Sol seaker

I have the opposite viewpo9int -- I think Favorites are one innovation that Groundspeak got right, as opposed to Challenges, Souvenirs, Waymarking, etc. +1!! I think favorite points are helping improve the quality of caches in my area. People have a reason to place a good cache now, rather than just throw down film cans for the numbers. I'm seeing people want to go for the favorite points and put out better caches. Heck I changed one of mine to see if it would get more points with a better container and location.

Make sure you have checked the box at the bottom of the form to submit it for review. It is an easy box to miss. If it's taken that long I strongly suspect that box has not been checked. Check it out. (so to speak )

If you're not getting accurate readings, then it's the fault of the phone, not the app. Evidently some smart phones just use triangulation of cell towers for the GPS, while others have an actual GPS chip in them. If you've got the former, it's not going to be that accurate. Smart phones are good tools to start out caching with, to see if you're going to get into the game or not. If you continue on with the game, it's nice to have a GPS because they are so much more accurate. Also often people who keep playing want to start hiding caches. You NEED a GPS to hide caches. I had a friend I went out caching with. She cached with an I-phone. We jumped out of the car and she went in one direction and I went in the other. Later I got new coordinates on all of her caches that she had tried to place with the phone. One was over 100 feet off. If you've bought the app and then get a GPS you have NOT wasted your money!! I had the GPS first, and then bought the app later. It comes in really handy when you are out caching on the fly. You've still got to load caches into the GPS, so when I find myself in an area that I haven't loaded the caches from, and have some extra time, I can look up caches in the area with my phone and hand-load the coords into my GPS and find 'em. I find it really useful. I'm glad I bought the app.

What is it exactly that you're looking for? It may in in the "Terms of Use Agreement" Does any of this help?? 3. License to Use Site; Restrictions Groundspeak hereby grants You a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to view and use the Site in accordance with this Agreement and any guidelines or policies posted on the Site. Groundspeak reserves the right to suspend or revoke, in its sole discretion, the license hereunder and to prevent You from accessing all or any portion of the Site with or without notice or reason and without liability on the part of Groundspeak. Groundspeak may change, suspend, or discontinue any portion of the Site, or any service offered on the Site, at any time, including but not limited to any feature, database, application, or content. Groundspeak may also impose limits on certain features offered on the Site with or without notice. 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+1 did you have an answer for this question?

The idea that others have had here, about not doing it because it may encourage others to do the same is very valid. There are a lot of reasons why caches are archived. When I visited Groundspeak headquarters they said they got about one complaint a week about a cache that was a problem,and a request to remove it (archive). So the problem is that if it was a cache that was archived because it was bugging the neighbors it's going to give geocaching a "black eye"; a bad name. Now the cache you're looking at doesn't seem to be that case, but if others get the idea from you, the caches they chose to use may have been archived because of bothered neighbors, it really being on private property, or something like that. I guess we all have to realize when we hide caches others do take our ideas and run with them.

I've found a few caches in a few yards. My great fear is that somehow the coords are off and I'm in the wrong yard. For that reason I hate yard caches. Now if there is something so I can be sure I'm in the right place, like there's one cache on the front porch of a business. I was about to leave when I realized the clue was the address of the place. So then I searched. I know people who will NOT do yard caches. One house I was standing on the side walk looking at GZ and ready to turn and leave when the owner came out and told me to come on up. I am most comfortable when there is some indication I'm at the right place. Otherwise, I am not likely to walk in someone's front yard.

The best for the cache itself is Multi-cache: Tubulaire Extraordinaire! GC12WGA by Dayspring It's an amazing multi where you pick up a bag of stuff at the first cache, including string, nuts, balloons, etc. then you take the bag around to the caches and see which thing helps you get into which cache. You've got to figure out what to do with each cache to get the information out of them. It's a lot of fun. The most fun I've had with the cache alone. No I'm not giving any of the waypoints away. You've got to figure them out yourself. But I guarantee you'll have a blast doing it. I say that meaning that other caches are at the top of my list because of where they are, and what it takes to get there. For instance, The Marine Giants GC1MF62 requires you to take a small boat of sometime to an island. Then you've got to get up a dirt cliff by means of a rope hanging down the cliff. You've got to go hand-over hand up the rope. There are two caches on that island you've got to get to that way. I promise you, you cannot get across the island to get to the other. Then there was a puzzle I just did that you've got to go through a lava tube to find the final. The lava tube is a mile long. I love the adventure caches. I love boat caches. Also my favorite challenge cache is the WA State Island Challenge where you've got to find a cache on each of 23 islands. That was amazing. I went to some great places for that cache.

Glad you are having fun. I'd personally never use anything other than a GPS, but we all have different ways of caching. I prefer caches in the woods, so I need the superior satellite reception of a GPS, plus the longer battery life. I live in the northwest so I need something waterproof too. Whatever works for you is great. We all have different needs and different ways of playing.

i pretty well sums up the way I feel about them as well. It does bother me, though, that there are some large areas in my territory that have no caches that are not challenge caches. I'm not talking about one or two of them. Is this any different than an area with a saturation of regular puzzle caches, multis that are actually puzzles, PMO caches, micro LPC caches, nanos in guardrails? All disagree with someones ideas of geocaching. At least with most of these including challenge caches, you know where the 528' exclusion zone lies. I'd personally like to see all of the blue question marks wiped right off the map. I can't solve most of them and they are just in the way. When someone puts 50 puzzles in a 5 X 3 mile square, he basically excludes the entire square from me for hiding caches. Playing Battleship with my reviewer is not my idea for the best use of his time. He should be reviewing caches, not helping me find places to hide them. A saturation of puzzle caches absolutely affects my ability to geocache as I would like, yet they seem to be the Holy Grail of this forum, so if one questions them, they are told to deal with it. I'm not good at puzzle caches either but I don't think my way of playing the game is the only way. Some people really love those puzzles. I say the more power to them for getting mind exercise as well as body exercise in finding caches. I'm glad there are many ways to entertain us all with this one game.

You might want to check the forum guidelines and the other pinned threads at the top of the page. The forums are for everyones enjoyment, to share our common love of this game, not to call each other out and rant. Why don't you go outside and find some caches for a while and come back when you're more ready to share your joy of the game?

I don't see the caches as the problem, but rather cachers that don't understand that the virtual part is the cache, not the visit, and cache owners who don't straighten this out and delete fake logs. I'm sure a lot of cache owners let it ride, as to not cause problems. I don't have a problem with that so much, but they should at least toughen logging requirements on the cache, since people are obviously finding the needed info on the web. I think the remaining virtuals are essential. We've got virtual caches in the nearby national park where they take the place of caches that would have people walking in fragile areas. Those virtuals get people to a beautiful place that their children may have never seen. A few people should not be allowed to ruin the fun of many. Don't let them ruin your fun either.

Taunting the cacher would be my point, kinda making fun....I want to read interesting logs, I never want to see Tftc (I know I will) I would ignore all of your caches. Plain and simple. What you are talking about is fun for you, frustrating for me. I'm not a toy for you to play with. I just ignore the caches from those that consistently put out decoys. I don't know if you read what the cache's theme in an above post, its about Batman being a detective, In fact its title will be Batman: The World's Greatest Dectective...the story will be The Riddler "muggled this cache, so a straight up cache its not, I understand still might not be your thing but, when something has got detective in the title it would be bad if it was completely simple. Not all of my planned hides will have a decoy, infact I am trying really hard to make each one entirely different, so far out of the ones I am currently building I haven't seen any similar in any of my finds (which isn't a lot lol) On the cache page I will list a "study" guide and on the actual ammo box, I will have the Riddle that you have to solve in order to open the word lock. My decoys will have a Batman villain (drawn by me) each with a unique taunt. I do not know if it is allowed or been done before, I was thinking what if I put out several decoys and list the amount on the cache page lets say 5, each with a different villain and for a lack of a better term call it a "bonus" to attempt to find them all within the area....No logging required or anything like that because they are decoys just something that adds to the hide. I think that sounds like fun and also helps to those who may dislike decoys a different perspective on hunting and finding them. Sorta like rounding up all the Villians for Akham Asylum and you could list it on your logs which ones you found. I read the theme of your cache and I still hate decoys. Most of the people replying here are with me on this. If you want a clever cache, find something unique and clever, not annoying. I play this game to have fun. If I want to be annoyed I'll go sit in traffic, or get a root canal.

I feel its important to award favorite points. I give them for any cache I'll remember for a while. Special container, great location, or the cache was a good adventure, all get them. If its a bad container that otherwise would get a favorite, I won't give one. I have some in the bank at all times. The amount stays pretty constant so I give out ten percent. I think people should get appreciation for their efforts. I'm going to be focusing more on quality rather than quantity, so I may not have any in the bank soon.

Yes. Just convert it first. There are a lot of websites that do it automatically, so it's not difficult.

HEY! This is great!!! There's a tough boat cache I've had on my list I could pay someone to do, so I could sit at home and watch TV! So this guy will take my boat, and go to this really nice beautiful park with a lake in it, and paddle out to the cache. On the way, he may stop in the middle of the lake and eat lunch, like I always do, and while doing that, he may watch Bald Eagles feed their children out of the lake, like I often have. Then he'll paddle up to the beautiful trees surrounding the lake and spend some time searching for the cache, which generally I really enjoy doing. He'll bask in the sun, which we haven't had much of this year yet, and then paddle back, although I've been working on my AB's lately, so I could really use that paddle too I guess. He'll get back to his car, and delight in having found the cache and had the satisfaction of a great day on the lake and had a lot of fun... Oh wait. You mean I'm paying someone to have my fun?

Post this message in your local forums. You should find more locals there.

I still recommend a real GPS if you're out caching in the woods. The batteries last 10 hours or more and you can easily carry spares.

Some great advice so far. I would add emphasis to the classes at REI. Well worth it. Find someone to hike with who is good at navigation. I have taught many people. I honed my skills many years ago by hiking in parks surrounded by streets on 4 sides. Find out the name of the streets , take a compass and go in and wander. I worked up to tough, confusing parks at night, and got good at navigation. If I got confused, hiking in a straight line would take me to a street and I could find a street sign. Best would be classes, and find someone to hike with to teach you. Try your local area forums. Also, get a real GPS. There are some programs for phones, but you can't count on the batteries.

When I go with a small group we sign separately (although one person usually signs all names). I have gone with a larger group where we sign one name to save space, especially with micros. If the log is really small, I have signed under one name for a small group, now that I think about it. When signing under one name I write that in the online log, so the cache owner will know when (if) they check the log sheet.

Just call me Sol. I'm thinking about going by that all the time. Most cachers here will tell you their name but respond to either.

This is a tough issue, especially because few read the forums. I learned about letterboxing through the hybrids. There are not that many around though. Getting people to create more is a great idea. Perhaps I'll look into it. I think attaching the stamp to the box is a good idea. Also, try putting, "DONT TAKE THE STAMP" in the hint. Geocachers almost always read the hint. (for the hybrids)

I generally recommend finding more caches in order to learn about placing them, but this may not be feasible for an organization. You might try running a pocket query and find the best rated caches in your area, see who is placing highly rated caches with a lot of favorite points, and asking them to consult with you on this. You need a premium membership to run a query. Not sure if you've got one, but if not, they're cheap.

I'm interested too, although I'm not in front of my calendar right now. I'm usually able to get away Thursdays.

I would assume that one reason you would put a cache in a library would be to introduce people to the library who don't normally get there. You're wanting to show people a cool place: the library. In this spirit it would be great to expose kids to this great place. I would keep any puzzles simple so kids could figure it out too.