Mystery cache.

[+malbowsier]

Is it ok to use a forum post to hide the final coordinates of a mystery cache? 

[RuideAlmeida]

From the Guidelines:

"Geocachers must solve a puzzle on the cache page to get the coordinates for the first stage or the final container. All clues needed to solve the puzzle must be on the cache page."

 

[+arisoft]

7 hours ago, RuideAlmeida said:

"Geocachers must solve a puzzle on the cache page to get the coordinates for the first stage or the final container. All clues needed to solve the puzzle must be on the cache page."

Clues yes but the solution not. Practically some clues may exist on the field like clues / coordinates to a bonus cache.

Edited April 20, 2018 by arisoft

[+NYPaddleCacher]

12 hours ago, RuideAlmeida said:

From the Guidelines:

"Geocachers must solve a puzzle on the cache page to get the coordinates for the first stage or the final container. All clues needed to solve the puzzle must be on the cache page."

 

My assumption has always been that the intent of that guideline was to prohibit a puzzle cache which required contacting the CO for information needed to solve the puzzle.  A fairly large percentage of puzzle cache require some research on the web to answer questions (but the questions are on the cache listing) and some cases the cache just has a link to the actual puzzle hosted elsewhere.  If the cache page was the only place where clues to a puzzle could be found, that would eliminate a lot of puzzles.  

[+barefootjeff]

20 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

11 hours ago, RuideAlmeida said:

From the Guidelines:

"Geocachers must solve a puzzle on the cache page to get the coordinates for the first stage or the final container. All clues needed to solve the puzzle must be on the cache page."

 

My assumption has always been that the intent of that guideline was to prohibit a puzzle cache which required contacting the CO for information needed to solve the puzzle.  A fairly large percentage of puzzle cache require some research on the web to answer questions (but the questions are on the cache listing) and some cases the cache just has a link to the actual puzzle hosted elsewhere.  If the cache page was the only place where clues to a puzzle could be found, that would eliminate a lot of puzzles.  

Indeed, and elsewhere in the Help Centre it says, in order to be a puzzle cache:

• The cache cannot be found without calculation, or research that goes beyond reading the cache page.

Edited April 20, 2018 by barefootjeff

[+Isonzo Karst]

I would think so. There would need to be something on the cache page that would hint at coord location. And you'd want to be mindful of the limitations of the forum post  search, ie some usernames will simply fail and some forums are not returned in search.

Gill & Tony post in these forums some. But because of the ampersand in the username, you can't find their posts either from their profile, or from  search here.

  Ranger Fox is the moderator of the Wherigo forums. It's safe to say he's got some posts in there. However, if you look at his profile, and ask to see his forum posts, there will be none shown for the Wherigo forums.

Quite a few forums are ignored now for capturing post history.

[+CAVinoGal]

14 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

On 4/19/2018 at 4:02 PM, RuideAlmeida said:

From the Guidelines:

"Geocachers must solve a puzzle on the cache page to get the coordinates for the first stage or the final container. All clues needed to solve the puzzle must be on the cache page."

My assumption has always been that the intent of that guideline was to prohibit a puzzle cache which required contacting the CO for information needed to solve the puzzle.  A fairly large percentage of puzzle cache require some research on the web to answer questions (but the questions are on the cache listing) and some cases the cache just has a link to the actual puzzle hosted elsewhere.  If the cache page was the only place where clues to a puzzle could be found, that would eliminate a lot of puzzles.  

I've solved a series of puzzles where the cache page consisted of 15 photos.  The cache title and the photos were clues, but you had to figure out the photo, the conneciton to the title, and then from that derive the coordinates.  Google and Tineye were invaluable in solving this series!

Another puzzle was quite tricky, and used a book review by the CO via a code name posted online, and in his review, he listed the coordinates.  The cache page had all the clues to lead you to the correct book and the correct review of that book to read.

On 4/19/2018 at 3:36 PM, malbowsier said:

Is it ok to use a forum post to hide the final coordinates of a mystery cache? 

There are potential issues with hiding coordinates in a forum post (this forum, or others).  Then again, there are potential issues using anything web based - servers go down, info changes (wiki articles, for example), links get broken, etc.  But there are loads of puzzles out there that use info on the internet to aid in solutions.  Clues on the cache page, coordinates derived in a multitude of ways using the info found on the internet.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

11 hours ago, CAVinoGal said:

Another puzzle was quite tricky, and used a book review by the CO via a code name posted online, and in his review, he listed the coordinates.  The cache page had all the clues to lead you to the correct book and the correct review of that book to read.

I've also done a puzzle which had (as just one of it's many mini-puzzles) a cipher which required obtaining a book.  The cache page has the ISBN of the book and a set of numbers.  The numbers corresponded to the page, line, and letter in the line to form a link to a web site (which contained another puzzle).   One didn't have to read the book completely (but it was worth doing) but the puzzle couldn't be solved without access to the specific edition of the physical book.  

[+malbowsier]

Thanks all. I shall ponder on it some more

Edited June 3, 2018 by malbowsier
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