Re: GC7HX4R – 6 oldest caches in six different countries

Good afternoon,

I am creating my first challenge cache, so I hope I do everything correctly.
Obviously, I would need a challenge checker, so I would be grateful for help with this.

The requirements to fulfil the challenge:
The six oldest caches you have found have to be in six different countries (as defined by geocaching.com/project-gc) and each at least 6000 days old.
Note: they do NOT have to be the oldest cache in that country (although they can, of course).

I hope this is clear.

Thanks a lot for you help,
k+gw+a

Here is the link to a checker https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC7HX4R/32317
The script do not allow me to use a minimum hidden date so it can not cater for the days you mentioned

Just test this checker and respond back

Thanks a lot for your quick reaction. However, the checker you linked does not check the requirements of the planned challenge.
The checker you linked checks whether you have found the oldest cache of x countries.
My challenge workes differently:
The six oldest caches you have found have to be in six different countries. It is irrelevant, however, whether they are the oldest caches in those six countries. To avoid making it too easy for people who have found only a few caches so far compared to colleagues with a lot of finds, only caches older than 6000 days would qualify for this challenge.

I am not sure whether I could insert a picture here, but if you check out my profile where my project-gc statistics are accessible you will see in the section "oldest caches found" what I would require. The six oldest caches I have found are in 6 different countries. (3 of those caches happen to be the oldest ones in their respective countries, the other 3 are not, but, as said, this is irrelevant for the challenge.) All six are older than 6000 days.

I hope the intention of the challenge (and, thus, the checker) is now clearer. If not, don't hesitate to ask again, of course.

Thanks,
k+gw+a

Can I set the checker at a fixed date lets say 2001-09-01? Because otherwise a new script has ta be adopted

The idea with the 6000 days was that it would fit well with the six countries and six oldest caches as well as with an intended play on words in the description.
But if this is difficult to implement, then, of course, I am happy also with a checker that sets a fixed date, e.g. 2001-09-01 as you suggest, which seems to be about 6000 days from today.

Thanks a lot!

Here is the link to the checker https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC7HX4R/32329

Please test and confirm

Good morning,

thanks a lot for the checker. It does not check the condition, however, that the six caches have to be the six oldest ones you have found. Could this be added?

Thanks,
k+gw+a

I'm sorry but all the script which I have looked at are searching for different countries in order of your finds. Once it has found a cache it goes on to the next country. So in your case it is always printing for the US GC15A3 Iva-Kay Each-Bay

In order to print the option shown in your profiel you will have to expand the condition of the challenge to:
Find 10 caches with a hidden date between may 2000 and august 2001 of which 6 caches are in different countries

Try this checker https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC7HX4R/32343

Okay, thanks. In principle this challenge would be very easy to check by classical methods as you only have to look at your project-gc statistics, look at the six oldest caches and check whether they are in six different countries and older than 1 September 2001. Only that now, of course, you need a checker to comply with the rules.

Just to be sure that I understand it correctly: a checker could not do exactly that, i.e. just check the six oldest caches?

(If this is not possible then I would probably drop the condition that they have to be the six oldest caches and use the checker version you linked above, i.e. to have found at least 6 caches older than 1 September 2001 in at least 6 countries.)

Checker 32343 is slightly different the condition is
Find 10 caches with a hidden date between may 2000 and august 2001 of which 6 caches are in different countries

Yes, I understood that. But I don't really like that one, for the following reasons:
1) If you have found more than 10 caches older than the threshold, the six countries would not even need to be amongst the 10 oldest caches you found.
2) Checker 32343 does not seem to add anything relevant as compared to checker 32329 (the second one you linked in this thread). I would like to keep the challenge condition as simple as possible, only using the "magical" number 6 (six countries, age > 6000 days and - if possible - your 6 oldest finds).
3) If I wanted to reproduce exactly my six oldest finds, of course I could just set the lower age threshold at 1 July 2001, but that is not the intention.

You misunderstood the checker because there always have to be 6 different countries among the 10 caches between may 2000 and august 2001. But anyway I can put this request up for a sriptwriter to see if he can make a better script ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2018 04:56PM by vogelbird. (view changes)

k+gw+a Wrote:
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> The requirements to fulfil the challenge:
> The six oldest caches you have found have to be in
> six different countries

I looked this conversation and I didn't fully understand the problem. This seems to be very simple and clear definition but it is possible that it may need custom script. Is this all? The six oldest finds must all be from different coutries? Nothing else?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2018 06:34PM by arisoft. (view changes)

And they must be 6000 days old

vogelbird Wrote:
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> And they must be 6000 days old

True, I missed this one ::o

Here is my version for this challenge: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC7HX4R/32366

I am little suspicious will this ever be accepted by a reviewer but let's see it.

Please tell us whether it is suitable for you!

Wow, that's great. As far as I can see it does exactly what it should do, thanks a lot. (A tiny little comment: if you have found less than 6 caches fulfilling the age condition (6000 days), the checker does not explain this and simply says something like "your 2 oldest finds are in 2 different countries", but this does not, of course, impede the good working of the checker.)
And yes, I am also a bit suspicious whether it will be accepted, but having read the (new) guidlines on challenges several times I cannot see anything that would not be in line with them.
So, keep the fingers crossed and thanks a lot for the checker!!!!

I was also thinking about what happens when there is not enough finds.

It is currently: "Your {number} oldest finds are in {different} different countries."

If you have an idea how to rephrase it, I can easily adjust the output.

Here's one way it might not be accepted:

There are currently seven caches still active in the world which were hidden in May 2000 (the first month geocaching was available). Five of those seven are in USA. If a cacher has found any two of these five, there is no possible way for them to qualify for your challenge.

More specifically, guideline 14 has as not acceptable:
Not finding caches: design that limits or punishes any element of finding caches. Examples: Challenges that require ratios in finds; such as 10% of finds must be Attended logs, challenges that require finding only some particular type for over time, as 100 consecutive Mystery finds.

If a cacher has found qualified for your challenge and then proceeds to find another cache in the same country as one of the five oldest caches which is older than their sixth oldest, they will no longer qualify for the challenge.

Okay, that's a fair point, thanks for pointing this out. Let's see what the reviewer says. If she/he thinks this is a problem I will drop the condition that the caches have to be your six oldest ones. I guess if it's "only" to have found 6 caches older than 6000 days in 6 different countries it should be watertight.

What about: "Out of your 6 oldest finds {number} caches are older than 6000 days and they are in {different} different countries."?

Summary is changed now.

Sumbloke is correct with guidelines. Your local reviewer will help you to adjust parameters to acceptable level if needed. For example, to allow more than six finds etc. The script is ready for this kind of adjustment.

Good afternoon,

first of all a big thank you for creating the checker for this challenge. Finally, after a somewhat lengthy discussion with the reviewer about other issues than the one we discussed, the challenge has been published in the original version. However, I have continued reflecting on the challenge and about the issue of the six oldest caches. Also some first feedback takes up exactly this question and what if somebody has already found two very old caches in the USA. Although I think it's really a marginal issue, it is strictly speaking correct that this would prevent the odd yankee from logging my challenge, so I was thinking of dropping the requirement that it be the six oldest caches one has found.
Would it be a lot of work to adapt the checker so that it only checks whether there are at least 6 caches older than 6000 days in six different countries?

Sorry for the inconvience and thanks already now,
k+gw+a