woo2

First of all, be very careful with your words. This applies to talking to journalists about anything. They have an annoying habit of taking your off the cuff remarks and making them appear to be your well thought out statement. I've seen many people say "I didn't mean it like THAT!" So, with that said... You know what Geocaching is, so on with the other stuff. I have noticed that journalists tend to ignore a few aspects of Geocaching. To counter that you should over emphasize these things. The big one is Cache In - Trash Out. They never mention anything about all the junk we haul out of the woods, so mention it a lot. (the point where you think you're being a little rediculous about it should be just right, it takes a lot to "unslant" a journalist) Also over emphasize the pro-environment fascet, i.e. no digging, damaging or altering the environment the cache is placed in. Steer it towards the viewpoint of Geocaching being an excellent incentive to hike where you've never hiked before, often in places that you would have never found without it. Finally, over emphasize the maintenance requirement of placing the cache. We DON'T hide tupperware in the woods like a bunch of giant derranged hairless squerrils. It's all about enjoying and protecting the wilderness areas... oh, and we find stuff that others have hidden while we do that. (after all, you don't Geocache for the valuable prizes, right?) They also like to portray it as a "geek" sport. Counter that tendency by DE-emphasizing the GPS. Don't let them steer you into describing the "cool tech" of the GPS. (they'll do that themselves, don't add to it) Have the attitude that it's just a tool yo use to help you find your way, like a compass or a map. Talk about using a GPS to find caches like you'd talk about using a lug wrench to change a tire. Yeah, that's what we use.. big deal. True, it is what the sport is centered on but de-emphasizing it will help corral these "problem pens" away from "Look everyone! Geeks in the woods! Geeks in the woods!" and into what Geocaching is REALLY about.

I think you need to give a little more info. Do you plan on using existing caches or are you willing to place your own "event" caches? What is the timeframe, minutes, hours, days, weeks.... All these will impact what kind of game you can play.

Careful! This isn't a dog forum... that's potty mouth!

You don't need official papers, ya know. Make a logbook yourself! That way it's the perfect size for your cache. Woah, silly me. I'm a microcache log book manufacturer! They're on sale this week, only $5 a log book. You even get your choice of text color!

I hope they got a handle on that discrepancy before they landed!

I think it would raise the bar for a quality cache. No more of that "dumped a boring container in a boring location" stuff. I'm not thrilled with those as it is. For a good cache it will require a good location, a good hide or a good puzzle. 'Tis a good thang.

So far I've been able to completely avoid muggles. I usually try to appear like I'm looking for something very boring. Picking up rocks, examining them, tossing them aside. Examining moss, collecting bugs... you name it. I also use a pair of binoculars with a built in compass for taking bearings, I find that the bird watching routine works very well until you run into another bird watcher... then you're screwed. However I did cut a birdwatching conversation short with an ultra granola hippie woman (help!) by explaining that I was looking for birds of prey and described a peregrine strike in detail. The dive, the strike resulting in a poof of feathers, how they rip the feathers off while the bird is screaming (I think they enjoy that) followed by ripping the meat off the screeching bloody mess. She didn't want to talk to me anymore, and I found the cache in peace. heh heh heh!

A whole lot of things combined to cause a HUGE spike in usage this weekend. Jeremy said the usage was at record levels. Here's why: - Much of the US had the first warm weekend after months of cold winter. Everyone and their mothers came out of the woodwork and went caching. - There were many caching events to log finds on Feb 29th, not to mention individuals doing the same thing. - A show aired on the DIY channel just before the weekend that featured geocaching as a family hobby. Lots of new people flooded in. This site was VERY popular this weekend. The server couldn't handle it and Jeremy is clearly working on it.

Not in NJ! There are many younger people (25-35) who like geocaching as an excuse to hike and find it very useful in finding the many obscure beautiful wilderness areas in NJ. (Yes, there ARE many such places in NJ) Many of these people are young families, but that only means when you find a single they're probably looking for a single just as much as you are!

This is actually a simple issue that is complex to resolve. Its root is how e-mail works. GC.com isn't actually giving out the e-mail addresses, the recipient's mail server is. It happens when the mail server has some sort of problem (i.e. mailbox full) and it is reporting the problem to the sender. The sender is the address listed in the FROM field of the e-mail. But whose address should GC.com put in the FROM field? If GC.com lists itself as the sender, then you won't get those error messages that reveal the e-mail address. Also if the recipient hits "reply", it will go to GC.com and not the actual person who sent it. That's no good. If GC.com lists the sender's actual e-mail address in the FROM field (which is what is done), hitting the "reply" button will work fine but you also have the rare issue that you're describing. If GC.com lists the GC User ID in the FROM field, the recipient's e-mail will have no clue what that means since it is not an internet e-mail address. The only way GC.com can get around this is if they set up a GC.com mail server with a mail ID for each and every user. If that user gets mail sent to [iD]@GC.com, then it is forwarded to the actual e-mail address for that user id. However it is a bit drastic to avoid this rare issue by implimenting an entire mail system from scratch. Don't expect the situation to change unless it becomes a BIG issue, it is just too much time/money/resources needed to impliment the only solution that will prevent this problem.

Given the massive usage of the 2/28-2/29 weekend, probably resulting from fantastic "first touch of spring" weather across much of the US combined with the "coolness" aspect of logging finds on 2/29, how about a Geocaching Activity Report? It may help justify the "server busy" errors when people see a spike and say "Gee, everyone had the same idea as I did... no wonder!" The following graphs may be of interest: Total Logged Cache Hunts x MM/DD/YY (1 month period) Total logged Finds x MM/DD/YY (1 month period) Total logged NotFound x MM/DD/YY (1 month period) Demographically broken down by location given in user info, i.e. Northeast US, Midwest US, Europe, etc. Comparison to averages from the previous year, actually this could make for some interesting rivalries, i.e. East Coast vs West Coast. I think you get the idea. It would be interesting to see when Geocaching activity peaks and lulls, and why. When does the best and worst logged Find/Not Found ratio happen? It will also help you spot trends (if you're not doing that behind the scenes already) to help prepare for upcomming usage spikes.

Poor Jeremy. Everyone in the US simoultaneously said "What great weather! Let's go Geocaching!" and Jeremy gets to sit at his computer improving SQL server performance so everyone doesn't flame him for having a %@$ site. All hail Jeremy the Geocaching martyr. He improves SQL query performance for our Geocaching. We should celebrate his birthday by giving each other gifts of dollar store trinkets, placed under trees, with an easy find to log. Of course that also makes Jeremy's situation worse. Oh such a vicious cycle of life.

Nah, too many Geocachers! It was the first 50+ degree weekend on the East Coast. Everyone came out to stretch the winter legs, not to mention the kool Feb 29th finds. Went for 4 today, met 4 other caching groups and one happened to be a guy I worked with 12 years ago, 60 miles away! I was heavily muggled and I think at least 2 of them were also cachers. Why else would someone make a beeline for you at a cache, then stop and mull around a bit but never leave until you do? I bet there are TONS of logs that have yet to be filed!

Being an IT Engineer, I can tell ya exactly why the servers are such a problem. The entire east coast has been hit by a 50+ degree weekend after months below freezing. Everyone and their mother is out Geocaching, Muggling, and whatever. The woods are CRAWLING with humans emerging from their homes. Couldn't tell mugglers from cachers today! After all that, everyone comes home and completely overloads the Geocaching.com server. It's nobody's fault really, the weather has created an unusually high demand on the servers today. All the messages you're receiving is the server saying "YAAAAHHHH! Cant... Handle... Too... Many... I give up. Can't do it. Funny error message for you."

Use care when doing a #1 as well as #2! A friend of mine did that. He couldn't even wear underpants so he had no choice but to tell his mother. She immediately rushed him to the emergency room where all the residents took turns to look at his big, red, swollen, bumpy pee pee. Apparently he made for a good learning experience among the young doctors. ...dadgum was that funny! 20 years and he still hasn't heard the end of that story. Just mention poison ivy and watch his face go

I say if you're going to theme, make it interesting and thorough. I'm very indifferent about lame themes, if anything they're annoying because my goodies don't match so I must TNLN. Don't make a Sphere themed cache in a square ammo box in a location completely unrelated to spheres. That's silly. What's the point of a theme if it doesn't relate to every aspect of the cache including box contents and location? Otherwise it's just a silly limitiation on goodies it can contain. Here is a cache off the top of my head that I'd appreciate. The George Washington Slept Here cache, located on a route that GW's army took during the war, containing a breif history of the area, with goodies that relate to George Washington, Army, Revolutionary War, 1776 era, etc. Here's a dumb theme: The Pirates of the High Seas cache, located in Colorado. Can contain only pirate and nautical related items. Note: These caches are fictional, I just made them up. Any similarity to a real cache is purely coincidental and unintended.

Actually, my Magellan Meridian Marine took much less than 15 minutes to initialize. The key thing is to READ THE DIRECTIONS. Initialization is a very important process, the GPSr must know the current time and its approximate location as percisely as possible in order to know which satillites to look for. If it's looking for that satillites that can be found in New York, and it's actually in Tokyo, it will take a very long time to figure things out. Also, if you travel a significant distance with the GPSr off, it will look for satillites visible in the location it was last used, not its current location. You should initialize it again.

This is our responsiblity to address this, but it's probably safe to say that Geocaching is being used as a scapegoat for the activities of others. How did this person come to their conclusion? Was the a Geocaching advocate present? If not, which seems to be the case, it leaves room for the "fear of the unknown" and false assumptions. Definitely schedule a face to face meeting, preferably through a local Geocaching organization if one exists. It lends more credibility than an individual.

Hmmm... this is a tough one for me. I have only been Geocaching since December, but I jumped into Geocaching after obtaining a fairly strong knowledge of nautical navigation. So, newbie & Geocacher U levels never really applied, but "been around a while" and "big numbers" don't apply either. Does that make me a 2.5? A provisional 3?

There are certainly many caches where a knife wouldn't be a problem at all, that only a capable adult could reach. There are others where it would be a bad idea, for children's safety or security reasons. I think the best summary is as follows. Since it is really a judgement call as to whether a knife would be appropriate or not, and the judgement of some people is questionable, and I can't think of any reason why a knife NEEDS to be in a cache... Taking the conservative route of the No Knives rule definitely makes sense. We don't want geocaching stuck with the reputation of having potentially dangerous items in them. You know how that gets out of control fast.

4x4's solution is the way to go. It's more accurate than a compass. ...or you can do a bit of trig and calculate the exact coordinates. Chances are 4x4's solution is more than accurate enough to find a cache.

In general, the more user friendly ones are the more expensive ones. (Figures, right?) If you're just starting out, one of the $100-$150 models are fine. If you really get into geocaching and want more functionality, sell it on e-bay and upgrade. For newbies, I'd recommend getting a low end Magellan or Garmin (and there's a big debate on which is better but in reality they're very close) and if you buy it used, make sure you have the user manual. You should read it cover to cover to have a good idea of exactly how it is used.

You're bad. Very, very bad. Of course, with that stupid "transparent container" rule it IS a tempting option.

AARRGGHH!!! No fair, I already found these and was going to use them in a cache! HMMPH!!! Well, since the cat is out of the bag you might want to look at pet stores/sites for dog/cat ID capsules that are worn on the collar. They're the same thing without the logo and are very cheap, $2.99 for two as opposed to $6.99 for Groundspeak's capsule. Heh heh heh... Revenge!

Yeah, this was rather presumptuous of the cache owner. The fact is that this is a public game and it's a total free-for-all, the only real rules are not to damage the environment, break laws or ruin the game for others. If they wanted it private, then they shouldn't have posted it for all to find until AFTER the kid's FTF, and stuck it in as soon as it was approved. Even with a "Please reserve FTF", it can only be viewed as a request which won't necessarily be honored (or even noticed) by searchers. Some just DL coordinates. I understand their disappointment, but that flame was totally unwarranted and selfish, possibly worthy of a reverse flame!