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15Tango

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My issue got resolved. Whew.

 

Do we get to choose which of our caches appears on the list?

 

My methodology was to pick the cache with the most opportunity for a found log. I suppose it might be better to pick the one with the most logs? Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash. I don't have a problem with adding one you want to the list though - just let me know.

 

I have two Challenge caches in the queue awaiting approval - one requires 13 different Charter Member finds (easier depending on your location), the other requires 50 (harder).

 

I was a little surprised at how many Charter Members didn't have active caches or any cache at all (and therefore are not in my bookmark list). I suspect that the actual number to choose from will be a good deal smaller than the 491 - maybe that's why I'm stalled at 281 now (282 with fizzymagic)?

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My issue got resolved. Whew.

 

Do we get to choose which of our caches appears on the list?

 

Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash.

 

That's the one I would have picked. I think it is best, if possible, to use traditionals for the list.

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My issue got resolved. Whew.

 

Do we get to choose which of our caches appears on the list?

 

Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash.

 

That's the one I would have picked. I think it is best, if possible, to use traditionals for the list.

I'll go ahead and update the list accordingly. I debated on allowing/using virtuals since they are ripest for potential abuse, but left it alone and stuck to my methodology. I'm happy to make changes on a case by case basis.

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The current number of charter members now stands at 477 (hopefully the ones who dropped haven't been hit by whatever bug caused the problem for fizzy). Of those, 384 have hidden a geocache.

 

I pulled the complete list of these caches from the database and posted the results as a Google Doc here. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

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The current number of charter members now stands at 477 (hopefully the ones who dropped haven't been hit by whatever bug caused the problem for fizzy). Of those, 384 have hidden a geocache.

 

I pulled the complete list of these caches from the database and posted the results as a Google Doc here. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

 

Thanks Moun10Bike! I'm having some issues with my old browser getting it to completely load up, but I'll update my bookmark list when I can. Will that link work indefinitely since I may want to include it on the cache pages? It's obviously more complete than what I have since I'm only picking one cache per Charter Member.

 

Two Caches are now published:

Charter Member Challenge - A Baker's Dozen and The Nifty Fifty

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Thanks so much, Moun10Bike! The only thing that would make it better would be cacher IDs or guids, but I think I can work around that. You've done plenty!

 

bigcall, you can download the sheet as an Excel file or a csv list. Since this one is probably not going to be live, I think that is a better option than linking to the Google doc.

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My issue got resolved. Whew.

 

Do we get to choose which of our caches appears on the list?

 

My methodology was to pick the cache with the most opportunity for a found log. I suppose it might be better to pick the one with the most logs? Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash. I don't have a problem with adding one you want to the list though - just let me know.

 

I have two Challenge caches in the queue awaiting approval - one requires 13 different Charter Member finds (easier depending on your location), the other requires 50 (harder).

 

I was a little surprised at how many Charter Members didn't have active caches or any cache at all (and therefore are not in my bookmark list). I suspect that the actual number to choose from will be a good deal smaller than the 491 - maybe that's why I'm stalled at 281 now (282 with fizzymagic)?

 

The one you picked for me isn't particularly popular. It's a long hike for the average cacher so most of the finds seem to be from Boy Scouts coming from the nearby Boy Scout camp.

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My issue got resolved. Whew.

 

Do we get to choose which of our caches appears on the list?

 

My methodology was to pick the cache with the most opportunity for a found log. I suppose it might be better to pick the one with the most logs? Since I was going off on my own I just picked the oldest, so in your case it would be Ker-Splash. I don't have a problem with adding one you want to the list though - just let me know.

 

I have two Challenge caches in the queue awaiting approval - one requires 13 different Charter Member finds (easier depending on your location), the other requires 50 (harder).

 

I was a little surprised at how many Charter Members didn't have active caches or any cache at all (and therefore are not in my bookmark list). I suspect that the actual number to choose from will be a good deal smaller than the 491 - maybe that's why I'm stalled at 281 now (282 with fizzymagic)?

 

The one you picked for me isn't particularly popular. It's a long hike for the average cacher so most of the finds seem to be from Boy Scouts coming from the nearby Boy Scout camp.

 

Which would you like to change it to?

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Thanks so much, Moun10Bike! The only thing that would make it better would be cacher IDs or guids, but I think I can work around that. You've done plenty!

 

bigcall, you can download the sheet as an Excel file or a csv list. Since this one is probably not going to be live, I think that is a better option than linking to the Google doc.

 

Already on it and making nice use of the Excel filter function - up to 320 so far on the bookmark list.

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Thanks so much, Moun10Bike! The only thing that would make it better would be cacher IDs or guids, but I think I can work around that. You've done plenty!

 

bigcall, you can download the sheet as an Excel file or a csv list. Since this one is probably not going to be live, I think that is a better option than linking to the Google doc.

 

Already on it and making nice use of the Excel filter function - up to 320 so far on the bookmark list.

 

When you get the bookmark list done I will use it to find all the ID numbers for the owners, and will make a quick GSAK macro to run against your My Finds query. Should be pretty easy.

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The current number of charter members now stands at 477 (hopefully the ones who dropped haven't been hit by whatever bug caused the problem for fizzy). Of those, 384 have hidden a geocache.

 

I pulled the complete list of these caches from the database and posted the results as a Google Doc here. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

 

OK, everyone: the list has currently active caches from 383 charter members. I'm not sure why my number is one off from Moun10Bike's.

 

That means that there are 93 or 94 current charter members with no active caches. They may have had active caches in the past, though, so if you have been around for a while seeing if you qualify for bigcall's challenge might be a little more difficult.

 

I'm working on a GSAK macro for this.

Edited by fizzymagic
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I have 20+ Charter Members on my current list who only have archived caches. I've come across at least another 10 with no caches listed. I'm sure there are more of each variety out there.

 

Fizzy, thanks for the work on the macro - I think it will be invaluable given the comments I've received.

 

I did get a question essentially about if one could freeze their list in time so that a current Charter Member cache could count even if it lost it's "status" in the future? I'm leaning towards allowing this via a post or bookmark list - thoughts?

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The current number of charter members now stands at 477 (hopefully the ones who dropped haven't been hit by whatever bug caused the problem for fizzy). Of those, 384 have hidden a geocache.

 

I pulled the complete list of these caches from the database and posted the results as a Google Doc here. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

 

OK, everyone: the list has currently active caches from 383 charter members. I'm not sure why my number is one off from Moun10Bike's.

 

That means that there are 93 or 94 current charter members with no active caches. They may have had active caches in the past, though, so if you have been around for a while seeing if you qualify for bigcall's challenge might be a little more difficult.

 

I'm working on a GSAK macro for this.

 

FYI, I just updated the spreadsheet to include cache owner IDs. SQL is still giving me a count of 384 distinct charter member owners.

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The current number of charter members now stands at 477 (hopefully the ones who dropped haven't been hit by whatever bug caused the problem for fizzy). Of those, 384 have hidden a geocache.

 

I pulled the complete list of these caches from the database and posted the results as a Google Doc here. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

 

OK, everyone: the list has currently active caches from 383 charter members. I'm not sure why my number is one off from Moun10Bike's.

 

That means that there are 93 or 94 current charter members with no active caches. They may have had active caches in the past, though, so if you have been around for a while seeing if you qualify for bigcall's challenge might be a little more difficult.

 

I'm working on a GSAK macro for this.

 

FYI, I just updated the spreadsheet to include cache owner IDs. SQL is still giving me a count of 384 distinct charter member owners.

That will greatly help with GSAK I'm sure!

 

I just finished updating the bookmark list, I have 405 total (407 in the list, but I'm in there 3 times since I added the Charter Member Challenge Caches to it). My list includes those Charter Members that I was able to find manually that only have archived caches. I haven't done much QA to it yet so I would still call it a work in progress.

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I downloaded the spreadsheet and now agree with Moun10Bike (I must have made some stupid mistake -- who could have imagined?) that there are 384 unique names. I ran my finds last night and found I had finds for 3 charter members with no active caches.

 

This is kinda fun.

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I did get a question essentially about if one could freeze their list in time so that a current Charter Member cache could count even if it lost it's "status" in the future? I'm leaning towards allowing this via a post or bookmark list - thoughts?
Sounds like a good idea to me. ;)

 

Oh, and I'll echo bigcall's thanks to Moun10Bike and fizzymagic for pulling the database and the potential for a macro.

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OK I have a preliminary (beta) macro working for GSAK. Anybody want to help test it? Just send me a note.

 

We have all the charter members included now. It gives you a table of the charter members whose caches you have found and how many you have found for each charter member.

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If I back pay for the years I missed can I be a charter member too?

Send me a check and I'll put you on the list! :rolleyes:

 

No problem as long as you can make 'Group:+Charter Members" appear below my forum title.

 

If you can send an invoice to Roman!@paypal.com

Edited by Roman!
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OK, so we have the macro working. It seems to be working properly.

I learned some neat stuff that GSAK can do that I never knew before.

 

But a couple of issues have come up:

 

  • Geocaching HQ is listed as a Charter Member. Is that in the spirit of what we want to do here? I can see both sides of this issue and I don't have a particularly strong opinion.
  • If you're a Charter Member and have adopted any caches you found before adopting, your name appears on the list.
  • The macro only works on caches marked Found in the GSAK database. Do we want a version to work on unfound caches?
  • The macro automatically applies a filter to your database to show only caches owned by charter members. How do I call attention to that fact?

 

Among the people I've had test it, bthomas is the current champion with finds for 92 charter members. Wow.

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Bigcall - Your challenge idea sounds pretty cool. If you could change my representative cache in your list to Turntable, I'd be grateful. Much as I love being represented by Geocache (GCD), Washington's oldest active cache, I adopted it. Turntable is truly mine, one of my most Favorited, and representative of most of my caches - scenic and/or historic. :D

 

Moun10Bike and fizzymagic - you guys rock, as always. B)

Edited by hydnsek
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OK, so we have the macro working. It seems to be working properly.

I learned some neat stuff that GSAK can do that I never knew before.

The macro worked great; thank you for letting me test it, and for your time in putting it together.

 

But a couple of issues have come up:

 

  • Geocaching HQ is listed as a Charter Member. Is that in the spirit of what we want to do here? I can see both sides of this issue and I don't have a particularly strong opinion.
  • If you're a Charter Member and have adopted any caches you found before adopting, your name appears on the list.
  • The macro only works on caches marked Found in the GSAK database. Do we want a version to work on unfound caches?
  • The macro automatically applies a filter to your database to show only caches owned by charter members. How do I call attention to that fact?

I wouldn't want Geocaching HQ to "count" in any challenge based on Charter Members. This could be taken care of by the qualifying rules for any challenge cache based on this concept. (I am thinking of copying the idea here in Pennsylvania, and would certainly name it the "Bigcall Challenge.")

 

My adopted caches don't bother me and I can exclude finds on my own caches easily enough when calculating compliance with any challenge cache's requirements.

 

I *LOVE* the filter! I was enjoying the list in my browser and was wishing for a filtered list of all the caches summarized in the list. I tabbed back over to GSAK and BOOM! there it was. Smart people will see it. You can also call out this feature in the GSAK macro library once this macro goes "official."

 

Among the people I've had test it, bthomas is the current champion with finds for 92 charter members. Wow.

Wow indeed! My total of 52 charter members (including finds on caches I adopted, and finds on Geocaching HQ caches) is a bit more mainstream. I continue to believe that 50 charter members is a good qualifying number for any challenge cache based on this concept. It will still require some travel, I bet, as the remaining charter members are scattered all over the place. There are 20 states represented among my cache finds that were hidden by charter members.

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Bigcall - Your challenge idea sounds pretty cool. If you could change my representative cache in your list to Turntable, I'd be grateful. Much as I love being represented by Geocache (GCD), Washington's oldest active cache, I adopted it. Turntable is truly mine, one of my most Favorited, and representative of most of my caches - scenic and/or historic. :D

 

Moun10Bike and fizzymagic - you guys rock, as always. B)

Done!

 

Hopefully I can get some more feedback like this so that my list highlights the owner's favorites not just the oldest one that I arbitrarily picked

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OK, so we have the macro working. It seems to be working properly.

I learned some neat stuff that GSAK can do that I never knew before.

The macro worked great; thank you for letting me test it, and for your time in putting it together.

 

But a couple of issues have come up:

 

  • Geocaching HQ is listed as a Charter Member. Is that in the spirit of what we want to do here? I can see both sides of this issue and I don't have a particularly strong opinion.
  • If you're a Charter Member and have adopted any caches you found before adopting, your name appears on the list.
  • The macro only works on caches marked Found in the GSAK database. Do we want a version to work on unfound caches?
  • The macro automatically applies a filter to your database to show only caches owned by charter members. How do I call attention to that fact?

I wouldn't want Geocaching HQ to "count" in any challenge based on Charter Members. This could be taken care of by the qualifying rules for any challenge cache based on this concept. (I am thinking of copying the idea here in Pennsylvania, and would certainly name it the "Bigcall Challenge.")

 

My adopted caches don't bother me and I can exclude finds on my own caches easily enough when calculating compliance with any challenge cache's requirements.

 

I *LOVE* the filter! I was enjoying the list in my browser and was wishing for a filtered list of all the caches summarized in the list. I tabbed back over to GSAK and BOOM! there it was. Smart people will see it. You can also call out this feature in the GSAK macro library once this macro goes "official."

 

Among the people I've had test it, bthomas is the current champion with finds for 92 charter members. Wow.

Wow indeed! My total of 52 charter members (including finds on caches I adopted, and finds on Geocaching HQ caches) is a bit more mainstream. I continue to believe that 50 charter members is a good qualifying number for any challenge cache based on this concept. It will still require some travel, I bet, as the remaining charter members are scattered all over the place. There are 20 states represented among my cache finds that were hidden by charter members.

I ran a rough test based on the entire list and found 15 Charter Members with caches within 100mi of me (Northern VA), so my 13 Challenge was doable. I had 51 in my list that included several that are now archived over my wanderings for the past 12 years. With this newfound knowledge and moderate effort, I think I could add another 25 easily. Getting up to say 100 would require Jasmer-like planning over a few years.

 

Leprechauns, thanks for the thought - I would be honored!

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[*]The macro only works on caches marked Found in the GSAK database. Do we want a version to work on unfound caches?

 

I would like for the macro to identify qualifying caches for whatever DB it is run against. It would be nice to target CMs when prioritizing which caches to get when you don't have time to get them all. CMs would probably be just below Jasmers for me.

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The macro only works on caches marked Found in the GSAK database. Do we want a version to work on unfound caches?
That would be very cool. Actually, that was the first thing I tried when I realized it was applying a filter (running the macro against my "unfound" database).

 

Even cooler would be a macro that lets you:

- Point to a "found" database

- Point to an "unfound" database

Results: filters your "unfound" database to caches of a Charter Member whom you have not already found a cache for.

 

This is the way FizzyFilter, JasmerFilter, and various other "challenge related" macros work to help target potential caches when planning a trip.

 

+1 for the "bigcall challenge" nomenclature.

 

Input from a (newer) cacher (joined May 2011):

The 13/50 numbers feel about right. One caveat being that "percentage based" challenges seem to hold up over time and maintain their difficulty better than hard numbers. No clue how that could be applied here, though, as the factors are rather disparate (number of Charter Members with hides, number of available caches, geographic distribution of said caches, D/T of said caches, etc.).

 

Anyway, as noted on the cache page ... thanks bigcall for the new/interesting challenge idea.

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Hopefully I can get some more feedback like this so that my list highlights the owner's favorites not just the oldest one that I arbitrarily picked

My two oldest caches are adopted. Schenley 1, which is on the list for me, was adopted over to me by Jeremy himself way back in 2002.

 

I would much prefer listing the first cache that I hid myself: Elves in the Forest, hidden 8/1/2002 and still active. I remember feeling guilty at the time because my cache was so close to the parking lot. Nowadays you can find three other caches between the parking lot and my cache.

 

Besides, all the caches I've hidden have the word "Elves" somewhere in the cache name, and I know that will enrage Fizzymagic. :ph34r:

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I ran the updated macro and show finds on the hides of 66 different Charter Members (although I am one of those listed, as I have adopted some of the caches, and Geocaching HQ is also listed, although I considered that an entity rather than a true Charter Member).

 

Before the macro was updated and gave info on all caches in the database (not just on finds), it showed that I had hides from 84 different CMs in my database. For me, it would be ideal to be able to select whether I wanted to include found caches only or all caches in the database. That way, I could see if I qualify for the challenge on one hand, and then see what CMs I should target on the other.

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Hopefully I can get some more feedback like this so that my list highlights the owner's favorites not just the oldest one that I arbitrarily picked

My two oldest caches are adopted. Schenley 1, which is on the list for me, was adopted over to me by Jeremy himself way back in 2002.

 

I would much prefer listing the first cache that I hid myself: Elves in the Forest, hidden 8/1/2002 and still active. I remember feeling guilty at the time because my cache was so close to the parking lot. Nowadays you can find three other caches between the parking lot and my cache.

 

Besides, all the caches I've hidden have the word "Elves" somewhere in the cache name, and I know that will enrage Fizzymagic. :ph34r:

I went ahead and changed it to Elves - sorry Fizzy.

 

Trying to add more CM's with only archived caches to match up with Moun10Bike's list

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OK, the macro seems stable and it's working for everyone who has tested it, so everyone can get it here. I'll add it to the master list soon.

 

I made another macro that finds caches by charter members in unfound caches. You can get it here.

 

That one will just do the filter; no fancy output required. I wish I could do something fancier that would take two databases, and I may in the future, but my GSAK foo is sort of weak.

 

I think I will do one nearby. "Bigcall Challenge" is the perfect name.

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I'm officially declaring rights to the Bigcall Challenge in Washington State! :) (or should that be bigcall challenge?)

 

bigcall, would it be useful if I updated the spreadsheet to include archived caches as well?

 

FYI, there are some "extra" accounts (a reviewer, a current and former Groundspeak employee, and the HQ account) on the Charter list that are not really charter. These are accounts simply had their status changed in the database as a perk of the workplace (there's your solution to becoming a Charter Member, Roman! ;)). The last "true" Charter Member in the list is ID = 106426.

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OK, the macro seems stable and it's working for everyone who has tested it, so everyone can get it here.

 

Oh -- I forgot to add: the macro now does not include Geocaching HQ and a couple of other not-really-charter-members.

 

I just get a bunch of text in my browser when I click the link.

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OK, the macro seems stable and it's working for everyone who has tested it, so everyone can get it here.

 

Oh -- I forgot to add: the macro now does not include Geocaching HQ and a couple of other not-really-charter-members.

 

I just get a bunch of text in my browser when I click the link.

Just right-click and do a Save As... then open GSAK and import the macro directly.

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OK, the macro seems stable and it's working for everyone who has tested it, so everyone can get it here.

 

Oh -- I forgot to add: the macro now does not include Geocaching HQ and a couple of other not-really-charter-members.

 

I just get a bunch of text in my browser when I click the link.

Just right-click and do a Save As... then open GSAK and import the macro directly.

 

It saves it as an HTML document.

 

Edit: never mind, stupid internet explorer.

 

I found 111 caches by 19 different charter members, 71 of the by MrGigabyte.

Edited by Roman!
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I'm officially declaring rights to the Bigcall Challenge in Washington State! :) (or should that be bigcall challenge?)

 

bigcall, would it be useful if I updated the spreadsheet to include archived caches as well?

 

FYI, there are some "extra" accounts (a reviewer, a current and former Groundspeak employee, and the HQ account) on the Charter list that are not really charter. These are accounts simply had their status changed in the database as a perk of the workplace (there's your solution to becoming a Charter Member, Roman! ;)). The last "true" Charter Member in the list is ID = 106426.

 

Where do I apply and what do you think my chance of getting a job are?

Heck, what are my chances of getting an interview? :D

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I found a big performance improvement for the macros by restructuring the SQL queries. So I recommend downloading the new versions. I will be adding them to the GSAK master list next week.

 

I also removed all the not-really charter members.

 

I tweaked my server settings so that they no longer look like text files. Should make life easier.

 

And I officially renamed the one for the Bigcall Challenge to Bigcall.gsk

 

The other one I left as CMFilter.gsk

Edited by fizzymagic
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I'm officially declaring rights to the Bigcall Challenge in Washington State! :) (or should that be bigcall challenge?)

 

bigcall, would it be useful if I updated the spreadsheet to include archived caches as well?

 

FYI, there are some "extra" accounts (a reviewer, a current and former Groundspeak employee, and the HQ account) on the Charter list that are not really charter. These are accounts simply had their status changed in the database as a perk of the workplace (there's your solution to becoming a Charter Member, Roman! ;)). The last "true" Charter Member in the list is ID = 106426.

 

I think I have most of them just by going through the owner ID #'s manually, but it would help to double check my work.

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I missed out on Charter Membership by a little bit as I didn't pay up for the first few months I was playing. I think that GS honoring those pioneers with a coin as part of an anniversary celebration is a great idea. Even if that doesn't happen, I am thrilled to see the Bigcall Challenge concept that has emerged from this thread. I like challenges and often seek them out when I am traveling. I found 5-6 on my recent Geowoodstock trip in two different states.

 

Thanks to Fizzy's quick work on the macro I now know that I would qualify for the 50 threshold. I have 481 finds placed by 67 different members. There are two local to me who used to be prolific hiders and I have found 170 between them. I've also got 102 finds between the brothers Southpaw and JoGPS. I even have 2 from Bigcall himself!

It's fun to play with numbers, :D

Edited by wimseyguy
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