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Falsely Discovering TBs/coins


Deepdiggingmole

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10 minutes ago, DragonsWest said:

I found out about this this morning. The bottom line is "What is Groundspeak/Geocaching" doing about it?

It turns out that they are actually doing a lot.

 

I have just heard that some of the fake-loggers have received emails telling them to stop.

 

Thank you, Groundspeak!

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2 hours ago, Deepdiggingmole said:

Personally I believe the one aspect that has caused this was the implimentation of 'discovering'

 

I would also say the concept of BadgeGen is to blame too. Getting a digital badge for discovering so many TBs and Coins probably has driven a portion of people to inflate their numbers. 

 

I will admit, I did it once, when I saw the Travelbug Lady at GeoWoodstock in Ohio. I was chatting with her and was given a code with all her trackable numbers. I thought it was convenient, but that has been the only time I used a mass list. I've actually gotten out of a lot of discoveries, even at large events.

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1 hour ago, thomfre said:

It turns out that they are actually doing a lot.

 

I have just heard that some of the fake-loggers have received emails telling them to stop.

 

Thank you, Groundspeak!

 

While this is helpful, they carry a significantly louder voice in having this page removed than we do, however, I do recommend everyone offended by this page complain about it on FB.  I did earlier this morning.  More complaints, more attention on the problem.

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58 minutes ago, arisoft said:

HQ could stop supporting Facebook if they continue this foulplay and are not supportive partners any more.

 

Not sure what "supporting Facebook" means, and whatever Groundspeak allows or not, that won't stop people who get data like that from using it or sharing.  What GS has to do is find a way to thwart abuse of this kind of activity - not reach out to the vague internet and try to stop content from being available out there. That's impossible.

 

They could throttle page views of Trackable items. They could make a different mechanic for logging private TB codes that isn't so easy to 'test'. They could certainly throttle API requests of TB codes. Who knows what other mechanics they could implement to make it harder for algorithmically-determined lists to be generated. It's unlikely they're remove the Discover log altogether.  All they can do it make it harder to non-human interaction with the data to occur.

Then if someone personally wants to manually generate a list like that, well, that's their investment, and if it's problematic, it's a human user that can be tracked and dealt with.

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1 hour ago, igator210 said:

 

I would also say the concept of BadgeGen is to blame too. Getting a digital badge for discovering so many TBs and Coins probably has driven a portion of people to inflate their numbers. 

 

I will admit, I did it once, when I saw the Travelbug Lady at GeoWoodstock in Ohio. I was chatting with her and was given a code with all her trackable numbers. I thought it was convenient, but that has been the only time I used a mass list. I've actually gotten out of a lot of discoveries, even at large events.

 

I too at an early meet I went to - I thought it was a good idea - then - but I did see a lot of the the TBs on the table and hadn't picked them all up. Since then like you I only discover ones that are shown to me or I see out in the field 

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8 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Not sure what "supporting Facebook" means

 

You didn't know that geocaching.com is used for tracking users by Facebook? I found this accidentally last year when some part of this tracking system was failing in the FB end and I had to block all connections to FB to get geocaching.com working again. FB is running their own javascript on your computer when you are using geocaching.com. Due to this "enlightment" my hosts file now contains:

127.0.0.1    www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1    connect.facebook.net

 

Edited by arisoft
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17 minutes ago, arisoft said:
26 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Not sure what "supporting Facebook" means

 

You didn't know that geocaching.com is used for tracking users by Facebook?

 

<_< Ok, so you are referring to making use of web functional addons they've implemented such as allowing the "Facebook login".

Well that has nothing to do with trackable codes or sharing of that kind of info. It's purely a convenience feature for user access to geocaching.com. And yes there are elements of Facebook scripts throughout the website - this is pretty standard practice in today's social media-connected world.  This isn't some big corporate partnership (let alone shady evil-Facebook practices). Just basic web usability and connectivity. Again nothing to do with the TB issues at hand. And, if HQ removed Facebook widgets and login functionality it wouldn't impact Facebook one iota (but would reduce convenience on geocaching.com for many people who use those features), let alone have any effect on whether Facebook finds value in following up on any request to close down a group that's doing nothing technically illegal, just annoyingly antagonistic to an external 3rd party hobby website.

 

It would certainly be nice if Facebook recognized that people doing this were circumventing the TOU of geocaching.com, and extend that restriction to any group or page that does this sort of abusive activity, shutting them down. But it could be a slippery slope, and that's up to Facebook's legal department.

Edited by thebruce0
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We have gotten >10 discoveries in 24 hours on our personal trackable that has never been photographed, shown to anyone, or put into the wild.

 

If Groundspeak is providing an interface that allows for multiple people to mass discover trackables then in my opinion it is on Groundspeak to provide a solution to stopping it.

 

It would seem like providing the trackable owner a setting to accept discoveries or limit the discoveries to X a day would be a fairly straightforward solution.   

Or adding a "Are you human" test when logging a discovered log.

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13 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Well that has nothing to do with trackable codes or sharing of that kind of info

 

Why should it relate? This is intented to be a sanction for the foulplay.

 

13 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

It's purely a convenience feature for user access to geocaching.com.

 

Tracking = convenience feature :P

 

13 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

It would certainly be nice if Facebook recognized that people doing this were circumventing the TOU of geocaching.com

 

Let's make them recognize.

 

13 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

But it could be a slippery slope, and that's up to Facebook's legal department.

 

This is not a legal matter. It is a business matter for both parties.

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2 minutes ago, arisoft said:
16 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Well that has nothing to do with trackable codes or sharing of that kind of info

 

Why should it relate? This is intented to be a sanction for the foulplay.

 

Groundspeak? Sanctioning Facebook? :D

Again, they opted in to make use of features FB provides for our convenience. This is not some big corporate partnership where not using functionality FB provides will somehow, in any way hurt the big blue.  Better to direct that stick-it-to-man energy elsewhere for more effectiveness.

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55 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

 

Not sure what "supporting Facebook" means, and whatever Groundspeak allows or not, that won't stop people who get data like that from using it or sharing.  What GS has to do is find a way to thwart abuse of this kind of activity - not reach out to the vague internet and try to stop content from being available out there. That's impossible.

 

They could throttle page views of Trackable items. They could make a different mechanic for logging private TB codes that isn't so easy to 'test'. They could certainly throttle API requests of TB codes. Who knows what other mechanics they could implement to make it harder for algorithmically-determined lists to be generated. It's unlikely they're remove the Discover log altogether.  All they can do it make it harder to non-human interaction with the data to occur.

Then if someone personally wants to manually generate a list like that, well, that's their investment, and if it's problematic, it's a human user that can be tracked and dealt with.

 

They could stop the 'discovery' function :-) 
When I first started all you could do with TBs was pick up and drop off - I understand why 'discover' was brought in, but it is that which has caused this annoying phenomena

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4 hours ago, Deepdiggingmole said:

Personally I believe the one aspect that has caused this was the implimentation of 'discovering' -

I was caching before this facility was around - trackables could only be logged in and out of caches and that was it - often it was an arduous task but if you like it you did it. 

If the facility to discover wasn't there then this mass cheating could not take place - sadly however TB/coins is a big money spinner for HQ and I fear this may override their consideration for dealing with this 

 

 Discover wasn't introduced that much later than you started, and we didn't have stat freaks going nuts on Discover then either...  

I entered my feelings on the proper use of Discover on page 1. 

Would you like me to add you to that "doesn't want help"  list too ?     :)

 

Simple Drop and Retrieve cache-to-cache isn't "arduous" at all... 

 

An "arduous task"  was when we "dipped" trackables, by dropping trackables into caches, and retrieving them again.

For families using trackables for kids records of caches found, that was a real pain-in-the-can.  

 - This was replaced with the "Visit" log, where one can log every cache found easily, supposedly created to "save some time".

It's so convenient that some have held on to other's trackables for months at a time.  Most Owners don't even know if they still have them...

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I agree that creating "Discover" for coins/TB's was a bad idea.  I've done a few but don't really understand the desire to do it unless there are challenge caches related to quantities you have found.  Doing it this fake way undermines any such challenge.  Sad they dragged Project-GC into it.  The least Groundspeak could do is tell cachers its forbidden even if they don't follow through on the policing.

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15 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 Discover wasn't introduced that much later than you started, and we didn't have stat freaks going nuts on Discover then either...  

I entered my feelings on the proper use of Discover on page 1.  Thank you 

Would you like me to add you to that "doesn't want help"  list too ?     No !

 

An "arduous task"  was when we "dipped" trackables, by dropping trackables into caches, and retrieving them again. Yes, this is what I was referring to when I meant arduous as it wasn't always about drop and retrieve, but thank you for explaining it 

For families using trackables for kids records of caches found, that was a real pain-in-the-can.  

 - This was replaced with the "Visit" log, where one can log every cache found easily, supposedly created to "save some time". Yup, I was caching before these functions came in, just like you :-) 

It's so convenient that some have held on to other's trackables for months at a time.  Most Owners don't even know if they still have them... I know, despite the TB page saying don't too ;-) 

 

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4 minutes ago, YukonShadow said:

I agree that creating "Discover" for coins/TB's was a bad idea.  I've done a few but don't really understand the desire to do it unless there are challenge caches related to quantities you have found.  Doing it this fake way undermines any such challenge.  Sad they dragged Project-GC into it.  The least Groundspeak could do is tell cachers its forbidden even if they don't follow through on the policing.

 

I don't think the Discover logs themselves are the problem, just moreso the implementation. Those same old requests keep coming up - hide them from the TB log history, or add filters for the log types, allow locking from discovery, or more notification options regarding Discovery logs... it's functionality surrounding the logs that's causing a fuss, not so much the existence of them.

Without them there'd be notes. It's a convenience for people who want to record that they'd seen or, well, discovered it. That's not a bad thing in and of itself. It's just the implementation that can be improved...

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11 minutes ago, Deepdiggingmole said:

 

 

I'll drop the TBs when people stop putting out pill bottles in the forest.  We need caches of sufficient size to drop these in, some are very large.  But this is forking the topic - we seek a means to stop people, in the present timeframe from these false discoveries from lists accumulated and posted on the web.

 

Perhaps something with teeth in it, if you get more than one complaint then GS bans you for a week.  I know they don't want to get into this discipline thing, it requires man hours and they'd rather spend those being hip and cool and hanging out, or whatever they do at HQ.

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27 minutes ago, YukonShadow said:

I agree that creating "Discover" for coins/TB's was a bad idea.  

I've done a few but don't really understand the desire to do it unless there are challenge caches related to quantities you have found.

 

I've found over a dozen coins thought lost for years in "lonely" and high-terrain caches.

I'm not caching like I used to, and the other 2/3rds quit all-together, so I'll Discover thanks.   :)

If one of yours are in one someday, you wouldn't want to know about it ?   It's condition ?  Location ?

 I'm not emailing you over a trackable...

 

Everybody seems to have gone with this knee-jerk reaction,  somehow forgetting that it can be helpful as well...

 

Edited by cerberus1
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27 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

Everybody seems to have gone with this knee-jerk reaction,  somehow forgetting that it can be helpful as well...

 

Yes - it is helpful - if used correctly as you have pointed out - however it has also created this madness - nothing to do with knee-jerk, the creation of this FB page has simply brought it to a head :-) 

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1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

 

I've found over a dozen coins thought lost for years in "lonely" and high-terrain caches.

I'm not caching like I used to, and the other 2/3rds quit all-together, so I'll Discover thanks.   :)

If one of yours are in one someday, you wouldn't want to know about it ?   It's condition ?  Location ?

 I'm not emailing you over a trackable...

 

Everybody seems to have gone with this knee-jerk reaction,  somehow forgetting that it can be helpful as well...

 

Not all are bouncing their knees.  I respect the position the game means different things to different people, Discovering fair and honestly is no different than finding a cache.  Our dishonest discoverers are no different from arm-chair cache loggers.

 

The bottom line is what to do about them.  Who acts?  What is the action?  The desired outcome is harmony.

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19 minutes ago, DragonsWest said:

  I respect the position the game means different things to different people, Discovering fair and honestly is no different than finding a cache. 

Our dishonest discoverers are no different from arm-chair cache loggers.

 

The bottom line is what to do about them.  Who acts?  What is the action?  The desired outcome is harmony.

 

I agree, some action on them is a better option than what some are implying, that the "log type" is the issue., as "I agree that creating "Discover" for coins/TB's was a bad idea.", and "I believe the one aspect that has caused this was the implimentation of 'discovering' " seem to say.    :)

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Well, I've been hit by this too. I got a couple this morning and then several more through the day. I came here and followed the link to the FB page and found one of my codes on today's batch. That trackable hasn't left my home in 3 years, and before that it was only to a few local events.

 

Groundspeak, please take action.

 

First, please contact Facebook and see what you can do about taking down this page. I know you might not be able to do much, but you're in the best position of any of us to get some action.

 

Second, please suspend or ban any members who mass-log trackables from these lists. You need to get across to these people that doing so is not acceptable. I'm about to send you a message through your contact form with the usernames of the members who bogus-logged one of my trackables today, and most likely have logged most or all of the codes posted on the Facebook page. What they've done goes against the wishes of your membership and ultimately hurts your bottom-line by degrading the trackable side-game.

 

To any fellow cachers who have been affected by this, I urge you to also send a message to HQ with the names of any members who bogus-logged your trackables. We need to tell them that this isn't acceptable and that something needs to be done.

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49 minutes ago, elrojo14 said:

"Rumors hint Groundspeak is considering banning players who log trackables. Well, shame on them for punishing people for no other reason than playing their game." my bold.

What he/she is doing is playing the game? Hardly. The game is to actually view the trackable and not a number on a list. Sheer arrogance!!

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9 hours ago, colleda said:

"Rumors hint Groundspeak is considering banning players who log trackables. Well, shame on them for punishing people for no other reason than playing their game." my bold.

What he/she is doing is playing the game? Hardly. The game is to actually view the trackable and not a number on a list. Sheer arrogance!!

The game is that way for some people. Other people like virtual finds. The game is what you make it. However, I do see people's point that their version of the game is not to allow people to make virtual finds and it is a major pain having to delete logs or lock trackables. 

Groundspeak is trying to do something about it. This whole thing will be interesting to follow. 

gs.jpg

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18 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

What world is this person living in?

Probably an echo chamber. 

 

I really think that punishing and banning people is the wrong direction for HQ to go on this issue.   Trackables will be coming up on its 20 year anniversary of its inception next year, and maybe the game has outgrown the old method of logging these things.  Maybe its time to retire the old method of trackable logging and come up with something completely new.

 

This recent FB issue is just one of several, and has been going on for quite some time, this being the most recent iteration.  This is just becoming a game of whack-a-mole, which is probably what the author of the FB page is really trying to accomplish.

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14 minutes ago, Touchstone said:

I really think that punishing and banning people is the wrong direction for HQ to go on this issue.   Trackables will be coming up on its 20 year anniversary of its inception next year, and maybe the game has outgrown the old method of logging these things.  Maybe its time to retire the old method of trackable logging and come up with something completely new.

 

I don't disagree. And I think I'd have a tad more respect for the situation if the primary intent was to highlight a flaw in the system in efforts to induce change... like a white hat operation.  but I think they're more banking on that for their own gain, not improving the game.  I do feel a little surprised it took so long for someone to automate code discovery; I'm not sure what kind of countermeasures HQ had already implemented to stop people from fake-discovering codes. I mean sometimes I've wondered what would happen if someone 'guessed' or mis-typed a code for one I hadn't activated, and since activation codes are easily retrievable, claimed it for themselves.  Perhaps HQ was in the mindset that the community was small enough, or 'kind' enough that honour system would rein supreme. But now, the underbelly is gaining momentum and these 'loopholes' may start getting taken advantage of.

 

At the very least, there needs to be more countermeasures set up to thwart, or at least throttle this sort of thing, but without making it an enormous pain for laypeople who really are the core of the demographic. (Heck I work in the trucking industry and we have mom'n'pop OO's who are still on fax, or even figuring out how to use a mouse properly :P)

 

 

14 minutes ago, Touchstone said:

This recent FB issue is just one of several, and has been going on for quite some time, this being the most recent iteration.  This is just becoming a game of whack-a-mole, which is probably what the author of the FB page is really trying to accomplish.

 

ie, take advantage of, yeah.

Edited by thebruce0
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12 hours ago, elrojo14 said:

 

The problem they aren't grasping is that I didn't give the site permission to post the code of something I now own. Yes the code is stored in some database, but once I bought that code, its mine.
 
Its like a car with a VIN code. That VIN lives in a database somewhere, but it is my car.
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23 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

At the very least, there needs to be more countermeasures set up to thwart, or at least throttle this sort of thing, but without making it an enormous pain for laypeople who really are the core of the demographic. (Heck I work in the trucking industry and we have mom'n'pop OO's who are still on fax, or even figuring out how to use a mouse properly :P)

 

Fortunately I haven't gotten any mass logs.  I'm surprised that there are so many Spam-cachers that take online code lists to dutifully fill everyone's TBs with logs.  If it's a couple guys with many accounts, I would not be surprised by that.

 

I haven't checked my collection for "activated" codes.  I'm a little afraid to check them. :unsure:

 

I have "cache cards" that (from a big Event, personal baseball-card-like vanity cards), due to all having the same tracking code, are "Discover Only".  After a design has been out there for a couple of years, maybe I don't want the "Discovered, thanks, another one for my set" generic logs all the time.  I might shut mine down, and change my page to "I love Discover logs, contact me with your amazing log and its photos, for info on how to log this".  It's not like they need my new icon or anything, the cards have all the same icon.  It's just a stat.  But what if I unlock it only for great logs... actual not spam logs...?  That would pretty much kill-off all the robo-logs. 

 

What if there was a way to automate that process, like a "free pass" I could send to allow one log, on approval?  Sure, this exact method might be best for "Discover only" style TBs.

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On 1/7/2020 at 12:53 PM, thebruce0 said:

 

I don't think the Discover logs themselves are the problem, just moreso the implementation. Those same old requests keep coming up - hide them from the TB log history, or add filters for the log types, allow locking from discovery, or more notification options regarding Discovery logs... it's functionality surrounding the logs that's causing a fuss, not so much the existence of them.

Without them there'd be notes. It's a convenience for people who want to record that they'd seen or, well, discovered it. That's not a bad thing in and of itself. It's just the implementation that can be improved...

I must admit that I have trouble dropping a TB into another cache, its not because I want to keep it, I just forget to take along or have trouble finding a cache large enough to hold them. So I stopped picking up TBs until the Discover feature came out. Now I can be part of the game without the worry of losing a TB.

 

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3 hours ago, Touchstone said:

I really think that punishing and banning people is the wrong direction for HQ to go on this issue.   Trackables will be coming up on its 20 year anniversary of its inception next year, and maybe the game has outgrown the old method of logging these things.  Maybe its time to retire the old method of trackable logging and come up with something completely new.

I disagree. After a warning, this is the only thing HQ can do. They cannot stop this guy from posting on Facebook. So the only thing to do is to make people that might keep doing it without owner permission scared to lose something they do care about, their access and finds. I bet the number of discovers has already decreased. 

 

No one can control what happens to their trackable number if they let it loose into the public realm. You own the trackable piece of metal,  but you cannot own a number and you cannot own a page on someone else's website. However, that makes an interesting question. Where are these lists coming from? Was there a breach? Is it random generation with verification? That might soon be the bigger issue. 

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32 minutes ago, elrojo14 said:

 After a warning, this is the only thing HQ can do. They cannot stop this guy from posting on Facebook.

So the only thing to do is to make people that might keep doing it without owner permission scared to lose something they do care about, their access and finds. I bet the number of discovers has already decreased. 

 

That's similar to how I see it too.  

When I worked at the hoosegow, and a buncha knuckleheads would think they're "protesting" something that day, the ringleaders were removed, along with something as simple as the dayroom's TVs shut off, and commissary denied for the entire unit.  

That simple act got the ones just along for the ride to knock it the heck off.

Interpersonal communications wouldn't work now that we're in a time where selfies rule,  and many only thinking of themselves...

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Just saw this in their About Section:

 

"The tracking codes, or other information, found on this page were obtained legally through personal experience and are shared here for the benefit and enjoyment of anyone who chooses to avail themselves of this free service."

 

I want to know what personal experience they had. 

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4 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

It's supposedly a script algorithmically testing and determining valid codes. Simple as that. Codes that no one has ever seen apart the owner and never been photographed or shared are on these lists.

If it was created by a script would there be series of codes in those lists? Like aaaaaa, aaaaaf, aaaaam, aaaaaz, aaaabe for example.  The current lists seem random, which would suggest to me that it collected data from real discoveries to me. However a lot of people say they are sure their coins have never been seen by others.  

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4 hours ago, igator210 said:

Just saw this in their About Section:

 

"The tracking codes, or other information, found on this page were obtained legally through personal experience and are shared here for the benefit and enjoyment of anyone who chooses to avail themselves of this free service."

 

I want to know what personal experience they had. 

I had a 2011 Block Party Tag on the FB list.  The tag was activated and moved to my collection on 8/23/11.  It has been in a desk drawer ever since 8/11.  It was never photographed or shared. 

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1 hour ago, PnavE_81 said:

If it was created by a script would there be series of codes in those lists? Like aaaaaa, aaaaaf, aaaaam, aaaaaz, aaaabe for example.  The current lists seem random, which would suggest to me that it collected data from real discoveries to me. However a lot of people say they are sure their coins have never been seen by others.  

Only valid codes are provided, so how they're displayed depends on whether they sorted or randomized the list, or whether they checked randomly from a list of potentials and only included matches. It's not hard to insert a random element in the process.

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17 hours ago, PnavE_81 said:

If it was created by a script would there be series of codes in those lists? Like aaaaaa, aaaaaf, aaaaam, aaaaaz, aaaabe for example.  The current lists seem random, which would suggest to me that it collected data from real discoveries to me. However a lot of people say they are sure their coins have never been seen by others.  

 

The list is random because that is how it has been set up - otherwise it would be easy to see how they have done it.
With over 11,000 codes listed on the site already this is not created from real discoveries - One of my TBs has ended up on there and it has been missing for 6 years - it never went to a Mega or other event and there is no photo showing the code anywhere - therefore my code appears to have been generated through a script. Another TB of mine got logged a few weeks ago - that TB has been in my possession for the last 10 years - both are older TBs and so a string of numbers for the codes. 

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14 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

Thank you for that. I don't remember those of 2018 except it was on our last cruise after which my wife fell ill on our return home then passed away a few weeks later. The rest were on friends cars, dogs etc five or more years ago. I almost always grab TBs I come across to move on and/or add mileage - lots.

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The other 2/3rds came home (that IT/IS all over the country thing...) and said that she had numerous Discovers on coins, and even her heavy rucksack that all the coin books are stored in (a TB) hit.

Jan 4th to 7th IIRC. She's off again...

Guess if we had a TB on the collapsible hand truck to move it (I can't lift it),  it'd be logged too...   All have sat in the house since '08.

 

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I just had notice of what I would presume is a false discovery on one of my trackables. The trackable has been missing for more than a year and I recently marked it as missing. 'Discovered' by a person with 16136 Trackables Logged. I was just about to send them a message asking where they spotted it and with whom (I did not expect a reply), before I deleted their log, but when I checked the TB log their log of the TB had been deleted. They must have done that after seeing the " marked it as missing" log.

https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=7098524&page=1

 

" Mise à jour de mes découvertes faites lors des mégas et évents.
Merci pour le partage.
Update of my discoveries made during mega and vents.
Thank you for sharing."

 

I don't think that TB has ever been to a Mega.

Edited by Goldenwattle
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On 1/10/2020 at 2:26 AM, thebruce0 said:

Only valid codes are provided, so how they're displayed depends on whether they sorted or randomized the list, or whether they checked randomly from a list of potentials and only included matches. It's not hard to insert a random element in the process.

 

On 1/10/2020 at 7:18 PM, Deepdiggingmole said:

 

The list is random because that is how it has been set up - otherwise it would be easy to see how they have done it.
With over 11,000 codes listed on the site already this is not created from real discoveries - One of my TBs has ended up on there and it has been missing for 6 years - it never went to a Mega or other event and there is no photo showing the code anywhere - therefore my code appears to have been generated through a script. Another TB of mine got logged a few weeks ago - that TB has been in my possession for the last 10 years - both are older TBs and so a string of numbers for the codes. 

 

I just collected all the "lot"-lists from the FB group until now.

Definitely not random at all, so you guys were right.

about 15% from all the codes start with "PC", 10% with "GS"  

9 sets of 2 initial digits are more than 50% of the list in total. 

1 in 3 of every code has a "C" as the second digit!

positions 3-6 however seem to be evenly distributed.

 

I also visited a (very) small sample of all the codes, and didn't see any tb's that were recently activated. Which suggests falsely activated coins/tb's isn't really a thing yet. At least not in the currently published lists...

Since all the codes seems to be valid codes, there has to be someone(s?) that have been checking codes through a script. I can't imagine Groundspeak isn't able to see strange activity on some accounts in the (recent?) past.

 

Don't know why I did this...just got a bit curious I guess

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22 minutes ago, PnavE_81 said:

Don't know why I did this...just got a bit curious I guess

 

Cool insights!

 

Groundspeak does lock abusive accounts. But the inconsistency of which reports they act upon, and which they insist they shall not act upon, is infuriating. Um, I mean it's an irkB)

 

Same with Facebook and its policies. Same mindset, I guess. Huh, if these lists were lists of, for example, valid credit card numbers, I wonder how long the lists would stay up.

 

 

Edited by kunarion
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