Mystery Cache requirements

[CasinoKai]

I looked at the requirements to place a mystery cache. It says  

 

"The cache page must provide information to solve the puzzle. "

 

Does this mean that everything to solve it must be on the page? cant I have someone got to the posted coords, do something like count the number of windows in a building multiple that by 10 to get part of final coords?

I've done some like that but am not sure if they were old and these are new rules. 

[RuideAlmeida]

21 minutes ago, CasinoKai said:

Does this mean that everything to solve it must be on the page?

 

Basically it is the difference between a Mystery and a Multi... 

You will find the data for a Multi on the terrain, while with a Mystery you should find the solution at home, with the cache page, not necessarily on the location... also the published coordinates are different between both type of caches. The published coordinates of a Multi are (most of the times) the 1st stage, but they may by purely ignored to solve a Mystery... even if sometimes the final coordinates are the same.

Edited July 29, 2020 by RuideAlmeida

[CasinoKai]

ok I get that but again, to be a Mystery, does the "solution" HAVE to be on the cache page as the requirement implies?

[+Lynx Humble]

5 minutes ago, CasinoKai said:

ok I get that but again, to be a Mystery, does the "solution" HAVE to be on the cache page as the requirement implies?

If Low D Yes

If Higher D No

 

But according to your profile you have found no mystery cache so I would strongly suggest you to find some before thinking hidding one.

[+niraD]

7 minutes ago, CasinoKai said:

ok I get that but again, to be a Mystery, does the "solution" HAVE to be on the cache page as the requirement implies?

The point is that the cache page has to provide the puzzle. You can't provide the puzzle to people who track you down at an event, or anything like that.

 

Solving the puzzle may require information or tools or other resources that are not on the cache page, but the cache page itself has to provide the puzzle.

[CasinoKai]

1 minute ago, niraD said:

The point is that the cache page has to provide the puzzle. You can't provide the puzzle to people who track you down at an event, or anything like that.

 

Solving the puzzle may require information or tools or other resources that are not on the cache page, but the cache page itself has to provide the puzzle.

 Thank you NiraD, thats what I was asking

[+HoochDog]

16 hours ago, niraD said:

The point is that the cache page has to provide the puzzle. You can't provide the puzzle to people who track you down at an event, or anything like that.

 

Solving the puzzle may require information or tools or other resources that are not on the cache page, but the cache page itself has to provide the puzzle.

Yes and no.  I’ve encountered puzzles where the CO has put the puzzle information on his/her own website and the cache page contains a link to that website with a warning that you are navigating to a site not hosted by Groundspeak. So... does the cache listing have everything you need to solve the mystery? Yes... a link to the puzzle. Does the cache page itself contain the puzzle? No.

 

Side note, I strongly  recommend following Lynx advice. Why not find a few mystery caches first. This will help you better understand them and the experience and knowledge will improve your hide. 

 

[+niraD]

2 minutes ago, HoochDog said:

Yes and no.  I’ve encountered puzzles where the CO has put the puzzle information on his/her own website and the cache page contains a link to that website with a warning that you are navigating to a site not hosted by Groundspeak. So... does the cache listing have everything you need to solve the mystery? Yes... a link to the puzzle. Does the cache page itself contain the puzzle? No.

Yeah, and even before Groundspeak started enforcing warnings about such things, there were puzzles that linked to other sites. I remember one that was a form of online scavenger hunt, where a public profile on one site led to a public profile on another site, which led to a public profile on another site, and so on. A couple dozen public profiles later, and you finally got the solution.

 

And then there are multi-stage puzzle caches where the solution takes you to a field puzzle, which takes you to another field puzzle, and so on.

 

I don't think the requirement is phrased very well in the guidelines. I think a better understanding would be that the cache page is generally the starting point for a puzzle cache, the way that the posted coordinates are generally the starting point for a multi-cache. But there are exceptions and regional variations, so it's hard to nail down what is really, REALLY required.