bcummings

Your program is a shell script. I have cygwin installed which runs all maner of shell scripts very nicely. So its not a "mac only" option. or if a user has access to a linux or solaris account they can run the tool from there as well. Mac is unix and unix is mac, only with fewer features. To be clear. Cygwin is a posix compliant flavor of unix that runs on top of windows and its opensource.

Your program is a shell script. I have cygwin installed which runs all maner of shell scripts very nicely. So its not a "mac only" option. or if a user has access to a linux or solaris account they can run the tool from there as well. Mac is unix and unix is mac, only with fewer features.

Yes, like any game, it has rules to keep the game fun and interesting. However its a stretch to take that mental leap and say that new players are somehow less respectfull of the geocaching community then the more experienced veterans are. This hobby is open to one and all. Young and old, rich and poor alike. Your use of "we" to describe geocachers "in the know" implies somehow that a "they" exists. If "they" just started caching today, then "they" are already a member of the geocaching community are they not? Just say no to geocaching elitsim. I say! The current rules are good, and good enough. The FTF folks take the risk that the find won't be the greatest in the world, but they do it for the fun. They are our first line of defense to tell the gc community if a cache is any good or not. I don't think 10 finds will make your cache any less cool then if you logged 8 finds, or 1 find or a 1000 finds. You either have the skill or you need to work on it some more. I've seen some experienced cachers make pretty big mistakes. But that is part of the fun of the game, is that you may have too work a little to find the cache.

First. a note to the moderator: I posted in this thread topic because I have had some recent frustrations with this very issue and rather then create a whole new thread, I posted this thread because it neatly applied to the very discussion I want to have on this particular issue. It may be old hat for some of our fellow grounspeak forum members, but its very much on my mind right now and is new to me. I didn't do it simply blindly bump an old thread. I had an idea of what I wanted to talk about, and did a search to see if any threads already fit my topic of discussion. That is proper protocol as it limits the number of useless duplicate useless threads. M'kay? And I may be a newbie to this board, but not to forum software or online communities. I do wholeheartedly appreciate the efforts of the forum moderators, being a mod not an easy job and they should be thanked often for their continued effort to keep this forum a nice place to visit. Now back to our normal programming... The previous poster made some valid points. You probably should find several caches before hiding a cache, but then again, I think some people "get it" right away. So any imposed number of cache finds is not practical. It is a good PERSONAL guideline to follow when putting in your first cache, but I don't feel that geocaching.com need enforce it nor should the geocaching community. Besides, a new account doesn't necessarily equate to "I am new to the sport". Also, nothing says you have to report your all of your finds, or any of your finds. Find logs are a metric used for the purposes of tracking one's own adventures in the game and sharing those adventures with others. It isn't intended to be used as a yardstick to gain full permission to the kingdom of geocaching. On snobery: I dislike snobery of any kind. Feeling strong about an intrest or an issue is good. Passion is good. But I don't like to see people who use their passion as an excuse to displace good manners and make someone else feel bad or small because they didn't do things "the proper way" to that persons liking. Constructive criticism is good. Being a jerk to make yourself feel superior to someone else is not.

Being well read on and comprehending the rules of the geocaching game are a given. But like many other online communities that were born of the internet, you will allways have some folks who seem to get off on their own self branded form of elitism. These are folks who feel they are "in the know" about a given area of intrest and as a result have been given self affirmed divine providence to pour a toxic brew of snobbery and bullying tactics of those they consider "newbies". To be sure most geocachers are not these sort of people. We are a friendly bunch who enjoy the game and want to share the joy we have playing it with others. Its very simple. Nobody is ever going to play a game perfectly when you are first learning to play. If you are the type that gives someone starting out crap because they didn't rehide the find as well as you would like, or they were "seen" by a "muggle" or they got the gps coordinates off slightly on their first cache hide, then you really need to chill out some and remember this game supposed to be fun for people. If you see someone new to the game "not quite doing it right". Don't post snide remarks on the cache log. Don't complain about it here on the forums. Why not do something productive instead? Offer the new cacher friendly, constructive advice, and leave the attitude out of it. Remember, you were the new guy not too long ago. Also, I don't like the attitude some cachers have against muggles. Yeah, you should be carefull if your looking for an urban cache. But honestly, if I'm on a wooded trail in a county park in the suburbs and some family walks by me and asks, "hey what are you doing?" I'm going to tell them I'm geocaching. Its no big secret.