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Need help with writing a challenge checker


Danversduo

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Hi

   We are in the process of putting out some challenge caches and are having difficulty finding a challenge checker for one of the caches we would like to place,  The challenge is titled The Alphabetical Cache Owners Name.  To meet the requirements of the challenge you need to have found a cache who's owner's name begins with each letter of the alphabet. The letter must be the first letter of the cache owners name.  Other challenges we have been able to clone the checker but we can't find a checker for this challenge.  If anyone already has a challenge checked for this and would be willing to send it to us, we would be very grateful.  Thank you in advance for any help you can give us.

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5 hours ago, Danversduo said:

Hi

   We are in the process of putting out some challenge caches and are having difficulty finding a challenge checker for one of the caches we would like to place,  The challenge is titled The Alphabetical Cache Owners Name.  To meet the requirements of the challenge you need to have found a cache who's owner's name begins with each letter of the alphabet. The letter must be the first letter of the cache owners name.  Other challenges we have been able to clone the checker but we can't find a checker for this challenge.  If anyone already has a challenge checked for this and would be willing to send it to us, we would be very grateful.  Thank you in advance for any help you can give us.

 

I'd really recommend you read through the challenge cache pages of the Help Centre (link) as they're now very restrictive on what's an acceptable challenge. There are some fairly recent changes too so it pays to reread it even if you already did a while back. Once you've come up withe something you think will fly, create the cache page (enough of it to get a GC code but don't submit it for review yet) then go to the project-gc checker request forum and provide the GC code and a description of your challenge requirements. They'll do a further validity check and in most cases can just generate a tag for your challenge that uses one of their existing generic checkers. The turnaround time is usually less than a day from what I've seen.

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23 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

I'd really recommend you read through the challenge cache pages of the Help Centre (link) as they're now very restrictive on what's an acceptable challenge. There are some fairly recent changes too so it pays to reread it even if you already did a while back. Once you've come up withe something you think will fly, create the cache page (enough of it to get a GC code but don't submit it for review yet) then go to the project-gc checker request forum and provide the GC code and a description of your challenge requirements. They'll do a further validity check and in most cases can just generate a tag for your challenge that uses one of their existing generic checkers. The turnaround time is usually less than a day from what I've seen.

This is very good advice! Read the Help Center before you proceed.

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Aside from the aforementioned problem with your Challenge concept, the other issue is the use of what appears to be a sock account (i.e. 0 Finds) to submit a Challenge Listing (assuming you are using the account you're posting in the Forum with).  The Cache Owner must have met the Challenge before submission, and obviously a sock account rarely meets that criteria.

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12 hours ago, Danversduo said:

{...}  Other challenges we have been able to clone the checker but we can't find a checker for this challenge.  If anyone already has a challenge checked for this and would be willing to send it to us, we would be very grateful.  Thank you in advance for any help you can give us.

 

For new challenge you can't clone a checker you need to ask for one at project-gc checker request forum like barefootjeff said.

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5 hours ago, Touchstone said:

Aside from the aforementioned problem with your Challenge concept, the other issue is the use of what appears to be a sock account (i.e. 0 Finds) to submit a Challenge Listing (assuming you are using the account you're posting in the Forum with).  The Cache Owner must have met the Challenge before submission, and obviously a sock account rarely meets that criteria.

That's a very good point!

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Has anyone tried to make challenge criteria that does not pass the current publishing rules as a voluntary item. So say you don't want to play the challenge game you sign the log and claim the smiley. But if you do write a note and log it later when you qualify as in the case of the OP challenge idea? I suspect a lot of folks would choose to claim the smiley but not all.

 

Thoughts?

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31 minutes ago, MNTA said:

Has anyone tried to make challenge criteria that does not pass the current publishing rules as a voluntary item. So say you don't want to play the challenge game you sign the log and claim the smiley. But if you do write a note and log it later when you qualify as in the case of the OP challenge idea? I suspect a lot of folks would choose to claim the smiley but not all.

Yes, there are a number of UnChallenges that have been published, where the challenge part is optional. For example:

https://coord.info/GC7AG3H

https://coord.info/GC717FC

https://coord.info/GC71M9Y

https://coord.info/GC7AG1W

https://coord.info/GC73V7A

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21 minutes ago, niraD said:

Yes, there are a number of UnChallenges that have been published, where the challenge part is optional. For example:

https://coord.info/GC7AG3H

https://coord.info/GC717FC

https://coord.info/GC71M9Y

https://coord.info/GC7AG1W

https://coord.info/GC73V7A

 

Looks hit or miss if people like this type of thing.

 

Scanning a few looks like the smiley is all they want. The 360 degree one had about 50/50 so I guess find numbers rule. Thanks for digging this up.

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2 hours ago, Keystone said:

Note that "UnChallenges" cannot have a challenge checker.  Challenge checkers are only for challenge caches.

So if I were to create a Traditional cache with an UnChallenge to (for example) find a cache in each city park of my town, then that Traditional cache would not be published if it included a link to a checker for the UnChallenge? Am I really understanding that correctly?

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13 hours ago, Keystone said:

Note that "UnChallenges" cannot have a challenge checker.  Challenge checkers are only for challenge caches.

 

To be more specific, could you refine what actually is not allowed or possible. If the unchallenge links to a statistical tool which displays status of the unchallenge task, like a geochecker, is there some restrictions about what kind of tools are not allowed? For example, if the unchallenge is about a badge status and there is a way to display the badge status - is it not allowed?

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1 hour ago, arisoft said:

 

To be more specific, could you refine what actually is not allowed or possible. If the unchallenge links to a statistical tool which displays status of the unchallenge task, like a geochecker, is there some restrictions about what kind of tools are not allowed? For example, if the unchallenge is about a badge status and there is a way to display the badge status - is it not allowed?

I'm guessing that the intent is to distinguish between approved Challenges, and these Unchallenges. Since project-gc is currently the only approved checker for Challenge Listings, it seems apparent that restricting their use to Approved Challenges will reduce confusion. Your home brew sounding approach to checking these Unchallenges would seem to be irrelevant since they are not approved for Challenges. 

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1 hour ago, Touchstone said:

I'm guessing that the intent is to distinguish between approved Challenges

 

I am guessing the same but there is no such guideline. I know that challenge checker registered with the cache will be automatically disabled if the cache is not a challenge when it is published. Maybe @Keystone just tried to express this fact that the checker will not work as expected and there is no special secret rule behind the statement.

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Nothing is straightforward when we speak about cache reviewing and secret rules. Any tool which displays caching statistics can be used as a challenge checker and a reviewer may reject the idea because there is something like a challenge checker if there is no better interpretation.

 

Couple of years ago I tried to publish an unchallenge cache but at that time the reviewer did not mentioned anything about this secret rule. Instead, the reviewer did not want to publish my unchallenge  because it seemed to bypass rules made for challenge caches even it was not a challenge cache.

Edited by arisoft
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Why are they secret? Seems to me if they were published there would be far less problems and the reviewer job would theoretically be made easier.

 

BTW not allowing a checker seems very dumb. All  it will take is one log post and then everyone who choose to do the challenge will follow the link. Why not make it easy and straightforward.

 

I'm at the point that the new challenges kind of bore me including mine. The remaining grandfathered caches near me require me to go pretty far to complete and will do so when time permits. I liked the idea of something new but yet another anti-challenge policy is in place. To me challenges are like puzzle caches, I work on solving them. I plan trips, I look at my finds, I search the databases. Then eventually I get them. I also lament the fact I had a missed opportunity. I have over 1000 puzzle caches on my ignore list, some I probably could solve but most I don't have a clue to where to begin. If folks don't like challenges they should simply ignore them. Even the D/T rating system seems wrong for challenges,

 

Shout-out thanks to arisoft in working on/creating my challenge checker for me to find a top10 favorite cache in 50 different counties or their equivalences. 

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4 hours ago, MNTA said:

Why are they secret? Seems to me if they were published there would be far less problems and the reviewer job would theoretically be made easier.

 

Because I did not get answer from this forum, I posted my question to a local reviewer. The reviewer didn't know this rule but promised to find out what is the ruleset for unchallenges. I understand that it could be misleading if an unchallenge have similar properties as a challenge but it is all about how do you present your cache.

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On 6.9.2018 at 8:51 PM, MNTA said:

Has anyone tried to make challenge criteria that does not pass the current publishing rules as a voluntary item.

 

My local reviewer studied this question about possibility to check user's statistical data for an unchallenge type cache and find it acceptable to have link to appropriate tool. If someone is willing to try this with a real cache, I see here a great opportunity to try this. I can help with practical arrangements.

 

 

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53 minutes ago, arisoft said:

 

 

My local reviewer studied this question about possibility to check user's statistical data for an unchallenge type cache and find it acceptable to have link to appropriate tool. If someone is willing to try this with a real cache, I see here a great opportunity to try this. I can help with practical arrangements.

 

 

Since Keystone has already provided an answer to this question, what exactly is the question we are trying to resolve?

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6 hours ago, arisoft said:

 

 

My local reviewer studied this question about possibility to check user's statistical data for an unchallenge type cache and find it acceptable to have link to appropriate tool. If someone is willing to try this with a real cache, I see here a great opportunity to try this. I can help with practical arrangements.

 

 

 

Since an 'unchallenge' cache has no allowance for the ALR, there is no need for any type checker of any stats.

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On 9/6/2018 at 6:33 AM, Touchstone said:

Aside from the aforementioned problem with your Challenge concept, the other issue is the use of what appears to be a sock account (i.e. 0 Finds) to submit a Challenge Listing (assuming you are using the account you're posting in the Forum with).  The Cache Owner must have met the Challenge before submission, and obviously a sock account rarely meets that criteria.

Thanks for the info. As an FYI when I logged the question in the Forum I mistakenly used an account that has the incorrect spelling of our caching name. It should have been under the account that is listed under Danvers Duo. We have already qualified for this challenge.. knew that we had to qualify for any challenges we submitted.  Thanks again for everyone's help.

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