Tavisman
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Posts posted by Tavisman
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Another entrant: GC1VGRC BPJC: M1 Junction 29: Eleanor's Kitty Cache
...and you already have a find! At this rate I may be back in the race for the Least Found Award
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How would 'Top 10 Profiling' work?
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Would the top 10 be based on geographic areas, or all 850,000+ cache hides?
See: Top 10 Rating System, Rating caches based on top 10 favourites lists
Basically 'Top 10 Profiling' works by every find log has a drop-down with '-,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10' or a link to 'Add to my top ten'. You select the position in your top ten or not (i.e. '-'). This adjusts your personal 'Top Ten' (the others below shift down) and it appears on your profile page. When a cache is in a finders top ten it is scored 10 points for first, 9 points for second, and so on. Each cache shows the average of the points nominated to it.
Who would decide what cache hides are in the top 10? How would the top 10 hash out issues between a "power cacher" and a "Nature cacher" or any other type of cacher?
A 'Power Cacher' would have (presumably) park 'n grabs in their top ten or the best of a power trail, the 'Nature Cacher' would have the best outdoor locations in his top ten. These two top tens would be different and so not be detriment to the same caches. Actually, if there was a park 'n grab, perhaps next to a waterfall then it would benefit from this because it may come up on both top ten lists.
What about 'BOTTOM 10 profiling'. I only ask because sometimes I want to know WHO the WORST are so I don't go there.
'Top 10 Profiling' is all very friendly and gives a real kudos boost to the cache owners. It's this sort of amity that keeps Geocaching enjoyable, so I think 'Bottom 10 Profiling' would be the exact opposite and only bring animosity and perhaps forums flaming.
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When it comes to rating quality that is in the eye of the beholder. You will find that some people love the Netflix system and some don't. People that don't like lamp post caches might give it a low rating even if it was done well. Power Cachers that want to do 500 caches in a day might give a park and grab a five star rating. Now you have to consider what kind of cache the "rater" likes. If you are a power cacher and you know the "rater" is a power cacher then maybe you can agree on the cache. If you don't consider who is doing the rating then you might end up with 100 power cachers that love the cache and 100 others that hate it and the average rating doesn't mean much.
These issues are ironed out with 'Top 10 Profiling'.
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The should be a 'Geocaching Rating' forum area considering the number of times this is brought up, discussed, then nothing done about it.
However, I would like to respond…
First I would have an educated guess that the ratings provided by Netflix or Blockbuster are ignored particularly for new releases since they have multi-million dollar PR and trailers. However that is irrelevant.
(1) There is some weight in finders averaging out the difficulty of a cache. As a CO I have a hard time judging difficultly, so I usually make a 'best guess' and adjust it to finds (and the finders count) and DNF's. I have also seen this happen on other caches not just my own.
(2) Terrain is a different matter to difficulty because I think it's more important to know the type of terrain before you head out to cache. Only the CO would be best qualified to answer this, and I would prefer CO to not put down a 1 star and adjust the terrain according to the logs. I have seen recently in cache logs where a finder has suggested to the CO that a 1-star terrain was inappropriate as access to GZ would have been difficult for a wheelchair user.
(3) For some people it's hard to get them to write more than 'TFTC', so it's going to be harder to get them to rate the quality of the cache.
For what it's worth I still routing for 'Top 10 Profiling' method for rating. Nevertheless, since nothing ever seems to happen on this topic (i.e. from TPTB) I'm thinking of 'just doing it' and at the bottom of every log I will put a tag-line with recommendations and a quality rating using asterisks.
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If anyone knows of a newbie just finding their feet, or perhaps someone who you think would enjoy getting into Geocaching, then I would recommend the following event, advertised in the local press…
I have found the caches after the last event and they are a good size, full of swag, and in the beautiful location of Clent Hills (with amazing hilltop views).
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I discovered a new technique a few days ago. After several previous Ran Out Of Time (ROOT
) visits (to embarrassed to number) I decided to try something different. I crouched down as low as I could go and stared at ground zero (according to my GPSr). I ignored how odd I would look to passing motorists and concentrated on staring. After staring for a few minutes something out of the ordinary appeared in my line of vision and I found the little blighter. -
Wow, this is like catnip to me. I wondered what the figures would be like with the number of cachers per area _ so I found out! Amazingly Croatia comes up top with only one cacher and 270 caches!
See : http://tinyurl.com/Tavisman-Stats
Source: http://www.cacherstats.com/
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Hey I'm in the race! I guessed that I would need a unique selling point (USP) so I tried several ideas, and they all failed during testing
(including spelling mistakes 
). I wish I have the creativity of The Blorenges, their idea so fantastic and yet so simple. Anyway, I decided my USP would be to provide a service for travelling hitchhikers (travel bugs and geocoins) _ a TB teleport to Australia. Please welcome into the race: BPJC: A Pie, a Cup of Tea and a Kip.So far I'm winning The Least Found Cache Award!
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If you want to be really cool (?) try a 3D Stereogram Ascii: http://www.kammerl.de/ascii/AsciiStereo.php
But tell them Chrysalides told you about it.
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And cache owners the world over will hate your guts
Oh no! My caches are being thrown into the river as I type!
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Cut and paste from http://tinyurl.com/Tavisman-100
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Use
<space> <space>
to replace a smiley space (roughly).
For example look at: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...60-ca4df1940435
Also note you cannot edit it, you have to paste again on top.
...but don't tell the CO I told you how to do this. As a CO a '
100 ' would suffice. -
If you check out the nwcaching forum here - http://www.nwcaching.co.uk/forum/viewtopic...?f=2&t=2497, you should get some ideas
Wow, they are very professional. I was thinking of something a bit more simple, like a seal or shield.
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I'm planning a series with a bonus cache. I want to offer a 'completed emblem' for people to copy on their profile page when they complete the series. Are there any guidelines on the size of the emblem? Does anybody have some examples, to give me ideas?
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How about blue tooth-enabled shared processing? Multiple units in close proximity to each other would share information and increase the accuracy of each unit. Think of it like averaging your coordinates but with multiple units simultaneously.
That would actually be cool!
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If you could decide what your next GPSr could do, what would it do? I thought of this when a friend of mine showed me his HTC, which had a metal detector with it.
Here is what I have got already… (please add or correct me)
|---------------------------------| - Garmin - | -- Apple - | ---------- |
|_________________________________| Oregon 550 | _ iPhone _ | __ HTC ___ |
| Paperless Geocaching .......... | ... Y .... | ... Y .... | ... N .... |
| Metal Detector ................ | ... N .... | ... ? .... | ... Y .... |
| Magnifier ..................... | ... N .... | ... N .... | ... N .... |
| Photograph with waypoint ...... | ... Y .... | ... ? .... | ... ? .... |
| Barcode reader* ............... | ... N .... | ... Y .... | ... ? .... |
| Field Notes ................... | ... Y .... | ... ? .... | ... ? .... |
| Type out log (@ GZ)............ | ... ? .... | ... ? .... | ... ? .... |
| Upload photo to GC.com (@GZ) .. | ... ? .... | ... ? .... | ... ? .... |
| Upload log to GC.com (@GZ)......| ... ? .... | ... ? .... | ... ? .... |
| Upload sound to GC.com (@GZ)....| ... N .... | ... N .... | ... N .... |
| Upload video to GC.com (@GZ)....| ... N .... | ... N .... | ... N .... |
| Cellphone to PAF................| ... N .... | ... Y .... | ... Y .... |
|_________________________________|____________|____________|____________|
You never know GC.com TPTB, Garmin, Apple, HTC or others may be watching.
Notes:
* A CO prints a barcode on the cache container or logbook, the gadget scans it and automatically opens up a find log to be typed.
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I feel WMIWJTTCA (well maybe I will just try that cache again) will shortly follow
.I have created a new acronymn: ROOT – ran out of time. Like a DNF but if you had more time you believe you would have found it.
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Number all your find logs. If the last find log number does not match your find count, somebody has deleted your log.
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Just want to add my appreciation _ thanks.
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I would say there are right places and a wrong places for preforms. The right places include inside tubes on gates (for instance) with a taped pull-out (like a cable tie); with magnets behind some obscure sign/milestone or on some railings of some kind; a taped hook and hung in some everygreen bush/tree; or within a muggle rich area where the finder will need to use stealth tactics to find (like tying shoelaces).
The wrong places (in my opinion) would be where a 0.33l or bigger container would be hidden well, like under a stile footstep, for instance.
If you have been 'told off' then use the reforms for a series or multi-cache as clues to a big ammo can out in the woods. They can't complain then as the reforms (like micros) are a means to an end. Those that like them (well placed) will enjoy them, those that hate then will have to find them to enjoy the ammo can.
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I signed up this morning after reading it on the weekly email notification. After signing up it said I had to wait until tomorrow. I was at one of the local (Worcestershire) designated caches yesterday and after 3 DNFs and my 30min search I think it's been muggled.
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Ah but you rushed and mispelt Gamepiece
Oh, blast, how embarrassing
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I know Hereford is part of Hereford and Worcester...
Actually Hereford & Worcester split years ago. Your map is correct.
) visits (to embarrassed to number) I decided to try something different. I crouched down as low as I could go and stared at ground zero (according to my GPSr). I ignored how odd I would look to passing motorists and concentrated on staring. After staring for a few minutes something out of the ordinary appeared in my line of vision and I found the little blighter.
). I wish I have the creativity of The Blorenges, their idea so fantastic and yet so simple. Anyway, I decided my USP would be to provide a service for travelling hitchhikers (travel bugs and geocoins) _ a TB teleport to Australia. Please welcome into the race: 
I've been robbed
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
This happened to me the other day. I logged out and then back in again and everything was back to normal.