kpanko

I have a Palm phone with WebOS, and it has an unofficial app that does not have a way to do field notes. (Actually, it does not even let me post found logs either. It used to work, but then the site changed and it stopped working. But that's why we need an official API, which is being worked. No blank logs from me even if I wanted to do it!) I'm not 100% sure what a field note is, because I just have no way to use them. Ignorance is not evidence of malice. Sounds like a system problem to me! The web site could be sending additional e-mail when a log is edited. Until you told me that it does not, I would have just assumed that it does! I want to search the feedback area, to see if someone has asked for that feature, but geocaching.com is down for maintenance and I cannot sign on right now. Does that make sense to you cache owners? A second e-mail to let you know that a log has just been edited? (I anticipate that somebody will object to receiving additional e-mail. To that I say, do you want to get the longer log or not?)

If you do not see the video, you may have Youtube blocked, or Flash disabled.

I think we're going in circles. (See post #144.)

To those of you who believe blank logs are a sign of ungratefulness: I think you are finding insult where no disrespect was meant. In my experience, blank logs often come from those accounts who have found fewer than 50 caches. Therefore, here is what I imagine might be happening. A woman (could be a man, but I prefer to imagine women) gets a shiny new phone, and while checking out all the cool things it does, she finds the geocaching app. "What's this? High tech treasure hunt? That sounds fun, sign me up!" She goes out and manages to find her first one. "Wow, that was fun! Now, it says I should log this as found. Okay, press "Found it." Enter log? I don't know what that is. Press "Submit," and it worked!" A blank log goes online, and she insults the cache owner without realizing it. Repeat a few dozen times, then she gets bored with geocaching. Why should a new user stop to think about entering a log? Does she even realize that somebody will read it? Maybe she never found the screen that shows the previous logs, so she doesn't know what they are. How does a new user know what is appropriate to write? It's not easy to figure that out. Do the new users realize that the caches are not put there by someone getting paid to do it? After all, it costs money to sign up, so maybe that money pays for the caches somehow. I know it took me a long time to figure out how it all works. Just go easy on the newbies.

This game is not a competition. We are not keeping score. If we wanted to keep score, we would need to make difficulty 5 be "worth" more than difficulty 1. There is a 14 stage cache near me. It only increased my number by 1. It took 3 trips to the park to find it. Everybody knows some caches are hard and some are easy. Just because someone has (8430) next to their name, that does not mean they won the game.

+1 There is no need to wait for 5 logs, or go check on it. "Mark as missing" does not mean "condemn this TB to oblivion forever and ever amen." It just means it's not in that cache any more, and it must be somewhere else now. Assuming matter is not created or destroyed in this universe.

I agree that "needs maintenance" is not the right log to use when a TB is missing. When you do not find a TB in the cache, write your "found it" log and mention that fact. Then go to the TB's page, and log a note, mentioning that fact again. Now wait and hope that either the TB owner or the cache owner will mark the TB missing. A week or two later, usually nobody has done so. At that point, you can make a request that an admin do it. Eartha has been willing to do this. I think this is ridiculous, and the system should just let us mark a TB as missing. What's the difference if I ask Eartha to do it, or do it myself? She's not going to come and check the cache to make sure it's really gone.

I believe the community as a whole should be allowed to mark bugs missing. If we can all pitch in with this, then it won't be the cache owner's "job" to mark them missing. That is why I ask you all to vote for this: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1070029-trackables-no-longer-in-caches

I thought it was the same process for both travel bugs and geocoins. Strange that there are two pages that say the same thing.

From what I remember of my days being a basic member last year, that is not true. I was able to see them on the map, but I could not load the cache page to see their coordinates. So I had a rough idea of where the premium-only ones were.

It usually helps if you place the GPS on a stable surface and walk away and leave it for a minute or two. That way you are not blocking the signal with your body as you hold it. It might take a little time for it to receive signals and get a good lock. While you are waiting, go ahead and look under logs and rocks around you. Peer into little hiding places. See if there are any sticks placed in a neat little pile. The GPS is not able to find the cache, you need to do that part. The GPS will just bring you somewhere near it.

Yeah, the others he stole were marked Not collectible.

http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=250 Collectible: "The coin may be collected by another player." A collectible trackable item will not show up in your inventory. For the collectors out there who have over 100 geocoins, they would not enjoy scrolling through a big list of 123 items every time they want to "drop" something into a cache. By placing their coins in their online collection, it will keep their inventory shorter.

You marked it collectible which means you said it's okay for someone to keep it in their collection. However -- this account has 4 geocoins logged, and each one he writes that he has stolen the coin. Clearly unacceptable behavior which should be reported.

Send a request for help: http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=request They can disable his account for being a meanie.

As an analogy, imagine if we set speed limits on roads based on what other roads are near, and some people have a goal to drive on one road of each speed limit from 5 to 120 mph. Normally a particular road would be 75 mph, but this county needs a 110 mph road, so we'll just use that instead. I think it's clear that a cache should be rated based on what it is. It might be hard to determine the best rating until after some people have already looked for it, so a new cache needs to have a trial period. After a cache has been out there for a while and rated properly, then it should be rare to need to change the ratings. If the cache changes in a big way (like 100 feet away, or the hiding place has been destroyed), it should be archived and a new cache can start in the same general area. Remember, the fizzy challenge is not going to be easy. That's why it's called a challenge!

Could you explain why that is a bad idea?

Sure. Every other website asks me who my friends are, why not this one! But I have found that adding a friend actually does not get you much. You can see their info and send them e-mail even without being friends. You would think it would let you run a query to find out what caches you have both not found yet, but no. It is planned though.

Which is? He has not even posted on this page yet so I do not see it.

Well, "did not find" seems to describe the situation for both "it was there" and "it was not there," so there is no need to change it. It would be a lot of work for everyone to try to find out if it was there, and go back to change their DNF logs, if we were expected to be doing that.

It's not a Jawa?

Yes, but the question has nothing to do with Google. When you go to the Hide and Seek page, and enter zip code 10001, the search will be centered at N 40° 44.900 W 073° 59.774. If you go to the "Add/Edit Instant Notifications" page, and enter the same zip code, 10001, you will get the coordinates as N 40° 44.976 W 073° 59.826. This exact thing caused me to miss a puzzle cache by thousands of feet. I did not have a premium membership at that time, so I could not get to the Instant page.

Are you saying that scuba caches are lame, or just that it is lame to use the attribute when it is a land cache?

On the geocoin's page, click Edit this Trackable. Then you will be able to choose if it should be collectible or not collectible. Collectible items can be placed into someone's Trackable Collection, which is separate from the Inventory. If you want the coin to travel from cache to cache, do not make it collectible. If you want to keep it with you, or trade it with someone else, mark it collectible.

Spent all the money on the GPSr eh?