Amberel

Hi Richard, When you made the offer in email I thought it was just to help me out with one specific cache, but I didn't need it for that one because I'm making a camo container for it. However, if you're looking to get rid of them I'd be only too pleased to take a dozen off your hands for "stock". Though I'm a bit puzzled by the West Horsham reference - you're not off on your travels again, are you? Rgds, Andy

I've been in email contact with currykev and our Fozzie avatars are going to peacefully co-exist :-) He says to tell you he'll see y'all in 3 days . Rgds, Andy

I would like to apologise for inadvertently being involved in this thing blowing up out of all proportion. I didn't conciously pinch currykev's theme, it was an avatar I had used on the SECachers forum for some time and when I decided I should use an avatar here I just copied it across; it was only much later I realised the theme was similar to currykev's (though the picture itself is very different). If currykev wants the theme back I'll happily go back to being avatar-less. Rgds, Andy

I carry a Leatherman Squirt P4 (the version with the pliers), not just for caching but all the time. It's tiny and light enough to live in my trouser pocket and I use it on average a couple of times a day. Other things I also always have in my pockets, even when not caching, are: Asus P750 PDA/phone/GPSr with MemoryMap and Cachemate Pen Tiny LED torch on my keyring Tiny compass on my keyring In addition, things I pretty much always carry when caching are: eTrex HCx to give second opinion if necessary Better compass than the keyring one TBs and a few small swaps Single A4 sheet printed map, back of which is used for making notes Spare AA Duracells (all my equipment that uses replaceable batteries use AA) If it's a single cache, or just a couple near the parking, it goes in my jacket pockets. If I'm out for the day I carry a rucksack with: Good quality LED torch If it's night caching, an LED head torch Better camera than the one in the phone Pen refill More spare batteries Flask of coffee Bottle of water Food Bar towel Waterproofs if the weather looks doubtful I also take a can of insect repellent, but apply it when I set off and then leave it with the bike. Rgds, Andy

By "which no-one has yet" I really meant no-one had yet pointed out to me where it had occurred. But no matter. As far as the rest is concerned, if I responded I'd only be repeating myself. There are places where I too think moderation was too heavy, the calendars are indeed one such example, but on the whole I think they get it pretty much right. It's a fine line they have to tread. Rgds, Andy

Unless somone can point me to where anyone has been banned merely for criticising the moderation of a topic, which no-one has yet, I haven't misrepresented anything or "got anything wrong" and nothing needs to be "corrected". Where I have not responded in the past it was simply because I had already clearly made my point and it would have been a waste of time to repeat myself. Not sure I understand what you mean by the last para. Rgds, Andy

I wasn't aware I had got it wrong before? I still can't find any instance where anyone was banned for criticising the moderation, and I'd be pleased if you or anyone else could point me to it? By email if you feel constrained about posting it here. Rgds, Andy

I wasn't aware of anyone being banned due to criticism of the moderation. I was aware of a ban but I thought it was for persistent use of what were deemed to be offensive words, or corruptions of offensive words used as surrogates for those words. Have I got that wrong? Rgds, Andy

I'm another one - the email arrived a few minutes ago. £30 voucher. I don't have any coins, but I moved one on. Rgds, Andy

Well, when I chose my avatar I hadn't seen yours. And even if I had, I'm not sure what else I could reasonably have chosen. A bit over 30 years ago, when my eldest daughter was about 4 years old, I went to collect her from primary school. The teacher was having a fit of the giggles and explained to me that she had asked the kids what were their favorite TV programs. The children replied with things like Andy Pandy and the Flowerpot Men and so on, until it got to Rachel. She said "My favourite program is Nationwide (a current affairs program) - but my Dad likes the Muppets" . And forget Kermit, the Muppet of Muppets is, of course, Fozzie. Rgds, Andy

Well done, a pretty civilised way to tie up the loose ends . Rgds, Andy

Although I do have a car, 99% of my caching is by motor-bike. When I say motor-bike, actually it's a 250cc scooter. I've had big bikes all my life but in my dotage have turned to the previously despised scooter. The main thing to take account of is clothing. In the summer you don't want to be walking round in bike gear. How significant this is might depend on whether or not you wear leathers - I wear a heavy duty bike jacket but not leathers. In summer I can easily take it off when I stop, and in cold weather I can leave it on when I cache. Indeed, as it is thornproof, it can be quite useful at times . But while it is one thing to slip off a jacket, it would be quite another to change out of a full set of leathers. And you have to have somewhere to put all the gear (including your helmet) - on the scooter I have a cavernous area under the seat that takes my full face crash helmet (2 of them if necessary) and my jacket. Similar with footwear - I usually put on my walking boots before I leave home, these are just fine on the running board of a scooter, though I'm not sure how convenient they would be if I had to operate the brake and gears with them. The only issue with footwear for me is that it's extremely awkward (impossible) to get waterproof overtrousers on while wearing muddy walking boots. You will need space to carry your caching bag/backpack while you are riding. As this generally comes out when the clothing goes in it's not a problem, but obviously the shape needs to fit in whatever carrying capacity you have on the bike. You also have to consider what else you might be doing at he same time. Yesterday I was in London visiting a customer, and went caching in Regent's park afterwards. This means in addition to my bike clothing I have to accomodate my computer and briefcase in reasonably secure storage when I'm out caching, and also yesterday as I wore ordinary shoes to the meeting and changed into walking boots for the caching, I needed to put my shoes in there too. Luckily (OK, by design) I have an enormous top box as well as the huge under seat storage area. Not many machines will have quite so much space to put things, but I had this in mind when I chose the bike. Parking is obviously MUCH easier on the bike that it is in a car, but though it's more convenient in some ways, I don't do many single cache "cache and dashes" unless the cache is very isolated from its peers. I go caching mainly for the walking, so the bike gets me to the area and then I plan a circular tour. As far as SatNav is concerned, I use a handlebar mounted eTrex HCx with GB topo maps. The eTrex is excellent for caching (I'd guess it was much better than a TomTom) and the topo maps do routing. Effectively it works in different ways for SatNav and caching. It's not quite as good a SatNav as TomTom, but it's good enough. It's reasonably water resistant and runs for 40 hours on a pair of AA Duracells, so there is no need to run a power lead to it. Downsides are a small screen and it's not so good in the dark. Hope this helps, Rgds, Andy

That is truly excellent. I have already had great co-operation from the National Trust at Runnymede, to the extent that they even suggested I place another cache at another nearby location, which I intend to do. It's terrific that it looks like we should get nationwide co-operation in the same way. Well done GAGB committee . Rgds, Andy

If you have a PocketPC I can send you a conversion program. Rgds, Andy

Over here we have (at least) two different sorts of multi. One is a linked series of hides, the other is a list of published locations, from each of which clues are obtained. It seems very likely to me that we are talking about the second type. DorsetGal, I see there already have been suggestions that probably will solve your problem. If they don't, then if you like to let me know the points you want mapped, I'll enter them into my own "home-made" program and print off a map off for you. Rgds, Andy

Yes, I realised that, and was trying to point out why this statistic was just as pointless as any other. Edited to make it clearer: stats themselves are fine, it's the comparison of stats that is meaningless (and this ratio involves comparison). Rgds, Andy

Having been around for less than 18 months I fall into the "newbie" group. I think I understand some of what the "old-timers" are saying, but I also think it's worth considering how much the diminishing interest is due to caching changing, and how much is due to themselves changing? When you've been doing something for a long time, it's natural for some of the sparkle to go out of it. It's possible you might have felt even flatter if it HAD stayed the same! I'm fairly sure there are just as many good quality caches as there ever were, probably more. If that's the issue, it's just a case of being more selective. If the issue is that you're bored with caching because you've been doing it too long, that's not a crime - just go and do something else that you do enjoy! Rgds, Andy

This comes up quite regularly. You find caches if you want to find caches. You set caches if you want to set caches. I would suggest that setting caches because you feel obliged to is a very bad reason to set them. It is totally pointless doing any comparisons - actually, it's worse than that, it's detrimental to the game. The number of hits you get will depend largely on where you live and what sort of caches you put out. If you put out a ring of very easy caches in the south east, you will get lots of hits. If you take the same amount of time to put out a well thought out, but long and difficult multi, you will only get a few hits. But you can't say that the ring of easy caches is "better" than the difficult multi. Most of us value a variety of caches, but if we rate cachers simply on the number of "hits" their caches get, we will end up with only easy caches. There are plenty of people who like placing caches, and we have no shortage of new ones. If you WANT to place some caches, great, just don't do it because you feel you ought to. Rgds, Andy

While doing the Chiltern Hundred main ring yesterday I saw a notice regarding lost keys between ch039 and ch040. I noted the telephone number (though it was rain damaged and I had to guess at one of the digits). Rather than publishing the number, if anyone has lost any keys there, please contact me and I'll pass it on. Rgds, Andy

Sorry, WoD, but I think this whole thing is a seriously bad idea, greatly to the detriment of caching as a whole. TeamTraen has summarised the principles of my objections. How about doing some caching yourself in the ordinary way for 6 months or a year, and then approaching the subject again? If you like it enough to continue doing it, the experience will leave you better placed to understand the pros and cons of what you are proposing. Rgds, Andy

I didn't say you had used it without a period in the middle. It's not relevant because the period makes no difference to the semantics, it merely gets it past the automatic checker. The same applies to anagrams of offensive words. You have incessantly inserted these anagrams and dotted words into your posts for several days now, and I can see no other reason than to deliberately provoke the moderators. You know perfectly well that Groundspeak do not wish you to use offensive words in the forums, and you also know that the majority of people think that is a good principle. I think you have to decide if you are prepared to accept that principle, and frankly that includes dotted words and anagrams used as aliases for offensive words. If you're completely opposed to offensive words being prohibited then then they might as well ban you for life now. If you do accept the principle we then come to the issue of how offensive language is monitored. There is an imperfect automatic filter to take out some obvious words, backed up by moderators who are more flexible than the automated system. We know that there is one word on the automated list which we over here do not find offensive. You seem to believe that the ability to use this one little word in these forums is a basic human right for which it is worth fighting a long and bitter campaign. It's not - it's no big deal - there are more than half a million words that you are allowed to use! Worse, in the conducting of this campaign you repeatedly use that word (dotted, to get it through the auto checker) and other words (in the form of anagrams) that generally ARE considered offensive over here. It is that continual repetition, saying these words just for the sake of saying them, that is provocative to the moderators and tiresome to other users of the forums. Finally, you appear to be under the impression that your're fighting this battle for me, but please don't delude yourself. This one just isn't important. It doesn't register on the same scale as the spats we've had with GS in the recent past. Rgds, Andy

This seems to imply it is desirable that they "break through". With geocaching, as with most other leisure activities, it doesn't matter. Anyone is free to do it if they want to, and free to not do it if they don't. Indeed, the whole business of over or under representing is nonsense when it comes to choosing what people do with their leisure. There are no quotas - I would find it quite absurd for ethnic minorities to be pushed out geocaching when they would rather be doing something else, just to satisfy some political ideology. Rgds, Andy

As you say, the under-representation of other ethnic groups covers many areas, not just geocaching, and it is cultural. People naturally tend to associate in the main with others who think and behave similarly to themselves, and this makes the patterns of behaviour persist. I'm sure if you work with large groups of ethnic minorities that I'm teaching granny to suck eggs. Interestingly, in recent years very large numbers of Asians have started to picnic by the Thames at Laleham at weekends, putting up huge gazebos and with massive barbecues. I guess they go there because the number doing so has reached a critical mass and they can be sure of being with others of their own culture. This suggests they have no problem with going outside for recreation, provided they remain within their own culture when doing so. This is understandable. BTW, I don't like splitting hairs or being excessively PC, but I prefer to say that other groups are under-represented, rather than that white middle class are over-represented. I realise it comes down to the same thing, but "over-represented" gives the impression there is a problem and that it's caused by the "over-represented" group. Rgds, Andy

While I have no problem with the original use back in the mists of time, or continued use in normal discussion, the way you've been endlessly repeating it over and over and over and over again for a long time now does have the appearance to me of being deliberately provocative. It's become very tiresome, and Mandarin has been exceptionally tolerant. If you can just exercise a little self control and not mention it for 24 hours, the issue will go away. Rgds, Andy

I think that it is no different from anyone else's IS the point - it's not good that a mod should continue to be able to take this precipitate action in what appears to be contravention of GS rules and guidelines. But if the process is still in place then it's OK anyway, I got the impression that the appeal process had stopped once the ban had expired. Rgds, Andy