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El Diablo

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Posts posted by El Diablo

  1. I hit my 12th year a few days ago as far as creating an account but on a break now for a bit... pursuing other interests.

     

    When I was active you were a legend! I think a lot of the old timers take breaks. Me more by a forced break. I miss the old days of a hike to find a cache. I would have a hard time doing park and grab right now but

    I still miss the old days of caching. Whole other thread though.

     

    El Diablo

  2. Hey Jerry, good to hear from ya.

     

    I'd say power trails and the previously impossible find counts that people rack up on them is a big change. People can now find more caches in a day that I found in 10+ years.

     

    Challenges are new development. They are Groundspeak's new answer to virtual caches.

     

    I never did get around to ordering an El Diablo hiking stick, but a NJ cacher, Edgrac, has filled the void and is making some beautiful hiking sticks for geocachers.

     

    I've been seeing some of the insane number of finds people have been racking up. Totally unbelieveable! I remember if you found 100 caches you probably had to cache in multiple states to reach that number.Back in June I survived a abdominal aorta aneurysm and when I got out of the hospital I tried to do some caching as a means to help recover but I wasn't physically ready so I stopped trying. As soon as work permits I'm going to give it another shot. I'll have to look into this Challenge thingy. They can't be worse than micro LP caches can they?

  3. I totally agree with what the OP is saying about the powers that be. This all may be just a business for Groundspeak but successful business listen to their customers. This is the most common complaint I hear about Groundspeak, " they are the gods of geocaching and play by their rules or don't play." I got on board early on and had a premium membership for a few years but no more. between the forum moderators and the cache reviewers the freedom and fun of geocaching has become just another commercial endeavor for the enrichment of a few at the expense of the many with no consideration of what the "customers" want. I still sometimes read this forum do some caching but after this post I will probably be band, O well I have been wanting to get this rant out for some time now.

     

    Now I got on early. To me you are a newbie. Yes they moderate thier forums. As they should. Otherwise we would end up sharing recipes, local mechanic iformation, prices of eggs in local supermarkets etc... Trust me, if these forums weren't moderated they would branch off into hundreds of topics that have nothing to do with caching. I know you don't think they listen to the public, but then again you are a newbie or you would know the history of the off topic forum. Of course it's a commercial endeavor. What did you expect? it's posts like these that bring me out of the shadows. Fading back out now.

     

    El Diablo

  4. Market? What market?

     

    Can Today's Cacher build a magazine that geocachers value enough to pay for? Is there in fact a market for subscription magazines? Would advertisers value that market enough to pay for ad space? There's really no way to find out but to put it out there and see!

     

    I have no intention of charging cacher for the magazine. I also have no intentions of selling subscriptions. Is there a market for advertising? Probably in the future.

     

    My goal is to bring back Today's Cacher as it was in the beginning. A well put together publication that cachers around the world enjoyed reading. A magazine that focuses on current topics and interest of the community.

     

    So far I've had a few volunteers, but we need a lot more if we are going to make this happen. I won't attempt to bring this back unless I have a full and dedicated team.

     

    El Diablo

  5. How many online magazines do we really need?

     

    I would think that TAR's magazine picked up the slack after Today's Cacher stopped being published.

     

    There is now a print magazine in production.

     

    Isn't that enough?

     

    How many Fashion, Hunting, Fishing, Home Remodling, Wood working, etc magazines do you need? There are dozens of each. No one gave up the idea of publishing a magazine because someone else already had one. Each magazine brings a different style and perspective. You can choose to read one, or all.

     

    El Diablo

  6. I've received a lot of requests to renew this magazine in a on line format. I'm willing to consider it if I can put togther the right team. So this is a sounding board to see if it's possible. The positions needed are as follows.

     

    1. Editor in Chief. This person must be well organized, creative, and have the ability to manage and motivate others. This position is stressfull and time consuming. We need a person that is in tune with Geocaching.com. Someone who is familar with the current trend. it's not for the meek and mild.

     

    2. Web Master. The title speaks for it's self. You must be a master! This person is one of the most valuable team members of all.

     

    3. Proof reader. you need to have excellent grammer skills. you will mind all the Ps and Qs and make everything read right. You will review and edit all articles before publication.

     

    4. Staff writer. You will be responsible for submitting monthly articles in a timely manner. The subject can be about anything to do with caching. creative people needed here.

     

    5. Editors. You need to have your finger on the pulse of the caching community. You will seek out current and interesting stories from individuals and encourage them to submit articles.

     

    If you feel you can fill any of the above positions please contact me at JC364@aol.com. All of these positions are without compensation at this point in time.

     

    If we can fill these positions then I will bring Today's Cacher back. To get an idea of what you will be working towards you can see the past issues at Today's Cacher In our peak we had over a million hits per month.

     

    El Diablo

  7. they are such a cop out,

     

    i mean ok, i understand you want people to go to your favorite spot, or you are worried about muggles, and stealth, but seriously there are like 50 caches near me and maybe out of those 50 2 are not micros.

     

    micros should not count as far as proximity goes.

     

    Let's see. You have found a total of 3 caches and you're already complaining about there being too many micros? Sounds like this sport/hobby might be a little too stressful for you and you might want to consider something a little milder. Of course, if you are a premium member then you can just select to ignore all micro caches when you do a search; that would, I'm sure, eliminate some of your stress level about micros. Just remember, if you stay with the game long enough to start hiding your own, people will be keeping an eye on the type of hides you decide to make to see if the same feelings apply when it comes to hiding caches.

     

    Sounds like he's a quick learner to me. I refuse to hunt another micro.

     

    El Diablo

  8. When I first started 9 years ago it was really pathetic how I did. The first cache I went after was with a borrowed GPS that was older than dirt. That thing couldn't hold a sat lock in the middle of a Kansas wheat field, much less in the woods. My wife and I tore up an acre of woods before we found the cache. As you go along experience will play a major role on your sucess. So far you are doing well.

     

    El Diablo

  9. Lets see here. I pretty much totally disagree with the fact the Groundspeak, Inc. has a world-wide de-facto monopoly on the hobby of Geocaching, just because they went out and plonked down a few dollars for the domain name before anyone else thought of it.

     

     

    Actually Groundspeak didn't come up with the name "Geocaching" It was suggested in a fourm and Jeremy had the fore thought to register it first. Mike Teague started the first geocahing web site and then ran ito problems. Jeremy was pretty much a lurker back then and offered to help, and put together a workable web site that we all know now.

     

    El Diablo

  10. It's amazing the growth of Geocaching.com since Today's Cacher stopped it's publication. What's more amazing is that people don't seem to realize that the magazine is no longer active. I still receive on a regular basis article submissions, request for advertisement, requests for links, etc. Nobody seems to notice this magazine hasn't updated in years. I'm assuming people are finding via search engines and word of mouth. it's unreal that a magazine that hasn't been active for several years gets as many hits and draws as much interest that it does.

     

    Sometimes I'm almost tempted to bring it back. Please note the word "Almost". Please don't send me articles, requests and such. I can't do anything with them. send them to Alabama Rambler and the magazine he represents, he would be happy to hear from you. That's not saying that I'm not happy to hear from you, i just don't publish articles in Today's Cacher any longer.

     

    As a foot note I would like to say that I'm proud of the fact that my team put together such a great magazine that it still draws readers. Kudos to you guys. you know who you are.

     

    El Diablo

  11. Same thing goes for business cards. On more than one occasion I have found many business cards. If I need a layer I'm not going to get one that I found out of a cache. I throw them out every time. Geocaching is not free advertising your your business or service.

     

    I'm always looking for a good "Layer" If you find a business card for one or a cupon...send it my way please.

     

    El Diablo

  12. Standing in a long grocery line today and with nothing better to do, I asked the man behind me what he thought about religious items in a cache. He blinked a few times and said " Why would I care? and why would you even bring that up?" I said that was what I thought to, I just wanted to see what you thought. There are actually grown people arguing about this on the fourms. Once again he stood there blinking at me and said "You and them are nuts." Once again I verified we were thinking alike.

     

    El Diablo

  13. I am not much of a woodworker, but I am having fun with this project (thanks El D. for the instructions... located in this post... in two parts... )

     

    My staff is de-barked, cured and sanded so now I am at the staining phase. I noticed you tend to use natural stains on most of your staffs and I wonder if you have ever used a pre-stain treatment on the wood? I want to use a dark stain and I am concerned that it may come out blotchy if I don't use a pre-stain treatment, advice?

     

    I've never used a pre-stain. I also shy away from dark stains because it just isn't my taste. I did make a cane once for a friends dad that was a dark redwood that turned out nice. Also keep in mind that the softer the wood the darker the stain will be when applied. If you apply a dark stain to a soft wood it will be greatly darker than you expect. A pre-stain may prevent this, but I really have no experience with it to advise. The best suggestion is to try it on a peice of test wood. I've ruined some very good staffs for failing to do this. Feel free to contacxt me if I can help further JC364@AOL.COM.

     

    El Diablo

  14. I remember reading this what it was first posted, and I just found the perfect branch. I'm almost done debarking it.

    What length should a hiking staff be? I'm 6'1". Right now it's around 7 feet, so I know I need to take off well over a foot.

    b3ce883f-0da4-4a71-a3ba-b1b4a6bc61c9.jpg

     

    Nice peice of wood. I actually made my wife a staff from a peice almost identical. I carved a vine down the length of the staff with purple flowers and then added 5 birds, a cardinal, tuffted titmouse, humming bird, carolina blue bird, and a gold finch. It took me 30 hours of work.

     

    As to the lenght...Take your height and substract 10 inches. this should bring it about shoulder height. As was mentioned, the hand grip is the most important. I've found lots of good peices of wood to make staffs, but there was really no place comfortable to place your hand. Also as mentioned, take the staff and walk with it for awhile. I do this with every staff before I start work.

     

    El Diablo

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