Crow-T-Robot

How long is your tail?

I love viewing satellites. I've seen Starlink 3 pass over a few times now and it's cool but haven't been lucky enough to have clear skies when 4 & 5 were going to be visible. You can install the Starlink app on your phone to view dates and times when any of the Starlink satellites are estimated to be visible at your location.

I guess I'm still failing to see how deleting the find will rectify any of the damages done in these scenarios. It doesn't and deleting the find is just a punitive measure. A person can be a jerk and still find geocaches. If you have evidence that someone broke the law when finding a cache, send it to Groundspeak and let them sort it out. You might not think they'll do anything, but there have been plenty of cache owners who learned otherwise when they tried to be the morality police and deleted legitimate find logs.

Same here. A CO isn't complicit because they let the log stand. You or I did not encourage anyone to break the law to find a cache. Whoever was looking for the cache did that on their own volition. Deleting a legitimate log just might upset this person enough to revisit your cache and trash it, thus doubling the damage already done.

I have little experience with the variety of different software platforms (Skype, Zoom, Slack, Facetime, Snapchat, Facebook Live, etc) that could be used for hosting a virtual event, but would any of them be able to support a mass log-in from people around the country/world? As we've seen with trackable codes and puzzle solutions, things get shared on the internet pretty easily and often. If GS would allow virtual events, how long would it be before the event code was shared and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people were to try to join the event? Most event hosts would probably expect that only the local group of cachers, the same ones that attend most of the local events, would be the ones to attend a virtual event, but it's very possible for a code to be shared and many more people than anticipated would crash the party. Maybe Skype or FB Live or Zoom are robust enough to handle the traffic? Or are there restrictions on how many people could join a live-stream?

That's not correct. There were 40 locations total that were closed. The list can be found here. I do believe that all areas that the DNR maintains (parks, trails, rec areas) have closed their facilities (offices, bathrooms, shelters, etc), but access to the parks themselves, minus these 40 locations closed on April 10th, remain open. There are still plenty of state parks and recreational areas open in Wisconsin. Most of the ones on the list are around the more populated regions of Wisconsin and saw a huge spike in attendance last weekend. While I don't personally agree with closing the parks, as you can use the trails and open areas safely, it's hard to argue against the order when you see pictures of the parking lots full of cars and people in close quarters to each other. The impression that gives off is a bad look, even if everyone is social distancing and following safe practices.

After reading the actual "Safer At Home" order implemented by Wisconsin, I had a change of heart and am going to keep my caches active. If social distancing is followed, there is no reason people cannot go to parks, trails, preserves or just around town and geocaching can be a great way to get out of the house and engage in a low-risk hobby. Just be smart about it. No events, no meet-ups, no group caching, carry gloves and hand sanitizer. If you're worried about the possibility that the virus could be passed along by someone handling a geocache, then look at the map and seek out the caches that haven't been found in six months. There are usually plenty of those to be had and you can breathe easier knowing it didn't come in contact with anyone infected.

With Wisconsin implementing a "Safer at Home" order on Wednesday, March 25th thru April 24th, I will probably disable all my caches and suspend my geocaching until the order is lifted. I'm not particularly concerned with the virus spreading by people handling the container/contents, but this order is trying to discourage all unnecessary travel. Most of my caches are hidden in rural locations/state trails. Getting outside for exercise (walking/running/biking) is still very much encouraged and while I would love to think someone would be willing to still bike/walk/run to get near my caches, I know that most people would drive. So, disabling my caches is a small part in helping to discourage unnecessary travel.

Unless Groundspeak decides to go with another round of Virtual Rewards (and you are one of the lucky recipients), you won't be able to. Virtuals are a grandfathered cache type.

That would be the biggest take-away for me. A CO can place great caches, but if no one goes to look for them...then they're great caches that no one is finding. Far and away, traditional caches are the preferred cache type. There is nothing wrong with that, since that is the heart of geocaching. But, activity levels on any type of cache that isn't a traditional has nosedived for years. Putting out a multicache now is almost like condemning your cache to Siberia. A policy that a cache has to be found on a yearly basis would cut another strand on cache types that are already hanging by threads.

I spoke too soon. I wasn't opening cache pages, just navigating around the site. When I tried to open a cache page, I was redirected to the Status page as well.

I'm not getting the status page, but it's taking forever and a day for the page to open/load.

I'm glad this is happening. I had made one of my caches premium when it was going through a rough spell of going missing and I looked at the audit log out of curiosity a few times. A few times was enough to tell me there wasn't much value or interest in knowing who viewed the listing and when. For me, it was a forgettable feature. This is what bugged me about the audit log. Years ago, I was scrolling around the map, checking out puzzle caches in a city that was about two hours drive from home. I got an email from a CO that owned some of those caches. It was just the CO stating that if I wanted any help with any of his puzzle caches (most were difficult and beyond my ability to solve and all were premium), don't be afraid to ask. It was a nice gesture and it wasn't harassment, but it did kind of creep me out. After that, I avoided looking at premium cache pages for a little while.

I'd probably go this route as well. However, I would also be very understanding if the person couldn't recall the cache. Memory is a funny thing. Obviously, the really cool and memorable caches, I can remember those pretty well for years after the find. But, I've found plenty of "ordinary" caches in ordinary locations and I can still recall finding them. I may not have the exact details correct every time, but I can still picture them in my mind. Other caches, I forget five minutes after I walk away from them and really struggle to write a log for them just because they're a hole in my memory. Honestly, I would message them and unless they gave some completely wacky answer that all but screamed that they never actually found the cache, I'd let it go. Unless it's an obvious case of someone armchair logging, I don't want to take away a find from someone who found the cache but for whatever reason didn't sign the log. Now me personally, I don't even open nano caches. I just take a picture with it in my hand and note it in my find log that I didn't sign the log but took a photo if the owner needs proof. To date, I haven't had a single CO ask for that proof.

If someone is just logging a FTF on every new cache published, it would seem like it would be fairly easy for the community to catch onto their shenanigans and ignore it. If you see this person logging a FTF...well, then you know that the FTF opportunity is still available! Now, there are "ghost" cachers out there, but they generally operate in the reverse of what is happening here: they find the cache, sign the log but do not log the find online. There are also "true" ghost cachers who find the caches but don't log anything anywhere. The ones who don't sign the log but log online, we don't call those ghost cachers...we call those armchair loggers. Sounds like you have an armchair FTF logger. The best way to deal with this is for the CO's to delete the fake logs.

I think you're hung up on the word trial. It seems like you feel it means you weren't actually a premium member during that time and that's simply not the case. While it was a trial Premium membership, during that trial period, you had full access to all of the premium perks. You opted to not continue being a premium member when the trial term ended, but you WERE a premium member and chose to allow it to lapse. You didn't earn any additional favorite points because you were no longer a premium member.

I was fortunate enough to have received one of the original Virtual Rewards and I went in with pretty much the same mindset: to find a unique, interesting spot, that it be relatively close to home and that there wasn't a physical cache already there (whether allowed or not). Those are good ideals to shoot for, but they work much better on the drawing board than in reality. Now, there is plenty of Wisconsin that I haven't seen or visited but I learned pretty quick in my search for a worthy spot that finding a location without a physical cache already placed was much harder than I thought it was going to be. If there was something unique about the spot, someone had already placed a cache near it or used it as part of a cache. I think that is a reality in a lot of places, at least in the United States...so many of the good spots usually already have a cache there. So, I adjusted my parameters a bit. If a location was far enough away from home that I wouldn't place a physical cache because of maintenance, I thought it would be fair game for a virtual, even if there were other nearby caches. If you find a spot that you really like and feel like it fits your criteria for an interesting virtual, you should submit it for publication. The only caveat that I would put to that is if this location has something really unique about it and there is already a cache there, I would contact the CO of that cache and sort of hash it out. Someone placed a Virtual Reward at Lambeau Field in Green Bay and the CO that had a physical cache already in the parking lot got a little sore about it.

I would log the DNF and write something like "No luck finding the cache. I only searched for a brief time since it appears the area is a homeless encampment and I didn't feel comfortable searching here." If that was your experience, there is nothing wrong with writing an honest log. As a cache owner, if something was making you feel like searching for my cache wasn't safe or proper, I'd want to hear about it.

These are the kind of promotions I wish Groundspeak would treat like a "lifetime achievement" award, the way video games do, and not tie it to any specific week or range of dates. So, like in a video game, if I accomplish this set list of tasks, regardless of how long it takes me, I am awarded the achievement. My way of caching is getting out once or twice a week at most, so I'm almost certainly not going to earn this souvenir. That doesn't really bother me but at the same time, let's say I have a week of vacation and not much planned later this year or next summer or a few years from now. Then I could go out every day and find a cache for seven days and earn the souvenir, but it could be earned at any time after the promotion went live. One of the limiting factors for me as far as most promotions go is that my free time and the dates Groundspeak sets rarely coincide.

I really loved visiting and caching around St. Ignace/Mackinaw City, plus taking the ferry over to Mackinac Island and grabbing some caches there. I'm not familiar with the trail systems around the area and there aren't a ton of multi's, but the area is still a gem to take in the sights. Another wonderful area is Munising and along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Taking the hike out to the Au Sable lighthouse was a highlight. Again, not that many multicaches but a beautiful location.

It's true that technology has taken some pretty significant leaps and bounds since the early 2000's, but the big thing that doomed traveling caches really hasn't changed all that much: the human element. If you could find a way to fix that... Now, there is nothing wrong with looking back at some of the things Groundspeak has implemented, then subsequently banished and pondering ways that it could be brought back to life and/or improved. If this is something you want, come up with a workable solution and see if it gets any traction at GS. It probably won't but we thought we'd never see Virtuals again, either. Personally, I would much rather Groundspeak went back and did an overhaul/update to the Wherigo platform, but that's my pie-in-the-sky dream.

I could have sworn that I've seen these icons when I was logging some caches two to three weeks ago (Wisconsin geocaches) but they've since disappeared. I don't know. Maybe I was imagining it.

I'm happy to see another round of Virtual Rewards being released. I was lucky enough to have received a Virtual Reward 1.0 and while I was elated with my luck, I also understood why some cachers chose not to place a new Virtual. I treated it like a reward AND a responsibility. That was my choice, of course, but with one chance at placing a new Virtual, I felt a duty to publish something that wouldn't make a finder wonder why I would choose what I did. Maybe the difference for some cachers who have wanted to place new virtuals was that they already had (have) the perfect place in mind. I did not. With Virtual caches already grandfathered when I started caching, it never crossed my mind to even contemplate where I would place a virtual if I had the chance. So, when I was notified that I had the opportunity to place a new virtual cache, I felt some stress along with lots of joy. With how much cachers have begged for virtuals to be returned, I thought finding a location for one wouldn't be that difficult but it turned out to be tougher than I first imagined. While a year is plenty of time to plan and create a virtual cache, I had also set some personal rules for myself. I wanted a location that had something "special", I wanted it to be within an hour of home and I wanted it to be in a location where physical caches either weren't allowed or there just weren't very many placed. In the end, I had to expand my distance rule to two or three hours from home. Finding a location that had no/few caches and was worthy (in my mind) of a virtual cache was the toughest part. So many areas already have physical caches, it's pretty tough to find a spot that someone hasn't already placed a cache nearby...at least near me. One of the Virtual Rewards near me was placed at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI. That was the first location that came to mind when I thought about placing a new virtual. But, it already had physical caches nearby, so I followed my own rules and tried to find somewhere else. When the Virtual placed there got published, one of the physical cache owners did get a little sore because they felt the virtual was taking away from their cache. I didn't agree but it opened my eyes a bit and made me even more sensitive to placing a virtual near other caches. Finding a location that suited my ideals was a challenge, but once the Virtual was published, I was glad I stuck to my guns and I'm just as happy with the results today as the day it went live. For those opting in and are lucky enough to get a Virtual Reward 2.0, have some fun with it. If you have something already in mind and are just waiting for the email stating your one of the fortunate ones, then get it written up and published as quickly as you can. If not, don't sweat it. Take some time, explore and when you happen across the perfect location, you'll know it.

My biggest issue with the map is that it doesn't seem to have any sensitivity in terms of zooming in and out using my scroll wheel. If I scroll out a few clicks, the map will zoom from what seems like a 100' view to a 10,000' view (and lags...so if you scroll quickly, you'll go from looking at a county park to being on the International Space Station, looking down at Earth). For instance: I'm in Wisconsin, so if I zoom in as close as I can on the map, in six wheel clicks, I can zoom out enough that half of the United States now shows on the map. It's hard to fine tune your search when one or two clicks out now encompasses multiple counties instead of the city you were looking at. On the browse map, six clicks doesn't even zoom out enough to see the neighboring county, let alone another entire state. It's a pretty big difference.

I've found a doorbell cache (Ding Dong Ditch) and it worked quite well. Unlike kunarion, my experience was that the sound carried fairly well, as the final was about 150' from the initial stage and I could hear it pretty plainly. It was harder to pinpoint just where the sound was originating from, but it got me in the correct area. I would think a cache like this would almost require an annual or semi-annual maintenance visit to make sure the batteries are in good working order. If there are multiple people at the cache, finding the final should be pretty easy as one person could just keep ringing the bell as the others homed in on the sound.