-CJ-

You're an optimist, as I can see from your nickname. So think optimistically. These people will give your caches FPs sometimes.

Many good advices. The only thing I could add is that (in my view) one shouldn't log a cache found once its logbook isn't signed. Once started this will not ever end. Clumsy, logbook full, logbook wet, couldn't extract it, had no pen, pen broken, it refused to write on that particular paper, I felt it with my fingers but it was too deep, I forgot that a special tool was needed but I actually saw it = I found it, etc. No log, no find. In 9/10 of situations such a problem is solvable. The rest part doesn't matter: there are so many caches in the world waiting for me

From my experience it often becomes "quickly vs safely". The owner of a TB usually claims it to be put into some other geocache as soon as possible. However, in this part of the world it's often unsafe - a TB placed in a box in central Moscow may be just stolen. I know that such situation is common for some other cities. So, I usually prefer to keep a TB with me until I meet a geocacher who's happy to grab it and let it go further. This is one of the main reasons why I usually attend events in my own city and do meet-and-greet events when I'm outside of the country (not always, indeed). If anyone suggests me a TB I always say that I obviously can increase its mileage by taking it to Russia but it could take time to release it after that. If the holder agrees, I take the TB. There have never been situations when a TB owner wrote to me that I was keeping his trackable for too long and must release it ASAP. However, I respect trackable owners. This year (in the beginning of January) I had a meet-and-greet event in Vilnius (Lithuania). One local cacher passed me a nice geocoin which had its mission - to travel eastwards so it goes round the Earth and gets back to Lithuania. I honestly warned that this is not an easy job: Russia is very large and there are very few caches (and cachers) in its Eastern parts. The owner said he was fine with that. So I kept the coin hoping that once I would have a chance to meet someone from S.Korea or Japan and pass it to this cacher. However, I met no people from that part of the world within two months. Then I suddenly was suggested to travel to one of the most Eastern cities of Russia, Vladivostok (businness, not geocaching). I hoped that a meet-and-greet event there would make it easier to move the coin. However, no one attended. Most caches in Vladivostok were either too small to hold any trackables or muggled. There was only one box in the outskirts of the city, so I asked the owner if he was happy with me leaving the coin there. With that permission I took a cab and found the cache and put the coin into that box. (It's still there, as far as I know). The coin was in my hands for a bit more than 2 months.

My longest search was probably in Vilnius, Lithuania. I attempted that cache four times and each time spent from 10 minutes to 1 hour trying to understand where it could be Having in mind that I live in other country - I travelled there four times before I found it

Yes, it depends on different things and most of them have been already mentioned. So, I would like to share just one thought: I would give up quickly rather than attract anyone's attention. I take my visit as a responsibility so that the cache isn't muggled after me. So, if there's someone sitting on a bench and the container is supposedly under this bench, or there are constructions nearby and two workers close to the GZ enjoying their cigarettes during a break, or a car with a driver lazily staring around - I will most probably wait for ten-fifteen minutes (if I have time, indeed) without any active moves and see if the situation changes. If not, I just leave. No DNF (because I didn't make any search) but a note with a string or two and "thanks for taking me there". However, if I make an attempt to find a cache but am interrupted by something or someone, I always log DNF. Of course, I also log DNF if I searched fruitlessly and gave up myself - even if it's a second (third, fourth, etc.) DNF for this cache. DNFs are extremely important. One understands it soon after they have their own geocaches published. Without DNFs owners have no information about whether their caches are fine or not.

Crimea is the territory that the Russian government believes to belong to Russia and the Ukrainian govermnent sees it as a temporarily occupied part of Ukraine. I cannot say anything about safety in this specific area without going deeper into political issues and I don't want to do this. Please mind however that if you travel to Crimea from the territory of Russia (say, direct flight from Moscow) you may have troubles later if you decide to visit Ukraine.

The good news are that we here now have our souvenir, yet another reason to visit this strange country. Thanks Groundspeak for the souvenir!

Folks, there are some news about problems that we have here in Moscow and I think you should be aware of them before you switch your GPSr on. If you try to use a GPS device near Kremlin you will most likely be surprised seeing your location in Vnukovo airport or in some other remote location. This problem appeared in 2016. Many people have been already involved - including those who were charged big money for travelling to/from airports after they actually used taxi for a short 10-min drive in the centre of the city. Some journalists even mapped the problem and concluded it was signal spoofing. The word means that some pretty powerful source, supposedly within the Kremlin walls, imitates "true" GPS signals deceiving the devices and making them think they are in some other place. When the evil machine is turned off or you just leave the central area your device works fine. There's no secret in what I'm saying. The trouble has been so obvious that it has been noticed and confirmed by numerous tourists, runners, drivers and people who work in the area or pass it by. We geocachers also noticed it. The signal may exist once you're there but no guaranties at all. The problem zone covers a couple of dozens of caches in the very heart of Moscow. To circumvent this I suggest not relying on GPS only but using extra information such as maps, hints and photo spoilers where available.

Being at the geocaching frontier or, better say, in a country where the favourite sport of powers of all levels is to suggest and implement restrictions and bans, I'd say that the worst scenario is that PG triggers a campaign against location-based games at whole. We've been in a pretty safe situation all these years just because local bureaucrats knew nothing about geocaching. However, PG created much noise. The President's press-secretary was questioned about whether pokemons are allowed to be hunted within Kremlin. It was reported that the President's Board on human rights (!) was going to discuss the "PG problem" and suggest restrictions for the game. Some local groups of restless idiots (we've got plenty of them in all spheres) already called the government to ban PG as a threat to local cultural traditions, etc. When I read these news I thought they were just jokes but no, this is what they talk about really seriously. This may effect geocaching negatively. Another effect PG may have on geocaching (it was mentioned above) is that it will attract youngsters, muggles, etc. so that they go into this hobby, not geocaching. It's only one end of a stick. PG will also multiply the number of people who pay no attention to even cars running around them, not saying about stealth techniques, good camouflage, avoiding spoilers, etc. We've got many of such people already but there's a good chance we will have even more. Getting back to the original proposals: at first glance I'd say they should not be implemented in geocaching, no way, sorry, it's another game, etc. On the other hand - I doubt that PG should be just ignored as a game having no relation to geocaching.

Percentage of positive responses when you help hosts, RuideAlmeida? (I'm trying to guess whether it's worth doing)

Exactly, wmpastor - I hope that we (at least in our community) manage to work out some advices for those going to organize an event in our country/city. As for failures, they usually cost nothing to the host (because he's already there) - but what about attendees? It's so cool when you get up early in the morning and travel 1.5 hours (Moscow is a really large city) to some remote district and then "What are your plans for today?" - "I'm going to the city centre, Kremlin, the Red Square, etc." - "City centre?!" There was a meet-and-greet event in the evening somewhere nearby a host's hotel. It took most of us more than an hour to get there because it was not close to a metro station and required some walking. When we were at the GZ we found no suitable place for any event, it was just someone's dirty backyard. It happened that the coordinates were wrong and the host changed them the same day, somewhat 2 or 3 hours before the event. We finally managed to meet because we knew the name of the hotel. No harm for the organizer, of course, he was resting in his room all the time

I came from a community where long descriptions and long logs are common. So, one of the first questions I asked myself was "do they actually read my texts here?" I quickly discovered that it's impossible to find answers in logs. Some people are happy to walk in a park and read its description but they fail to write anything about it. Just "TFTC, nice hide". Besides, in my country many people don't talk English and this is the reason for them to write short logs. As for foreigners, it became obvious that many people come only for numbers, they are always hurrying to some other hide, and there appeared another, much bigger problem: they often pay less attention to muggles and therefore caches were often lost after their visits. I witnessed this behaviour several times while accompanying tourists in Moscow. So, texts became less important than the necessity of repairing caches. On the other hand, I've organized short guided tours for geocachers in my city and noticed that many people were happy to know more about this or that place. Moreover, sometimes visitors write impressive logs like "it was very interesting to read about the history of the building, thanks for the story". So, I didn't changed my practice of writing descriptions, I just made them a bit shorter and sometimes provide more hyperlinks. I still translate every text of mine (except puzzle caches that heavily depend on the language) in English for those who don't read Russian. As a cache seeker, I first tried reading every description at home but it happened to be not the best idea: when I started my stroll in an unknown city there were so many impressions that details were mixed alltogether. Another option was to read a description once I'm at GZ but it proved to be no good too: when I was guided only by an icon on a map I sometimes found myself in a dull place, nothing interesting around (or probably this place was of particular interest for some category of people, not me). I ended with looking through descriptions before going somewhere and then reading them one by one when I find geocaches. Now I try to write at least a phrase or two in every log about the place and/or the cache (mostly about the place) so that the owner feels that his work wasn't fruitless.

Congratulations!

I've witnessed several events that happened to be not very popular. In areas with no geocaching activity, e.g. in a small town in province. Close to hosts' accommodation or workplace, if even it was in suburbs and far from local transport. In the middle of a working day when most people were busy. Early in the morning (say, 7am). These events were commonly closed with owner's phrase like "Sadly, I was the only geocacher who attended the event". I cannot say for sure that these events were all organized without any "social aspect" in mind. It's still possible that their hosts just didn't have any ideas of how to make events. We translated the guide published at the website into our language but it provides no recommendations on how to organize a better event. Is there a manual (set of advices) of this sort? (Not necessarily on this website but probably in any local community?)

Just let me know next time in advance so we could organize something.

NYPaddleCacher is right: according to this review Cachly doesn't do any translation itself, it integrates with Google Translate. I like to read descriptions and know more about places I visit. I suppose that people who're interested in translation tools are mostly of the same sort, so it's not only about one's ability to find a hidden box without a hint.

This particular cache was created by a newbie with zero finds, zero hides, just registered at the website, with an intention "to try how geocaches are published at all". I've got information that it was published by accident and quickly retracted after several comments. I think that I will invest some resources into the development of an illustrated "walkthrough" in Russian language so that geocachers can have visual tool to get understanding of how caches are published and submitted on this website.

I wrote this because three events in a row were published in Moscow on the Red Square in the morning on weekends.

Let me say this in bold: if you wish more people to come then don't organize meet-and-greet events on the Red Square in the morning on weekends in Moscow. - The Red Square is closed for various ceremonies from time to time. - It's located in the very heart of the city so the majority of cafes at walking distance are rather expensive. If you think that your participants may prefer going somewhere if it's too cold or raining than be prepared to pay for the whole company - This location is the most central one so it takes much time to go there from districts where local geocachers actually live. Moscow is a big city. If an event is scheduled for 10am it means that people will have to get up at 7:30 - 8:30 am on Saturday/Sunday. Have mercy. - If it's late spring or summer or early autumn it's common for Muscovites to leave their homes in the city and drive to villages on weekends. So, I suggest you choose other variants for your events while in Moscow if you wish more people to come. The best time to hold a short event is 7pm midweek since people can come after work.

Thank you.

Summer is not that far so I'm reminding those who come to visit Russia, particularly Moscow: you can use your chance to meet local cachers, exchange trackables, know more about hides and interesting places in Moscow. Drop me a message and we will think of something special for you. If you wish to act on your own, please consider the following advices. - Get a good map. Few people speak English here so don't rely on your communication skills. - Use metro to get to the caches. It's reliable and cheap. Midweek is poor time to go to the downtown Moscow by car. - If you prefer driving, do it on Sunday. Not so many cars and free parking everywhere. - Most parks are open at night but not all of them. Pay attention to this when choosing your next cache. - Don't try to explain strangers that you're playing geocaching. The sport is generally unknown and your explanations may lead to further misunderstanding only. - Avoid police officers. - Don't drop trackables into containers. If you like to exchange trackables, it's better to contact some local geocacher. - Have some paper with you - you might want to replace a wet or full logsheet. - PLEASE be careful in popular locations with many muggles around. Don't attract attention. - Writing something more than "TFTC" would be nice. - If you wish to organize a meet-and-greet event the best time would be midweek at about 7pm. Choose some central location for your event.

Thank you for the comment.

justintim1999, it's nice that we're thinking in the same direction. I actually did what you described in your variant plus before replacing the cache I checked the other caches in the area by this owner to be sure that this person was an active player and the cache wasn't abandoned. And I put the container in a different location because it seemed to me that if someone had found it in the old place this vandal could easily check this very place once again. The result was that the container and some swag were saved, no litter around, the CO replied very quickly and visited the site next day to put everything in order. So, my point is that even more serious maintenance (than replacing wet logs) can be done without prior approval in some circumstances (in this case it was an obvious and direct threat to the cache). Indeed, such actions require accuracy and responsibility both from the visitor and the CO.

It happened to me about 2 weeks ago. Two or three cachers reported that one of my traditional micro caches was missing. It happened that I passed by the place very soon after these logs so I checked the cache and yes - there was no container. So, I disabled the listing and decided to come back with a repairing kit. Unexpectedly, two days after that another cacher logged this hide saying that he successfully found the container and no maintenance was necessary. I checked the cache for the second time and finally found the container. It was moved by previous finders to a slightly different location, further, deeper, one couldn't see it, it's hiding place could be discovered only with fingers and luck.

OK, let me pretend that I'm your student Helsinki, Finland. I visited a cache on an embankment and was much upset when I approached the GZ. I found the cache box, its lid and some swag on the ground, all items separately from each other. I failed to find a logbook though. The place seemed to be rather popular but I was there in the morning so very few people were around. It appeared that some vandal visited the site right before I got there. I didn't know the CO and had no way to ask for any permissions/opinions. I didn't know the exact hiding place either: there were many variants where the container could be hidden and hints didn't help. What would you do if you were in my shoes?