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Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Jul 20, 2017 3:31pm
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Is there a way to conduct a search for mystery boxes by State, County or region ? It seems awhile ago you could, now my search shows a numeric- alpha sequence with traditional/mystery boxes intermingled. Not real user friendly IMHO. Thanks in advance.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948862 by Daytrippers 54
Jul 20, 2017 3:55pm
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By state, go to Letterboxes on the toolbar at the top of this page and hover. Then choose city directory and click on the state you wish. Select the Big Blue Question mark out side of the state's boundaries. Here's what comes up on Maine: https://www.atlasquest.com/results.html?typeId=1;location=ME%2C+US;rad=20;subFlags=0;status=9;attribs=2
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948864 by Wronghat
Jul 20, 2017 4:12pm
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I thought, by definition, mystery boxes do not disclose a starting location, except perhaps within the clue (which may be a cipher, code, or puzzle)?? So how does AQ pick them out in a search for a specified area? Is that only if the planter enters a state or county in the location box? I have seen mystery listings that say "worldwide" or some such, which I thought was a default meaning basically "unknown"?
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948866 by Wise Wanderer
Jul 20, 2017 4:21pm
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If the location is nothing more than a county, state, or country it can still be a mystery box because the location is too vague. Not sure if you can make a city mystery box.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948862 by Daytrippers 54
Jul 20, 2017 4:34pm
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If you run a search for all boxes in a country, state or county, it returns all boxes in the specified area. But if you also include the option to only return "exact" matches, a distance of 0, or the icon for 'mystery boxes only', you'll get just mystery boxes within that region. Each of those options are slightly different from each other--they aren't 100% interchangeable.

There's more information about how to run mystery searches in the help pages.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948864 by Wronghat
Jul 20, 2017 4:35pm
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Thanks Wronghat, that's the pages I remember !!
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948868 by Green Tortuga
Jul 20, 2017 4:36pm
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Thanks as well GT !!
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948867 by Don't Panic
Jul 20, 2017 4:37pm
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You can make a city mystery box, but AQ can't tell the difference between an actual city-wide mystery and a box where someone just listed the city as a location for a non-mystery, so AQ doesn't distinguish between the two at the city level.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948862 by Daytrippers 54
Jul 20, 2017 5:23pm
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Here are mine.

Mystery, Mystery

Mystery, US

Mystery, GA (edit to match your desired state)
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948873 by Eidolon
Jul 20, 2017 6:24pm
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Thanks Eidolon !
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948866 by Wise Wanderer
Jul 20, 2017 6:45pm
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I'm still a little wet behind the ears, boxing-wise, so I hope it's ok to ask this here. I'm still trying to understand mystery boxes. I ran across this box listing quite by accident while searching for something else.

Is this a "normal" mystery box? I'm not asking for help or hints but curious if there is info there that I'm overlooking.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948879 by DarkZen and Evil Cow Pie
Jul 20, 2017 7:06pm
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To me, that looks like either a bonus box or a word-of-mouth box that someone didn't put attributes on. Nevertheless, someone with more experience could come up with some other ideas.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948879 by DarkZen and Evil Cow Pie
Jul 20, 2017 7:17pm
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Is this a "normal" mystery box?

The fact that there isn't a clue automatically makes it "not normal." =)

But I'll say that given the fact it hasn't been found since it was "planted" 5 years ago, there's no clue listed, and the person who listed the box hasn't logged in for two years, I'm going to mark the listing as retired so it stops showing up in people's search results.

What the box really is is hard to tell without additional information. It could be a mislabeled WOM box, a mislabeled bonus, a box that the person intended to plant but never got around to (although that shouldn't be happening at all!), or maybe it's a real box and the person forgot to include the clue.

There's just not enough information to know for certain.

-- Ryan
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948881 by Green Tortuga
Jul 20, 2017 7:25pm
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The box looks like it was part of a tracker of some sorts - a project that never came to fruition? The other boxes listed in the tracker are all 'mysteries', with no finds, and retired. I guess the story behind this listing is the real mystery <g>
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948881 by Green Tortuga
Jul 20, 2017 7:28pm
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Thanks for the info Ryan. It definitely had me scratching my head.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948879 by DarkZen and Evil Cow Pie
Jul 21, 2017 7:25am
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This seems like a good time to ask whether this box is a mystery or a mistake. The library exists and the address is correct, but when you click on the link for the LbNA-hosted clue, it takes you to a box planted in California, I think. (I can't verify that now because LbNA is down, but it was a box quite far away from Michigan.) I noticed that 9800 is both the street number of the library in Michigan as well as the box id# of the LbNA clue. The planter is using a new profile with just this plant.

A few of us locals were discussing the matter and wondering if it was a very cryptic clue. One crafty fellow assured us that it's not, which makes me wonder if it is. :)
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948881 by Green Tortuga
Jul 21, 2017 8:11am
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But I'll say that given the fact it hasn't been found since it was "planted" 5 years ago, there's no clue listed, and the person who listed the box hasn't logged in for two years, I'm going to mark the listing as retired so it stops showing up in people's search results.

What the box really is is hard to tell without additional information. It could be a mislabeled WOM box, a mislabeled bonus, a box that the person intended to plant but never got around to (although that shouldn't be happening at all!), or maybe it's a real box and the person forgot to include the clue.

I have a box like that which I have tried to list as a bonus box and I can't. I imagine I was supposed to do that when I first listed it and now it's too late. Someone just asked me for the clue, and I had to tell them it's a bonus and I can't figure out how to get it classified as such. I was told to add clues saying it's a bonus, but then it's a clued box that will come up in searches.

As for mysteries, I gave up searching for them on AQ because I found it too confusing. I like the neat, compact listing on LbNA better. They are organized nicely by state mysteries and county mysteries in the browse mode.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948871 by Green Tortuga
Jul 21, 2017 9:07am
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That makes sense. Sometimes the town in question is little more than an intersection with a gas station, so just listing the town is pretty much nailing down the location -- but it'd still look like a mystery to AQ. I suppose if you didn't want it to show up as a mystery, you could provide the intersection itself.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948897 by Trailhead Tessie
Jul 21, 2017 11:27am
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I have a box like that which I have tried to list as a bonus box and I can't.

The bonus box icon will display if you add a dependency restriction to the box.

As for mysteries, I gave up searching for them on AQ because I found it too confusing.

Here's the absolute, single, easiest way to search for mysteries on AQ:

  1. When you registered on AQ, there's a secondary registration page that AQ asks some additional information. You'll never see it again after you register, but there's nothing stopping you from going back to it if you know the URL, and this is it: https://www.atlasquest.com/login/register2.html
  2. Type in your address as the location. (You can just type in the city, but keep in mind that searches will be from the center of your city rather than your exact address if you do.)
  3. And save your changes.

AQ will automatically generate several favorite searches for you including:

  • A location-based letterbox search from your address (or city)
  • A search for all boxes within your county (including mystery boxes in your county). You can edit this search to include only mystery boxes, but I figured if someone is interested in mystery boxes within a specific county, they'll probably be interested in all boxes within the county.
  • All mystery boxes that are "somewhere" in your state. (This excludes mystery boxes where the county is specified since those are included in the previous search.)
  • All mystery boxes within your country. (This excludes mystery boxes where the county or state are specified since those are included in the previous two searches.)
  • All events being held within 250 miles of your address (or city)

Now whenever you want to get a list of mystery boxes at the county, state or national level--the links are part of your favorite searches and just a click away! =)

-- Ryan
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948897 by Trailhead Tessie
Jul 21, 2017 11:36am
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I have a box like that which I have tried to list as a bonus box and I can't. I imagine I was supposed to do that when I first listed it and now it's too late.

The way bonus boxes are done now is to set a parent box. You will need to edit the box, go to the last page (Restrictions) and set a parent box there. If you want the parent box to be a specific box in a series (as I've done a few times) you first set it's parent box as the series, save it then come back to the same page and set which box in the series is its parent box. Without this second edit the parent box will be the first box in the series.
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948896 by Dawnkey
Jul 21, 2017 7:22pm
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This seems like a good time to ask whether this box is a mystery or a mistake

also interesting is the owner of the box on lbna hasn't logged in there for over a year. but the trail name used on lbna has been on aq just last month. hummmm.

smile
Re: Mystery Boxes
Board: Stupider Questions About Letterboxing
Reply to: #948896 by Dawnkey
Jul 22, 2017 5:49am
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A few of us locals were discussing the matter and wondering if it was a very cryptic clue. One crafty fellow assured us that it's not, which makes me wonder if it is.

I'd say if someone is that sure about this strange listing they know more than they are letting on.

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;~)