+John NW Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Is it possible to be notified when a local cache is archived - in a similar way to new caches in the locale? This would be a very useful feature and would save a few wasted journeys? Regards John + Carol Link to comment
+Markwell Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 (edited) How's this for an old markwell? This was actually suggested back in March of 2002, and nothing ever came of it. I guess the work around has been to get a fresh PQ or check the cache pages prior to hunting. PQs are much more up-to-date than the weekly notifications anyway. Edited October 21, 2004 by Markwell Link to comment
Keystone Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 There's no substitute for fresh, accurate data, as Markwell suggests. Each week, I unarchive a decent-sized handful of caches that were mistakenly archived by their owners, or which were archived but then resurrected by an adopting owner who came forward. If you got the archive notice, that cache might permanently disappear from your radar (or GSAK list, or Watcher list, etc.) A week later, the cache is unarchived. Fresh data will show these caches that are once again ready for you to hunt. Link to comment
+Allen_L Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Of course if archived caches appeared in a PQ it would make easier for me to look at them and decide if I wanted to try and adopt one of them. GSAK handles archived caches fine. Of course you have to download the GPX from the cache page instead of getting it in a PQ. Link to comment
robertlipe Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Yep, and given that data, I have no doubt that programs like GSAK could (and quckly would) do the right thing. They already know how to merge things. What we're missing is the inability to "shoot down" locally cached copies of cache pages because we can't programmatically retrieve which caches went away. A cacher carrying a binder full of papers (yes, they do exist) doesn't have a practical way to know which pages to remove from their binder. There's already a field in the PQ data for this. <type>Geocache|Traditional Cache|Found</type><Groundspeak:cache id="154802" available="True" archived="False" xmlns:Groundspeak="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0"> A PQ could even choose to elide the coordinates for archived caches and still fill the needs of the invalidation. Link to comment
+Allen_L Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 (edited) If you go to the cache page of an archived geocache and click on the "GPS eXchange File (*.gpx) the GPX file will include <type>Geocache|Traditional Cache</type> <Groundspeak:cache id="717" available="False" archived="True" xmlns:Groundspeak="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0"> If this is fed into GSAK it will do the right thing. So if it was in the PQ it would do the right thing. There is no "could" or "would" do the right thing, it already does the right thing. Edited October 21, 2004 by AllenLacy Link to comment
+John NW Posted October 22, 2004 Author Share Posted October 22, 2004 We are cachers who carry around several binders full of papers and we have no machine(PDA) to load PQs onto. That was the reason for the request/question in the first place. Unless someone out there wants to run a PQ based on NG18 postcode and let us have the results.... Link to comment
+Markwell Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 I would think the money you spent on paper and ink (and lost time looking for archived caches) would be better spent on the $30 for a year's worth of membership. You don't need the PDA to run Pocket Queries, just a computer and some free software. Then - to save ink and paper - just grab the caches that you're going to look for in your area and copy and paste the PERTINENT parts to a Word Processor, and print THAT out. Saves a TON of ink and paper, and - as I said - wasted time. Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 (edited) It's a good idea for a number of reasons all ready mentioned. If it's worth notifing everyone about new caches, when as has also been mentioned you can get that info in a pocket querie. It's worth notifying you which caches are gone. Edit: When I do this via pocket querie it's like looking at a busy radar screen To many blips to track. I hunt them I log them they go away. But some go away and I never notice. I'd like to know what's dissapearing due to archving. Is it the cache theif? Was it a land manager? Is this another disgruntled cacher? Did they get frustrated at no finds? Edited October 22, 2004 by Renegade Knight Link to comment
+Markwell Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 I haven't toyed around with GSAK enough to know... But what I do is look at the caches in an Access database and I have a query that says "Find me all the caches in one GPX file that's not in another." That gets me two lists of caches. Ones in new and not in old = New or unarchived caches Ones in old and not in new = Archived caches I can then go to the website and look it up. Sure it's a workaround, but it shouldn't be that hard to do with other applications. Does GSAK do this? If not, can it be a new feature? Link to comment
+Allen_L Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 This is the method I use with GSAK to determine archived geocaches After I get all my updates merged into the GSAK database, I set a fiter to only show what it has marked as active. Then I sort by updated date. The ones with an old date tend to be archived, I check geocaching.com to see it that is the case. If it is, I download the GPX from that page and GSAK then marks the geocache archived. Link to comment
+Prime Suspect Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 I haven't toyed around with GSAK enough to know... But what I do is look at the caches in an Access database and I have a query that says "Find me all the caches in one GPX file that's not in another." That gets me two lists of caches. Ones in new and not in old = New or unarchived caches Ones in old and not in new = Archived caches I can then go to the website and look it up. Sure it's a workaround, but it shouldn't be that hard to do with other applications. Does GSAK do this? If not, can it be a new feature? That can give false positives, since PQs have a limit on the number of caches they can report. If the results of the radius search is greater than the total number of caches you've requested, each new cache can potentially push another cache out of the PQ. This would make it appear that it had been archived, when it really wasn't. Link to comment
+Allen_L Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 It is for checking false positives that once GSAK produces the list of geocaches that haven't been updated that I check geocaching.com. I assume that is why Markwell said "I can then go to the website and look it up." Link to comment
+Markwell Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Correct, I always verify my findings against the actual online source. If the database is showing it as archived, and the Geocaching.com system is not, I know I need to rework my PQs to better select the caches to include them all. (Poorly explained, but bottom line - I then adjust the PQ). Link to comment
+ClydeE Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 (edited) Sure it's a workaround, but it shouldn't be that hard to do with other applications. Does GSAK do this? If not, can it be a new feature? Yes, there are several good work arounds for the GSAK user. The topic has been discussed in the old 4.1 GSAK thread and several posts on the subject can be found starting here GSAK will also let you merge 2 GPX files (A and B ) and find out things like: 1. What caches are in A but not B 2. What caches are in B but not A 3. What caches are in both A and B Edit to add merge explanation Edited October 23, 2004 by ClydeE Link to comment
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