Let's say that I have planted a puzzle letterbox, but it will take a few days to make the puzzle to be solved. What should I list as the plant date?

I know that I can set it as "reserved" until it is actually ready to be seen, but the question still remains: What should I list as the plant date?

I use the current date when I finally activate a box out of my reserve list. All activities prior to that, including the planting, are part of getting the box to the finish line.

The real question is whether the plant date is relevant. For example, the fact that this box was planted on May 24th, 2012 is key to understanding the clue.

But as for waiting till everything is in place, I dunno. I have a box that had the necessary info available on LbNA in November 2011, but only one person was clever enough to notice. Everything else needed in the real world went into place the next summer, and the public listing on AQ went up in November 2012. It was entirely possible, in theory, to find the box location well before that AQ plant date, but I didn't even get around to carving the stamp until May 2013, once I knew someone else had caught the scent. He found the box that September. The clever one was second finder in 2015. I have little faith it will ever get a third.

What I'm saying is, unless the plant date has any affect on how the box is found, it's just a meaningless number.

K

So, if the stamp wasn't available until May 2013, why make the listing in 2011/2012 (depending on site)?

it's just a meaningless number.

Nihilist!

if the stamp wasn't available until May 2013, why make the listing in 2011/2012

You don't seem to have a very clear grasp of the CCCP ethos....

if the stamp wasn't available until May 2013, why make the listing in 2011/2012

You don't seem to have a very clear grasp of the CCCP ethos....

I understand the point of making mysterious boxes. I've done a few myself. I just don't understand why the listing was made when the box wasn't yet available. Perhaps if I saw the listing.

I have searched for puzzle boxes by Kelsung, but I don't see one listed as planted in November 2012. I do see one listed on November 2011. Is this the one? I don't see why it wouldn't be there when listed, unless it is supposed to be a 'missing soldier'.

We really do not have an ethos, just a desire to create clever clues, as opposed to directions.

We are also not beholden to the grammar police.

LB

My apologies. That was a late night post. My intention was simply to state that in most situations, the accuracy of the plant date doesn't really affect the boxing experience, so if there was a grey area of a few days it wasn't really important.

To make said point, I attempted to give polar opposite extreme situations. The first example was a mystery box planted on PAL day. For all my public rants against that event, I still used it for clue purposes. However, sometime later Ryan changed AQ to automatically hide the plant date of mystery boxes. Overall, this I consider a positive change, which is why you can't figure which box I refer to in my second example, but it did diminish the chances of Le Chiffre being found anymore.

The point of my second example was to describe a situation where I put out a clue that I knew would take so long to figure out that the box didn't need to actually be in place until I was certain it was even on someone's radar. Rather than making my point, my description comes off either confusing or arrogant. My apologies.

K

The point of my second example was to describe a situation where I put out a clue that I knew would take so long to figure out that the box didn't need to actually be in place until I was certain it was even on someone's radar. Rather than making my point, my description comes off either confusing or arrogant. My apologies.

No problem.

At least, to me, it didn't come off as arrogant, just confusing. This clears it up for me though. However, I've had puzzles (mostly in geocaching) that I've planted/placed take much longer or shorter than I ever expected. This is why I (personally) don't make it available for solving until I have everything in place, though "Your mileage may vary." ;-)

I use the date that it was actually planted, since it's called the plant date. To me, this is separate from the date the box was listed. There is almost always a delay for my boxes, sometimes it can even be months between planting and listing. (Coming up with good clues is hard!)