TeamSeekAndWeShallFind
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Posts posted by TeamSeekAndWeShallFind
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Thanks for posting the links to those other threads, but particularly eye-opening was this one.
My opinion has been turned around completely after reading it.
Sorry to hear that you had to deal with this person, baloo&bud.
B.
Here's another thing he does...If we find a cache he previously DNF'd on, he'll go back to the cache to find it and then when he logs it he'll state that our signature wasn't on the log, basically calling us cheaters, which we are NOT! The following is one of these said logs with identifiable information removed...
"Stopped by with my good luck charm ( insert his son's name here ) to give this one another shot. We were able to track it down today a lot quicker than was spent looking for it last time I was here. Oddly enough, I didn't see any logs dated for ( insert date we found said cache here ) on the scroll... SL. TFTC."
So we asked the CO to ask this loon to edit out the slanderous lie comment about us and the CO told us to ask him ourselves. Well, we know better than to do that because THE ONE AND ONLY TIME we contacted the nut and asked him to leave us alone, HE reported US, said we were harassing him and WE got suspended! LOL
So ya, this is just another thing he's been doing on top of everything else for 6 years.
As for the other guy who's posting links, we made our mistakes, YEARS AGO and most of them were us attempting to defend ourselves only to get in trouble or suspended. We paid for our mistakes and now we just want to be left alone. Don't listen to everything you hear because anyone who posts 5-6 year old links doesn't have anything else to point you towards to make us look bad. Those are the ones who, they themselves have their own personal agenda and who are also guilty of the same behaviors as the person in question.
In closing, we have received numerous emails of support since our most recent posts on this thread and one email in particular really opened our eyes to a lot of things and how they work.
Thanks for the replies. The good advice and the bad advice. As far as we're concerned, this thread is dead to us. You all can keep it going. Say what you wish. We're done here. We're moving forward.....onward and upward to more positive and constructive endeavors!
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE
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Not sure I get the tinfoil helmet and hamster wheel reference. Are those terms supposed to be insulting? I host an annual AFDB contest, and to date, no one has mentioned being offended. Should I cease & desist?
I suppose the reference was to The Most Controversial Cache Ever Posted by "we can make jokes and take them too." It seems to have quite a history of being depublished, republished, rewritten after publishing, and then archived by the reviewer.
Generic pokes at tinfoil hat wearers is relatively benign.
However using a cache page to poke fun at someone you are not friendly with is mean spirited, and not something anyone should tolerate. Changing the description after archival and republishing only to do it again?
I am now just starting to see what exactly the OP has to deal with here.
Is anyone else not surprised that the DGS is connected to this mess?
Yikes! The OP is seemingly being harrassed by the same Dirtbag Geocaching Society member who got the other thread stirred up.
:ph34r:There was this other time, last year, when our stalker sought out a friend of ours and volunteered to help him with a Boy Scout event he was hosting. Our friend welcomed the help. Our friend wrote to us the day after the event and told us that as soon as everybody left, our stalker IMMEDIATELY pulled him aside and started gossiping about us and trying to get our friend to join him in the gossip. Our friend told him right to his face he was not interested in gossiping about anyone and he walked away leaving the stalker standing there.
After that, we no longer EVER mention who our friends are because we DO NOT want them to become this creep's newest victims. He somehow found out who another of our friends is and he added all of their caches to his stalking tool and started posting hateful notes on their cache pages.
So now we NEVER post publicly who our friends are. THAT is how bad it is.
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Sounds like the whole community is dysfunctional. It's obvious that TSAWSF is not the only one that tries to use their cache descriptions as a platform for social discourse.
I see they've got a new cache called "Gossip is the Devil's Radio.... "
SO WHAT? What does the title of our newest cache have to do with any of this? AGAIN, looking at, researching, studying and blaming the victims? Our cache is a tiny little rubber devil toy/character holding a radio! We epoxied a nano in his hand and stuck him inbetween bricks on the wall. 'Gossip is the Devil's Radio,' is a George Harrison song! The little character holding the nano cache inspired the title! What is your point?
Also, anytime we come here to the forums looking for help or advice concerning our situation with this person, he REMOVES HIS LITTLE STALKING TOOL THING and makes it private until things die down. THEN he puts it all back. Obviously he doesn't want the GC community at large seeing 'his stuff!!' He monitors his 'stalking tool,' like most people monitor their bank accounts. He's here right now reading this. He's not stupid! He knows when it's time to hide things.
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Wow! That was a long, interesting read…
For the first three pages it reminded me of the "American syndrome". Let me explain. The worlds view of America is poor. No one likes America and it's not really a big secret (however, my opinion is quite different. I'm from Canada and when I visit the USA I find the folks MUCH nicer than my Canadian counterparts).
What is the reason for this poor attitude towards American's? Because, American's think they're the best, smartest, best looking, most talented people in the world…which in turn breeds hate and terrorism.
By reading your initial posts, it also seems that you think you're the best, most hard working cachers in your area. OF COURSE that is going to breed hate amongst other cachers. And, like America, you refuse to change at all. Are you wrong to celebrate your greatness and work ethic? In theory, no..but it OBVIOUSLY has a negative effect on others whether you want to believe it or not.
Now that was my opinion for the first three pages.
After 6 years, and saying that the offender HAS POSTED IN THIS THREAD, why not out him? Why are you keeping this person's identity a secret? You are still trying to spare their feelings? When have they spared yours? This person is causing you untold grief. Stop being bullied and stand up for yourself!
(This post shouldn't be misconstrued as a plight against American's. Like I said, I think American's are FAR friendlier than the country I was born and live in. Your love for your troops is AMAZING. I wish we had the same support here)
I LOVE this post and if I wasn't so dang tired from just getting off work, I would be posting a much better response! I'm going to address the basics now and elaborate later. First, you ask why we don't 'out him?' LOL! If we did, we would be suspended/banished from these forums for at least 30 days! Do you think this is the first time we've come to these forums looking for help with this? Of course not! This is probably the 6th, 7th, 8th, time we've been here! The last time we came here looking for help, WE ended up getting suspended from these forums! We never posted his name but we received a notice that we were suspended for 30 days for saying his name! We didn't even argue or question the suspension, as always, we just accepted the punishment and moved on.
WE CAN'T SAY HIS NAME! Are you kidding? Spare his feelings? We aren't keeping his name a secret to spare his feelings! We're keeping his name a secret to spare us from getting suspended AGAIN because of him!
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American's think they're the best, smartest, best looking, most talented people in the world…
Actually it IS a fact that Americans are the best, smartest, most talented people in the world. As for "best looking" I refer you to www.peopleofwalmart.com
I rest my case.
I think it's vitally important that, before anything else, we take a look at the Groundspeak Terms of Use, specifically 2 terms of use, listed under 'Restrictions,' which have been ABSOLUTELY AND COMPLETELY violated over and over and over and over by this person over the course of the past 6 years. He has CONSTANTLY and CONSISTENTLY posted THE MOST hateful, mean, slanderous, evil comments about us all over the GC.com site AND on his 'stalking/harassing site tool/feature' that he uses to, admittedly, 'monitor' us. He was made to remove those comments about 9 months ago after we saw them and became so freaking fed up, we CALLED Groundspeak! That's right! We called Groundspeak! It was the first time we ever really took action. Before that we just went on and kept dealing with him and dealing with him and dealing with him, turned the other cheek, tried to ignore him, took the high road etc...
Within 10 minutes of our phone call, his nasty, hateful, slanderous comments were removed BUT to our disgust and dismay, he was not made to remove 'his stalking tool,' because...'it wasn't violating any guidelines.' This didn't make sense because the hateful comments attached to it were removed and those comments proved the 'tool' has an agenda so it didn't make sense...remove the comments but not the 'tool.'
Afterwards, he laid low for awhile but now he's doing it again. The 'stalking tool' is still there and the slanderous/hateful comments are once again starting to accumulate. To clarify; he has admitted to others, who have in turn told us, that he uses this feature of the GC.com site...'To MONITOR TeamSeek.'
The first violated TOU that applies here is the one that follows below and where do we start with it? Over the past 6 years he has harmed us, abused us, harassed us, defamed us, embarrassed us AND, the sheer length of time that of all of the above has gone on, 6 years, has been torturous to say the least!
vii: Upload, post, transmit or otherwise distribute (including by emailing us) any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, profane, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, embarrassing, harmful to minors, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable to any other person or entity.
The 2nd TOU is xix:
Stalk, harass, or otherwise harm another user of our services, Groundspeak employee or third party.
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A game-cam to catch a video of the thief in action will help end this.
And as a long-term reader of this thread, I can say that some comments & responses are starting to repeat.
By the way, in 4-wheel's comment above, he offers a plausible psychological explanation of your nemesis. You then tell 4-wheel to stop blaming the victim. He isn't - he's saying that other person is a kook. But your misread of 4-wheel suggests you see too many things as a personal attack or criticism.
Please don't come back to attack my views. If they're wrong, they're wrong. The purpose of stating them is just to get you to think. It's not blaming the victim to suggest that a six-year feud >>> may <<< involve some poor choices by the victim during those six years.
I'm done - now you can refute my views (limited value) or think about whether there might be any grain of truth there (better value).
We TOTALLY appreciate your input and the input/advice from others however, I don't think anyone here truly understands the scope of what's happening here and what we've been dealing with. This stalking, harassment, torment etc... hasn't been going on for 6 days or 6 weeks or 6 months! It's been going on for 6 YEARS! That is a long, long time to turn the other cheek, 'lay low,' ignore it/him and 'take the high road' which is what we were told to do. This is 2013, the age of the CYBER BULLY. The age of CYBER STALKING. This 'phenomena' needs to be recognized and dealt with. Victims of these 'acts,' should not be told to....just deal with it or turn the other cheek or ignore it or lay low or change your name/address or schmooze up to your stalker/harasser/tormenter/bully and make friends so he'll leave you alone! Laws and guidelines need to be put in place to help victims who are dealing with these things. No one should be brushed off or ignored and left on their own to deal with it. The powers that be need to stand up and take notice...do something....make changes...create laws and guidelines and Terms of Use violations etc...include cyber stalking...cyber bullying...cyber harassing, invasion of privacy etc...
WE are NOT the perpetrators here! Bottom line is, if this NUT backed off and left us alone, THERE WOULD BE PEACE in our local GC community but he keeps it going! We even wrote to him several years ago and asked him to PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE and STOP using the 'certain feature of the site' to harass us. We gave him our email address AND phone number and told him to contact us so we could talk things out. Do you think he contacted us? Of course not. He reported us for 'harassing him,' and we were suspended for 45 days!
Need I go on?
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Personal, I think you are handing the situation wrong.
I ran into something very similar, and I am not having any problems now. I choice to ignore and lay low. They get bored faster and forget you when you do that.
We have ignored him but how long can you ignore someone who simply will not leave you alone? Trust me, we've tried everything! Fact is, we don't bother this guy, EVER! We live like 80 miles from him. We have absolutely ZERO interest in him, who he is, what he does, his caches etc... ZERO! If he wasn't stalking us, we would TOTALLY forget he ever existed. It's only because he's STALKING us and ALWAYS in our faces that we even think about him at all. Basically, he's forcing us to notice him and THAT is 'harassment.' THAT is 'stalking.' THAT is 'tormenting.' We ARE NOT interested in him AT ALL. He is interested in us though, big time, which is why he won't leave us alone. Obviously, we have something he wants. What that something is, we don't know. We wonder...If we gave him what he wants, would he go away? That's all we want....for him to LEAVE US ALONE. He uses a feature of the site to stalk and harass us.
He's reading this. He's commented on this thread. This is from both of us.....LEAVE US ALONE! WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU! GO ON WITH YOUR LIFE PLEASE! LET US ENJOY GEOCACHING LIKE WE USED TO BEFORE YOU CAME ALONG AND SUCKED THE JOY OUT OF IT FOR US! PLEASE FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO ATTACHE YOURSELF TO! ISN'T 6 YEARS LONG ENOUGH?
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As for, to date, 90+ of our caches being STOLEN, who cares?
Someone getting angry and taking a few before cooling off is many degrees off from 90+ being missing.
That many denotes a serious long term obsessive compulsive mental disorder. I think you should hide things under a different account. If someone is now obsessed with you in a bad way, it could go to another level and you should immediately stop being stubborn and feeding it.
Do you think that many denotes a serious long term obsessive, compulsive mental disorder? REALLY? HELLO! Since this post it's gone up to almost 200 of our caches that have been STOLEN by the same obsessive, compulsive mentals. We know exactly who it is. So what? We can't do anything about it! PLEASE STOP making it like it's our problem and we are the ones who need to change and/or conform to appease them so they stop. THAT'S ABSURD! You're blaming us, the victims. Difference is, we know EXACTLY who has stolen almost 2 HUNDRED OF OUR CACHES but guess what? We will NEVER, EVER, EVER lower ourselves and seek revenge by stealing their caches. THAT is NOT who we are. They're lucky we're not like them because if we were, they wouldn't have any caches left! We just want them to leave us alone. Don't like us? Fine. Who cares? Move on. They can't. Hide under a different account? LOL. I don't think so. Your advice is reckless at best as it suggests victims are at fault and are the ones who need to change/check themselves. That's wrong.
If you have seriously backed away from this as all of us have suggested, and your stalker hasn't backed off, then it might be a local police issue, not a Groundspeak issue.
We have tried to 'back away,' and ignore things and move on but the problem is, our OBSESSED LUNATIC STALKER simply won't back off and leave us alone. He's been on us for 6 YEARS now non-stop! THAT'S RIGHT, 6 YEARS! Everywhere we go, he's there. Every time we post a note on any of our 308 cache pages, he's there...always watching, waiting, commenting, following, watching, waiting, commenting, following. Bottom line is, we can't get rid of this guy, in fact, he's here right now, on this post. We've run out of ideas on how to shake him loose! This thing has been going on for so long it's at the point now where it's SICK! Let's put it this way...if he knew our last names and where we live, he would DEFINITELY be looking in our windows and pacing up and down the street in front of our house. The sheer length of time this has been going....6 YEARS... has turned what started out for him as an obsession with us, into a full blown SICK and OBSESSIVE stalking, harassing, tormenting thing. Nobody even knows half the story and obviously, we can't tell it here because, well, you know. We just want this WEIRDO to leave us alone and MOVE ON WITH HIS LIFE or attaché himself to someone else!
The following is an email we received the same evening of our last post on this thread. This is just 1 of 8 emails we received. I can't post the other 7 without editing personal information out of them and that's something I really don't want to do so I'm posting this one. We receive emails/private messages of support ALL THE TIME in reference to our forum posts. Why these members don't post their support of us publicly, here in the forums is obvious....
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Is it possible they're just hungry?
They? Our haters?
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As for, to date, 90+ of our caches being STOLEN, who cares?
Someone getting angry and taking a few before cooling off is many degrees off from 90+ being missing.
That many denotes a serious long term obsessive compulsive mental disorder. I think you should hide things under a different account. If someone is now obsessed with you in a bad way, it could go to another level and you should immediately stop being stubborn and feeding it.
Do you think that many denotes a serious long term obsessive, compulsive mental disorder? REALLY? HELLO! Since this post it's gone up to almost 200 of our caches that have been STOLEN by the same obsessive, compulsive mentals. We know exactly who it is. So what? We can't do anything about it! PLEASE STOP making it like it's our problem and we are the ones who need to change and/or conform to appease them so they stop. THAT'S ABSURD! You're blaming us, the victims. Difference is, we know EXACTLY who has stolen almost 2 HUNDRED OF OUR CACHES but guess what? We will NEVER, EVER, EVER lower ourselves and seek revenge by stealing their caches. THAT is NOT who we are. They're lucky we're not like them because if we were, they wouldn't have any caches left! We just want them to leave us alone. Don't like us? Fine. Who cares? Move on. They can't. Hide under a different account? LOL. I don't think so. Your advice is reckless at best as it suggests victims are at fault and are the ones who need to change/check themselves. That's wrong.
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I'm not really sure how a reviewer could possibly "police" this sort of dual agenda.
For some clarity on the real reason for your post see GC3JGMM (sorry can't do a link on my iPad).
I would be honoured if an event was organised with one of the reasons being to try and find my cache. I would be somewhat embarrassed if it then turned out that the main reason it was so elusive was because the cords were considered soft!
Wether the coords for the target cache/real reason for the event, were good or bad or soft or hard or whatever is beside the point isn't it?
An event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together geocachers for an organized geocache search. Such group hunts are best organized using a discussion forum or an email distribution list.
I'm done. I wish I could delete my original post. UGGHH.
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There's nothing in the description which alludes to looking for a specific cache. I see mention of it in a log though.
Well they obviously didn't tell the reviewer if that was the real intent.
Of course there's nothing in the description that alludes to looking for a specific cache! The event host knows better! All of that talk was done on FB. Every person who attended knew why the event was at that GZ! There is mention of the true intent in almost all of the logs. Thing is, this was an important/historical event that was used as a cover.
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You can do all of those things, but it won't be published..
An event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together geocachers for an organized geocache search. Such group hunts are best organized using a discussion forum or an email distribution list.
If you read the attendance logs you will clearly see that this event/flash mob was NOT at all about the launching of the space shuttle but all about organizing a group to find the cache at GZ where this event was held.
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Is it acceptable to plan/create/submit an event under the guise of such but the actual purpose is to get a group together to target a specific single elusive cache or extensive series? For example: Host a Flash Mob event under the guise of/in honor of a very important historical event but in reality, the 'event' is not as much about that important historical event as it is about the event host finding the elusive cache which just so happens to be at GZ of said event?
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Throwdowns
Yep, its annoying, particularly by the 5th time you have to go out and remove the throwdown only to find your cache was right were you hid it in the first place.
OMG! The throwdown needs to be OUTLAWED!!! 99% of cachers know they're signing/logging a throwdown! Gimee a break!
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Can you not still go directly to a cache page by typing the GC code into the URL in the address box of a non-PMO cache page?
Or using "www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?wp=<GC CODE HERE>"
Or here: http://www.geocachingadmin.com/
Or put it right into the main search page?
I think the PMO status only prevents it from appearing on maps and in searches. If you know the code, you've got access to it.
You can get to the *log* page using the first two Ors but not the third one - if by that you mean the Log a cache link from the Play drop down menu. Oddly you'd think that link would be open as you're putting a GC code into the text box in the "log a cache" section - but it comes up with the standard You can't access this splash page. Not awfully clever design really - and you'd think that that method should be left open rather than requiring people to go around the houses and use vaguely subversive feeling methods to log a find online. In fact, bloody awful design - the "log a cache" box simply takes you to the cache description - it's got nothing to do with logging the cache at all - you have to click another button to do that as well...
The url method is tricky as it requires knowledge of the ability to stick a GC number in. A standard url, picked from a list and then the log it button inserts a numerical reference number which doesn't appear to have any direct relation to the GC code. It also works if you put the GC code in but you wouldn't necessarily know that.
They will appear in search lists online. But, again, you get no further and can't log from those lists. You used to be able to log from the map which was very convenient and provided a reasonably official way to do it without having to go around those houses again and be all subversive. But that got removed when all PMO caches were taken off the maps.
Fwiw when you said "cache page" originally I thought you meant the page with all the info about the cache on it - the coords, the hints, the description, the logs etc... Regular members never get to see any of that for PMO caches, although we can still access our own logs to edit them if needed. I've no problem with that.
All interesting. I don't have a second basic member SP account so I actually have no first-hand knowledge of what Basic Members can and can't do - that's why I was asking about those methods I keep reading about (and, of course, my Platinum status gives me access to EVERYTHING including the website sourcecode....).
Bottom line is, if you're a Basic member and want to log my PMO cache if I had one and you found it, there are ways, and after you've done one, you should keep a shortcut or notes.
I dislike the whole PMO concept, but see the need for it. I dislike paying taxes, too.
Except for the elitist aspect, of course; that's cool.
I dislike the whole regular/non-paying member concept, but see the need for it. I dislike paying taxes too, but I do. If I pay for a PM and one of the perks that comes along with my PAID membership is I get to make my caches PMO, then that's what I expect my caches to be....PREMIUM MEMBERS ONLY! The fact that non-paying members are allowed to log my paying-member only caches, ummmm, yea, that sorta ticks me off.... A LOT!! I don't like sneaking around. It's sorta like me paying for a 1st class plane ticket and along with that I get all the perks.....the filet mignon dinner, the pillow and slippers, the exotic flower bouquet in the bathroom. You don't pay for 1st class, you choose coach, but you sneak past the curtain and take a seat in 1st class cuz you wanna see what it's like. Then,next thing I know, you wanna bite of my filet and you wanna snooze on my pillow,wear my comfy slippers and sniff the flowers in the john I paid for! That's not right! You should get what you paid for!
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I am considering trying the 3-months of premium membership (for £7.99), but don't know whether it is suitable for me or not.
Firstly, I am not a 'serious' geocacher: although I am become increasingly interested in geocaching, it is still a sort of bi-weekly thing; I do not go geocaching every day.
Secondly, the paperless geocaching perks that come with a premium membership would be irrelevant to me, as my GPSr (a Garmin eTrex H) does not support paperless geocaching. I use C:geo on my smartphone to store geocache data, then input the coordinates into my GPSr when I'm out and about. C:geo also allows the batch downloading of geocaches as a basic member, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is another perk of a geocaching premium membership.
However, I am very interested in viewing my geocaching statistics, and access to premium-only geocaches. Does it sound like a 3-month premium membership is for me, or should I stick with a basic membership for now and see if I become more serious about geocaching? Thanks.
When I see posts like this it makes me crazy! Check this out....We own 21 caches in a 'park' in our area. ALL 21 are premium members only. There is a 22nd cache in the park that isn't PMO, owned by someone else. I cannot tell you how many times non-paying members have come to this park in search of the one FREE cache, walked right past our 21 PMO caches clueless that they're there and then gone off to cache for the rest of the day some place else, driving around, wasting gas and money for 20 more caches when they could've had those 20 other caches right there where they were.
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I am considering trying the 3-months of premium membership (for £7.99), but don't know whether it is suitable for me or not.
Firstly, I am not a 'serious' geocacher: although I am become increasingly interested in geocaching, it is still a sort of bi-weekly thing; I do not go geocaching every day.
Secondly, the paperless geocaching perks that come with a premium membership would be irrelevant to me, as my GPSr (a Garmin eTrex H) does not support paperless geocaching. I use C:geo on my smartphone to store geocache data, then input the coordinates into my GPSr when I'm out and about. C:geo also allows the batch downloading of geocaches as a basic member, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is another perk of a geocaching premium membership.
However, I am very interested in viewing my geocaching statistics, and access to premium-only geocaches. Does it sound like a 3-month premium membership is for me, or should I stick with a basic membership for now and see if I become more serious about geocaching? Thanks.
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I think I have managed to create a somewhat tricky cache to find, but I wanted to make it a little "different".
Would it be daft/silly to put "decoy" caches in the "most likely" places for a cache, and in/on those caches put fun messages "close, but keep looking", or "Did you really think we would make it this easy" etc etc - the actual location is going to be, I hope, somewhat unique!
Would you be irritated or amused?
Any thoughts appreciated/welcome/
Cheers
J
What is the difference between a decoy(s) and a throwdown? In other words, a phoney cache(s) placed by the CO at or near GZ or by someone else who can't find the intended cache? No difference. Both are bad and neither should be allowed. If the guidelines state there should only be 1 cache per 528', then that's what it should be.
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My wife was diagnosed this spring with oral cancer. To make a very long story short, she endured a 9 hour surgery to remove the tumor from her mouth. They had to take part of her tongue, 5 teeth, all the lymph nodes of her neck, and part of the floor of her mouth. They took a flap from her forearm to graft into this area to reconstruct her tongue and floor of her mouth. She had a trach to breathe and was on a ventilator for several weeks. She also had a feeding tube in her stomach because of all the trauma and swelling in her mouth that would not allow her to receive anything by mouth. She couldn't talk either.
She spent 2 months in the hospital, weaning from the vent, recovering from complications (pneumonia and pulmonary edema) and receiving physical, occupational, and speech therapy. At first she needed help from two therapists just to sit at the edge of the bed. I slept in a cot next to her every night for weeks.
Well, I am happy to report that she is doing much better. In fact, two months after she was discharged from the hospital, she decided to come with a group of us to do maintenance on one of my caches....out in the middle of the Great Miami River. Alcatraz! is an Otter Box chained to a huge slab of concrete in the river. It is normally a pretty tough one to get to but the water level is down and so I agreed that if she wore a life jacket and allowed me to tie her to myself that she would make the symbolic journey with our group. She made it that day and will make it to many more!
Ironically, another cacher who is undergoing a similar experience with cancer logged a find on the same cache today. He wrote up a beautiful log which I hope you take the time to read. I thought it was kind of cool that this cache has recently become a metaphor for surviving!
AWESOME story!!! GC hugs from us ( in Illinois ) to you ( in Ohio )!!!!
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Before we even get into the 'buried cache' thing/bizarre story, we have to start with this question....Would you ever place a cache, turn your back on it, walk 30' and take the coords?
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The whole 'trick' to becoming a great cacher has nothing to do with the type of GPS you use or the ratings on the caches you choose to search for. All GPSr's are basically the same in my opinion and whether you spend $89 or $800, it doesn't matter. The accuracy is the same. As for ratings and sizes? All subjective. DON'T choose the 1/1 or the 1.5/1.5. Sticking to those only increases your numbers, not your skills.
Becoming a great Geocacher only lies within one place and that is you. If you can't find a cache, stick with the search until you do find it. Choose to find 1 great hide instead of 10 or 20 or 100 easy hides. It's not about the numbers. It's about the experience, training yourself, your eyes, learning from each difficult hide and taking what you learned from that hide with you onto the next challenge.
The only way to become a great Geocacher is to ALWAYS challenge yourself!
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I have just read this thread, and I have to agree. I think there should be a basic (financial) hurdle to join in,
if just to avoid hordes of folks signing up who either have mischief in mind or prevent too many sockpuppet accounts.
That is one sure way to ensure the death of geocaching.com. The overwhelming majority of cachers are casual, and of the premium members it is probably a safe bet that a significant percentage of them did not find their first caches after becoming premium members. Not to mention cacheers who come and go due to life situations and may become casual for a extended period of time.
Premium does not equate to quality cacher. In our area, the most ignored cacher who also create lots of issues is premium and has multiple sockpuppet accounts, some also premium.
I do acknowledge Jeremy's intention to keep it free, but that could be achieved by providing additional value
of the value equal to the signup charge, like eg giving each paid-up member free credit at the online store(s)
to buy equipment, coins etc.
This adds no value to a member who is not interested in purchasing from the online store or can not afford membership.
This, quite frankly, was a volunteer or staff member who caved to a CO who did not want to play nice in the sandbox. It should have been handled along the lines of "thanks for pointing out the inconsistency in the wording on the site, we will fix it as soon as possible. In the meantime, the found it log will stand as it complies with stated guidelines as well as long standing practices and intentions of Groundspeak".
Problem solved, no drama with the exception of a control freak CO possibly dropping out. Net result would be a positive for Geocaching.
Question is...WHY would a Premium Member be so dead-set against Premium Member only caches?
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I would suggest going to some events. I know you don't want to, but I think you should if you want to get over this. There's no substitute for face-to-face communication. So many misunderstandings can occur over the internet. If you show your face and let them see how sad you are about your caches getting stolen, I think the word may get around that you're not such a bad person. The person responsible may feel guilty and the theft may stop. At the very least, you'll get some sympathy and feel a greater connection with your community. Also, maybe if you meet these people face to face and learn a bit more about them, you won't feel the need to be so competitive.
HAH! this would do no good. They have alienated many people in "their area". We know because we are in their area. We have had to deal with them for over 6 months of them emailing from multiple email accounts, we've had NM and even write note logs deleted because they believed that we were leaving them to harass them. Other cachers have logged DNFs on the cache that is clearly missing. We asked them to please make a maintenance run and were publicly humiliated on the cache page. It has gotten to the point where (Mind you, this is all alledged) they are watching our every move and keeping a folder and posting to facebook, all of our "rude, mean spirited, nasty" logs. The reason we know this is because it has been told to us multiple times in emails that were sent to us. And the best part to all of this is they are threatening to report us to GS with this folder of logs.
This is just our experience, others have had similar experiences, and unfortunately, it is at the point where if you mention their name at an event you get the universal response of "Don't go there!" *eyes rolling*
Other members don't not like them because they are different or more competitive, they don't like them because TSAWSF makes it a point to get involved where they are not involved.
Still, none of that would justify anyone stealing their caches.
But, so far we have no proof than any cachers have stolen the caches in question...just allegations. Of course, once you have rubbed enough folks in your community the wrong way (and you know it), it's 'pretty obvious' that anything that goes wrong with your caches is because 'they are out to get you'.
^ Agree 100%
There is no justification for stealing caches. There never is. but like you said, "once you have rubbed enough folks in your community the wrong way (and you know it), it's 'pretty obvious' that anything that goes wrong with your caches is because 'they are out to get you'". It is unfortunate that it happens.
You reap what you sow. We just don't have any sympathy for them, neither do other locals. This why we believe they come to the forums, to get sympathy from others who have not had the pleasure of dealing with them.
As for, to date, 90+ of our caches being STOLEN, who cares? A cache is a cache is a cache. Proof? There's no proof but seriously, would we lie? Here's what happens in our area....If you come along as a new cacher and you're 'different,' you will be ABUSED TO DEATH by the locals masses/cliques, until you can't take it anymore and you just quit. That's what happened to one particular member in our area and this member is the reason TSAWSF and SC have issues. The member in question is a friend of ours. He has certain 'disabilities' which caused issues with his caches/coordinates. Members like SC became agitated with this member and in turn created cache pages that pretty much 'attacked' this member and made fun of him. This member placed hundreds of caches in the area because basically, he longed to be popular/accepted. The locals went after his hides to rack up their points but at the same time they abused the crap out of him because his coordinates weren't perfect or his 'grammar' wasn't perfect. The SC in particular created several caches for the sole purpose of making fun of this member making comments about a 'tinfoil helmet' and a 'hamster wheel' etc...As the sister of a mentally challenged person, I will NEVER stand by and witness something like this in silence. So, as for sympathy, TeamSeek doesn't need or look for sympathy but we will stand up for and seek sympathy for those who can't/won't do so on their own. Again, don't believe everything you read or hear. If you have questions about someone, ask them directly instead of listening to and relying on nonsense you read in a forum post.
Any way to stop someone from terrorizing my cache?
in General geocaching topics
Posted · Edited by TeamSeekAndWeShallFind
Forget the idea that your cache is a TB hotel? Is that supposed to be good advice? That's so wrong and a very typical/common answer/advice to issues such as this....stealing TB's, pilfering caches, vandalizing caches, stealing caches etc... In simpler words...we're supposed to turn the other cheek...take the high road....change your cache to something other than what you originally wanted it to be or hoped it to be because there are those in the game who are simply out to ruin it for others or have it in for you or better yet, hide your TB hotel under a different user name so maybe the person(s) who's stealing the TBs from your TB hotel won't know that you own it. That's the advice we received in reference to our stolen caches. Those of us in the game who don't steal and/or pilfer or vandalize, are somehow responsible for those bad apples who do. It's up to us to conform to THEM? I don't think so. Don't ever allow yourself to be bullied.