PhillyRiver

Do you mean because they should Temporarily Disable instead? If so, agreed. Still, I appreciate when a cache is gone that there is evidence of awareness from the CO and an estimate of replacement time. If I had a nickel for each time I read that a CO stated he was gonna replace it within any stated time period, and it happened, I might have a couple nickels. Ha, gotcha. Yes, I help out a CO and we have had to replace a few, and always leave a Disabled note, though it sometimes takes longer than we had estimated. It's hard to drive three hours RT in crappy traffic to get to some of 'em, and they are good containers/toys that have to be mail-ordered first. But point taken.

Do you mean because they should Temporarily Disable instead? If so, agreed. Still, I appreciate when a cache is gone that there is evidence of awareness from the CO and an estimate of replacement time.

Oh no! As a newbie I was not aware that beautiful items like the 2105 CITO travel tag would be replaced by (sorry) a greatly inferior CITO tag. I want to buy a bunch of the 2015 version (the yin-yang green-blue with lots of details) to give to a crew of adventurers, if they don't cost too much. I spent an hour on the web looking for them and no luck. Anyone have a stash they want to part with? Thanks.

I'm about to launch a cache (in partnership with another account) in a recreation area for which I secured permission both by email and in person, which led to many good things. First I contacted the Board of the area by email. They loved the idea and they wanted to go along while I looked for hiding places, to learn about geocaching. I traveled two hours and stayed overnight to meet with them. Walking the trails and historic sites with the two people who probably knew them best was fascinating. They had not realized that there were already about 10 geocaches on their property, but that didn't seem to bother them. I could have placed mine without permission, but now my nonprofit can connect with their nonprofit for future educational projects. And, I heard some facts about the area that weren't available any other way. There is another cache I placed in public lands for which there is a long list of rules. I read the rules carefully and did not see anything that would suggest that geocaching is a problem. Fishing, hunting, walking, boating, etc. are allowed. You have to get a permit for an event involving a group of 10 or more people. As geocaching groups would not typically be that large, it appears that permission was tacitly granted by this rule sheet. If the cache is removed some day by a dissenting bureaucrat or ranger, it may not have mattered whether one person gave me permission, if years from now another person doesn't like it. If that happens, I'll change it to a puzzle cache. That said, it would have been better if I'd gone to see the bureaucrats in person, and I will when I'm near their office.

There is. A lot of geoart is not a PT when solved. GA CAN be a PT but not always is. It sounds like you're talking about a puzzle cache or something. GeoArt is a bunch of caches placed close together, often the minimum distance from one cache to the next and often 100 or more caches, placed to make some sort of painting or writing on the ground. It's a no different from a PT. There are many good examples of these. One called 'run horses run' (I think)above rock springs Wyoming. That one was placed by a friend of mine but it got ignored anyhow, just because it's a PT and a waste space in a PQ. I had not heard of GeoArt before this thread, so I researched it. Looks like there are two kinds. In England they have Geo Art Cache and it is not a pattern on the map, but actual art that you find, made by artists. Pretty cool actually, check it out here.

Newbie CO question, sorry: What do you mean "need an attribute"? Thought we were supposed to include attributes. Or are you saying that some people launch their cache series without the proper attributes...? Thanks

PRICKERS -- Nothing quite as annoying as being 50 feet from a cache and realizing the only way to move 50 more feet is to bushwhack through so many prickers that you need a suit of armor to avoid getting hurt. Remind me again how this is supposed to be a fun hobby? This might be happening because people hid the caches in the winter. I just hid some in woodsy areas that were totally clear and accessible in February, but it is possible that prickers could block them in June. If that happens I'll move them.

I have the same problem and always use the little calendar. Frustrating after making extensive edits to be blocked from posting the edits by this glitch.

Are you using the calendar included on the submission page? At the "date placed" area, there is a small calendar you can use, instead of typing in a date. It defaults to today's date. You can choose tomorrow's date, or a date in the previous months. Using it insures that you aren't typing a different format than the page will accept. B.

I just ran across this picture of a beautiful geocoin by the Denver Public Library. They are giving out 200 of them as prizes for those who complete their geaocache trail. Can't tell if they have tracking numbers, but they wouldn't be geocoins without them, right? How does one go about producing such a customized coin for an organization and giving it out or selling it? Can only geocaching.com sell them and assign numbers? Thanks for any info.

I disagree with your sentiments. This topic is very informative. Ignorance is not bliss. If we read that business cards, elastic bands, broken toys, etc. irk some (even most) people maybe we'll up the quality of the swag we leave. Maybe some of us will CITO those out of caches when we find them. If we read that it irks many of us that cache owners don't maintain their cache listings and cache containers (let DNFs and NMs pile up, then archive their cache once the reviewer steps in with a disable), maybe we'll be moved to be better cache owners. Or maybe some of us will be quicker to post NMs and NAs to get the message out that cache maintenance matters. If we began geocaching by writing TFTC-only logs or cut n paste logs, and didn't realize it bothers a lot of people, we may change our logging habits. There is great value in this forum topic. +1 - very informative to this newbie

Thanks. I've read those guidelines multiple times. If we aren't allowed to mention that we're having a team geocaching competition as part of the event, I'm afraid no one will want to come. Sounds like this is something we should do entirely unofficially, and not even list it as an event cache. Is it OK to use the term "geocaching" for such an event, or is it trademarked? I see TM next to CITO on my geocoins, but not next to geocaching.

Newbie here, I purchased some geocoins and Travel Bugs and would like to attached a TB to one of the plastic animals in my home cache. I am worried it is a little too large - the animal is about 3.5" long and 1.5" wide. Looking at the TB photo gallery, most of the hitchhikers are smaller than the tag or about the same size, or are bendable like a cloth patch. Obviously there are tons of caches, e.g. nanos, that can't accept any TBs whatsoever. But, do experienced cachers find it annoying to have to keep a TB longer to find a cache container large enough for it to fit? This one would fit into a small sandwich tupperware, does that seem OK?

"An Event Cache should not be set up for the purpose of gathering geocachers for a geocache search." Can someone please clarify this rule? I've read all guidelines and many forum posts about Event Caches, but this item is confusing me. Here's what we'd like to do: a small group of us (new geocachers) want to hold an event at a cafe, or maybe a weekly series of bars and cafes, and invite people to discuss and learn about geocaching, and to go out in teams and find geocaches that we have placed for that day only. The caches would not be listed on geocaching.com, but the Event would be. The cache coordinates would be handed out on printed sheets for the teams. Caches themselves would be removed that day. Is that OK? Thanks.

What about the flip side to this. There is a lake near me that didn't have any caches on it. Caching had been around for about 10 years before I started. No one I know of had ever placed a cache there. I went out fishing and placed 3 caches. A few months later I went and placed a few more. Many months later I took some others and we added more. Making a cool spot for some to pick up a bunch of 5* terrain caches in one day if they wanted. We pretty much filled up the lake with caches. Later cachers came to find all the cool caches there and some complained they wanted to place a cache there? I am almost certain if I didn't place those caches there that no one would have ever thought to do it. The only reason they want to now is because they are there finding the ones we put out. I have heard the same thing from another CO about a popular island you can drive to. Not many caches there over the years so he added a bunch and others complained. I am working on a crazy long streak and have more then enough caches to maintain so I am not placing them to take up space. If someone would have placed one before me that is great! Anyways I am just saying it might not just be a person being a jerk taking up space. Like with the lake I thought it would be cool to set up a course that others could come get some 5* terrain caches. I am betting that if I hadn't placed the first one that they wouldn't have even thought to place one there. If I thought they would add a bunch and maintain them I would let them have the lake for themselves and go get the finds! Hi, thanks for your perspective. The lake series sounds very cool. After reading the thread and thinking about the issues more, I'm learning there are a few main strains in geocaching and one of them is about numbers. Not just numbers, but numbers are important to that cohort: how many caches total, how many in a day, how many owned, etc. I've just spent an astounding amount of time helping my employer get a five-cache series ready to launch. The caches are big and beautiful and filled with cool stuff, and they're planted about 7 miles apart in cool spots in a thematic series about our region's history. Lots of repeat trips to the sites, research, etc. So, I'm not at all about numbers, don't love nanos, don't love park-n-grab, but I recognize that many people enjoy playing that way, and maybe my goals will change over time. For now, I'm happy to spend half a day hiking to one or two cool places, solving clues and finding a cool cache or two, and logging one or two finds. And a big thank you to those who placed them in interesting ways. I do envy those who can travel to get caches in a zillion states or countries - just can't wander too far from home anymore. So, maybe I'm more disappointed than some when it comes to trying to place caches in my native town or nearby parks. Mainly, I"m bummed I didn't discover geocaching ten years ago. Oh well. I'll try to be less irked about saturation.

And BTW, to judge the # of caches one owns... nevermind. Why never mind? That's the whole point - I don't own any, I'm a new member, and trying to get into the game. It's hard to get in near where I live. If I hide them far away, it will be tougher to maintain them. But that's what I'll have to do. I don't mind dense coverage at all if there are a variety of cachers/styles hiding, but one person carpeting an area doesn't really seem fair to future players, whether they are hiders or finders. I carefully didn't say where or who the monopolizers are. There's no way to know how long it took them to do their hides, but there's definitely one who did it within a short time - and I'm talking scores of caches. Very sorry if it has been discussed before. Someone asked what irks us, and that's pretty much the only thing that's irking me so far – I'm enjoying geocaching very much. Going out now for a few more... thanks for your advice.

What irks me - When one person places way too many caches and monopolizes a whole town or parkland. Surprised there isn't a rule to limit how many you can place near each other. What if someone else wants to do some hides in her town or along her favorite trail? Worse, for finders, there may be little to no variety in cache/hide style in a given area.

I am about to place my first series of caches. As they have a river theme, each cache will be filled with some pretty cool plastic river animals, native to that river. (Who knew there is a company that makes only tiny fish replicas!) Someone else in this thread suggested "themed" swag like that. But of course when people start to trade for them, the theme will be diluted. On my descriptions I'm going to encourage trading "water-themed" items. I plan to replenish the river animals every few months, or as needed.

To follow up on this thread, I am also interested in doing what the OP proposes. However, the guidelines under Event Caches say we are not supposed to have an event to gather geocachers together to find geocaches. Does this mean, we are not supposed to go out to find existing, official geocaches? I can understand why it could be a problem if you have hordes of people out near permanent caches. But, to be perfectly clear, we ARE allowed to list an Event, and then as part of that Event, the organizers have hidden some UNofficial, UNlisted caches for the attendees to look for, just on that day? They would be removed after the Event. That's OK, right?