-CJ-

I would like to say "yes, I love changes you made" but I need to see these positive changes first. What I see now: - There's now much more blank space on the front page so when I use my small 11.6" laptop in my trips (as I do at the moment) I have to scroll. - People in my country need to switch the interface into local language. Earlier it was done in the upper right corner, easily visible to every novice visitor. Now it's in the lower left corner so you need to scroll to see it. - The button for settings/exit is now larger then my avatar. - Some titles for the sections below are not translated anymore. I know, I need to check if it's possible to translate them. - I remember that I needed to hover my mouse over a menu item to see the dropdown menu (am I wrong?) Now I need to click the item. Again, I can live with it but I doubt that all newbies will guess there are different submenus behind this menu. - Since no educational materials on the website existed in Russian I created my own for our local audience and supplied screenshots for this text of course. Now it's time to review the text and replace all screenshots. The problem is that I don't know if any new changes are made next week. Unicode in titles, you say? I don't own caches with Unicode in titles but some of people whom I know do. Need to have a look at their listings... As for the search system, I personally don't care because I don't use it (I'm happy with PQs). Of my friends only non-premium members used search. They would probably find some different solution because the search system was cut for them.

I cannot confirm that PQs are generated. The hyperlink in email message leads to http://www.geocaching.com/pocket/ where no PQs are ready to be downloaded. Exactly as Isonzo_Karst described. Had to download caches one by one in GPX files. Sent a message to GS. Hope that by tomorrow the bug is fixed.

Same for me. Very disappointing since I just arrived to a city with many geocaches and have been trying to download PQs all the morning with no effect. Messages are sent to my inbox though telling that my PQs are ready

They call that snow

At the beginning, I did that things with drying others' logbooks almost every time. Now it depends on the location, the container and the owner. If the owner looks alive and the location is protected from rain/snow and the container is good, then I'll do this little maintenance. If, for example, the logsheet is inside a cracked tic-tac plastic box I see no reason to waste time on drying the paper - it will be wet again in a day or two. To protect my own caches from humidity I choose waterproof containers (many of them I do with my own hands) and choose proper hiding places. No caches hidden "under a bush" or "between roots of a big tree" in our climate, for instance. When I move to Rome or Valencia my approach will probably change

The painful new search really took away much functionality from basic members and I've already started to get complaints about this from my compatriots. Again, I'm not going to debate the cost of a premium account or the obvious fact that a large website needs to get some support to continue running. Instead, I'd like to focus on the local context. Basic member (a geocaching newbie) in Chicago may easily start with his home coordinates, a simple 50km radius and a cache type filter (the only one left for basic members, actually). It's possible because of the fact that there are tons of caches in Chicago and any newbie will easily get many variants to choose from as his/her starting point(s). The radius covers the whole territory of the city and more. On the other hand, in (say) Komi Republic, one of Russian regions, there might be yet no caches at all (or very few of them) and the 50km radius gives nothing to one who's interested in new caches in Komi because the territory of the region is so large. The search tool becomes quite disappointing. It seems to me that the new search system was introduced without such territories (and geocachers) in mind. Back to the money issue: to get someone subscribed to some feature you need to get this person interested in this feature. You should not expect people to be happy to pay for something that provides no visual/practical results. Moreover, these changes make the life of us geocaching enthusiasts in Russia harder because we have to somehow explain newcomers why the website search (which they've successfully used before) suddenly almost stopped working for them.

Having a premium account I used to organize my searches with PQs. To me it's more convenient. On the other hand, users who have no access to PQs may be affected by changes to the search system. - Non-registered users have very limited access to the search system. Actually, the only way for guests to access the search system seems to be the known field on the front page of the website. The menu item and other hyperlinks don't allow to start search, users are invited to register. - Registered but non-premium members have no filter options except one by cache type. For example, they cannot search for a specific cache name. (Google search can).

Go raibh maith agat. I will keep this in mind. I'm subscribed to Geocaching Ireland group in Facebook and will let them know too if I succeed with my plans. BTW - and I'm addressing not only Irish cachers but all cachers who are going to visit Russia - please feel free to contact me if you are going to add Russia to your "collection" and have plans to visit Moscow. Whether you have any questions about your future staying/travel, or wish to pass/exchange trackables, or think about a meet-and-greet event, or wish to have a geocaching walk in the downtown focusing history/architecture/anything (e.g. Moscow Graffiti tour), please don't hesitate and drop me a message.

As a CO I wonder if there's an opportunity to use some style/attribute to download a larger/original image by clicking on its preview version in a shadowed popup window?

Since we in Russia are quite limited in our ability to travel, I don't expect much from year 2015. Most probably (90%) I will visit Latvia and maybe some of the neighbouring countries, Estonia or Lithuania. Have some chances to be in Spain in March. Very weak chances for going to Ukraine, but if I manage to get there I will surely go further and visit Poland. There's always a chance to visit Turkey once again. And I stongly hope to win my chance to go to Ireland in the end of the year. If the situation is getting worse the list will be shorter.

There are two kids both aged 3, you give a pie to one and nothing to another, and you're in trouble. Sadly, geocachers sometimes behave like small kids. Anyway, this is only one of my reasons and not the most important one.

I don't give out FPs at all. My reasons for this are: - I don't want to compare caches which cannot be compared in my mind, - my impressions are often different from what other people would expect, - I don't want to (unintentionally) offend anyone, - my geocaching experience is quite limited to talk about "favourite caches". If I wish to thank any CO I can do this by writing a good and unique story about my visit to his/her cache. I also don't use FPs when travelling to some area to choose among caches to visit.

Answering the initial question: to me it's important whether my DNF adds anything to the history of the cache, any different experience, or not. If I failed to find a cache and returned next day ("I was too tired yesterday, perhaps some fresh idea will appear in my mind today") but no idea came and I gave up - I would not add the second DNF log to the listing. If much time passed, or the owner changed the cache's location, or some friends joined me in my second attempt, I will log DNF for the second time.

To me geocaching is just a part of a hike/walk. Maps are useful for general orienteering and may suggest you some places you may wish to visit nearby even if there are no caches. Many maps contain various POIs, bus stops, railway stations, tons of useful data. It's usual that you can choose better way to/from a cache (e.g. through a nice park, not along a street). I cannot imagine myself getting outdoors without a map.

It may also be a CO's joke (as it was mentioned above).

- It's a picture of a ruined house crossed with the red line. - No translation is provided for a tooltip. Google translates this in Russian as "refused structure". Not much helpful. - Back to the icon. What does it mean? - Maybe it means there are no ruined houses nearby. It's a safety warning. Low chance for falling bricks or remains of window glass, pretty safe. - Maybe there's a ruined house nearby but the cache is not there. - Maybe there is some restricted area around a ruined house and/or a construction site. Access is denied (red line) and so my walk to the GZ may be longer. - Maybe there's a structure that may look ruined but is actually inhabited so I should mind muggles and/or additional threats like being robbed. (Why, switch your imagination on ). - Maybe it's like with "no nice view" attribute: the icon is supposed to lower expectations of those who love examining ruins. Sorry guys, nothing of this sort to explore around here.

BTW, the attribute pages (here and here) haven't been localised yet. So, it really may be difficult for a person who doesn't know the language to interpret a small icon when its meaning isn't obvious.

The Leprechauns - you made my day

And after all, the lack of "no public transportation" looks really strange. I certainly don't mind attributes like "no picnic tables" to exist on this website - I suppose I will never use such attributes but they make no harm. With "no public transportation" it may be different. This reason could be applied to many attributes, you know. In my country public transportation is important in many cases. For example, many caches are visited by foreigners who come to Moscow for business and typically have little time. They rarely leave the centre of the city unless they know that they can access this or that cache easily by metro. In my view, this attribute should be more clearly explained in the guidelines however.

While it's all clear with my language I'm now thinking about what exactly culture I belong to Our next thread should be about whether we need negative smiley signs for the forum. Well, getting back to the original post. It's not purely about some specific small icons themselves of course but rather about how they are interpreted by cachers. Being a CO myself I have always limited the number of attributes to a minimum leaving only those which I considered to be clear and helpful (like "no dogs allowed"). When an attribute is interpreted like "I suppose that your visit to my city could be pretty short so I doubt that you will like this particular cache which will probably require more of your time that you expect" I won't use this attribute - at least because it may have different meanings for different people. If there's anything obviously important to pay attention to in such situation I would highlight this in my description. Add more unclear attributes to a page and use some of them as a joke and I (most probably) won't take your other attributes seriously. PQs were mentioned several times; I could also ask about who has ever used attributes like this one in a pocket query but I suppose we will get an academic explanation about how this attribute may be used

Intrigued by those. As some of you might notice, the thread is not that serious - I'm not doing a research on philosophical meaning of attributes in geocaching. The idea is that some attributes can be quite clear (like "no dogs" - yes, I usually pay attention to this one) and some depend on the imagination of the CO. (cezanne will probably disagree with me at this point ). I myself (as a seeker) use attributes when I choose geocaches for my next trip (whether I run PQs or select them manually) so I can hardly find myself in the situation when I come somewhere, discover an abandoned building and check the attribute to understand if I should search inside or outside its walls. Most probably this will be already clear from other details which I used to pay attention first: GPS coordinates, hints, previous logs and spoilers. However, I agree that different COs may have different approaches so finding examples of "tourist unfriendly" caches - I hope - will broaden my horizons

Surely the majority of negative attributes are usable. I've seen many listings with "not 24/7" for example. I paid attention to the most mysterious ones in this thread.

Scenic view. Disappointing view. Difficult climbing. Not that difficult. Abandoned structure. Somebody lives there. Tourist friendly. Tourist unfriendly. Front yard. Back yard. On the other hand, I will be happy if anyone could explain me why this attribute is the only one in the "Facilities" section which has no negative variant? There are and and even attributes. Is picnic table more important facility then public transportation?

I was thinking about a CCTV camera attribute. To me it's different from the stealth attribute. Stealth attribute means that there are high chances of my actions being noticed by muggles and it's up to me to attract less/no attention (e.g. choose another time for my visit). On the other hand, some areas are constantly and purposely watched (and my actions could even be recorded).

Especially when there's a clear hint from the CO and/or a spoiler photo with a big red arrow.