Elevation for Dinosaur Racers

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geono.
7000 or more caches found
7000 or more caches found
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Joined: 15 July 12 1:15 pm
Location: uralla

Elevation for Dinosaur Racers

Post by geono. » 05 September 18 12:24 pm

Just noticed after a note was made on one of our Dinosaur Racers that the elevation changed to 0. Looking through the ladder it appears there might be others that have done this, e.g. in Canberra. Probably not important but just thought we'd mention it. Also, the Ladder says 'geocaches may only appear on the ladder after their first move'. Would this be the reason GA12824 (no moves) isn't on it? GA12926 (also no moves) published the same day is. Both are on the List of Known Dinosaur Racers and the map. Again, probably no big deal. Thanks to the organisers, another great game in progress.

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caughtatwork
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Re: Elevation for Dinosaur Racers

Post by caughtatwork » 05 September 18 2:09 pm

We call OSM to get the elevation data. Regrettably that is not a guaranteed service and if we hit OSM to quickly we start to get rejects and occasionally we get timeouts. Unfortunately using Google API to get the elevation data causes our geocoding service levels to go up which then costs us money. SO we sit in an unenviable position of having a chargeable service which we can't afford or a free service which means we get what we pay for. I do have an admin widget which will update the elevation data which I might look to make available on the cache page to update the elevation like we have for the locality.

As far as not being on the ladder, you are correct. A cache that has no finds is not added to the ladder until its first find. As actions are driven by the cache being found or moved and so without a find or move action there is nothing to do, per se and therefore nothing on the ladder. There are exceptions to this when logs are edited or other things happen that force it onto the ladder.

If you edit the published log (make no change, just edit and save), it will force it onto the ladder.

geono.
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Re: Elevation for Dinosaur Racers

Post by geono. » 05 September 18 4:11 pm

Thanks for the help and explanation caughtatwork. Appreciate the behind-the-scenes work and all the things we take for granted.

Sol de Lune
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Re: Elevation for Dinosaur Racers

Post by Sol de Lune » 05 September 18 5:04 pm

Thanks for asking the question about racers being on or not on the ladder geono. I didn't know that so it was good to get the answer. I see we are now up to 200 racers. =D> =D>

Just shows that if we don't ask, we don't find out....

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caughtatwork
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Re: Elevation for Dinosaur Racers

Post by caughtatwork » 06 September 18 9:52 pm

The elevation update link is now public in the geocache page, in the right have navigation. It's called "Update Elevation". Please don't abuse it by hitting it multiple times or on every cache you come across. If it gets abused and we get our access to the elevation API restricted we will have no method of updating any elevation data, so please use this wisely.

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