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Atlas Quest

Help: Help

  1. How do I search the help pages?
  2. What is expected in a help entry?
  3. Is someone helping to bring planters and carvers together?
  4. Where can I purchase patches?
  5. How do I combine my finds on LbNA with the finds total here on Atlas Quest?
  6. How do I import a box from another site?
  7. How can I view more than the 5 newest stamp requests?
  8. Some boxes are found after being marked retired. What does this mean?
  9. How do I remove the frown/sad face from my letterbox?
  10. How do I save box clues I want to find?
  11. Can you carve logos on stamps to plant legally?
  12. How do I make the degrees symbol on Atlas Quest entries?
  13. Can I log an unlisted box on Hat Day if I'm not a Premium member? If yes, how?
  14. How do I put a candle icon on my Mom’s page?

How do I search the help pages?

From the main Help page, you can use the search box on the right side of the page. Type in the terms you want to search for. By default, it will search for those terms only in the questions in the help. If you check the indicated box, it will also include answers that match your search terms. Also, words that are three letters or less are generally ignored by the search engine as being too common. Think of search terms that are four letters or longer. Only the first 100 matching results are listed.

Without any qualifiers, the search will assume you want to find entries that have any of your keywords in them. So if you search for National Park Service, it will return entries that have the words national, park, or service. An entry only needs to have any one of those three words to match. If you want to search for entries that have all three words, you should include the phrase in quotes (e.g. "National Park Service") which returns all posts with that entire phrase.

Additional qualifiers can help you narrow down your search further:
+ A leading plus sign requires that the word be in the search results.
- A leading minus sign requires that the word not be in the search results.
( ) Parenthesis are used to group words into sub-groups
* An asterisk added to the end of a word will match all words that start with the same word it has been added to
" A phrase in double quotes will only match entries that have the entire phrase in it

Examples
apple banana find entries that contain at least one of these words
+apple +juice find entries that contain both of these words
+apple -macintosh find entries that contain the word "apple" but not "macintosh"
+(apple banana) -macintosh find entries that contain "apple" or "banana", but not "macintosh"
letterbox* find entires that contain "letterbox", "letterboxer", "letterboxers", "letterboxing", etc.
"some words" find entires that contain "some words of wisdom", but not "some noise words"

What is expected in a help entry?

Questions should be concise and simple, and answers should only answer a single question. If it answers more than one question, you should add two separate questions.

The question should be answered in the help database. Supporting links to other websites are encouraged and in some cases highly suggested, but the answer should be provided without requiring someone to follow a link elsewhere. Besides the convenience factor of bringing multiple sources of information into a single location, the answers in the database are searchable. Links to other locations do not get saved and therefore are not searchable. If you just want to link to information on other websites, the Link Directory is better suited for that task.

Providing links to the source of information—especially about land management policies—is highly recommended. This helps verify the authenticity of the information and allows people to check if the policies may have changed over time.

Opinions are discouraged—help is for factual information and not personal opinions. Your opinions can be written to the message boards. The fact that a feature is controversial is fine to mention—that is a fact, after all—and even a description about why a feature is controversial is fine, but your personal opinions are better expressed in other locations.

Is someone helping to bring planters and carvers together?

Yes! The Gillespie Tribe is helping to bring those who like to plant and those who like to carve together to satisfy both kinds of people. If you like to carve, but don't really like to plant, or would just like some of your carvings sent to far off places, we can help! If you like to plant but hate to carve, or would just like the chance to plant something someone else has carved, we can help! If you really like to do both and would like to be matched with someone else who likes to do both, we can help! Drop The Gillespie Tribe a note through AQ mail for more info or to get started.

The Gillespie Tribe is also helping to match kids with other kids for carving exchanges. Parents, please contact The Gillespie Tribe for more info.

Where can I purchase patches?

First, Mark & Sue have a great list of regional patches available on their blog: http://letterboxpatches.blogspot.com/

An extensive page with Letterboxing Patches available and places to have your own made is hosted for free.
Contact Dixie here at AQ if you need to add to or update the listings... or even if you need a place for folks to vote on a design.

Der Mad Stamper offers letterboxing patches for sale.

First Finder Patches Can be ordered from paper trail! Contact them for prices and ordering information.

How do I combine my finds on LbNA with the finds total here on Atlas Quest?

Letterboxing North America and Atlas Quest are two completely independent websites and do not interact with each other except for the occasional link. To have a complete listing of your finds on Atlas Quest, you'll need to record each and every find on Atlas Quest. There is no method currently available to copy your finds from one website to another. Additionally, on Atlas Quest, only premium members are able to record finds on letterboxes that are not listed on Atlas Quest.

Ultimately, the most accurate logbooks are your paper ones that you use to log your finds in the field, not this stuff you do online.

How do I import a box from another site?

First, never list someone else's letterbox on Atlas Quest without their permission. You'll save yourself a lot of grief if you remember this from the very start.

With that disclaimer out of the way, there's no dedicated 'import' feature. You simply list your letterbox like you would any other letterbox with the Add Letterbox option. Type in the name of the letterbox, location, attributes, and so on. The only thing you might do differently if your letterbox is already listed on LbNA or a personal website is the listing of the clue. There no sense in listing duplicate clues, so you can link your listing to your remotely-listed clue.

If your box is listed on LbNA, change the source of the clue to "Letterboxing.org" and type in the box number from that website.

If your box is listed on any other website, select the option for "Other Website" and type in the URL for where your clue is hosted. If you have control of the source HTML, you can surround the actual clue with <!-- aq --> and <!-- aq end --> on lines by themselves and AQ will cache just the clue itself without any navigation bars or other page elements.

How can I view more than the 5 newest stamp requests?

There is no limit on the number of stamp requests or offers on the Stamp Exchange. If you see only 5 requests, it's because there are only 5 active requests to display!

Some boxes are found after being marked retired. What does this mean?

It could mean any number of things. Maybe the status of the box was changed to retired after several people reported it missing but it turned out not to be missing at all. Maybe someone is recording finds years after they actually found the box but aren't listing accurate find dates. Maybe they recorded a find on the wrong box mistaking it for another box with the same or similar name.

The point is, there are a lot of reasons someone might record a find on a box that has been retired, but there's no way to tell which reason it is without contacting the owner and/or finder to ask.

How do I remove the frown/sad face from my letterbox?

The frown/sad face next to a letterbox means that the box needs some sort of maintenance, but if you check up on the box and fix whatever problems are with it or find that it has no problems, you can remove the frown by recording a maintenance visit on the box. You can mark what date that you checked up on the box as well as select the happy face option (which will remove the frown).

How do I save box clues I want to find?

You'll probably want to "tag" boxes that you want to find later. Tags are kind of like bookmarks for boxes, trackers and events that you apply and can later run a search that pulls up the objects you've tagged. Non-premium members can use up to four different tags while premium members can use up to eight different tags.

After running a search, you can tag multiple boxes by checking the boxes that you want to add a tag to then using the tag control at the bottom of the search results to specify which tag to apply to those boxes. You can also tag individual boxes one at a time using the tag options on the box details page.

In future searches, your tagged boxes will have a small icon listed next to their name with the tags you've applied, but you can run a search for just boxes you've tagged using the Advanced Search options.

Can you carve logos on stamps to plant legally?

While we cannot provide any sort of definitive legal advice, it seems reasonable to assume that you should get permission from copyright/trademark owners before using their logos if you want to be on the up-and-up.

However, it also seems doubtful that corporations are going to spend time and money going after you because you've carved a stamp of their logo for personal use—with the caveat that you aren't earning an income from the use of such logos or attempt to mislead others that they endorse whatever it is you are using it for.

How do I make the degrees symbol on Atlas Quest entries?

On a PC press down the Alt key while entering on the number pad 248.
Or type & then deg;

Apple computer users hold Option + hit 0 (zero).

Can I log an unlisted box on Hat Day if I'm not a Premium member? If yes, how?

No answer provided... yet!

How do I put a candle icon on my Mom’s page?

Contact an administrator. They can set up a loved one’s tribute page, make sure you can access of of their boxes and make sure the candle icon shows up next to their name.