CapeDoc
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Posts posted by CapeDoc
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Who places the most difficult caches:
For cache owners with 10 or more caches, the following ones have the highest average product of Difficulty x Terrain:
The headings are Rank, Owner, No. of caches, Average DxT, Average D, Average T
1. shc_inc: 14, 15.34, 3.68, 4.07
2. Col123: 15, 8.72, 2.47, 3.20
3. Adventure King: 14, 8.46, 2.57, 3.32
4. hosta: 13, 7.21, 2.23, 2.88
5. besem: 14, 7.07, 2.36, 2.75
6. allamahmed: 10, 7.00, 2.30, 3.10
7. QFC: 12, 6.88, 2.25, 2.79
8. TeamTGF: 11, 6.52, 2.45, 2.50
9. Team_Farmers: 10, 6.45, 2.75, 2.20
10. MnCo: 53, 6.35, 2.19, 2.93
The one who stands out is MnCo. Quite easy to have a few difficult caches, but to maintain a high degree over 50 caches is quite something!
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Thx guys!! I think I will always be a bit on the slow side in accumulating milestones. I see cachers like Andy, who have been caching 1/3rd of the time I have, whisteling past me in numbers found. As long as I get my fix every now and then, I am happy. I am not about the numbers, I try to savour each cache for what it is.
I think I am more of a hider than a finder. I was very happy to have one of my caches found for the 100th time the other day. I also placed my 50th a while back. Those milestones are just as important to me.
Thx for the good wishes! I do enjoy being part of this funny little community! I like the spread of people I have met. The sport seems to attract an interesting, curious, an gentle type of person.
Good to be one of you!!
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The coin is available in 4 finishes: Copper, Silver, Gold and Aged Copper. They make nice sets to be discovered at events.
"I wonder if one would travel well to South Africa for me?" - I am sure it would!!
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The geocachers in South Africa commissioned a coin to commemorate 10 years of geocaching in South Africa.
It is made in the shape of South Africa and uses the South African flag as a background. It has a spinning disc featuring the world as the center of the 0, representing the global celebration of 10 Years of geocaching.
Here is a picture of it:
Did any other countries commission similar coins?
It sold out rapidly. If anyone is interested in ordering one please add your details to this thread. If enough orders come through another set will be made.
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The geocoin store has confirmed they will do another set of coins if there are enough cachers interested in buying one. Please place your orders here. Please leave just your (geocaching) name and how many coins you want. Please spread the word to those that may be interested, but who do not read the forums. Please give shout outs at Event caches. Thanks!
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As regards design, according to the sellers at the coin store, to make the coin desirable, irregular shapes, moving parts, textures and any 3D effects should be used when possible(all the pros of design), though they do drive up the costs(cons).
I just thought of an idea - what about taking some elephant dung and including it on one side in epoxy resin like this?
I think that may be original?
Not really sure how to respond to this post......Yes that would be origonal!
Practial....not really! (who would collect enough dung for a run of coins????)
Desirable...????
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- maintain hides of cachers who have either stopped caching or moved town/country.
I don't always agree with this. There are situations I can think of where this is not always a great idea.
- someone may have a "better" cache in mind and the cache is blocking the location.
- sometime they are just "poor" caches.
- If it is archived, you still have the opportunity to replace it and become the new CO.
- If they are really good caches that you are going to maintain, isn't it better to try and adopt? I have adopted a local cache that needed maintenance, with an overseas owner. I left the cache as it was (didn't change the listing, position of hides etc). I was not really prepared to maintain it regularly as a non owner.
The real lesson is to have your caches adopted when you move.
If the CO is still around, I will always do maintenance where I can to help out.
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So, who's turn is it to do the "Nine coins for Nine Provinces" project?
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The coin was great capeDoc - do you want to perhaps post your experiences and elarnings on the forum in case anyone else wants to make a coin in the future?
Costs, times, pros, cons, level of design required upfront (sketch or full concept), different suppliers looked at etc.
I think that would be most useful
OK
In general it was easier than I thought it would be, but that may be because I did have a lot of help.
The first thing to decide is the design. As it was a coin for "the country" I used the forums for ideas for the overall design, and got a lot of great suggestions, which were used in the final design. Link to ideas in forums.
The coin manufacturers want a specific, detailed, "finished" design. This is where I was rescued by GPS Storm. I gave a comprehensive list of ideas and raw graphics to him and he came up with the wonderful, polished, final design:
As regards design, according to the sellers at the coin store, to make the coin desirable, irregular shapes, moving parts, textures and any 3D effects should be used when possible(all the pros of design), though they do drive up the costs(cons).
Cost is a central issue. I opted to give the design over to the coin store, in return they took the cost of manufacture and I am (hopefully) going to get about 20 free coins from them in return for the design. (They have been posted, but have not yet arrived). The estimated cost of the coin I originally wanted would have been about $10.50. The owners of the store would have to market that at about $15 per coin. They wanted me to market the coin as they felt it was too expensive for them. The minimum run is 250 coins. If I took the cost of production it would have cost nearly R20 000. I would then have to distribute those to recoup my costs. In the end we cut the design back (over a long period of to and fro emails) to a level where the coin store was prepared to pay for production. This is another con. If the coin is overly complicated you probably will have to edit it to be more cost effective. In my working life, I would not had the time to market the coins and was certainly not out to profit from this venture. That's why I wanted the store to take on the hassles.
Time for production was longer than I thought taking about 4 to 5 months. A lot of that was taken up with finalizing design (paint colours, moving parts, metal finishings etc) Bank on about 3 months from the time you submit your final design if it is a simple design.
As for the choice of store, Fish Eagle gave a recommendation of "The Geocoin Store" and a name of someone to contact and I just went with it.
Hope that helps!! Its quite a task! Not one that I ever imagined I would end up doing!!! My main bit of advice would be to get help from the community. I drew on a lot of sources and received fantastic help. Thanks again to all that contributed!!
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Checked the store, all the 10 year coins Sold Out.
How many of each were made? Clearly not enough to satiate the coin starved South African market. What are the chances of an extended run?
Alternatively, lets design another local is lekker coin...
Thanks to CapeDoc for running with the idea and seeing it through to completion. The coins are indeed beautiful collectors items and I shall treasure mine.
50 of each.
If there is enough interest I am sure another run could be made. Anyone want more?
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Checked the store, all the 10 year coins Sold Out.
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I never claim a FTF if I was present when the cache was hidden. I usually log a find in the back of the log book and log online sometime after FTF. It's my personal way to "clear the cache from the map". I sometimes just put the cache on my ignore list.
It would be nice if provision was made by GS to share cache ownership.
I am impressed how much stress other cachers behavior causes cache owners!
Bad relationships take far more energy to maintain than good ones. That's why etiquette issues are a non issue for me on my caches. I cannot condone "punishing" cachers for breaking etiquette rules that they may not be aware of.
I may offend CO whith negative logs but have made it a personal standpoint not to use TFTC to show that I think the cache is poor. The owner has taken some effort to hide the cache and I think it deserves some effort to explain why you didn't enjoy the cache. No offense is intended. I do also try to highlight the positive elements of the cache before explaining why I didn't enjoy it.
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Surely the guidelines (maybe better wording that unwritten rules) for newbies like me cannot just be "whatever blows your hair back is fine" or "whatever floats your boat". Would no guidelines not ultimately lead to chaos? There are very strict guildelines regarding placeing a cache or hosting an event, but once it is published then it is a free for all?
Well, for me, pretty much....yes. If by "free for all" you mean "within the normal geocaching rules as stipulated by Groundspeak". It is the unwritten stuff that I am talking about, the so called "etiquette". Or the opinions of others. Thats the bit I dont get my knickers in a knot about. If I log a cache before the FTF or if someone logs before my FTF.....oops, sorry didn't know it was an issue to you and I, personally don't care. I do hope you enjoyed the location and the fun while you were there though.
As long as you stick to the written rules, you do fine by me.
I too hate "TFTC". If I hate a cache, I just say so.
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Unwritten rules are just that...unwritten. I think you must do whatever floats your boat. Caching is not a competition. I like some of the suggestions here but feel they are just opinions. I personally try to keep as relaxed a view on all issues as I can. For me, caching is about finding places, not containers. I don't log a find if I don't sign the log, but don't mind if others dont play that way. I get pleasure out of others getting pleasure from my caches. Period. I don't stress about the rest. What would it achieve?
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Well double Dang!
I dont want to rain on the parade!
Does anyone else want to host it now? Most of the leg work is done. I you guys want to go without me, I wont mind....
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may have to wait a while!THE DARKNESS ......
I am going on holiday soon and the only realistic week end for me...is the same week end that the guide will be away!!
DANG!!!
It looks like April 23 or 24 would be the earliest to go (but by then it may be raining and not so fun). How many would be able to make it then?
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Traverse reverse is a cache in Cape Town less than 5km from the center of the CBD. It was published in 2007,has a terrain rating of 4&1/2 stars, has never gone missing, and has only 8 finds. Are there similar, "urban" caches out there that are hardly found despite being so close to the CBD? I suppose some puzzle caches must have similar stats?
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There are less than 20 of each left!
Glad you like it CH!
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"Lets keep this fun thing going!!"
Congrats Jors!!!! You seem to be going just fine!
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I have something for that cough of yours Trev. It sounds serious!
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A friend is looking for others to join on a walk through Orangekloof on this Saturday am. Any takers? (10 Places available.)
(Last chance to see disas)
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A message from the Geocoin store regarding the 10 Year coin:
"Passwords are off, and we have less than 20 of each version left. I'm going to send a newsletter this weekend to my customers, so ping your folks in South Africa to get them while they can.
Please feel free to contact me throughout the year if you need more. The dies will remain intact for 3 years, so I can make more anytime. In minimum qtys of 25 of each plating. Thanks."
Hurry Hurry if you haven't bought one!!
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Hi Discombob!
Welcome back!! Good to have you in Cape Town!
Is there any way we can contact you?
I am free on Thursday pm. I am at your disposal. What are we going to do?
Requesting community review
in South Africa
Posted
I think that is very sage advice. Well put Hesamati. Some part of placing caches is doing something for a community and trying to WOW them, some part of placing caches is "selfish" inthat we want to read nice logs. Very hard caches tend to have very few, but long, appreciative logs, easier caches have more, perhaps less detailed logs. As a cache owner you need to figure out what blows your hair back.