The A-Team

Just to clarify, because I don't think anyone else has... When you put a cache on your watchlist, you will get instantly notified when a new log is posted. It doesn't matter what type, you'll get notified. As others mentioned, a lot of people will put a watch on a cache they DNF, to see if someone later finds it, the owner disables/replaces it, etc. I have a couple of watches on caches I know I have trackables in, to see if anyone is still finding the cache. I'm also watching some very difficult caches in my area so I will know when someone completes them. Don't worry about messing up anyone or breaking rules. No one can see which caches you're watching, and even cache owners don't know who is watching their caches. Watch away!

FizzyCalc is by far my favorite tool for playng with coordinates, I sure wish a smart phone app was available for it. I keep Ed Williams bookmarked on my phone. He has helped MANY times in the past.

That right there will ellicit a lot of negative reactions. Kudos for thinking outside of the box, but it's been pretty clear in the past that cachers aren't too happy about caches that significantly limit who will be able to find it. Maybe if you were to provide an alternate method of finding it, it might be OK. For example, many Chirp caches also have an alternate method for those without a Chirp-capable device, such as a container nearby with the coordinates. The people that are really into Minecraft will probably solve it the intended way, but non-Minecraft players will still be able to make the find.

I'm not sure about the strange things going on with the Geocaching.com search, but these types of location search generally center on the town or city hall. I just did a test with 4 different place names in my area, and through the Geocaching.com search, 2 of them returned coordinates directly on top of city hall, but the other 2 were many kilometers off. I tested the same 4 in Google Maps, using exactly the same format, and got different results. 3 of them were on the city hall, and one was WAY off (3.5 km). This seems to imply that the Geocaching.com search does not use Google.

What, isn't Alabama known for its plentiful butterflies, black bears and grapes? Those are supposed to be butterflies? ! Thanks for clearing that up for me. What's the pink balloon represent? Yep, after a bunch of Googling, I found that they're Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies. Apparently the brown ones are the females, and the yellow are the male. Ooooooohhhhhhhh, I just found the significance of the butterflies! The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is the state butterfly of Alabama (but also of Delaware, Georgia, and South Carolina, and the state insect of Virginia). I don't have a clue what the pink or the grapes are supposed to mean. Apparently black bears used to be plentiful in Alabama, but there aren't nearly as many now, so it seems a strange choice. It shouldn't have been too hard to find some "icons" specific to Alabama, or is Alabama really not known for anything? Maybe just put Talladega Superspeedway on it?

Think of it this way: Let's say you emailed a random cacher in another country. You asked them to sign your name on the next cache they find. Would it seem right for you to log the find? Obviously not. You didn't find the cache. I consider your situation no different. Technically, as long as your name is in the log, Groundspeak will leave it alone, but ethically it's completely wrong.

You set it up as your-number@SMS-gateway. For example, for Verizon it's 1234567890@vzwpix.com Complete list Ok...now I see. It's still an e-mail. You're just sending it via a special address. You're using that e-mail (to your phone) as your primary e-mail address on geocaching.com? What those services do is convert the email to a text message, which then gets sent to you. You can have notifications sent to a different email address than your primary one, so I assume that's how the OP has it set up. I know of several cachers in my area that have it set up this way.

If you're referring to the "Corrected coordinates" function, you don't need to worry about locking the cache. Corrected coordinates aren't affected when you load a GPX. Locking should only be a last resort, because it prevents things from being updated like the description and hint. This could lead to your searching in the wrong spot, using the wrong access, etc. because your information is out-of-date. Regarding the OP, bookmark lists are probably your best bet at the moment. Once the Groundspeak updated coordinates feature is completed, that'll do what you want (we hope).

Did you have to startle it, or make it hold it's breath, to cure it? I find slowly drinking water helps, but that may not be such a good idea for a server...

Just before midnight, the 2 PQs with odd numbers came through. Early this morning, my 3 recurring PQs (all odd, BTW) ran normally. It seems whatever happened has been fixed.

The filename of the file you get has a number followed by the name. Hmm, you might be onto something. I just requested 3 PQs, 2 with odd numbered files, one with even. So far, I've only received the even one. That's odd.

It's probably just that Windows is trying to open GPX files with Adobe, rather than EasyGPS. What operating system are you running?

Can you define what numbers you're referring to? Mine have names.

Publish them and they won't be there. Next time you put a cache out, use one of those instead of creating a new one. I use it as a library for images for the forums (too lazy to join Flickr). Why not just use a site like TinyPic?

Whenever I make up a cache page that contains HTML, I keep a copy of it on my computer in a text file. If I ever want to make any changes, I'll edit it on my computer, then copy-and-paste it to the website. That way I never have to deal with all the extra junk that gets added when you edit online. It makes it a bit slower, but it's easier in the end.

Umm, that's not the "official Listing Generator of Groundspeak". There is no "official Listing Generator of Groundspeak". Geopt is a tool created by a third party and uses the functionality provided by Groundspeak's API. The API is the only way Groundspeak is connected to that project at all.

Painting plastic is a bit tricky. I know you said you don't want to use spray paint but I think for a good primer that is about your best option. A good automotive primer will work just fine. I use Rustoleum's auto primer and it works pretty good. You also may want to give sprayable Kilz a shot. Using a primer like this will give you a nice surface to paint and both primers are sandable in case you have imperfections. Either way, be sure to give the primer a day or two before hand painting it. Some aerosol paints need a day or two (read the instructions) to de-gas before the next layer of paint is applied. Once you've completed painting I would strongly recommend also spraying on a few layers of clear coat of some sort for durability. Since it will be outside it may not be a bad idea to use this clear coat made by Rustoleum that is UV resistant: http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=164 What ever you choose to do, try experimenting first. Get a scrap peice of wood and layer on the paints as if you were painting the cache. Use a similar thickness of the paints and use a similar timeframe of application. There is no bigger bummer than spending a bunch of time on a project and finding out the paints you use don't like each other and start crazing. -Dave Thank you Dave...The experiments will begin this weekend. Things like this make me know I would not be able...or personally, want to be...a person that places a lot of caches....It takes a lot of thought! I know you said you wanted to avoid spray paint, but I just wanted to mention my recent experience. After reading many suggestions in this thread (a very good read if you're planning on painting a LnL), I went ahead and tried painting my own. I started by using some isopropyl alcohol to remove any remnant chemicals from the manufacturing process. I then roughed it up a bit with some sandpaper (EVERY exterior surface, including the tabs) and washed it really well to remove any small particles. Once it dried, I started adding paint. The first layer was Krylon Fusion for Plastics. This is a primer designed for use on this type of plastic, and without it any other paint would never adhere. I gave it a couple of light coats to completely cover the surface, then waited 24 hours and added some ultra-flat paint to cover the shine of the primer. Once you've got a layer of primer, you can use pretty much any paint on top. I left it for the suggested 7 days to cure, and when I checked it today, the paint seems very solid. I won't know for sure until it's been out in the wild and exposed to cachers for a while, but I'm very happy with the result. Remember to keep the lid ON while you paint it. You don't want to get any paint in the seal. Good luck!

Has it updated to the correct date after you uploaded your field notes, or is this what it showed both before and after?

But the one that loads the most often is the minimap at the top of cache pages. Just by replacing that one, they've significantly reduced the number of Google map loads. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other instances start to get changed, too. Google is giving sites 90 days before they start charging for overage, so I'm sure GS is keeping track of stats to determine how much they can keep.

I assume it'll be up in the Cobble Hill area? That's great, because in the past most of the HAG hides have been around Victoria. It's nice to see it starting to spread out (though that may just be because we've completely filled up Victoria... ). I'm not positive, but I think there's another drive-by night cache just north of Duncan. I look forward to coming up that way sometime and doing these.

Oh, there it is. Thanks. They really need to edit that page. It still says: AFAIK, this no longer works.

Check out the "Costume Context" worldwide challenge, and see how many logs actually meet the requirements: After scrolling through the photos, I was surprised to actually find a couple of people that did (that's more than I was expecting). Well over 90% did not. "Improper logging" is rampant, and would definitely be present in your proposal. You'd be surprised by the number of people that would partake. It would take a lot of work to verify all the finds. BTW, I started caching long after locationless went away, and I would definitely log a find if your proposal were to happen. I'm not holding my breath, though.

I thought they shut that down? Is there still a link to that page from somewhere on Geocaching.com, or did you get the link from an external source? I can't see anything on the PQ page. See here for a previous topic on this topic. Moun10Bike said back in November that this would be going away, and it already wasn't working in the app.

I completely agree. Why do we keep getting these new features when the previously released features are either not working or are only partially completed? The developers should be working on fixing and completing the existing features before working on any new ones. Oh, and don't get me started on the blatant lack of testing...

What, isn't Alabama known for its plentiful butterflies, black bears and grapes?