Semper Questio

And you have touched on why I liked the first proposal better. Checking the box would, after clicking the button to submit your log, take you to the page to enter the item's tracking number just as canbe done now. This just acts as a shortcut to that point. The problem with the list of trackables on the cache page is that many times I've encountered lists where figuring out which item goes with which link is maddening and time consuming. Sure, if there are only 1 or 2, it is an easy task, assuming the list is accurate and the item had been properly dropped into the cache. But that's often not the case. Having the checkbox would just give another avenue into the tracking process and, for some, a more convenient way to get there. It may even help with more accurate logging of trackables if there is yet one more place to act as an eye-catcher for folks who do not know the ins and outs of trackable handling.

I suggested a long time ago that if there were TB's in the cache's inventory, there should be a simple checkbox to indicate you grabbed 1 or more travellers from the page where you enter the tracking number for the item. An alternative would be to allow the entry of a number for the number of items you retrieved or discovered. Then, much like how coord fields are generated when you check the box for adding those, a number of lines matching the number you entered are displayed where you can enter the tracking number, selcted retreived or discovered, and under those a small box for entering comments. Then, when you hit submit for your log, these all get posted to the applicable traveler pages as well.

Field notes are a private way for you to make anything from a quick note to a full log from the field and save it online under your account. Then you can sign on later, go to your field notes, and then post your log(s) from your note(s). Only once the log is posted does it, like any other cache log entry, become public. I use field notes quite a bit to avoid a lot of typing on my phone. I find the cache then use my GDAK or Geocaching app to post a quick field note. Typically I leave it blank if there is nothing particularly remarkable about the find. Otherwise I will enter a few words or abbreviations to note anything special as a memory jogger..."wet log", "deer", "view", "snake", or whatever. Then when I get home I pull up my field notes (usually listed in the order in which they were submitted) and flesh out my full log using my memory joggers to help me remember what happened or was seen where, if anything, and post the logs from there.

No thanks. The currently available communications options works fine for me. I'd much rather see them work on implementing the items they have talked about over the years such as: - Improved trackables handing. - An improved pocket query schema. - Implementing the nano size. - Improving Wherigo's. - Enhanced online searches. - A new GPX schema. - Continued improvements in system reliability, availability, and performance. Or maybe some of the things their customers have been clamoring for that actually relate more directly to improving the geocaching experience. I'd rather they did not use their seemingly limited resources to develop their own communications sytem or integrate something off-the-shelf into the site. Here's a simple answer for you. Check your email more often. Or send the gc.com email to your "root email" and put together appropriate filters. Whatever it takes to make it work for you. My gc.com email goes to an alternate email as well, but I have filters set up there to weed out what I don't want to see and forwards the rest to my personal email. Easy stuff.

Even better: Why not scrape real logs that real cachers took the time to write, shuffle them a little, and then repost? Combine it with GPS proximity, so that the "Found" log with scraped random text posts automatically once the IntroApp user is within 50ft of the cache coordinates. Oh snap, that would be awesome! Well, shoot. If it's gonna do that, it may as well grab some photos from other posts as well! And if the cache is part of a power trail, just go ahead and log the whole PT at once.

You had to give them that, didn't you? Since the Intro Apps seem to be the only things getting regular enhancements these days, I expect this will show up within the next couple of updates.

Really? I've recently gotten two blank logs on one of my caches.GC4WV0F There are "other" apps out there that will allow a blank log to be posted. Personally, my advice is to log as much as you can about your experience as the cache and the hunt merits. Sometimes I will simply say something like "Thanks for the quick grab on my way home" or even as little as "Quick grab. TFTC". After all, there is just so much you can say about some hides. Other times I will go on about the animals or landscape I saw ro things that happened along the way.

I don't know the precise answer, but maybe this will help...LMGTFY

I don't get what you are saying: you *expect* the unit to add mileage, even when turned off? If that is indeed what you are saying, I am really curious why you would expect such behavior. OK, Let's say I'm hiking along and recording my tracklog and my batteries die without me realizing it (or the unit shuts down for some unknown reason). After I replace the batteries and turn the unit back on, the tracklog will connect my last known point to my current position and give me an as-the-crow-flies measurement of the distance. Better than no data during the time the unit was off. This is the behavior I would want and expect from the GPS. Your expectations or preferences may be different. Could Garmin change it to behave in a way you expect? Sure. But, at least it seems as though more people out there expect it to behave how I described. If you don't want a long connecting track line to span tens or hundreds of miles then save and clear your tracklog at the end of one adventure and clear it out before you begin the next. That's exactly how my 60csx has always behaved and as I would expect it to as well. When I want a break in tracking I do as suggested. I turn off tracking, save the track, clear it, and turn it back on. I would expect that this bahvior and track clearing requirement would be continued through to the current models.

With the explosion of micros since Hamster Caching was banished, I think we should start Jerboa Caching.

My comment reegards the part I bolded. Now, maybe I am taking this entirely too literally, but I have never understood this comment when made about counts, ratings, and other such things. I can see clearly how the true D/T ratings for the challenge cache's placement would mess up the D/T grid completion or numbers tallies. I can also see how it could diminish what your perception of what others may think of your efforts to achieve that challenge. What I don't see is how that could possibly impact your "experience". Does a lower difficulty rating somehow change the distance to Seattle for you? Does it somehow reduce the amount of time and effort it took you to complete the challenge? Does it mean you enjoyed any of the qualifying finds any less? I'm not meaning to come off like a jerk here, I've just never understood the reasoning. Back on topic, and only having just read this, I kind of like the idea. I did not think I would when I first read the topic title. Perhaps the points awarded would include some factoring for the rated difficulty in completing the challenge (or did I miss that above?). Of course, that may well lead to inflated ratings to jack up point awards, so maybe not.

Speak for yourself about caching in CenTex in August. I know a LOT of us down here south of you that love to cache in the REAL heat. The 90s aren't even getting warm yet! I wish I had the time to get out to hike the greenbelts when it is 105 or more! Look around a bit, though, and I'm sure you can locate caches to find that'll get you the souvenirs. There are plenty of park and grabs in the Waco area.

True, web cams do still exist. By "gone" I meant they, like virtuals and moving caches, can no longer be created as caches. I should have been more clear.

I used to be in the "won't log my own events" camp, but then a work situatin made me darn near miss an event I was hosting. That made me realize that yes, you CAN miss your own event. So I started logging my events. The same thing has happened several times since then. Of all my events, I think there have been 4, maybe 5, situations where I was only there for the last 5-10 minutes of it. So for the August souvenirs, There are a couple of events I hope to get to...I always try anyway...but because of personal issues and where they are we may not make it. So I am hosting a "last chance" meet & eat event very close to my house on the 31st as a safety net for myself and whomever else in my area may need it.

They were moved to Waymarking.com which is similar to geocaching and is also run by Groundspeak. You can use your same geocaching user name. Check it out. That's not the reason "why" Virtual geocaches were no longer published. Doesn't matter. It was Groundspeak's decision way back in 2005 to no longer publish "Virtual" geocaches. "Why" is a moot point at this late date. B. And it is also inaccurrate. Virtuals were not moved to Waymarking. Waymarking was brought online, virtual caches were left on geocaching.com, and it was up to virtual cache owners to relist, or not relsit, them on Waymarking. Same with webcam caches. In any case, the experience of finding virtual caches and finding places on Waymarking are very different from one another. As to WHY virtuals were canned, I agree with Pup Patrol. It is rather moot. There are so many "why's"; true, made up, assumed, etc.; that it really doen't matter any more. It is not a matter of complacency. It is a matter of TPTB making it pretty darn clear that, on their site at least, virtuals; like traveling caches and webcams are gone and not at all likely to return, especially after their experiment with Challenges.

It kind of sounds like you are still misunderstanding the situation a bit. The prices you quote above are rates for the web site's premium membership. It has nothing at all to do with the version of the app you are using. I see on your user profile that you are now a premium member so just ignore all that "membership" stuff in the app now. To move from the free Intro app to the full version app you need to go to your app store such as Google Play for Android users and buy it. It is a 1-time purchase (unless you change platforms such as move from iPhone to Android).

Hey RF. I went to your link but I don't know what I'm looking at. Can ya help us out with that?

IU also have an HTC One (M8) and have successfully used the WherYouGo player. What I realized, though, is that after each action, the GPS seemed to be getting turned off, even if the icon at top said it was still on. As long as I remembered to go back and turn on the GPS before I was needed to use it, I was OK. Hope that helps a little.

It's doesn't mean that at all. All it means is that you selected the visit option when you logged the cache. And the Owner will only see it if they visit the bug page. I agree. We cached with another a while ago. When we got home we found he, "visited" every cache we hit with numerous TBs. To do so, he'd have had to have a string of kids toys and "stuff" bulging pockets, or draped around his neck. - He had water and a GPSr when we cached together... I believe that many "took it tos" are the same, not actually carried cache-to-cache by the current holder. Could have lost 'em and hasn't realized it yet, four pages of "took it to" ago. OK, so did you call him on it and try to educate him a bit or just sit idly by and let him think that what he was doing was a good thing?

It's doesn't mean that at all. All it means is that you selected the visit option when you logged the cache. And the Owner will only see it if they visit the bug page. It means exactly what I say it means. I'm the one doing the logging. If someone else wants to twist the meaning and/or intent behind my actions, that's their problem.

As B and R stated, these are visit. The cacher is not dropping the TB in the caches and taking them back out again. Some folks keep TB's and take them with them on their travels for quite a while, "visiting" the TB's they have at every cache they go to until they eventually drop them off. Others will "visit" the TB's at caches they go to until they find a good place to drop them. Still others are vehemently opposed to the whole "visit" concept. And there are lots of folks in between those. I am in the second group. If I have any TB's with me when I go to a cache and, for whatever reason, choose not to leave a TB there, I will log a visit to that cache. I will continue doing that until I come across a cache I feel is a goodplace to theave the TB. If I feel I am holding a TB too long, more than a week or two, I will revisit some of my local caches I have found before and trust and drop it there. I do this because I generally don't get to cache as much as I used to (and because of that I generally don't grab travellers anyway). So when I log the visits, it at least shows the TB owner that their traveller is not sitting completely idle and has not been forgotten, abandoned, or stolen. Not by me, anyway.

Did you pay for premium membership ($30 US) or pay for the upgrade to the full version app? Those are 2 very different things and it often confuses people.

Yep. This.

Why should they? Aren't they allowed to make a profit as a private business? It's nice when you can get volunteers to place the caches, volunteers to review the caches, volunteers to maintain the caches, and then charge people to go and look for them. They do not charge anyone to look for anything. You are free to do all the looking you want for free. Now if you want all the perks that makes preparing for and managing that looking easier, well, that's a different story and one which you must pony up for. I don't see the problem. I don't see a problem either, neither do I see a problem with narcissa's position that they'd place something that offered value to premium members if they got some reward in return. Otherwise they are adding value to Groundspeak's business while Groundspeak then takes all the proceeds. If I bought into the premise that PMO caches were a money-making for for Groundspeak, I may be with you on that. But I just don't see people lining up to buy premium memberships for PMO's. PQ's? Bookmark lists? Notifications? Ignore list? To support the site? Sure. I've heard all of these as reasons to pay up. But I honestly can't recall a single time I've heard someone say the became a premium member for the PMO's. Doesn't seem like much of a money-making perk to me.

It may not be the end of geocaching, but it is a problem for many who want to actually find the cache and not have it given away by these dang stickers. We have a guy here that, when he finds a cache, he places one of these things as close to the cache location as he can. It has spoiled more than just a few hunts for me and others. I have nothing against these folks playing their game, but why can't they play it without negatively affecting our game?