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0 votes
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I just noticed that Project-GC does not acknowledge my find of a cache in Sierra County, CA.  My only find in that county is a mystery cache which has a final location in the county, but the posted coordinate location is outside.  Is there a way that I can have this find counted as a county find?
in Support and help by Kelsoboom (120 points)
To only way to fix it is to ask the CO to move the question mark to that county.
If i is appropriate i this case i don't know
OK, I can see that the CO could fix this, but the strange thing is that both GSAK and mygeocachingprofile.com give me credit for this cache as being in Sierra County.  I'm not sure why Project-GC should reach a different conclusion.  Any idea why?  Do they use different algorithms to determine cache location, or perhaps different databases?
GSAK uses corrected coordinates if you have moved the cache. I have never used the website.
PGC only uses the listing coordinates. There in no guarantee that corrected is available.
And so it is consistent with other stats in the website.
Hmmm.  I must say I remain puzzled.  The cache in question is GC10PAY.  When you zoom in to the Google Map, the icon is displayed about 40 feet over the state line into Nevada.  But the solved cache location is in California, which is where I found it.  However I never corrected the coordinates on the cache page, I simply logged it as found.  And another funny thing, although the Google Map displays the icon in Nevada, the Geocaching.com listing says "In California, United States".  Is it possible that both GSAK and Geocaching.com are accessing the (hidden) location of the final as their reference?

I agree that this whole issue could be resolved if the CO could be persuaded to move the posted coordinates 50 feet west, but this is an interesting puzzle.
Geocaching.com uses the state selected by the CO. It is not determined by the coordinates.

GSAK uses the gc.com data if you dont ask it to recacluclate the state.
If it changes on corredted is configurable if I am not mistaken

I would not trust the borders on google maps they are often incorrect. I have logged a cache on a border in Sweden that was 12 km from the border on google maps
In the US i would trust the USGS maps that are by definition correct if I man not mistaken.
Can be added with Geocaching Map Enhancements http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

pgc uses the tiger polygons in the us if I am not mistaken
http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger.html
If you change the map to osm the left borde line on the map it tagged that is uses tiger as source.

If i am not mistaken it more often the CO have set the incorrect state then the polygons are incorrect. But there will often be problem nere the borders.

A reason to calculate the state is because the countys are calculated from the polygons and it would be strange if the cache was in Washoe County (NV) and in califonia in the data


And always log a cache not on the border to get a new county, You never know if ti is moved or the polygonsa are updated. I would find a cache a few hundred meters from the border to be sure

1 Answer

+3 votes
Project-GC always uses the posted coordinates of a cache to figure out where it is located. This can't be changed, at least not at the moment.
by pinkunicorn (Moderator) (194k points)
And in my humble opinion it shouldn’t. Like with a multi cache it’s inherent in a mystery that you can’t know in the beginning where the final will be. The only useful geographical attribution is therefore where the header co-ordinates point to. Of course, it would be ideal if COs would put their header co-ordinates in the same administrative unit as the final (unless there is a compelling reason why not to, long multi e.g.).
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