Quietest time to publish - sequencing GC codes

[+CheekyBrit]

Have you ever wanted to publish a series of geocaches, whether it be a GeoArt, or perhaps along a trail, where you want the GC codes similar or even in a sequence? For example:

GC9TJ1A

GC9TJ1B

GC9TJ1C

GC9TJ1E

GC9TJ1F

GC9TJ1H

GC9TJ1J

 

Those are some of mine in a GeoArt that isn't worth your time. I know certain letters are not included in our beloved GC codes, namely "L, O, U, I, & S". But barring those, I have never been able to get an uninterrupted sequence of GC codes because somewhere else in the world a lovely person is adding to the game board as well (so glad they do). 

But I'm guessing there are ebbs and flows of when more or fewer people are starting cache pages and using the next GC code in the queue. If you could figure out that time, you could publish a big sequence of GC codes in order and it would be so satisfying. You can go quicker, of course, whipping out a new cache page in 20 seconds or so and then updating the pages later. But when do you think is the quietest time to publish? It isn't as simple as just night time since we have big geocaching communities in time zones around the world. 

 

My guess is somewhere around 6AM GMT where Americans are mostly going to sleep, Europeans are just waking up, and Australians are still busy battling the relentless vegemite hoards.
What do you think?

[+barefootjeff]

25 minutes ago, CheekyBrit said:

My guess is somewhere around 6AM GMT

 

Last week I created 5 cache pages in fairly quick succession for a new series. I'm not sure of the time but it was probably late morning here, so the early hours UTC. I wasn't trying to get consecutive GC codes and by the time I worked through enough of the cache creation steps to get a GC code, it was probably ten or fifteen minutes between each one and likely a fair bit longer between the first and second. The GC codes I ended up with are GCAY66C, GCAY69A, GCAY6A1, GCAY6AC and GCAY6AJ.

 

[+Bear and Ragged]

15 hours ago, CheekyBrit said:

But when do you think is the quietest time to publish?

Isn't the GC number generated when the page is created?

ie. Start a cache page, it has a GC number there already? (Long time since I set a cache!)

Doesn't matter when it gets Published by a Reviewer.

[+Hügh]

15 hours ago, CheekyBrit said:

GC codes in order and it would be so satisfying

 

Another thing that's satisfying are GC codes that spell words. For instance, GCANADA or GCACHER

[+CheekyBrit]

On 9/28/2024 at 8:22 AM, Bear and Ragged said:

Isn't the GC number generated when the page is created?

ie. Start a cache page, it has a GC number there already? (Long time since I set a cache!)

Doesn't matter when it gets Published by a Reviewer.

Oh yeah, you're right. Allow me to re-word that to "when is the quietest time to create your geocache pages?"

[+thebruce0]

And what was the actual trigger step to generate the new GC? I never put the effort into figuring that out.

Optimally, you'll want to open tabs progressed to one step before the GC generation, then one after the other in immediate succession click each tab to the next step so they each claim the sequential codes.

[+baer2006]

17 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

And what was the actual trigger step to generate the new GC? I never put the effort into figuring that out.

After step #4 ("Size and Ratings") in the Hide a Geocache process, the button at the bottom is labeled "Save and Preview". When you click this button, the listing is created and the GC code allocated.

 

17 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Optimally, you'll want to open tabs progressed to one step before the GC generation, then one after the other in immediate succession click each tab to the next step so they each claim the sequential codes.

Not sure if this is going to work. Last year I tried to get 4 consecutive GC codes, using basically the method you describe. I had two browsers (FF and Chrome) open, two tabs each. When I clicked all 4 "Save and Preview" buttons in quick succession, only the first in each browser worked, while the other two resulted in an error (and no listing/GC code). Either it was a temporary glitch, or the "Hide a Geocache" web app uses some browser-internal storage, which prevents multiple concurrent use.

[+baer2006]

On 9/28/2024 at 2:26 PM, Hügh said:

Another thing that's satisfying are GC codes that spell words. For instance, GCANADA or GCACHER

Minor factoid regarding "special GC codes" ...

 

When you try to get one of these, it's essential to know exactly what the next allocated GC code will be. The method I used so far was this: Enter "https://coord.info/GCxxxxx" in the address bar, and see, to what URL this is resolved:

-  https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCxxxxx_the-cache-title-chosen-by-the-creator-of-the-listing: The GC code is already allocated

- https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCxxxxx: The GC code is still free

Then iterate, until you find the last allocated code.

 

When I tried this just now (out of curiosity, if GCB0000 has already been reached), I noticed that for any unallocated GC code, the URL resolves to https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCARPJ0_test-geocache-name . Looking at the name of this "reserved code", it seems that GS programmers have added a special hack here  .

[+thebruce0]

7 hours ago, baer2006 said:

When I clicked all 4 "Save and Preview" buttons in quick succession, only the first in each browser worked, while the other two resulted in an error (and no listing/GC code). Either it was a temporary glitch, or the "Hide a Geocache" web app uses some browser-internal storage, which prevents multiple concurrent use.

Yeah pretty sure the website keeps track of the user's activities and errors if the 'session' overlaps during a sequential process like the multi-page cache listing creation.  Dumb, I think, but programmatically if there are many variables to remember in a session, one solution would be this. Keep everything stored in the session, rather than submitting to/from the form and page rendering every time. Drawback of course is you can't begin more than one form session or it gets confused.

Kind of like geocaching couples finding geocaches at the same time while one is on vacation halfway around the world. My that cache-to-cache distance looks a little sus!

[+Viajero Perdido]

Trying to create multiple cache listings simultaneously, eg in multiple browser tabs, goes badly.  The website gets horribly confused.  You'll never want to do that again. 

 

Been there. I sometimes create multiple very similar events, but learned the hard way: no multitasking.  Finish one completely, then start the next. 

[+thebruce0]

Yeah when websites track your current location on a website and force you there any time you load any webpage there, it can be truly annoying. Sometimes you just want to load multiple pages on one website. Looks that HQ has decided that the process to create a cache with its multiple pages should be 'remembered' in your session, so multiple tabs will confuse the system.  OTOH, I don't blame them, to thwart people overloading the GC-grabbing attempt with rapid tab-submission sessions, leaving potentially oodles of unused/undesired GC codes.

[+niraD]

5 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Yeah when websites track your current location on a website and force you there any time you load any webpage there, it can be truly annoying. Sometimes you just want to load multiple pages on one website. Looks that HQ has decided that the process to create a cache with its multiple pages should be 'remembered' in your session, so multiple tabs will confuse the system.  OTOH, I don't blame them, to thwart people overloading the GC-grabbing attempt with rapid tab-submission sessions, leaving potentially oodles of unused/undesired GC codes.

I've occasionally used Command-Shift-N to open "Incognito" windows when I need to have multiple accounts logged into a particular site at the same time. As far as I can tell, these windows and their cookies and other authentication tokens are completely independent from each other, and from the main window(s).

 

Maybe something like that could be used to start multiple cache/event listings, so they're all ready to submit in different browser windows, without needing to install as many different browsers.