Snoogans

It's not necessarily illegal anyhow, at least not in NJ yet. They are now working on it, mostly because of this guy. Wow. I'm thinking they need to add a third definition for cowboy... 3. A freaktard in NJ.

Like finding your possible relatives? Kung's brother?

Two sources that refute this: Source 1 Source 2 Wow! Thank you for that correction. B) I think that second source would be great to use in a future puzzle cache. The possibilities are endless with that one.

You find frequently asked questions offensive? I recall another forum where people were bragging about how they got DMV to issue them offensive license plates. Beyond the obvious stuff, all you can do is shrug and hope that karma really is a female dog. There was a semi frequent poster in these forums awhile back that had a similar name. I don't recall anyone giving him flack about it openly. Maybe that person is still around and they changed their name. I had a friend from Austin that was a hockey fanatic. He chose the name PuckOff. The select members of the uptight, crunchy granola community at that time (03) pressured him into changing it. Personally, I don't get people's reactions to certain words that aren't hate speech. They are just words. The etymology of the word in question is puritanical. The powers that be in those fun times would punish people in a public shaming ritual that sometimes involved stocks or other restraint measures so the public could jeer at them. The label that they put on the offenders was "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," but it was often shortened to an acronym. I chuckle at the puritanical revulsion to that word that still lingers today. That said, I tryyy not to use it in front of my 6yo son, but the occasional f-bomb sometimes is the only way to accurately describe my feelings about something. Those that have me on their FB feed know that once in awhile I will drop one. I work in a testosterone fueled corner of my company. It's about 85% male. Corporate security, investigation unit, and middle management corporate stooges like me. Full on 70% are former Law Enforcement. I couldn't count how many times an f-bomb wafts into my office in a given week. I has never bothered me and surprisingly no one else has complained. Probably because the atmosphere is cooperative, upbeat, and friendly. Many might think me calloused, but that's their issue. I refuse to be provoked by a so called curse word.

If you haven't heard of THIS CACHE a look at the picture gallery and it will haunt your dreams until you can get there.

There is only one time in my life a cache has actually been in a dream. It was a puzzle cache by one of the early pantheon of Houston area geo-gods known as geowyz. A new cache by him was cause for community wide celebration back in aught three and four. I pondered this puzzle for weeks refusing assistance and the answer.., The ACTUAL answer came to me in a dream for reals. I woke up, opened the cache page and wrote down the coords and went back to sleep. The cache was 60 miles from home and to this day I haven't bothered to go get it. Give it a try. The answer is right there.

That's funny a coincidence. My wife uses your modified caching name to describe it every time.

Oh, and 2,419,297 caches active... I wish I had some Groundspeak stock.

That was then..... I don't think we're quite there yet. BUT with 300K caches published within just several months of the 1M active cache milestone, that tells me we are on greased rails to the point of Mainstream no return... When you consider that it took 6 YEARS to hit 333k active caches and nearly 4 more years to a million. Yeah baby, we're WELL on our way. Without looking at what I've already posted, I think the magic number is around 3 million active caches before it all starts to go hulahoop. This is now! Today, its up to 8,980,000. That's another 30,000 in the last 5 days? At a rate of 6,000 per day. 250 per hour, 4.1 per minute, 1 every 14.4 seconds.. Today it's up to 9,780,000. That's 800,000 new accounts in the last 87 days, which is close to 9,200 new accounts per day. It's good to have a fresh flow of new people, but a flood of new app users is a little different.. Whoa.... Geocaching's Mainstream Event Horizon is within view. Let's see if my prediction holds...

Today, its up to 8,980,000. That's another 30,000 in the last 5 days? At a rate of 6,000 per day. 250 per hour, 4.1 per minute, 1 every 14.4 seconds.. Today it's up to 9,780,000. That's 800,000 new accounts in the last 87 days, which is close to 9,200 new accounts per day. It's good to have a fresh flow of new people, but a flood of new app users is a little different.. Whoa.... Geocaching's Mainstream Event Horizon is within view. Let's see if my prediction holds...

Because this: Doesn't matter what side of the coin you're on or if you're like me and you prefer the edge. People rarely post to hear dissenting viewpoints. Then again, I never learned much from folks that always agreed with me.

A church micro attribute would be good for those wanting to avoid bursting into flame on church grounds as well. These are the same people who burn their fingers and retinas when they find religious tracts in caches.

If I'm ever elected President of these United States, I will issue a Presidential order to Groundspeak to reinstate virtuals. Further, each user would only be able to post 1 to start. After 100 likes are posted on that virtual you can post another and so on... Oh, and I'll legalize weed in all 50 states.

I doubt it, but no doubt some people will state that you should trade anyway. I say, "whatever" It would also be consistent to remove such material with Section D, item vii of the TOU. I dunno. I read that section of the TOU. If it's just your average burn in hell unless you bow to my Big Sky Daddy threat.... How could someone who believes it's all imaginary actually feel threatened? Never seen a tract that was homophobic or racist. If there are such, my bet is Chick prints them, but they haven't found their way into my collection.

What I'd like to know is where you people that are offended go caching that you find sooo many caches large enough to even accept trade items let alone religious tracts? I have been caching over 11 years in 40+ states and 4 countries, and I can really only remember encountering tracts less than half a dozen times and prayer beads only once. I fail to see the frequency in the OP's stats that would precipitate such angst other than maybe a phobia for religion. Love me some angsty geocaching topics though. Thank you all for the smug superior feelings. I hadn't posted in over 6 months. This has been fun.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time I have seen ANY Groundspeak originated media address geocaching safety other than to point out their disclaimer.... The responses on the various pages show that folks are eager to discuss it. Once a year is not enough when new Cachers join every day. It doesn't need to be hammered to death on their media pages. The occasional story every few weeks would do. A safety forum would be a place to gather stories to expose emerging issues that could populate their media pages and newsletter. A culture of safety is propelled by its stories and legends. I started my own FB page on geocaching safety after two of my friends posted about geocaching related eye injuries within a few days of each other. Eye injuries are the most common serious geocaching related injury. If Groundspeak advocated using safety glasses when caching these injuries could be reduced. My FB page, Responsible Geocaching Safety and Preparedness, only reaches 143 people. That's not much of an impact. Groundspeak media reaches thousands if not hundreds of thousands. It's the right thing to do. I'm not a lawyer but if I were in their position the last thing I'd want to be doing is advocating specific safety equipment. If Groundspeak starts suggesting this or that piece of safety equipment to take part in what is mostly a safe outdoor activity then before long some knucklehead is going to assume they don't need something because Groundspeak didn't say they needed it and then insist it wasn't their fault they fell from the rocky ledge having not bothered to take any safety equipment. I struggle to see how geocaching has any specific safety considerations. If you're caching in an urban area you look before you cross the road, just as you would if you were crossing the road for any other reason. If you're climbing a tree to find a cache you take appropriate precautions, just as you would if you were climbing the tree to enjoy the view from the top. If you're hiking in the wilderness you take food, water, waterproofs etc, just as you would if there were no caches for miles around. If you're lifting stones you consider what might be living under the stones, just as you would if you were more interested in the stone than what might be hidden underneath it. You sound as if you think common sense is actually common. In my experience, it isn't. Geocaching.com is the largest facilitator of this activity worldwide. Some knucklehead as you say, could get hurt and make an easier case that Groundspeak uses a self covering disclaimer to address all the injuries and deaths that have occurred while hunting the caches it facilitates and has only taken a cursory swipe at addressing safety awareness and preparedness in the community it created more than a decade ago. Groundspeak's lawyers can advise them on the best course, but I would suggest that they hire a media and safety consultant that have no ties to this community. If they don't give them similar advice, I will go back to school and learn where I went wrong. Again, it's the right thing to do to reduce injuries and the already infrequent geocaching related deaths. Creating a safety forum isn't advocating anything other than safety awareness as far as I can tell. Same goes for the recent safety related articles on their media pages and newsletter. The responses on their media pages indicate that people want to share their stories of the hazards they have encountered in the activity.

There was a guy who used to hide some spectacular caches in the area where I currently live. He would get so raging mad if religious material was left in his caches, and would immediately remove it and complain in his "maintenance performed" log about it. That is perfectly fine for him to do, since it is his own cache and he has control over what is contained in it and does regular checks to ensure that his caches are of the quality he desires. The mind boggles at how a slip of paper has the capability to offend someone into a rage when the same person would probably politely take the slip of paper when thrust upon them by a person and then quietly trash it at the first opportunity. Ah the courage a computer screen seems to give some folks. Theism is most definitely not for me, but I understand and appreciate people's need to share their interests and beliefs even if I am not interested. It would be great if everyone joined my FB Agnostic Jihad: Stubbornly Refusing To Define The Undefinable, but only 42 people have joined me so far. We Agnostics are terrible organizers. We're just not joiners. Now tell me.... How many people have you tried to convert into geocachers? Were any of them offended that you wanted them to go outdoors and look for repurposed household containers with slips of paper and broken McToys in them? It's a shade off of religion but the concept is the same. People want to share and they want to increase the number of like minded people in their community.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time I have seen ANY Groundspeak originated media address geocaching safety other than to point out their disclaimer.... The responses on the various pages show that folks are eager to discuss it. Once a year is not enough when new Cachers join every day. It doesn't need to be hammered to death on their media pages. The occasional story every few weeks would do. A safety forum would be a place to gather stories to expose emerging issues that could populate their media pages and newsletter. A culture of safety is propelled by its stories and legends. I started my own FB page on geocaching safety after two of my friends posted about geocaching related eye injuries within a few days of each other. Eye injuries are the most common serious geocaching related injury. If Groundspeak advocated using safety glasses when caching these injuries could be reduced. My FB page, Responsible Geocaching Safety and Preparedness, only reaches 143 people. That's not much of an impact. Groundspeak media reaches thousands if not hundreds of thousands. It's the right thing to do.

If that is a major concern, then Groundspeak should delete the Trackable Forums or as I call them, the whining and unrealistic expectation forums.

Sounds like you might be the one with the smug superior feelings, to be honest. :/ Of course. I just stated such. You are bemoaning scraps of paper in repurposed peanut butter jars. Yeah, I guess we could just simplify everything down until we've removed all of the context and made it ridiculous. Pamphlets are just scraps of paper. Geocaches are just repurposed peanut butter jars. Nothing means anything, and involvement or investment is laughable. You're 100% right. Not at all. That is my perspective after 11.5 years experience. Your mileage may vary...

Sounds like you might be the one with the smug superior feelings, to be honest. :/ Of course. I just stated such. You are bemoaning scraps of paper in repurposed peanut butter jars.

Anti-religion is a religion that must be maintained every day lest the anti-religioso become offended in thyne eye and heart and almighty mind. At least it appears that way to those of us on the path of Agnostic Jihad. Theism is no different amongst those that don't practice it in their closets as they were instructed. There is a constant war of words and ideology amongst theists and anti-thists. Agnostic Jihadis like me find it all terribly entertaining. Many smug superior feelings are in the offing. Geocaching is not exempt. People are what they are. This message brought to you by the letter A and the letter J.

...Suffice it to say on the topic of geocaching, that such items aren't forbidden in caches, so people will put them in. Feel free to snicker, cuss, remove them, or whatever. But I'll continue to yank 'em out, and that'll be my sort of balance I guess. This right here is the best advice on the thread so far:

Hey don't get me wrong, those tracts are hilarious. I just make sure to pull 'em out when they're in a cache. It's less of a "religious material offends my delicate sensibilities" thing and more of a "this is neither the time nor the place" thing. I really don't see it that way. I'm very outspoken on my lack of reliance on a Big Sky Daddy to solve my problems, provide for me, or make me do the right thing. Why shouldn't believers be able to do the same? I once found about 50 of the same tract in one of my caches. I took out all but the last 2 or 3. I saved them to give to the folks that come to my door to sell me on their Big Sky Daddy sect. Here's a Snoogans cache tract.

I'm agnostic. This never bothered me. In fact, I collect the burn in hell tracts. They are usually Chick tracts. Very campy to someone like me. My car sports a Darwin fish so I often get targeted with Chick tracts. Love, love, love 'em.