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-CJ-

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Everything posted by -CJ-

  1. There were several cases of this kind, yes. I made maintenance on a regular basis for other's caches. It was never a case of any pre-agreement. Just because of some circumstances, e.g. CO lost any interest to the game and thought about his cache to be archived, and it was so great that I offered my help to keep it playable. It is also common to check each other geocaches during trips and perform maintenance if necessary.
  2. Thank you. I translated this announcement and posted it to our local resource so that more Russian geocachers could enjoy the news.
  3. From what experience a geocacher should know that FTF competition means so much in geocaching? There are no guidelines and (as it was said earlier) our common sense may be not exactly what other people think and believe in. Until recently I used to think about a FTF mark just as one of popular logs like TFTC or TNLN. I didn't think there were so many emotions and competition behind this. Does anyone know any unofficial guidelines, recommendations, explanations on the FTF competition? I believe I could translate them into my language or use them to write some short article for our local community.
  4. Perhaps it's time to say thank you all for your answers, suggestions and opinions.
  5. When you guys go geocaching with other cachers does it mean much who (of your company) signs the logbook first once the cache is found?
  6. Gitchee-Gummee, thanks for this great story about deer.
  7. See, this is what I really would like that the "FTF game" comes to my area as late as possible. As I see from various examples, it raises too many useless and negative ambitions.
  8. One more smiley, right. It's different however in situation when you have not so many caches around and very limited chances to seek for a new cache. And very few geocachers too. It's simple: if a newbie is invited to join a team to place a new geocache it's a great chance to learn how to do this (and there are not many other chances, as I said). However if he finds out that he would be suggested not to log this cache he will most probably hesitate or decline the invitation - just to have a chance to log the cache as found later. You all own some geocaches as I can see from your profiles. Did any other geocacher ever joined you when you placed a new cache? I mean, not just slept in a car waiting for you but took active part, maybe assisted with cache description, or provided photos, anything? Were there newbies among your assistants? How did they log these caches afterwards?
  9. Finnish experience sounds interesting (FBA), how did you manage to agree altogether to use this approach? Do you have any geocaching organisation/association that made it easy or was it just a tradition? Sounds good. I was a bit worried that purists would say: "You cannot sign the cache as found if you didn't actually find it but "only" helped the CO to place/publish it".
  10. I haven't spent days in bushes near a cache to find what animals like/dislike in our containers. Just know that my dogs do not enjoy tobacco smell so I think dogs/wolves/foxes will avoid touching a cache flavoured with a decomposed cigarette. From experience of many tourists I know that they've used a mixture of tobacco and paper to protect stashes with food. This method worked for them (AFAIK) though I've never used it myself in my trips. I'd like to know how did you find out that deers were attracted by cigarettes in containers?
  11. For one geocache that I visited (in Siberia) the log was like a menu: - Took a chewing gum, left some crisps. ... (other cachers exchanged different staff) ... - Took crisps, left a candy. ... - The candy melted. We removed it, added several teabags. ... - No crisps or teabags found, left a chocolate bar. An so on. For years. I thought that geocachers might be very hungry and were not able to think of anything else but food because the cache was a bit far from civilization. I personally lost one of my caches because of a melted candy. The logbook was completely destroyed. Another brilliant idea is to put a cigarette in a cache. When some water gets inside... I won't give any souvenir from such a cache to my kids. Although a decomposed cigarette probably add some protection from wild animals, I guess.
  12. Thank you for these interesting and different opinions. I agree that FTF may be a valid part of the game but I'd say beta testing is more valuable and important because it's an effort to help each other to place/publish better geocaches. As I see it, FTF hunters can try any geocaches that appear on the map while beta testing is needed in a limited number of situations when a CO needs some advice/assistance. To satisfy everyone's expectations I think the suggestion by palmetto is good enough. Anyway, beta testing is more an exclusion from the common game, not everyday practice. Another issue is that if I tested someone's geocache and there's no other cacher to FTF in weeks/months (very likely in our region) it would look silly. In this case I think I would suggest the CO to publish geocache so I could go there without anyone blaming me (half a year later) that he didn't get his prize. May I ask one more question (without starting a new topic): how do you log a cache if you placed it together with the cache owner? Do you just write a note, or log it as found, or what?
  13. I wonder why COs are sometimes so delicate about cache maintenance and say "I don't mind" when it comes to bogus logs. These logs can be of different nature of course, there may be cache seekers who didn't understand basic rules. But since the topic starter talked about someone who "actually didn't find the cache" I think it means "we know for sure he didn't find but logged the cache as found". Cheating is a bad example for other players (including newbies and potential members of the game). They may don't understand it's cheating from logs at gc.com but know that it's acceptable to do in geocaching from personal communications, blogs, etc. IMHO CanadianRockies provided a good example and explanation above (#15).
  14. First, I look around to be sure that no muggle is in plain sight and I can safely do my business. Then I go a dozen of meters from the hiding place with the container, open it and inspect its contents. I remove garbage and do small maintenance if needed (I always have a kind of a repairing kit with me). If there's nothing really interesting in the container and it looks empty I add some souvenirs. I don't take anything from geocaches. After all is done I log my name in the logbook and put the container in its original place. If there's anything special about this cache (like unusual camouflage) I take a photo of it.
  15. When I go for a hike and have a couple or more geocaches in mind I always hope that the staff inside these containers isn't TOO bad. Not because I wish to take something from geocaches (I lost any hope long ago) but because I usually have limited number of souvenirs to replace garbage that I used to CITO.
  16. I don't care about being FTF (though it happened that I did some FTFs without any specific intention). I would agree that FTF may mean something only when there's some challenge, when the task demands some specific physical or intellectual resources from a person. When it's about "I monitor new geocaches more often than you" or "You work in the morning and I can go for a cache hunt" it looks childish I think. If one lives next to a newly published geocache and I live at the other end of the city and he boasts that he managed to log a FTF almost immediately after it appeared on the net - should I respect him more? I'd say: "Dude, go climb the ridge and grab a couple of unvisited caches at the Polar Urals I placed last year, and we shall celebrate your FTFs together!"
  17. Yesterday one of our local geocachers asked me to visit his new cache (placed Feb 22), try to find it and tell him my thoughts/suggestions before he published it at gc.com. He provided me with the coordinates and the hint. I was happy to help, drove there (Feb 23), successfully found the cache and signed the logbook. The satisfied CO then completed translation of his cache into English and published it at gc.com early this morning (Feb 24). I haven't logged the cache yet because when I switched my computer on and opened my mailbox I read a message from my friend (that CO) who seemed to be a bit confused. It happened that one guy, also a geocacher, read the new listing soon after it appeared at the website and rushed to the new cache. He seemed to be disappointed to see my FTF in the logsheet. He sent a message to the CO asking how it could happen that the cache appeared at gc.com on Feb 24 and the FTF log was of Feb 23. After my friend explained this situation that guy logged the cache as "the second FTF" (calling my FTF to be "actually a beta testing") and wrote it was [a proud number] FTF in his personal FTF statistics. I don't care about my FTFs at all. But I know that some people do. I was about just to log the cache as found, write TFTC and forget about this story. However I would ask for opinions at this forum. Is it acceptable from your point of view to log a cache as FTF before the cache is published at gc.com? (In a situation like that I described above?) Are there any traditions regarding FTFs within the game or maybe in your area?
  18. I've run into situations when people complained to website admins about caches they couldn't find; or they published insulting messages in logs; or started similar threads at forums. I've got email threats from people who wanted me to immediately replace this or that cache because "it was impossible to find". A series of geocaches was stolen in our area as a demonstrative "punishment" for COs who hadn't agreed to provide spoilers for their hides. And of course many people used to log caches as found after they actually failed to find them. It's all about personal ambitions, lack of experience and poor social skills. I don't tolerate people who use the NM feature to demonstrate their personal attitude/disappointment. But I think placing a NM log "because-I-didn't-find-it" is not a big deal comparing to what I mentioned above. By default (as a CO) I used to handle such logs as being done by mistake and try to communicate with their authors. In most situations they appeared to be good people that simply had not enough experience/undertanding of how to use this or that feature of the site. Moreover, sometimes they hurried to delete such logs after our conversations. At the same time (with a glance from outside) I notice that folks here often use NM logs as a "tool", a method of communicating with COs. The fact that someone used this tool without proper accuracy doesn't surprise me.
  19. I'm from Moscow, not SPb. However I believe you may contact Lis_Its, he is a SPb local and has been quite active in this sport and responsible to questions. Try to drop him a personal message through his profile.
  20. I guess it would be difficult to visit for geocachers from other countries. I would love to visit an online "exhibition" to know more about the history of the game and its interesting features.
  21. I once came to a cache and waited patiently until there were no muggles around. Then I quickly approached the GZ, grabbed the cache, and at this very moment a young couple appeared at the corner of the nearest buulding. There was nothing in my behaviour that could interest them. I tried to be stealthy and was ready to pretend I'm trying to fix a lens at my camera. However the young guy (G) crossed the square and approached me. G: - Hey! You found it! Can't be! ME: - What? G: - That little thing you're holding! ME: - Are you... G: - Nah, I'm not of your breed. Just live not far from here. ME: - Then how... G: - Browsed the net and saw a website. Knew there were several such boxes in the city. Found a couple. Just was interested how it worked. ME: - And this one... G: - Failed twice. Maybe I was too drunk? Yes. Too drunk. It's amazing that you found it so quickly!
  22. Poor lone wasp. On one of my geocaches wasps built their nest around the container - as I've been told by the last visitor. I disabled the cache. (No, it's not at gc.com). Thought about visiting the place in winter when there's no danger and check it. However it is a challenge to get there and back in one day in winter, it's too far from civilization and roads. Still thinking about what to do.
  23. Thank you simpjkee for your opinion, I value this conversation. English is my second language so I would better not give any suggestions here. I'm a worried about how this thread went and apologize for any insults that may occur from my words. Maybe there are some cultural differencies that I don't know yet or it's just about my not-so-excellent English.
  24. Since many geocachers appear to CITO/dislike business cards why not put information in some different format? l0n3 r provided very nice examples. I would be proud to check any of my geocaches and find such items with information about where/how one can see more souvenirs like that or even purchase them.
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