Ian5281

I completely ignore all micros... and am a happier person now that I do it. I've even turned off small caches, because in my area, they more often than not provide the micro-spew-type of experience. Pocket Queries are you friends! That being said, there are good micros and smalls out there. Other peoples favorites lists pick out the winners for me...

My signature item is a baculum from a raccoon or coyote. Would that be inappropriate?

I only carry a tourniquet and hack saw... like a real man.

I'm still amazed that people are defending the practice of hiding caches on/near/diguised as electrical equipment. Its very clear that selfish motivations for numbers are winning out over common sense for some folks. Here is my advice for GC.com: As an engineer with an actual university degree, a technical degree, more than 5 years of experience, countless hours of safety training, and whose JOB IT IS TO ADVISE COMPANIES REGARDING SAFETY ISSUES...Add a line to your cache placement guidelines prohibiting caches on, near, or made to resemble utility equipment, or sources of power. That advice is free. Normally I charge for it.

Sorry AB4N, but this style of hide is completely inapporpriate. People will find it, and then LATER be opening a live electircal junction box... I can't believe this subject is even open for debate, as its a gross violation of best practices in industry, and an obvious safety issue. To quote my previous post: "Let me qualify my statements by stating I am a trained engineer, and routinely work with industrial electrical equipment, chemical equipment, and other sources of power. I have had EXTENSIVE safety training, and am familiar with OSHA and ASME safety guidelines, and best-practices in industry. What follows is more than mere personal opinion, and is the opinion of a qualified and trained professional." "Other unsafe caches, are those either disguised as electrical equipment, ON electrical equipment, or most importantly, promote PROBING of electrical equipment. Electrical transformers, junction boxes, electrical service boxes etc are generally hazardous areas. Caches placed in close proximity to these areas promote the very unsafe behavior of touching the equipment. Usually, caches in these areas are themselves placed safely, but when that searching behavior is brought elsewhere, it brings with it complacency towards very real electrical hazards. There is an incorrect assumption that poking, pulling, and prodding this equipment will not kill you." I fully support Lep's position of "The guideline I'd be in favor of is one which restricts placing a cache right on or near active utility equipment, like a transformer, substation fence, etc. It is based on the location and the circumstances, not the container in and of itself. " GC.com should at least have a policy where blatently unsafe caches could be reported and archived.

I had posted about this topic many moons ago on a local forum. My post is as follows: Safety. There is precious little written about safety on GC.com... The sport of geocaching is full of natural hazards... snakes, cliffs, water hazards, etc. I'm concerned with a lack of attention to MAN- MADE hazards that many geocaches bring cache-finders in proximity to. I think we all agree that natural hazards are part of the sport. Natural hazards are not the topic of my discussion here. Let me qualify my statements by stating I am a trained engineer, and routinely work with industrial electrical equipment, chemical equipment, and other sources of power. I have had EXTENSIVE safety training, and am familiar with OSHA and ASME safety guidelines, and best-practices in industry. What follows is more than mere personal opinion, and is the opinion of a qualified and trained professional. My first example of an unsafe cache, is a cache in a storm drain. These caches are a lot of fun, but are also a serious danger for those who seek them. There are laws prohibiting entry into storm drains by un-authorized/trained individuals, and a lack of a "No Trespassing" sign, or gate does not imply consent to enter these areas. There was a potentially lethal incident recently in Erie where some cachers were washed out of a storm drain while seeking a cache. A little more rain on that day could easily have killed them. Other unsafe caches, are those either disguised as electrical equipment, ON electrical equipment, or most importantly, promote PROBING of electrical equipment. Electrical transformers, junction boxes, electrical service boxes etc are generally hazardous areas. Caches placed in close proximity to these areas promote the very unsafe behavior of touching the equipment. Usually, caches in these areas are themselves placed safely, but when that searching behavior is brought elsewhere, it brings with it complacency towards very real electrical hazards. There is an incorrect assumption that poking, pulling, and prodding this equipment will not kill you. I've seen other caches disguised as potential sources of power, that by finding requires one to perform potentially unsafe acts, if that cache were indeed what it was designed to look like. (For example, opening a potentially pressurized gas line) There are other caches hidden under access panels, covers and guards that are designed to keep the public OUT of those areas. So what do we do?

I've been leaving baculums.... you know... penis bones. Mostly Racoon and coyote. Google it if you dont believe me.

Here is an idea for a cache rating system... As a new cacher, you are awarded say.... 20 points. Then, with each time you choose to rate a cache, you are awarded 5 more points that you "spend" on the rating of the cache you visited. You can rate the cache on a scale of 1-10. On average, the caches would average out to 5... which is average. You could save the points for the really good caches, and let people know which are lame. This would also avoid a situation where cachers rated every cache with the highest rating. To avoid hurting feelings, only the highest rated caches would be displayed, avoiding alienating those with really really low ratings...

Fact: this is your opinion! Fact: My opinion is that way less lame micros would make the game more fun. But that is just MY opinion. Fact: Griping about the proliferation of lame caches (that tend to be micros) is intended to improve the sport overall. Please quit whining about our whining... that is what this whole forum thing is all about!

I've heard mention of a possible cache rating system.... Something where you could nominate your top 5-10% or something similar. Anything come of it?

So many unhelpful people! I sometimes photograph the cache log so I can read thru it later. One time, a cache camera was taken and logged in the paper log, but not on the website. My photo of the cache log solved the mystery! Who cares if people cheat on their numbers.. .that's their problem.. but it is nice to make a copy of the log for its own sake

It's true there should be caches for all sort of people...some who like the long hike thru lovely scenery, to the ones who love Walmart parking lots. My gripe is primarily with the sheer volume of the lame micros. They have overrun my area. I had to turn off the new cache insta-notify feature because I was tired of getting a multitude of new micro alerts. It's out of hand... People are so quick to dismiss these legitimate complaints here...it's sad.

I've got the same problem in my area. The local geocaching group is saturated with messages congratulating each other on yet another hundred caches found. The local cache culture here definately favors quantity over quality, and the high density of lame micros makes it hard for new cachers to find a decent cache that will get them hooked on the sport. The vast majority of our caches are placed by a very small number of people in this group. Yes, I can, and do filter them out, perhaps missing the occasional good location. The new cachers cannot. What is needed is for this topic to be raised again and again, so hopefully the message can soak into the geotrashers out there, or cause some folks to think twice. The complaint of too many lame micros is legitimate... if you dont want to read the complaints, quit reading the threads on the subject.

I've read the entire thread....the reviewers are being very reasonable... this is just not a good spot. I know you're miffed, ifishaz, but it's time to quit the battle and get back to having fun with caching again... Just my $.02.

I second the motion! It would be great to have everything needed to go get the cache included in the email to my cell phone. Perhaps even the entire cache page? Thanks for the great feature!

I can tell you that there are many many caches that I have found that I wont bother to log online. I always log caches that I enjoy, or it was clear that the hider found a nice spot for a cache, or put some effort into it. I drop lots of new cache cameras, log books, extra swag, do cache maintenance, post online photos, etc for quality caches. I want to reward good hides as much as possible. I always log DNF's too, even for lame caches. As an established cache snob, I protest lame caches by not logging them online. Caches poorly hidden en-masse, in garbage dumps, ugly locations, or any other reason that makes me ask myself "Why are they inviting me here? This was a waste of time." don't deserve the satisfaction of my online log. My log would not be positive anyways, so I suppose it's better that I say nothing. Since the numbers are not important to me either.... no log! Did not mean to derail this thread into a lame cache debate... Just answering why I dont log so many caches..

I am kinda a flashlight nerd... I have a several in my caching backpack. My favorite this week is the BFL, rechargeable 1,000,000 candlepower spotlight from Walmart. Only $20! It really turns night into day, but only lasts about 20 minutes continuous. I have a nice lightweigt LED headlight that runs on AAA batteries. (you dont want the kinds that run on button cells.. they are too expensive and can be hard to find sometimes while on the road) It's good for climbing, when you need your hands free. I also carry my trusty eternalight x-ray... It has an internal light that I never shut off, so it's easy to find at night.... it's always glowing blue...and the thing is bright as heck... great for general hiking. I have an Inova 5 LED light that is blue and insanely bright. The weird color really gets peoples attention, and it is almost too bright/strange to use comfortably. Then I also carry a host of small, but quality LED lights to share with other cachers in my team. Then there is also an old-skool incandescent headlamp, and a industrial lantern just in case. In my swag-bag... (trade items bag) I always have a hefty supply of chemlights.. just in case the other 10 flashlights fail for some reason. Then there are matches. The most important thing? Batteries! The Ni-Mh batteries and charger are always along. I have about 10 extra batteries already charged up, so there is no way in heck that I am goin to get caught battery-less. It may all seem like overkill, but I cache with the family, and I have to have equipment for the whole crew... and I just dig flashlights

This is the future of geocaching, and it's stupid. These people are sooooo missing the point. It's because of the fools who post a zillion micros like this, that my search page is solid lame-o micros. It's really getting hard to find a truly traditional cache among the geo-litter. Just because one CAN hijack the nice sport of geocaching and make it your own, does not mean you should. Some folks seriously need to get a life. New cachers are most likely going to get thier first taste of caching on a lame micro now, and conclude that the sport is for lame dorkwads, and quit. Thanks!

I for one would love to be able to make my stats invisible. I actually got an email from a fellow cacher telling me to log a second visit to a cache as a "note" instead of "found it". Until I looked further, I did not realize that one could get another "point" by logging twice. My point is that I would not be hassled by another cacher if they were not checking my stats. I would prefer to opt-out of that facet of the game. I dont want to be a complete ghost either. I dont think logs should be invisible.(why post at all then?) It would just be nice to have some more options available. I think it would be nice to be able to see someones entire set of logs (if the cacher liked it to be available) including DNF's. I like 4agers idea I dont think most people would opt-out, tho, and the concerns mentioned earlier in this thread would not be realized. (ie logging credible DNFs) I would like my blog available, and DNF's, but just remove my stats. If someone was really concerned, they could add them up if they wanted, but I dont really think they will.

I know my kids like to find goodies in the cache! I try to keep a backpack full of good trade items , so the kids can get treasure from the cache, and I can trade-up for them. Personally, I rarely find things in the cache that I want myself, but I try hard to improve the quality of swag in each cache I visit.

I dont know how it works on the 60 cs, but my etrex vista lets you do it just about any way you want. You can get a pure gps altitude, or one corrected with barometric readings, etc etc. You can view the barometer, or calculated altitide individually. I usually leave it in the auto-self-correct mode. I dont really remember what the cabin pressure was doing.. I was more interested in watching my position on the map, and finding places I knew.

I had my Garmin Vista held up against the plane window for a large portion of a recent cross-country flight. It worked slick as snot, and no-one expressed any concerns at all. It was pretty cool to see exactly where I was, and how fast I was going. The barometric altimiter got confused, I think, because the plane was pressurized. The barometer clearly showed when the plane pressurized itself, and the calculated altimeter showed frightening rates of descent/ascent! Another interesting thing was that our route was not a straight line on the map, but gentle curve, reflecting the actual shortest route on a round planet, instead of the square map. I even had good sat. reception for the vast majority of the time! There was a lot of stuff to look at in the Garmin, and it really made the long trip more interesting. Ian

A micro in a cool spot is cool! (as long as I can find the darn thing...I like nice specific spoilers, please, people!!) A micro in each of 20 local parking lots is sub-cool. New cachers at GC.com searching for their first cache will be more likely to find themselves at Walmart in my town, rather than in the woods, and I think that is going to turn new people off to the sport. I can filter micros... I know, but I pay for that feature. New cachers dont. If you must flood the universe with micros, please make it immediately obvious to the cache page reader that they are going to an aesthetically-challenged location to challenge wits with the hider, instead of a pretty/interesting location to enjoy the natural world a bit. If folks want more hides/finds, place a micro on the guardrail evers 529 feet along a highway somewhere, and give them all the same name. After a few miles of this, they should have the best caching day of their life! They can log each cache AGAIN on their way back!! Heck they should be able to drive down the highway, and count them as they drive by! They could score 500 on their way to work, and 500 on the way home! That would rock! Go for it! (as long as people can still easily find the traditional hides without having to pull up each cache page, and try to figure out what is in store for them) <insert dead horse picture here>

Perhaps MY position would be more clear if I repost this:

Interesting. To throw an event where people have a good time is in part what event caches are about. Having fun while placing some caches is in part what this hobby is about. Having a thick enough skin to deal with topics like "crappy caches" isn't what this hobby is about but it is what you need to deal with. Therefore I can't give people who bitch nearly as much creedance as those who say thanks and those who at least give out a great idea while 'bitching'. I dont really mean to reply exclusively to you, Renegade Knight, but it seems that you have either not read the thread, or did not grasp it's intent. Perhaps I have not grasped your intent! The attitude I was refering to was the lack of concern for the finders experience. Throwing an event cache is great! Good for you! Thank you! But I draw an analogy to water pistols... its really mostly fun for the people doing the squirting. You, my friend, appear to be planning an army of water pistol bearing folks to soak the world. Asking to remain completely dry is whining, because a little water does not hurt. (water=micro in Walmart parking lot in this analogy) Asking to not get soaked is not whining. Please see what ideas I gave out while I was bitching. For the most part, this people in this thread are doing great about respectfully sharing thier views, without flaming. If enough people read this thread, then hopefully someone out there will pause before placing a "crappy cache", and say to themselves, "I think I can make this better!". Thanks for posting! Ian5281