How to find the real hidden/published date of a cache

[+miniil]

Hello.

I wonder if it is possible to find the real hidden date of a cache.  The hidden date may be fixed by the owner, so how to determine the real date.

For example, I'm searching for the oldest cache in my country but I find some hiddent date like 01/01/1900 wich is not releavant.

Thanks for your reply.

[+arisoft]

01/01/1900 must be an error. The system allows arbitrary dates. I once published a cache dated to a historical date and the reviewer did not noticed this before publishing but contacted later and asked to correct the date.

 

If you open all log entries and go to the bottom, there should be visible a reviewer log entry for publishing containing the date you are looking for. Some old caches may not contain this date, but at least there is the first "found it" date to help timing of the cache placement.

[+Lynx Humble]

I never understand why CO are allowed to change the date placement of the cache after the publication of the cache.

[+thebruce0]

It's a holdover from the earliest days, when there wasn't even a Cache Published log (and no indication of that date).  A cache might be placed a month before it gets published. Technically, it is exactly what it says it is. The problem is it's not really relevant any more to the general public because the listing is not visible until the publish date. What GS needs to complete is the feature that easily shows the date the cache was published. Especially the oldest ones that have a publish log, with many thousands of finds. Tries your patience loading and waiting until the very end to see the publish log

 

Or, just let us click on the log type icon and filter to show ONLY logs of that type. Since publish is shown there, that would be the quick easy fix.

[+NanCycle]

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

It's a holdover from the earliest days, when there wasn't even a Cache Published log (and no indication of that date).  A cache might be placed a month before it gets published. Technically, it is exactly what it says it is.

 

No, technically actually it has nothing to do with the date the cache was placed.  Unless the CO changes it, it shows the date the cache page was started.  

[+cerberus1]

3 hours ago, Lynx Humble said:

I never understand why CO are allowed to change the date placement of the cache after the publication of the cache.

 

Does seem odd, especially if looking for caches with old dates.  '15 caches with '01 dates.  Weird.   Honesty would help...

 

Fortunately it's easy to go on some really long logs without all that scrolling by using the "View Logbook" on the bottom of the cache page. 

[+on4bam]

It's easy to know when a cache was published. There's a macro for GSAK that will get publish logs for caches that were published starting from the moment these logs were used (2010?). Every few weeks I run this macro on caches without publish log.

Some caches (mostly published for events) have placed dates going back many months messing up my PQs that are all by placed date.

 

[+Isonzo Karst]

Publish logs started in July 2005.  Oldest cache in any European country won't usually have a publish log.

 

What you can use is the GC Code - very old caches have 3, 4 or 5 digit GC Codes.  All of the fake  placed date, pre-2000 caches have 7 digit GC Codes.

Oldest Belgium cache is GC40

Oldest CZ cache is GCE50 - though in Czechia, there are a quite a number of caches with  older fake placed dates, with 7 digit GC Codes.

 

4 digit codes end  in Dec 2000
5 digit codes end in  early July 2001
6 digit codes end in early Nov 2006

 

Edited July 3, 2018 by Isonzo Karst

[+on4bam]

11 minutes ago, Isonzo Karst said:

Publish logs started in July 2005.

 

From the GSAK macro's author

Quote

Note: The macro automatically skips any caches published before September 1, 2005 because those caches did not have Publish Listing logs (Publish Listing logs were added by Geocaching.com in late August, 2005).

 

As for GC40, it seems to have been placed July 7th 2000 but the first log is January 1st 2001.

 

[+Isonzo Karst]

https://coord.info/GLAH7N3

 

Publish log from July 2005.  

[+dprovan]

Why do you want to know? If it's because of a challenge cache, then ask the challenge cache's owner what he accepts as valid dates.

 

The hidden date is kinda funny when you think about it. After all, even if the CO doesn't change it, it will still often not be the date he hid the cache, it will be a day or two later. Indeed, that's an important reason to leave it in the CO's control: if he wants to, he can list the actual date that the physical cache was placed in position even when it was not the same day the cache was written up.

 

If you're going to worry about a date, worry about the publication date since that's a real thing that's documented in the log. Naturally that means you shouldn't worry about it for caches published before they invented the publication log

[+NanCycle]

44 minutes ago, dprovan said:

 

The hidden date is kinda funny when you think about it. After all, even if the CO doesn't change it, it will still often not be the date he hid the cache, it will be a day or two later.

 

It can just as easily be a day or two or even months earlier.  For instance I have two unpublished and as yet unhidden caches where the date is January or February.  When I do get them hidden, I will change the date to the actual hidden date.

[+barefootjeff]

44 minutes ago, dprovan said:

The hidden date is kinda funny when you think about it. After all, even if the CO doesn't change it, it will still often not be the date he hid the cache, it will be a day or two later. Indeed, that's an important reason to leave it in the CO's control: if he wants to, he can list the actual date that the physical cache was placed in position even when it was not the same day the cache was written up.

 

For me it's the other way around. I create the cache page before I hide the cache, since I need the GC code to put on the label. In one instance, when I was going through the process of getting permission from National Parks, it was three months after I created the cache page that I finally placed the container. I try to remember to update the hidden date before I submit it for publication but there've been times when it's been a last-minute edit.

[+thebruce0]

8 hours ago, NanCycle said:

No, technically actually it has nothing to do with the date the cache was placed.  Unless the CO changes it, it shows the date the cache page was started.  

 

Well yes, but the implication of the field - by its very name - is the date the cache was placed.  In practice, the default date is the date the listing was created. That's not a completely false assumption to make, but the argument could be made that it should be left blank by default.

 

 

[+miniil]

Thanks for all your answers.

Actually, I only want to find the real oldiest cache in on country.

Or I want to know easily if the hidden date is a clue for a mystery for example.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 7/3/2018 at 6:08 PM, NanCycle said:

 

It can just as easily be a day or two or even months earlier.  For instance I have two unpublished and as yet unhidden caches where the date is January or February.  When I do get them hidden, I will change the date to the actual hidden date.

 

That could also be common for someone creating a very complex puzzle cache.  I know of one for which the CO claims that it took about a year to created the puzzle, after they had initially created the cache listing  

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 7/5/2018 at 5:09 AM, miniil said:

Thanks for all your answers.

Actually, I only want to find the real oldiest cache in on country.

Or I want to know easily if the hidden date is a clue for a mystery for example.

 

The easiest way to find out which is the oldest cache in a country may be to just ask in the forums.   That's the sort of thing many geocachers keep track of.

 

As it turns out,  I'm going to be in Hasselt, Belgium for a week in August and could probably go after GC40 (claimed to be not only the oldest geocache in Belgium but also the oldest in continental Europe) and, coincidentally, will be in Dublin for a full day and overnight on the way there.  The oldest cache in Europe is "Europe's First",  in Bray, Ireland and I'm tentatively planning on trying to find it.