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What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 06 January 16 10:28 am
by Geocaching Australia
It's 2016. We didn't do anything as trite as offer everyone a post using the words "Happy New Year".
What we thought we'd do is ask what it is you would like from Geocaching Australia this year?
New geocache types?
New statistics?
New games?
New items in the shop?
Other things?
What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 06 January 16 12:32 pm
by the Monkey King
I saw the face book post on this first and replied there first re the history caches

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 06 January 16 1:09 pm
by ziggiau
And as The Monkey King said on FB, more players, but that's always a work in progress.

Having an app for us phone cachers would also be super (and would bring in more people) but I'm completely aware of the current status. Just saying that it should still be on the long term to-do list.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 06 January 16 9:34 pm
by Laighside Legends
New server?

I see that you now have bison tubes in the shop which is great - only I didn't notice until after I had bought a pile of them at the Melbourne Mega! :oops: Oh well, next time I will buy them here...

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 06 January 16 10:01 pm
by CraigRat
New server is on the way.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 8:34 am
by ziggiau
I love my NSW survey markers, but loading a map with 3927 finds can get quite laggy. Is there a way to better manage the locationless caches that have volume like this? I use the map to check if the marker has already been logged to save time when logging. Otherwise I create the log, find a clash, then have to delete.

Or maybe a search facility by coords for locationless (I know this is available for regular caches)?

And is there a way that you can farm out some of the mundane tasks that you guys do to free your time up to do the stuff that the rest of us can't do? Spread the load? I know I'm going to spend more time on the wiki this year because that's something I can manage.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 9:28 am
by petan
Ditto to what the Monkey King said. I also commented on this on Facebook.

With 25 GC.com and two GCA 'traditional' (meaning physical containers) historical themed caches am quite excited at the prospect of a new cache type along this theme. There are places I would love to place a cache but don't because its too far away for easy maintenance or there is no-where really suitable to hide a container or its such a muggle prone area. I have four multis and one mystery which attempted to solve the location issue but I find the finds on these are significantly lower than their nearby traditional alternatives. Also there have been a number of sites which are blocked to me because of gc.com caches which, while sometimes worthy in themselves, often completely ignore the history of the area.

My only concern is that we have to get the concept right, not knocking any other GCA cache type, it has to be something with quality, something that shows that the owner has done his/her homework about what this place was for, preferably beyond the tourist brochures. I had a discussion with another historian about some of these "I remember...." and "Lost ..." Facebook groups, we both agreed that one of the problems was that often incorrect information gets passed around and reposted to the point where it becomes the accepted 'truth'. As a history cache owner I would want to know that what I am publishing on the cache page is in fact correct and would hope that others who might adopt this type would do the same.

The History Nerd (aka Susan from petan)

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 10:30 am
by caughtatwork
I love the History Cache idea. It's not a physical cache, but a virtual type where you need to answer some questions. This is almost exactly like an Earthcache as far as I can see but allows the finder to control their destiny rather than rely on a CO to say "yes" to your ability to log a find.

The cache sends someone to an area.
They are required to gather information in order to answer questions.
The questions can only be answered by information you gather on site.
The questions will be on the cache page so people know exactly what information is needed.
The answers will be attached to the cache (???) so people can choose from 4 answers in a drop down box or select via radio button.
The answers will need to be factual based on what is at the location, not what you can read on the interwebs.
While the questions can be informative, they can also be trivial about the location.
e.g. What colour is the border or the notice board at GZ? How many bricks high in the wall to the south of GZ?
This form of question essentially forces someone to GZ. Yes, they can cheat by trying to brute force the answers, but if there are 5 questions and 4 possible answers this would be annoying to have to guess every answer to. Whether the response is "You have 3 of 5 answers correct" or "The answer to Question 2 and 5 are not correct" is up for debate. This roadblocks guessers but also pisses off people who have been there and have counted wrong on one thing, but now don't know which one it is.
We could also put in a road block (say) 10 minutes (or something) between each log attempt to annoy the guessers.

Happy to have more feedback and discussion on this idea.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 11:19 am
by fluffyfish
I like the history cache concept as well. It is like a refinement of a multi but with a virtual component? Either way, worthy to pursue.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 5:18 pm
by Now_To_Morrow
caughtatwork wrote:The cache sends someone to an area.
They are required to gather information in order to answer questions.
The questions can only be answered by information you gather on site.
The questions will be on the cache page so people know exactly what information is needed.
The answers will be attached to the cache (???) so people can choose from 4 answers in a drop down box or select via radio button.
The answers will need to be factual based on what is at the location, not what you can read on the interwebs.
While the questions can be informative, they can also be trivial about the location.
e.g. What colour is the border or the notice board at GZ? How many bricks high in the wall to the south of GZ?
This form of question essentially forces someone to GZ. Yes, they can cheat by trying to brute force the answers, but if there are 5 questions and 4 possible answers this would be annoying to have to guess every answer to. Whether the response is "You have 3 of 5 answers correct" or "The answer to Question 2 and 5 are not correct" is up for debate. This roadblocks guessers but also pisses off people who have been there and have counted wrong on one thing, but now don't know which one it is.
We could also put in a road block (say) 10 minutes (or something) between each log attempt to annoy the guessers.
Like a Whereigo? I've just created a draft Whereigo and thought it would be prefect for history stuff... in fact mine is called Dubbo History 1.....

I love the idea! I love Australian history and have the B&W trail on my must do list when I finally get my 4WD.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 7:09 pm
by caughtatwork
No a technology approach like whereigo. Just Q&A at the website.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 7:59 pm
by The Morris
I love the idea of the history caches - I can see it used for a range of other special interest locations as well. I would also like to proceed with the earlier idea we had mooted about getting information from 2 related virtuals that give you the final for a physical cache. I'm assuming the programming is not going to be very different.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 8:07 pm
by Richary
The history cache idea sounds great. Automated version of an earthcache but with much more scope for use apart from just historical info. As has been mentioned a lot of info could just be gathered from the internet to cheat, but I like the idea of how many bricks high is the wall or similar, as even what colour is the border of the sign could probably be found online via a picture someone has taken somewhere.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 10:17 pm
by petan
caughtatwork wrote:Yes, they can cheat by trying to brute force the answers, but if there are 5 questions and 4 possible answers this would be annoying to have to guess every answer to. Whether the response is "You have 3 of 5 answers correct" or "The answer to Question 2 and 5 are not correct" is up for debate. This roadblocks guessers but also pisses off people who have been there and have counted wrong on one thing, but now don't know which one it is.
We could also put in a road block (say) 10 minutes (or something) between each log attempt to annoy the guessers.

Happy to have more feedback and discussion on this idea.
I like the idea of two or three attempts before a timed lock-out. I can imagine people getting very frustrated when they are attempting to answer a question and for some reason making an accidental technical mistake (e.g. oh cr@p, I accidentally selected 2 when I meant 3)then having to wait 10 mins before they can correct it. But having the lockout would minimise brute force solving.

As far as error notification was concerned I'd be more inclined to tell them which questions are incorrect rather than make them guess. I hated the board game Mastermind for this reason as a kid.

Of course these are my own opinions and if the final product is completely different then I will live and work with that.

Re: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?

Posted: 07 January 16 10:50 pm
by WazzaAndWenches
I love the idea of History Cache. Particularly if there is a timeout and multiple question/answer possibilities.
Geocaching Australia wrote: What can Geocaching Australia do for you in 2016?
1. The ability to add gallery items during the log stage rather than as an extra few steps.
2. An app for "i" devices. Yep, I know someone external is currently playing around with a new GC app and is looking into adding GCA functionality. The sooner, the better.