Project-GC Forum - Miscellaneous Topics that dont fit elsewhere, but still are related to challenge checkers. https://project-gc.com/forum/list?9 Sat, 30 May 2026 13:10:01 +0000 Phorum 5.2.23 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,124224#msg-124224 Re: Is this possible? Has it been done? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,124224#msg-124224 It would be best to ask your reviewer.]]> geoPetros Miscellaneous Sat, 30 May 2026 04:12:23 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123963#msg-123963 Re: Is this possible? Has it been done? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123963#msg-123963 at least 10,000 km. Thank you.

BB]]> birgenfamily Miscellaneous Fri, 29 May 2026 16:02:20 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123947#msg-123947 Re: Is this possible? Has it been done? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123947#msg-123947 The challenge "find two caches at least 10,000 km apart" may be publishable.
(exactly 10,000 km apart is not publishable)]]> geoPetros Miscellaneous Fri, 29 May 2026 04:04:13 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123940#msg-123940 Re: Is this possible? Has it been done? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123940#msg-123940
Quote

Challenges based on geographic areas other than countries, states/provinces, counties (or their local equivalent). Examples: user-defined mapping polygons, latitude/longitude, radius, etc.
]]> bmuzzin Miscellaneous Fri, 29 May 2026 02:23:48 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123937#msg-123937 Re: Is this possible? Has it been done? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123937#msg-123937
BB]]> birgenfamily Miscellaneous Thu, 28 May 2026 23:21:50 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123936#msg-123936 Is this possible? Has it been done? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123936,123936#msg-123936
The challenge would be to find two caches that are 10,000 km apart. (Note: the circumference of the earth is about 40,000km, so it is darn near impossible to find two caches that are 20,000km apart). I dug a little bit and found I found two caches (GC35HCN and GC22GZG) that are 12528 km apart (according to geocachingtoolbox.com).

This challenge doesn't seem to violate any of the challenge criteria. My main concern is the computational feasibility of a checker. I first looked at my most northern cache and most southern cache, but they were only 9800km apart. It seems the computation time may be o(n^2), which I think is bad.

So those are my questions: Does such a challenge already exist and is a checker implementable?

BB]]> birgenfamily Miscellaneous Thu, 28 May 2026 23:08:55 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123221,123223#msg-123223 Re: Two Checkers assigned to GCB54CJ https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123221,123223#msg-123223 geoPetros Miscellaneous Fri, 15 May 2026 11:12:25 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123221,123221#msg-123221 Two Checkers assigned to GCB54CJ https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123221,123221#msg-123221
don't know why but for cache GCB54CJ the site is displaying two different checkers.

wrong one: https://project-gc.com/Challenges//98876
correct one: https://project-gc.com/Challenges//104019

Please remove the wrong one for te above mentioned cache.

Thanks in advance,
BR wolv_007]]> wolv_007 Miscellaneous Fri, 15 May 2026 10:13:26 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,123152#msg-123152 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,123152#msg-123152 joeyblue Miscellaneous Wed, 13 May 2026 17:51:44 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,123151#msg-123151 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,123151#msg-123151 magma1447 Miscellaneous Wed, 13 May 2026 17:48:33 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,123150#msg-123150 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,123150#msg-123150 -------------------------------------------------------
> - Elevation ís not a part of geocache data from
> Geocaching.com.
> - Elevation is retrieved from a third party.
...

Hi,
I understand that elevation data are coming from a third party, not from geocaching.com.
But why the elevation data is changed now for each geocache?
Were the third party data wrong before and must now be corrected?
What is the reason?
I've the issue that the elevation of a lot of geocaches I found have decreased and the checker (of an elevation challenge) fails now because the sum falls below a threshold.
BR, joeyblue]]> joeyblue Miscellaneous Wed, 13 May 2026 17:45:52 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123136#msg-123136 Re: User doesn’t qualify https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123136#msg-123136 geoPetros Miscellaneous Wed, 13 May 2026 09:31:46 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123135#msg-123135 Re: User doesn’t qualify https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123135#msg-123135 KaiserVonChina Miscellaneous Wed, 13 May 2026 07:20:01 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123113#msg-123113 Re: User doesn’t qualify https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123113#msg-123113 https://project-gc.com/ProfileStats/dyna2000
June 17th missing
Probably logged labcaches only (and checker do not count labs)]]> geoPetros Miscellaneous Tue, 12 May 2026 15:35:27 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123112#msg-123112 User doesn’t qualify https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,123112,123112#msg-123112
I checked with my name, and I qualify. Then I checked with his name, and he doesn’t. Can someone smarter than me figure out what the issue is so I can respond to him?

Cache with checker: GC83AWD
User with the issue: dyna2000

Thanks!]]> Super_Nate Miscellaneous Tue, 12 May 2026 14:32:33 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120856,120896#msg-120896 Re: Kartenvergleich und signierte Challenges https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120856,120896#msg-120896 Thank you very much; that allowed me to create the GPX file I needed.]]> Freakyfinder Miscellaneous Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:39:51 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120856,120889#msg-120889 Re: Kartenvergleich und signierte Challenges https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120856,120889#msg-120889 Pleu Miscellaneous Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:14:00 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120856,120856#msg-120856 Kartenvergleich und signierte Challenges https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120856,120856#msg-120856
Das klappt soweit sehr gut; aber:
Mir fehlt ein Filter, um bereits signierte, aber noch nicht als "Fund" geloggte Challenges auszufiltern.

Hierzu habe ich keine passende Filteroption gefunden.

Vielleicht kann mir ja jemand eine passenden "Filtertipp" geben.

Vielen lieben Dank.]]> Freakyfinder Miscellaneous Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:42:00 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,109727,120567#msg-120567 Re: Removing a cloned tag https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,109727,120567#msg-120567 The old checker remains visible only for you because you are the owner of the tag.

If you had cloned a checker that was now disabled, you can't clone another one. Just tell us your challenge requirements and we can create a new checker for you. Please create a new thread for this.]]> geoPetros Miscellaneous Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:59:33 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,109727,120566#msg-120566 Re: Removing a cloned tag https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,109727,120566#msg-120566
Thank you for any help you can provide.

Kim
this2shalpas]]> this2shalpas Miscellaneous Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:57:15 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120506,120555#msg-120555 Re: can this be adapted to CANADA? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120506,120555#msg-120555 bmuzzin Miscellaneous Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:59:43 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120506,120516#msg-120516 Re: can this be adapted to CANADA? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120506,120516#msg-120516 geoPetros Miscellaneous Thu, 02 Apr 2026 03:09:20 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120506,120506#msg-120506 can this be adapted to CANADA? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,120506,120506#msg-120506
Would the format/criteria in this one still be allowed and could I adapt it to CANADA?
I've asked around, read other info, some say yes, some say no so I am asking the experts...

thank you very much...

GC9TYDJ - The Bingo Challenge (Australia)]]> freddycougar Miscellaneous Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:19:35 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120480#msg-120480 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120480#msg-120480 -------------------------------------------------------
> Ok, I think I found the problem now that the users
> reported proble again to be reappearing after it
> again had worked properly for some days.

You are right, more or less (mostly more). Your analyzes made me understand the issue.

I am in a hurry so I'll write this fast. Hopefully it's understandable.
- Elevation ís not a part of geocache data from Geocaching.com.
- Elevation is retrieved from a third party.
- To get geocache data into the system as fast as possible elevation data is handled in a post-process.
- We have rate-limits when fetching elevation data. We can do X calls per day, but we can also do many at a time. Therefore they are queued and we fetch for a few hundred at a time.

The real bug here is that the GetLowestCaches() sorts null as lowest. So when we are missing elevation data you are getting weird results. This bug already existed and could happen, and probably happened fairly often. While refreshing all our elevation data the queue is now longer, so increased chance of awkward data.

I have fixed the code to exclude the null values, which should only affect new geocaches. While we are refreshing all elevation data that could be for a day or two. A more normal flow is maybe an hour or so.

Thanks for being persistent and realizing where the issue was!]]> magma1447 Miscellaneous Wed, 01 Apr 2026 07:03:01 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120479#msg-120479 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120479#msg-120479
For reason or other the GetLowestCaches seems to be returning nil from time to time. This was the root cause for users seeing totally incorrect (too high) count reported by the checker as checker script (duh) incorrectly used user's found cache as the country's lowest cache when the method returned nil.
The script has now been fixed so that now it properly errors out if PGC method returns nil.

However I'm wondering why this method works properly from time to time and again why it doesn't. Ie why on some days the method returns those true values and on other days it returns nil for the same query? Does this perhaps have now something to do with the updates of elevations?

Most interestingly this error can be seen for many people that have visited at least few countries.

But interestingly enough, at the same time the method returns true value for someone that has only one country (Finland or Sweden) as query parameter.
---
(sm07)
WARNING: GetLowestCaches returned no data for 66 groups
Checking the lowest finds
Data unavailable for Czechia: cannot verify - skipping
Data unavailable for Denmark: cannot verify - skipping
...

(Anneli)
Fetching the lowest cache for 1 groups... 1s
Found the lowest cache for Sweden ... Till havs -93
Checking the lowest finds
Sweden: GC1KCDG,5 ≠ GC3R7DF,-93
Groups processed 1 of 1]]> sm07 Miscellaneous Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:32:55 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120140#msg-120140 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120140#msg-120140 -------------------------------------------------------
> I'm assuming this elevation update also causes
> strange behaviour on checkers from time to time?

I would say no. We are updating the elevation data for every geocache, slowly. The data (potentially) changes from one integer to another.

From the information provided I can't tell what the issue is, or if there is any.]]> magma1447 Miscellaneous Tue, 24 Mar 2026 08:30:01 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120067#msg-120067 Re: Elevation data change? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118037,120067#msg-120067
As during the spring I have now had few times cachers contacting me and asking why the checker is not working / has had its counts changing significantly back and forth / has shown false positive with hundreds of caches when in reality it should show less than twenty.

Last occurrence seems to have occurred on March 21 approximate 1800 EET, according to Finnish user/reviewer who reported seeing 208 hits on this
https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAVVKZ/94254
Whilst today it showed 15/20

And also non valid data was reported at the same time on this
https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAVVJ0/94269


Previous time concrete problems were reported was on 24.2. about problems related to same checkers (invalid "lowest/highest" recognised).

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC9ZRZF/73619

In addition to these I have had few less articulated queries indicating this has probably happened more times than just these]]> sm07 Miscellaneous Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:40:12 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118580,118584#msg-118584 Re: Correct challenge ? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118580,118584#msg-118584
I've read the guideline but i prefer but sure !!

Let's go brainstorming again]]> Cukcelte Miscellaneous Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:45:16 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118580,118582#msg-118582 Re: Correct challenge ? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118580,118582#msg-118582 geoPetros Miscellaneous Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:34:42 +0000 https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118580,118581#msg-118581 Re: Correct challenge ? https://project-gc.com/forum/read?9,118580,118581#msg-118581 #2 generally accepted, however ultimately up to the reviewer, since elevation isn't a geocaching.com "thing".
#3 not allowed - can't use cache title in challenge requirements
#4. not allowed - not allowed to require more than one find on any calendar day, even if cumulative.
#5. See #3
#6+7. Should be fine.

Guidelines are here:
https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=127&pgid=206]]> bmuzzin Miscellaneous Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:24:38 +0000