just my two cents

-Planters choice - that attribute just tells me the planter likes the place, not sure how that 'filter' would change anyones mind on looking or not looking for a box. The person can easily say "I love this place" in the clues.


I disagree, If 'tradition' was important to me, I might filter out all 'magnet stamps' due to the chance they are not in a box or have a log book.
I probably would just avoid those. (i know some have log books)

I personally like magnet stamps. When I go out letterboxing, I will go for the traditional hike, but I will always check to see if there are little magnet stamps in the area after I finish or if I am traveling, easy peasy and fun.

Plus, they are great for a little night boxing, even when you don't mean to letterbox in the night...lol (inside joke) I actually have a page in my log book that is dedicated to these little finds.

I think its a great idea for an 'attribute', so if people want to see if there are any 'magnet stamps' in the area with out reading all the clues, it would be a nice easy feature.

I know my family would love that. Im tired of the 'eye rolls' when I say "oh look, we have time to go look for a letterbox, it will be quick...". 😂

That was more of a compromise that went with the blue diamond. To be honest, I don't like it as an icon either!

But some of the complaints with the blue diamond was that new boxes couldn't have them, and people felt that they were a better judge of which of their boxes were "worthy" of being special, and I added the planter's choice as a compromise. I don't like it, however, and have never been a fan of it--but I considered it more of a "package deal" with blue diamonds. I'll even use it to help decide if a box that's a borderline blue diamond should get a blue diamond or not.

And for those who felt that blue diamonds were "soulless" and not at all accurate, it gave people a way to search for the "blue diamonds" that were essentially selected by the planter.

Don't go crazy adding it to all your boxes thinking that will help all your boxes get blue diamonds--the effect is weaker the less selective you are about handing them out to your boxes. If you add it to all of your boxes, it's ignored completely.

But you do make a good point.... that icon may have lived beyond its usefulness, and perhaps I should just change it into a keyword instead. Not everyone finds blue diamonds particularly useful, but I don't really hear about anyone using a planter's choice box to choose between two boxes. At least some people find blue diamonds useful. (Although I'll also admit, the main purpose of the blue diamonds was just to encourage people to plant quality boxes rather than quantity and give people a virtual pat on the back for a job well done. The search/filter was more of a side benefit.)


But it's not! ;o)

And the argument wasn't that it was a useful tool for searching, but rather to "set the finder's mindset." Now the fact that it can be used for searching doesn't necessarily make it a particularly useful tool if almost nobody would ever use it, which is what I think would likely happen here.


...they can run a clue search for all boxes with the word "magnet" in the clue.

-- Ryan

I use planter’s choice when I am in a new area and there are lots of boxes to choose from (prioritizing blue diamonds over planters choice when it makes sense)

Suggestion #1: Please add a way to include a date and location for exchanges. Remembering when and where an exchange occurred is outside the scope of my memory. Having a reminder of when and where an exchange occurred would be a really nice thing to have.

Suggestion #2: For multiple exchanges with the same individual, for example when they have a new sig stamp, retaining the original exchange date/location and adding a new exchange date/location would also be helpful.

Suggestion #3: Adding a "note" field would be appreciated, to add comments like "exchanged again for new sig stamp" or "exchanged again because it was Tuesday" etc.

Thanks for considering this helpful functionality.

I see a note field on the exchanges I have logged. That would take care of your Suggestion #1, because when you log the exchange, simply add date, location, and any other information you want in the note field. Presumably, when someone changes their sig. stamp, you would just add to the note, a new date and location, which seems to take care of the Suggestions #2 and #3.

I have to ask.... do you normally only do second exchanges on Tuesdays?


You can keep notes on people. *nodding* =)

Also useful, if you want some idea where you might have come across someone before, check their profile for events that you might have shared in the "Ships in the Night" section. If I've exchanged with someone, more often than not, I can make an educated guess about when and where it was by looking there.


By definition, an exchange can only happen once with a person. At least for counting purposes. If you want to track stamps, I guess that would be best listed as an "other" box. I suppose I could create a new "signature stamp" box type and you could record finds on it like any other box, but that's not really recording exchanges so much as it records stampings.


In addition to the note you can leave on each member?

-- Ryan

My suggestion stands - Please add a way to include a date and location for exchanges. Similar to the way you add a date and location for logging a hitchhiker. And make it fully searchable so exchanges can be searched and grouped by date or location. It's just a few database entries! Should be simple. Thanks for considering this suggestion which was supported by many persons I met this past weekend at an event. I mentioned that I would submit this suggestion so here we are :)

Yeah, just a couple of lines of code.

What you described.... I'd basically just have to throw out all of the exchange code and just make it another "type" of box. It's not a trivial update, no matter how you try to spin it!

Once you start doing this, people are going to want to record which signature stamp they exchanged, but then they'll need a way to list their signature stamps--multiple signature stamps, since some people have more than one.

It's not just a matter of recording an exchange anymore--it's about managing all of the data that can be attached to it. It's basically like treating a signature stamp as if it were a personal traveler. Hmm... Actually, it kind of is like a personal traveler, isn't it?

And if I change the database so people can record multiple exchanges with the same person, it will break a lot of existing code. The database expects that an exchange happens once and only once with each person. To display that little cup of coffee next to a person's trailname is a simple matter of joining the exchange table and if there's data, there was an exchange. If there's not, there wasn't. With multiple changes, I can't do that because it might create multiple rows. You run a search for a person, and it'll wind up showing that same person three times--one for each time you exchanged with them!

It breaks stuff. From your point of view, it looks like a minor change. From my point of view, it's a complete and utter rewrite of the entire subsystem. It's NOT trivial.

Now this is not to say it's not a worthwhile idea, but it's not the trivial update you make it sound to be.

-- Ryan

So... one easy thing I have done is add two columns to the exchanges table of the database. The first will record the date that the exchange was recorded (not necessarily the date of the exchange--just when it was recorded), and the second will record the last time an exchange was added for this member (again, not necessarily the date of the exchange, but rather the last time the exchange was recorded).

None of this information is displayed anywhere for the time being, but at least the database is recording the information now and it might be of some use later. Not exactly what you wanted, but this was actually easy to do and presumably, if you add exchanges soon after they happen, the dates will be approximately correct. But it'll also only record the first and last times you recorded an exchange with someone, not all of your exchanges nor where it happened.

-- Ryan

Michael Nesmith is listed in today's birthdays. He died Dec 10, 2021.

still his birthday!
smile

I always liked his Rio song.

I liked this one too, but I was always confused as to what went wrong. Maybe he realized she would never love him? Maybe she committed suicide?

Regardless of meaning, a wonderfully heartfelt song.

It’s also Davy Jones’s birthday!

Thank you, it has been updated.

TG

I'm old enough to remember watching his "Television Parts" TV series (based on his "Elephant Parts" video), where this came from. The whole thing was absurd and hilarious!!!! I quote it to this very day (though nobody would know it). If you ever hear me use the phrase "hideous dance of death", it was from a Matin Mull sketch from that show.

My dad was a huge Monkees fan. I got my parents, Nic, and I tickets to see Mike and Micky on their tour. We saw them November 2nd, 2021. Five weeks later, Mike was gone. For a last minute Christmas present, I made a collage of the photos of Mike and Micky from the concert, our selfie there, and the ticket stub/tour image, and had it printed. Placed it in a frame. Gave it to my dad that Christmas. He loved it. A year and some months later, my dad passed, too. Glad to have gone to that concert.

We were really fortunate and got to see Mickey in Aida in San Jose a few years back. It was phenomenal! Pretty much miss that entire group. I grew up in part of that generation when it's an avid Monkeys watcher

I was a freshman when these shows were happening. I probably should have focused more on the assignments, but at least I remember important things like the Rodan bit. But the eerie frequency with which it pops up in my life . . .

Commenting on an old post, because I recently found my first magnetic stamp only. Maybe the concept has just made its way to the west coast: I don’t know. I hadn’t heard of such a thing and took a long time trying to find it. I was looking for a box attached magnetically to the thing and nearly missed the small stamp. I didn’t know I was looking for just a stamp which was significantly thinner than what I expected to find. I was also the first finder of said stamp. I left a comment stating that it is just a stamp, not a box, so be careful up not to miss it. I agree with other that suggested an icon indicating that it is “just” a magnetic stamp. I will also read more carefully now. But, I hate to think others may miss a stamp because they are looking for a box. Maybe, it’s just me, but I wanted to share my experience. 😊

I would not leave this comment--to me it is a spoiler. The clue states "magnetic stamp" and I think if the planter wanted it to be more specific (although magnetic stamp is pretty specific in my opinion). they would have said so.

I might leave a comment that said "Tricky find" or even "Read carefully!"

Thoughts??

For us, if the planter is active, we'd use the more evasive comments. However, if the planter is not active and the stamp hadn't been found in a while, we'd probably comment like the op did. In this case, a "clever hide" is definitely in order.

Oh, interesting distinction--I can understand why you would take that approach. Definitely something for me to contemplate. Thanks!

Thank you for the reply. I hadn’t thought of it that way; I was just trying to help. The clue said magnetic stamp. But, since I hadn’t experienced this before I almost missed it and didn’t want others to miss it. I won’t do that again.

You can go back and delete your comment and add an updated comment.
Someone may have seen it, but not one else will see it.

Condo

I'm not trying to pile on, especially since you've acknowledged the error of your ways ☺️but generally, and broadly speaking, I don't want finders of my boxes to "help" future searchers.

I like collecting the artwork of the stamps in boxes I seek, of course, but the real enjoyment for me is the hunt. I don't like spoilers that help me. If I can't find a box, I might reach out to the owner for a nudge. If they choose not to provide one (it's happened), then so be it.

I can search again another day, or resign myself to the fact it will remain unfound - for me. And I'm OK with that.

On the flip side, if I hide a tricky box and someone is only interested in a drive-by, boosting their numbers or simply miss it, I'm also OK with them logging a 'not found' on my hide.

Just my $0.02.

i would like to make a suggestion on fostered boxes. i understand the principle behind not being allowed to edit the listing. am agreeing with not editing a listing, to me it has historical value. what i would find beneficial is if the person fostering could record a checkup. as a fostering party i do not want to just mark it as a find. i already found it years and years ago, now i am just checking on it.
smile

In the database, a check-up IS a find. There is literally no difference. AQ just displays the word "checkup" if you are listed as a planter (and it won't be counted towards one's F-count) and displays the word "find" if you are not listed as a planter (and it will be counted toward your F-count).

AQ is smart enough to recognize duplicate finds on the same box and will only count them once, so multiple finds on the same box won't break your F-count.

So just mark it as a find. AQ literally makes ZERO distinction between finds and "checkups" internally. From an AQ perspective, it's like complaining that a "6 eggs" is entirely different than a "half-dozen eggs." They are, quite literally, exactly the same.

-- Ryan

Just a thought, but perhaps AQ could also be configured to display "checkup" if you are listed as the foster person. A recent "checkup" can encourage more new finds, even more so than a recent find. It demonstrates that someone not only found the box, but is actively maintaining it.

well said. this is what i was trying to convey.

smile