The Puzzler

I've used four of my five free traveler tags in the last few of months. I agree with some of the previous posts about the increased creativity and convenience allowed with the traveler tag distribution (making your own tags and not having to deal with shipping costs and delays). I also like the price. I find the web interface a bit aukward, but not untennable. I have not seen any movement in any of my tags, maybe because my tags do not stand out as "this is a traveler, keep it moving", or maybe because the disconnect between gc.com and traveler tags leads to one more thing that has to be logged, and logging the traveler tags is not followed through on. The gc.com travel bugs have a HUGE advantage from both their immediate recognition within the community as travel bugs, and because of their connection with gc.com which continually reminds the finder that they have a bug in their inventory that needs to be moved on. And, logging the bug drop-off only requires the click of a mouse. Lasty, and most importantly in my mind, and regardless of what the traveler tags page claims, my email address was distributed to spammers within a day of my logging into traveler tags. I created three new email accounts during the month that I first logged into the traveler tags page. All of my accounts, except the one I logged into to traveler tags with, have remained spam free for that last three months. Within 24 h of my logging into the traveler tag page, I started recieving spam on that account. I am fairly internet savy, and careful about who gets an email address of mine. I believe that the only place that could have given out my email address was the traveler tag page or one of the other pages run by the same organization that runs traveler tags. Needless to say, I am saddened by this, and don't plan on doing much business with a company that appears to disregard their posted privacy policy.

Assuming you had nearly perfect conditions and a clear horrizon, a hight quality sextant can apparently get to within +/- 0.2 knotical miles. But generally, getting within a knotical mile is doing exceptionally well, even for an experienced user. Better stick to the map and compass.

Ditto!

Better double-check the gender on that one. Advertizing maybe, but cool looking avatar, non the less.

As a parent of young children, a member of the male sex, and as a sex educator for kids (in a religeous setting), I still have no problem whatsoever with the avatar in questions. If the image initiates conversation, even if uncomfortable, between kids and their parents, then I would consider it a community asset. In response to Autie Weasle, remember, it is labeled think big. Different dreams for different folks.

And frankly, the second version makes the guy who logged the cache sound bad, instead of like the first version, where the guy posting the critisism sounds just as bad as the logger.

I think you answered your own questions. Sometimes when one is expressing themselves, they want to come across as crude or crass or rude or hip or offensive or whatnot. Profanity is a part of our language, and all other languages I am aware of, quite precicely because it does allow an shade of expression that is not otherwise available if one uses socially acceptable terms. One could argue that if foul language were accceptable everywhere, it would loose its impact and thus its value. Thus to maintain the integrity of our profanity, we should fully support its sensorship wherever possible.

Isn't there at least one discenter among us?

It sounds to me like a lot of people would like to be able to "Ignore it", but would prefer to do so annonomously. As a cache owner, although I would enjoy knowing who was ignoring my caches, just a tally of how many people are ignoring them would still satisfy most of the reasons for notification and enable people to use the "Ignore it" option without having to add the bagage of worrying about hurting feelings or starting a fight. One can always leave not-so-anonomous feedback in the logs if one feels compelled. Or, without a tally, just an email telling me that someone is ignoring my cache without telling me who would also provide similar feedback. Whatever works and is able to be implemented.

Exactly. The whole pinned thread would be closed to all but the moderators. A list of topics that are closed and links to threads on that topics that are closed. The only additions to the thread are added by the moderators. Everyone can see why the topic has been closed because the last message added by the moderators in the closed threads would be readily available to read. No need to rehash an old argument, because, the original is readily available on the list.

I would think a peer rating addition to the cache page would be pretty cool. It would encourage cache hiders to try and earn a higher rating and let sloppy cache hiders know that their hides are not as appreicated as they may think they are. I'm really curious what finders think of my caches compared to others, beyond the generally kind or uninformative logs people leave. One could readily get around the bad early statistics by not posting a rating summary until at least 3 to 5 votes have been cast. One thing I really like about the amazon rating system is that you can look at the specific comments of the people doing the rating and thus appreciate how careless or how carefully thought out the rating was. This could be done by adding a rating option to the logs, but not having them summarized into an overall rating for the cache until several finders had rated the cache. I would also limit the rating to just overall quality. Leave the terrain and difficulty to the owner's discression in response to cache logs.

Maybe it would be a good idea to go ahead and trigger a message to the owner. As an owner, I would be interested if people were wanting to ignore my cache instead of find it.

Because banned topics are controversial and would be much more interesting to read than a list of FAQ. Heck, even if it didn't help anything, it would be interesting reading.

Just a couple points to add to the fray. 1) Unlike stated in a previous post, yes, there is a place for a plural of GPS (GPSs?). There really are a number of Global Positioning Systems in operation. As I understand it, the US military even has a system that duplicates or enhances the "old one" we use. I have also been told there is a Russian GPS in orbit and that the presence of the Russian GPS was one of the things that made selective availability more of a problem than a security benifit. 2) Although, in these forums we don't really discuss GPSs much, and the there is not much chance of confusion between a GPS in orbit and a GPS in one's hand, in a general context or in a context like this particular post, differentiating a GPS from a GPSr becomes fairly important for clarity. I vote for GPSr.

With all the angst in the general geocaching forum about a cache that can't be logged as found, and other reasons that people may not want to see a cache listed in their favorite search, would it be possible to add an option to the logging a cache pulldown menu that is "don't every show me this again". Then, like choosing "found it" it the cache could be removed from you search list if you choose, even if you haven't found it. Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I had no idea how to find the topic.

Has there ever been a list of banned topics compiled? I notice pinned threads, however, I don't read them much because I'm not interested in them much (but that is because of the limited topic, not because of being pinned). With the exception of a couple of very long lived threads, most of them get old within a few days. No wonder pinned threads get ignored. Unless the pinned thread are pictures of cool cache containers or free avitar help, we loose interest. I think a pinned thread of banned topics with links to the banned threads might be interesting enough to entice people to read it. It would be interesting as well as educational to see what has been controvercial or inappropriate in the past. It would also allow us to see just how beaten the dead horse is, and thus further support the idea of banning some topics. Lastly, non-regulars probably haven't become numb to the pinned threads. If the goal of this list is to help out the non-regulars, maybe pinning a thread that is maintained only by the moderators would meet this need.

I personally have a preference for cards that are more than just a calling card. I think most cards tend to just accumulate in caches. I like the brochure idea, which might work well for a range of topics. I picked up a card once that had a semi-precious stone with some native american historical significance explained on the card. I produce Puzzler Cards with various puzzles printed on them to provide a challenge and entertainment. By adding more than just a name, I feel like the cards are more than just advertizing myself. I print my own cards using modified Microsoft Word business card templates. For two sided cards I use Avery 28371 business card stock. For folded style business cards (or bookmarks which I occationally print up for variety) I use regular card stock (which is very inexpensive), and cut out the cards with one of the Fiskars paper/photo cutters that cost ~$12 in the scrapbooking section of the local variety store. I especially like having cards for putting in caches when I don't want to trade, but don't want to do just a tnln log either.

Geez, this is scary. You know, people's lives are destroyed by addiction. What should I do now that I recognize my problem?

Wow, I had that exact same experience in Denali National Park a few years back . . . except the three animals that looked up at me from 20-25 ft away, and didn't seem too concerned, were a big sow grizzly and two spring cubs. Oops. Maybe I should change my screen name? More on topic, in Vancouver BC, we had coyote's in one of the parks near our house and there was an instance where a 5 yr old kid was grabbed and being drug off by one of the coyotes, but with parental intervention, it all ended okay. I've never heard of an instance of healthy coyotes causing any problems with adults.

I've downgraded recently. From my current residence in Monmouth OR: 13 within 5 km (4 mine) 20 within 10 km (5 mine) 150 within 25 km (5 mine) From my previous residence in Vancouver BC: 22 within 5 km 44 within 10 km 180 within 25 km

Personally, I think that using any GPSr is cheating since they tell you exactly where the cache is, and thus there is no hunt be be had when using one.

I recently found a pretty un-inspired micro stuck behind a piece of metal by a bridge. Then as I drove away from the cache, probably less than a 1/10 mile down the road (in the less traveled direction), there was a most amazingly large rock that looked quite out of place, just sitting off the edge of the road, which contained a plaque that stated the rock to have been a part of some old building site that was the location where Polk County had been founded . . . A cool, odd, seemingly out-of-place historical site that was not developed and sitting in the middle of nowhere.

Travel bugs are not caches.

Personally, I'm curious why someone would even be interested in listing their cache on gc.com if it is by invitation only. The person should just keep some cache cards in a pocket to hand out to friends and drop the listing from gc.com. On the other hand, if one must email the cache owner and meet them someplace to make some kind of exchange, that would be an interesting twist (probably not a good one), but not quite private either. My gut says - NO, this is not the place to list private caches.

I believe they are stuposed to be resistent to freezing also, although I cannot speak from experience.