naming of cache series

[mtrax]

Just wanted to know if there is an opinion on names of caches in a series?

The issue is mainly to do with how its display on GPS where the names are normally limited from 8-20 letters .
This means if you have a series of caches nearby on along a road it makes if very difficult to pick the names of these.

eg
my new cache series : blue
my new cache series : green
my new cache series : white

These become almost impossible when GSAK attempts to make them unique using "smart-name"

my advice would be to call them

blue: my new cache series
green: my new cache series
white: my new cache series

I know you can manually change them or use the GC code.. but really why create more work for people.

any other ideas..

[Jardry]

Just wanted to know if there is an opinion on names of caches in a series?

These become almost impossible when GSAK attempts to make them unique using "smart-name"

any other ideas..

There is an area in GSAK where you can put cache series names in and GSAK will replace the name when creating smart names.

Tools --> Options --> General
Smart Name (Section bottom right)
Conversions: whatever=we, my new cache series=cs,
or you can drop words all together - Conversions: my new cache series=,

Hope this helps - rather than having to get everyone to rename their cache series.

[Richary]

my new cache series : blue
my new cache series : green
my new cache series : white

These become almost impossible when GSAK attempts to make them unique using "smart-name"

my advice would be to call them

blue: my new cache series
green: my new cache series
white: my new cache series

<p>Problem with this approach is it is less obvious in the GPS they are part of a series (if that is important). Using initials in the description might be a better way:<p>MNCS Blue: My New Cache Series <p>would translate as MNCSBL and so on as opposed to BLUEMY, GREENM, WHITEM etc.

[mtrax]

in both cases it would require every one to mess around with there GPX database program eg GSAK rather than the cache owner updating there name once.
Note I'm not suggesting people change all existing series, just to keep it in-mind when they are building complex and long names for Caches, as most of us have to read the names on our GPS devices.

[Jardry]

in both cases it would require every one to mess around with there GPX database program eg GSAK rather than the cache owner updating there name once.
Note I'm not suggesting people change all existing series, just to keep it in-mind when they are building complex and long names for Caches, as most of us have to read the names on our GPS devices.

My approach using GSAK isn't messy and is configurable to the user of GSAK, remembering that it is only pertinent to the "smartname". It is the user who has the discretion as to what they want to do to deal with series names - either rename the "smartname" as suggested or leave it as is.

Most cachers use either the GCCode or SmartName as the main descriptor and then have the cache name and other details in whatever characters they have available for comments.

GSAK can display the "smartname" in a column which can be sorted, so not sure why the name of a cache series is a concern, assuming that the difficulty would be knowing which cache had been attempted.

[Big Matt and Shell]

...or you could just use the %code designator in GSAK and use a truly unique code <P>As the owner of a series like what is mentioned above with our Remembrance Driveway series. I would not change the name of our caches I think that the name needs to make sense. By using Remembrance Driveway at the start of each highlights that they are a series! Each cache has Remembrance Driveway and the Victoria Cross awardee. To name them in reverse would be....odd. <P>If you must use smartname then what Jardry has suggested is great. You could set up GSAK to show the above caches as RD - .......

[mtrax]

I guess your missing the point, what I am going for is an out-of-the-box experience ie NO changes required for it to work, I'm sure all these are easy but do actually need something to be done in either GSAK or easygps or mapsource or whatever.., clearly with some tweaking here and there alot of can be done, but not needing it in the first place surely is the best approach.

As to to making them easy to find, GSAK or GC have search features which can search for the whole name
eg My Cache series , regardless of where the name appears, and anyway the name constraint doesn't apply to PC or website, its a GPS issue so focusing on that should be the experience we are looking for.

thanks for your input so far...

[crew 153]

I find that a cache series where the naming has one common word followed by a descriptor is the simplest. A good example of this is a recent series in Brisbane called "Scrabble".

This helps to remember which ones of the series which you have completed. If they were named Scrabble #1 .. Scrabble #xx or Scrabble white..pink..yellow they then lose identity.

This also helps with smart names with the first word normally being shortened to the same characters for each cache. Although I must admit I forced GSAK to shorten it to "SCR"

[Facitman]

I guess your missing the point, what I am going for is an out-of-the-box experience ie NO changes required for it to work

I'm assuming you do mean no configuration required but you are still expecting people are using GSAK to end up with smart names in the GPSr or are you more talking about descriptions held in the GPS, with the GCCode as the waypoint ID? A straight Groundspeak GPX load into a GPSr?


If you are talking about how GSAK will treat descriptions when creating Smart Name Waypoint IDs then here's my take on it...

Some observations of cache series in Victoria and how smart names work

We have a few series in Victoria similar to your proposal. GSAK does a good job of creating clearly unique Smart names if the caches include a number. For example we have a series called Port of Sale which has 13 caches, the names are in the form "Port Of Sale X: <Description>" where X is the a number 1 through 13. Smart names created as PortOfSX or PortOfXX for 10,11,12 and 13. Pretty clear.

Another option is to prefix the name with a shortened identifier. We have the Business Traveller series, they all are named BTxxx where xxx is the number 1 through 15 in roman numerals, again GSAK makes a fair job at it. eg. "BT IV - The Beautiful People" becomes BTIVTheB.

Where it doesn't seem to work well is if you don't have a number and they start with the same long phrase. eg "Sherlock Holmes. Dash-Hound of the Baskervilles ", "Sherlock Holmes. The Sign of Dash" and "Sherlock Holmes. The Valley of Dash" giving Sherlock, Sherloco and SherlocH.

So, my suggestion is to include numbers even if the caches have text descriptions, red, blue etc. Seems to guarantee distinctive smart names

Peter

[mtrax]

Another option is to prefix the name with a shortened identifier. We have the Business Traveller series, they all are named BTxxx where xxx is the number 1 through 15 in roman numerals, again GSAK makes a fair job at it. eg. "BT IV - The Beautiful People" becomes BTIVTheB.

So, my suggestion is to include numbers even if the caches have text descriptions, red, blue etc. Seems to guarantee distinctive smart names

Peter

Thanks these are the sort of ideas or formats I'd like people to think about when creating series
thanks for the feedback