The lost “archives” of caches in NB
As some of you may already know, once a cache is archived, there is no “easy” way to find it again. The most common way of finding an archived cache is to look in the finds list of a fellow cacher and look for the finds that are crossed out. If you know someone who has found a cache that has been archived, you just need to look at their profile to find a link to the original cache listing.
There currently is no actual search or pocket query function that allows you to search for caches that are now archived. I have heard that this option did exist at one point but has been gone for some time. It got me to thinking…
Is there any interest within the NB geocaching community in trying to create a master archive list of all of the old caches that are now no longer easily visible on geocaching.com? Do you have any interest in going through old cache listings that are now archived to learn a bit more about caching from years gone by?
I had come up with an idea of how to compile such a list. Since archived caches are included as part of your “My Finds” pocket query, if we compiled together enough of these (contributed by various cachers), especially from folks who have been caching a long time and have done a lot of the province, it would not be too hard to build a GPX with all of those caches listed. It might not contain every single last one of them, but I would bet we could probably get most of them.
Would anyone out there be interested in such a list?
I have not been around long the caching community, but it would be very interesting to see. I dont think however I would be able to contribute much, just a few archived caches on my finds query!
Since i started using GSAK I’ve done regular PQ’s of the entire province and as time goes by the archived caches stop showing up and as such I’ve moved them into a database by themselves so far I’ve got 769 archived caches for NB since march of 09 anything before that is from my “myfinds PQ”.
now Jim52 should be able to contribute as according to his profile page he’s got 2859 archived caches that should show up in his myfinds!!
I’m thinking anyone who has had a LOT of finds in NB would be able to help big time with something like this.
well then lets start those that would like to contribute send me via my profile page a copy of your myfinds (or just the archived caches) and i’ll find a place for the gpx file to reside on the internet.
If you need some place to host this file let me know, I have a website that I don’t really maintain anymore and it’s part of a reseller hosting account I have. I could set you up an ftp account and all. Just let me know.
I can send you mine.
Insp Gadget would have earlier ones also.
denis that would be great just e-mail me the details and we’ll get going with this project
Allright, I’ll create you an account tommorow morning and will email you the details.
i’ve got around 200 or 300 that show up in my list. i will run a new one as soon as I am allowed and send it to you.
..does anybody else hate that stupid once a week rule?
vb, I just created the account and sent the information via the geoacaching.com contact method. If you need anything else do not hesitate.
TH: Yeah, I think a week is a bit long to wait in some cases. I assume they must have their reason. Could it be that the 10K+ caches query put some stress on the server and they don’t want them to possibly run each day ? I mean every other queries can run each day for a maximum of 1000 caches. That’s the only thing I can think of anyway.
So are we just sending our “finds” pq to you VBpad?
yeah that sounds good unless something else is suggested
Yes Yes Yes! Please, thank you!
What email address do I send my gpx file of archived caches.
vbpad@nbnet.nb.ca
so thanks to jim52 i now have a database of 2251 archived caches in the province!! anybody that want’s to look through these just send me off an e-mail and i’ll send them along. lots of history here just browsing around the areas is very cool.
Nice, I would take a copy whenever you’ll have time. I’d like to see what’s been around here. I have a few archived one, but jim52 must have done them all haha. I will compare mine to your list and if some stick out I’ll let you know.
Do you still need the hosting space or can I delete the account ? I saw that your post with the URL has been deleted from here so I take you guys will come up with another way to distribute it. Thanks for letting me know, I just don’t want to leave unused account on that domain.
Delete it.
I think it’s better to do this as a person to person exchange to minimize the chances that someone could lose their GC account for violation of the TOS. I’m currently in touch with Groundspeak about specifics of what is and is not allowed.
Ditto. Just wanted to make this exchange easier but to be honest I completely forgot about the TOS, my bad. Thanks for the heads up.
I hope I eat my words… but they dont want us to know just how much geotrash there is out there because it puts a bad light on geocaching.
Going with Tetagoucher’s thought, maybe groundspeak should give a special icon/happy face for the one cacher who goes out to get the trash after a cache is being archived for good (post a picture of the geotrash as a proof! LOL ) . Good incentive to some and good for the environment. I think I’d be proud to have some of those special finds.
That may give me an idea of going out there just for the heck of it. I think I may as well do it for the ones I can find in my list. I was on a repair spree lately; I will now be on a get the geotrash out spree.
Another cacher once sent me a list of caches he had archived which he never went out and got. He said that if I was bored, I could go out and pick them up and log them as finds which would give me more finds and clean his mess up.
I did a few but since have sort of left it. I mean, I don’t want to see trash out there but I also don’t want to actively go out and clean up messes other people have left simply because they are too lazy to do the work themselves.
Zor – I would be interested in the archived but still in the wild cache list. I enjoy finding these little gems!
looks like the the beta8 of gsak you can include archived caches in your request for caches from the gc api. they come in without the coords but going to the cache page from gsak will bring you to the full cache page.