D/T Chart

[+MattTracker]

I have found that since I am monitering my chart regularly that occasionally a number will decrease or in the case where I have only found one in that square, I lose credit for it. I know it's not because of a deleted logs. Are these numbers effected by archived caches or is it because an owner changes the rating on the cache?

 

After doing a little investigative math I discovered that it is definitely because of owners changing the rating on the cache. I can the need to do this but it sure messes with my fizzy challange efforts.

Edited April 12, 2010 by MattTracker

[+dfx]

After doing a little investigative math I discovered that it is definitely because of owners changing the rating on the cache. I can the need to do this but it sure messes with my fizzy challange efforts.

it sure does that, but unfortunately there's nothing you can do about it. a "find" only knows about which cache you find and when, but doesn't know about what the ratings were at when you found the cache, or anything else about the cache .

[+niraD]

Also, some cache owners don't worry about fizzy challenges and the like, and use the terrain/difficulty ratings just to communicate with cache seekers. If the terrain changes (e.g., a closed bridge converts a PNG into a 5-mile hike), then they change the terrain rating.

[+Markwell]

Yes, changing the difficulty and terrain on a cache will change it. However, make sure you keep the intention of the ratings in perspective. Ratings for terrain and difficulty were not meant for someone to keep score or play some side game of a challenge cache. They were meant so that people know what they're looking for, or can filter out a particular level of cache.

 

Consider: if when you place a cache there's a footbridge that leads right from a pristine little manicured park across a roaring rapids to the banks of an island with a vast impenetrable jungle (you call it "Crossing into Another World"). That would likely be a one or 1.5 star terrain depending on the bridge and the far shore. But then if the bridge is wiped out, the only way to access the cache would be swimming or boating to the island, which only has a landing on the far side, and then hacking your way through the pathless jungle. The cache is now definitely a level five terrain.

 

In that situation, it's better to let people know about the conditions than to worry about messing with someone's history.

 

However, tweaking difficulty or terrain a half-star one way or the other is probably not worth the hassle it would cause historical data.

[+Chrysalides]

If you're using GSAK, and if the D/T is important to you for filling a square in your charts, lock the record so that future updates won't change it.

 

Whether the CO of the challenge accepts the original rating is something you'll need to verify with him / her.

[+Avernar]

Consider: if when you place a cache there's a footbridge that leads right from a pristine little manicured park across a roaring rapids to the banks of an island with a vast impenetrable jungle (you call it "Crossing into Another World"). That would likely be a one or 1.5 star terrain depending on the bridge and the far shore. But then if the bridge is wiped out, the only way to access the cache would be swimming or boating to the island, which only has a landing on the far side, and then hacking your way through the pathless jungle. The cache is now definitely a level five terrain.

I'd consider that to be a whole different caching experience and warrant a new GC number with a different listing description. The people who found it before still have their history of an easy find and have the opportunity to find it again but this time as a much bigger challenge.