Why is my gaming the Lonely Caches Stats not working?

Question

We have this local "unchallenge" that we are working on. https://coord.info/GC7MD77 So Tung8 and I decide to mess with our Geocaching buddies to change our dates on our hides, have PGC refresh in a day or two, have enough lonely finds, then go log a fake find on the "UnChallenge". Once we were discovered and all our friends called us out, we would delete our logs, and go put the dates back to what they originally were and work on the UnChallenge as it was intended to be done. 

Well we changed our dates at least two weeks ago and the frustrating part is only three of them have actually worked. So we are super frustrated that PGC is only recognizing three of the changes and not the rest. 

Here is the stat page we are using. 

If you look at my 10 oldest hides and Tung8's oldest finds, you will see the caches that should now be on that list, but aren't. So what at PGC is changing KCC LCC: Temblor Cooler and Valley View to be properly lonely based off of our listed "hidden date", but not caches like Benchmark Multi or Confluence 2 4 1? This has been really frustrating and now it is more of a logical thing that we just have to understand and the joke has lost its significance. Why would PGC change three of them, but not all of them? Is there some sort of built in mechanism to catch this? Why didn't it block them all? The logic behind it is now the focus. Thanks for any input you behind the scenes types could explain so we just know. 

Why would we do this? For fun! We enjoy good banter with our Geocaching friends. But PGC has got the better of us on this trick that so far has largely failed!!!

Answer 1

Edits to caches send no notifications to Project-GC so it takes a long time for us to detect them. If the cache is logged it will happen, but that's not quite what you want, presumably. It's also possible to request a refresh for a cache using Support -> Self-sipport.

Comments

That makes some sense. Again, figuring out the logic is our new goal!

So do you think a write note will work? Maybe log a find with one of my family member's accounts and then delete it after it registers? Will the delete get it to refresh?

Thanks for your quick help!

---

The more salient question is: Why is Project GC basing ANY stats off the Hidden Date?  The ONLY date that should be used for such purposes should be the Published date, which cannot be manipulated in any manner.

Note to Wes. I stumbled across this inconsistency last night when I was looking to see which BCS caches itvguy, RCKen, and fastflyer logged on Saturday.  This is one of the few on the Backslash that I don't yet qualify for, so I ran the Lonely Caches filter to see where I stood.  Obviously one as supposedly lonely as KCC LCC : Temblor Cooler attracted my attention.

(not that I'm against messing with my caching buds - ask me about fastflyer and a certain TB sometime -  but those not in on the joke could spend energy barking up a wrong tree)

---

Older caches don't have a publish date.

---

Yes, it is true that older caches (pre-2005) do not have a Publish date.  But if a cache does have a Publish date, that is the date that should be used!