"?" caches

[cezanne]

I'm with the reviewer on this one. If you want the actual coordinates just sitting there in plain text on the page, there's a proper field in the cache form to do that and that cache is a Traditional.

 

Look at a cache like this one

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC51C2K_das-geheime-leben-der-worte

So far every almost every finder contributed a saying for the next cacher to find (optional task, but a major component of the cache).

I'm sure that this would not have worked at all when the cache were a traditional.

 

I see no reason whatsover to artificially add a puzzle to such a cache - the idea is that visitors read the cache page and not that they are

busy at home or at the location with solving a puzzle.

 

Cezanne

[+DanOCan]

I'm sure that this would not have worked at all when the cache were a traditional.

 

I see no reason whatsover to artificially add a puzzle to such a cache - the idea is that visitors read the cache page and not that they are

busy at home or at the location with solving a puzzle.

I think making a cache an Unknown just to make people read the cache page is not an appropriate use of the cache type.

[+GeoBain]

I'm sure that this would not have worked at all when the cache were a traditional.

 

I see no reason whatsover to artificially add a puzzle to such a cache - the idea is that visitors read the cache page and not that they are

busy at home or at the location with solving a puzzle.

I think making a cache an Unknown just to make people read the cache page is not an appropriate use of the cache type.

 

It's been suggested many times in the past.

[cezanne]

I think making a cache an Unknown just to make people read the cache page is not an appropriate use of the cache type.

 

Why not as long as the cache type is the catch all type? It might indeed make sense to separate such caches from puzzle caches and from challenge caches, but that's a different issue.

 

In any case there are caches where the owner wants to make sure that people read the description. So how to ensure this without artificially adding soemthing unwanted?

[+JPreto]

You could put a padlock on the cache.

Then make it a "?" for the lock...

 

Doesn't mean the lock 'locks' the cache.

There is actually a cache near my place that it is exactly this, a padlock that the 3 digits to open are the 3 door numbers of the house right in front. It is placed as a "?" but still it´s solvable by anyone...

[+niraD]

A traditional is at the *posted* coordinates. Most mystery cache descriptions contain the final coordinates in some fashion. Some are just easier to extract than others.

Yes, but posting final coordinates in plain text is already a 'going around' the type definition.

It's like making multi with 1 meter projection. Technically possible, but practically it's not a quiz/multi.

It's still not a traditional, since the owner doesn't intend it to be found at the *posted* coordinates. It has nothing to do with your silly statistics.

Yep. I've found multi-caches where I could touch the first stage with one hand while touching the second (and final) stage with the other. They were still multi-stage caches.

 

And I've found plenty of mystery/puzzle caches at the posted coordinates. In addition to challenge caches, there have been an assortment of on-site puzzles where you had to figure something out before you could open the cache and/or sign the log.

 

And as has been mentioned, the mystery/puzzle type is a catch-all cache type.

[+hukilaulau]

 

As for how to deal with the reviewer? Write the coordinates out in words, put them in ROT13, and voila! Puzzle.

 

Update: after considering a lot of possibilities, I did this. Thanks for the idea!

I also changed the name of one of them from "ANTI INTRO" to "SAFE HAVEN" and changed some of the language to avoid saying anything negative about the intro app. The reviewer never said anything about agendas, he only had a problem with the "not really a puzzle" aspect. But after reading the posts on this thread I realized that my concern was not with the intro app per se,but only with making caches a little safer for travelers. I think it is perfectly reasonable to have only part of the total number of geocaches available to the intro app.

I want to also note that, while I may not agree with the reviewer's interpretation of "?" caches, he/she worked with me throughout the process of getting these caches up and running, and I am happy with the result. The caches were published within a few hours of my final revisions.

Thanks everyone for your contributions! I truly appreciate them all!

[+narcissa]

 

As for how to deal with the reviewer? Write the coordinates out in words, put them in ROT13, and voila! Puzzle.

 

Update: after considering a lot of possibilities, I did this. Thanks for the idea!

I also changed the name of one of them from "ANTI INTRO" to "SAFE HAVEN" and changed some of the language to avoid saying anything negative about the intro app. The reviewer never said anything about agendas, he only had a problem with the "not really a puzzle" aspect. But after reading the posts on this thread I realized that my concern was not with the intro app per se,but only with making caches a little safer for travelers. I think it is perfectly reasonable to have only part of the total number of geocaches available to the intro app.

I want to also note that, while I may not agree with the reviewer's interpretation of "?" caches, he/she worked with me throughout the process of getting these caches up and running, and I am happy with the result. The caches were published within a few hours of my final revisions.

Thanks everyone for your contributions! I truly appreciate them all!

 

Huzzah!