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Hide A Geocache map


kozayagi

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I've never understood why the map that tells you what areas are unavailable for a cache site doesn't have a satellite view option. I mean - I always need to have Google Maps open on the side and try and keep them in sync. I don't understand why?

 

The red circles are sometimes on green spaces, and other times green spaces are available. But are those trees? Fields?

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The planning map is a modified version of the Search and Browse maps. It's showing 528ft (161m) circles around publicly visible coords of published physical caches. Mostly it offers less info than a Search map. It offers more info only when  a staged cache has visible waypoints for physical stages (rare, but this does occur).

 

Even if indicated as physical, it won't show posted of Mystery (typically all Challenges) or any LBH. 

 

If you have set of coords you're considering, rather than plug it into the planning map, plug it into Search then use the map link. You can get a variety of maps there.  

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8 minutes ago, RuideAlmeida said:

 

Because it would be easier to find the final coordinates.

If I can't find the final coordinates of a Challenge or tradi LBH I think I should submit myself to the Muggle registration commission. Not showing them for normal mysterys and mystery/multi LBH is logical. But my question was, why are they not shown in the case of physical posted coordinates just because of the cachetype.

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@JakeDot  On any Mystery, without a human reading the page, the safest bet seems to be i  don't show it.  Also, older Mystery don't necessarily follow current standards. On LBH, because the underlying type might be Mystery. So both are excluded.  

 

I think it's time to change that about the planning map, ie, go ahead show the posted of Mystery and LBH where indicated as physical.  Requiring that info at time of submitting for publication is now a ways back in time. The number of hides without is pretty small these days.

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Mystery caches are a cancer in this regard. I have zero interest in them, so I don't find them, but they prevent you from planning where you'll hide a cache because the website doesn't warn you of their proximity to your submitted cache. Either they need to show the location on the planning map, have the submission process warn you when inputting your cords, or have them be exempt from the distance rule. 

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28 minutes ago, Picard102 said:

Mystery caches are a cancer in this regard. I have zero interest in them, so I don't find them, but they prevent you from planning where you'll hide a cache because the website doesn't warn you of their proximity to your submitted cache. Either they need to show the location on the planning map, have the submission process warn you when inputting your cords, or have them be exempt from the distance rule. 

 

Your proposed solutions would spoil the locations for hundreds of thousands of Mystery Caches, Multi-Caches, Letterbox Hybrid Caches and Wherigo Caches.  To you, caches with hidden waypoints might be a "cancer" but to others, one or more of these cache types are their favorites.

 

Read the posts above for a more targeted solution (showing caches where the final location is equal to the posted coordinates) that keeps hidden waypoints safe from spoiling until a geocacher solves the puzzle, visits the stages of the Multi, etc.

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1 hour ago, Keystone said:

Your proposed solutions would spoil the locations for hundreds of thousands of Mystery Caches, Multi-Caches, Letterbox Hybrid Caches and Wherigo Caches.  To you, caches with hidden waypoints might be a "cancer" but to others, one or more of these cache types are their favorites.

 

It would be extremely helpful though if the planning map would show the locations of mystery caches you've solved and found, using your corrected coordinates for those. We're told to avoid conflicts with mysteries and multis by going out and solving/finding them, but after they're found their locations can't be viewed on any of the site maps as they all revert to the listed coordinates.

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1 hour ago, Keystone said:

 

Your proposed solutions would spoil the locations for hundreds of thousands of Mystery Caches, Multi-Caches, Letterbox Hybrid Caches and Wherigo Caches.  To you, caches with hidden waypoints might be a "cancer" but to others, one or more of these cache types are their favorites.

 

Read the posts above for a more targeted solution (showing caches where the final location is equal to the posted coordinates) that keeps hidden waypoints safe from spoiling until a geocacher solves the puzzle, visits the stages of the Multi, etc.

 

Then make them exempt from the saturation rule.

If your favourite type of cache is one of these, then you wouldn't be going to the planning map to cheat. For those who don't do them, it's an impediment in some urban areas, and seeing it on the planner map only helps them participate. 

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22 minutes ago, Picard102 said:

 

Then make them exempt from the saturation rule.

Yeah, because hiding a traditional cache on top of a mystery/puzzle final* would work really well. Or vice versa, hiding a mystery/puzzle final* on top of a traditional cache.

 

* or a multi-cache final, or a letterbox hybrid final, or a Wherigo final, etc.

 

No. The saturation guidelines apply to ALL physical waypoints.

 

22 minutes ago, Picard102 said:

If your favourite type of cache is one of these, then you wouldn't be going to the planning map to cheat. For those who don't do them, it's an impediment in some urban areas, and seeing it on the planner map only helps them participate. 

Once upon a time, the saturation guideline actually explained that its purpose was "to encourage you to seek out new places to hide caches rather than putting them in areas where caches already exist, and to limit the number of caches hidden in a particular area".

 

If the only way you can find a place to hide a cache is to look for holes in the saturation map, then perhaps there are enough caches in that area. (This is true for many urban and suburban areas.) Go find a new place to hide caches, rather than trying to further saturate an area where caches already exist.

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2 hours ago, niraD said:

Once upon a time, the saturation guideline actually explained that its purpose was "to encourage you to seek out new places to hide caches rather than putting them in areas where caches already exist, and to limit the number of caches hidden in a particular area"

 

Guess that time has past with the number of caches laid out in specific patterns and trails.

Making a tool to help ensure caches are not too close together that does not contain all the data is a broken tool.

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14 minutes ago, Picard102 said:

Making a tool to help ensure caches are not too close together that does not contain all the data is a broken tool.

Making a tool that would spoil the locations for hundreds of thousands of mystery/puzzle caches, multi-caches, letterbox hybrids, and Wherigo caches would be a broken tool.

 

We seem to be at an impasse. It's a good thing that there's an existing solution to the saturation issue, documented in the Help Center.

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10 hours ago, niraD said:

If the only way you can find a place to hide a cache is to look for holes in the saturation map, then perhaps there are enough caches in that area. (This is true for many urban and suburban areas.) Go find a new place to hide caches, rather than trying to further saturate an area where caches already exist.

 

The spot where I got badly caught out by this (I had to archive my proposed multi as it was specific to the hilltop location) didn't look terribly saturated.

 

Map.jpg.1c46b9bd93fcabfc512c40acc9af5dca.jpg

 

Obviously I checked cache A, which was a puzzle I'd solved and found, but its final is well away of my proposed locations. It was the only other cache on the map, the one marked B, that caught me out. It was one I'd solved and found in 2015 but, because it only shows on the map as a smiley at its bogus coordinates, it didn't even register that it might be problematic. Had I not found it and it had been a ? on the map instead, I might have checked more closely.

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37 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

It was the only other cache on the map, the one marked B, that caught me out. It was one I'd solved and found in 2015 but, because it only shows on the map as a smiley at its bogus coordinates, it didn't even register that it might be problematic. Had I not found it and it had been a ? on the map instead, I might have checked more closely.

Or if you had solved it, but not found it, then it would have appeared at its actual location.

 

Or if Groundspeak would always show mystery/puzzle caches at the solved coordinates that you yourself have entered, there would be no risk of spoiling mystery/puzzle caches, and there would be a lot of benefit (not just to those planning a new hide). This has been requested many times. Maybe once all the crufty legacy code has been refactored, Groundspeak will actually implement it.

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44 minutes ago, niraD said:

Or if you had solved it, but not found it, then it would have appeared at its actual location.

 

Yep. Maybe the lesson here is that, if you want to be a CO, you should solve as many of the puzzles as you can around the areas you'll likely be hiding but don't go out and find them, or if you do, just sign the logbook but don't log the finds online.

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4 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Yep. Maybe the lesson here is that, if you want to be a CO, you should solve as many of the puzzles as you can around the areas you'll likely be hiding but don't go out and find them, or if you do, just sign the logbook but don't log the finds online.

:sad:

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A local cacher has blanketed a nearby town with puzzles/multis, and it is nearly impossible to hide anything in town without running up against a stage or a final.  I do enjoy solving puzzles, but I have a long way to go to in this town! We've solved and found a few, and I don't even consider trying to hide something here - it's HIS town!  The puzzles are clever, and some are obvious (to me), others are quite challenging.  

No, I  don't want final locations shown on the proximity map; I'll do the work to solve and find them, or find a location that is well away from all of this!  I do agree (and have said in other threads on this forum) that a toggle to show solved/posted locations would be very helpful.

 

image.thumb.png.736544b99be625f23423a3f52b9183f1.png

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On 10/19/2022 at 4:41 AM, barefootjeff said:

 

Yep. Maybe the lesson here is that, if you want to be a CO, you should solve as many of the puzzles as you can around the areas you'll likely be hiding but don't go out and find them, or if you do, just sign the logbook but don't log the finds online.

 

Or that a subset of geocaching is more important than the core game the app is designed around, and maybe geocaching isn't something to continue with at all. 

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10 minutes ago, Picard102 said:
On 10/19/2022 at 7:41 PM, barefootjeff said:

 

Yep. Maybe the lesson here is that, if you want to be a CO, you should solve as many of the puzzles as you can around the areas you'll likely be hiding but don't go out and find them, or if you do, just sign the logbook but don't log the finds online.

 

Or that a subset of geocaching is more important than the core game the app is designed around, and maybe geocaching isn't something to continue with at all. 

 

Sorry but you have me scratching my head as I don't see what this has to do with "the app" at all. The problem I have is that none of the maps on the website show found mysteries/multis at their corrected coordinates, instead reverting to their listed coordinates once the find is logged online. It seems being able to gaze upon the glory of completed geoart is more important to the core game than placing caches.

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