2 ideas for challenge caches

[+Gan Dalf]

OK so after I posted my original thread asking questions about 'guidelines for placing a challenge cache, FluteFace wrote to me and gave me some great advice on what to do and what to expect as far as others reactions to the challenge. I had already been thinking about the rules, guidelines, etc but she gave me some more to think about.

 

Anyway after reading a few of the threads on challenge caches and having some second thoughts another idea occured to me for a different challenge. It too borrows heavily from past challenges but I figure, it's a challenge and once you've done one your done and you might like something else to work on.

 

Anyway, to the ideas:

 

1) Idea number one is similar to both the numbers and alphabet challenge but instead of either numbers or letters it involves "symbols". On a Standard English Keyboard there are 32 characters that are not letters or numbers. The challenge would be to find a different cache that has a symbol in it's cache name for every non letter or number charcter on the key board.

 

I've thought about some of the problems with this but I still think it's do-able. I might have to eliminate one or two characters in order to make it possible inside the State of Washington.

 

2) Idea number two just occured to me today and came to me after reading some of the other challenge cache threads on this web board. It too has similarities to other challenges but I haven't seen it mentioned yet. This idea would be called the Washington Cities Challenge but would also incorporate elements of the Alphabet Soup Challenge. You wouldn't be required to find a cache in each Washington City but you would have to find a cache in a city (any city) for each letter of the alphabet. I think requiring it to be in each city would be too big and cumbersome and no one would want to do it.

 

Again, there are two letters of the alphabet that don't have cities represented in Washington State but I've thought of some work arounds for that as well. I also thought of using a similar idea to what was incorporated for the King County Thomas Guide Challenge for allowing for Super Cachers to log old finds and allow another group of cachers who wanted to start from an even playing field to both get an FTF prize. My thought is that I would actually place TWO caches, one for "start from scratch" crowd and one for the "use old finds" group. I'd make the two different caches pretty much identical, only hide them in different spots and hand the coordinates out to people depending on which way they decided to go.

 

OK so let me know what you think. Would you guys do these caches? Are they worth me spending the time to put them together? I'd be interested to hear your input.

 

Thanks

-FM

[+fairyhoney]

What are the 2 letters Not represented? "X" and

[Keystone]

You cannot "hand the coordinates out to people," so if you wanted to have separate caches for those using old finds and those starting from scratch, you would need to publish both locations on your cache page.

 

The other alternative would be to ask Groundspeak for an exception to the "no e-mailing for coordinates" guideline, similar to the special exception given to DeLorme and All Counties challenges. I would not be optimistic about an exception being made, but it can't hurt to ask if it's important to you.

[+Allanon]

Neither one would make me run right out and want to start, or finish, it...but then I'm not all that excited about challenge caches. DeLorme and County will keep me busy through the summer...

 

But I'm not everyone, I'm sure you'll get some people to do them no matter what you do.

[+W7WT]

I like number two if I can work it in while doing the Delorme Challenge. I probably wouldn't travel all over the state just to do it. Also if we could use past finds, I think it might be fun. When you say city does that mean any place that has a name? Dick

[+Lizzy]

Did you check old "place names" for Washington? Maybe the missing letters are in there. I love sorting the death out of my GSAK files. Sounds fun to work on!

[+Gan Dalf]

What are the 2 letters Not represented? "X" and

 

J is the other letter but there are other options not necessarily a "city" but what are called "Census Recognized Places"

[+Gan Dalf]

Did you check old "place names" for Washington? Maybe the missing letters are in there. I love sorting the death out of my GSAK files. Sounds fun to work on!

 

I just started looking yesterday. Most of my searching involved wikipedia. Old place names isn't a bad idea I also thought of allowing exceptions for the missing letters. There are several cities with X IN thier names, just not beginning with it...

[+Gan Dalf]

I like number two if I can work it in while doing the Delorme Challenge. I probably wouldn't travel all over the state just to do it. Also if we could use past finds, I think it might be fun. When you say city does that mean any place that has a name? Dick

 

Not any place that has a name. For example, I wouldn't allow Ballard to be used for B or Juanita fro J since those are neighborhoods within cities. However there is a community in Eastern Washington called Loomis that isn't on any list of Cities, Towns or communities that I could find that I would consider allowing because it is the only place with a store for miles and it has a few caches around it.

[+Gan Dalf]

You cannot "hand the coordinates out to people," so if you wanted to have separate caches for those using old finds and those starting from scratch, you would need to publish both locations on your cache page.

 

The other alternative would be to ask Groundspeak for an exception to the "no e-mailing for coordinates" guideline, similar to the special exception given to DeLorme and All Counties challenges. I would not be optimistic about an exception being made, but it can't hurt to ask if it's important to you.

 

Understood, but I could have seperate hidden waypoints that I only reveal once they complete the challenge couldn't I? I need to look at the guidlines more closely to see what is allowed and what isn't.

[+The Jester]

Would the cache have to be in the city limits? Have you checked that are caches in enough cities to complete the challenge? If not, would placing a cache count?

[+Gan Dalf]

Would the cache have to be in the city limits? Have you checked that are caches in enough cities to complete the challenge? If not, would placing a cache count?

I pondered that question for a while. Determining city limits for all eligible cities would be a very daunting task and then there is the question of what determines a city. I found a source that lists all cities in the State of Washington that maintain web pages and I have considered limiting the eligible cities to those. There are 281 cities listed on that site so there would be plenty of options for people to choose from for most letters except for a few. There are no J or X cities on the list though so I would have to decide what to do about those cities.

[+fairyhoney]

I like number two if I can work it in while doing the Delorme Challenge. I probably wouldn't travel all over the state just to do it. Also if we could use past finds, I think it might be fun. When you say city does that mean any place that has a name? Dick

 

I like this idea. Especially since I can only think of Zillah for that letter.

 

"There are 281 cities listed on that site so there would be plenty of options for people to choose from for most letters except for a few."

With this, I assume you'll have those 281 cities posted somewhere ?

[+Gan Dalf]

I like number two if I can work it in while doing the Delorme Challenge. I probably wouldn't travel all over the state just to do it. Also if we could use past finds, I think it might be fun. When you say city does that mean any place that has a name? Dick

 

I like this idea. Especially since I can only think of Zillah for that letter.

 

"There are 281 cities listed on that site so there would be plenty of options for people to choose from for most letters except for a few."

With this, I assume you'll have those 281 cities posted somewhere ?

If I used the list I mentioned then Zillah would be the only place you could go to get the Z requirement and Quincy would be the only place you could go to get the Q requirement. Several other options would have very limited choices as well. If I used the list, then yes it would be included in the cache description.

[Team Misguided]

You cannot "hand the coordinates out to people," so if you wanted to have separate caches for those using old finds and those starting from scratch, you would need to publish both locations on your cache page.

 

The other alternative would be to ask Groundspeak for an exception to the "no e-mailing for coordinates" guideline, similar to the special exception given to DeLorme and All Counties challenges. I would not be optimistic about an exception being made, but it can't hurt to ask if it's important to you.

 

Understood, but I could have seperate hidden waypoints that I only reveal once they complete the challenge couldn't I? I need to look at the guidlines more closely to see what is allowed and what isn't.

 

Nope.

 

The actual coordinates for the cache(s) must be visible on the cache page for everyone to see. Unless you get the aforementioned exception from Groundspeak.