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No radius for letterboxes


barefootguru

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Letterboxes are not necessarily at the given location.  A "true" letterbox usually requires following some set of instructions to find the final cache location.  A letterbox hybrid can be set up either like a traditional geocache (where its hidden at the given location) or it can be set up like a traditional letterbox (where its NOT hidden at the given location).  You can't really tell which way any given letterbox is hidden without reading the description.

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4 hours ago, ZeppelinDT said:

Letterboxes are not necessarily at the given location.  A "true" letterbox usually requires following some set of instructions to find the final cache location.  A letterbox hybrid can be set up either like a traditional geocache (where its hidden at the given location) or it can be set up like a traditional letterbox (where its NOT hidden at the given location).  You can't really tell which way any given letterbox is hidden without reading the description.

Thanks for the input. I think we will keep it as is.

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12 hours ago, ZeppelinDT said:

Letterboxes are not necessarily at the given location.  A "true" letterbox usually requires following some set of instructions to find the final cache location.  A letterbox hybrid can be set up either like a traditional geocache (where its hidden at the given location) or it can be set up like a traditional letterbox (where its NOT hidden at the given location).  You can't really tell which way any given letterbox is hidden without reading the description.

All the letterbox caches down here are at the given coords, and from my Google (well, DuckDuckGo), that's always the case:  you can go directly to the cache from the coords on geocaching.com, or from the clues provided on a letterboxing site.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=153242

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Hmm... maybe there are different norms in different parts of the world?  I know for sure that when you're hiding a letterbox you're not required to place it at the given coordinates.  I've only found about 30 letterboxes myself, but I would say about 2/3 of those are structured like "traditional" caches, where the physical hide is at the given coordinates, and about 1/3 are more like pure letterboxes, where you have to follow instructions.  A couple of examples of the latter:

 

https://coord.info/GC5ZCHQ

https://coord.info/GC165Z7

https://coord.info/GC2PYXV

https://coord.info/GC5P6BY

https://coord.info/GC1XG14

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We have a good mix of both types in Australia. Some where there are letterboxes at the listed coordinate, and others where a projection or other calculation is needed  in The state of South Australia they are more the first type, in the state of Victoria, they are more the 2nd. 

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It's not completely clear, but it sounds like having clues from the posted coords to the final is allowed… as long as you supply actual coords with the clues:

Quote

Letterbox-style clues may be used to guide seekers to the container, but only if the clues are accompanied by coordinates specific to the hide.

https://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx

God knows how reviewers handle proximity for them.

Sounds like would be misleading for Cachly to both display and not display a radius, and probably best / less wrong to leave as is.

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8 hours ago, barefootguru said:

It's not completely clear, but it sounds like having clues from the posted coords to the final is allowed… as long as you supply actual coords with the clues:

https://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx

God knows how reviewers handle proximity for them.

Sounds like would be misleading for Cachly to both display and not display a radius, and probably best / less wrong to leave as is.

What that essentially means is that you have to supply coordinates that somehow relate to finding the cache (but it does not necessarily mean that you have to provide the coordinates to the final physical container).  In other words, some sort of GPS navigation must be used.  So, for example, you can't just place the pin randomly and then say something like "Go to X Park and find the large oak tree, then starting from that oak tree go 100 feet north, then turn left, etc....".  Instead, you'd have to actually add the coordinates to that tree and require using the GPS to navigate to that tree and go from there.  One of the core rules of caching is that every cache has to include some sort of GPS navigation at some point in the process.

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9 hours ago, barefootguru said:

God knows how reviewers handle proximity for them.

The reviewers handle letterbox-hybrids the same as mystery caches.  They know where the final is, and if one tries to hide a cache within 528 feet the reviewer will send back a note saying your location is too close to another cache, but they won't tell you where it is.  

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1 hour ago, barefootguru said:

Cachly could display the radius if a letterbox has corrected coordinates then (same as mystery and multi)… does that work?

I'm not sure how practical that would be, primarily because in most cases with letterbox hybrids you don't actually end up with corrected coordinates.  With mystery and multi caches, the final answer is usually just a set of coordinates that you plug in, but with letterboxes you're usually just following instructions, so unless you get to the final, take your own coordinate reading with your device at GZ, and then add in those coords, you're not likely to actually get corrected coordinates.

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