Incorrect Navigate button help text for challenge caches

[+mustakorppi]

Tapping the Navigate button on a mystery cache without solved coordinates displays a text warning the user not to forget to solve the mystery, even if the mystery has the challenge cache attribute.

[+IceColdUK]

10 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

Tapping the Navigate button on a mystery cache without solved coordinates displays a text warning the user not to forget to solve the mystery, even if the mystery has the challenge cache attribute.

Challenge caches aren’t all at the posted coords.  (This has only been mandatory for post-moratorium challenges.)

[+Max and 99]

12 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

Tapping the Navigate button on a mystery cache without solved coordinates displays a text warning the user not to forget to solve the mystery, even if the mystery has the challenge cache attribute.

It's not uncommon in my area for Challenge Caches to not be at the posted coordinates. A reminder of this could be helpful to someone looking for that final container. The wording could be confusing, but I think the reminder is a good idea..

 

From the help center:

 

The container must be placed at coordinates on the cache page, either as posted coordinates, or as a visible final waypoint.

[+Tungstène]

There is a trick I often use: did you know that you can update the coordinates with the same value that the original ones?

[+Max and 99]

18 minutes ago, Tungstène said:

There is a trick I often use: did you know that you can update the coordinates with the same value that the original ones?

You can, but can you help me understand a circumstance when you'd want to? 

[+Tungstène]

14 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

You can, but can you help me understand a circumstance when you'd want to? 

 

Yes, of course.

 

This (below) is a map of Paris, France where I go a few days yearly. When I'm there I don't try to solve mysteries in the field but if I see a puzzle piece icon I know there is something there that I can go and look for (either a solved mystery or a challenge cache).

 

[+Max and 99]

10 minutes ago, Tungstène said:

Yes, of course.

 

This (below) is a map of Paris, France where I go a few days yearly. When I'm there I don't try to solve mysteries in the field but if I see a puzzle piece icon I know there is something there that I can go and look for (either a solved mystery or a challenge cache).

I think I understand. If the challenge cache is at the posted coordinates then you update the correct coordinates to the posted coordinates, and when you see that icon you know there's nothing to solve, and you can navigate right to the challenge. I think I got that right.

When a challenge cache is not at the posted coordinates I can still use that same method so I can navigate right to the correct coords and not have to remember to check for a separate waypoint. ?

[+Tungstène]

1 minute ago, Max and 99 said:

I think I understand. If the challenge cache is at the posted coordinates then you update the correct coordinates to the posted coordinates, and when you see that icon you know there's nothing to solve, and you can navigate right to the challenge. I think I got that right.

When a challenge cache is not at the posted coordinates I can still use that same method so I can navigate right to the correct coords and not have to remember to check for a separate waypoint. ?

 

Exactly!

[+IceColdUK]

2 hours ago, Tungstène said:

 

Exactly!

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work on the iPhone app. ?

 

 

 (Unless it’s been fixed since I last checked...)

[+mustakorppi]

13 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

Challenge caches aren’t all at the posted coords.  (This has only been mandatory for post-moratorium challenges.)

I would err on the side of the current rules with the newbie features. 

 

But mostly I just hope that having more issues related to solved coordinates on the iPhone app will encourage a developer to look in that direction   

[+Tungstène]

5 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work on the iPhone app.

Oops! Sorry! But it should work if you navigate to the geocaching.com website with a Web browser, shouldn't it?

[+Max and 99]

Does it work if you change one digit, for challenge caches that are at the posted coordinates?

[+dprovan]

12 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

You can, but can you help me understand a circumstance when you'd want to? 

Just to simplify Tungstène explanation: I set the personal coordinates to the posted coordinates in order to turn the icon on the map into what I think of as the "solved" icon since satisfied challenges are conceptually identical to solved puzzles: not only do I know this is where the cache actually is, but there's a motive to find that cache above others.

 

Although a rare case, "changing" the coordinates to the same coordinates is even more logical for puzzle caches that turn out to be at the posted coordinates after all.

 

On topic: I'm not sure what the logic is behind the warning to begin with. What are they worried people are doing other than solving the puzzle? I don't see the danger of letting someone update the coordinates no matter why they're doing it. So, consequently, I don't see any justification for making the warning appear or not appear based on something as subtle as an attribute. That just takes an unnecessary warning and makes it that much harder to understand.

[+mustakorppi]

1 hour ago, dprovan said:

On topic: I'm not sure what the logic is behind the warning to begin with.

Consider people who’ve read an article about geocaching and just downloaded the app. People who have no idea what that question mark icon even means. That’s who all the tips and warnings are for.
 

Really the app could have a way more guided new cacher experience, but also a way for everyone else to get straight to business. Reinstalling the app is really quite an annoying as it is.

[+Max and 99]

5 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

Consider people who’ve read an article about geocaching and just downloaded the app. People who have no idea what that question mark icon even means. That’s who all the tips and warnings are for.

I have seen that quite often lately!

Edit to clarify: I've seen an increase lately of newbies who log a DNF on a puzzle geocache, not realizing that they need to solve the puzzle first in order to know where the final cache is. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Max and 99

[+IceColdUK]

9 hours ago, Tungstène said:

Oops! Sorry! But it should work if you navigate to the geocaching.com website with a Web browser, shouldn't it?

Yes, it works on the website and on the Android app, but not on the iPhone. ?

 

8 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Does it work if you change one digit, for challenge caches that are at the posted coordinates?

Yes.  I have done this, but it still irks! ?

[+dprovan]

4 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

Consider people who’ve read an article about geocaching and just downloaded the app. People who have no idea what that question mark icon even means. That’s who all the tips and warnings are for.
 

Really the app could have a way more guided new cacher experience, but also a way for everyone else to get straight to business. Reinstalling the app is really quite an annoying as it is.

OK. I wouldn't think of those people publishing caches to begin with, and if even they did, I would expect the other problems with the cache to overwhelm that one problem that when they go to adjust their wrong coordinates, they'd do it wrong. For one thing, I wouldn't expect them to figure out that their original coordinates were wrong, and if they did, I wouldn't expect their update to be so much better that it would make a big deal whether they did it right. But I guess I can see someone thinking that one quirk would be a big deal to help COs that don't know what they're doing.