fbingha

I've tried to get caches archived for throwdowns with no maintenance by the flash in the pan COs but found it to be pointless. Throwdowns are not enough reason for our reviewers to archive a cache. I've been told by my reviewer that outside of property owner/trespassing issues, a cache will not get the "You have 30 days to fix your cache" warning unless there are three different cachers posting NA, DNF, or NM logs.

Relevant thread about the state of EXIF data: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=342263

Refreshing to see the same forum contributors battling the meaning of words again. You really don't grow tired of it do you? The REAL fracking issues here are (1) the OP can not delete the log of someone who finds a cache. Even if they are taken to the cache by someone else, they found it. That's that. (2) It would not take much development time to run log images through an image library that strips EXIF information. I checked my own puzzles and see that there are photos that contain the coordinates sitting right on top of the cache. Oh joy, and here I thought EXIF data was being stripped out. Now I have to go and delete interesting photos.

I would contend that they are paying attention, hence the hubbub about 2017 and cache quality. The number #1 way to increase the stickiness of new players is to make the object that they are looking for more appealing. They can either do that by the trying to make the find experience better or by some sort of new metric/reward system. I think the experiment of giving in to the high numbers players has failed the game. You can say "ignore the junk and find what you want to find" over and over and over and maybe you even believe it but overall, that mentality does have a negative impact on the game overtime.

I don't see Groundspeak investing any time in moving this site to a responsive design. If you have an active app, then the desktop website won't have much impetus to under go a long responsive update. If anything is done in this area, it would probably be to add cache creation and maintenance to the app.

Also, there is the "Cat Got Your Cache" set of coins.

Carfam99 found the cache back in Octorber. The USA cache is my cache. They could still help you with the number you need from Bakersfield.

If this is real then I don't understand why there wouldn't have been at least a blog post about the "new focus on geocache quality and health for 2017."

The only context you will find at present is that hider has 2000+ hides, with no red wrenches (as claimed on facebook). The facebook group is focusing in on the gall of Groundspeak to single out someone who, to them, has no issues with their hides. The "divisiveness" aspect has not been related in any meaningful fashion. Of course, there is much back story to be discovered that goes beyond having a lot of hides. I wonder if the hider is a carpet bomber in an area with other active hiders?

Sanctimonious much?

That is not geocaching any longer, obviously. Here's a definition for geocache when you google: define geocache 'Typically a container holding a number of other items' should be replaced with 'typically a container holding a logsheet'. I took what I quoted directly from the Geocaching 101 link on www.geocaching.com, which was the point. Groundspeak should stop referring to treasure hunt and use scavenger hunt. I think they don't because they like to plant that idea in the heads of possible new customers.

I don't think it's frowned upon to leave swag in a geocache, and you can't go by what is posted here in the forums just for the sake of argument. I don't enjoy finding swag that looks like it came from a kids desk at the end of a school year, or happy meal toys from McD's, but geocaching is not a kids game for me anymore either. My kids are no longer interested in geocaching. I know this, I am just playing along with the couple of posters who are digging at swag being pointless. Having swag in caches IS NOT one of the reasons that "geocaching is dying" so it doesn't belong in this thread. The only negative to swag is the connotation that Groundspeak creates by referring to "treasure hunting" in their marketing materials. That is not geocaching any longer, obviously.

Quite the loaded sentence you dropped there. Why don't you elaborate on it with more than just a few words. Please write a paragraph on why swag caches are bad for geocaching. I don't think narcissa was saying that caches that contain swag are bad, just the people that prefer finding them. There's no point in continuing this but I made a generalization about what she said in that if something attracts the wrong crowd than the person that sees it that way also believes it is a bad thing. I don't run down to Target and buy $20 worth of stuff for every cache I've put out. I just find this and that around the house and garage and put it in the cache. As L0ne.R says, I do find some interesting things in my caches when I check on them. Much more often in other hider's caches. Regardless, the wrong crowd isn't coming to my caches because they think they are full of swag. I've not seen that happen here. It isn't just thieves and newbies that appreciate finding an unexpected trinket in a cache. Is it not hilarious that this thread starts out about being about geocaching dying and now we are on about why swag is bad. The entire purpose of geocaching creation was to go find a container and trade something and that is now frowned upon. I know this will rock your boat, but I also leave stuff in every cache that I find that it will fit in. Having only found 500 caches makes that a realistic option. It is my offering for the cache, it is my offering that the next person who finds the cache may smile. Maybe even someone will properly trade and even maybe they will pick up the habit. Since we don't have the power to change the guidelines, the only way that I can try to improve the game is with every find and hide, which is how to keep geocaching from dying.

Please write a paragraph on why swag caches are bad for geocaching. Why should she? Nothing was said there about it being bad for geocaching. My take on it is that people just filch the good stuff then leave junk in exchange. No. Narcissa has a history of casting such aspersions about certain geocacher "types" that she feels very strongly against. Before it was about traditional caches attracting the "riff-raff". Swag caches attract the wrong crowd, which is her "riff-raff" again. I'm sure you can find the post if you try hard enough. I find it quite a bit twisted and am tired of her elitist attitude. My right to be. My swag caches attract thank yous from finders that their child was able to trade something other than junk.

Quite the loaded sentence you dropped there. Why don't you elaborate on it with more than just a few words. Please write a paragraph on why swag caches are bad for geocaching.

Isn't it obvious? The Watchmen do.

Hey, don't you know geocaching.com is just a listing service? The owner can change his listing however he wants as long as it follows the guidelines. If you play a side game that relies on statistics that can be changed after you've recorded them, well, you should be prepared to deal with it. Even then, if you are obsessed with such statistics, why aren't you obsessed with acquiring the most accurate statistics? The evidence clearly shows that the hide date was wrong so why wouldn't you be motivated to find a cache with the correct hide date. I suspect you also greatly enjoyed finding the D5T5 that was really a D3T4. I have a challenge based on finding the oldest caches in our county. If someone changed the hide dates, I would be forced to adjust the caches that had to be found. I certainly wouldn't go all whiny and start posting about it on the cache page. .. that said I am surprised the HQ hasn't locked down the changing of hide dates and ratings for caches after a certain time frame so that the jasper people don't get upset.

We have this situation here, which is why I try to make a new cache be about the cache itself. I see no point just putting out another lock 'n lock in the same area that only the locals are going to go visit. So a good story with an interesting hide changes the dynamic of the hide. Yeah, you've been there before but you've got something to hold your attention and make you smile. Problem is getting others to give the same investment in hiding.

How about "Where are the attributes in the geocaching app?". I certainly failed to find them when I had a cache that had used the attributes as a hint to where the hide was. We know anything that is not in the app is in danger of being removed from the website. I'm hoping attributes are not one of those things that aren't used very often and are misunderstood.

The only ongoing problem I have with this change is the insistence at removing the differentiation between PMO and non PMO. If most cachers don't understand the difference, that isn't a reason to remove the different icon. A square vs a circle is such a small change that it still fits in quite well with whatever 2016 Web Standards document that you've prescribed to. I still believe that we are going to lose having two different cache types for this very reason. Either admit to that or admit that the designer had a fit over having squares and circles on the same map. This wasn't done because some users kept complaining about being confused about having circles and squares. Groundspeak rarely changes things because of user complaints. <ahem>

Frankly, delete the message and move on. You do not need to do anything. A reviewer would have to manually post anything to your cache and any sensible reviewer isn't going to that when looking at your cache page.

90000 Steps

They are not going to change the icons backs. Forum feedback, is just, well not cared much about at all. Users here are seen as die hards, going to complain about any changes, so just ignore them. GS only cares that the map looks fresh now, not 2005, doesn't matter if it was more usable before. Is there a greasemonkey script to change the icons back yet?

Unless there is a way to hide caches from "muggles with apps", removing the ability to make caches PMO will be very unpopular with some cache owners. (I think he meant "presages" or "precedes".) Yes, this would be an unpopular move. A major structural change to the game, and a dirty trick to play on cache hiders, who are the important partners that keep the game going. We've had with someone (possibly two of them) stealing caches but replacing them with inferior containers and a note telling us we've been muggled. Removing PMO caches would open up ALL caches to these scumbags. Well, going from identifying the two types on the map to not does lead me to believe that there will become just one type. You assume it would be removal of PMO, but it would be more of the way things are going to effectively make all caches PMO, trying to force more people to buy a membership. I'm probably just blowing smoke here and it won't happen but the reason given for removing the two icons types doesn't pass muster. Confusing and not used by many?? Huh?

Frankly, I believe the removal of the PMO icon type only presages the removal of having members and non member cache types.