What's new on Geocaching Australia

Discussion about the Geocaching Australia web site
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Furrhan
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Furrhan » 15 May 17 12:52 am

Interesting. Good to know who the team is!
Has the election for 2017 just gone then? Because on the volunteers page it mentions that senators are elected in June or July...

Also, are there any other positions open on staff at the moment, just out of interest? And if so, how are those positions generally filled?

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caughtatwork
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by caughtatwork » 15 May 17 9:15 am

2017/2018 will start in a few weeks. Around the start of June we will publish the details about the senate including any changes from the previous. At that point you can nominate and if by the end of the month certain conditions are or are not met we have a vote in July.

As we have 10 positions to fill and interest is generally very low, it's possible there will not be a need for elections.

We have no staff. We are not an organisation. We are not an association. We are a group of volunteers who run a website. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. We have no president, treasurer, secretary or any other role other than those who have volunteered to provide some assistance in the mundane of keeping the site running.

If people volunteer for a particular role, then we asses (minimal) and assign the role along with the necessary site permission to carry that role out. Volunteers are always welcomed. There is no quota. There is no limit. There is only a practical limit where if we have too many people on the same role, they may trip over each other. If you would like to know more about a particular volunteer role, start a new thread asking a question and we'll do our best to answer.

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New dragonZone trophies available

Post by Geocaching Australia » 03 June 17 8:48 pm

Geocaching Australia is proud to announce several new dragoZone trophies up for grabs.
There are four new categories of trophy, each in the four flavours of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Blaze.
Each one comes with a corresponding amount of dZ points that will help you climb the leader boards, and increase your influence in the dragonZone realm.

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First up, we have the Loquacious trophy.
This trophy rewards those dragonZoners who like to write long logs, and is based on your average word count.

TFTC - Bronze trophy - Average word count is > 50 words.
An essay, just a plain old essay - Silver trophy - Average word count is > 80 words
I'm practising for my dissertation - Gold trophy - Average word count is > 100 words
I write treatises for a living - Blaze trophy - Average word count is > 150 words

You get each lower one with a higher one. e.g. Get Gold and you get Silver and Bronze too.

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Next we have the Insanity trophy.
This trophy rewards those who like to find as many valid dZ caches in a day as possible.

This isn't insanity, this is normal - Bronze trophy - Find 10 valid dragonZone geocaches in 1 day
I'm not insane, I'm a geocacher - Silver trophy - Find 25 valid dragonZone geocaches in 1 day
Obsession != Insanity - Gold trophy - Find 50 valid dragonZone geocaches in 1 day
That's not insanity, this is insanity - Blaze trophy - Find 100 valid dragonZone geocaches in 1 day

As per other trophies, if you do 100 in a day, you would also qualify for 10, 25 and 50.

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We also have the Recommended trophy.
This rewards cache owners for receiving multiple recommendations on their caches.

They Love Me, They Love Me Not - Bronze trophy - > 5 recommendations on a dZ cache
They Love Me, Things Are Good - Silver trophy - > 10 recommendations on a dZ cache
They Love Me, and My Caches - Gold trophy - > 20 recommendations on a dZ cache
They Love Me, Did the Earth Just Move? - Blaze trophy - > 50 recommendations on a dZ cache

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Lastly, for now, we have the Well Travelled Geocacher trophy.
This trophy rewards those who have found valid dZ caches in multiple Australian states.

Stay At Home Body - Bronze trophy - Find a valid dragonZone geocache in 1 Australian state
I Went Interstate, Once - Silver trophy - Find a valid dragonZone geocache in 2 Australian states
Road Trip! - Gold trophy - Find a valid dragonZone geocache in 4 Australian states
Travel All Over The Countryside - Blaze trophy - Find a valid dragonZone geocache in 8 Australian states

This trophy ignores finds on moveable caches as they are very likely to move interstate due to other cachers actions

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Check out your own trophy list here: http://geocaching.com.au/my/dragonzonetrophies/
Check out the current dragonZone leader board here: http://geocaching.com.au/dragonzone/topclanmembers/

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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Geocaching Australia » 04 June 17 5:54 pm

It's been a busy weekend down on the development farm.

3 new ciphers have been added to the Geocaching Australia toolbox.
http://geocaching.com.au/toolbox/

Morse Code
A code named after Samuel Morse consisting of dots and dashes.

Bacon Cipher.
A form of steganography devised by Francis Bacon in 1605.

Number Letter Cipher
A substitution cipher where the a letter of the alphabet is replaced by its position in the alphabetic list.

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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: New dragonZone trophies available

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 05 June 17 8:19 am

Geocaching Australia wrote: First up, we have the Loquacious trophy.
This trophy rewards those dragonZoners who like to write long logs, and is based on your average word count.

TFTC - Bronze trophy - Average word count is > 50 words.
An essay, just a plain old essay - Silver trophy - Average word count is > 80 words
I'm practising for my dissertation - Gold trophy - Average word count is > 100 words
I write treatises for a living - Blaze trophy - Average word count is > 150 words
How is the loquatious trophy calculated? My trophies page says that for Bronze level I need or still need 10 to claim it. I have written a couple over 50 words on dZ caches since joining but I'll admit it isn't my average. I'm just wondering how it works. Ta. :)

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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by caughtatwork » 05 June 17 9:12 am

It does exactly as you have suggested, it calculates an average of all of your found and DNF logs for all, GCA and dragonZone.

http://geocaching.com.au/cacher/statist ... w/general/
Verbosity Average (dragonZone) Average of 40 words per log

You need to be a little more loquacious to get to the 50 word limit. As it's an average, you might need to be a lot more loquacious to start to move your average higher.

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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 05 June 17 3:25 pm

caughtatwork wrote:
http://geocaching.com.au/cacher/statist ... w/general/
Verbosity Average (dragonZone) Average of 40 words per log
Aha - so ignore the "10 to go" bit. Got it.
Minimum 2 words?! Is that because I add a smilie after my TFTCs? Haha.

Any way to see who the highest averagers are? I'm guessing If would be right up there.

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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by caughtatwork » 05 June 17 3:44 pm

The "10 to go" means you need to improve your average logging by an additional 10 words. You can ignore it if you like, but it does indicate how much more you need to write.

2 words.
http://geocaching.com.au/cache/tp6455
"drive by"

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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Geocaching Australia » 07 June 17 9:44 am

A new cipher has been added to the toolbox. Not a particularly helpful one to be honest. It was built to solve a particular puzzle which was called a rail cipher, but in reality is not a rail cipher at all, it's a route cipher. Rail ciphers run in a zig zag pattern and this one doesn't. As route ciphers are not solvable by brute force this is the most simple version of the route cipher which is to read the letters from top left to bottom left, then move to the next column. The only thing this cipher will help with is to brute force all possible combinations of letters so you don't have to. Either way, an entertaining afternoon of coding and array manipulation.
http://geocaching.com.au/toolbox/
Route Cipher

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Bulk Ignore

Post by Geocaching Australia » 07 June 17 9:57 am

Have you looked at a power trail and decided ... not for me. I wish there way a way to ignore that geocache, and that one, and those next 798 as well. Geocaching Australia has an ignore list where you can select any geocache from its geocache page and tap / click the ignore link. That adds it to your ignore list and should never be seen again (hopefully).

You can now create a simple list of geocache codes and import them to your ignore list using our bulk importer.
e.g.
GC12345
GC12356
GC77789
http://geocaching.com.au/my/import/
Select Ignore Caches File

As there are almost no features that can be used to identify whether a specific geocache is to be ignored or not (alas our server is not quite up to reading minds yet), you will need to construct the list manually.

There is no guarantees of performance with very large lists. If you strike a performance problem, see your doctor, or refer the matter to our Report Site Issues Here thread where the developers can see what's happening. If you do go that route, please provide as much information as possible as to what you were doing (viewing a GMAP from a Query and query number, looking at all geocaches in a state via (this link), etc). Our developers can't read mind either so your information is needed to try and solve problems.

To head off the "why can't you just ignore based on a tag or username, etc", we have considered this approach and discounted it as being too broad. If I ignore all caches that are tagged "tree" because I can't climb trees, then I will inevitably end up excluding some that are tagged with "tree" other than being 50m up that said tree. The request will then to be exclude all with "tree" apart from those tagged with "fun" or "sacred" or "historical". Same things for geocacher names. The list becomes too long to manage and someone will ask to ignore all of caughtatworks caches apart from the good ones, so now can we have an unignore list. Having the list of geocaches you want to exclude ensures you don't capture too many and you can always remove them if you decide to go and find them later.

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ZigZag Cipher

Post by Geocaching Australia » 09 June 17 11:02 am

New in the Geocaching Australia toolbox.

http://geocaching.com.au/toolbox/zigzag/

The ZigZag or rail fence cipher is a form of transposition cipher. It derives its name from the way in which it is encoded down and up the page in a zigzag pattern.

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Removed link to GPX and ZIP files by state

Post by caughtatwork » 16 June 17 3:02 pm

The state GPX or ZIP files are now too large and will run the machine out of memory.

I have removed the ability to download GPX and ZIP state files from the caches list page. You can still download the data but you will need to create a query and there is a link on the state list pages to take you to your My Query page.

This is a pleasing outcome of more and more geocaches being listed, but we do not have the infrastructure to support endless, full state downloads.

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Latest dragonZone trophies

Post by Geocaching Australia » 03 July 17 7:51 pm

The GCA Faeries have been hard at work coming up with new trophies for those who play the dragonZone aspect of Geocaching Australia. With a raft of new challenges and missions, and a good dose of dZ points to go with them, there's never been a better time to start climbing the leader board and increasing your influence in the dragonZone realm.

Read on to learn about the new trophies and missions....

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As we're currently running the Christmas in July caching game, we have two one-off Limited trophies to reward those who participate.

Earn 100 dZ point and a "Christmas in July Finder" Limited trophy by finding a geocache for the Christmas in July game.
Earn 250 dZ points and a "Christmas in July Hider" Limited trophy by hiding and publishing a geocache for the Christmas in July game.

These trophies are only available during the current game, ie: Sat-01-Jul-17 to Tue-25-Jul-17

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"Finding Centroid Mission: 100km"

Earn a cool 1500 dZ points by finding a valid dragonZone geocache in every zone within a bounded box, 100km on each side, from the centre of your dragonZone geocaching finding center.

To see a map of your own 'dragonZone geocaching finding center', there is a handy map located within your 'graphs' tab titled "Map Dragonzone Finding Centre".

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For those who like to move moving caches, especially long distance moves, you will now be rewarded with up to 4 new trophies.

Bronze trophy and 10 dZ points: "Staying Near Home Traveller"
Move 50 moveable geocaches a distance greater than 0km and less than 250km.

Silver trophy and 50 dZ points: "Weekend Traveller"
Move 25 moveable geocaches a distance greater than or equal to 250km and less than 500km.

Gold trophy and 100 dZ points: "Weeklong Traveller"
Move 15 moveable geocaches a distance greater than or equal to 500km and less than 1,000km.

Blaze trophy and 1000 dZ points: "Long Distance Traveller"
Move 10 moveable geocaches a distance greater than or equal to 1,000km.

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Do you have a favourite GCA geocache hider? We now reward stalkers!

Bronze trophy: "Passionate Chaser"
Find 10 valid dragonZone geocaches hidden by the same geocacher. Excludes hider - 'Geocaching Australia'.

Silver trophy: "Obsessed Hunter"
Find 25 valid dragonZone geocaches hidden by the same geocacher. Excludes - 'Geocaching Australia'.

Gold trophy: "Creepy Pursuer"
Find 50 valid dragonZone geocaches hidden by the same geocacher. Excludes - 'Geocaching Australia'.

Blaze trophy: "Restraining Order Stalker"
Find 100 valid dragonZone geocaches hidden by the same geocacher. Excludes - 'Geocaching Australia'.

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Into your ancient Roman mumbo-jumbo? This singular trophy may be for you:

Gold trophy: "Idus Marti: The Ides of March"
Find 15 valid dragonZone geocaches on the 15th of March in a single year.

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Are you obsessed by the English alphabet? You'll find this new trophy right up your alley.

Gold trophy: "Abecedarian"
Find a valid dragonZone geocache starting with every letter of the alphabet. Only the first character of the name is checked and special characters or numerics will invalidate the geocache.


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Another set of trophies to reward those who like to tick dates off of their calendar....hang about....make that TWO sets of trophies that reward those who like to tick dates off of their calendar!

Bronze trophy: "No Eight Days a Week Here"
Find 25 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the week.

Silver trophy: "One of These Days"
Find 50 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the week.

Gold trophy: "Beast of Burden"
Find 100 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the week.

Blaze trophy: "That'll be the Day"
Find 200 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the week.

Bronze trophy: "Biding my Time"
Find 5 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the month.

Silver trophy: "The Big Easy"
Find 10 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the month.

Gold trophy: "A Long and Winding Road"
Find 25 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the month.

Blaze trophy: "I Want it All"
Find 50 or more valid dragonZone geocaches on each day of the month.

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Happy Christmas in July!

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Re: Latest dragonZone trophies

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 04 July 17 11:50 pm

Geocaching Australia wrote:

"Finding Centroid Mission: 100km"

Earn a cool 1500 dZ points by finding a valid dragonZone geocache in every zone within a bounded box, 100km on each side, from the centre of your dragonZone geocaching finding center.

To see a map of your own 'dragonZone geocaching finding center', there is a handy map located within your 'graphs' tab titled "Map Dragonzone Finding Centre".
Just out of curiosity (I'm totally non-mathematical), how many and how far East do I need to find dZ caches to move my centroid 5km East? 5km!!!

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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by caughtatwork » 05 July 17 9:36 am

No idea. It depends on what you have found and where you have found it. There is no simple mathematical model that does this. If you find 1 dZ cache 1,000 East, then this is (roughly) the same as 10 of only 100km East. Exact distance and direction is important. All I know is that I need to move my own some hundreds of kilometers (due to some geocaching in Perth which has skewed by result), so anything I can find that is East of me will drag it that way.

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