Cache-tech

Since there has been no change in the guidelines, there is really nothing to announce. One thing as a reviewer I try to maintain is consistency, with the number of reviewers (most being sock accounts of mtn-man) there is bound to be some inconsistency. Interpretations may also vary, after meeting with Groundspeaks guideline expert coupled with my years dealing with the customer in my real world job, I do understand that the guidelines are there for a reason and the need for consistency. While in my reviewing duties, items such as this was never meant to be a point of contention. A simple solution is to appeal the decision, which was done. As an alternative to the direct link to the commercial website or menu (which does contain commercial logos) you can add the following, "Venue and menu info is available upon request" and can be done through email by the event host while maintaining the event guidelines. I do hope you event every success and I wish we could attend. Happy Geocaching!

Are you saying that there is a chance that I/we have met our local/regional reviewer without knowing it, presumably introducing themselves by their caching name rather than their reviewer name? So, I may be submitting caches to somone I have actually met, without knowing it? Just another reason to be nice to every geocacher (in person and in forums), you could be talking to your reviewer without knowing it! We met many cachers as players and not reviewers before many of them knew we were reviewers, so you never know

I would be curious to know what, if any, support you received from Groundspeak during the death threat incident. You keep trying to fuel an imaginary fire here. If the volunteers didn't want to do what they were doing, they wouldn't do it. There is absolutely no reason they would even volunteer unless it was something they WANTED to do. They aren't being paid, so what other reason would they be volunteering? You're trying to play Groundspeak against its volunteers. You're hoping for a volunteer to come forward, sobbing about how horrible Groundspeak is, so you can say, "See! Groundspeak is evil!".... I don't think they are going to bite. But by all means, keep fishing. I would like to know where approvers stand. Personally, If I was receiving threats that made me believe I, or someone I knew was in danger, I would quit. No brainer there. Not sure what backing Groundspeak could give other than moral support. I would hope they would at least do that much. Perfectly valid question. Wanting to do something, and willing to do something at any cost are two different things. I am assuming there is a point at which any approver will walk away. I hope this does not deter the approvers from continuing to keep active in this thread. It has started off looking like a way to get some answers from the approvers point of view. As a reviewer, I don't know where the breaking point will be, I have been threatened before both as a reviewer and moderator, I am still here. I have the support of Groundspeak and they have been there to listen to the concerns of the reviewers. I cannot say where the line, I have not been scared off yet and don't see anything that cachers/Groundspeak will do to make me quit at this time. Over the past 4 going on 5 years, there have been times I considered stepping back, especially after taking a brow beating during the review of a virtual cache or two but I have enjoyed the many friends we have made from our geocaching activity and am proud I can give something back to my geocaching community. Happy Geocaching! edit:grammer

I am not sure how much more Transparency is wanted, I cannot speak on behalf of Groundspeak, but I can say I respect any reviewer that would prefer to have no connection between their reviewing identity and their caching identity. During the first half of my time as a volunteer, my identity was known to very few, in the past 2 years, I have become widely known to a number of cachers in and outside my review territory. While it is not something I wish to have announced here in the forums, I will no longer deny it when asked in person. Of this, I do see benefits drawbacks to both of the fence. Saying that, there is no reason to know who a reviewer is beyond that they were asked to volunteer and have accepted to do so. Reviewers are cachers, there is no doubt about that, you most likely know who is the reviewer in your area if you have been a cacher for any length of time and can email them any time with questions. If not, you can email me if you are in the forums, I will do my best to answer your questions or direct you to the reviewer in your local area. So what more is required to know about me besides my reviewer account having reviewer rights for Geocaching.com, if you have issues concerning a reviewer, you email reviewers @ geocaching.com . You don't need to know my real name, just my reviewer name which is better known anyways, regardless, if you would prefer you can call me Shawn. My player account can be found on its own, I won't post it here, if you find our coin we put out 2 years ago, its on the reverse. My stats, not relevant, we have hidden a few, found a few more, at the very least I have found/attended 5 caches/events. I was asked to volunteer my time to review caches, I have done so, while the majority of cachers out there are great people and I have no problem being known for my dual identity. As pointed out by Red90, there has been some friction so when I started reviewing, I did so with an unknown account, I still prefer to have 2 accounts for player and reviewer, keeps things much easier. Any more transparency on my behalf needed?

Please keep this thread civil, the Forum Guidelines are here Forum Guidelines If this keeps up, this thread will be locked with a few more warnings issued. Thank you.

We use a combination of maps and information from you, the cacher submitting a cache. The cache in question will be reviewed shortly, the slowdowns have affected reviewing as well.

I am a volunteer of Geocaching.com, I am not a representative of Groundspeak. Groundspeak has provided us a set of guidelines to follow and we try to do this as best we can. Over time geocaching has evolved, caches that may have been listed even a year ago, would not be listed today. Since I have reviewed over half of the caches currently listed in Ontario, I am sure there are many examples of caches out their with my name attached as the reviewer. Any issues or complaints with those caches should be directed to myself through email or to Groundspeak directly and the issue will be reviewed. I will not however go through each cache that I have reviewed or another volunteer reviewed here in the forums. Thank you.

It is if that's where the conversation leads. That's what happens naturally when people start talking. Each thing is connected to the next. That's my personal experience among humans, anyway. You know I really don't like it when someone points out my moderation post is in error due to "human nature". Please keep this thread on topic or it will be locked for going off topic. If you have an issue with association links on the cache pages, please bring it up to Groundspeak, same with commercial content caches. Thanks, once brought to Groundspeaks attention, each cache can be reviewed and dealt with accordingly.

Please keep this thread to the removal of the Menu link from an event page. This thread is not about associations or commercial caches. Bashing a Volunteer Reviewer will also not be tolerated (and I don't want a reply on how this has or has not been done). If you want to know what is permitted on your event listing or would like to have content that might be viewed as commercial, please ask Groundspeak. As volunteer reviewers we have been requested to be careful on what is on event listings and to watch that event listings do not become commercial advertising after review and listing. The guidelines for the commercial are listed here http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#commercial Thanks.

This is a "Geocaching.com Web Site" discussion rather then a Canadian Geocaching thread, there are ample threads running on the subject of Pocket Queries, closing this duplicate thread.

Hi and welcome to Geocaching, currently Parks Ontario does not permit new placements of caches within the park boundaries. Their interim policy can be found at the following link http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry1464621

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

I think it is time to close this down. Until I have confirmation that this cache, or parts thereof is in an off limits location from Parks Ontario, I am not removing the listing. I am disappointed that one cacher would bully another cacher like this, thats my job. This thread is closed, please do not take it back to the cache page.

mort25, being a bully in a hobby you just recently started to other cachers is not the route to take, contact the park and find out if the area is truly off limits, otherwise, it is not your cache. Making threats to remove another cachers cache is not cool. You have contacted the cache owner and you have contacted myself, currently I have been provided by the cache owner that the required permission for the cache has been obtained and I have no complaint from the parks superintendant. Couparangus, if the stage is actually off trail in an off limits area, regardless of the level of current use, maybe the stage needs to be removed for the alternate stage only. This would be in the best interesting of one day having geocaching an activity once again permitted in Parks Ontario. The only people that should be removing a cache is the cache owner, property owner/manager/security. I don't even remove an intact cache as it does not belong to me, but I will archive a listing if required.

I don't see how this can be addressed by the reviewers further. The issue was brought to me several months ago, I addressed the cache owner who indicated there was no problem with the stage and even provided an alternate stage at that time. The cache was reviewed by myself when it was submitted, there was no geocaching policy issued by Ontario Parks then and I have never been contacted by Ontario Parks with issues concerning this cache placement. As far as the cache being removed other then the cache owner or Parks Ontario being the land manager, that is out of my hands, the listing has not been archived as it conforms to the listing guidelines of this site at the time it was published and Parks Ontario up to this point has not requested the removal of the cache.

Nope, all of my logs are accounted for on my player account. I looked at the archived logs of the indicated GC#, did not see any associated with that cache. If this is a bug, you might want to bring it up in the Geocaching.com forum.

Just because it was requested that the issue be taken off the cache page and brought here for discussion does not mean that the forum guidelines don't apply, read them please before any further responses are posted. Forum Guidelines KW, I am not sure what angle you are coming from, but no reviewer here has been involved beyond the review, confirming permission when the issue was raised some time ago and the request to stop using the cache page as a forum now. Please keep your personal issues out of this issue, if a land owner requests a cache removed, we will oblige, but that is not the case here. Thank you, if anything further in that regard, email or PM me directly.

Closing as requested above by the OP.

You are seeing correctly, if you look at the bottom, the default is to show only the last 30 days of topics (30 days from the last post).

i actually just posted a reply saying that i am in ontario canada (i posted it before i read this). i was just going to say that around here we have NO issues about flyers and such on our communal mailboxes. the one i'm referring to when discussing hiding a cache has tons on it already. so i still dont know how well/poorly a hidden cache would go over on it. but i do see what people are saying in terms of the neighbours seeing carful after carful show up and snoop around the mailbox. i can understand how that might pose problems. i guess i see this area as an opportunity for potential finders to use their stealth skills. and the whole reason i thought of this area is because its just down the street from me and i thought i might get a kick out of actually SEEING people find my cache Being one of your volunteer reviewers, I would request the you obtain permission from your local post master before listing the cache. This would include the box at the end of your driveway. I don't get home delivery and have planned a cache as such including getting permission of my local post master and informing my neighbours of the cache. If it might be a federal offense, why would anyone want to put cache seekers through the potential problems that could ensue.

Please keep to the forums guidelines, be it fellow posters or a moderator/volunteer reviewer. Forum Guidelines Thank you.

So should I have posted my opinion with my player account to have my opinion count? Since it is mostly known who I am, I don't take the time to switch anymore. My opinion is my opinion, I cache therefore I have an opinion, it should not matter if I am a moderator or not, thanks. If you don't like puzzles, don't do them, you don't have to, it is your choice.

I apologize for even placing an entry in this thread. I can't believe anyone would take such an simple comment, which was meant as a compliment, and go off on a tangent like has happened. This is twice now that a geocaching volunteer has taken my comments and gone off on a totally incorrect tangent. I guess it is time to no longer post comments. PLEASE STAY ON BBOG's TOPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, but I did want to point out that a cache was not to be hidden as such, questions were asked and answered, if anyone has anything to add, please start a new thread on the subject of the hide technique in question. On topic, some cachers do enjoy a good puzzle, if you don't , then don't solve and find them. As far as ending with a micro, this is usually indicated on the cache page and if you don't like micro's, then don't spend your time solving the puzzle as some cachers feel it is solving the puzzle that is the accomplishment second to finding the cache and signing the log. I also don't see how you arrived at a consensus with 4 replies, the best way to have caches that you like to find, is to hide them. Most cachers don't visit the forums and most cachers hide what they find and like. I enjoy all caches, I have also found a number of caches that just make me ask "why here?", but I still go and find them so I can't really complain about them. If I have time to get out and find caches, I go, if I can't get out, I review or I solve some of the great puzzle caches that are in my area (or plan on visiting). I don't spend time that I could be out, in solving a puzzle, that is my choice, but I do like having an array of caches to find, something for everyone, but not all caches are for everyone, I like having the choice.

Dead tree or not, this should not be encouraged, it is defacement of property. Really C-T ??? Aside from the fact that I'd NEVER find such a cache...I'm astounded to learn that it's against the rules??? How is it "defacement of property"? How is this different from pulling rotting wood out of a stump, placing the container inside (a REAL cache container too..none of this micro garbage!) and then covering it up with bits of forest flotsam? Did I miss a tongue-in-cheek smiley somewhere? Wouldn't be the first time! This would be along the same lines of digging a hole with a shovel or just moving aside some forest flotsam. If you are in the woods with power tools drilling holes, how would that look to anyone viewing this? What also stops the next cacher thinking this is a great idea and drilling a live tree, its been done. A drill bit is a "pointy" object digging into a tree.

Dead tree or not, this should not be encouraged, it is defacement of property.