Re: GC7C6FW Find a physical cache in three continents

I believe vodgelbird has created a checker that can be applied to this challenge. It requires the user to

Find a physical cache in THREE continents

For the purposes of clarification:

- Country is defined as "region" at GC.com
- Continents are defined using the seven continents model: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America
- Caches logged before this challenge is published are ok
- You may not log your own caches (unless you subsequently adopted them)
- Acceptable cache types: Traditional, Unknown, Multi, Letterbox Hybrid, Wherigo, Project APE
- Non valid cache types: Event (any), EarthCache, Virtual, Locationless, Webcam

Many thanks for the selfless work you do for the benefit of the geocaching community,

RubyShoos

Here's a checker for you:

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC7C6FW/36240

Please test and let us know.

Knowing the CO of these caches I have tested this one - ?


Continent Country Found date type Cache
Africa Spain 2014-02-19 2.gif Mountain view Tenerife (GC2ZJZ0)
Europe United Kingdom 2004-04-24 2.gif From the Castle to the Friendly Woods (GCHT9R)
Oceania New Zealand 2017-09-23 2.gif Coast to Coast (Waitemata) (GC67CCQ)

Spain - Africa ??? - Tenerife is a Spanish Island but should not come under the continent Africa even though it is in waters off Africa

Tim

We recently had a discussion about the definition of continents. You will note a reviewer commented on that thread as well. There's a difference between political (country) ownership of e.g. an island versus where it's situated. The script used in this challenge deals with where they're situated. You even mentioned Tenerife is in the waters of Africa, which is why it's classified as being part of the Africa continent. Apart from the three island regions, all the other regions of Spain (political) will be classified as Europe and not as part of Africa.

Hi
I have just read that thread - and you say the reviewer commented as well - actually what the reviewer said (in a nutshell) was 'challenges involving continents isn't allowed'
However the person requesting those checkers (and they are similar to these requests) stated that GC had allowed those challenges (2,3,4 and 5 continents)
But that will be a problem with the checkers if they are mis-aligning certain countries to different continents
I dont want to cause an issue - but I know this CO is quite insistent (and rightly so) that finders do actually qualify correctly - based on the current checker status I would qualify for 4 continents when I know I have only found caches in 2 at least, 3 at the most - and if I listed the 4 as I have where it says Spain - Africa : I would quite rightly be challenged on this.
Having checked all 4 of these checkers it came up with the same results where it used Canary Island caches as Spain - Africa each time
I could argue that the checker says I do qualify so I should be able to claim (I wouldn't, but there are cachers out there who will) and as the whole basis of challenges post moratorium is they have to have checkers attached to the cache page then these need to be as accurate as possible - if they are not accurate then it creates a headache for the CO who is rightly going to want to have fairness throughout their checking logs process. In fact they should not have to check as the logger will quote 'PGC checker says'

The checker doesn't claim that Spain is part of Africa. It says that the specific REGION where the cache is located is part of the continent grouping named Africa.

PS: The reviewer (The Leprechauns) also said: "However, a challenge based on finding caches from a list of countries is permissible." In other words creating a grouping of countries and naming them a continent is allowed.

pieterix Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The checker doesn't claim that Spain is part of
> Africa. It says that the specific REGION where the
> cache is located is part of the continent grouping
> named Africa.

"Africa Spain 2014-02-19 2.gif Mountain view Tenerife (GC2ZJZ0)"

either way it is incorrect

Please identify Europe and Africa in this image. This is why GC2ZJZ0 is listed as Africa.

With respect pieterix - I fully understood what has been said and why - you do not need to explain with drawings :(

All I am saying is the checker is wrong and this will cause problems

Then I really don't know why you say the checker is wrong. GC2ZJZ0 is deemed to be part of Africa, since it's situated in the Africa continent area. This checker was based on the list as per the New World Encyclopedia and sourced from the United Nations Statistics Division, plus some minor changes to make islands that's close to continents part of those continents.

pieterix Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This checker was based on the list as per the
> [url=http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Lis
> t_of_countries_by_continent]New World
> Encyclopedia[/url] and sourced from the United
> Nations Statistics Division, plus some minor
> changes to make islands that's close to continents
> part of those continents.

I have read the above links - please supply the specific link to where it references, The Canary Islands as I can not find it, this isnt being critical I just can't see the reference
Thank you

Let me rephrase: the continent classification was done purely based on that list, with the exception of 3 regions which was deemed to be in another continent's waters. Those 3 regions are Islas Canarias, Ceuta and Melilla. These 3 are owned by Spain (which we all know is in Europe), but for the sake of this continent checker they're deemed to be part of the Africa continent given that they're in the waters off Africa.

Sorry - I seem to have missed this debate!

I think I will just have yo go with the checker for ease. I can see both positions. Countries (and continents) are ever-shifting geo-political boundaries, which makes pinning them down in a way that everyone is in agreement with is always going to be tricky - although I don't think anyone one would debate that Majorca is part of Spain which is a European country. Ceuta and Melilla are altogether a bit more contested.

I have sometimes been surprised by what Groundspeak deem part of a country, even within (or not!) the UK - which sometimes differs from my own preconceptions:

N Ireland is considered part of Ireland
Scotland / Wales are not considered unique countries

Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey considered unique countries

While I understand the debate, the challenges that these checkers serve are almost a year old (unpublished), so I think my options now are either scrap them or go with it.

I hugely appreciate the effort put in by the volunteers who create checkers and help keep challenges alive. I also appreciate DDM pointing out this anomaly so I can be forgiving when people use it in their claims!!

Thank you.

Sorry Rubyshoos - the decision obviously is yours
Tim