Additional user input fields for checkers?

Question

There is significant number of challenges, which are (yet) not possible to write a checker for - because there is needed some additional input from user apart from his nickname.

Typical example is challenge depending on user's home coordinates - it is sensitive info, not possible to call by API (and they are not always set in user's profile, of course).

But I can imagine solution: additional input field for checker - any coordinates - entered by user. This info would not be recorded anywhere, just used for single calculation of that specific checker.

What do you think?

Answer 1

This is possible through the API, as long as you run it on yourself. Of course with the requirement that you actually have them on GC.com.

This will be implemented in the future and is on the todo-list of new methods. But due to the integrity issues,it is a bit complex, since it doesn't fit the rest of the design.

This isn't the highest priority either. With one reason being that the current guidelines forbids these challenges. I am actually not even sure the existing challenges are valid, since the cache owner can not ask for your home coordinates, or in any way validate it.

Comments

Thank for quick reply, I must have missed this info somehow.

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Are you sure they are against guidelines? A challenge to log  1000 caches more then 100km from home was released this september http://coord.info/GC5DFNP and the guidlines has not been modified sincd 2013
There are many challenges with the requirement to do something in a country different from your home country

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Yes, I am sure. They are both against the guidelines.

The cache owner can not know your home location, and therefore can't check your result. That itself should make that challenge denied. Also, you should not have to give your home location away. I can imagine that it would be ok if the challenge had an alternative to pick a location of your choice.

Same with home country. But I guess this is depending on what reviewer gets it. I have personally gotten denied using "home country". But one can usually get around it by using terms like "the country where you have the most finds", which normally is the same thing. But that definitely depends on what the challenge is about.