Create a bonus cache for an existing lab

[+psychpineapple]

Hey everyone,

I got rewarded a second lab and I want to create a bonus cache. The area that I am thinking of for my second one is a nice area and it is pretty saturated with other caches. I was thinking of making one for my first lab. I would make a bonus cache, then message all the people that have found it with the coords/clues so that they can find the bonus cache. Is that allowed? I tried to search for a topic and couldn't find one. Thanks!

[+Max and 99]

19 minutes ago, psychpineapple said:

Hey everyone,

I got rewarded a second lab and I want to create a bonus cache. The area that I am thinking of for my second one is a nice area and it is pretty saturated with other caches. I was thinking of making one for my first lab. I would make a bonus cache, then message all the people that have found it with the coords/clues so that they can find the bonus cache. Is that allowed? I tried to search for a topic and couldn't find one. Thanks!

As far as I know it's allowed! 

but I'm a little confused about the connection between your second Adventure lab and your first Adventure lab. I hope I understand correctly:  you're just asking if you can create a bonus cache for an adventure lab that went live quite a while ago? Yes. 

[+ecanderson]

Not sure it's allowed that there be required interaction with the CO in order to find any 'real' cache, including an AL bonus.

 

The actual rule is

 

No contact required

• Caches cannot require geocachers to contact the cache owner or anyone else.

but it may also be applied in reverse by reviewers.

 

[+Max and 99]

Maybe I did misunderstand. I was thinking you would add the Bonus Cache info to the AL, and as a courtesy, contacting those who had completed it to let them know there's a bonus cache? Although in my opinion if they see the bonus cache published they're going to go to the adventure lab to see updated journals with the clues.

In this scenario there'd be no reason for anyone to have to contact you to solve it.

Edited November 18, 2020 by Max and 99

[+psychpineapple]

Yes Max and 99, that is what I am thinking. I already have an adventure lab that went live months ago. I would contact the finders to let them know, since it doesn't seem fair for them to not be able to do the bonus since they did it before. 

[+GeoElmo6000]

 

40 minutes ago, psychpineapple said:

Yes Max and 99, that is what I am thinking. I already have an adventure lab that went live months ago. I would contact the finders to let them know, since it doesn't seem fair for them to not be able to do the bonus since they did it before. 

 

You shouldn't have to message anyone.  If you update the Location completion message for each location (or however many you need) with the clues, the previous finders can see that when they bring up the completed Adventure in their apps.  They show up as Journal entries and those don't go away when you complete an Adventure.

 

So, your bonus cache is published, a previous finder looks at that Adventure's entries, and sees that now there are bonus cache location clues.

 

I'm not 100% on this so please double check, but I'm pretty sure this should work.

[+IceColdUK]

2 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

You shouldn't have to message anyone.

I’m assuming the message is simply to alert previous finders of the AL that there is now a bonus cache ‘attached’.  Not everyone has (PM) notifications set up, so I think that’s a nice touch.

 

5 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

If you update the Location completion message for each location (or however many you need) with the clues, the previous finders can see that when they bring up the completed Adventure in their apps.  They show up as Journal entries and those don't go away when you complete an Adventure.

I’m fairly sure this is the case, but definitely worth checking.  You might want to let those previous finders know in your message, just to make it clear they don’t have to do the AL again.

[+GeoElmo6000]

1 hour ago, IceColdUK said:

I’m assuming the message is simply to alert previous finders of the AL that there is now a bonus cache ‘attached’.  Not everyone has (PM) notifications set up, so I think that’s a nice touch.

 

Well the OP can only tell the first 10 finders sadly.

[+IceColdUK]

34 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

 

Well the OP can only tell the first 10 finders sadly.

 

They can at least notify all of those that completed the adventure and left a review.  Tbh, if a cacher didn't leave a review, do they deserve to be alerted to the bonus?  ?

Edited November 18, 2020 by IceColdUK

[+CAVinoGal]

2 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

Well the OP can only tell the first 10 finders sadly.

As IceColdUK pointed out, they can notify the first 10 finders, and also anyone after that who left a review.  It just means looking at the activity in the app to see who left a review.  

 

2 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

Tbh, if a cacher didn't leave a review, do they deserve to be alerted to the bonus?

If a cacher doesn't leave a review, I have no way of knowing they did my Lab.  My lab has 16 ratings, 15 logs, and 19 completions.  Only one of the first 10 completions did not leave a log; so I know there are 3 more who have completed it but did not leave a log, and I have no idea who they are!  

 

5 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

I’m assuming the message is simply to alert previous finders of the AL that there is now a bonus cache ‘attached’.  Not everyone has (PM) notifications set up, so I think that’s a nice touch.

I agree with this - a courtesty extended to those who left a log so the AL Owner is aware they completed the Lab.

[+Max and 99]

Something to consider is giving them a little heads up: Hey, just wanted to let you know since you completed my Adventure Lab that I have submitted a bonus cache. That way they know to watch for it. Kind of gives an even footing for non-premium members who may not get the notification when it's published. Just an idea

 

[+IceColdUK]

On 11/18/2020 at 8:31 PM, CAVinoGal said:

If a cacher doesn't leave a review, I have no way of knowing they did my Lab.  My lab has 16 ratings, 15 logs, and 19 completions.  Only one of the first 10 completions did not leave a log; so I know there are 3 more who have completed it but did not leave a log, and I have no idea who they are! 

 

Something I learned on Facebook...  Go to the Main Page for your Adventure - the URL will begin 'https://labs.geocaching.com/builder/adventures/details/'.  Replace 'details' with 'StatisticsPlayer', et voila: a CSV file with full stats for your Adventure!

[+CAVinoGal]

7 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Something I learned on Facebook...  Go to the Main Page for your Adventure - the URL will begin 'https://labs.geocaching.com/builder/adventures/details/'.  Replace 'details' with 'StatisticsPlayer', et voila: a CSV file with full stats for your Adventure!

 

That's the same download I get when I click on the "Download Completion Statistics" button at the bottom left of the Leaderboard.  And by a careful comparison of the list of names, YES!  I can figure out the discrepancy between the lab completions and stage completions - I have  an odd number of stages completed that shows 2 people completed one stage, but that's it.  Perhaps they leave one stage for a count of 1 (as Max and 99 does?)  Or they never finished the lab for some reason.  

[+sernikk]

 

11 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Something I learned on Facebook...  Go to the Main Page for your Adventure - the URL will begin 'https://labs.geocaching.com/builder/adventures/details/'.  Replace 'details' with 'StatisticsPlayer', et voila: a CSV file with full stats for your Adventure!

 

Very helpful, thank you!

 

3 hours ago, CAVinoGal said:

 

That's the same download I get when I click on the "Download Completion Statistics" button at the bottom left of the Leaderboard.  And by a careful comparison of the list of names, YES!  I can figure out the discrepancy between the lab completions and stage completions - I have  an odd number of stages completed that shows 2 people completed one stage, but that's it.  Perhaps they leave one stage for a count of 1 (as Max and 99 does?)  Or they never finished the lab for some reason.  

 

For me they are definitely not the same as the stats from "Download Completion Statistics". Official stats are basically not showing anything.

[+ecanderson]

17 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Something I learned on Facebook...  Go to the Main Page for your Adventure - the URL will begin 'https://labs.geocaching.com/builder/adventures/details/'.  Replace 'details' with 'StatisticsPlayer', et voila: a CSV file with full stats for your Adventure!

Slick.  Bookmarked!  Thanks for that.  Really interesting to sort the list by DateCompletedUtc / Username  (there's time hiding in the DateCompltedUtc column) to observe the order in which people have chosen to run my series (it's asequential).

I'm seeing enough commonality in that to where I may choose to reorder the series in the way that the majority are finding them, though I guess it depends upon their direction of approach to/in town. 

 

It would be really swell if the developers would move their butts over HERE to the official corporate forum instead of asking us to use some 3rd party site to conduct their business.  I'm surprised that GCHQ didn't mandate that from the beginning.  What's the world coming to?

 

(We don't need no steeeenking Facebook!)

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by ecanderson

[+CAVinoGal]

19 hours ago, sernikk said:

For me they are definitely not the same as the stats from "Download Completion Statistics". Official stats are basically not showing anything.

And my apologies to IceColdUK - I just downloaded both sets again this morning and they are definitely not the same.  It seems I could see all the stage details at one time, and when I downloaded yesterday I got the same thing - all the stages, times, who logged when, etc.  Today all I see is #'s of completions for each stage.

 

That helps me narrow down which stages may have finders who didn't complete the lab; but the details in IceColdUK's link are very helpful.  Thank you for that!