? But to us, it would make a huge difference.