jeffbouldin
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Posts posted by jeffbouldin
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My wife and I have started talking about visiting the Republic and Northern Ireland for our 20th in 2013. Can anybody recommend some caches and areas we need to see? We want to stick to out of the way places. Small towns and non-touristy places. We want to drive the country, visit small puds and hear local music. Any websites that might help us plan would be helpful.
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One of those days I'll be working on the gates system at the Elk & Bison Preserve, but probably won't be doing any caching.
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We've got a few in the area, three in the Smyrna area and one down near Columbia.
http://coord.info/GC2JMJV This is a very well done easy night cache.
http://coord.info/GC2JX3Y This was an awesome night cache created by the master, JoGPS. He archived his and FilbertV took it and made it even better.
http://coord.info/GC33TYG This is the newest one and I haven't gotten it yet. But I hear great things about it.
http://coord.info/GCTNTR Another I haven't done but Monkeybrad's cache never disappoint.
Two more night caches you and your son must do.
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I was initially excited about them. I defended them thinking that Groundspeak would tweak the system and make them better. That hasn't happened so I've lost interest. I won't create one until I can "own" it. I want to be notified like I do when someone finds a cache of mine. I also want to be able to make sure they are logged legitimately. Until I can do those two things I won't waste my time. And without a way to integrate them with pocket queries and map searches they are to hard to keep up with. I just won't mess with them until the system is fixed. Once they are a "true" replacement for virtuals and webcams they will not hold my interest.
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Well, we may never know who invented the parking lot micro, but we do know they became deeply rooted in Nashville by 2003!!
I'm calling bogus on this one - I did a lot of caching in Nashville in 2003, and only recall finding one or maybe 2 lpc's in 2003. I don't think the infamous cache run that got people all in a snit about lpc's at geowoodstock II happened in 2003 - wasn't it 2004? Anyway, my point is that if you're going to make denigrating posts about a large, diverse caching area like Nashville, get the facts right. Details are details, even if they are mean-spirited.
Oh c'mon, that wasn't mean-spirited! OK, so push it back a year, and I don't look so silly saying parking lot micros didn't appear in my area until 2005. Although we did have an "off your rocker" placed a couple of days before Christmas 2004. I know the cache owner, and surprise, it was placed without permission on one of their washing machine thingy's on the porch .
I wondered about your assertion also and asked about it on our local Middle Tennessee Geocachers Club Forums I got the following reply from a local who has been in the game since April of 2003. He has been very involved in our community from that time on and has been friends with many of the ones in our area who helped evolve the game as we know it. He has hides from LPcs to 5\5s and extremly hard puzzles. This is his take on your assertion.
They did not start in Nashville' date=' but we did have more than most places, of course we also had several more non-parking lot caches than most places as well. Nashville has had a large and vibrant community since the early days with lots of variety, because we had lots of caches, we became a destination for many people. Unfortunately many of them chose to only hunt the quick and easy ones while bypassing the more involved and often more interesting ones. So it is true that for the casual traveler who came here to run up their numbers, Nashville appeared to be full of parking lot caches and lpc's. Of course, by 2003, Joe had already begun the Mojo series and there were several very challenging caches in place that these same folks skipped over. When GWII was here in '04, Joe placed some higher rated challenging caches around the site just to see if people would try them. For the most part the high difficulty or terrain caches that were placed near the lpc's got skipped. There was even a famous blow-up caused by a St. Louis area cacher who lambasted "Cacheville" for the easy caches and micro's that were ruining the game, of course, he was one of the one's who signed on to find 100 caches in a day and who also skipped several challenging caches near his hotel in order to hunt easy caches and up his numbers. I was here for all of that and I can say without a doubt that Nashville's reputation for lots of easy caches was deserved, but that was far from the whole story and the members of our community knew just how blessed we were, because when we traveled to other areas we still found a mix of good and bad caches, just like at home, only there were far fewer caches to hunt. Nashville's greater numbers made it easier for you to choose what sort of caching experience you got to enjoy, it was easy to skip the lpc's if you chose because there were lots of great caches to hunt or you could just hunt them all and find your pleasure in the hunt.To answer your other question, the first skirtlifter in Nashville was Undercover, by Southpaw, which is still active. If you look at the early logs you will see that it was considered quite a difficult hide, at the time. He imported the idea from Huntsville where he, JoGPS and Robertlipe first saw it. On the subject, while skirtlifters did not originate here, you will see that there were several cache hiding styles that are now considered "standard practice" which did originate here, such as the fake bolt at the original Geo-Mojo, my own Pack a Lunch cache or the magnetic sheet at Super Sonic Stealth, to name a couple. Although, those are not considered to be particularly evil by today's standards, they were incredibly innovative at the time and spawned lots and lots of copies around the country.[/quote']
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From the request page to have the Challenges not added to the Find count:
i don't want to be talking to a cacher who has 100 finds and have to ask how many of them are finds and how many are challenges.I just want to ask how this person is forced to ask such a stupid question? They haven't complained about having to ask how many are difficult finds vs easy PnGs, and they haven't complained about having to ask how many are virtuals or locationless or events that weren't really a container with a log book either.
This is totally a Dursley, and the person that posted this request definitely cares about other people's meaningless numbers for some reason.
It is also very inaccurate. The information he\she wants is readily available on the profile page.
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Your profile shows the number of caches found, caches hidden and challenges completed.
I do NOT like the fact that they get added to the final total of caches found though. My opinion would be to keep them separate like the Benchmarks. Show how many you've done, but don't include them in your total finds. I'm still waiting to see which number the stats crunchers use. I am hoping they won't affect which cache is shown as my milestone. Will have to test that this evening when I finish logging my caches for the weekend.
http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=280379&st=100&gopid=4818993entry4818993
You see from my profile they are broken out. If you look at the top right of the page it does show a total of 3198 Found\Completed. Now look at my profile and you see it is 3195 caches and 3 challenges. The only other place I'm aware of that showed a total of both was on logs on cache pages. There you could hover over them and it would show you a breakdown. Again they were separated. At this moment those are not even being shown. So I fail to see why this is such a big issue?
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That one does not meat the guidelines for a premium member to have listed, only Groundspeak can list those type. So I have clicked on the flag as prohibited.
I know. Guess what I did: I flagged it before I posted it here.
It will get archived, but the finds on it will stay and there exists no way to see which challenges someone has completed. It could be all that all of them
are of that type. So there might be cachers who have completed 50 challenges and really performed actions like one performs for finding caches with containers and other that have performed 50 armchair tasks. If challenges count towards the find count (and that's the topic here and not PM-ship and the feedback forum), then it should at least be possible to display which challenges someone has found.
Cezanne
I agree that there are several items that need to be fixed. Groundspeak agrees that there are things to fix. We need to work with them on fixing, not causing angst and problems. People who do challenges like that without or in spite of reading the guidelines and adding to the problem not helping.
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Right now on gc.com, the find count doesn't tell people how many caches they've found, it tells them how many times they've logged a listing. Not that I'm complaining about this, it's how it's always worked. Challenges are just another type of listing, so it makes sense to add that to the count as well.
I do not think that
challenges like this one
http://www.geocaching.com/challenges/view.aspx?cx=CX10FE
(I have encountered already more than 15 of that type) can be compared to anything that happened at gc.com up to that point.
Even if such challenges get archived after a while, the finds remain and the system is just showing how many challenges someone has completed - there is no method to see which ones.
Logging no challenges at all is at the moment the only way to demonstrate to others that one is not one of those who is logging challenges without leaving home.
Cezanne
That one does not meat the guidelines for a premium member to have listed, only Groundspeak can list those type. So I have clicked on the flag as prohibited. Enough cachers do that and it goes away. I will not rant about it and threaten to cancel my premium membership. I will work within the system setup and continue to suggest alternatives at feedback and support ideas others post that I agree with. When I do choose to list a challenge it will be within the guidelines at that time and one that I would find interesting.
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Hope this adds some perspective!
We have a winner!
Na, he left out the part where they told us to go kiss a frog.
No I didn't. Kiss a Frog was along the lines of the old Locationless caches. I personally decided it was kind of silly so I ignored it. I know cachers who did it. Does that affect me? Not in the least. One of them is a reviewer with over 10,000 finds on his personal account. Does the fact he decided to complete it affect me? Not at all.
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Groundspeak (hereafter known as GS) Since there are too many lame virtuals being submitted and the reviewers can't do their jobs they aren't getting paid for because they have to argue with virtual submitters why their McDonalds and\or parking lot isn't "Wow" enough we are staring another website and moving them there.
Group of vocal cachers (hereafter known as GoVC) Not good. We want our virtuals and webcams!)
GS Sorry, try out Waymarking.com.
GoVC Not good. It doesn't show up in our find counts.
GS Not going to happen.
Consistently over the next 6 years
GoVC We want virtuals and webcams!
GS No.
2010
GS We have listened and have decided to bring back virtuals and webcams in some form. We just have to figure out how to do so in a way that doesn't cause all of our crack team of skilled and highly paid volunteer reviewers to up and quit.
GoVC YAY!
2011
GS We have a plan to bring them back. But they won't count as a find.
GoVC No good! I won't do them unless I get my smiley!
Aug 18, 2011
GS Here they are!!! You can post photo challenges (aka webcams) and action challenges (like virtuals and\or ALRs) at spacific locations and we can post worldwide (aka Locationaless) that we determine worthy. They will count as a separate find in all areas except your number when you log a cache, there it will be a total and if someone hovers over your total it will pop up a break down!
Less than one hour later
GoVC NO GOOD!!! Take them away and put them on their own site. Don't count them as finds!!!! And bring back virtuals and webcams!!! Oh, by the way, if you don't I'll quit!!
Hope this adds some perspective!
When I thought that the "new virtuals" would be just like the old virtuals, I wanted them to count as finds. Now that I see how different Challenges are from Virtuals and Geocaches, I no longer think they should count as finds.
Change of opinion due to change in facts available.
As it is they aren't that much different from old virtuals and webcams, except no one owns them (I think this one is a mistake). Virtuals took you to a place where you completed a task (answer a question, took a pic, etc.), same as an action challenge. Webcams took you to a spot where you grabbed an image off a webcam, photo challenges could do this. Locationless caches were caches that you could do almost anywhere in an area or the world (take a pic with a cop, post coords of a historical landmark, etc.) this is what a worldwide challenge is. All of these did count toward your geocache total. The challenges do not. When you look at a cachers number on a log they post you do see a total of caches found and challenges completed, hover over it and you see a breakdown. Everywhere else they are listed separately.
If you do not like the idea don't complete any. If you think you should rate a cacher by cache numbers then hover over the number and look at the cache total. If you like some challenges but not others then do the ones you like. If you want the system improved then quit complaining and give Groundspeak helpful solutions.
It is just a game/hobby/sport. It isn't the end of the world!
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Groundspeak (hereafter known as GS) Since there are too many lame virtuals being submitted and the reviewers can't do their jobs they aren't getting paid for because they have to argue with virtual submitters why their McDonalds and\or parking lot isn't "Wow" enough we are staring another website and moving them there.
Group of vocal cachers (hereafter known as GoVC) Not good. We want our virtuals and webcams!)
GS Sorry, try out Waymarking.com.
GoVC Not good. It doesn't show up in our find counts.
GS Not going to happen.
Consistently over the next 6 years
GoVC We want virtuals and webcams!
GS No.
2010
GS We have listened and have decided to bring back virtuals and webcams in some form. We just have to figure out how to do so in a way that doesn't cause all of our crack team of skilled and highly paid volunteer reviewers to up and quit.
GoVC YAY!
2011
GS We have a plan to bring them back. But they won't count as a find.
GoVC No good! I won't do them unless I get my smiley!
Aug 18, 2011
GS Here they are!!! You can post photo challenges (aka webcams) and action challenges (like virtuals and\or ALRs) at spacific locations and we can post worldwide (aka Locationaless) that we determine worthy. They will count as a separate find in all areas except your number when you log a cache, there it will be a total and if someone hovers over your total it will pop up a break down!
Less than one hour later
GoVC NO GOOD!!! Take them away and put them on their own site. Don't count them as finds!!!! And bring back virtuals and webcams!!! Oh, by the way, if you don't I'll quit!!
Hope this adds some perspective!
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If she don't like geocaching you don't need her!!!
Depends on where you are staying. Downtown has some great caches and is a great place to visit at night. Find some caches, eat some BBQ, and visit some country bars and listen to live music. A little of everything.
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Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.
Hello Jeff, you elitist.
Note I only referred to the many "PMO caches are elitist" threads, I never said any Smyrnaians (if that's what you call yourselves) are. Good explanation, the question has been answered. An early pioneer did it, so many of the locals followed suit. Just a regional thing. The same reason why everyone in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. area used to wrap their caches in plastic garbage bags; an early pioneer did it. Hopefully, they've stoppped doing that. 
I think though, this is out of the norm, that huge concentration of PMO caches. The only place I've seen anything like it was in Portland, Oregon (when someone posted a screen shot for one of those "home area" threads). There's obviously a new Geocacher wanting to "try out" Geocaching frustrated by this, and there probably have been others we'll never hear about.
I knew you were not saying that PMOs were elitist. I've also chuckled many times over the continuing angst over this issue. We cachers in Smyrna are elitist. You must fill out 10 forms in triplicate, open your account to our committee for a thorough audit of your past logs, and undergo a thorough Q&A session with our interview committee before being allowed to cache in Smyrna. We actually look down on PMs since they are not elite enough.
Don't let Jeff fool you, he's really a La Vergne Elitist.
LaVergne kicked me out about 8 years ago. I snuck into Smyrna before they had instituted many of the elitist policies and have been grandfathered in. I'm the crazy old uncle everybody tolerates.
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Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.
Hello Jeff, you elitist.
Note I only referred to the many "PMO caches are elitist" threads, I never said any Smyrnaians (if that's what you call yourselves) are. Good explanation, the question has been answered. An early pioneer did it, so many of the locals followed suit. Just a regional thing. The same reason why everyone in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. area used to wrap their caches in plastic garbage bags; an early pioneer did it. Hopefully, they've stoppped doing that. I think though, this is out of the norm, that huge concentration of PMO caches. The only place I've seen anything like it was in Portland, Oregon (when someone posted a screen shot for one of those "home area" threads). There's obviously a new Geocacher wanting to "try out" Geocaching frustrated by this, and there probably have been others we'll never hear about.
I knew you were not saying that PMOs were elitist. I've also chuckled many times over the continuing angst over this issue. We cachers in Smyrna are elitist. You must fill out 10 forms in triplicate, open your account to our committee for a thorough audit of your past logs, and undergo a thorough Q&A session with our interview committee before being allowed to cache in Smyrna. We actually look down on PMs since they are not elite enough.
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Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.
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Local Nashvillian here. Near Opryland Cock of the Walk is the closest you'll get to authentic Nashville food. Demos downtown is great and very affordable but it is steaks and pasta kind of dishes. If you can find a little hole in the wall meat-n-three (called this because everyday they make two or three meet dishes, 6-8 vegetable dishes (yes, mac and cheese is a vegetable) and you choose one meat and three vegetables for your lunch) that is authentic Nashville food. Arnold's country Kitchen at 605 8th Ave South or Dandgure's Cafeteria at 538 Lafayette St are a couple of good ones.
Caches. You can't go wrong walking downtown and grabbing those. The Fort Negly ones are good. Geo-Mojo 6 behind the Titans stadium is legend -wait for it! -DARY! I paid full price and went through the maze and enjoyed it. I also got that cool icon.
Drop me an email if you need some hints.
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BCurrey. Not sure if you were dealing with TheSeanachie or TNCacher, I have met both as cachers and dealt with both as reviewers. They are both very fair and helpful in their reveiwer duties. Have you discussed with whomever was reveiwing your series ways you could reword your pages to meet the guidelines? I know that they will help in any way they can to get them published.
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In the last 3.5 years and 3100 caches I've only run across porn box covers once while caching. It is not a common occurrence. And as said by others, not something a cacher would do.
Now as to the 7 years old seeing that. While I would not want my 10, 11, or 16 year old to see that, I would not freak out if they did. From the beginning we've taught our daughters the difference between men and woman. We've taught them the proper names. And we've taught them the proper and improper use of them. It started early as not letting people touch them to when they got older what sex is and what we believe the proper context for such is. If they saw that we would teach them that those pics are improper and to properly dispose of them. If you make it into a huge deal it will make the wrong impression on your daughter. If you teach it as wrong but not the end of the world she will move on.
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If I don't find it, I DNF it, not NM. Many DNF's? I'll maybe email the CO and ask if I was looking in the right place. If I find the container and it needs work (cracked/broken) I'll make a note in my log. I may or may not post a NM.
If I cannot contact a CO directly, and the cache has NEVER been found, and there have been multiple DNFs (including 3 of ours) I'll post a NM. Unable to contact CO as "account not verified" I waited 6 weeks and posted the NA. CO archived the cache saying "my friend is scum."
There is a new cache near us - "off the trail" placing it on the private farmland. The trail is a public right of way, the grassy area is not. I know the farm owners, they are not happy that the trail was deeded to the people of our area. I am in a quandry - suggested in my log that the CO may wish to move the container, or get permission for the hide from the farmers. Also emailed, offering to act as a go-between if needed. Had no reply. Still wondering what, if anything, I should do.
If you know the cache is not wanted by the land owners then let the reviewer know. If you do not want it to be known publicly then email the reviewer directly and give him all of the information.
Here is how I handle these situations. I'm hunting for a cache at a store. The cache owner says on the page that they are neighbors of the store owner and friends. So I'm surprised when the owner comes out and is not happy to hear what I'm doing. He stated CO had not asked and requested I remove the container. I leave and post a NA with this info. (Reviewer archived, the CO got permission and the reviewer unarchived.)
Second situation. I notice a cache hidden on property clearly owned and controlled by a community HOA. At the beginning of the trail at the entrance to the community there is a clear No Trespassing sign. I take pics, look at google maps street view and see that when they shot this road the sign wasn't there. I then email the reviewer all of this information. The CO says that they go to the pool all of the time meaning they belong to the HOA. So maybe they have permission or since they are property owners they can grant permission. The reviewer will look into it and either leave it or archive it if needed. Either way the CO doesn't feel publicly attack and if there is a problem the reviewer will correct it.
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when I was getting started with geo-caching I was so excited I rushed into it and couldn't think of a clever/trendy username so I just used my proper name. However this is now boring and when logging caches it seems its just me who uses their full name. I have now done over 300 caches - is it possible to change my username and take all my records etc with me?
hope someone can help
All the greatest cachers use their real name! (This is the gratuities brag thread, right?)
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spears67 and jewissfamily please take AZcachemeister's advise, meet in person, shake hands and get to know each other. I bet that you would both find this issue to be a bump that you could quickly forget. The caching community is small in most areas and it is best if all locals can get along and work together. You will be finding each others hides, attending each others events, hopefully helping out each other. If you don't put this behind you it will rob both of you of the joy you are now getting from this game (notice I said game?).
As for the idea of emailing advice to newbies. This is what I do and it has worked for me. When I see newbies I will send an email welcoming them, in the email I will offer to help answer questions and give advice if they want. If they respond and take me up on the offer I will give pointers since they have accepted my offer. If I get no response I let it go. I have several cachers in my area who have made a great contribution to the community that I've helped. There are some that have made a great contribution to the community I have not helped. There are many that have not accepted my help that were never heard from again. And as far as I know I do not have anybody in my area that is POed at me.
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I just looked at the map of your area and saw that there are no events published. So I recommend you publish one. Find a park or restaurant that will give you room for a crowd and post a Meet and Greet. Cachers will show up. You don't have to plan anything more than chatting. I've done it a couple of times when I was traveling on business. I went to one in the Atlanta area when I was down their on business, it was posted by another cacher who was visiting and wanted to meet locals. Just post it and they will come.
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I've found a few PnGs in Pigeon Forge but none stand out as must do. There are some virtuals in Smoke Mountains that take a good hike to get to. Now if you want to do one cache that will be the highlight of your caching career then make the trip to http://coord.info/GC21XAC. You will love every moment.
Planning Visit
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
In USA puddings are a sweet creamy dessert. What are they in Ireland?