AtlantaGal

Must add my congrats to a fellow Pennstater

Part of a small animal's jawbone with teeth intact, expired coupons and newspaper clippings.

Just for the sake of clarity. I don't know that the rules were indeed rewritten. I just suspect it and the wording appears to have been altered since originally posted. For now, we'll just say I made a mistake since I don't have anything substantial to back up my claim

BabyFox: see reply in other thread. The automated entry wording has to do with having scripts that enter the drawing for a Jeep automatically for you... has nothing to do with the photo/essay portion.

The rules appear to have been altered from when initially posted in May (which is within sponsors right and does occur). I suspect this because this portion reads much differently now than then... You can enter via method #1 or method #2 or via both, however limit one (1) Photo entry and/or Essay entry per person/email address per Contest Entry Period. < -- they didn't read this way when originally posted. They read one nomination per period rather than entry. Now I wish I had printed a copy in May. So the only other support about digitally enhancing photos would be that we were also verbally told at a GGA meeting in May before the travel bug portion began that photos could not be "photoshopped". They had to be real photos taken with a camera. My only explaination is that maybe the promoters changed their minds once people started entering photos with text on them or whatever. Regardless, I would guess you're ok and I am sorry for needlessly upsetting you, BabyFox. Only other rules snippit pertaining to my original questions is You may enter each Contest Entry Period, but each entry must be original and different from any entries submitted in prior Contest Entry Periods. There are a lot of the same type pix being submitted, that's for sure.

Two questions... In the rules it mentions digitally altering photos is not allowed. So why are people adding text to their photos and putting Jeeps on the moon? Also in the rules it says that photos need to be unique and not be a concept previously submitted. Okay, why are there SO many photos with Jeeps on rocks or Jeeps with other Jeeps then? Just curious.

3 are temporarily disabled. 3 are virtuals (never any hurry to get those) 2 should be disabled because of all the recent DNFs, but have not been checked on by cache owners. 2 are puzzles I cannot solve 4 are isolated (I tend to not run out of my way for a lone micro) The other 6 I just have not gotten to yet (1 is a 7-stage multi with 5 difficulty and 4 terrain)

Myth: Sexual assault usually occurs when a stranger attacks a woman in an isolated area like a parking garage or dark alley. Fact: 85% of sexual assaults occur between people who know each other (Warsaw, 1994). Rapists can be strangers, but most often they are people the victims know and trust. They can be husbands, boyfriends, relatives, and other individuals in that person's life.. -WR My comments were not only pertaining to sexual assault, however that is a huge concern. Stats are irrelivent anyway. It's not like they're any guarantee it WON'T happen. But if you're a person who uses stats as a guide for what is safe or not, then tell me... what are the stats of crime against women in rural versus metro areas. (me thinks they're probably much higher in large cities) Regardless, I also worry about getting injured. Yeah I have a cellphone, but that's not reliable all the time. In heavy tree cover or in remote areas, a cell is completely useless. Then there is getting lost. While I'll admit breadcrumb trails from the GPSr cut down on the chance of this happening, I still remember getting lost in the woods as a kid for HOURS. I don't remember that being a fun experience either. To each his or HER own I suppose.

It's only taboo to some. Not me. It's not about the numbers to some. Why does the opinion of a few people need to be taken as the opinion of everyone? I love my numbers and enjoy seeing my find count get higher. I love to compete with my brother and other geo-friends. If the find counts were taken away, I'd probably stop caching. Is that shocking? It's not taboo to me either, but I could name a few cacher's we both know Mushtang that would tell us otherwise I enjoy the numbers. I'd hate to see them taken away. Friendly competition is tons of fun! 'Sides, if numbers have *nothing* to do with it, then why would people go to geowoodstock to find 300+ micros in 3 days? People would be bored senseless after about the first 50 or so if there were no numbers involved, LOL!

I think it's unsafe for a woman to cache alone, which is why I avoid it 98% of the time. A chick alone in the woods might as well have a bullseye painted on her! I have done some urban caching solo, but I find it not as anjoyable as being with other cachers. I echo many of the sentiments expressed here in this thread -- You should join a local cacher's club in your area. That's how I met the people I cache with now. And tho there are many days no one can go caching with me, I do get out a lot more than I did before joining a geocacher's association and never have to worry about being alone.

Before anyone gets all uptight, note the use of the word *many* above. That doesn't mean all There are also *some* that only accept 1 entry per day and delete all repeat entries received from same person/computer. Was just passing along what I have come across in 2 years of sweepstaking (and winning a car). Heck, some mornings if I don't enter early enough in certain contests, I get messages saying "you already entered today" and I didn't. Those types are definitely only allowing 1 entry per IP. But FWIW, I do believe there is a way to differentiate between same computer and same IP. Again, I don't know the specifics of this sweep from the admin-side. Jeremy probably doesn't even know. A lot of this stuff is handled by an independant judging orgainization much of the time.

I don't know how this contest is being handled regarding multiple entries from the same IP address, but I do know that many OTHER contests will disqualify ALL entries if they see the same IP address in the same timeframe. As a side note, I don't think I'd mention that you're entering for other people either. I'd have kept that info to myself.

I don't have a signature item But the coolest one I have found so far, and there are many cool ones, is this metal hand made figurine of a hiker. I found one in a cache in KY and the onsite log said that this "geo hiker" was the person's signature item. It was Ricky B Cache Man's item. I love it and have it displayed in my home!

My logs online are way more detailed than the paper one onsite, but I too will say what I took/left in both when applicable. No easy way to do cache maint. unless you visit on your own regularly. I will sometimes email recent finders and ask how the cache contents were fairing to see if I need to go out and add a few items. But even that's not 100% accurate.

Mtn Man, was that your submission? Cause I almost voted for it... made the short list I ended up nominating "Peas in a Pod" for photo and the essay submitted by RedHotMama. Question: Now that the nominations are over, do we know what photos and essays at least went to the judging committee?

I suspected that might be the case. I nearly released a Travel Bug named Travel Bug that way, thereby proving the wise counsel that drinking and activating TB's don't mix. For both cache and TB names, you can always edit them later on if you had a brain fart or decide later on that your name choice stinks

I don't post much in the forums here because it can consume a lot of my time. I'd rather spend that extra time out caching I am pretty active on the GGA website tho. Some random info for everyone in this thread... I did notice that this contest was posted on SEVERAL online sweepstaking websites the day it went live in May and began accepting entries. So you not only have Geocachers entering the Jeep drawing, you also have the whole batch of people who have a hobby of entering sweeps. (As info, I happen belong to both groups). There are over 20K registered members on one of the main sweepstaking websites alone, and trust me, these folks are very dedicated, lol! Also, the reasons why certain states are inelligleble to participate is a matter of state laws. It is very very common to see contests void in FL, RI & NY. Florida, in particular, has very specific things that have to be done/worded/submitted before a contest is valid for state residents. This is time consuming and many promoters choose not to go to the trouble. Thus, FL is excluded from at least 30% of promotions and contests across the board (that is a lowball percentage too). I also saw where someone was speculating as to why this contest was US-based only. It has nothing to do with delivering a vehicle overseas. In many vehicle contests the transportation, federal, state and local taxes are ALL the responsibility of the winner. I speak from first hand experience on this one, as I have won a vehicle in a contest before. Sometimes you get lucky and the prize fulfillment is done through your local Crysler/Plymouth (as an example), but that is typically mentioned in the contest rules somewhere. At any rate, delivery fees do not apply such a case. In addition, just like the complexity of various state laws, laws for individual countries are just as unique and pain-staking for promoters. I see very few contests that are worldwide. Most are US-only or US & Can. One other random opinion. I personaly thought it would be fun to see how many of the 5000 YJTBs I could find. So when I find one in a cache, I log it. Sometimes, I leave it in the cache (just jotting down the tag #) and sometimes I don't. I didn't see any rules where this practice would be a problem, and as long as I place the TBs back out quickly, I don't think it is/should be. JMHO. Finally, to BabyFox, the way I understand the rules of the photo and essay portion of the contest is this... You many enter as many photos and essays as you want during each period, however only ONE OF EACH can be nominated per period. So say you have two photo entries in the same entry period and they both get nominated a bunch -- More than any other persons. Only one will make final judging. The other will be disqualified. Does that make sense? The rules were unclear to me on whether or not each photo/essay submission had to be a different YJTB#. So for complience sake, I have assumed they do need to be. It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to disqualifying yourself in a contest, IMO & experience. If indeed the case, those who want to enter a photo and/or essay in each period, will need to find at least 6 YJTBs during the entire promotion. You see, you can take your pic or write your essay and NOT submit it until the next entry phase. Release the YJTB back out for another cacher quickly, but in doing so be sure to note the TB tag # cause you'll need it to submit your entry later on. This is the process I am following because this portion of the rules is very very vague.

I don't know the specifics of this sweep. However, in general for many contests there is an affidavit and publicity release that must not only be completed and returned by the potential winner, but also verified by the judging organization or sweeps sponsor. That process typically takes 30 days in my experience. After this has occurred, they are allowed to post/release the winner's name, city and state. Now my specific question: Will the winner's name and location be provided here on Groundspeak once this has happened?

Hey Bassmount (Becky), Just buy the Garmin model I have. It seems to have a lot of features and if you decide you want something more, the secondary selling market for these things is fantastic And as far as themed cache's go, you just include the theme description and example items in your cache description page. Maybe we can do one when I come up. By then I should know more of what I am doing myself, lol