mickaxl

I have read the guidelines and I believe that all but the first were a matter of interpretation and the reviewer has the last say on how to interpret so I'm not complaining about the interpretation. Funny story on the 'virtual' point. I gave an alternative for those who had difficulty signing the log. As it turns out the first person who tried to get the log page out of the container broke the container - they did report that fact and have kindly replaced the container and some fun has been had on the cache log pages as a result. I had practiced myself over and over again to make sure it was accessible. But because the neck of the container was very small I thought to give the alternative.

First, don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the work the various geocaching volunteers do but I just had to report on my the process of getting my latest cache approved. When first submitted it was rejected because it was too close to the final stage of a nearby puzzle cache. No problem there, a valid reason for rejection, as I would not have known where the final stage was and using my GSAK circles macro made it look like this was an open spot. So I moved it a resubmitted the cache only to have it rejected because I was trying to make it a virtual. Ok so maybe on that one. It was a micro that needed a tweezers to retrieve the log and I know from past experience (my own) that not every one has one handy when they're caching. So on the log page I mentioned the need for a tweezers but also said that I would accept an emailed answer to a question that proved you were there - hence the virtual aspect I suppose. As I said, may have been valid. Right then; remove that reference from the text and resubmit. Guess what? Rejection again. Looks like I was promoting a commercial business on the cache page. Well the cache was on the fence line I a golf course and I mentioned that it was a good one and, if you have the time and inclination, you should play a round while your here. Again I'll say maybe to that one but I've seen quite a few cache pages that mention and more overtly promote a business than this one did. OK, one more edit and submission and now we wait - wonder what will happen this time. But, and here finally is my point, all of those rejections could have been done based off the first submission. All alleged offenses were present in the original cache page that I submitted. Why couldn't the review point them all out in one fell swoop rather than in this piecemeal fashion that frustrates me and probably the reviewer too - assuming it is the same volunteer each time?

Then apologies to Photom for presuming that the result of the broken link was an unpublished cache by Photom.

Odd - that cache is unpublished! I'm sure it's a good one given the number of finds that you have (7000 - congratulations) and the number of hides (227) but it seems a little self serving to suggest it as a must do when no one has done it yet. Anyway, back on topic, I know you've said that you're not a hiker but there are hundreds of great caches along the American river and many are on well established trails. Also, you mentioned the route you trekked the last time so I would suggest continuing the route but on the north side of Highway 50 and definitely include Apple Hill, Grass Valley, and Nevada City. Finally, I used to live in Sacramento before moving back to Texas last December and it's where I began my geocaching adventure, so more than half of my finds are there. These are cachers whose hides I've enjoyed looking for: lancemac, CampinCrazy, alirose114, LewisClan77, SacCommish, sailorscodgers, and Fogg's Posse I'm sure they have some duds too but mostly I have found their hides enjoyable.

As someone who has submitted inaccurate coordinates twice I can say with certainty that it is not always deliberate. The first time I transposed two digits and just never spotted it in my rechecking so now I cut and paste the coordinates from the top of the cache page, before submitting for review, and check with Google maps that it is at least roughly where I thought it should be. That time I had people looking about 500 yards away from where they should have been. It was only when one person logged the fact that GZ seemed to be on private property in someone's yard that I wised up. The second was a puzzle cache where my initial submission for final coordinates was rejected as being too close to another cache. When I moved the cache and changed the final coordinates I neglected to change the posted coordinates too so solving the puzzle lead to an incorrect result since the true coordinates were found by substitution into the posted coordinates. Ok so now I've fessed up let's here about your newbie mistakes.

Not a bad idea. However, a series of DNF is not always a sign that a cache is missing but might be a sign the cache is hard to locate. But it is more info for a cacher to make a decision on so I support it. Maybe just a series of icons that show the last 5 logs in reverse chronological sequence such as in this example where I use the clickable smilies to mean DNF and to mean found. So if this was on the mini popup Then you'd know that that last 5 logs were DNF DNF DNF found found with the most recent being DNF's. Maybe add the date of the most recent log too.

Try the word TRAVEL. I recently got my first bunch of TB(s) and was surprised that this was the activation code for all 8 of them.

Makes sense as an event cache like that one was.

When I lived in CA my mantra was that the first cacher disturbs it, the second, angers it, and the third gets bitten - you can guess where I liked to be positioned. Hope this mantra holds true for TX snakes too.

Sorry for the confussion what I ment was not a mission for TB or coin I ment a mission were you send a packege with geocoins and other stuff like something like zarths easter mission or like the 52 pickup mission but what I wanted to do is a pet mission were people would sighn up there pets and you would send packeges with stuff for the pet and coins for the cacher/owner. I just wanted to know how I would go about setting this up maybe these will help post1 and post2

edited post: should have looked at your profiles before replying: jasondulac obviously knows what a trackable mission is all about having a number of trackables already in circulation and a quick google search for 'trackable "pet mission"' produced enough results to at least indicate that the term has a definite meaning but one that I could not glean at initial reading of the results. Original post below for reference: btw love the sketch on your profile Jackalgirl To echo Jackalgirl's point - it might be worth explaining more so people can get a better idea of what exactly you need help with. However, as a recent newbie to the Trackable mission genre myself, I'll mention what I did for the one I currently have in circulation and the one that I'll be droping off soon (or at least as soon as golf stops interfering with my geocaching). This is the trackable that I just dropped and has begun its mission. I took the idea from a current news item of concern, for family reasons, to me. Not sure if you'll be able to get to this one as I have not dropped it yet but because I've moved around a lot over the years I've set this one to a mission of retracing my steps. So maybe this will give you the idea at least as far as I see it - pick something that is meaningful to you; it can be current affairs, personal or national history, almost anything really so long as, bottom line, it can be translated into a journey that is geo in nature.

Maybe they fixed it. It worked for me. I'm using Vista and FF as browser.

Thanks. One less annoyance in life java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_26')

One difference I've noticed between two geocaching related forums that I read an participate in is that one as a "skip to first unread post" link when you click on a topic. This is very useful when there are dozens and sometimes hundreds of replies to a posting. Do I have selective vision or is this just not a feature available on the Groundspeak forum?

Would it not be a simple matter to control that based on whether the person viewing is logged on the owner of the list that way one page could be used and this confusion would not arise?

Excellent topic. At the risk of being presumptuous I'll add one of my own that is not geocaching related directly but related to this forum where a lot of cachers end up anyway. It is one of the things I've learned as a relative newbie myself. First this poster certainly followed the advise I present here. "Make your topic title precise so that people know what the exactly topic is about. use the topic description entry to expand on the title if necessary." With about 10 pages of forum topics each day to skim thru I've take to ignoring the ones that give me not much information to go on between the title and description. Examples: newbie question help me - please!!!! PQ issue

If you take a look at the bottom of my profile page in GC I do have the beginnings of some TB stats. If that's something you're interested in then look at GSAK forum posting for details. Of course you will need GSAK and the mentioned macros.

This is the method I used - not ideal like you said but at least it works.

I just had my first 'paperless' caching experience - 5 finds and 0 DNF and at least one was because I was able to consult the logs while out. But here's my issue. I use a Garmin Nuvi 360 for navigating on roads to the cache site and then an eTrek Summit for in close work. Previously when I just sent individual gpx for each cache to my eTrek they would end up in the geocache folder which allowed me to mark as found and so easly know when I got back which I'd found and which not but once the caches are in the POI folder instead I loose that functionality. So how do paperless cachers keep track of what they found today and what not and other notes about the cache that might prove interesting in a log on GC later?

There have been a number of posts on this topic. There's one large one here. A search for GCVote will bring up a few others.

There have been a number of posts on this topic. There's one large one here. A search for GCVote will bring up a few others.

This does also beg the question: how do you find out who the reviewer for a given area is. Yes with a couple of caches placed I can see that the same id is used for each and can contact that person or I can look at other peoples caches in the area and do the same. But what if it's my first cache or there are none, few, or just older cahces in the area that I want to hide.

Yes it was. Thank you. I needed to know it to see if I should up the difficulty level on my newly placed cache.

Would it not be an even better benefit if it was made available to Premium Members rather than to PMO caches. It might encourage more people to become PM.

Can anyone tell me the parameter to add to the end of your geochecker link to show the number of attempts/views of your puzzle solution. I had thought it was &viewcount=1 but I guess not because that is not working. I knew I should never have relied on my brain to remember that!!!