Locationless Cache Co-ordinates

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SUBYDAZZ
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Locationless Cache Co-ordinates

Post by SUBYDAZZ » 08 June 07 11:09 am

Hi All, have a question about the co-ordinates of locationless caches as they appear on the cache page. I have a locationless cache called: "Marking many Milestones!" link here: http://geocaching.com.au/cache/ga0643

Now, I have noticed that up until recently the cache co-ordinates automatically changed to the last found location (which makes sense to me). But now it is stuck on the 3rd last find's co-ordinates.

I didn't recall doing anything to the cache to cause either of these things to happen, and have now noticed some other locationless caches haven't had their co-ordinates change after new finds either.

Just want to know if we can get that functionality back at all? I think it's a good idea to have the co-ordinates change as this was the way I was first alerted to a number of these caches by having them appear near me somewhere.

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caughtatwork
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Post by caughtatwork » 08 June 07 11:45 am

Ummmmmmmm :oops:

That functionality was removed in the February release.
I think we need to take a further look at this, as you point out, those locationless caches are kind of stuck nowhere at the moment.

Maybe we'll just pick a centre point for Oz and make them all sit there until we know what to do with them.

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zactyl
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Post by zactyl » 08 June 07 11:48 am

If I recall correctly there was a problem with the State not updating, so they were made to stay put. You can edit your cache page to change the coordinates and location to something you like. And keep an eye on this page: http://geocaching.com.au/caches/locationless
I thought having the location change to that of the last find was pretty neat too :)

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CraigRat
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Post by CraigRat » 08 June 07 12:26 pm

zactyl wrote:I thought having the location change to that of the last find was pretty neat too :)
I changed it because of the following reasons:
Locationless caches are just that: Locationless... the logs have the coords and the locations of the finds can be seen on the gmaps and the like....

When the cache was found, it was ending up in the state page and coming thru on regular listings - this got a few ppl grumpy... Maybe we can do something to plop the log into the state lists but keep the cache in the 'locatinless'..

I'll ponder it some more...

SUBYDAZZ
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Post by SUBYDAZZ » 19 June 07 12:12 pm

Can you create a separate list for moveable / locationless caches in the updates etc.?

I'm having trouble keeping up moving one of my locationless ones, it moved 4 times in a week, and I had to keep figuring out which state it was in.

SUBYDAZZ
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Post by SUBYDAZZ » 27 January 08 3:43 pm

So it appears the co-ordinates / locations of locationless caches have started disappearing just recently. On the cache page it still asks for co-ords, country and state, but on the listing page it does not show. Will the cache appear on the Google earth feed or state listings if the co-ords are changed now or are they all going to be at S0o 0.000 E0o 00.000?

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Post by SUBYDAZZ » 27 January 08 3:46 pm

Actually, while we are here, what about the idea of creating an updating POI file of locationless locations (for owners / other interetsed parties?) to download to you GPSr?

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CraigRat
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Post by CraigRat » 27 January 08 8:50 pm

SUBYDAZZ wrote:Actually, while we are here, what about the idea of creating an updating POI file of locationless locations (for owners / other interetsed parties?) to download to you GPSr?
As in a GPX file with all the finds for (for example) Marking Many Milestones??

Is that what you mean??

It's technically do-able, we could add extra waypoints of logs that have co-ords.... I'll discuss it with the other devs and see how it swings....

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riblit
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Post by riblit » 27 January 08 9:35 pm

Its sort of there now in that you can download a Google Earth kml file showing the location of all finds for the locationless cache.
like http://geocaching.com.au/cache/ga0643.kml for Marking Many Milestones.
The Oziexplorer waypoint file is only showing one waypoint. That needs to be looked at.

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Post by caughtatwork » 27 January 08 10:04 pm

SUBYDAZZ wrote:So it appears the co-ordinates / locations of locationless caches have started disappearing just recently. On the cache page it still asks for co-ords, country and state, but on the listing page it does not show. Will the cache appear on the Google earth feed or state listings if the co-ords are changed now or are they all going to be at S0o 0.000 E0o 00.000?
You are correct and this is a recent change.
Locationless stopped being "moved" a while ago and these will soon only appear on the locationless pages and not the state pages.
They are all going to be set to zeros as soon as I find time to do it.
The state will also be removed.
The individual logs with co-ordinate still stay.
They will still come out on the google earth .kml file (as indicated).

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zactyl
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Post by zactyl » 28 January 08 5:13 am

caughtatwork wrote:They are all going to be set to zeros as soon as I find time to do it.
The state will also be removed.
Tried to save you some time, but...
State must be selected for Australia, New Zealand or USA
:roll: :lol:

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Post by SUBYDAZZ » 28 January 08 9:03 am

Well yes, a GPX file as a POI (point of interest) file , ie a file that you can upload to the GPSr to show locations, as in not a waypoint. They are searchable and you can enter proximity alarms. I am aware of the Google Earth feature, which is pretty much the data that it should be, is there any way to convert the KML to a POI file (XLS or CSV, GPX usually) with the co-ordinates and a description of the finder etc? With Garmin you use the POIloader software to load into the unit, you can have thousands in your GPSr in my experience.

Regarding the change of locations for locationless and removal of state, how will they be treated in a finders stats? ie all cache finds are identified by state of find currently. Also I'm not sure about the zero location as it will place all of these in the South Atlantic Ocean near Africa? Maybe some other format can be used?

When you say they will come out on the Google Earth file that will be from the cache page, and not the normal "available.kml" feed I take it? Will they be included in daily cache updates when new locationless are created or edited? Perhaps a separate subscription option is an idea?

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riblit
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Post by riblit » 28 January 08 11:01 am

SUBYDAZZ wrote:Well yes, a GPX file as a POI (point of interest) file , ie a file that you can upload to the GPSr to show locations, as in not a waypoint. They are searchable and you can enter proximity alarms. I am aware of the Google Earth feature, which is pretty much the data that it should be, is there any way to convert the KML to a POI file (XLS or CSV, GPX usually) with the co-ordinates and a description of the finder etc? With Garmin you use the POIloader software to load into the unit, you can have thousands in your GPSr in my experience.
I believe the Garmin POI converter will read GPX files. You can convert from KML to GPX with Oziexplorer or GPSbabel, or just download our GPX file.


As each satnav device manufacturer has their own POI format and creates the tools necessary to convert from GPX to their format we have chosen to provide a GPX file and allow the device owner to convert as required.
SUBYDAZZ wrote: When you say they will come out on the Google Earth file that will be from the cache page, and not the normal "available.kml" feed I take it? Will they be included in daily cache updates when new locationless are created or edited? Perhaps a separate subscription option is an idea?

The current KML file for locationless caches will give you the location of the finds to date. By definition, a locationless cache does not have a location so perhaps it should have been called a "multi location" cache, but then it could be confused with a multi cache.

The file as it stands is handy to see where not to go to claim a find, but would be of limited use loaded to your GPS, unless you want to visit all the find sites.

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Post by caughtatwork » 28 January 08 12:16 pm

zactyl wrote:
caughtatwork wrote:They are all going to be set to zeros as soon as I find time to do it.
The state will also be removed.
Tried to save you some time, but...
State must be selected for Australia, New Zealand or USA
:roll: :lol:
Thanks for the headsup, this has now been removed.

You can select Locationless as the country and state if you like, but they are defaulted regardless of what you end up selecting. It makes more sense though if you can select them, so they've been added.

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