Hidden Date Issue

[+supertbone]

I have seen several examples where the year in the Hidden Date is set so far in the past that the search by date Pocket Query function will not query for it. One example is GC62EKP with the date set in 1947. I have even seen some with a date of 01/01/1900. Dates should never realistically be placed that far in the past. Perhaps the hidden/placed date should allow the user to edit this date.

 

Example

[jholly]

I have seen several examples where the year in the Hidden Date is set so far in the past that the search by date Pocket Query function will not query for it. One example is GC62EKP with the date set in 1947. I have even seen some with a date of 01/01/1900. Dates should never realistically be placed that far in the past. Perhaps the hidden/placed date should allow the user to edit this date.

 

Example

When creating a cache listing, or after a cache listing is published a user can edit the placed date field. This seems to be what your asking. You can edit the date for times in the past, but except for event types you can't edit the date into the future.

Edited January 31, 2016 by jholly

[+supertbone]

I have seen several examples where the year in the Hidden Date is set so far in the past that the search by date Pocket Query function will not query for it. One example is GC62EKP with the date set in 1947. I have even seen some with a date of 01/01/1900. Dates should never realistically be placed that far in the past. Perhaps the hidden/placed date should allow the user to edit this date.

 

Example

When creating a cache listing, or after a cache listing is published a user can edit the placed date field. This seems to be what your asking. You can edit the date for times in the past, but except for event types you can't edit the date into the future.

 

Because of this ability to alter the date, it screws up the ability to query by this date since the PQ's don't support any date search prior to 2000. Obviously no caches were listed prior to that. So either, the ability to edit the date needs to be removed or the ability to set the query parameters prior to 2000 needs to be provided.

[+on4bam]

I have seen several examples where the year in the Hidden Date is set so far in the past that the search by date Pocket Query function will not query for it. One example is GC62EKP with the date set in 1947. I have even seen some with a date of 01/01/1900. Dates should never realistically be placed that far in the past. Perhaps the hidden/placed date should allow the user to edit this date.

 

The date is part of the mystery to solve that's why it's in the past.

[+MartyBartfast]

I think it's legitimate to be able to modify the placed by dates, but either the search needs to be modified to allow a "since the beginning of time" start date, or make the searches compare the published date (which is not modifiable) rather than the placed date.

[+supertbone]

I think it's legitimate to be able to modify the placed by dates, but either the search needs to be modified to allow a "since the beginning of time" start date, or make the searches compare the published date (which is not modifiable) rather than the placed date.

 

Actually querying by published date could be helpful when querying for newly published caches as well. Querying by placed date gets you close, but in scenarios when the date gets modified after publishing you would miss those too.

[+thomfre]

I think it's legitimate to be able to modify the placed by dates, but either the search needs to be modified to allow a "since the beginning of time" start date, or make the searches compare the published date (which is not modifiable) rather than the placed date.

I agree that the date should be modifiable, but why should we be allowed to set it to a date prior to when geocaching started?

[+MartyBartfast]

I think it's legitimate to be able to modify the placed by dates, but either the search needs to be modified to allow a "since the beginning of time" start date, or make the searches compare the published date (which is not modifiable) rather than the placed date.

I agree that the date should be modifiable, but why should we be allowed to set it to a date prior to when geocaching started?

 

Because it's often used as part of a puzzle, and personally I don't see the difference between changing the date to Jan 2001 and changing it to Jan 1945, they're both equally false.

 

The soliution to this is to modify the search function, or disallow setting a date in the past altogether.

[+Gill & Tony]

I've submitted a suggestion to change the way PQs work and part of that suggestion is to use published date rather than placed date. I've also suggested adding an option "Published since the last run of this PQ".

 

If anyone wants to add their voice to that suggestion, please feel free.

[+ecanderson]

Request for Published vs. Placed search suggested many times in the past. Who cares when the owner went out and found the tree? Until it's published, a date doesn't mean much to a finder. Searching for new caches when one has sat languishing for months prior to publication seems pretty pointless. It'll be missed.