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Challenge cache identifier


Wormbo

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Cachly has really revolutionised my caching in both searching and hiding but there is one thing that I feel would help me further.

I correct a lot of coords for solved puzzles and used it to great success this past week while on holiday thanks to the red triangle but I missed a few challenges that I qualified for but because there was no indication like corrected coords I missed them and only realised at the end of the day.  I suppose one way I could have solved this was to run a PQ on my completed challenges but then I would have been switching between maps to see if I'm near one.

what I'm suggesting is a radio button like the corrected coordinates button that can be used to add say a yellow triangle (could be any colour or shape) that will highlight if you have checked you qualify for a challenge.  That way there's no switching between maps and lists it becomes more visable on the main map

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Just an idea to consider. What I do for challenge caches which I qualify is I update the posted coord on GC.com with the same coord. GC, Project GC and Cachly treated is corrected coords. This trick shows a triangle in Cachly even though the coords are the original. 

I use Project-GC for seeing what challenges as I qualify for and then update the coordinates on the gc.com site for the challenge cache.

There's no distinction between a solved mystery and a qualified challenge, but the indication would show it might be worth going after.   Just a thought you could do in the interim if a more permanent solution was coming. 

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30 minutes ago, Team DEMP said:

What I do for challenge caches which I qualify is I update the posted coord on GC.com with the same coord. GC, Project GC and Cachly treated is corrected coords. This trick shows a triangle in Cachly even though the coords are the original. 

That's exactly what I do with challenge caches, whether I qualify for them or not.  I also add a personal cache note such as "qualified," or some other notation so that I can make a quick decision in the field if I want to stop to search.  BTW, for challenges that I sign the log but don't qualify I add the "write note" URL to the personal cache note for future reference to show that I was there when I eventually get to post a find. 

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Could someone explain a bit more about challenge caches to me? I am a more "casual with my kids" type of geocacher, so I have never looked into challenge caches.

Are theses regular Mystery Caches?

I am not even sure the API has an indication for challenge caches.

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Challenge caches are mystery caches as far as Geocaching.com treats them. As far as interfacing thru the API, I would expect nothing different. Most challenge caches have the posted coordinates as the cache location vs a mystery challenge that normally has the posted coordinates not matching where the cache is placed.

What makes it a "challenge" is you need to satisfy some requirement such as find 7 different cache types in a day or find a cache in 20 different states or find 7 caches that total more than 500 favorite points, etc. 

A challenge cache is now one that provides a way to validate the challenge has been met through a script at Project-GC usually by a link placed on the cache page.  You can sign the log and claim a find on the cache if you meet the requirement and find the cache. You can always sign the log but you can't claim it as found on gc.com until the challenge criteria is met. 

http://project-gc.com/Tools/Challenges?map is where you can find them and the site tries to pre-determine which you qualify for. Use https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC40H0A_frankenstein-challenge as an example. The coordinates for that cache are the coordinates of where the cache container is located. You can see a link in the cache page on the right side to the Challenge Checker on the PGC site. Sometimes they are just in the body of the cache page. If you click it, you are taken to the PGC site ( http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC40H0A/11154 ) and you can run the checker for yourself and see if you qualify. The output from the checker will tell you yes or no and usually show you the info you might need to paste into your log to prove to the cache owner you qualified for the challenge.

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When I used Geosphere groups, challenge caches typically belong to one of two groups "Signed" which means I have signed it but not qualified and "Need to Sign"  which indicates I should try to go by and sign it sometime. I typically would add "Qualified" or qualifying support info to the cache note if I know I am qualified. An entry on the Signed list can be logged as a Found once the qualification can be demonstrated.

I think two offline lists in Cachly with the same names would give me the same capability. 

What would have given me more power with groups/lists was not offered by Geosphere.  Selecting multiple groups simply ORed the caches with those groups into one view. Sometimes this what I wanted but quite often ANDing would be very useful. For example, if I gave the "Need to Sign" caches membership in other groups conveying general area information: South Bay, North Bay, Coastal, etc. then if I had a caching trip planned to an area, I could select two groups: Need to Sign AND the area. This would let me see Challenge caches I could find and sign but limited to the area I was going to be in. Boolean logic is a powerful tool. I sure would like something like this. 

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