Online letterbox database

Would anyone be interested in an online letterbox database?
What features would be useful e.g. searching, updates, news?
How much would you be willing to pay for access to such a resource?

Things i've thought of so far:
Letterboxes search by name, area, catalogue number and series.
Landmarks search by name and area.
Link to a mapping site e.g. http://www.multimap.com/ for appropriate locations.

Way for finders to record which boxes they have found.
Ability for letterboxers to add comments to a find indicating things like condition or for moving boxes their last known position
Automatic emailing of comments made about box to it's owner.

Registration of letterboxes online.

I think you should have a word with one of the top bods from the catalogue first!
I think that they have agreed with the national park that no clues will appear on the web, as this may lead to an increased number of visitors to particular spots.
They're quite friendly and can be easily contacted

BingoBongo wrote:I think you should have a word with one of the top bods from the catalogue first!
I think that they have agreed with the national park that no clues will appear on the web, as this may lead to an increased number of visitors to particular spots.
They're quite friendly and can be easily contacted

Understandable that they would not want it in public view but a password protected, registration-only service might be acceptable to them, could even include SSL encryption if security is important to them.

I have emailed them about it but i did not mention that I intended it to be a subscription service probably with some way of ensuring that only people genuinely interested in letterboxing would be able to sign up. Such as only allowing registration at the meet.

Perhaps if enough people were interested they would take it more seriously. It would make it much easier for them to distribute up-to-date catalogue information and distribute important notices to letterboxers .

I see your point BingoBongo. I would hate to see letterboxing (on Dartmoor) become commercialised but if the database was well administered, I don't think it would necessarily result in an increase in letterboxers to the moor.

A well designed database could also help people to keep track of boxes that are damaged/missing. At the moment, there isn't a good system for doing this, and 'forgotten' letterboxes quickly become litter.

Ed wrote:I would hate to see letterboxing (on Dartmoor) become commercialised but if the database was well administered, I don't think it would necessarily result in an increase in letterboxers to the moor.

I wasn't intending it to be really commercial. Basically I was thinking of starting it as a personal project because I have nothing much to do now that my university course (in Computing) has finished (apart from job hunting of course) and I'd find it a useful thing to have.

I just wondered how much other people would be interested. I asked about how much people would pay to see if I could cover costs of hosting and my time maintaining such a system. I personally would find somewhere between 1 to 2 quid a month very reasonable for access to the catalog online.

I am aware of the dangers of showing letterbox data publicly, I've seen too many vandalised boxes. I guess it depends on how you go about registering people. If you only get people that already go letterboxing and have the catalogue then it would just be providing people with a different way to get that information rather than giving access to those who don't already have it.

Even if the 100 Club people are not interested in something like this for the catalog I could always make it for non-catalog WOM clues (except now they'd be WOW, Word of Web clues).

Hi - new here (but not to boxing!)

I would certainly be interested, even if you did a Word of Web catalogue. I used to keep a database for my own use, which took a great many hours to create. It was extremely useful for tracking what I had found, and for planning walks. Unfortunately, I stopped having the time to maintain it a good few years ago - and lost most of it in a computer crash a couple of years back.

I would be irritated if you could only sign up at the meet, since I have never been able to make it - but some way of ensuring only genuine boxers could sign up would be a must.

Have any of you people who are interested in an online data base actually got any word of mouth clues of your own??

I for one keep my clues word of mouth so i can have some reassurance that they won't get spread about, and so that I have something to trade with people who have some of their own, if I wanted them in the public domain they would be in the catalogue!

Maybe a forum on the cryptic clues, or the condition of boxes from the catalogue would be better, or a clue exchange where people who had clues could get in touch with each other?
I don't really see how, with any system, you could stop someone passing round their password or even guarantee they are a letterboxer in the first place?

If you look hard enough you can find clues to letterboxes on the web

Personally I would love to see these clues on the web, I would be happy to pay a nominal fee (equivalent to the catalogue price) for clues to be put up on the net.

But sadly like everything else the whole thing would be up for the usual abuse but I do agree with a password orientated site.
Maybe it could be possible for everyone to have their own unique password and any abuse could be traced to that password. And that user and password could be barred from the site.

I would more than happy to monitor a site like that though I could not write the program for it

But sadly like everything else the whole thing would be up for the usual abuse but I do agree with a password orientated site.
Maybe it could be possible for everyone to have their own unique password and any abuse could be traced to that password. And that user and password could be barred from the site.

I thought of validating with a password and a physical key (the catalogue)
the log in would require a person to have the catalogue with them and the site would ask a randomised question like "what is the catalogue number of the third letterbox on page 54?" this way it would not impact the sale of the catalogue (a concern of the 100club) and it could be assured that the person
could not share their password with someone who didn't already have the means to access it.

Unfortuanately the 100 Club people are not listening at all. I tell them about the measures that can be taken to protect the data (SSL encryption like banks use) but they still call it insecure because people could share their passwords even though the catalogue is already distributed in forms that can easily be copied (the database is available on CD from someone)

what is the catalogue number of the third letterbox on page 54?

There is just one drawback to that.... you have to have the catalogue to hand.... lol

This would be interesting if it was kept afloat... any ideas anyone?

I dont know why but - it would be nice if the whole thing could be web orientated.

As for collecting the badges - what does it achieve if you go to the meet and say "Can I have my 5000 badge?" when you know in your heart and mind the only person you are ripping off is yourself when you actually have 2750 boxes to your credit!

I never voted - yet am not allowed - Hmmmmmm
Sounds about right for today
Wonders whats up

why the secrecy the only draw back with this system is that someone could go out and destroy the boxes you mention in your database, but the 100 club book could be brought and the same thing could happen. If i wanted to destroy boxes surely i wouldnt pay, i would go to hound tor and look in any hole and smash those ones!!!

if you like the challege of the cyptic clues maybe there can be a section for these???
as far as i'm concerned the more people doing letterboxing the better.

one of the things that got me started was friendly people giving me clues or actually telling me were to look. numbers and coordinates mean nothing yet.

good luck with this


by the way i can't vote either
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