GeekinTX

Have you checked to see if they've actually signed the log? I suspect they haven't. But in any case, I'd delete them, especially the ones that are duplicated (three "found it" logs on the same day, that's a no brainer) or logged after the cache was archived. I saw two examples where there were three separate "found it" logs after the cache was archived. Pretty ridiculous. I'd report both the cheating user and the cheat website to Groundspeak. http://coord.info/GC1Y0X8 http://coord.info/GC1Y0VF

I use the "Updated in the last 7 days" pocket query attribute to download updated listings - on a daily basis. So clearly when something changes, I get it 6 or 7 times, much more than I need, but I certainly don't have to worry if I miss a day and allow the next one to overwrite it. I also have an alert set up for caches that have been archived within my search radius, and I look those into my database one-by-one. In addition, once a week, I download all active caches in my search radius. To help with archived caches I may have missed, my startup GSAK macro lists entries that haven't been updated in 8 days, and give me the option to delete those "stale" caches. This seems to keep me up to date pretty well. With all that said, a "updated in the last 2-3 days" that included archived caches would be very helpful, I think.

Did you teach those children that folks who don't agree with your opinion are "whiny babies"? It never would have come to that. I tried to teach them that there are important things in life, and things that aren't so important. And that you should worry about the former, not the latter.

I've never seen such a bunch of whiny babies in my life (and I used to teach kindergarten). Change is good. Embrace it and quite complaining. Geesh.

I assume that the public profile is what other people see, but what you've got at the top there is just what you see when you're logged into geocaching.com, and you should know how many caches you've hidden!

You should get nearly a week (6 days remaining) when you run the PQ. It works fine for me. If you don't download it in time, just run the PQ again. They're only saved for a week because the idea is you make a weekly schedule to run repeated ones, so there's no reason to keep outdated ones, and a week is plenty of time for the PQ to run and get downloaded.

At least it wasn't on a day when you were "going to an offsite meeting" or had called in sick.

My thoughts exactly. I agree with this too. To quote an old cacher in this area: "Sometimes we're all using the same game pieces to play completely different games." -Ron

I'd strongly disagree with such an implementation. I have one puzzle that's got multiple choice answers - the questions get harder as the lat/lon digits get more precise. It's not meant as a guessing game - it's meant as a puzzle. Dumping all the combinations of answers into a geochecker isn't the way it's supposed to be solved, but it *would* be the way it was solved with a geochecker. I'm not opposed to checkers, but I just don't want to see them required for all puzzles.

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There's also a feature that's used by the mobile app c:Geo. It uses a Greasemonkey script to add the button to Firefox's geocaching pages, and requires you to register your browser and mobile (Adroid) device to match each other. A little complicated to set up, but a useful feature. In the end, c:Geo has stored caches that are available even when there's no mobile or wifi access. Send to Phone works with iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, and Trimble Outdoors devices, but only if they're running the official geocaching.com app. c:Geo is free and you only pay for it if you like it.

If you think an event won't be well-attended and that makes you not want to attend, then don't attend. If you're whining about other people getting a smiley because they attended an event, and you didn't, mind your own business. I feel challenges are kind of silly, so I don't do them. But if you want to, knock yourself out!

It could be someone that didn't realize he could change his geocaching name and is re-logging old caches without using the correct date. It could be a caching team that has split up and logging individual finds, again with the wrong dates. As mentioned, I'd be curious what the logs say. If they're just TFTC, I'd be more suspicious than if they were something like "Relogging this using new caching name" or better yet, if the log exactly matched a previous log. The only way to know for sure is to send him a message and ask. If the message is ignored, that's suspicious too since he's obviously spending a lot of time at the computer lately.

Not me. I think the occasional puzzle is fun. But hey, nobody's forcing you to solve them or seek them. If you hate 'em so much, remove them from your PQs or make a filter to ignore them. Easy peasy. We have our kind of fun, you have yours. -Ron

Yep, something's gone wrong. I have a couple of PQs that run daily - they're nearly always done by about 5am (CDT) but today at 7am they haven't run yet.

Last week, one of my travelers was dropped into a travel bug hotel at a rest stop along a highway. Less than two hours after receiving the notification, I got a second notification from the cache owner that the traveler was marked missing. WTH? I contacted the CO but never got a response. So I contacted the people that had logged the drop, and was able to piece together what happened. There were three travelers listed in the inventory before they arrived. They got there and discovered that there were no trackables there. But they dropped off two. Then they contacted the cache owner to inform him of the problem and ask that the three listed be marked missing. Somewhere along the line there was a communications problem and the CO marked all five listed in the inventory as missing. No big deal. The next person along retrieved my traveler and logged a "grab" and even mentioned the cache where it was found (same one). So it's back on track. It's not the end of the world if a traveler gets marked missing.

I've enjoyed reading through the posts here, and have my own small contribution to make. I maintain a bookmark list called * TB Inside * that has the "Notify me when items on this list are logged" option marked. When someone drops one of my bugs, I add the cache to the list, and when someone retrieves one, I remove the cache from the list. Here are some text snippets I use when contacting people. The last (long) one is probably most useful. Obviously, I edit them as needed. I've found that in a lot of cases, a missing bug will turn up in another cache. I think sometimes new cachers don't realize they have to do something special with them, so I try to educate if possible. Feel free to steal or customize as you see fit. --- I see you visited "The Spring Christmas Cache" (GCZW01) today. Did you happen to notice if the traveler "Mr. Rude" (TB3AM30) was still inside? Just trying to keep track of it. Thanks in advance! --- You retrieved my "Top Flite" traveler (TB34A8V) three and a half months ago. Typically, you should try to move a travel bug or geocoin within a few weeks, but sometimes life gets in the way. I've noticed you haven't been caching a lot lately, so I'm just checking in to make sure you've still got this traveler, and wondering when you're planning to drop it off again. If you'd prefer to return it to me, please let me know so I can provide my mailing address. Thanks in advance! --- Thanks for the discovery on the little GPS geocoin. I typically watch the caches where my trackables are staying, and often I'll see somebody log that they found the cache, but it's a mystery as to whether my trackable is still there or not, so I appreciate you taking the time to discover it! --- Thanks for moving "Furry Friends" (TB3AM1C) safely along to a new cache! --- I see you logged that you picked up my "Fishin'" travel bug (TB34A89) from Golden Transit (GC1CRBB) today. Thanks! Your profile indicates you don't have any travel bugs logged, so you're obviously a little new at this. I noticed that you discovered it instead of retrieving it. Discovering a traveler means you saw it in a cache or at an event, but didn't take it. So I'd like to ask you to retrieve it, please. When you pick up a travel bug or geocoin, you should log that separately from the cache find. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/track/ or click "Play" then "Trackables" on the top of most Geocaching.com screens. Just enter the number stamped on the item in the "Tracking Code" field. You'll want to "Retrieve" it from the cache you got it. You should only "Grab" something if it's not listed in the cache where you got it. Then when you put it in another cache, you can just select it when you write your log entry. If you forget (we all do occasionally), just write a log, enter something like "Bug drop" and then select the traveler to submit. The number stamped on a trackable coin or tag proves that you've seen or taken it, so if you refer to a trackable item in a log entry, you should refer to it by its reference number (starting with "TB") and not by the tracking code that's stamped on it. Hope that helps. ---

I think that's a great idea. Because a missing trackable is not a problem with the cache, it's a problem with the trackable! For "quick and easy finds" on road trips, I'll often use a PQ with options of size bigger than micro, difficulty less than 2.5, terrain less than 2.5, found in the last 7 days, and needs maintenance not set. Missing travel bugs doesn't make it harder to find. If I were really going looking for caches that had travel bugs inside, I'd use that option, and with a "needs maint" indication on the travelers themselves, I could see what to look for or avoid.

I hid a Liar's Cache (http://coord.info/GC2BDVK) about a year ago. If you visit the page, you'll find links to the previous five. I think there was a little bit of grandfathering, but the new ALR guidelines make it pretty clear that you can't REQUIRE anything special. And I went back and forth with my reviewer a few times, and had to add verbiage to the cache page indicating that these requirements were completely optional. However, there are a lot of people that bookmark these because it's fun to read the log entries. And people that are too lazy to try to make up a story typically get a few nastygrams from the folks that are watching the action. -Ron

I'm having exactly the same issue, and have had it for nearly a month now. Just taking some time to investigate today, and I found this: http://help.textmarks.com/kb/regular-vs-lite-accounts/paid-free-trial-vs-lite-accounts-overview I've got a simple (text messaging, but no internet stuff) Sprint phone. I assume GEOC is a "lite" subscription - although I'm not sure they qualify as non-commercial. Anyway, it seems pretty clear from reading http://help.textmarks.com/kb/what-carriers-does-textmarks-work-with/which-carriers-does-textmarks-work-with That they're not supporting Sprint, Nextel, Virgin, Boost and T-Mobile with their free advertising-sponsored service. I too wish Groundspeak would switch to a paid service, or find some other method of receiving information, hints, and logging field notes using text messages.

I'm also one of the ones that is watching this listing, because I've known people that have been to (and lived at) the South Pole. I don't anticipate I'll ever log a find on this cache, but I'm very interested in reading from those that do/will. I refuse to use the cache page as a forum to debate its existence, so I'm glad this thread was created. For a virtual cache, as long as it's still possible to log it (i.e. as long as the south pole still exists), I don't see any reason to archive this, with or without a CO. The only actual need for a CO in this case is to verify logs. If people start logging finds that clearly didn't find it or if troublemakers start using the cache page as a discussion forum, then the CO is needed to clean up that mess and police the users. As long as we can be self-policing, there's no reason for a CO. If someone feels strongly that there *is* a reason to have an owner, perhaps this one should be adopted by someone like Jeremy that will be around for the long haul. LordBritish hasn't checked on his caches at the ISS or the Geothermal Vents at the bottom of the Atlantic for quite awhile, yet those caches still exist, and for good reason.

I'll echo the sentiments. My daily PQs (which are usually in my mailbox when I wake up) haven't yet been run, and the temporary one-time one I created last night hasn't run either. -Ron

I don't know how to do that. Is it really possible? I'm not aware of a way to build a list of "Things that are on this bookmark list (DNF) but are not on this other bookmark list (Ignored)". When I create a PQ from a bookmark list, the options are pretty limited, and don't include things like ignored, owned, found, etc. You just get what's on the list. Thus the reason for this suggestion.

That's exactly what I do right now. It's a bit of a pain, which is why I'm making this suggestion. And I still can't create a PQ that only returns things that are NOT on a bookmark list. I could also create a "Found It" bookmark list and put everything I find on that. But isn't it nice that geocaching.com sets that "Found" flag for you automatically, and lets you create PQs based on Found or Not Found?

I kind of figured that goes without saying, since these are all premium membership features we're discussing. But to clarify what Flask was talking about: I log a DNF when I've given up on that particular day and moved on. If I never intend to try again for whatever reason, I'll also mark the cache Ignored. Currently, I can separate caches into three groups: 1) Caches I'm ignoring (never included in my PQs) 2) Caches I've found 3) Caches I haven't found What I'd like to be able to do is to add another group: 4) Caches I've tried to find (by logging Found or Not Found) This group wouldn't be mutually exclusive with 2) or 3) though. Logged DNF . . . . . . Not Found . . . Attempted Logged Found . . . . .Found . . . . . . Attempted Logged Both . . . . . .Found . . . . . . Attempted Logged Neither . . . .Not Found . . . .Not Attempted Basically, what I'm looking for is a way to create a PQ of caches for which I've never logged a Found *or* a DNF.