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Query By Placement Date


TheAprilFools

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I have a number of PQ's that I use to map out my local area, these all centered on my home coordinates and use placement date to to segragate which caches are generated into each of the queries. This has been discussed many times and works well, but I have recently noticed one small problem.

 

I discovered that a couple local caches have placement dates that are well before the minimum 1993 date that a PQ allows, once cache has a placement date if 1908 and the other has 1963. Im sure the cache owners have valid reasons for doing this, and the system allows the cache owners to enter the dates, but its impossible to setup a PQ using date range that will include them.

 

I would suggest, that either when ever you setup a PQ where the start of the date range is 1/1/1993 that all caches before that date are also included or allow the start or end of a PQ date range to be blank in which case all cases before the end date (if the start date is blank) or all cases after the start date (if the end date is blank) would be included.

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IMO, since Geocaching wasn't available before May 1, 2000 and the first cache was placed May 3, there really shouldn't be any cache with a placed prior to May 1, 2000. If it did exist prior to that date, it wasn't a Geocache.

Agreed - any and all of the "cosmetic" dates for placement are just kind of silly. Placement date should be a matter of fact - not imagination or creative story telling.

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I have a thread from last week about exactly this issue.

 

At the end I decided it's easier to come up with a GreaseMonkey script to fix it for me since there was no response from Groundspeak. The script is either at the last post, or near the last. It adds "1900" as the oldest "From" date you can use in your search.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=237748

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I don't see how a greaseMonkey Script will change whats included in a PQ, I just think the date ranges for PQ's and the allowable placement dates on queries should be consistent, maybe a developer can comment.

The back end allows dates other than what is in the PQ form. But the form does not allow for year earlier than 1994.

 

The GreaseMonkey script adds "1900" to the range of year in the drop down list.

 

With the script, I can search for just these two caches in California by date range:

 

GC20C7A

GC1H3WQ

 

They would not otherwise turn up, either alone or within other geocaches, if you specify "Date hidden" in the pocket query.

 

I agree that it would be best (and easy) to fix it on Groundspeak's side. But you have a choice here - wait for Groundspeak to fix it, which might take a while, or use a GreaseMonkey script (providing you're using Firefox, of course).

 

Here's the link to the script, if you want to look at the source code:

 

http://home.comcast.net/~chrysalides/pocke..._modifi.user.js

Edited by Chrysalides
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