SSO JOAT

This is bogus! That ain't how we 'game' this "sport" 'round these parts.

PSP went downhill after the original creator sold it to the big-box software company. IIRC, it was around version 9 that the new company put their hands in and started messing things up, but maybe it was 10. PSP 7 does have an interactive dialog that allows jpg compression adjustment. You get to see the quality changes to the image as you adjust the compression level and it instantly shows you the file size changes. In fact, this feature dates back to somewhere around version 3 or 4.

With only 292 caches to sort through, you can just go to your profile, click the link to show all logs for geocaches and then the link to show only found it logs. They will be in reverse chronological order, so if you double logged at or near the same time, you should be able to spot the doubles fairly easy as you scroll down the list. Be patient on the profile count updates. Sometimes they take awhile to catch up, and today's server overload would have been a prime day for the numbers to lag. Another way to find your doubles is to pull a "my finds" PQ and search the resulting GPX file with offline software (GSAK would make it super simple).

Thanks for the links to the old thread and the WA bookmark list. I'll be doing more reading and research. BTW, the concept of using the club's account to publish the challenge's was brought up early and is certainly a consideration. One of the reasons I asked was to help decide whether to push for the club to publish or for individuals to do them.

Now that definition I like!

Golf is only physically demanding if you choose courses that are physically demanding. There's nothing physical or intellectual about the local put-put course at the gas station. By the English definition, a "sport" does NOT have to be competitive. Not an opinion, but what is published in the language's rule book (i.e. dictionary). Controversally, there have been several who've stated that it's a 'game' but not a 'sport' because of the competition aspect. Well, the English definition of a game includes the qualifier that it MUST be competitive. So, the term 'game' doesn't fit geocaching in the broader sense, whereas 'sport' fits it perfectly.

By the English definition, anything that uses energy or force or is an active movement or operation is an "activity". Everything you do is an activity. Picking your nose is an activity. Of course geocaching is an activity, because everything you do is an activity. Doh! A game is, "a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators" The synonym of game is sport. Definitions from the dictionary for sport, "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess esp. in the out of doors. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime. to amuse oneself with some pleasant pastime or recreation. to engage in some open-air or athletic pastime" Thus, the activity of Geocaching is a Sport, not a Game.

Before logging my find from this morning, I tested a Note and an Owner Maint. Only the Find log triggered the 10/10/10 thingie. I didn't think to try and log my DNF before the Find, but then I didn't get my DNF until after my find, so I was just entering them in chronological order as usual.

If you do both you get brownie points for not wasting bandwidth.

PaintShop Pro 7 is my favorite, but anything older than version 9 (IIRC) will do. Most of the advanced photo editing programs will to the same, though. First step... crop the image to remove areas that are not needed (use the rule of thirds) Second step... resize the image down to 600 pixels for the longest dimension. Third step... do any contrast/brightness/color adjustments you need to get a nice looking image. Fourth step... export the image to a JPEG file using compression to ensure it is below the 125K limit. One of the great things about PSP is that it has an awesome image conversion utility to export jpg, gif, and png files. Of course, GS only allows jpg. I haven't found a freeware photo editor yet that is worth a dang.

Now that point I strongly argue. The CO can not only find the cache, but they were in fact the first to find the cache and the location they put it. Second, the hide for a challenge is nothing more than a public place to put the logbook for people to sign. It's not like solving your own puzzle, or seeking out a difficulty 4 micro hide. In fact, I'd expect the Challenge cache itself to be somewhere about a 1.5/1.5 rating with nothing but a logbook to sign. I don't log finds on my own traditional caches only because that is the guideline on how this sport is played. But that doesn't mean the CO didn't find the hide first. If the CO hadn't found it, his cache wouldn't be there, now would it? In response to some other comments... I don't see the Challenge as being something the CO is challenging others to do because he did it himself. I see the Challenge as a goal for the entire caching community, to include the CO. The CO is just the person who has accepted the burden of maintaining the logbook and verifying that all who sign it completed the Challenge. The Challenges we've been discussing are actually pretty simple concepts. We're looking at breaking areas within our region up into distinct geographic zones and the Challenge is to find every traditional cache within the zone. What we've been talking about is the criteria that would need to be in place to claim that Challenge complete. Obviously new caches are added and existing ones are disabled on a regular basis. So, we were looking at ways that you could take a snapshot of the day you claim to have reached the goal and it would require a "my finds" PQ generated on that date as well as the PQ for that geographic area minus all disabled and any other cache features we would consider not part of the challenge (e.g. we might remove any 5-star terrain caches from the mandatory list as an unreasonable expectation for some cachers to be able to find them as they don't have a boat or the ability to rock climb or whatever). Pretty much means the cache would be a PMO listing due to the PQ requirement, unless we want to incorporate a work-around for basics, such as the CO using GSAK filtering to generate the basic's find list. Either way, it would be a lot of work for the CO to verify the cache count, but I don't expect that there would be a lot of people completing such a Challenge so it should be manageable. Anyone know of some Challenges similar to this with links or GC# so I can look at them? Thanks for the discussion!

Been discussing some Challenge cache ideas with the boys 'round here and this thought came to mind; while it is not cool to log finds on your own physical caches, what about Challenge caches? The cache owner is basically just acting as the record keeper for those who are completing the challenge, so if the owner completes said challenge himself, he ought to be free and clear to log the find on his own cache without scorn, yes? Thoughts?

What do you expect? They told everyone to sign in and log stuff today. The servers are going to be overwhelmed all day long!

A game is played on a TV or at a dining room table. Hiking is a sport. Biking is a sport. Orienteering is a sport. Geocaching is a sport. Half ya'll are in denial.

By definition, a sport has rules you have to follow and it does NOT have to be competitive. Even so, there is no way you can deny that geocaching does have some very strongly competitive aspects to it.

Yes, geocaching is a sport. Why? Well, orienteering is a sport and geocaching is a spinoff of that. Geocaching meets every definition of "sport". So, it must be a sport. Besides, they consider golf a sport and geocaching is far more physically demanding, intellectually intensive, and requires a much larger skill set. And for those who claim it is an "activity"... well, getting out of bed is an activity, going to the bathroom is an activity, eating a candy bar is an activity, anything involving movement is an "activity". I hope ya'll consider geocaching more than that.

So let me get this straight, you have people coming along posting notes to your caches to tell you that there are bot notes on your caches? If that wasn't such misplaced effort, it would almost be funny... I've never understood why someone would post a public note to a cache page that should be a private message to the cache owner anyway. Baffling.

You can also use the free program EasyGPS to load the waypoints to your Garmin. It will let you automatically set a couple parameters. I would highly recommend getting the GSAK program (costs $20 after the 30-day trial period, but worth every penny). With GSAK, you have total control over the GPX file you send to your GPSr. I have a half dozen different pocket queries setup in order to capture the caches in the region where I travel (it's a big region). So, when I'm going to head out for some caching, I have to pick the specific portion where I'll be in order to get under the 1000 waypoint limit of the Garmin (76CSx, which is operationally the same as the 60). My GSAK database has somewhere just under 3000 cache listings in it. While out caching, in order to get access to the complete listings, I keep them on a Palm Pilot. So, when I pull new PQ's (about once per week) and update the GSAK database, I extract the entire thing to the Palm Pilot. Now I can carry every cache listing with me (lots of area with no phone service, so the BlackBerry doesn't help in the field). Next, I have a series of center point locations I've setup in GSAK and run a filter on the center point of the area I want, which also gets rid of any caches I don't want in the GPSr. If needed, I'll tweek the filter to get it down to about 900 caches. With my filter cache list, I use the extract GPX function and have it set to strip the GC off the front of the cache ID and replace it with codes for the cache type and size. That gives me T for traditional, M for multi, R for Earthcache, etc. on the first character and M, S, R, L, U for the cache size as the second character. That is followed by the rest of the cache ID, which becomes the waypoint name. Next, I have GSAK place the D/T rating followed by the cache name in the description field. So each waypoint has something like this, (2,1.5) Cache Name. The caches are exported to a new GPX file with these settings. Now I open up that GPX file with Mapsource and verify on the map that the caches are in the area I want. Since the GSAK center point works in a circle (though you can make a linear route if you want), I can often select and delete blocks of caches that are outside the area where I'll be going. It's a super easy click and drag to select a geographical block of caches and then just hit the delete key and they're gone. Now you can upload the file to your GPSr and it will have exactly what you want. While you're out in the field, looking at the screen will tell you the cache type and container size just from the waypoint name. When you select a waypoint and look at the properties, you have the cache name and D/T rating right there. About 90% of the time, that is all the info you need to determine if this is a cache you might want to hunt. Sounds like a lot, but after you get GSAK setup, this whole process only takes a couple minutes.

After re-reading the front page article a half dozen times, it seems pretty clear that you have to enter some kind of log on some kind of cache on the date of 10/10/10. Meaning you have to be on your computer entering said log on that date. GS server date/time, I would guess, it doesn't specify. It also doesn't specify anything about what kind of log and there is nothing indicating anything about a find. It seems that all they are looking for is to have more than 56,654 individual accounts sign onto geocaching.com and enter a log on 10/10/10. So, for those with sock puppets, make sure you sign in under each one and post a log to a cache. That means it should only take about 20,000 forum members to ensure they reach their goal

Can't help but beat this dead horse just a little more.... ;-) For the 2 CO's who have a problem with a basic logging a PMO cache, I have a question... how do you know that any particular log was from a basic member? Unless you go to the profile of each person who logs your caches to check them out, there is no outward indication that a log was from a basic member. Further, if you let your PM status expire or transfer it to another username, that name reverts back to a basic account. So, if you do notice that a logger on your PMO cache is currently a basic member, you don't know that they weren't a Premium Member when they found your cache. Perhaps their account expired yesterday. You have no way of knowing this.

I found the description of this a tad confusing as well. It states that they are going to tally up the number of "logs entered" on 10/10/10. It says nothing about what kind of logs or if they need to be associated with cache activity on that date. The way it is written, if you did owner maint on 10/9 and entered a log for it on 10/10, that would count. If you write a note to any cache on 10/10 stating something like, "Just saw your cache listing and it looks like fun. I'll be there to hunt for it in 2 weeks!"... well, that would count, too. If you were a BOT and entered a Needs Archived for a cache on the other side of the country, it appears that would count as well. A more specific description of how they are going to tally up the numbers is in order.

The "quotes" I posted are not mine. They are pulled from and linked back to the Guidelines according to Groundspeak. If one were to click on the provided links, they could read the same Game Rules that I was able to read. Has nothing to do with what I think or what 2 other cachers think. Again, it's what the almighty Creator and Controller, Groundspeak, has published on the matter. Personal opinions are irrelevant after one reads the written rules. That's why it is "black & white".

Argue the "rules" all you guys want, but no one has yet found anything, anywhere that says a basic member can't LOG a PMO cache. It only says they can't create or view the listing of a PMO cache. It does clearly state that anyone who finds any cache and signs the log can enter an online log. Hence the reason the site intentionally allows a basic member to enter a log for a PMO cache. Deleting the valid log of a basic member on a PMO cache is specifically prohibited (as I've already cited in a previous post with links and quotes). The reason why some cache owners put out PMO caches is for access to audit logs (rooting out maggots, etc), giving PMs first shot at FTF, or general incentive to become a PM to support the GS site. It is not to prevent basic members from accompanying PMs on caching adventures. That would just be stupid to tell a group of cachers that only the ones present who are PM may sign the log in this particular cache that you all found together. I gladly and openly share the method for letting a basic log my PMO caches. The ones I have PMO are that way for a specific reason, but it's not to keep basic members away (as long as they are with a PM).

I just presented a puzzle educational event last month. The presentation materials can be found on the Geocache Alaska! Education Page. The pdf of my powerpoint is linked from the Sept 16th "Puzzle FUNdamentals" event listing. Note that as part of the presentation, the pdf itself has a puzzle hidden within it that was provided as "homework" for the attendees. The first to figure out that puzzle was rewarded with the coordinates to an ammo can cache that was ready to place and also had an unregistered TB tag set inside. The events that live streamed this presentation are: GC2CKNZ GC2CKND GC2CKQ2 GC2CKPF Will be presenting a second edition of this next fall and in between I'm building a Blog site with lots of puzzle solving information, tips, & tricks. That project has just been started.

Let "TPTB" post the IP address and account details of the "banned bot" and I'll bet a "flash mob" can be arranged to ensure the guy gets "board" much sooner than most folks might think.