Crow-T-Robot

It's doable but if it were me and it was an area worth bringing people to, I'd just submit as a new cache. It sounds like the only thing that would change about the cache is the GC # and unless you have a sentimental reason to try to keep that, a new listing would make more sense.

If we're talking about the same thing, in the upper right hand corner of the screen is a location/pointer widget (right above the tile map widget). If you tap on that widget, it will cycle through three different pointer settings. One is just a static zoom to where you currently are, so if you scroll around the map, you can just zoom the map back to where you are currently located. One locks the app to your location as you move but doesn't rotate the screen and the third is one that it locks onto your location but orients the screen to a set direction as you move the phone around. I'm with you in that I don't like that third option. I am sensitive to motion sickness and seeing my screen rotate that freely makes me feel queasy.

As others have stated, this is your cache and if you feel the finder did not find your cache, you can delete the log. I have no idea if your deletion will hold up against an appeal but even if it does, is this how you want to be known as a CO? I get that this is sort of an unusual situation but at what point, as a CO, do you decide that this really isn't that big of a deal, fix the cache to your liking and move on in life? I think the following expresses my feelings exactly: Or would you rather be known as a CO that will rain down thunder and lightening if the finder makes even the smallest of mis-steps? I appreciate that you take cache ownership seriously but there is a line where it goes from being a responsible owner to being a fuss-budget. Cache ownership should be all about creating the kind of cache you enjoy, placing it in a location you enjoy and then enjoying the fact that other cachers are enjoying it. The theme in that sentence is JOY. If you have such rigid standards for how you want your cache found/logged, you're going to have markedly less joy because by virtue of those standards, there will ALWAYS be issues and drama.

Double check to make sure you're logged in. Was there a verification email sent to you? Maybe you need to verify your email before you can submit topics.

I like to use Earthcaches as a tour guide when I'm traveling but rarely log one now. I enjoyed doing E/C's when there was a photo requirement and then had optional logging tasks. It wasn't that I just wanted to take a picture and then log the find and skip on the tasks. It was more that then, the tasks seemed more...fun and intuitive. Once it became mandatory that an Earthcache should require performing a task to log, it seemed like the tasks became way more convoluted, tedious and complex and the fun aspect went with it. As others have already said, it became more like homework and some CO's have decided to make you jump through numerous "unfun" hoops to log the cache and it seemed less about teaching about geology and more about a CO being a control freak. So, I just go visit whatever is being highlighted by the listing and skip logging it.

I would assume the Studio version would be more detailed and allow for more creation options, but how limited is the app version? I haven't looked into HP Reveal in any form. I hope that once the March deadline passes, Groundspeak decides to keep allowing AR caches to be created. I totally missed the boat on HP Reveal and it sounds like a platform that was more suited to the kind of AR cache I'd want to create. I wasn't much of a fan of Metaverse as it didn't seem robust enough and DID like Zappar but GS didn't support it.

Are you still trying to go down the avenue of blocking this cacher from logging your cache? You've been given proof that the cache was found and the log was signed. Move on in life. I don't know, maybe being this kind of taskmaster makes being a CO fun for you, but personally, if I was dealing with this kind of drama or anxiety over owning caches, I'd have run, screaming, from being a cache owner years ago. I take my cache ownership seriously but I don't at all understand the mentality that being a CO is "serious business".

I think one of the biggest issues is player churn. Groundspeak seems to only care about getting new players aboard. While I can understand the demand for a constant stream of revenue, what is the incentive to keep those players around longer than a year or two? Ford and GM would have gone out of business quickly if they didn't understand the basic maxim of car sales: you're not looking to sell a customer one car. You're looking to sell them a new car every three years. Right now, Groundspeak is selling customers one car and then writing them off as future customers. Another issue is that Geocaching, to recent players, is really "just another app". If you're looking for a new game to play on your phone, you go to the app store, search around until you find something that seems interesting, download it, play it until you're bored with it and then delete it and go looking for a new app. There doesn't seem to be that inherent hook anymore. Early adopters and long time players began and continue to go caching because the game hooked them. That's not to say that everyone who went out caching in 2000, 2001, 2006, 2012, etc is still playing. There has always been (and always will be) flash in the pan players but I find it difficult to believe the rate of retention for new players today is anything but disheartening. Geocaching needs to find a way make their app stand out and to hook more new players for long term play.

I...I don't think you understand the difference between a cache listing on geocaching.com and an actual geocache. Groundspeak can archive the listing but the actual geocache isn't going to magically disappear if they do. It may lose out on the millions of eyeballs that Groundspeak provides through their user base, but it's still there and it's still yours. You yourself can walk out the door and place a cache on your porch and then never create a listing for it on geocaching.com and yet, the cache will still exist. If you figure out a way to get people to come look for it without having it published, you can bypass having it listed anywhere. But, the actual, physical container will still be there in the flesh.

I have no issue with showcasing this as a cache of the week. If these electrical boxes were that easy to get open, they wouldn't exist because by now, so many of them would have been opened and people gotten hurt or killed, any city/utility company would have been sued into bankruptcy long ago. The problem is when reading the blog post, it doesn't say anything about the fact that this isn't a real electrical box. In fact, it points out at least twice how this cache looks just like a "mundane utility box". Really, the writer of the blog should have been very explicit that this isn't a real utility box, that cachers should not attempt to open a real utility box and that using a real utility box as a place to hide a cache requires explicit permission (and gaining that permission from a utility company is going to be almost impossible). And, if there was ever a container that should absolutely be marked with a geocache emblem, this is it. It looks like a fun cache but it could have been thought out a little better from the outside.

This past Saturday I found 23 caches. To some cachers, that is barely an hours worth of caching but for me, it's a pretty big day. I could certainly find more in a day as the caching aspect doesn't burn me out. It's when I get to logging the caches that I realize I really don't want to find more than a dozen or so in a day. I've tried for years to convince myself that if I went on a "big" cache run, to not sweat just posting generic logs. Most of the caches I'd find during a cache run usually aren't all that memorable and just a short and sweet log would suffice. But, I've always strove to write unique logs and I can't seem to get past that hurdle. So, the caching is fine but sometimes I get burnt out trying to come up with unique logs for what are usually forgettable caches. They're still fun to find when out in the field.

We haven't even seen the finished product yet. Maybe it's just a tad early to overreact. I know people don't like it when companies "mess with something that works!!!", but if they didn't try to keep improving the software, soon it won't work and the cost to get it working again will be twice as steep. Sometimes there are growing pains adapting to the new way of doing things. That's just the way the world works now.

Do the phones have the Geocaching app installed on them? If so, you could download a list while on Wifi and then use those phones in offline mode. This is primarily how I use my phone when I cache. As long as you don't log out of the app out in the field, all the data will be there for any cache on your downloaded list.

I think I saw a note stating I was one log away from getting the Sphinx souvenir, so I don't see myself getting anywhere close to finishing. While I enjoy these promotions when they are ongoing, if I don't find enough caches to get all the souvenirs, when the promotion is over it's not like I regret not getting all the rewards. It just becomes another souvenir in my digital dust bin that I rarely look at or remember.

With the Earthcache, you did send the cache owner the answers to whatever questions they had developed for the earthcache, correct?

I'm not sure what kind of "kick a** puzzle" I'd be able to create (or be willing to create) if any/all of the hidden waypoints would be given away just by someone starting a cache submission page to get the coordinates. If you think that only "cheaters" would go this route for puzzle/multi/Wherigo caches, you haven't been around long enough. If hidden waypoints were revealed on the cache submission page, it would become the de-facto way to solve puzzles. I like solving puzzles but there are so many that are either beyond my skill level to solve or just don't interest me enough to put the effort into solving. Would I take advantage of seeing the hidden waypoints if I had the chance? I'm not saying I wouldn't. I'd give the puzzle an honest try, sure but in the end, I'd be curious just to know what the solution was.

I don't see it as a contradiction, either. A CO creates a 10 stage multi and each stage is a micro that contains the coordinates to the next stage. Nothing really unique about the stages. They don't bring me to anywhere significant. There isn't a central theme to the multi. The only reason the waypoints exist is simply to make this a 10 stage multi. I wouldn't avoid that kind of multicache but at the end of it, I'd ask myself just what was the point? The CO created a 10 stage multi just to create a 10 stage multi. In that case, yes, I'd rather have 10 traditionals since the experience would be exactly the same. A well designed 10 stage multi, where the stages were important to the theme of the cache or brought me to interesting places, would be more memorable than 10 separate traditionals. With the traditionals, you could quit after a few caches and might not get the entire experience the CO was going for. A multi sort of forces you to do the entire cache and if it's done well, you'll understand what the CO was trying to accomplish.

That's...disappointing. So, if I were able to add the zapcode image to my cache page and the person scanned the code on my page while at home and went through the experience that I designed and obtained the coordinates and then used their GPS to navigate to the cache, that wouldn't be approved? I think I'm gonna go back and re-read the AR guidelines from the first post. Maybe I skimmed over the part that pointed out that an AR cache had to be done in the field.

I've been able to tinker around a little more with Zap Logic and I really like the builder and it seems capable of some pretty creative stuff. I haven't gone to any deep cut range yet but from what I've seen/used, I'm pretty impressed. But, there are some cons: As thebruce mentioned, the scan limit might be a real issue. Jumping from free to $45 a month, yeah, that's not going to happen for me. I just looked at my zapcode that I'm building and just from previewing, I've already scanned the code 15 times. I was looking at building a multicache and using the zapcodes as the waypoints, but without an ability to use the app offline, that's putting too much trust in that other cachers are going to have a data connection where the cache is placed. I can live with just adding the zap code to my cache page (haven't published my zapcode yet, so right now if I scan the code without using the preview button, it just says "Coming Soon") and having the cacher go through the experience sitting at their desk, but I was hoping to make it a more interactive experience. You can upload a tracking image and if someone is pointing their camera at the image, whatever you have as your experience will play against it as a backdrop. But, you only get to choose one tracking image. I created five scenes so far, but I can't seem to change the tracking image for each individual scene. I guess I'm going to have to try out some of the other builders. None of the issues with Zap Logic are a deal-breaker for me but I haven't tested any of the other platforms to any real extent, so maybe they can offer more features with less restrictions.

That's the platform I've been looking at as well and was pretty impressed with it. I just haven't gone far enough into building an experience to really know some of the limitations and/or possibilities.

I wonder how feasible it would be to submit an AR cache now, using a platform that you're "ok with but hope for something better". Then, if you do find a platform that performs the way you wanted in the first place, editing the listing to change over to this new platform. An issue I can think of is if your AR platform uses physical elements...those would be harder to switch out. But, you'd have an active listing to sort of play around with if GS decides to just grandfather AR caches. Like, what I'm looking for is a platform that lets you print off the scannable element and then placing those elements at various locations so that when the person is at the location and scans the code, it would play something that is specific to that location or works with that location. I just haven't had the chance to look at any of the platforms listed already to see how workable this idea is.

I've been lightly toying around with Zapworks. From what little I've done with it, I've liked it. The biggest hurdle is that they give you five free Zapcodes and then I think it was $1.99 for each additional one. I honestly haven't gotten far enough into it to know how far five Zapcodes would stretch in making an AR cache. But, it might be an alternative to look into.

Yeah, I liked the way those worked but I definitely saw room for them to be improved. How difficult that is to do...well, that's something I'll have to find out.

That's quite interesting. I'm going to look into this to see how feasible it is for a geocache.

I'd say go ahead! That looks like something interesting to visit and explore. I would imagine a micro cache would be fairly challenging to find in that location, so if it can withstand the searching, it would be a fun place to find a cache.