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Help: Atlas Quest

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Sub-Categories: Account Info & Preferences · Adding/Editing Letterboxes · AQ Mail · Blogs · Chat Rooms · Events & Gatherings · Exchanges · Help · My Page · Navigation · Online Logbooks · PDAs and Cellphones · Profiles · Recording Finds · Registering & Logging In · Tutorials

  1. What's up with the chick logo?
  2. Who is the webmaster here?
  3. How can I help support Atlas Quest?
  4. What RSS feeds are available on Atlas Quest?
  5. What browsers are supported by Atlas Quest?
  6. How do I rate a letterbox that I've already found?
  7. How are blue diamonds assigned to letterboxes?
  8. What are "blue diamond" boxes?
  9. How do I purchase a Blue Diamond Worthy Letterboxer patch?
  10. How are 'hit counts' counted?
  11. How can I find letterboxers in my area?
  12. What do I do if PayPal canceled the subscription for my premium membership?
  13. How do I purchase a gift membership for someone?
  14. Why do retired boxes have blue diamonds?
  15. Are you on Facebook?
  16. Why did my blue diamond disappear?!
  17. How does the Online Members page work?

What's up with the chick logo?

You mean Marjorie? Back in the early days while developing Atlas Quest, Amanda started taking amusing pictures of the chicks in common letterboxing situations. Just for kicks, mind you, but when Ryan saw them, he realized that a couple of the pictures could fit with the tutorials on the site. They were so popular, Amanda and Ryan looked for other places to put the chick—now named Marjorie since she's yellow like margarine. It became a theme of sorts. After deciding on the name Atlas Quest for the website, Amanda and Ryan thought it would be funny to have the chick holding the world on its back—just like the Greek legend of Atlas. Next thing you know, Marjorie had a full-time job on Atlas Quest as a mascot.

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Who is the webmaster here?

The Green Tortuga, a.k.a. Ryan Carpenter. While he might be the mastermind behind the operation, however, there are a lot of supporting actors and actresses who've helped contribute ideas, comments, and tested various features. For technical help, Wes—a former mastermind behind letterboxing.org—has been invaluable. For ideas and suggestions, Amanda from Seattle has been a driving force of inspiration. But ultimately, it's the Tortuga that makes the final call on features and changes.

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How can I help support Atlas Quest?

If you think of any ideas to improve this site, share them! Depending on the complexity and changes required, it may take months before new feature can be added. And other ideas may ultimately be chucked for insurmountable implementation details or set aside for higher priority ideas, but all ideas for improvements are read and seriously considered.

Financial help in the form of subscriptions or purchasing goods and services through our affiliates will help fund improvements. The hosting expenses itself are not too bad, but the only reason Ryan can work full time, every day of the week, rarely taking a day off from monitoring and running Atlas Quest is because he does not have a 9-to-5 job to occupy his time. The plus side, of course, is that he can be around to answer questions, develop new features, and keep the site running smoothly. The down side, of course, is the lack of income, and it's help through premium memberships that Ryan can purchase food, clothes, and other necessities without having to get a real job.

Premium members are often very helpful in testing new features. Since they do help keep Atlas Quest financially afloat, premium members sometimes get sneak previews of up-and-coming features and can kick the tires for problems before the feature is realized to a wider audience.

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What RSS feeds are available on Atlas Quest?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for distributing web content (often news headlines or message posts) to another location of your choice. For most people, it's entirely unnecessary so if you know nothing about RSS or XML, don't worry about it. You aren't really missing anything you can't find on My Page.

But for those who do know what RSS is, these are the feeds currently available:


Search feeds are also available. Whenever you run a search for boxes, trackers, events or groups, the results page will have a feed built into it that more-or-less mirrors your search results. Just use the "Subscribe to feed" feature on your browser. Since most people who use RSS feeds are interested in newly listed stuff, the feed won't mirror your search results exactly. Instead, it'll only display matches if the box, tracker, etc. has been created or modified within the past month, and the results will be ordered so the most recently modified objects come first. And it'll only display a maximum of 20 results.

And finally, there are message board feeds. Run a Message Boards Search to view the messages you would like to create a feed for. (Keep in mind, you cannot create a feed if pick a specific message number, so don't use that second form option on the page.) A feed will automatically be included with the search results. Like the box search feeds, it won't mirror your search results exactly, only displaying a maximum of 20 results. The one catch to be weary of is that if you are not logged in, the feed will not work with restricted boards. So if you create a feed for the Premium Members Only board, for instance, the feed will be empty if you are not logged in or not a premium member.

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What browsers are supported by Atlas Quest?

Firefox is the recommended browser. It's a solid browser that works on almost all types of systems including PCs and Macs with an extensive source of extensions to customize your needs. It's also the main browser the webmaster, Ryan, develops the site with so is the most unlikely to experience problems.

Internet Explorer, however, is the most used web browser, and Atlas Quest works well with all versions of IE equal to or greater than 6.0. If you use IE 5.5 or lower, you will need to upgrade. If you use Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems, it is recommend that you upgrade to version 7.0 or greater. While IE 6.0 will work on Atlas Quest at this time, it is a very buggy piece of software that does not comply with many technical standards, so support for version 6.x will eventually be phased out as the number of people using it decreases.

The latest versions of Safari, Opera, and Chrome should work without any trouble. Ryan does test the site occasionally with these browsers but usually only to find cosmetic problems. Firefox and Internet Explorer are tested much more thoroughly.

For those who prefer the Mac, the latest versions of Firefox and Safari should work fine. Ryan does not own a Mac, however, and therefore does almost no testing at all with Mac versions of the browsers. Firefox should work well since the browser also works on a Windows machine which is extensively tested. Older versions of Safari are known to have issues and will not work well.

Do not use Internet Explorer for Macs. Microsoft has stopped supporting IE for Mac and the browser is terribly outdated. Atlas Quest will not work with IE on Macs and never will. While Atlas Quest generally should work with Netscape, since official support for that browser has stopped, we will no longer try to support Netscape. Eventually, the Netscape browser will fail to work correct, and we will not try to make it work. The browser is dead, and you should change to some other browser before this happens.

To log into Atlas Quest, you must have cookies on your browser enabled. Most of the website should work fine if JavaScript is disabled, but there are a couple of features that rely heavily on JavaScript so it is recommended that you leave it enabled.

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How do I rate a letterbox that I've already found?

Blue diamonds are assigned to letterboxes based on votes by AQ members who've recorded finds on the letterbox. To view your votes, change them, or vote on letterboxes you've previously not voted on, use the Record Ratings page. You can also check out your voting statistics.


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How are blue diamonds assigned to letterboxes?

Those who find a letterbox have the option of recording their opinion of the letterbox on a scale from 1 to 5. And no, you cannot rate your own letterboxes—there is too much conflict of interest in allowing that. How you vote will never be exposed publicly. Administrators and webmasters on Atlas Quest can see how you voted if they need to, but that is not likely to happen since they have better things to do with their lives than worry about what you think of other people's letterboxes.

The actual calculations used by Atlas Quest to rank the letterboxes is a secret to discourage people from trying to 'beat the system.' It's not a simple calculation. A variety of factors is taken into account to determine rankings such as the voting history of each finder, their experience level, and even the standard deviation of how everyone voted on a given letterbox.

Once each month, Atlas Quest runs these calculations then assigns blue diamonds to the top 5% of the letterboxes.

Resources
Your Voting Patterns
Record Votes

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What are "blue diamond" boxes?

Blue diamond letterboxes are the highest ranked letterboxes based on anonymous votes cast by people who've found letterboxes.

Obviously, not all letterboxes can be blue diamond boxes. First, the brutal truth: Some letterboxes are better than others. Most letterboxes, by definition, are average. There is no shame in this—even the most average letterboxes are delightful to find. But to give recognition to those that create particularly memorable letterboxes and help those in unfamiliar territory to narrow down an often bewildering number of boxes in an area, Atlas Quest picks out the top 5% of boxes—based on the anonymous votes—and highlights them by including a blue diamond as one of the attributes.

It's not a precise science, and boxes with no finds (and therefore no votes) won't have blue diamonds no matter how good they are. Letterboxes with very few votes may be skewed if the people who found it judge a box differently from you. Or, it might be that your idea of the "perfect" letterbox is very different than the normal person on Atlas Quest, and thus the blue diamonds end up on all the wrong boxes from your point of view. And finally, some people have opted out so their boxes will never get a blue diamond no matter how great they are.

To help prevent a lot hurt feelings, you will not be able to see who nor how people voted and rated your own letterboxes. The only thing you will ever know about how the votes might have gone is based on whether a blue diamond shows up next to your letterbox or not, and there's no shame if you do not receive the blue diamond—95% of the letterboxes listed on Atlas Quest will not have them.


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How do I purchase a Blue Diamond Worthy Letterboxer patch?

There is no criteria or hoops to jump through to get this patch. Even if you HAVE a blue diamond, there is no guarantee you will have it tomorrow, so this patch says LetterboxER instead of Letterbox. You may not have a blue diamond at this time, but if you are a BD in your heart and manner, by treating others with kindness and respect and doing your best to be a positive contributor to the letterboxing hobby, you qualify. Use the patch to inspire you to explore cool places, write awesome clues, and carve beautiful stamps!

Patches are $3 a piece and can be paid with check, money order, cash or Paypal. Paypal payments can be sent to Lock Wench at lockwench@yahoo.com. Checks should be made out to "Cyndie Long". Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (1 stamp for every two patches) and mail it to:

Cyndie Long
218 Clairmonte Ave
Syracuse, NY 13207
Those of you who have my Syracuse address still can use that as well, as I still own a home there. I just get my mail about once a month, instead!

And for those who are interested, if you would like am image of Lock Wench's adult only stamps, just say you want "the bonus" when you order!

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How are 'hit counts' counted?

If you have a clue hosted on Atlas Quest, the site will try to keep track of the how many people have viewed your clues. The numbers are available on the box details page, and only the person or persons who planted or own the box can see the counts, and this number is called the 'hit count.' Only AQ hosted clues will have hit counts since there is no way for Atlas Quest to count the number of people viewing clues on remote websites.

As a general rule of thumb, each time someone views your clue, it counts as a single hit. If they view your clue multiple times in quick succession, for instance someone who goes to your clue and hits the refresh button repeatedly in their browser to boost the count, only the first hit will count. Only viewing the actual clue will count as a hit—someone viewing the box details page will not.

Hit counts are not a precise science. Some of the hits are caused by spiders, a technical term for things like search engines that crawl through the web looking for web pages to add to their search results. Two hits by different people using the same computer may only get counted as a single hit. And hits only count when someone views the actual Atlas Quest hosted clues. Views to cached clues do not get counted, so people who download clues to their PDA or print several clues to the same page—both of which display cached versions of clues—will not be counted. Nor will virtual boxes that are solved on Atlas Quest—the displayed clue is actually a cached version of the clue and not the real thing.

It's a fuzzy number at best, but it could give you a sense of which boxes people are looking at and which ones they're passing over.

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How can I find letterboxers in my area?

Atlas Quest does not require that people include their location when signing up for an account, so there is no systematic method to search for letterboxers based on where they live. Someone might choose to list that information in their profile, but since there is no standardized form for entering the location or error checking to insure Atlas Quest knows where a specific location is, it is not very useful for sorting or searching purposes. Additionally, some people may prefer that their location not be so readily available to everyone else.

Thus, there is no system available to search for letterboxers based on their location. You can, however, guess the area where someone lives based on where they plant and find letterboxes since most people tend to plant in areas they live or visit often. Additionally, if you hold a gathering in the area, most people who attend likely live somewhere within easy driving distance. Or, a more direct method of finding out is to post a message on the state board where you live as ask where everyone lives. It will not get you a complete listing of all letterboxers in your area, but neither is any other method of trying to figure out who lives nearby.

With a little time and experience, you will be able to figure out who lives in your area, or at least who the most active letterboxers are.

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What do I do if PayPal canceled the subscription for my premium membership?

Not to worry. Usually this happens when your default payment source no longer works (probably an expired credit card), and even though there might still be months left on your premium membership, will cancel all your subscriptions. It's a very annoying habit of PayPal and out of the control of Atlas Quest. Sometimes, people who've changed their credit card information with PayPal have also inadvertently canceled their subscriptions.

Don't panic, though. While it is not possible to 'uncancel' your subscription, you will still get the same renewal rate as long as you manually renew your premium membership before it expires. Atlas Quest will send you an AQ mail warning you of your impending expiration about one month before your premium membership expires.

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How do I purchase a gift membership for someone?

You can pay with PayPal by logging into your account and sending the payment directly to paypal@atlasquest.com or send a personal check or money order (made out to Ryan) to: Ryan Carpenter, PO Box 16131, Seattle, WA 98116.

Be sure to include a message about who the premium membership is for, what day you want it activated, whether or not you want us to notify the lucky recipient about their gift, or any other special directions.

As of this writing (July 19, 2007), new premium memberships run $35/year. If you are paying for a renewal, the rate will vary depending on when the original subscription was started. If you inadvertently overpay (or underpay for that matter), they'll get as much time as was paid for. For instance, if you pay $35 for a renewal that should have cost $30, they'll get 35/30=1.16667 years extra of premium membership (1 year and 61 days). If you inadvertently underpay $30 instead of $35, however, the recipient will receive 30/35=0.8571 years of premium membership (313 days).

Most gift memberships seem to be for new premium memberships, however, and at this time new premium memberships run $35/year. Pricing only gets more complicated if you're dealing with renewals. (It's easy for the recipient to figure out—they see exactly how much their yearly rates are from the Premium Membership page, but it's more complicated for gifters since they can't see what the recipient is paying.)

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Why do retired boxes have blue diamonds?

A better question to ask is why should they not have blue diamonds? A favorite letterbox that goes missing can still be a favorite, and seeing as we're not talking about real diamonds, there is nothing to lose by leaving them in place.

Atlas Quest ranks the top rated 5% of boxes with blue diamonds. It could give them to the top 5% of all letterboxes, or the top 5% of all active boxes, but it will not change the ratings either way for active boxes. And while many people sometimes use blue diamonds to help narrow down a search, they are also meant as a pat on the back for a job well done!

So, retired boxes can continue having the diamonds.

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Are you on Facebook?

There is an Atlas Quest Junkies group. It's not maintained by the Green Tortuga (he's too busy on Atlas Quest to maintain groups on other sites as well!), but you'll find a lot of familiar names in that group.

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Why did my blue diamond disappear?!

Blue diamonds are assigned to the 5% most favorite boxes on Atlas Quest based on the votes people cast when recording a find. These votes are recounted once per month, and blue diamonds are distributed based on the new counts. This means that a box that used to have a blue diamond can lose it if other boxes push past it in the rankings. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Specific reasons why a box's ranking change include:
When your box does get a blue diamond, it will keep it for at least one month since the rankings are only calculated once per month. Over 95% of boxes with a blue diamond typically keep it during the next ranking, but occasionally, as more votes are amassed, a box will lose it's blue diamond. Don't feel bad—it may still be ranked well—just no longer in the top 5% of all boxes that are listed.

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How does the Online Members page work?

Tucked away under People is the Online Members page, which shows a rough approximation of who is currently on Atlas Quest at the time you view it. Keep in mind the following limitations, however:


That last point should have further explanation. Due to the nature of the Internet, it's not actually possible to know who is using Atlas Quest at any given time. Rather, when someone visits a page on Atlas Quest, the time of the visit is recorded. The list is simply a list of the most recent visitors to Atlas Quest. The "age" column is how long it has been since Atlas Quest detected a page hit by that member—NOT how long they have been on Atlas Quest. The older the age, the more likely the person has moved on to another website or shut down their browser without logging out.

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