PLEASE Bring BACK ability to POST a general NOTE when creating a new cache page.

[+Stamp My Art]

When GS made a recent update it affected the way you create a cache page eliminating the ability to post a NON-reviewer note.

 

Reasons for the request:

1. Often times people will use the NOTE to place a trackable in the cache (that way they don't forget to log it when the cache actually publishes. A good way of keeping trackables moving and placing into a cache that is fresh and going to get activity.

2. Puzzle makers sometimes use it to make puzzles or notes that apply to the puzzle

3. Sometimes it can be used to tell the FTF extra information, but not necessary for future finders once it becomes buried in more logs

4. Sometimes it's a way to hide additional hints (the hint section isn't big enough or too much text would become confusing and the note section can be numbered or written in sentence form more clearly)

 

There might be other ways it was used, but those are some of the ways I have seen it used and used it myself. I was disappointed to see this feature removed. I wonder if I am the only one?

 

I would like to see it returned. Thank you.

[+GeoTrekker26]

Are you not able to post a note after the cache is posted?

[+Viajero Perdido]

I'm guessing this was a conscious decision to dumb it down for newbies, at the expense of more nuanced uses, as above.  A trend imported from the app?

 

Given you need to explain to the reviewer how puzzles are solved, putting that info in a standard Note log (oops) would reveal a spoiler because regular notes are (were) visible after publishing.

[+Stamp My Art]

2 hours ago, GeoTrekker26 said:

Are you not able to post a note after the cache is posted?

Defeats the purpose of intended use. If it's part of a puzzle, then you need it to be there before it publishes. If it's a trackable that you want to make sure you log and it posts as soon as cache publishes so that the FTF know there is a trackable (maybe you didn't see the notification come through as quick as FTF) then those reasons need to be addressed for it publishing in a note BEFORE not after it publishes.

[+kunarion]

2 hours ago, Stamp My Art said:

1. Often times people will use the NOTE to place a trackable in the cache (that way they don't forget to log it when the cache actually publishes. A good way of keeping trackables moving and placing into a cache that is fresh and going to get activity.

 

I remember that functionality.  I don't remember what exactly happened when you do that and it's an unpublished cache... wasn't it then "Dropped" in an invisible place?  Or it showed the cache code (revealing that a new cache is coming), yet inaccessible?  Whatever, I could never do that, because I tend to submit caches that are wrong.  A TB inside a cache that can never exist is a problem.

 

But everyone else seemed to Drop TBs just fine, so I can see the feature had value.

 

Edited January 17 by kunarion

[+Stamp My Art]

1 hour ago, Viajero Perdido said:

I'm guessing this was a conscious decision to dumb it down for newbies, at the expense of more nuanced uses, as above.  A trend imported from the app?

 

Given you need to explain to the reviewer how puzzles are solved, putting that info in a standard Note log (oops) would reveal a spoiler because regular notes are (were) visible after publishing.

Could be a probability considering some of the same questions that show up over and over again, "why use a GPS instead of a phone" hasn't that been answered a 100 times in a 100 ways, hahah, or the what do I do when I find it questions, and the many other questions that seem to be over and over instead of just reading the actual website for "how to play" or the 100 other people's questions that asked the same thing. Lazy and not paying attention has ruined it for the ones who "know how to play" or know how to read. It's disappointing and if it's the reason, then maybe instead of removing it, they should have made it come up with an alert. It already did say it would publish, but maybe a "proceed" alert so that would fix it. It doesn't just affect the puzzle person if you use it for placing trackables that would happen on all cache types.