A separate Typ for Night Cache

[Giuseppe1990]

Hello,

 

it´s posible to add A separate

Icon for Night Cache

If you are planning a night cache Tour

It could be better but by the type of plan

 

Hallo,

 

ist es möglich ein Extra Icon für Nachtcache

hinzuzufügen

wenn man eine Nachtcache Tour plant

könnte man es durch den Typ jedoch besser Planen

[+niraD]

This has been suggested before:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=291472

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=288091

 

There is currently a "Night Cache" attribute:

http://www.geocaching.com/about/icons.aspx

 

However, older night caches may not have been updated to use it. But they may use the older attributes, "Recommended at Night" or "Flashlight Required". And once you find one night cache, you can often find a bookmark list of night caches and use that to find others.

[+GoldenPheonix]

I'm all on board for a "Night Cache" type. Many cachers have argued that event caches can also be night caches. To me a night cache is defined as a cache that can only be found properly at night. I think the idea sounds fairly straight forward and would be quite usefull.

[+Prime Suspect]

I'm all on board for a "Night Cache" type. Many cachers have argued that event caches can also be night caches. To me a night cache is defined as a cache that can only be found properly at night. I think the idea sounds fairly straight forward and would be quite usefull.

How do you define a multi-stage night cache as being different from a Traditional night cache, or a Puzzle night cache?

 

It seems to me that it's better handled as an attribute.

[+TeamTwoStar]

That would be perfect. I love night caches, but actually finding one is really hard. It is soo cool walking around the forest in the middle of the night. Really if things like events, mysteries, and Multi all have their Icon, Night caches should have their own too. The different icons is supposed to indicate that there is something special or something you need to do in order to find the cache. For a mystery you solve clues and a multi cache you find the different coordinates untill you find the cache. For a night cache icon it would let everyone know they need to do this cache at night. It really makes the most sense for there to be another icon for night caches.

[+StarBrand]

I'm all on board for a "Night Cache" type. Many cachers have argued that event caches can also be night caches. To me a night cache is defined as a cache that can only be found properly at night. I think the idea sounds fairly straight forward and would be quite usefull.

How do you define a multi-stage night cache as being different from a Traditional night cache, or a Puzzle night cache?

 

It seems to me that it's better handled as an attribute.

I don't think most cachers really start thinking about the implications of making this a new "type".

 

I agree that the attribute is enough.

[+The A-Team]

For a mystery you solve clues and a multi cache you find the different coordinates untill you find the cache.

What about the night caches where you have to solve clues? Or the night caches where you find sets of coordinates? How do you differentiate between the different types of night cache? There is no single type of night cache. It's a very wide category, with a lot of variations. Use the attribute instead.

[+Mr.Benchmark]

For a mystery you solve clues and a multi cache you find the different coordinates untill you find the cache.

What about the night caches where you have to solve clues? Or the night caches where you find sets of coordinates? How do you differentiate between the different types of night cache? There is no single type of night cache. It's a very wide category, with a lot of variations. Use the attribute instead.

 

Using an attribute is correct, but not for this reason. There are even wider variants of puzzle caches, yet there is only one type for them. How is that any different?

 

No, the reason an attribute makes more sense is because night caches are pretty rare. I'd bet fewer than 1% of the caches in any area are night caches. The traditional "follow the reflectors" type night caches are hard to set up, have all sorts of permission issues, and tend to be hard to maintain. (They are also really, really awesome in my opinion!) There are many variants on a night cache, but in general, this is a rare enough thing that having a separate type for it just doesn't make much sense to me. It would be like having a separate type for tree climbing caches, or for caches where "finding the box isn't the end of the process - you have to figure out how to open the box to count a find". How about caches that can only be found on horseback? It's rare enough that it just doesn't make any sense to distinguish it, or worse, if you go down that road, you end up making special categories for *everything*.

 

Hmmm.... Special categories for various types of situations, that sounds like attributes! If 10% of the caches out there were night time only caches, this would be a different matter. People would tend to trip over these and log DNF or be frustrated because they searched for them by day. You'd need a special type just to help steer people away from them who didn't intend to seek such a thing.

 

The problem is that night caches are hard to find.

 

I can think of two reasons for this:

1. The attributes are confusing and used inconsistently. It would be helpful if correct attribute usage were encouraged, and the documentation for this was better. (Last night cache I found had no listed attributes - but the first line of the description was "this is a night cache." It was also >50miles from me...)

2. The search tools for finding them, because they do tend to be rare, are just inadequate. I think that it can be hard to find a night cache unless you happen to be lucky enough for it to be nearby.

 

I've set about finding them with many pocket queries and GSAK - this is not an especially user friendly process, especially for the instances where the "night cache" attribute wasn't used.

 

So would it be more accurate to say that what is really desired are better abilities to search for particular or unusual types of caches, especially ones that are relatively rare and somewhat distant?

 

edit: another problem with using attributes, even when used correctly, gameplay type attributes are just lumped in together with hazard type attributes. So just casually browing through cache listings and looking for a particular type of play, like a night cache, is difficult, because it's apt to be listed after the just awesomely useful "no poisonous plants" attribute:

http://coord.info/GC316N6

I'd submit that the owner of this cache did *everything* correctly (btw, this has to be one of the best maintained caches I've ever encountered), but the interesting attribute to people who like night caches is listed DEAD LAST. It would be nice if attributes that affected gameplay were prioritized or highlighted in some way.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Mr.Benchmark

[+GoldenPheonix]

I think that the general discussion here is if night caches are their own type then why not other "different caches". I think the difference between the types of caches are the way you find them. For example multi and tradional caches are different because you find multi caches with different stages and tradionals with one. Night caches are found normally using a flashlight at night with reflective markers.

 

It was braught up that night caches are so rare that there's no reason to make a seperate type. There's what I believe 2 night caches within a 20 mile radius of me. I'm pretty sure that there's little to none earth, Wherigo, and other types of caches in that same radius. Making a night cache type would only encourage more night caches to be put out which many people would enjoy.

 

And how many times has a geocacher gone to a mystery cache location in the middle of say a lake somewhere and logged a DNF just because the cache page said "cache isn't at posted location"? Since it would be a type, that would be a minimal and not really a problem.

 

Basically i'm saying there should be a different type because of HOWyou find it not what's involved in the hunt. Attributes are for what's invovled in the cache. For example, a 20 mile hike and a tool are involved in the cache and should be listed in the attributes. While you don't find a puzzle (not field puzzle) or mutiple stages found in the attributes.

[+Mr.Benchmark]

It was braught up that night caches are so rare that there's no reason to make a seperate type. There's what I believe 2 night caches within a 20 mile radius of me. I'm pretty sure that there's little to none earth, Wherigo, and other types of caches in that same radius. Making a night cache type would only encourage more night caches to be put out which many people would enjoy.

 

This is a good point - there are other rather rare cache types. Nobody important lobbied for a night cache type I guess.

 

Basically i'm saying there should be a different type because of HOWyou find it not what's involved in the hunt. Attributes are for what's invovled in the cache. For example, a 20 mile hike and a tool are involved in the cache and should be listed in the attributes. While you don't find a puzzle (not field puzzle) or mutiple stages found in the attributes.

 

This is a good argument too. The attribute system seems pretty inconsistent. Some attributes describe the type of obstacles you might face, some the game play variant. Also, attributes aren't well supported by even very new, very sophisticated GPSrs.

 

Anyway, whatever (if anything) is done about this - the current attribute system and search functionality doesn't seem to work well for these caches.