Challenge cache publishing steps

[+remman]

I have published a couple  of Challenge caches and am thinking of publishing more. I feel strange asking this question, as I should know, but I have forgotten the correct order of the steps to publishing a Challenge cache. After I check for an available location, do I approach the reviewer next, or project gc, for the checker? Any help would be appreciated. 

[+Hügh]

Either order works.

 

Some start by approaching their local Community Volunteer Reviewer(s) to determine if a particular idea is publishable: many of the guidelines (appeal, similarity to existing challenges in the region, etc.) can only really be applied by a local Reviewer. However, others opt to go to the Project-GC Forums and request a Challenge Checker first. The volunteers there will indicate if there's any particular reason you might want to speak with your Community Volunteer Reviewer(s); for instance, if your challenge is in a grey area where it may or may not meet guidelines.

 

You then insert the Challenge Checker onto your listing and submit it for review, as with any other geocache.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Hügh
Re-word a little.

[+CCFwasG]

Bumping this topic because it's very helpful. So thank you to @Hügh for the super reply. I spent a while searching "challenge[s]" and of course the "wheel" is getting in the way of results here! Cheers 

[+Hügh]

No problem, @CCFwasG.

 

You may also find the "READ FIRST" post on the Project-GC Forums helpful: https://project-gc.com/forum/read?8,8362

[+DolphinTiger56]

On 6/6/2023 at 5:49 AM, remman said:

I have published a couple  of Challenge caches and am thinking of publishing more. I feel strange asking this question, as I should know, but I have forgotten the correct order of the steps to publishing a Challenge cache. After I check for an available location, do I approach the reviewer next, or project gc, for the checker? Any help would be appreciated. 

Either is fine, but I recommend the checker first, then the reviewer, because that way it saves them time.

[+CCFwasG]

I sent my ideas to a reviewer and they were mostly no-go, but he sent this link which I hadn't found:
https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=127&pgid=206

It's an easy list of what works and what to do, including the suggestion to use Project GC, FYI @remman

And of course @Hügh is right about using the forum on Project GC, where you can then get your online checker done by lovely volunteers (including him, I think?? Or is it your website Hugh?)

So I came up with another idea but I wish some of my original thoughts worked. If anyone wants to suggest how I could do an allowable challenge, themed for Halloween/Dia de los Muertos that would be great! No longer can one use cache names in challenges. 

Edit to add: small lightbulb idea: could I say that cacher would have to have a minimum of a certain number of caches found on 10/31 and 11/1 of any year? Because the calendar is supposed to be ok. Or maybe find one each of caches whose placed date is 10/31 and 11/1?

Edited October 4, 2023 by CCFwasG

[+Max and 99]

That's the same link from post # 2.

 

Still thinking but so far all I found was a Halloween themed challenge geocache whose criteria is not allowed under the current guidelines. 

___

The only idea I've come up with is finding (a hundred) geocaches on dates in October.

Or 1,0 31 caches in any October. You'd have to verify that you and several others would qualify. 

You could put a Halloween image on the page.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Max and 99

[+Hügh]

1 hour ago, CCFwasG said:

(including him, I think?? Or is it your website Hugh?)

 

I don't own Project-GC (that would be magma1447) but I am a fairly active volunteer there. Fun fact: I am the checker volunteer with the third-greatest number of checkers created (1,752 checkers out of 60,808 total checkers).

 

1 hour ago, CCFwasG said:

could I say that cacher would have to have a minimum of a certain number of caches found on 10/31 and 11/1 of any year?

 

I would imagine no. To pull from the template system I have on P-GC:

 

Quote

 I suspect that your local Community Volunteer Reviewer will deny this Challenge on review, citing this guideline:

 

Quote

NOT ACCEPTABLE

Requiring more than one find on any day or calendar date, even if cumulative. Example: find 5 caches for every date of the Finds for Each Day of the Year grid.

 

Accordingly, I would ask that you discuss with your local Community Volunteer Reviewer before we proceed with the creation of a Challenge Checker for your cache.

 

...of course, I am not a reviewer, so the call on publishability is not mine to make. So do what my blurb there says: send your local reviewer an email and/or draft cache listing and ask

Edited October 4, 2023 by Hügh

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, CCFwasG said:

Edit to add: small lightbulb idea: could I say that cacher would have to have a minimum of a certain number of caches found on 10/31 and 11/1 of any year?

You can require a number of finds in the month of October and then just put a Halloween image on the page?

[+CCFwasG]

12 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

That's the same link from post # 2.

 

I only noticed after that Hugh had embedded the link so I missed it in a quick read. Oops! Thanks 
 

Edited October 4, 2023 by CCFwasG

[+CCFwasG]

11 hours ago, Hügh said:

"could I say that cacher would have to have a minimum of a certain number of caches found on 10/31 and 11/1 of any year?"
 

I would imagine no. To pull from the template system I have on P-GC:

 

 

Hmmm I can't pull quotes within quotes. 
The guidelines I was sent are clear that you can use the calendar. So requiring finds on a calendar date seems pretty straightforward - what am I missing there??
(I tried the link in reply but it only took me to the topic of the whole set of guidelines.)
 

From the link I included: "Challenge cache criteria must come from information broadly available on Geocaching.com such as on the statistics page, cache placement dates,"

Cache placement dates = check. Statistics includes find dates = check. So, again, sorry if I'm being dense but these seem like acceptable criteria ? (Just in case I will also ask the reviewer.) Edit for clarification: seems ok if you only require one for each date (placed dates and found dates). 

According to the guidelines it doesn't look as if you can't require more than one find on certain dates or placed dates - just that the info be available via stats. But maybe they're just not clear enough?

Edited October 4, 2023 by CCFwasG
clarification

[+Hügh]

1 hour ago, CCFwasG said:

Edit for clarification: seems ok if you only require one for each date (placed dates and found dates). 

 

Requiring more than one for a particular hidden date should be okay. More than one for a particular found date is probably not. That would be "more than one find on any day or calendar date."

 

For instance, a while ago, we made a checker for "25 finds on Christmas day" but ultimately had to re-do it because the player's reviewer denied it. Off the top of my head, I think it was changed to "25 finds on caches hidden on Christmas day".

[Keystone]

1 hour ago, CCFwasG said:

But maybe they're just not clear enough?

 

The Geocache Hiding Guidelines say "Official guidelines to hide a challenge cache are located in the Help Center."  The linked Help Center article says, in the "Not Acceptable" column under item 9, "Time Limited":  "Requiring more than one find on any day or calendar date, even if cumulative."

 

Could you please explain what you find to be unclear in this statement?

 

Also, questions about individual challenge ideas are best asked in the project-gc challenge checker forum, in a dialogue with your Community Volunteer Reviewer, or in a separate thread here in the Geocaching Forums.  While we can continue to discuss CCFwasG's question, others are advised to remain on-topic to this thread, which is about the process of setting up a challenge cache.

[+CCFwasG]

On 10/4/2023 at 11:48 AM, Keystone said:

 

Could you please explain what you find to be unclear in this statement?

 

 

Nothing, as I said " seems ok if you only require one for each date (placed dates and found dates)" 

that was found in my "edit for clarification". ... But I do think the way it is written is less than easy to understand. Of course YMMV!

Edited October 11, 2023 by CCFwasG