The Magna Defender

I never use geocheckers as I am sick of them telling me I'm incorrect. Even worse are the clever (removed) who put the hint and spoiler image in their geochecker and it only displays its when you get a "correct"

I've just been for a week on Skye and can recommend it. However don't plan too much on your day trips. The roads are in a really bad state with pot holes and the tourists and old people on the island can't drive to save their lives. Anywhere you visit will be guaranteed to be jam packed with tourists getting in your way. That's what it's been like this week in the middle of winter !

You'd love it in our area. There's a puzzle been sat there for two years with only one finder and the FTF is best mates with the CO. No one else has had it ?

Unfortunately that wouldn't stick - log signed = found = smiley. And that's how it should be ?

I wonder if they are the same sorts of people who, realising full well that they are publishing a pointless cache in pointless location, write on the cache page that negative logs will be deleted? What irks me most? Hypocrisy.

I'm not sure "greedy" is the right word.. competitive maybe.. but not greedy. I've always thought FTF's were down to luck.. being in the right place at the right time and being able to dash off at a moments notice to grab the cache at the earliest opportunity. Once the reviewer has hit the publish button, all those who have chosen to receive notifications for new caches will receive an email.. and it is up to them how they react to it. If the FTF was more important than the cache itself, why didn't you go out and find it as soon as it was published? This guy obviously did.. but he couldn't be in 26 places at once.. so there was plenty of opportunity for anyone else to grab one or two FTF's for themselves if they so desired. Did you think that because one of the caches was in your village you were somehow entitled to the FTF? He gave you plenty of opportunity - the cache came live at 11:50pm and he didn't get to it until 4 HOURS later! I am REALLY really NOT a FTF shark.. but there is something magical about dashing out of the door at almost midnight to beat the FTF sharks to a cache which is right on your doorstep... I did it myself on Thursday night. I had just got home from a meal out with friends and checked my emails before heading up to bed.. there were 3 new notifications - two were 10+ miles away as the crow flies.. but one was only 1.9miles away and was roadside and around the corner from where I grew up.. I couldn't resist. Funny thing is.. we have a local cacher who reacts in pretty much the same way as you have. The only difference is that he used to get the vast majority of FTF's himself and so his reaction comes from bitterness at being beaten. He believes he is some kind of Emperor and the minions who live in HIS kingdom should leave all the FTF's for him.. and if they don't he writes grumpy logs with veiled claims of unfair practices.. or he posts notes declaring the cache a waste of time just because the FTF has gone. The other night when I got the FTF in my village, he himself had dashed off for the other two which were published at the same time.. and then posted a silly note (since deleted by the CO) on the 3rd one saying "I was going to come for this on my way home but there's no point now" and berating me for daring to get there first. Just because he got there first it doesn't mean there is nothing left for anyone else. The cache is still there for anyone and everyone to find. It doesn't become any less fun just because someone else got there first.. you can still enjoy finding a new cache in a new location.. if it is a decent cache there will still be a good log book to sign and some decent swag.. and if the FTF is so important to you, don't sit around waiting for someone to hand it to you on a plate.. take a leaf out of my book and give him some competition! :lol: "I'm not an FTF shark" "I just happened to be passing 20 miles from home"

Our Geoaware in the UK is absolutely fantastic and is a normal reviewer on top of that too. He publishes earthcaches relatively quickly except when he goes on holiday (which can be a month at a time).

I could give examples but the guilty parties would then be known and they are much better linguists than me and in every example, they could make me look like the bad guy. I'd prefer just not to see their logs on my caches bleating about it being wet or only a micro or a driveby. One of them makes a big song and dance out of cache maintenance and criticizes everyone who does community maintenance yet he went and did it the other day one of his mate's caches. I can't be bothered with the hypocrisy and double standards.

We've got two obsessive FTFers in our area. The only worst thing than listening to their smug logs is the "I'm not an FTF shark" rubbish they keep posting and their feeble justification about "just being in the area." Part of the joy around here is beating them two :D

It's more I don't want them finding my caches as they just leave sarcastic comments

A lot like Facebook: A great feature would be to block people who are miserable and just complain about every cache they find. There's a good portion of locals whose caches I would like to ignore and more importantly prevent them from finding my caches as I'm sick of the complaints and holier than thou rubbish. It would be completely impossible to implement - but it's a good thought

With regard to Microdot's summit comment. Community maintenance is needed on most of the summit caches as they were placed BEFORE the permission rule so the location cannot be reused if they are archived. In places such as the Peak District on Kinder Scout, the National Trust do not reply to ANY emails regarding permission for caches so for most caches in the Peak District its a case of once theyre gone theyre gone. I'm sure future finders will love not being able to log caches in the Peak District due to Pencil pushers like on these forums having summit caches archived due to a wet piece of paper.

This is what I have to deal with on a daily basis. Most local active cachers are trolls.

I did that on the plague pits cache which was disabled for only a month to prevent people having a wasted trip. Of course an NA was put on it only a month later and it was archived.

I planned to maintain the cache eventually but as Schnuz said: I was on holiday so unable to maintain it immediately. Once Schnuz puts a NM on a cache he automatically puts it on his watchlist and after that it's a ticking clock until a NA. I don't like having time limits forced upon me. Therefore I panic when a NM is applied.

Yawn.

That's the first time we agree on anything microdot

May I yet again point out the bulying attempt of your NA post on my Chirp Parking cache? https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=f55c6a0e-1a01-4a50-8205-aec490945b8b ? Cheers, Schnuz. Sorry again you miss my point. I usually maintain my caches "eventually". What I don't like is your condescending "the clock is ticking" remarks. I have enough problems replacing the caches that my cache trasher keeps nicking. My NA was childish on your Chirp cache I will admit and was a lapse of my judgement. And yeah its never a dull moment in my local area.

You will also find that I wasn't bullying in any way shape or form on HH10. Anyone is free to read through the logs on HH10 and see for themselves. http://coord.info/GC4Z88C You openly accused me on a public forum of being a liar and had a dodgy history in caching. Now who is a bully.

HH10 has been actively maintained today by myself. What's your point?

Stagnation - saturation they have the same effect really.

Anywhere else a NM would be useful. In my local area a NM is a death sentence to a cache.

So... mark it missing and clear the NM log. I usually do, the locals have learnt not to put NM on mine but it doesn't stop them putting a NM on a perfectly fine old school cache but they know full well the tbs won't be marked as missing.

With a quarter of the caches I've found, a "needs maintenance" log means a half-day or more of effort from the cache owner to follow up on it. I'm not going to ask that level of effort from someone on a "might". I'll only log an NM on one of those when I'm certain there's something wrong with it. Amen ! Give that man a medal. The majority of people who slap needs maintenance on caches are those people who haven't gone to the time of setting them themselves. Yes I am one of the COs who considers a NM an insult. Especially in the local area when a certain someone insists on putting NA on a cache only disabled for a month. We even have locals going round sticking NM for listed TBs not being in the cache. I'm glad that an uber power cacher has voiced his opinion because I think Magna is in the majority. With 14000 finds and almost 800 hides I think he's coming from a numbers perspective. Power caching is the new game. The cache a means to a increasing a find count. The cache is meerly a means to providing those numbers. NMs and NAs don't make much sense and are an irritant. The cache is in bad shape, not a problem, leave a new log scroll. The cache is missing, no biggie, grab a pill bottle from your backpack, sign it and leave it. Please see my second post. I am not a numbers cacher. I only have 14000 as I have done this hobby for 6 or 7 years and maintained a current rate. I've not run round a big numbers series for about 4 years. The thought of finding that many caches in a day fills me with dread. I only target good ones like earthcaches and any I pass around them. I think I've reached the Geosnob phase

There was a time when Lancashire (mainly Chorley / Leyland and surrounding areas) was a hive of geocaching activity going back all the way to 2008. There were monthly meets all the time and there were so many people who came to the events. New caches were being set all the time and everyone was active. In the last two years it has just gone downhill. The monthly events stopped and pretty much everyone who came to the events has given up. Any where else in the country experienced this and howd you get out of the rut?