-CJ-

An example from one of my geocaches. The visitor logs NM. His major points: - This was a quick visit. - I saw some construction works in the area so could someone go and check if the cache is still there. - If it's not I would like to log it as found since I already was there. No words like "thanks" or "please". The fact that there is (could be) some problem and visitors log NMs is not annoying. I consider this to be useful information. The statement that the cacher visited the area quickly and wants a smiley as soon as I confirm the problem (and probably disable the cache) doesn't sound that nice. It's not about the NM log type, it's about attitude.

While searching for a geocache I take responsibility of it being not muggled because of my actions. If my kids are with me I take responsibility for their behaviour too. So, I never had an idea of explaining the game to any muggle that I meet while searching for a cache simply because I cannot be responsible for what he/she will do after I leave, who else will know about the cache, etc. I'm simply putting the cache at risk and go away. Approaching a muggle on a bench and asking "please let me search here, I'm looking for a geocaching container"? I believe this would be a disrespectful action against the CO and the following hunters. I agree however that with kids of that age it's almost impossible to control their emotions so I would just choose quiter locations and hours.

I met Turkish geocachers at their event (Aug 6) and told them that I had posted this announcement on this forum. They replied that they didn't read this forum at all so it would be better to contact them directly.

Can't get enough of your wonderful country/city. Will be there tomorrow and stay until morning, Aug 9. If I don't die from your combination of high temperature and humidity I will be happy to find some geocaches and probably meet some cachers - for instance, if you have trackables that you wish to pass to my country I'll be glad to grab them.

zach.ruesch, I wish you get through all that paper/political buzz and visit our country sometimes. Will be glad to meet you in Moscow.

Lithuanians have their wonderful community - as I can judge upon the event we just had in Vilnius on Aug 1. They also place highly creative caches (at least those I've found in the capital).

Many things that I like about geocaching. For instance, wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with interesting places when you're abroad - places that are probably off the popular tourist routes and are commonly passed by. One more reason is non-stop learning - about history, architecture, nature, etc. Geocaching is also a way to make people happy: when you read all that "thank you so much!" regarding your geocache or your event you feel that you managed to add positive notes to some people's lives and that's great. I've also made acquaintance with very nice people through the game; some of them later accompanied me in other, non-geocaching activities; for example, when we fought fire in 2010 in Moscow region our volunteer team was all consisting of geocachers. The other side however is that since geocaching is by its nature open to everyone and can be played very differently, it attracts very different people. My common circle of friends and colleagues (apart from geocaching) consists of people whose opinions and attitude to various events I (generally) share. For example, I rarely deal with agressive, narrow-minded, selfish people; I simply don't have to because my life/work allows me to luckily avoid such characters. In geocaching I face them from time to time and have to communicate with them because they visit my geocaches and I have some responsibilities as a CO. This has been the dark side of the game to me.

1. For those that laugh at LiveJournal I suggest doing a quick search through social media and blogging platforms throughout the world. You will see that the situation is not the same in different countries. In particular, in Russia the audience of Facebook is much smaller than that of the local social network called VKontakte. As for Livejournal, this is one of the most popular blogging communities in our country. 2. Regarding the first topic - the guy is known around here as one who has destroyed geocaches and published numerous offensive messages against geocachers in logs and forums. He is desperately seeking public attention for himself by worst examples of human behaviour that you can imagine within our game. Don't feed him. 3. In the quoted blog (in Russian mostly) the guy (in particular) boasts how he stole a geocache recently. I kindly ask moderators of this forum to remove this thread completely.

Happy geocachers from Brasil, Germany, Slovakia, UK and (of course) Russia near the Bolshoi Theatre and the monument to Karl Marxs in the downtown Moscow (one of our recent events).

Very good recommendation, indeed. I certainly cannot speak on behalf of all geocachers in the world (even in "remote" areas ) but as for Moscow a traveler can (at least) get some useful information about geocaching around here. Another good reason is to exchange trackables. After all, it's useful to have a phone number at hand - if you need a hint or feel that some cache is muggled.

Sounds great! An early announcement might result in more people attending the event. In August many of us are away for vacations.

You live in a country with pretty long geocaching history, great number of geocaches and geocaching community that has been active for years. I suppose that large percentage of people in your country know English language and so have easy access to publications about geocaching. In these wonderful conditions you placed your 15 caches about 1/2 years ago. Now imagine that you have a time machine and go back in time to Russia, year 2008 (when the Domodedovo airport cache appeared). No geocaches, no community, no educational materials, huge distances, poor dissemination of GPS technologies. You visited Kaluga and called it "almost a desert". There are many "deserted" cities and regions in the country. People that go there to place a geocache or two are often treated as possible violators of the "maintenance" rule that works so nicely in regions with totally different geocaching situation. These people are pioneers that bring the game to remote regions. Without them there would hardly be any geocaching in the area soon. They played this role for Moscow in 2008-2011. Nowadays you can see that most geocaches in our city are owned by locals and quickly maintained. I DNFed this cache this year once. Yes, it had been placed by its CO in a place that you just described. Not many alternatives there, I think. I know the CO and will talk to him about the cache as soon as we meet. There's nothing I can do regarding this CO and his caches. So sad that most visitors are (I suppose) too shy or too busy to announce an event - you could also enjoy the local community and perhaps even get a free geocaching city tour with one of us

I hope I won't duplicate any of advices given above. Here are my two copecks - Think about attending some geocaching events in the area and getting acquainted with other geocachers. They could share some useful experience on how to find geocaches. Sometimes it's worth joining a colleague for a hunt. - Go geocaching with your friends and/or family members. Your efforts will be multiplied and you'll probably try some great fresh ideas. And it's fun to search for a cache altogether - Choose better time. You live in the city and you know it. Some places are overcrowded at noon and this fact can make you feel less comfortable while searching. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go there in the evening. Or maybe early in the morning. Or probably on Sunday when all offices around are closed... - Include several caches in your plan. If you fail to find one or two you'll still have your chance with the rest of the series. Less disappointment, more excitement. - Remember that geocaching is not only about hidden caches, it's also about interesting places that caches are located in or nearby. "We wasted three hours on five caches and found only one, what a disappointment!" - "We found one cache and spent very nice time in a really interesting museum, no regrets at all". - Don't get stuck with a 1/1 cache that you cannot find in a reasonable time. The better solution could be to sit on a nearby bench (or log), calm down and try some different approach. For instance, you're sure that the cache is a simple magnetic micro attached to a high fence but you've examined the fence and found nothing. Could it be that someone dropped the cache on the ground? It might be more useful to search for it on the ground instead of desperately cleaning the fence with your hands. If the bench didn't help consider leaving the place to return there tomorrow (next week, next month, etc.). Change decorations. I've read numerous logs like "We spend much time and found nothing but when we were on our way home we discussed another probable variant and tried it two days later - bingo! how easy it was!" - Read hints and see photos in the gallery of the chosen geocache before you go for a hunt. Don't leave this job for the very last moment, be prepared. Remember that caches used to be replaced by COs so not all text hints and photo spoilers may be valid, check their dates. - Sometimes caches that seem to be muggled were just moved by inaccurate players. The hint says: "Behind the road sign attached to the wall, right side". No luck? Try the left side. - This may sound obvious but - read all the text carefully. As a cache owner I've faced many disappointed cachers who simply missed this or that detail. "Dude, I've examined all metal constructions in the area trying to find your micro cache, nothing! It must be gone!" - "Dude, I didn't say my cache was magnetic". - Sometimes it could be a good idea to ask for an additional hint. Contact the CO and ask him/her politely if it's possible. There's nothing bad in such a request. Many COs will be happy to help a newbie. And many COs know that sometimes it's better to give a hint then to wait until a newbie raises hell, attracts attention of all people in the area and the cache is finally muggled.

No. I have nothing against the idea of being the first one and I succeeded several times but I've never treated this as my goal. In last years I witnessed several cases of people getting crazy with FTFs, struggling for logging the very first smiley, being disappointed if they failed and boasting if they were lucky. I don't want to be involved in this.

Thanks for clarification. You've probably noticed that the Russian geocaching community is pretty young and small. Before it started to grow most caches in the country had been placed by foreigners who probably have less time to check and restore their caches. In some cases such caches have been archived, and sometimes locals take care of them. http://coord.info/GC1DKH6 - the cache near the airport placed long ago, in 2008 by a guy from Hungary. Frankly, I haven't visited this cache myself. Since it's a TB hotel we might think about contacting the CO - it appears that he's still active. Did you drop him a message? http://coord.info/GC2WGVA - this cache is known to me. It was placed in 2011 by a guy from Czech Republic along with two other caches nearby. I've been in contact with the CO regarding one of three hides, not this one but Krutitsky Metochion. Since then I randomly visit that location and take care of the cache. As for GC2WGVA, the role of an unofficial maintainer was played once by another local geocacher but it happens that the hiding place is too much exposed and therefore often muggled. I would wait until the same resque cacher arrives for assistance (or the CO himself). Cannot say anything regarding your last example without knowing the name of the cache. Perhaps it's also one of few caches that were placed by Moscow visitors long ago. However, sometimes COs tolerate such logs simply because the game is so young here. Novice local cachers sometimes have difficulties with understanding the sport. The website's interface was localized into Russian not long ago and many educative materials are still untranslated. Again, the local "geocaching" game played on the Russian website differs from this one so people sometimes feel that visiting the place is enough to mark the cache as found. We're doing our best to improve this situation but it takes time, you know. Anyway, I wish you good staying in Russia (if you're still here) and hope that your geocaching experience is full of more positive stories. If you have any troubles on any of caches that I own or you have any questions while preparing your geocaching plans please feel free to contact me here or by PM.

Please give some specific examples of geocaches. Geocaching.ru (or .su, makes no difference) is a website that was launched in 2002 as a geocaching resource in Russian language. (English is not spoken widely around here and many people still cannot read/write this language; and geocaching.com lacked Russian translation that time). While the original idea of the game was still the same, the Russian "variant" had some specific differencies. After a decade this game has worked out its own style. It's more focused on tourism and places of interest then on treasure hunting. It's in Russian only and there's a requirement that one must use Russian language on the website and forums. It's community is highly conservative and isolated from the geocaching world. The database is different from one of geocaching.com.

Including greetings, dots and jokes. Why not making the field "Hint" mandatory then? Hints are generally useful. If some COs don't want to give hints or believe that their caches are so easy that no hints are necessary they should fill this field with any other data (since it's mandatory). For example, "no hint here" or "hey, does anyone really need a hint?" or... sorry, there might have been numerous complaints about such usage of this field, no? Each field is for some specific information. This mandatory field is for something. I strongly support the general idea of COs providing more useful information to reviewers but the implementation looks strange.

Your position is crystal clear. Have mercy.

If you join the volunteer translation team once I will be glad to discuss this topic in a more professional manner and in a more suitable place.

My opinion is that caches should be replaced in different locations wherever it's possible. If you think that the cache could be taken away by some human, not animal, then there are chances that this human may be back to check if there's anything new for him there.

I would think about if the new cache differs from the old one in the way it's hidden and D/T. It would also depend on the object (location) and the density of caches / popularity. For instance, if I had a cache on a mountain plateau (devoted to this plateau) and the cache was destroyed and I found another good place for the similar hide about 200 m away with the same D/T and there were no more caches on the same theme (nearby) I would most probably move the old cache with the help of my reviewer. With the new cache visitors will have exactly the same experience as with the old one. However if I change the cache type or increase it's terrain level (so people will have to climb a rock instead of just picking the container up from the ground) or it's a city cache where every 100 m of walking gives one some new experience - then I would most probably publish a new cache.

My mistake: I'm not a volunteer revewer but translator. Since no other solution was suggested I changed the translation so that at least Russian COs aren't confused with this mandatory status.

Yes. The question is whether this is fixed (some new method applied) or not. In the last case we need to amend the existing texts in the Russian translation with a note that this feature doesn't work for texts written in Russian.

Subj. So there is an issue, for example, when someone publishes his spoiler in Russian - I cannot encrypt it, this feature doesn't work. Does the geocaching HQ know about this bug and are there plans to fix it?

With kids its a bit different then when playing the game alone. 1. Kids enjoy "treasures" and may be disappointed with a cache which has nothing in it. So I would start with a traditional cache with a full-sized container. Not a micro/nano cache. 2. Plan your route with several caches along it. If one is muggled there will be chance for your family to grab another one. 3. (It's depending on the age of your kids) If your kids are small then think about preparing something that they will really not regret to leave in a cache. I mean, we adults often see nothing valuable in a small coin or a toy or stamp or any other stuff - and kids also don't pay any attention to these things at home. But when it's time to leave something in a cache your kids seem to value the thing you just took from your pocket a lot. "What a nice coin! I don't have such a coin! Why should we leave it? Ple-e-e-e-ase don't!" and so on. Thus, it's great to have a couple of such things in your pocket to say: "Hey, this is another coin for you". 4. My kids are hungry for things in containers - all that priceless steel rings, small toys, almost everything. If there are two kids the situation is worse because both want to take something. Thus, it's necessary to bring more stuff with you because the general rule is "if you take someting, leave something of equal or bigger value". 5. Please read about trackables. Travel bugs and (especially) geocoins are often the most beautiful things one can discover in a cache but they are not for trade. You should be really ready to move them to another cache (or cacher, depending on circumstances). So I suggest that you check the list of trackables in the chosen geocaches, read their stories/missions and explain their meaning to kids. "We cannot take this thing, it's going to Brazil. Since we're not going in that direction in the nearest future, we must leave this geocoin alone. This is the rule". 6. I would also suggest preparing your kids to the idea that the contents of containers are not the most important part of the cache. It's not easy and takes time but worth doing. My kids love searching and are happy when they find something interesting. At the same time, they are not disappointed when we fail at some geocaches. After all, we honestly searched for the container, visited some really nice place, enjoyed the time that we spent there, and we will do a useful job by sending a message to the CO that his cache is probably in trouble so other cachers will have their happy finds. And there are many other caches ahead! All this has been done by me to educate kids not to be disappointed by rusty/dirty/wet/rotten "souvenirs" that we sometimes see after another box is opened.