-CJ-

Thank you. I think it's a limitation based on geography. If you're lucky to live in a country with many geocaches and good geocaching community, especially if English is your first language or you know it well, you're welcome to try the game, read forums, go outdoors for a hunt, listen to podcasts, watch videos, find your first geocache, talk to more experienced players, etc. You've great opportunities to start with. If you live in Kransoyarsk, you have almost nothing. I'm not sure if your proposal helps with what you like to achieve in the US and other countries - perhaps some struggle against lame caches, I don't know. The first and the most clear result of it would be killing the enthusiasm in people around here. What we (a small group of pioneers) do in our country is promotion of the hobby, and that's not easy. Language barrier, huge distances, etc. Things like the proposed waiting period will obviously make our work even more difficult.

Very good point.

The answer is definitely NO. I understand the reasons behind such ideas but please don't forget that geocaching is played in other countries of the world too. In many regions of Russia there are neither geocachers nor geocaches. Being a Muscovite, I feel not really comfortable to place a cache in Krasnoyarsk while being on a business trip there. I could hardly provide a sufficient maintenance plan for a cache placed at a distance of 3,350 km from my home. Now please think about someone from Krasnoyarsk who read about geocaching and wants to play the game. He's not allowed to place his cache because of the suggested "feature". He cannot search for caches because there are no caches in his area. So, how do you expect geocaching being played in this region at all? I would appreciate if anyone who's in favour of some "waiting period" explains me how this proposal will affect the game in my example (in Krasnoyarsk).

In our country summer is obviously better time for caching than winter.

Good question. - Have geocaching.com interface translated into Russian language. - Continue the SideTracked series in Moscow, reach the milestone of at least 50 SideTracked caches, involve at least 3 more cachers into being COs of the SideTracked. - Organize our 9th annual CITO event in May, probably early June, in Moscow region, use Facebook more actively, get more then 50 people involved in this meeting. - Organize at least 5 smaller events in the downtown Moscow with historical/cultural sightseeing tours. - Move another dozen of existing geocaches (mostly multi-steps and puzzles) back to game (they need some maintenance work and translation into English at the moment). - Give a push to my first travel bug (I'm not a big fan of this sport but I've got one as a gift recently). - Visit my first Mega-event, most likely in Latvia. - Place a couple of dozens of caches apart from SideTracked in historical areas of our city and in the region. - Travel abroad to get more knowledge about how geocaching is played here and there (haven't thought about any destinations yet). - Hopefully travel to some mountain region in summer, need to settle questions about my maintenance plans for future caches in the middle of nothing - Make my personal geocaching website nicer, it looks abandoned at the moment.

No pen - no log - no smiley. And that's not because I'm a "purist". It's a community game with a set of really simple rules. If one makes an exclusion for himself it's an obvious example for others to make exclusions for themselves. Many people won't see much difference between this or that situation. Some other guy will provide a photolog because it's too high for him to climb that tree or the snow is too deep, or the container is closed tightly, or it wasn't in a place where "it was supposed to be", there are thousands of very special cases, each one explained individually. Anyway, it's not the matter of life and death. If I forgot my pen/pencil the only lesson is that I wasn't prepared for my hunt. No smiley at the cache, well, the world won't break into pieces. Next time I'll be more accurate. I won't disturb the cache owner. It's not his responsibility that I forgot my pen

Thank you for your explanations. I didn't think about this variant with deletion of logs. We had two events in Moscow recently and it seems that the cacher mistakingly chose wrong event. I will drop him a message.

I don't use favourites at all so I see no use in a "super-favourites" option.

Having looked through the previous messages I wonder if everyone is convinced that trackables from a TB hotel are surely stolen by a registered geocaching.com user? Could it be just some local kids who noticed the nice box regularly filled with souvenirs? (Remember "To Kill a Mockingbird"?) In situation like that I would move the cache to a new location ASAP and see if it works. Change not only the place but your manner of hiding. See if it works.

About a week ago I organized an event in our city (New Year Geocaching Event in Moscow, http://coord.info/GC4V28W). Today I loaded the event's listing to find out if there are any folks who haven't marked it as attended. I was surprised to see a lone trackable in the inventory because I clearly remembered there were no trackables anymore there a couple of days before. It's called "only for outlaws" (http://coord.info/TB1T47E) I checked this page and found that the last person who took the trackable in his hands was not among the attendees of this event. The event is not shown in the trackables' history. Same with the map. So, it looks like the trackable was doing its way but suddenly appeared as being put into the inventory of an event which it has no relation to. Is this a bug of the website?

Only 88 caches and many of them are mine.

Just some advices. - Take a camera with you. Wherever possible, pretend taking pictures. (Or take pictures if it's worth doing). You cannot be too suspicious when trying to take "the best photo in your life" - there are hundreds of idiots (I'm among them) who do this and choose places that a normal person won't even think of going to. This works best when you need to get to some unusual places. - Take a mobile phone with you. Pretend making a call. This works best when you have to ramble around some place ("where's this damned nano?"). - Take a bag with you. Pretend looking for something in your bag. This works best when you have to stop at the GZ and grab the container. - Take a kid with you. Kids run, climb, crawl everywhere. This works best when you need this energy to reach a cache. An adult who's making noise in bushes near a playground may look suspicious but it's OK with a kid. (Just instruct him/her not to shout "HEY! I FOUND THE CACHE!")

When I go outdoors for a cache it's usually not just to get another smiley but to see something new and interesting. I doubt I would be able to see much when it's dark, rainy, etc.

It's not an individual hobby but a community game. What you do might become an example for some number of people to follow, no?

For those of you who are going to visit Moscow in the nearest future please consider attending small events in the capital on Dec 21 and Dec 28. http://coord.info/GC4V28W http://coord.info/GC4VBAN

I ran into such situations a couple of times (being a CO myself) and noticed that sometimes you (probably) have to keep in mind general ideas about multi-steps and puzzles. Most multi-steps that I've met have been "Go here and count A, go there and count B, then go ... and count C, use the following formula and proceed to coordinates to get to the final container". Most puzzles were "do some homework to calculate coordinates and go to the field to get the final container". However there might be different scenarios. In one of my caches a cacher is suggested to make his route through woods following the tricky text hints. My publication was declined initially. The local reviwer quoted the guidelines telling that GPS usage was essential. I had to negotiate and explained that one had to use GPS to locate the initial point for the route in woods; it could hardly be done without GPS. So, in this example GPS is no requirement at every step; I used it only once. However I undestand that I will probably need to explain the idea of the next tricky cache in details to avoid misunderstanding which could be inspired by the general approach to making multi-steps and puzzles that I described above. As for the difference, it has also been uneasy to me since none of my multi-step caches (many of them haven't been published but only placed in field - yet) were of that "math style". All of them involve puzzles. At this forum I was advised to publish them as multi-steps but to add notes about puzzles in text. I think it was a good advice. I would also say that puzzles are limited by (how much? two miles?) some distance from the starting point (published coordinates) to the actual hiding place. AFAIK multi-steps aren't limited in this way.

The most popular issue with hides getting wet around here is that COs don't think about winter when placing their containers in summer. No silica gel usually helps if the hiding place is at the ground level.

FP score? Do you mean FPs like "This was my first cache found in Russia hence FP"?

Yes, I regularly do. The first issue is to be really accurate when choosing a cache to search for. In the country, the roads may be not driveable at all, so only skiing to the destination point... Many hides are much more difficult to reach in winter... Also, the day ends at about 5-6 pm so need to plan your route carefully... Proper clothing and equipment - all this can be found in shops and read about at special forums. After all, there are caches that are nicer to visit in winter. Sometimes you aren't happy with a muddy path but when it's frozen and covered with snow it becomes an easy one. Some caches are located on isles so while in summer you have to look for a boat or try swimming there, in winter they are easily doable by just walking on ice. (Though of course you need to be very careful and have some experience to understand where to step). Winter geocaching in cities is much like summer caching with the main difference that you have to watch yours steps so not do attract anyone's attention to the hiding place. Sadly, some cachers from abroad who come to our country often forget about the climate and place containers at the ground level. In winter they cannot be reached. There are also some tricks related how to place containers in different hiding places so it is not frozen in ice completely.

Yes, they are usually quite interesting. Especially when I go for a hunt with kids and we're lucky to find an unusual coin or a coin with a nice ornament or an image of a bird or an animal on it. Apart from this (and trackables) almost all items I've found in geocaches in last year were junk. In my last trips abroad I used to take nothing from any container I found. Just dropped a badge, a decorative magnet or a Russian (or Ukranian) coin until my pockets were empty.

The word "solo" looks so proud and significant when talking about someone driving in a car along a powertrail

As for scoring systems I can share our experience (at the national website). A 5-star rating system was introduced years ago (1 - worst, 5 - best). After years it can be seen that people have rated different things. Many cachers have given good points to caches just because they've enjoyed the places. A typical plastic box under a tree in an obvious hiding place got 5 points because the ancient church nearby was very interesting. On the other hand, some caches got the same 5 points because they were very creative though located in a bog with no places of interest around. It became clear soon that geocachers used to award point depending on their emotions/feelings. Sometimes a cache could get 1 just because it was damp in the area and the cache hunter didn't think about good waterproof boots. In other situations people gave a rather simple and not creative cache 5 points because they came there in a good company. As for milestones, I would only like to have the number of hidden caches to be added to the number of finds in logs and in public profile. For example, it's [ Avatar ] [smiley] 455 and could be [ Avatar ] [smiley] 455 [star] 51

I found myself in similar situation once. It was far away from home, and it was dark already. Coordinates of the cache were off and I had to touch every metal surface to find this magnetic nano. Suddenly I reached it with my fingers but failed to grab it - either the magnet was weak or the surface was rusty or I was just inaccurate but the little bastard fell and jumped to the nearest pit beside the wall of the building. I heard the sound of it falling on a concrete floor. The pit was more than 2 meters high and was surrounded with a high fence (to which the container was stuck with its magnet actually). I used my torch to explore the pit and the fence from above and become sure I wasn't able to get the nano from the pit myself. If even I got down I would not be able to get back. Besides, it was a living house so I feared that my actions would alarm the neighbourhood and I would spend this night in police explaining my strange behaviour. Sadly, I had no magnetic containers with me but only one non-magnetic nano which I managed to place at a good distance and very differently to be sure it could not be counted as a throw-down. I emailed the CO ASAP, explained the case, apologized and offered the new location with new coordinates. He said "no problem, it's close to my home and I have more magnetic nanos at hand so I will replace it soon". This was what he did. I felt really badly about being so awkward and promised myself to be more accurate. At the same time, I feel it's essential to be sure at all caches that I own so hiding place should be safe from such accidents. There should not be containers which may be easily dropped/pushed to places one cannot reach.

Interesting survey. I also wish you luck with the idea. Most probably this multi-tool would be overpriced in our area if produced and delivered. And - as it happens with all multi-tools - implement compromises to put everything in one device. Added scissors to the list of tools I usually have with me.

It seems to me that there are too many "I enjoy", "I like" and "I don't like" in this discussion.