Re: "Furthest Cache Found" Challenge Checker Requested

I would like to get a checker for the three challenge caches listed below. I hope this is the correct way to make this request?

I currently have three challenge caches requiring finds that are at least 1,000 miles GC4V3E8, 2,000 miles GC4R8HM, or 3,000 miles GC5Q7T4 from your home coordinates.

For the geocacher, it is simple to see if you qualify by merely checking your profile page and looking at your furthest caches. This procedure is explained on the challenge cache pages.

As the cache owner, it has also been easy to validate if the geocacher qualifies by looking at the statistics page on their personal profile.

To comply with the new anticipated requirement for a challenge cache, could someone please create a checker for these three caches? I would assume since the only variable is the distance from the cacher's home coordinates, one checker could then be modified for the different distances.

Thanks and please let me know if you need any additional information!

Yes it can be done and it is the only case with distance from home because it can be found from the badges.
But i dont think a script that looks for it exist at the moment.

With the post-moratorium challenge guidelines you were not allowed to create challenges based on home coordinates. I think it's safe to believe this won't change (integrity). Yours are already published though.

I am unsure what Target is thinking when he says it's doable today. PGC's checker system does not support home coordinates. However, we might change this the coming weeks, but it's low priority since new challenges most likely won't need it.

For Project-GC to know the home coordinates of a user, that user has to have authenticated with Project-GC. First then, Project-GC can retrieve that information from Geocaching.com.

IF we implement support for home coordinates, they will only work for the checker if the user running the checker is the same as the checker it's run on.Does that makes sense? What I am trying to say that if I run it on myself, the home coordinates will exist for the checker, if I run it for you, it won't.

This also means that a Challenge Cache Owner won't be able to verify the results, since he can not run it for others, using their home coordinates.


Besides all that, you have understood the concept correctly. One script would need to be created, and the distance would then be a configuration option.

The checker is possible with the value from the "The Long-Distance Cacher" badge. It is the distance in km to your most distant find.
That value is the only distance from home data that the checkers can access.

I can think of a way to make it possible for a CO to "validate" the result ie that the pgc checker says that the cacher meets the requirement.
I think that it is easy to implement.

When the checkers are runned by the user or in the background the correct coordinates are known and the checker can produce a correct result.
If a new api metod is added to ask for the old result if the get home coordinates result null the checker can say that the result of the checker was ok or not ok.
No extra information is displayed except to say that the cacher did/didnot meets the requirements and almost no private information is leaked. But the user might be requested to post the checker output to the challenge log. That leeks information but not more then if they do it manually and if you dont want top show that you should not log that challenge

That will be easy to code on checkers that only looks for the distance. And for mor complex challenges the distance part will always be shown as falls until the whole challenge is completed.

It it not quite true that no information is leaked by saying that a user meet a requirement but for normal distance challenges the information will be minimal.
To reduce information leak further you could add the requirement that the old ok result is only return if the user have logged the challenge. By doing that they have already said that the they are ok with releasing that information

Smart thinking about the BadgeGen data, didn't realize that.

Using saved/cached results is another topic. There are many ways that could be implemented in the future, if needed. Public/private keys being one of the better and more advanced for example.

But, have the cache owner being able to verify by other means than trusting the user isn't the usual case for most challenges today, so I don't think it's a necessary step 1 solution. Maybe in the future though.

Now it got a bit off topic. But we can agree on what you said from the start. It's possible to create a checker for this request.

A script is created and the challenges tagged
http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4V3E8/20273
http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4R8HM/20274
http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC5Q7T4/20276

It has som limitations because it uses the badegen badges data from the "The Long-Distance Cacher" badge
The accuracy of the distances are in integer km
So to not hide rounding errors the checker cant user miles.
I have rounded the distance down a integer km distance.

And only people that have logged in to pgc can be checked. Else the "The Long-Distance Cacher" cant be generated. the checker result in error if no distance is known

Thank you very much Target. I have uploaded the scripts to the appropriate challenge cache pages and eagerly await my first cacher to give it a try.

If I understand correctly, in order for the geocacher to successfully use the checker, they will first need to be a registered user of Project GC? If cache visitors receive the error message you listed, I will instruct them to register with Project GC and retry the checker.

Thank you again for your assistance, it is greatly appreciated.

To use the checker, they must authenticate with Project-GC, which is what is needed. So normally it's not a problem.

It's a problem for user X to run the checker for user Y if user Y never authenticated with Project-GC though.

But how fast is the badges generated? can it take 7 days for them to be generated?

You don't register with project-gc but login with your gc.com account.
Then pgc knows you home coordinates if a am not mistaken.
And you have to wait for the stats to be generated. it is done every 7 day for non paying members.
I have no idea if a first login will trigger a regeneration of stats. You might have to wait 7 days for an update.
It is probably easier to look at their gc.com stats if the distace grouping there is appropriate

I think this is the only checker that has this problem. All other checkes should have the correct data directly

I should know since I have built it, but I do not think that one has to wait for 7 days. The Profile stats should render straight away, as long as there isn't a cached version, which could exist if someone else has viewed the Profile stats lately.

If there is a cached version, it's fairly recent data anyway (<= 7 days).

One could say that this is a case that needs some improvements, and are a bit unreliable, and not the least, hard to understand.

The fact is that this checker is built in a way that wasn't really intended, but it's still a smart workaround.

Thank you very much for your assistance with this checker. i look forward to future cachers being able to use this checker to see if they qualify.

Me and Target just had a short discussion off the forum. Another issue you could hear of is that it doesn't work for some users.

If they haven't added home coordinates at Geocaching.com, it will obviously fail as well, since Project-GC then doesn't have them either.

I assume you are aware of that it's fairly easy to cheat by moving home coordinates. But that's life I guess.