ohjoy!

I am concerned about safety for my cache Do Sliced Pickles Bleed? (a tiny tin cache) - GC3WKYD. It is on a high speed highway with very limited safe parking. Hopefully it's at the end of the route when cachers are separated out. Please make it clear that this is the case. I don't want to feel responsible if there are problems.

A final message to let everyone know that all issues have been resolved. All the listings on opencaching that were mine have been removed. I now have the name ohjoy! on that site as well, so any further listings you may see on their site using my name will be from me. All's well that ends well. And thanks to all those who helped my get this accomplished.

I want to say that both Atlas Cached and opencaching have been responsive to me today even though they are on a holiday weekend. They have succeeded in removing all of my caches, both in the Olympia area and in Mount Vernon, from their listings. If they are listed in the future, it will be by my choice. They will work on the identity issue once they are back in their offices on Monday.

Atlas Cached has succeeded in removing the Olympia cache listings and is continuing to work on the ones in Mount Vernon as well as the identity situation. I appreciate the prompt responses.

Topic #4: Forums I did create an account on opencaching so that I could post messages on the pirated caches. It is my first account with them. I tried to get on their forums. However, I didn't succeed, so need to try again. I added a message to this forum last night when asked to share my experience so far with opencaching. (I rarely go to the forums as I don't enjoy controversy.) However - this link and my posts have served a good purpose in that someone else posted a link to this forum on the opencaching forum and I have received a response from the opencaching NW representative stating that he/she will work with me. I will communitcate with that person and keep you posted as things develop. My thanks to Manville Possum Hunters for linking this thread to their thread - it got results.

Topic 3: My reputation A few months ago I archived one of my caches. Now the same cache, listed under an identical user name, is still active in opencaching. I know there is no cache there as I removed it. While browsing to see some of my other caches listed on opencaching, I noticed that there was a message about one of them needing maintenance. Does the opencaching OhJoy! even know that this needs maintenance? Will they perform the needed repairs? Will they contact me and let me know? Do they even know where the cache is and what it is? Why haven't they archived the one that I archived? I can find no way to contact them. Meanwhile, someone could easily assume we are the same person and believe I am careless.

Topic 2: Use of the name OhJoy! I don't own the name and didn't know there were other sites where I should go and list my name to prevent others from using it. It is a bit different as on geocaching.com I have no capital letters in my name. My problem with the use of my geocaching name on opencaching is that the person using it did so only to list my geocaching caches on the opencaching site. That seems a bit deliberate to me whatever their reason was for doing that. Plus, I can find no way to get to additional information for OhJoy! like I can do for other opencachers.

Separate entries for separate topics: Topic 1. Contact with opencaching and the cacher who used my caches in Mount Vernon. I have written three separate messages to opencaching and have not yet received a response. However, it is a holiday weekend, so I will wait until Monday before trying again. I could find no way of directly contacting the Mount Vernon cacher, so posted a note on one of those caches in hopes that it would get to him/her.

A few more things: 1. Why is there no way for me to see anything about the person who is using my geocaching.com user name? You can see things about others who have listed caches. 2. One of the caches that was stolen from me by copy and paste has since been archived by me on geocaching.com. Now an opencacher can go to that site, not find the cache, look at the cache owner's name and have no way of contacting whomever it is that is using my geocaching.com name. They will wonder why I didn't update the opencaching page. As this happens more and more frequently, or as caches are moved, disabled, and/or archived on geocaching.com, I have no control over the ones that have been posted under "my" user name. This will result in a bad reputation for me. I don't know what to do. I makes me want to pull all of the caches they have listed and put notes on the pages stating that fact. I don't like people copying my material. I feel pride in my cache placements and write-ups. When someone else uses them without permission, I feel abused.

I am the friend crouchcrew has been writing about. Let me tell you my side of things. She contacted me last night to let me know that two of my caches were published in the Mount Vernon area. Different cache user name; my cache name; my cache description; my granddaughter; my container and coordinates. To me this is theft as I never gave permission for that to happen. Then out of curiosity, I looked at what was available in Olympia where I live and have placed most of my caches. I found about 30 caches and all but one of them were listed as being owned by OhJoy! while on geocaching.com I am ohjoy! - without capital letters. Every one of them was a duplicate of the ones I own on geocaching.com. I tried to look up OhJoy! to see what else what listed as being owned by that user. While it is possible to get a list of caches for other users to see what they have placed, it is impossible to pull up any information for OhJoy! Now in addition to theft of my locations, caches and descriptions, there is what seems to me to be identity theft. I feel helpless as I will explain in the next post.

My last position before retirement was as a volunteer coordinator for Seattle Parks. One of the parks where I worked with staff and volunteers was Discovery Park. I completely understand their concerns. I have expressed some of those concerns to fellow cachers while caching in Discovery Park. I now regret not doing more than that at the time. How many of you are aware of the incredible efforts of the staff and volunteers at Discovery Park to restore the park over the past 20+ years? Are you aware of all of the trail erasures that have been done? Do you know how many years it takes compacted soil (on social trails) to recover for re-growth? Geo-trails (social trails) are not desirable in a park such as Discovery Park. If every person/group in the city would be allowed to do whatever they wanted to in this park, it would no longer be the treasure that it is now. One geo-trail maybe doesn't sound bad, but many? And more to come? I think the solution is to work more closely with department staff at particular locations. I obtained permission for the only cache I own in a Seattle Park and also had the location of the hide approved by them before submitting the cache to geocaching.com. I know that other cachers do the same. I have also worked with the staff at the Tacoma Nature Preserve in order to place caches there. Once you are working together, staff tends to be pleased about caching and sometimes uses your caches in their classes. They will even let you volunteer to assist in teaching those classes. And in Olympia, I have been designated "unofficial watchdog" for caches in their parks. Two times I have asked cache owners to change things about their caches to prevent potential damage, and both times the cache owners took immediate action. I am offering my time to join you when you meet with the Discovery Park staff. I know Penny Rose and believe that she will be glad to work out a compromise agreement. Every cache gets approval before placement. Cache pages clearly state "keep feet on trail" when coordinates are taken in areas of poor reception. Staff may even want to suggest locations for caches - places they want cachers to walk to and see. Maybe each person placing a cache in the park should have to do 25 hours of volunteeer service there to gain appreciation of the efforts being put forth to keep this park in good condition for many future years?

If anyone out there is not a premium member due to financial hardship, let me know and I'll work with you so that you can complete this challenge and log this cache.

I have been trying for a number of months to register with GSAK. No matter what I try, I am directed to Paypal. Paypal says that my credit card expired and will not accept a new expiration date. Paypal tells me to enter a new credit card number. I don't have another credit card. I'm between a rock and a hard place. Even though I've only been using GSAK for a few months, it tells me that I have been using it for more than 2000 days - longer than I have been geocaching! So it takes 20 minutes for it to open. All I want to do is to pay my $20, but have no idea how to contact either Paypal or GSAK. Can anyone help me?

Thanks for the invite. This Sunday, right after my granddaughter's wedding, I will be flying the red-eye to Nashville, heading north to Mammoth Caves where I am on a restoration crew for a week. Yes, I'll teach my nephew to geocache on the trip from Nashville to the caves, and while there do a few more with cavers also on the crew. Then, off to my sister's home in NC and teaching her to cache - AND - spending a day with Curmudgeonly Gal and Just Mike - what do you think we'll be doing? So, I won't be there, but I'll be having a lot of fun. See you all at the luau.

I had an absolutely wonderful, hot, muggy, exhausting time with Brainsnat and The Frantic Cachers this afternoon. We probably could have accomplished more if I had found more energy! I would be willing to meet with any of you that have travel bugs to exchange on Saturday or Sunday morning - any time before 11 am. At a short-walk cache or someplace to sit and have a cup of coffee. E-mail me if you would like to meet. I'll be checking e-mail daily at the library. Because Groundspeak won't send me all of your messages through this forum, send replies to joyful100@netzero.net

Thanks all, and especially Brian. I'm looking forward to whatever happens tomorrow! I did 3 caches today just for east coast practice! Two early in the morning and one in the evening. Til tomorrow...

I actually found out that the library in Ridgewood will let me do e-mail on their computers. I'm logged in as my cousin. Hopefully I'll get back here Thursday morning to check on things - or maybe this evening if they are open. I agree about the weather - yesterday was lots nicer than Monday, for sure. I used to work on a truck farm here when I was a kid, so I do remember those August days! One big reason I will continue to live in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, I would be glad to get a phone call sometime today - at my Dad's place between 4 and 6:30 or my aunt's place after 8:30 would be best. Looking forward to whatever tomorrow - Joy

I will hold Thursday open. Since I don't have access to e-mail while out here, I have given BrianSnat my phone numbers. I'm up for anything - from just sitting around sharing to going to a few caches. (Remember, I'm not used to your hot muggy weather!) Looking forward to meeting some of you. I actually managed to snag about 12 TBs to bring with me!

I'll be in the Wyckoff/Hawthorne part of the state and caching (mornings and later evenings) in a 20+ mile radius from there. I'm willing to drive a bit further if I am given good directions. Briansnat has suggested getting together later in the week, so communicate with him about possibilities. I'm hoping to pick up a few more bugs today that I can bring along. Aside from trading bugs, it would be great to meet fellow cachers on the East Coast. Thanks.

I have 8 travel bugs that will be with me when I visit New Jersey July 5-10. Is there anyone out there that would like to meet me and trade TBs so that I have some to bring back to the West Coast? Let me know and I'll try to arrange to meet you.

I will leave for NJ (just a few miles from NY) the evening of July 4. If you have travel bugs that would like to hitch a ride, let me know and I'll make arrangements to get them from you.

If you have a bug that is headed for the east coast, let me know either here or by e-mail. I'll work with you to arrange a way to pick up the bug before I leave SeaTac the afternoon of July 4.