Brooklyn51

Seberrys: I sent you an email to discuss details. I'm sure the forum does't want to be in on that conversation.

I'll need to know size and what format you'd want it in too.

Okay, here is one idea. I actually had a couple of certs from some past wellness programs that had some of the elements you wanted so I combined them and made this sample. It's a place to start. I loaded it onto my own website, hence the funky URL: http://www.yukitopia.com/ftf/certftf.pdf

I work as a graphic artist, and I have designed many a certificate. If you know what you want on the certificate and in what program (Word, Publisher, Illustrator, interactive PDF) I would be willing to design one for you. It's a nice idea.

Great news!

+1 I did a cemetery cache last Sunday near an airport in St Paul, MN. Knowschad (yes, he's still alive) told me that I needed to go to the back of the cemetery for perhaps the coolest marker ever. We hiked back and sure enough that guy wasn't lying. It was an engine and prop from an old plane. I really wish I had my camera along for the trip. I'll probably be going back someday just for pictures. We have a picture of that! Very cool!

It looks like what happens when you don't pay the server bill. I wondered who ran this checker and how it was funded. I agree it is a nice checker and the stat info is great. I'd be happy to chip in a few dollars for its use. I found an owner for the site in Whois but their email bounces back so that was a deadend. The nameservers are those of Moniker.net but they too are the registrant and administrator for geochecker.org--this doesn't look so good.

Does anyone know if this is just temporary? Who runs the site? Is it time to put new geochecks on our puzzles? We have a new puzzle all ready to go...hmmmm. It will need a geochecker for sure. This is a bummer.

If a traveler is retrieved from a cache to be moved, nothing more needs to be done. The email generated by that action is complete and informative. But for travelers that are merely discovered, the owner and watchers are only informed that it was discovered without indication of where it is currently and without a prompt to the discoverer to potentially correct its location if it is not correct. I realize that the discoverer can go ahead and add a log if they feel so inclined but that rarely happens, mostly I think, because it simply doesn't occur to them to do it. As a small example, I was just reading in the forums a thread about an owner who was concerned that his/her TB wasn't in the cache it was logged into, had been discovered elsewhere and was unsure how to correct the situation. Had the discoverer been able to correct its location when they saw it in the wrong cache it would have avoided this confusion. But mostly, what I'm trying to get at is that if you are trying to keep track of several coins or TBs, it would be helpful if the location of that traveler was indicated even if it was only discovered.

Either, really. Why would the owners of a TB care less about the whereabouts of their traveler than a coin owner would? Personally, I've enjoyed watching the travels of both coins and TBs and I don't think I'm alone in this.

If you are watching a TB or a coin, whether it's yours or someone else's that you've taken an interest in, and someone discovers it, you will receive an email notice to that effect. However, the notice currently does not tell you where it is, whether in a cache or in someone's hands, it only let you know it was discovered. True, you can then look it up and track it down to find out where it is but it would be very nice if the system could tell you that information in much the same way it does when someone finds a TB or coin. And if the TB or coin isn't in the last logged cache, it would be particularly useful to the owner or the receiver of the email notice, if the finder could easily indicate that fact with his discovery log. A drop-down prompt would hopefully encourage the finder to do this. Then the owner (or watcher) wouldn't have to try to figure out where the TB is by going through the logs. It would help make keeping track of the trackables considerably easier, especially if you are watching more than a few.

As castagnari says, you have access to your TB through your TBs page. After you "grab it" (one of the drop-down choices) you can place the TB properly in its current cache via a Note log rather than a Found it log. At the bottom of Note log entry, you'll see a listing of the TBs in your inventory (in this case, it will be a virtual inventory, but it will play just the same as if you actually had possesion of it) Just drop it in and it's all good. Some people like to delete their Note afterwards just to be tidy, but that's totally up to you. It doesn't hurt anything to have Note on a cache you've not been to.

It doesn't seem like you're missing anything at all, least of all the point. As has been pointed out several times, people have different ideas about what makes this game fun. There can only be one FTF at any one cache, all the rest are doing because of the challenge, the exercise and the fun of it. It seems to me that your caching name probably describes what you like best about this sport. Sounds just about perfect to me. Play it your way and above all, have fun! And welcome to the game! BTW, you mentioned something about this FTF'er grabbing all the "goods". I just wanted to say that the term "goods" often refers to the cache itself, not necessarily the contents. It's common to see phrases like "I soon had the goods in hand" or "grabbed the goods" It is very possible they were simply saying they found the cache, not took everything inside.

Eh... would that not be an "additional logging requirement"? Not a bad idea, but as it is open and available to everyone, I don't think that interjecting such a requirement would fly. Placing restrictions on who can/who cannot log a find is well... taboo, is it not? In that geocaching.com does not recognize FTF as an official anything, maybe it would. Just for some reason, I don thin so... I don't like it myself but I see a lot of published caches out there with additional cache requirements where you must have a streak of cache finds to get credit for a smiley. This example should be taboo as well, but it's allowed, and places restrictions on who can and who cannot log a find. I think you are referring to a class of cache called Unknown/mystery caches. These are often set up as challenges to the finders and frequently have what would be considered additional logging requirements. The category also includes the puzzle caches you may find out there and those are often are not at the posted coordinates. Solving the puzzle will reveal the correct location. This is not the same as a traditional cache which cannot, by the guidelines, have any requirement except to sign the log. The unknown/mystery/puzzle cache can be identifed by the question mark icon in its title and on the map.

Just log the trackable with the number on the dog tag. The Geocoin Buddy tag is reminder to finders that the item it is attached to is being tracked. It isn't meant to replace the numbered dog tag, just bring greater visibilty to its traveling status.

Archiving a cache only renders the listing unviewable on GC.com. The physical cache, assuming it's still there, would still be in place. The proper thing to do would be to have the owner remove that as well. If you are completely certain it has been abandoned, once it has been archived, you could consider removing it yourself but be sure to email the owner several times first about your offer to do this for him/her. You could also ask your reviewer for advice there. Just out of curiosity, though, why do you think the placement of this cache has led to vandalism of a wildlife area? That doesn't speak very highly of our sport.

Perhaps when a cacher selects "Discovered" for a trackable, a drop down could present a choice of "current location", which would display the currently logged location or "other (or 'alternate' or 'not in current') location", which that cacher would hopefully then feel encouraged to identify in a log note.

When a trackable is discovered in a cache or in the hands of another, I would like the log to indicate that TBs current location; ie, CacherJoe discovered TB 25 in Best Place Ever GC1234 - or - in the hands of MaryFinder - instead of just the fact that it has been discovered

TFTC (or Tftc) only logs and cut-and-paste logs are no different than a blank log. They say nothing. The devious thing about cut-and-paste logs is you think it's special until you read it again verbatim on the next log and then the next and so on. Pretty much spoils whatever was said. This is particularly true when a cacher has done a series of caches all by the same CO and leaves exactly the same log on each one. If the cacher changes a line to "customize" the log, they would have been better off just logging that line and leaving the rest off or better yet, just cut-and-paste TFTC and save the bandwidth. It will mean the same thing anyway.

what is the cache's name? and what is it made of?

If it's trackable geocoin, it should have an engraved number on it somewhere, on the face or along the edge. The numbers can be tiny so look carefully. Perhaps if you told us what cache you found it in, we might be able to help you more.

you will need to buy the tag from GC.com, that's the easiest thing to do and yes they have to be activated (registered)in order for the website to properly track them. I understand you can buy just the numbers but you have to purchase a set amount of numbers, like 5 or 10 or something like that. Buying the tag is easier and once bought and activated, there's nothing to say you couldn't engrave that number yourself on your traveller and let it free. Cachers will have an easier time recognizing it as a traveller if you use the tags though.

Well covered, Pup Patrol! Looks like the chances of any of the trackables being in the cache are unfortunately pretty slim. But then again, you never know. We just got a report on a coin we dropped in a cache more than a year and a half ago on vacation. The next people after us, didn't find see it in the cache and consequently the owner marked it missing. There were several more visitors to the cache after that and then the cache wasn't visited for almost a year. Just a few days ago, someone found the coin we dropped in that very cache all that time ago. Everyone else either missed it or didn't look for it until these cachers happened upon it. Love those kind of stories http://coord.info/TB1XEE4

Trackables (or travellers as they are sometimes called) are generally one of two types, a coin or a travel bug. Coins, while often coin-shaped and about the size of an American dollar coin, can also come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and can be very plain or very artistic. Somewhere on the coin, you will see a small number engraved, either on one of the faces or along the edge. Travel bugs, on the other hand, can be pretty much anything at all, from a small toy to some object the owner found meaningful (sometime they can be quite large) that will fit in the cache you're looking in. They will usually have a metal dogtag with a number attached. In both cases, it is important to the livelihood of the trackable that you log that number into the traveller's page on GC.com so the owner can keep track of it. Please do take time to read through the links Pup Patrol listed above to learn more about taking good care of the trackables you find. They are a lot of fun to find and to move but they do come with a certain responsibility. And of course, please feel free to ask as many questions as you want on here. On a sadder note, it is not uncommon to come across a cache that has travellers or trackables listed that simply aren't there anymore. People pick them up and don't know what to do with them or forget they have them or drop out of the hobby. It's too bad, but it is one of the pitfalls of the game. Just enjoy them while you can.

Over on Woot.com, they're having a sale on a 32 piece set of genuine lock-n-locks for $14.99. Just perfect for all your geocaching needs ..oh, yeah, you can store food in them too. www.woot.com