List nearest 10 qualifying geocachers for a challenge based on a set of coords.

Question

It would be handy if there was a feature (perhaps a premium/paying feature), that you can specify a challenge checker and specify a set of coordinates and the feature would return a list of the nearest 10 geocachers that meet the requirements.  Or, maybe list up to 20 in ascending distance order, so that one could choose among the list for other criteria.    This would be useful if a geocacher would like to hide a duplicate to that challenge in their area (at the given coords) and needs to provide the reviewer with a list of 10 area geocachers that qualify.   I know you can check individual geocachers names for each checker, but for more challenging challenges, you might have to check dozens to even hundreds of likely geocachers and might not remember to check a few that do qualify.    I know Project-GC is constantly checking all premium/paying members to see if they qualify for challenges, so I assume getting a list of those premium members that had qualified for a challenge would not be a big processing hog.   I do not know if it also checks the non-premium members automatically (and just not allow them to know), or if this process would need to do a check for each non-premium members on the fly.   If the later, that would be a good reason to make this feature a paying member feature.

Comments

I was reading the challenge cache guidelines at this link https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=127&pgid=206
and came across this sentence under the acceptable table/matrix of rules:

"Please do not submit a challenge cache in an area where a very similar or identical challenge cache already exists."

Food for thought regarding duplicate challenges.

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It is new to me that you would have to provide the reviewer with a list of nearby geocachers (any number) that qualify. Has this been demanded??

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Yes, you do need to provide a list of local cachers that would qualify for a challenge cache and submit it to the reviewer when submitting the challenge for publication. While it doesn't say that it's "required" it is asked for in the cases where I've submitted challenges.

From the Challenge cache guidelines:
2.15. Challenge cache subjectivity
“A challenge cache needs to appeal to and be attainable by a reasonable number of cachers. Your reviewer may ask for a list of cachers from your area who qualify.”

This guideline aims to ensure that a challenge cache is obtainable by a reasonable number of players. If only a few people can find and log a challenge cache, then it’s almost like a private cache. (And private caches aren’t permitted on the website.)  The “reasonable number” of cachers must reside in the area where your cache is placed.

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That was new to me indeed. Thanks for the explanation, I can see now why this makes sense.

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@ TigreToot: I think the idea was that if I find a challenge in Australia that I wanted to make a  duplicate of in Norway, I would have a tool to see if enough Norwegian geocachers nearby qualify.

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You also may have problem with privacy (GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation in europe), except if geocachers have given their explicit consent to use their coordinates for other it is forbidden. It is not a speculation, this is a legal matter.

This added after commented Jul 17 by Starkacher
Even with grouping you could result in only one geocacher in a certain range that makes him recognizable among all. (This is also because of that that the closer and the farthest caches are not shown in your "My Home Location Statistics"

This added after commented Jul 19 by TigreToot
You right, re-posted as comment

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@LordWadar I respect your opinion but the original question and description did not specify a duplicate challenge to be set up in a different country.  I was only providing input from guidelines that I discovered on geocaching.com and not criticizing the idea of the original question.  In fact I think the tool idea is a good one.

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@TigreToot My intent was as @LordWarder states.   That I would like to be able to duplicate a challenge that I found in another US state or even in the same state that may be more than say 100 miles (160 Km) away.     If it were closer, you could likely just use the list of people that found it as a starting point and find those that ARE locals from that list.   If it is that far away, most of the people that found it are probably not close enough to be considered local.

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If the resulting distances are given in whole miles (or kilometers) or groupings of miles 0-5, 5-10, etc, the exact home location would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine.   Or, the list can just be sorted by distance without actually stating the distance.    That would still be useful.  Also, a geocacher's inclusion in these results could (and likely would) be determined by the Geocaching.com Opt-Out feature that prevents personal data from being shared through the API.   So again, I don't think that privacy would be an issue.

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@Pepegeo your response does not actually answer the question and is based on speculation rather than facts. It is more appropriate as a comment and not an answer. Please consider following your own protocols by converting your answer to a comment as you requested I do the same in this thread https://project-gc.com/qa/?qa=24687/menu-tools-gallery-show-picture-in-double.

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Thanks @Starkacher for explaining.  I decided to hide both of my comments since I felt they did not actually contribute to the discussion.

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I personally think any thoughts are valid as it may shine light on an idea that was not considered by others.   Everyone has a slightly different prospective.

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I understand and thanks for being candid.