SaRothe

Okay,thanks! I've been checking the website for this reason but this is the first time it has happened. Hopefully it resolves itself soon.

Firstly, want to apologize if this is in the wrong spot. I've noticed since the updates/changes to the site my notifications for newly published caches are no longer working. I haven't changed anything, in fact I hadn't touched them since I created them until I tried pausing/turning them off and back on again and found that didn't do anything but new caches had been placed after I turned notifications back on. Is there anything I can do to resolve the issue? I have primary email and secondary email set to my phone to arrive as a text and I haven't gotten either an email or a text for any of the new caches.

That heart never works for me. I can use it when I log but I always have to use the actual website to add a favorite point.

I'm sure others probably know more but I've found a library cache with coordinates leading to stage 1 which was just the dewey decimal number then stage 2 wasn't a set of coordinates since the dewey decimal number acted as coordinates in this case in a sense and then discovered the cache/book inside the library... we loved it! I wish there were more like those around here.

I can't help with the protocol thing about whether or not to "remind" someone that they didn't give you a favorite point but from my experience and something I have done myself, they may just be waiting until they get home? I don't always write up a full log or add a favorite point until I get home and can sit down and go through the caches for the day. If I'm trying to do a bunch of caches at a time I just log a found it and maybe add something about a FP and then when I get the chance after I get home I go back and edit the logs and add the favorite point.

When I first got started I read as much as I could about everything and I always came back to the Geocaching website in the end since I realized most of their information was pretty straightforward and definitely explained things well for me. This page has some great info about how to go about solving puzzle caches, but the biggest advice is to start with easy ones and work your way up! A lot of easier puzzles are simply replace ABCDEF with numbers in order to get a full set of coordinates. In order to get those numbers which correspond to ABCDEF is where the puzzle comes in. Sometimes the puzzles can be solved by going to a certain location and other times you may need to spend some time at your computer on google. This cache looks like it may be in your general area. After reading the description you will see a set of coordinates with missing numbers but with the letters "ABCDE" in their place. It looks like you have to match mascots to teams, and in doing so you will see that the numbers next to the mascots will align with each team, allowing you to determine which numbers go into each letter spot in the set of coordinates. I suggest trying this one out, it seems fairly straightforward!

Even though guidelines aren't hard sets of rules, I feel like they're still important to have some order to the game. After all, if so many people are playing the game whatever way they want (logging found if not found, logging found if not signing log, logging a find on the same cache multiple times, throwdowns, etc.) it would be too hectic if there were no guidelines and it was basically a free for all and you could hide anywhere (with permission) no matter how damaging it may be. Every type of game has some kind of rules or guidelines to follow, it's the only way a game can be successful. Of course there might be exceptions and I could see how buried caches could get away with it, as long as you don't need any type of tool to dig it out of the ground, but shouldn't other guidelines really be enforced? As a newbie I made sure to read all the guidelines before I found my first cache so I knew what I was doing and tried to make sense of them the best I could. One thing I don't understand is how people get away with hides that go against the guidelines. Are CO's not required to submit pictures/detailed descriptions of their hides to the reviewers when they are submitted, or do reviewers "not care"? Also, if a cache is seriously "wrong", like you have to dig to find it or it's damaging/harming something nearby is it appropriate to use a NM/NA log? Sorry if this is off topic/hijacking this thread, but figured it'd be a good place to ask and understand things a little better.

For me I do a lot of research on the caches I want to pick up. If I know I'm going to a special place that weekend I'll search for some caches in the area and write down the co-ords to put into my phone's google maps or just use the geocaching app. For caches in my area I use google maps and just take notes as to where they're located. It's really easy to zoom in and see almost exactly where the coordinates are listed and just by knowing my area I can usually go grab them without having to even check the geocaching app once I'm out searching for them. But it's definitely possible to not use a GPSr since I'm still fairly new and wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it so I haven't bought one yet and have just been relying on my phone and/or google maps and the notes I write down for myself.

Well, since I am a physicist, I can do it via information theory. I would say that "meaningful" == "high information density" TFTC conveys one bit of information in 4 bytes, or an information density of about .25 bits/byte. A long log conveys more information, but cut-and-paste logs reduce that information by the number of times they are cut-and-pasted. Probably the best indicator of the information content of a log would be the Kolmogorov complexity. A cacher in my area generates long logs that would be trivial to auto-generate on a computer; my estimate is that the information content (as described by the entropy between messages) is roughly 8-12 bits per log, with log lengths that regularly exceed 500 characters. That is an information density of around .02 bits/byte, less than a tenth that of the TFTC log. My own logs tend to be about 100 characters or so. Since each is unique, I will use the average information density of English, which is described to be between 0.6 and 1.3 bits per character. Since many of my logs contain common information (albeit expressed differently) let's be conservative and say that I have an information content of 0.2 bits per character, or an information density approximately equal to that of the TFTC log. That still gives me about 20 bits of information per log. Now let's assume that one of these cut-and-paste entries contains twice the amount of information that I would put into a log. If the logger finds 40 caches in a day, then the information content is about 1 bit per log, on a par with the TFTC log, but at a much lower density. So who am I to say what is or is not meaningful? Somebody who knows math, that's who. I enjoyed reading this more than I probably should have, thanks Sheldon (sorry just finished an episode of Big Bang Theory), is there a way to like favorite this post and use it on every discussion about this topic in the future? lol

Thanks for the laugh, and that helps. I guess this is very true, as I've come to see in the short time I've been at this. There really is no way to satisfy every CO unless they blatantly say in the listing what they want in the logs, which I've encountered a few times now. Like I said, it's a little difficult to learn "rules" or etiquette when everyone has their own ideas/opinions, but I guess that's part of the (learning) process.

As a still "I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing yet" newbie with only 41 finds so far, I feel like this topic is the main thing holding me back from completely understanding how the system works and the etiquette. From what I've seen (which I also imitate) it appears that for quick C&D's that involve guardrails or lamp post skirts, the logs are often minimal and average out to "TFTC" or some variant of that, and sometimes I feel guilty just posting that, as others say they don't like those logs so I try to include something personal, which I then feel is TMI for something so "simple". Although I don't want to insult any CO's by calling their caches "simple", but it's what they are (?) so why should the logs be anymore than that (not trying to offend anyone)? As a newbie I feel like it's hard to learn the ropes when everyone plays by their own rules and there aren't always great examples/role models out there. Same thing with posting hints/clues, when is/isn't that acceptable? I mean when it comes down to it, the log is part of the cache's history, but it's also a way for cachers to record their experiences while searching/finding a cache (or am I wrong and that's not the point of the logs because if it's not please tell me), so why would it be a problem if people want to make notes about the weather at the time or who they were with or how many they found that day? Or do people keep written journals for that kind of thing?

For the purposes of a definition, a Challenge Listing must be Listed as a Puzzle cache (?), have the word Challenge in it's Title, and have some geocaching related ALR. Other than that, they are pretty much like any other cache. Most of them are at the posted coordinates on the Listing page, but not all. Field Puzzles typically have some physical "game piece" that must be solved in order to either access the logbook or advance to subsequent Stages/Final cache locations. For instance, I did a Multi which had an acrostic poem as one of its Stages. Once solved, it spelled out a word that helped me advance to the Final. For Challenge Listings, the requirement is to fulfill the geocaching related task stated on the Listing page to log a Find. Thanks this helped SO much! I was confused even after having read that page you linked to a few times, but I wasn't understanding the part about the additional requirements! Are you referring to the logging requirements for different challenge caches? Challenge caches are similar to each other in that they have a logging requirement (beyond signing the log). But different challenge caches have different logging requirements. One may require that you find at least one cache in every county of a state. Another may require that you find at least one cache of each of the 81 difficulty-terrain combinations. Another may require that you find at least one cache that begins with each letter of the alphabet. And so on. So if you look at what is required for different challenge caches, you will see different requirements for each. I don't think I'm referring to the logging requirements for different challenge caches. I know that each one has different requirements, I was confused about them being listed. I didn't understand how they were listed/what made them special since I thought they were just the same as field puzzles. I had read a few things about how you can't see challenge caches until you've completed the requirements, and another page talking about how they're listed for everyone right off the bat. I also didn't understand the info page talking about how owners need to provide proof that it's possible for other cachers to complete the requirements, which is when I started to think they weren't any different than a puzzle cache. I think I was just really over thinking some of the info I read, oops!

Hi, sorry if this doesn't belong here! I've only started within the past couple months and only have about 30 finds so far. I've been watching a lot of videos and reading to learn more about everything, but one thing I'm still pretty confused about is challenge caches. It seems like every time I read something about them, it says something different and I can't figure out exactly what they are. My understanding is that there are requirements that need to be met in order to have them published and in order to find them, but I just don't understand exactly what they are. Why are they special/are they even special? What makes it a challenge cache? Possibly an example of a challenge cache as I'm not understanding what sort of caches they are? How are they different from say... field puzzles or something like that? Sorry if this is a ridiculous question, I'm probably overthinking this! Thanks in advance everyone!

Thanks for the replies everyone! Gives me a better idea of how much time to be spending looking for a cache and sticking around once it's been found! Also super sorry I asked a question that has been asked a bunch! I appreciate your patience with my probably annoying newbie status!

Sorry if there's already a post about this, I tried searching but didn't find anything. I'm new to this and just started a couple days ago. I'm having so much fun with it! Took a half day trip today where we picked up 11 caches in random spots along the way if it was convenient for us. However, each cache was mainly a quick 'cache and dash' as I suppose they're called. A couple were larger in nicer areas like parks. So my question is, how much time do you spend around a cache? I know C&D's are just in little spots to sign and go, but do you treat larger caches the same? Do you move quickly or do you take some time with them and enjoy the area they are hidden in? I know it's sort of expected to be quick at times to not draw attention, but I never know if I'm spending enough time in certain locations enjoying the area it brought me to. Just curious about how others spend their time caching!