We've got PROVINCES!

[+Fish Eagle]

South Africa is now sub-divided into provinces on geocaching.com

 

BIG, BIG, BIG THANKS to Erik88L-R and Jeremy - much appreciated!!!

 

Please edit the listings of your cache hides, so that they appear under the correct province.

[+Blackjack Bailey]

Thanks for letting us know - I've done my changes! Remember that you also need to edit your profile location.

 

Now, the big question - how long will it take for the owners of over 2000 caches in SA to update their cache locations? How will they even know that they need to / can update their cache locations?

[+bear&fox]

Very cool. Thanks to everyone pushing for this. This is a great feature.

 

Erm... can't help but notice that Fish Eagle posted this at 0245 this morning! Now that's dedication for you!

Edited September 17, 2007 by bear&fox

[+Wazat]

Edited all mine..... Quick quick.... I feel sorry for someone like Crystal fairy though..... Lots of editing to do there.

[+RedGlobe]

Thanks Fish Eagle for the info. I have done editing mine and see that Cache-Fan also updated his Cache listings. If I change my profile it only shows RedGlobe and Cache-Fan listings for Gauteng so I changed my profile back to see all listings, I will change my profile only when nearly all Cachers are done on the cache listings.

[+Fish Eagle]

WOW!! 08:25am, and 10% of the country's caches are done already

 

Doesn't anybody work any more???

[+cache-fan]

WOW!! 08:25am, and 10% of the country's caches are done already

 

Doesn't anybody work any more???

 

Edited all our 60 caches within 60 minutes, Work is Work (or another 4 letter word).

[+LeonW]

Work? Who work in this country?

 

That is why I get at least some time to do a limited amount of Geocaching.

 

Now what are the abb. for the provinces, is Transvaal still Tvl.?

 

Please advise.

[+LeonW]

Done! All my caches in the ZAR has been changed.

[+GlobalRat]

At long last. Thanks to all who kept the pressure up over the last 2.5 years.

 

Now to see if everyone actually knows which province they have placed their caches in

[+RedGlobe]

Mmmm yes I had to phone the Land owner on one of my caches to find out which province as I am not that sure on the boundaries’ of the provinces.

[+Fish Eagle]

Province boundaries are pretty good on Microsoft MapPoint - click on the link on the cache listing. It's a bit slow to load, but the zoom in and out works well.

[+Discombob]

Ah well done Erik, and who ever else was involved.

Now we can take those pesky province descriptors off the end of the caches

Sorry to all those folks who put them on

 

i have edited my caches now accordingly.

Methinks we will have to mail all those folks who don't read the forums.

What about all those caches placed by folks who have stopped caching?

[+GlobalRat]

Mmmm yes I had to phone the Land owner on one of my caches to find out which province as I am not that sure on the boundaries’ of the provinces.

 

I've always used the Garmap maps and have done some random checks for those close caches against the topo from the director of surveyors.... good enough for me. Anyway, there are only a handful of caches that are very close to provincial/international boundaries. Only the peeps in KZN that have to watch out for that little island of EC that has penetrated their province Funny thing is......most of them don't know about it

[+GlobalRat]

Those using GSAK may also want to set their "State/Province" abbreviation list.

[+colinaly]

Our caches are updated too.

[+LeonW]

Hi Globalrat, please give a brief description how to go about the GSAK "Province" change.

[+Blackjack Bailey]

Hi Globalrat, please give a brief description how to go about the GSAK "Province" change.

 

Hi Leon - this is how I did it:

 

In GSAK, go to View...Add/Delete Columns and then tick the "State" box, just after "Terrain".

[+LeonW]

Thanks Neville, I will do it as suggested. Just had a thought , what is the use of knowing in which province the cache is placed, it is not as if they are going to migrate all to Gauteng and we could then tell them to go back to their origins.

[+LeonW]

Hi Neville

 

I did activate the "State" column in GSAK, but at the caches like mine and cache-fan's which has the province corrected it only show - "none" - in GSAK. Any idea how to proceed here?

 

Thanks

[+the pooks]

ours are added too (i think)

[+Blackjack Bailey]

Hi Neville

 

I did activate the "State" column in GSAK, but at the caches like mine and cache-fan's which has the province corrected it only show - "none" - in GSAK. Any idea how to proceed here?

 

Thanks

 

Mmmm - I see what you mean! Even after refreshing GSAK with new pocket queries, the "State" column changes from "none" to "Nil".

 

Any bright ideas anyone???

[+vespax]

Updated all mine. Glad to see SA being recognized all the way over in Seattle.

[+vespax]

Dup.

Edited September 17, 2007 by vespax

[+Metro Nomad]

Yep, in the past all the entries in "states" were "nil", now some are "none".

 

Something not working as it should.

[+Blackjack Bailey]

I think I've solved the mystery with GSAK - you need to edit your Pocket Queries as well. There is a Province/State option which you need to activate. I cannot see if this has solved the problem yet, as I have only just made the change and my new Pocket Query has not yet arrived in my Inbox.

 

The only problem with this (as I see it) is that you can only activate one province per Pocket Query, not all the provinces in SA.

Edited September 18, 2007 by Neville Bailey

[+Fish Eagle]

Regarding the questions raised by Neville Bailey "How long will it take for the owners of over 2000 caches in SA to update their cache locations? How will they even know that they need to / can update their cache locations?"

 

and by Discombob "Methinks we will have to mail all those folks who don't read the forums. What about all those caches placed by folks who have stopped caching?".

 

Valid questions - I've done a run through MPU caches and emailed the cache owners. I realised that there are several who are either inactive, and/or don't read the forums - and wouldn't know unless they are told.

 

It's highly desirable to get all caches categorised by province - 100% must be our objective, but it'll take ages (read never) unless somebody actively works at it. I think that it will need a mailshot to all cache owners and an ongoing follow-up. When we're down to a short-list of problems, we might be able to get Groundspeak to help tidy them up?

 

I have spare time, and am willing to give it shot. Let me know if you're OK with that.

If I don't see any negative comment within 24 hours, I'll go for it.

[+Discombob]

I have spare time, and am willing to give it shot. Let me know if you're OK with that.

If I don't see any negative comment within 24 hours, I'll go for it.

 

Ah, very kind of you indeed! What a champion

[+Whostops]

Done mine.

Wouldn't let me change my "Event Caches" though. Must be as they are Archived.

 

Thanks for the info .... everyone.

[+GlobalRat]

I think I've solved the mystery with GSAK - you need to edit your Pocket Queries as well. There is a Province/State option which you need to activate. I cannot see if this has solved the problem yet, as I have only just made the change and my new Pocket Query has not yet arrived in my Inbox.

 

The only problem with this (as I see it) is that you can only activate one province per Pocket Query, not all the provinces in SA.

 

Neville

 

You can select multiple province by holding in the Ctrl Key.

 

These queries however will only give you the caches that have had the province maintained.

 

I would have hoped that general queries include the State, but editing the GPX the State shows None despite the fact that it has been maintained. I did individual GPX downloads, and these updated with the State.

 

It may be that one has to recreate queries??? Busy investigating.....

 

As for the GSAK abbreviations, not necessary, but useful

 

GSAK

 

Tools>Options Select the Abbreviations TAB

 

Activate the Convert (abbreviate) state names on import

 

Then maintain your abbreviations in the little window on the left. It's already populated with Australia, so just add below.

 

You can use what you want. I used the following.

 

Gauteng=GP

Eastern Cape=EC

Free State=FS

Kwazulu Natal=KZN

Limpopo=LP

Mpumalanga=MP

North West=NW

Northern Cape=NC

Western Cape=WC

[+RedGlobe]

Thanks Fish Eagle for nominating yourself as we see your spare time is at 02H45 . I have no problem if you are willing to take on this big task.

[+GlobalRat]

It may be that one has to recreate queries??? Busy investigating.....

 

 

Definitely something odd with PQ's. Have sent some queries and posted a thread on the issue.

[+CrystalFairy]

Hi Guys

 

Updated all our 100+ caches yesterday.. Did take too long except working out the boundaries.. Its amazing how many caches not even 10km apart fall into different areas.. We have four in Ezemvelo and 2 are in Gauteng and 2 are in Mpumalanga...

 

Anyways also found the problem with GSAK and the Pocket Queries and posted a note on the forum early this morning... Hopefully they will fix it shortly... Its definitely on the Pocket Query downloads only...

 

Question : Do we need to /Can we actually update Archived caches or not ? Dont really see them online, but they appear in GSAK... Any comments on this one ?

 

Done... 5% of South Africa's caches updated ;-)

 

Andrew

CrystalFairy.

[+Discombob]

 

Question : Do we need to /Can we actually update Archived caches or not ? Dont really see them online, but they appear in GSAK... Any comments on this one ?

 

Andrew

CrystalFairy.

 

i don't see any reason for updating archived caches!

[+GlobalRat]

It may be that one has to recreate queries??? Busy investigating.....

 

 

Definitely something odd with PQ's. Have sent some queries and posted a thread on the issue.

 

UPDATE: Our friends in Germany have the same issue and a support ticket has been opened.

 

To summarise, the PQ GPX has the state as None if it has been maintained and Nil if not. Individual GPX downloads from cache pages work fine.

Edited September 21, 2007 by GlobalRat

[+Fish Eagle]

Updating of cache listings - current status.....

 

Tues-Thurs : emails sent to all cache owners

Lots of positive response from inactive cachers, but lots still to be done

 

Total caches in SA - 2,091

Provinces updated already - 1,050 (50%)

 

Not updated yet (active cachers) - 515 (25%) - Shouldn't be a problem

Not updated yet (inactive cachers) - 526 (25%) - Potential problem

 

Total number of cache owners in SA - 366

 

There's another positive spin-off from this exercise - several inactive cachers have said that they might start caching again, and I've seen some logs coming through from them in the past few days.

 

To see which of the "golden oldies" have reacted positively by updating their listings, take a look through your province's cache list, especially the last few pages.

[+Gerald]

Thanks for the e-mail. I am an active cacher but seldom visit the forum. The e-mail was greatly appreciated. Gerald_db

[+Fish Eagle]

Please help if you can. I have been unable to contact the following cachers via email.

Their accounts have been invalidated - I suspect their email addresses have changed.

 

If you know any of these cachers, please contact them and ask them to update provinces on their cache hides.

 

Blackman in Africa

Fade-Dude

Finebush

Grawp

Ian608

JacolR

Jumanji2004

K-Clan

Kwagga 1

Lance McBrayer

Limn

Orio

Paul

Pedro

Quintus Moolman

RadioAmateur

Sandscratcher

Team Myles Ahead

Team Snakeseeker

Tox (Toxicsox)

Trackdown

Xomoyi

[+triptrick]

Hi All,

 

 

I have been flying under the radar for a few months now... Slack I know...

 

 

I have updated my few caches.

 

 

Thanks for this... Life will be much easier now.

[+LeonW]

Hi triptrick,

 

You are not a "winters person" are you? Glad that "summer fun" will find you active again.

 

Greetings

Edited September 23, 2007 by LeonW

[+erik88l-r]

Fish Eagle wrote:

Please help if you can. I have been unable to contact the following cachers via email.

Their accounts have been invalidated - I suspect their email addresses have changed.

 

If you know any of these cachers, please contact them and ask them to update provinces on their cache hides.

 

Blackman in Africa

Fade-Dude

Finebush

Grawp

Ian608

JacolR

Jumanji2004

K-Clan

Kwagga 1

Lance McBrayer

Limn

Orio

Paul

Pedro

Quintus Moolman

RadioAmateur

Sandscratcher

Team Myles Ahead

Team Snakeseeker

Tox (Toxicsox)

Trackdown

Xomoyi

 

I took the initiative to update those I could find in the system. Assuming MSN MapPoint is correct they are done for all except five I could not find accounts for:

 

Lance McBrayer

Paul

Pedro

Quintus Moolman

RadioAmateur

 

Perhaps the "hidden by" name and "account name" are not the same for those?

 

Regards,

erik

[+Fish Eagle]

Thanks Erik, you're a great help!!!

 

PM sent, with links to the caches for the remaining five.

You were right, the names differ between cache and profile.

 

Lance McBrayer = Im245555

Paul = MaryEthel

Pedro = Albertus

Quintus Moolman = Dakar Driver

RadioAmateur = Radio Amateur

[+the pooks]

Just a silly question from a newbie - what are the main advantages of having provinces specified? I end up doing a PQ for caches around specified coordinates if I know I am going somewhere, so knowing the province would not add much information. I'm not trying to argue the point (I have updated my caches already), just interested to know the pro from the old hands who have been with the process.

[+Wazat]

Just a silly question from a newbie - what are the main advantages of having provinces specified? I end up doing a PQ for caches around specified coordinates if I know I am going somewhere, so knowing the province would not add much information. I'm not trying to argue the point (I have updated my caches already), just interested to know the pro from the old hands who have been with the process.

 

good point. but I find that it gives me a general idea of all the new caches elsewhere in the province. rather than having to see a new cache placed in cape town which would be 1700+ kilos from home. but if a new one shows is in Kzn then I might be close enough for it. I still prefere the search within the 100 mile radius of a given co-ordinate. Still it`s nice to have a breakdown of each province. Can also give a general idea of where you will be going for caches.

[+LeonW]

Going for caches Wazat? Come to the Transvaal - thick as flies. Can't see how the provinces will help my caching either, but the "Big Guys " fought hard and long for it, so kudu's to them.

[+the pooks]

One issue in favour would be: If GC has the ability to categorize according to states and zipcodes (and they apply it to USA) it would be discrimination if they do not allow that functionality to the rest of the world.

[+Fish Eagle]

Updating of cache listings - current status.....

 

Total caches in SA - 2,098

Provinces updated already - 1,231 (59%)

 

Not updated yet (active cachers) - 462 (22%) - Shouldn't be a problem

Not updated yet (inactive cachers) - 405 (19%) - Potential problem

[+Fish Eagle]

I had an email from Erik saying that Jeremy has reset the Pocket Query generator.

 

Did a test, and it looks great

The province abbreviations in GSAK seem to be working fine too

 

Thank you Erik and Jeremy - much appreciated!!!

[+Blackjack Bailey]

Thanks for the feedback, Fish Eagle!

 

Yes, it all seems to be working as it should, bar the few caches that have not yet been updated!

[+Tricky Vicky & Mickey]

Yipppeee - provinces at last! A big, big thank you to Erik and Jeremy for sorting this out for us. Have edited our caches.