rui_curado

I sometimes forget to take a pen with me. I'm still used to finding a container and having a pencil there to write, usually one of those IKEA pencils. I'm starting to notice that most containers don't have anything to write nowadays... I do try to hang around with a pen... usually my wife saves me! But when I don't write on the GC log I still log the find on the site. After all, statistically it's correct to do so at least...

Signature items (physical items that testify your presence) are very common, and many people like them. The most simple sig items are business cards (a bit dull IMHO unless they're illustrated) or pieces of laminated paper like geostamps. Laminated items set you free to choose the design of your choice.

1 - The surprise of finding new places 2 - The surprise of finding the container and what's inside 3 - Being outside with a purpose 4 - Doing something fun, but relaxed 5 - All the above four

Ahem.... "volunteers"...

I understand you. After all there is only one person who can really be sure where the container is. But what about nominating a team of (recognized) volunteers for going on "search missions"? Like someone said before, if a group of 20 geocachers couldn't find it... In this case, if 4 or 5 "official verifiers" couldn't find it, the container would be "certified missing". This had to be sanctioned by GCHQ of course.

I agree. At least, the process of determining if a container is really missing must be made more resilient or fool-proof.

Another possible good choice is a title that suggests a mystery... or a title that gives a clue to the cache itself.

They are collector-trackable, not cache-trackable... OK, so putting things back on-topic, I'll put things the other way around, now from the irk-provocateur perspective: I tend to keep travel bugs in my possession for months! It's my brain's fault. I forget them at home most of the time. "dadgum, not again!..." I say. For instance, the "While my guitar..." trackable (https://coord.info/TB558VE) stayed in my hands seven months! Currently I hold "Travel Bug Origins - Deutschland" (https://coord.info/TB4D2GA) for two months now. Again, the same is happening. This does contribute to the TB owner's "did it disappear?" irk... sorry! Maybe I should have a "geocacher backpack" like many have...

Geostamps are just swag items with a code, not actual trackables, neither using GC data, so not competing with GCHQ... but I do avoid talking about them here (and definitively no links), just keeping a mention of them in my sig. And yes, I agree that a Lego Batman figurine would win over a stamp, of course. It's more "physical", but kids (and grown-ups) do like collecting, you know?

In reality there isn't much you can collect from a container, in a sense of a true (uniform) collection. Definitively there are many interesting swag items around, but there isn't a foundation feature that brings them all together. At the end you just have a box full of disconnected objects. Geocoins and TBs don't have that problem (both types share their own common features), so they make very attractive collection subjects! Yes, we all know they shouldn't be kept, but the reality is different. If you decide to steal one, there's no one looking over your shoulder, so the temptation ends up winning. To counter that I started a project for a new kind of geocaching swag specifically made to be collected: geostamps. They were inspired on classic postal stamps and are cheap to produce by anyone at home. At the end of the day they're just simple geocaching swag in laminated paper form, but they share that common foundation that make up a collection. Perhaps people with a desire to collect may turn to geostamps and start leaving geocoins and TBs alone? You can google for "geostamping", and forgive my shameless plug! EDIT: Another motivation for the creation of geostamps is what dprovan and Ambrosia just wrote: a decline in geocoins and TBs found, followed by (in my opinion) a general decline in the quality/quantity of swag found in containers. At least in Portugal that's an alarming trend.

I dislike most micro-caches and hate micro-micro caches or micro-micro-micro caches. What are they for? They don't fulfill geocaching's original vision. If you can't place a proper container, the place should be made available as a virtual/earth cache or through Waymarking.com...

I started a project called Geostamping that aims to create an ecosystem of collectible swag in the form of small laminated pieces called "geostamps". The idea should appeal to kids and those that like to create stuff, since these can be created at home with minimum equipment. Google for "geostamping"...

Well, the most unfortunate encounter I had was this August in Menorca Island (Spain). It was not an evil encounter... Some muggle was literally sitting on the hiding spot, reading a book! He stayed there for hours! "Son, go there, grab his backpack and run..." - I said. "Really? Can I?" - He replied. "No!". I returned a few times to check the guy out. I eventually had to quit and walk away. dadgum muggle!...

Hi there! First post here on Geocaching forums! I'm from Portugal and I've been a geocacher since 2008. Unfortunately I always had personal projects that kept me grabbed to a computer on most weekends, leaving geocaching as second (or third) choice. That's why I only have 60 finds in 9 years ... but that scenario is now changing due to a little project of mine that involves geocaching! Yay! I'm now starting to participate in the portuguese community and here on the forums, hoping to be of some help. Cheers!