Re: Checker request for GCA3XD2

I will be needing a new checker as the Challenge for GCA3XD2 was declined by the Reviewer. Why? Contiguous countries are no longer the basis of a Challenge after some time in 2021. The reviewer suggested that I just edit GCA3XD2 to another challenge.

What I have in mind and have tentative agreement with the reviewer is a challenge to find a certain number of calendar months where the cacher has found 7 or more icons (Cachetypes excluding Labs and Benchmarks). The reviewer even suggested Bronze, Silver, & Gold levels.

Since I have no way to determining local qualifiers that I will need to know before I can submit the challenge for review I would like to know if you are aware of similar challenges that already exist. If you do have similar checkers that reports not just completion but how many qualifying months that cacher has completed. If you can locate current similar checkers I can use those to determine where to set the bar for the various levels.

So if you can send me the GC Codes of some representative challenge that would be a great place to start. If you can't let me know and I will get back and request a preliminary checker.

Here's a challenge for 8 types in all 12 months that you can use to find your qualifiers: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC86RQV/47725

The checker you provided is substantially different as this one collects icons over All January hides in the cachers history whereas I'm trying to determine 7 icons found in a given calendar month. And then require X number distinct months (Month & Year)

Using GSAK this provides distinct month with 7 icons:

Select Year_Mo, Cnt
From (Select Year_Mo, Count(CacheType) Cnt
From(Select substr(FoundByMeDate,1,7) Year_Mo, CacheType,Count(CacheType)
from Caches
Where CacheType not in ('Q','G')
Group by Year_Mo,CacheType
Order by Year_Mo, CacheType)
Group by Year_Mo
Order by Cnt desc )
Where Cnt > 6
Order by Year_Mo


Can you provide a checker that provides the number of qualifing months?

The concept you describe doesn't follow the guidelines so this sounds like a misunderstanding with your reviewer.

Matoran_Balta, could you please be more specific about which guidleline you believe it violated?

We are all human and make mistakes but my reviewer already reached out to other reviewers before I requested this checker. We are all learning.

What your asking for is timelinted caching. A specific number of caches (of different types) for a number of months. It doesn't matter if it's 7 caches per month or 700 caches per month.

Quote

Time-limited caching: as in some number of finds per day, week, month, or year. Examples: Busy Day, 50 finds in a day, 500 finds in a month, etc.
 

Thanks for your patience. Hopefully this challenge will be unique in my area and fits the challenge guidelines.

I need a checker that will check how many different cache types have been found on each calendar day (1st, 2nd, ...31st) over all months and years.

I'm planning on eventually publishing a bronze, silver, & gold versions this being the bronze.

To qualify for the bronze the cacher will have had to have found 2 different cache types on all 31 days (excluding Labs and Benchmarks)

When the cacher runs this checker if at all possible, I would like the checker to not only report qualification but also a simple chart/matrix of all 31 days with how many qualifying cache types that they have already found on each cumulative day.

Here is SQL that summarizes my idea. If you run this against me (GB' I have anywhere between 9 and 13 per day:

Select Date,Count(Cachetype)
From (SELECT substr(FoundByMeDate, 9,2) Date, CacheType, COUNT(CacheType)
FROM Caches
WHERE CacheType NOT IN ('Q','G')
GROUP BY Date, CacheType
ORDER BY Date, CacheType)
Group by Date

Here is the link https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCA3XD2/74717

Please test and reply

It works but I need to confirm that you are including Traditional caches. I have run it for a lot of my local cachers and I haven't noted any Traditionals in the results. I only requested that Labs and Benchmarks be excluded.

I also requested: When the cacher runs this checker if at all possible, I would like the checker to not only report qualification but also a simple chart/matrix of all 31 days with how many qualifying cache types that they have already found on each cumulative day. I need this information to determine the next two level of this theme.

I can confirm that Traditional caches are included in the checker.

For a simple matrix we require a new script. But before a scriptwriter spend time on this we need confirmation from your reviewer that he will publish this kind of challenges.

We noticed that too many reviewers do not publish this challenge criteria

Vogelbird,

I can certainly understand your position. I will go with what I have now with the understanding that once the Challenge is actually published your team will add that functionality.

Thanks for sticking with me as I work through this very confusing "time-limited" guideline where a day is not a day but 20 years of a day is a day

I will leave this request open till we hear from you

My bad for not spotting this previously. It was brought to my attention by my reviewer. The reviewer is ready to publish as soon as I have a working checker.

Here is a snippet of the current output of the checker:

"Find TWO types for every day of the month (1-31)"
1/1 2012-05-08 - GC11APZ - Spokane Basalt Waterfalls (Earthcache)
1/2 2015-04-25 - GC2RRZQ - California Here I come (Wherigo Cache)
10/1 2012-01-01 - GCZKCT - 9-Lives Litter Box (Letterbox Hybrid)
10/2 2016-08-30 - GCPG8W - Duck, It's a Beaver (Webcam Cache)
11/1 2012-10-14 - GC3WNCZ - GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit - Evergreen Museum (GPS Adventures Exhibit)
11/2 2021-09-29 - GC8M937 - Welcome to Rome ... It's the Cat's Meow! (Lost and Found Event Cache)

Look at the first two lines of the result. At first glance it looks good but closer look at the date of the finds neither of the finds are actually found on the first day of the month. They were found on the 8th and 25th

In the actually output some of the 1st through 31 don't even exist and some days show more than 2 of the same "day"

Next to line shows is prefixed by 10 but those caches are found on the 1st and 30th.

It would certainly be more logical sorted 1 through 31 and not as currently sorted 1,10,11...

I have disabled the checker at the moment and will look at this tomorrow

Thank you for your patience.

The checker was by accident created for hidden dates.

It s now altered to visitdays and at the same time the sort order is corrected

Thanks so much for all the help. The cache has been published. So now please add something similar to the table below at the end of the checker response. The table can be either vertical or horizontal. (This table is my personal data - GB's)

I need this data to be able to set the Silver and Gold level and it makes it easy for the users to see when they need to find more icons.


Day Icons
01 12
02 12
03 11
04 9
05 11
06 12
07 10
08 9
09 13
10 10
11 12
12 11
13 11
14 11
15 11
16 11
17 11
18 13
19 10
20 11
21 11
22 10
23 10
24 12
25 11
26 11
27 10
28 10
29 11
30 10
31 12

For testing you can use the example log of this checker
https://project-gc.com/Challenges//74838

That example allowed me to determine the levels for the Silver and Gold levels so that issue is complete.

Now this example checker shows :

"Day 01"
Qualifying 11 / 1, PASSED

I would have expected it to say "Qualifing 11/2 Passed" at this level (I suspect you will do this when you include this with the current checker)

Displaying the actual icon count in this format is OK but without "PASSED" as that would be confusing.

Thanks for all you have done.

I hope that a scriptwriter can make a proper generic script for this

Would something like this work? https://project-gc.com/Challenges//74843

Also, you should be aware that 7 would be the highest you'd be allowed to set the thresholds at for this exact type of challenge, as 8 or more would require at least two finds on the same date (and would therefore violate guideline 9).

The information is all there but for the checker recipient, it could be confusing.

So this is the first line:

01: 12 GC8M98G: Comm

Now you and I know that the 01 represents the first day of the month, and we know that the 12 represents that that particular recipient has found 12 different icons on that day.

The question is how to convey what I outlined above.

I'm thinking a title legend something like:

Day: | * | Qualifiers

and then at the bottom of after all the different qualifying days something like:

* This column represents how many different icons you have already found on this day of the month.

======================================================
Reference you comment on the highest being allowed: I believe you are incorrect because a Day as defined in this challenge is a "day of the month" whereas you are defining a day as a "day of the week"

Using myself as an example, I have been caching for 12 years that means that I have cached on each calendar day >144 times so I could easily have found a lot more than 7 in fact some of my local caching peers have found 15.

I sympathize that the challenge guidelines for "time limited" is poorly expressed.

Slight tweak to the output which might help clarity:
01 of any month: 12 GC8M98G: Community Celebration Wednesday Night Pizza!!!, 2021-09-01, Lost and Found Event Cache, GC2GP44: Playa, 2012-03-01, Earthcache,

As far as the limit of 7, that's because there are only 7 months with 31 days. If you require 8 different icons on each day, at least two of them would have to have been found on the same calendar date, which is not allowed. You would, however, be allowed to set the limit as high as 11 if you include an exception for 31st.

Quote
Not acceptable
Requiring more than one find on any day or calendar date, even if cumulative. Example: find 5 caches for every date of the Finds for Each Day of the Year grid.

Your tweak for clarity may have clarified the 01 which is not the problem. The problem that needs clarification is the "12".
I take it you don't like the idea of "Day: | * | Qualifiers" and at the bottom adding the explanation as I suggested or something similar.

=================================================
The not acceptable quote you mentioned does not address this cache because it's use of the word day is not how the word day is used in reference to this challenge. In this cache "day" means a collection of days spread over both months and years.

I had a similar conversation with my reviewer as we were really trying to really understand the acceptable vs. not acceptable portions of time sensitive. My reviewer ended up going to the reviewer forums to get straight what the differences really are. The reviewers agreed that defining a day as I have is acceptable.

Ah, sorry. Tweaked again with your suggestion.

Day: * Qualifiers
* This column represents how many different icons you have already found on this day of the month.

01: 12 GC8M98G: Community Celebration Wednesday Night Pizza!!!, 2021-09-01, Lost and Found Event Cache, GC2GP44: Playa, 2012-03-01, Earthcache,
...

The checker looks good. Thanks for sticking with this unique challenge.

Should I just change the link on the cache page or do you need to now associate this checker with GCA3XD2?

And if you should switch this over to GCA3XD2 is it possible to make the previous 2 disappear when the Project-GC user script lists the various checkers that have been associated with this cache?

I've tagged this one against your GC code. The updated URL is https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCA3XD2/74843

The other tags will have to be removed by Hügh and vogelbird.

Checker 74717 removed

@Hügh - can you remove checker https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCA3XD2/74358

Checker is removed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2023 08:05PM by vogelbird. (view changes)