cmdrblop

If you could ask your fellow cachers to to just one thing to improve the game for the rest of us, what would you ask for? I've given it some thought, and for some reason I keep coming back to a pet peeve: I would ask my fellow cachers to not hide caches on playgrounds. Nobody wants to see some lone dude crawling around looking under the slide. It's creepy when there are kids around. It's creepier when they're not. So that's my request. What about you?

I use GeOrg on my Nexus One (Android) phone. I'm always amazed when I see people saying they use c:geo or GeoBeagle, because to me GeOrg is just so much faster and more usable. It only works with pocket queries, though. There are certainly lots of options out there!

Aha! Thanks, Isonzo Karst – I did find it in my My Finds query. And it turns out it's been archived. And yes, I will be adding these to my modest-but-growing stats page.

I've had two FTFs in my short geocaching career, and I'd like to keep track of them in my notes. But I've forgotten the name of one of the caches. I created a PQ which looks for caches I've found which were placed in the last few months (the months I've been caching) and the cache in question does not appear. I also don't see it on maps of my area. Could it be that the cache has been, just, deleted (rather than archived)? Is there another way to look up my FTFs? (As an aside: This question may have been answered in these forums, but I can't search for it because the forum search tool does not allow me to search for FTF – or even the phrase "first to find". Thanks, Groundspeak, for a system that increases the load on your servers while annoying your paying customers! Everyone loves a lose-lose business relationship)

Coming late to the party... I prefer the idea of user-contributed tags or ratings, because cache owners are not necessarily going to use the attributes thoroughly. If a cache owner doesn't choose the "Park & Grab" attribute, does that mean it's not a PNG or does that mean the owner didn't take the time to choose attributes carefully? Will every owner of a lamp-post cache come in and add the LPC attribute to their existing caches? No way. Uuser-submitted tags or ratings would mean that many of today's 900,000 existing caches would get tagged, without the owner having to lift a finger! - Joe

I've been thinking about the slowness, and it seems to me there are lots of ways Groundspeak could lighten the load on their servers: Offer an offline cache management tool like GSAK Design the tool to only load the stuff that's changed, rather than entire cache lists Same for Found Cache lists – only send me what's changed Improve the iPhone app to remember its state so you don't have to run as many searches When I do a cache search from the home page, let me see the results as a map immediately if I want, instead of showing a list first. I never look at the list, so it's a waste of CPU cycles and bandwidth. Let me filter out my finds and unwanted cache types from the search form itself, rather than only on the results page. (The Advanced search page is useless. Not that it's easy to write and support a desktop application, but it might be worthwhile for them. - Joe

Lots of buttons and features are poorly labeled in the forums. I just clicked a button labeled "Add reply" to reply to a thread, and then to submit the reply I need to click a different button labeled... "Add reply". Which suggests that the 2nd button will do the same thing the first button did: show a text field so I can compose a reply. And don't get me started on the use of the non-word "Goto" in the interface. But I don't know whether Groundspeak can change this text. This is an off-the-shelf bulletin board system.

Congratulations! Hopefully by the time you read this you will have found your 2nd hide. I remember the first cache I found. I didn't even use a GPS to find it... I just looked at satellite photos and saw that it was under a bench near my office. I went out there and found it, but I'd forgotten to bring a pen to sign the log. In other words, I hadn't really thought things through! Now I keep a pen on me at all times, and my iPhone has GPS so I'm prepared for caching wherever I go! Keep it up! Enjoy!

You can do a certain amount of geocaching with no GPS at all. Search for geocaches in Adelaide and use geocaching.com's map feature with satellite view to browse through them. Look for caches in areas that have unique geographic features you'll be able to identify when you're on the ground. For instance, take a look at this map (which is in Adelaide). The cache in the middle of the map, "Don't drop that cache" seems to be on a bridge. Although it looks like it's in the water, it has a one-star terrain rating, so it's probably on the bridge. And it's certainly not on the train tracks! (Caches are not hidden in dangerous places like on train tracks). So this map, plus the information on the cache page, is probably all you need to go out and find that cache! After you've found a dozen or so caches you can decide whether you want to spend some money on a GPS (and I'll let other people offer advice on those). Good luck! - Joe

I like to solve puzzle caches in bunches, during the times when I can't actually go out caching. Then I use GSAK to view the final locations of the puzzle caches together with the regular caches so I have a complete picture of an area I want to visit. The result is that there will often be a span of weeks or months between the time when I solve the puzzle and the time when I go get the cache. Also, I often get stumped on new puzzle caches, so I need to wait for a few logs to come in so I can get more clues. In that way it's a chicken-and-egg problem for the cache owner: I can't find the cache until others do, and some of them may be waiting for logs as well. Anyway, I enjoy puzzles. They seemed impossible at first, but now that I've learned a few common patterns, I can solve about half of the puzzles I try. - Joe

I wonder: how often does the typical cacher use the hint? Is it only a last resort for most people? I tend to be kind of a wuss: I end up reading the hint at least 30% of the time. I tend to check it most often in high-muggle situations, especially in residential areas, because I don't enjoy being some weird creepy guy poking around in people's flowerbeds. And you? - blop

Thanks for the tips! And niraD, I happen to live in the same area as you, so I've learned to try to discern the 37 and the 122 as well. Going to check out those slides now...

"Nearest cache search page now ignores caches placed on your Ignore List" I still see my ignored caches on this page. Is there something I need to do to get this feature to work? To make sure I'm on the right page: I'm using the "Search for Geocaches" search box on the geocaching.com home page. When I use that search box, and then map the results, my ignored caches are still visible.

I've solved a few puzzles, but most of them are totally obtuse to me. Some have long, rambling descriptions, and I assume I'm supposed to somehow extract numbers from the text. Others show a series of numbers with no clues suggesting what to do with them. In many cases, I'm not sure how the starting coordinates fit in with the overall puzzle. Are there common strategies for approaching puzzles? Thanks in advance for any wisdom out there!

I've found about 90 caches so far, so I feel like I've graduated from "rank beginner" to "getting fairly good at this." It was definitely tough in the beginning. I really had no idea what I was looking for, especially since I hadn't learned to check the cache size in the description. It can be especially frustrating when you read the logs and other people seem to have no trouble. I'll be in a field somewhere, scratching my head, and I'll read logs with stories like, "It was midnight and raining like crazy, so I just dashed out of the car, made the grab and dashed back in." Huh? How do people do that? Slowly, I'm learning. Follow the advice others have given already. And once you find a few caches, you'll discover some patterns. Once I found a cache in a storm drain, under the lip, held on by a magnet. It took a long time to find, and I thought, holy cow, that's a sneaky way to hide a cache! But since then I've found two more caches hidden the same way. The most recent time, when I saw the storm drain I just walked up, reached in, and made the grab. I think that's part of the fun. You learn as you go, and it's exciting to develop the skill. Stick with it, and have fun!

I'd love to see: Filters for difficulty, terrain and cache size. Heck, filters for everything Ignoring of ignored caches (imagine that) Saved preferences for map size and filters This is hard to describe, but today the 500 caches limit is calculated based on all caches in the field of view, not the number of caches that would actually be plotted on the map. Ideally, the limit would be based on the number of caches that would actually appear. For example, if I set my filters to show only Webcam caches, I should be able to zoom very far out before I hit the limit.

I've added several caches to my "ignore" list, but they still appear in searches and on the ma. Does "ignore" only apply to PQs? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. - Joe