Since the day Atlas Quest went online, the number one feature request was the ability to list a letterbox as a find even if it isn't listed by the owner on Atlas Quest. Seeing as it's not a feature essential to the use of Atlas Quest, however, the option accessible only to Premium Members. If you are a premium member and try to record a find for an unlisted letterbox, Atlas Quest will show you a list of other unlisted boxes that people have recorded finding and allow you to add one of them or, if the box you found is not in that list, allow you to add a new one. The find will then be listed in your logbook and, if it's a traditional letterbox, count towards your F-count like any traditional letterbox.

For non-premium members, the answer is simple: You can't. You still have the option, however, of contacting the owner of the letterbox and ask to have his or her boxes listed. Often, the owner is more than happy to oblige. You can even offer to list the letterbox on the person's behalf—Atlas Quest does supported adopted letterboxes, and you can ensure the creator of the box still gets the appropriate credit. Do not list a letterbox without the author's permission. If someone is caught adding letterboxes that they do not have permission to add, the letterboxes will be deleted and the offending account suspended.

There is one exception to this rule: A few times each year, this premium member feature is opened for non-premium members to take advantage of. These days are variously called Free Listing Day or Hat Day since a theme featuring many of the premium member hats shows up on designated dates. What dates? It's random—it could happen on any day, and with absolutely no warning. Many non-premium members are valuable members of this community, and Free Listing Day is designed for them. Members who regularly check Atlas Quest and are active message board participants will likely be able to take advantage of Free Listing Day while those who log in infrequently will likely miss it.

If having an accurate found count is important to you, however, becoming a Premium Member is your best option. For just pennies a day—less than a pint of Ben & Jerry's best each month—you'll be able to record finds of unlisted letterboxes.

Atlas Quest does not use the standard PFX counts as described on the Letterboxing North America website. AQ counts all traditional boxes (normal and mysteries, both listed and unlisted) that you are listed as the author or planter as a plant. All traditional boxes you record as finds count as finds except if you are already getting credit for it as a plant or if you've already recorded a find on it. Exchanges are counted as expected—one for each exchange you enter.

It's up to you. It's certainly not required, but there's no harm in it either. Many people enjoy having their finds listed online for their friends to see or to let Atlas Quest keep track of their F-count, while others prefer to keep their logbooks in the more traditional manner. Do what works for you.

This question invariably arises due to LbNA's Official Letterboxing Counting Guide, which states in no uncertain terms that hitchhikers can count as a plant if you created it and as a find if you find it. So why does Atlas Quest not follow this rule?

Letterboxing is an evolving hobby, and many of the original rules and guidelines to direct this hobby no longer apply. In the early days of Letterboxing North America, there were no cooties, no postals, and no virtual letterboxes. Even hitchhikers were a rare and unusual breed, and the counting rules were adapted to include hitchhikers.

By the time Atlas Quest was established, additional types of boxes were created and passed around. Hitchhikers were no longer rare and exciting, but rather distributed by the hundreds, often at events where the people "found" the hitchhikers on picnic tables. A backlash ensued. Perhaps the definition of what really counts as a find should be established, such as it must be found in or with another letterbox. (Alas, unscrupulous counters could put a real letterbox on the picnic table and pass out clues saying the letterbox was on the picnic table.) Some people counted such finds, while others refused to do so. There was no consistency and anarchy ruled.

So when Atlas Quest finally came along, the Green Tortuga decided simply not to count them at all. The site had no way to distinguish between 'real' hitchhiker finds and 'picnic table' finds, and nobody could agree on which situations that hitchhikers should be counted, he decided they would not be counted at all.

In your personal PFX counts, you are more than welcome to use the more traditional counting rules that include hitchhikers, but to keep counts consistent across everyone, non-traditional letterboxes will not be counted towards one's official Atlas Quest PFX count. The traditional letterboxes and the wide variety of non-traditional letterboxes have very little in common, so it makes sense to break up the counts for each category.

The vast majority of the time, it's because you recorded finds on incorrectly listed letterboxes and those incorrect listings were fixed.

The two most commonly found incorrect listings are:

• Multiple stamps in a single letterbox are listed as individual boxes. When we find these, we usually delete the extra listings--along with any finds you had on them. We count found boxes, not found stamps.
• Boxes are listed in the incorrect category, such as an event box that's listed as a traditional letterbox. When we find these kind of problems, we usually convert the box into the correct type. In this case, however, your traditional box F-count would go down by the same amount your event box F-count goes up.

The thing to keep in mind isn't that your F-count went down--it's that your F-count was inaccurate and was corrected. Just because you might record a thousand incorrect finds and they later get deleted, your real F-count hasn't changed. Your AQ count, however, will be different, as they should never have been in your logbook to begin with.

If you're recording finds and you see either of these types of problems in a listing, tell the owner of the box! Let them know that it's not right and give them an opportunity to fix the problem. And whatever you do, don't record a find on an invalid listing. If you're a premium member, you can accurately record your find as an unlisted box. If the listing is incorrect, that is, in fact, the only correct way to record your find. If an administrator has to step in and fix the problem, your find counts won't change like it would if you had recorded finds on invalid box listings to begin with.

By default, all new accounts on Atlas Quest are set so an individual's finds are private, so most private logbooks are probably like that simply because the person hasn't changed their default settings.

However, some people may explicitly choose to keep their online logbook private for any number of reasons including (but not limited to):

• They might have a cyber stalker
• They like their privacy
• They feel that what they've found is none of your business
• They feel it helps keep mystery boxes more mysterious (for the most part, this isn't a problem, but in certain rare cases, it might be possible to figure out the location of a mystery box from online logbooks)

Hover over My Page on the toolbar at the top of the AQ Home page. Then pull down and click on My Logbook. Click on the Action Space that says "Plants" and select "Finds".

Or click on My Page on the toolbar at the top of the AQ Home Page. Then pull down to My Profile. Click on the logbook icon to the right of your trailname. Switch "Plants" to "Finds."

You can't rearrange your finds, but Atlas Quest does track the order in which you record your finds so as long as you record your finds in the same order that you found them, they'll sort in the correct order (as long as you're sorting by date, of course).

If you record finding multiple boxes of a series at the same time, your finds will be sorted in the order that the boxes show up in the series.

If you record finding multiple series at the same time (such as multiple boxes at an event from the "Record Finds" from the event page), the finds may be displayed in any order because AQ cannot determine in what order you found the boxes.

If you've already recorded your finds in the incorrect order, you'll have to delete them and re-add the finds in the correct order to change the order.

Go to your logbook and change to the page with your find by adjusting the Action and Box Type drop down menus as needed.

Then click the delete icon () and confirm your deletion.

If you want to delete someone else's find on one of your boxes, there is no way to do that except to ask the finder to remove their find.