Lists vs PQs

[+ras_oscar]

Lists create a downloadable GPX file of up to 1000 caches  based on the user selection of filters and area.

 

A PQ does the same thing. Lists run virtually immediately, whereas PQs generally arrive in your inbox within a few hours.

 

What is the reason someone would choose to run a PQ instead of a list? 

Edited January 12, 2020 by ras_oscar

[+barefootjeff]

Just now, ras_oscar said:

What is the reason someone would choose to run a PQ instead of a list? 

 

Several. A PQ can include things like cache attributes that a list can't. Also whenever a PQ is run it finds the current caches that satisfy its parameters, so, for example, a PQ set up to generate unfound caches within a region and run once a week will produce the latest information each time. A list on the other hand is static, it'll only ever include the caches you put in it.

[+Isonzo Karst]

"PQs generally arrive in your inbox within a few hours".  I find that PQs run generally within 60 seconds or less.  I set a PQ to run today (whatever day it is) and then download within seconds.    There's no reason to wait for an email. If it's taking hours, that's about the email, and it's on your end. As soon as it appears in the Available for Download tab, download it. 

The MyFinds query may take a bit of time.

Search (to list) offers parameters that PQs do not.

 

• has corrected coordinates
• favorite point X number 
• Not found by (takes multiple names)
• Keyword
• Search can also be used to find "caches with personal notes", but you must know the URL for that, as the term was removed from search at some point. https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?ot=4&note=1

 

PQ  offers parameter that lists do not. 

 

• Size: Virtual and Unknown
• That (and) Are not on my ignore list  (I don't think Search returns caches on your ignore list, but I'm not sure, as I don't use it )
• Found in the last 7 days
• Are on my watch list
• Have not been found
• Updated in the last 7 days
• In a PQ, you can select states or countries, multiple. I have a United states PQ, all US states selected. Obviously, I must use other restrictions to limit returns to 1000 or fewer, but there's no way in Search to do anything like this.  For travel I routinely use a handful of states where I may be willing to wander to find a particular cache, typically date range limited, cache type limited.  
• Caches along a route
• Date Range!
• Attributes: include, exclude

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by Isonzo Karst

[+MartyBartfast]

And a PQ can be set up to run automatically every day (or on selected days of the week). So I  have ~40 PQs which run according to a schedule during the week, and arrive in my mailbox without me having to do anything.

 

Some of those PQs are generated from lists (e.g. solved puzzles), so when I add caches to those selected lists the associated PQ will automatically pick them up every time it runs

[+HHL]

15 hours ago, ras_oscar said:

whereas PQs generally arrive in your inbox within a few hours

Actually it's nearly always within minutes.

[+ras_oscar]

Are you sure lists don't get updated? I thought it would reapply the filters and boundaries to the run current data. I just mapped a list I ran a few days ago and it shows the caches I found yesterday as found. FYI, when I originally ran the list it filtered out finds.

Edited January 12, 2020 by ras_oscar

[+HHL]

22 minutes ago, ras_oscar said:

Are you sure lists don't get updated?

Static means that the set of caches itself is not updated. Ie: A list with 20 unfound caches does hold these 20 caches even after you found eg. five of them. The list still holds 20 caches (independent of its found or availability status). That's what we call static. A PQ will only show 15 unfound caches ( according to your PQ settings). That's what we call dynamic.

[+kunarion]

44 minutes ago, ras_oscar said:

Are you sure lists don't get updated? I thought it would reapply the filters and boundaries to the run current data. I just mapped a list I ran a few days ago and it shows the caches I found yesterday as found. FYI, when I originally ran the list it filtered out finds.

 

There's a difference between a "Search" and a "List".  The List is a catalog of particular caches, and changes to those caches are shown.  If you perform a Search, you can select filters that change which caches are displayed, the displayed caches can be different with each search result, and that static result may be added to a List.  As you noticed, a List that changed (caches were found) doesn't remove caches that would be filtered by Search.

 

If you ask me to compare "Lists vs. PQs", I may think you mean "Search vs. PQs", because unlike what the OP states, it is the Search function that is based on the user selection of filters and area, the List being the output of a Search, or a static selection of caches.

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by kunarion

[+Isonzo Karst]

Another difference between PQ and list:

Mapping from a list will NOT show archived caches.

Mapping from a PQ will show archived caches.

Sometimes this matters.

 

 

[+HHL]

41 minutes ago, Isonzo Karst said:

Mapping from a PQ will show archived caches.

Only maps from BM-PQs do show archived caches. Maps from standard PQs do not contain archived caches. (as standard PQs do not even contain archived caches - hence, no archived caches on the map.)

 

Hans

Edited January 12, 2020 by HHL