welch

But why not? It seems to me you are suggesting that some things are not worth tracking or counting because people might disagree on the criteria. What if I want to track my own accomplishments using my own criteria? Why do you suggest I not do that? The answer to your marble question above is 'I have 99 marbles', because I am using my own criteria to count my own marbles. I am also OK if you think I have a different number of marbles. But please don't suggest that I am wrong to even count my own marbles. This forum is a good resource for those people who want to count their own FTFs (or marbles) to discuss the criteria they use. No, what I am suggesting is that for someone to know what their number (or FTF, marbles or whatever) they must first know what that thing (FTF, marbles, or whatever) is. If they can't explain what a (whatever) is to themselves, they can't possiably count them. LOL, your getting there . For the OP to come and say 'does this count' isn't of any help to them. If they want to count the, they must count them. How I would count, or you would count, or anyone else would count doesn't matter, hence the 'who cares'. I would think if the OP can't figure out if it counts or not, maybe they don't care either . Yes it is a good place to discuss criteria. However, was this thread "what criteria do you use?" or was it "does this count?"

If I was I wouldn't be trying to figure out how some people can care about a number and yet at the same time need others to define that number for them. You also wouldn't come on to a forum topic that you don't care about and add a post merely stating that you don't care. I don't care what dekoning's number is. What I find interesting enough to respond is why people care enough about a number they apperently can't define .

so both the company that sold you the stuff, and the company that was supposed to be shipping it are ignoring you???

Have you talked to someone from the shipping company? Was there any sort of tracking number so it can be looked up when/where it was supposed to be delivered??

If I was I wouldn't be trying to figure out how some people can care about a number and yet at the same time need others to define that number for them.

Personally I say who cares. I'd say the OP might care, and possibly several people participating in this discussion. Buy WHY? Its some perception based number. If you say you have 99 marbles, and I say one of them is chipped and it doesn't count, do you have 99 or not? If someone else says the big shooter counts twice, do you have 99 or not? If yet another person says that the alley cat's eyes are best and only they count but not your toothpaste or any aggies, do you have 99 or not? If someone has to tell you how many you have, do you have 99 or not?

I don't mean to sound snarky, but the ads themselves are objectionable.No other web site makes paid subscribers look at commercials. Please restrict these to non-paying members. Honestly, I dont think they're too bad. They all have something to do with geocaching and nothing I've seen is "objectionable". Although getting rid of them would be nice, as an creator and owner of another geocaching website, I know it can be hard. They're a good source of income. If more people would become premium members, mabey you wouldn't need them, but right now I dont have any problem with them and I havent seen anyone else have any problems with them. I don't see how you can say "If more people would become premium members, maybe you wouldn't need them", unless you have some insight not given everyone. I was under the impression that Groundspeak doesn't really anything about its finances, no number of PMs, no amount of gc.com branded stuff sold, no firm number on what is paid to keep the website running or the salaries of paid employees. That to me makes it very hard to decide if new adds are indeed good sources of needed income that help keep the site going and/or improve it, or just extra revenue that could be done away with. Don't get me wrong, I want to see the website continue. I even have no problem with Groundspeak (or other companies too) making money from geocaching. But can gc.com get this done without so many ads? How about with a little less drama? This 'is this greed or not' seems to come up every time there is a change in features be it maps, ads, etc. To me its kinda like buying something and then getting a second letter later saying 'we didn't make as much as we though off this, care to pay more?' I see no way for the average user to see if the business is really that hard up, or if its some sort of guilt based fleecing.

Personally I say who cares.

uh??? agree with what exactly? Is this about caches, time capsules, caches in time capsules that noone can get unless they breech the 'do not open till x-x-x date?

exactly

Generally pocket queries are used to load the description and hints into a PDA , and can be used to load the coordinates and cache names into a gpsr unit. I don't think you can load load hints into a gpsr unless what you use for a gpsr is something 'intergrated' a garmin iQue, or some type of pda thats been fitted with a gps add on.

And what value would this information serve? Very much like GC.com # of find stats, it would only reflect how much spare time they had to spend here on the forums. If I saw someone with 10,000 forum posts as opposed to 5 forum posts, it would certainly mean a lot to me. It would mean that they probably understand how the forum works would probably mean they are a contributor to the geocaching community... Just like how a high number of finds indicates your level of experience and the number of hides indicates that you are a contributor to the geocaching community. Took nothing left nothing posted to forum thanks for the posts

And what value would this information serve? Very much like GC.com # of find stats, it would only reflect how much spare time they had to spend here on the forums. If I saw someone with 10,000 forum posts as opposed to 5 forum posts, it would certainly mean a lot to me. It would mean that they probably understand how the forum works would probably mean they are a contributor to the geocaching community... Just like how a high number of finds indicates your level of experience and the number of hides indicates that you are a contributor to the geocaching community. See what I'm saying?

And what value would this information serve? Very much like GC.com # of find stats, it would only reflect how much spare time they had to spend here on the forums. If I saw someone with 10,000 forum posts as opposed to 5 forum posts, it would certainly mean a lot to me. It would mean that they probably understand how the forum works would probably mean they are a contributor to the geocaching community... Just like how a high number of finds indicates your level of experience and the number of hides indicates that you are a contributor to the geocaching community. Otherwise a huge number of posts just could be silly nonsense that doesn't really help anyone.

And what value would this information serve? Very much like GC.com # of find stats, it would only reflect how much spare time they had to spend here on the forums. If I saw someone with 10,000 forum posts as opposed to 5 forum posts, it would certainly mean a lot to me. It would mean that they probably understand how the forum works would probably mean they are a contributor to the geocaching community... Just like how a high number of finds indicates your level of experience and the number of hides indicates that you are a contributor to the geocaching community. That is to say is say quantity and quality need to be compared for the best picture.

And what value would this information serve? Very much like GC.com # of find stats, it would only reflect how much spare time they had to spend here on the forums. If I saw someone with 10,000 forum posts as opposed to 5 forum posts, it would certainly mean a lot to me. It would mean that they probably understand how the forum works would probably mean they are a contributor to the geocaching community... Just like how a high number of finds indicates your level of experience and the number of hides indicates that you are a contributor to the geocaching community. But like cache numbers they need to be 'taken with grain of salt'

Different people get different things out of geocaching. Some want to see new places, some neat sights, some seem to enjoy watching the numbers meter grow (can't explain why, but it seems to be true), and so on. Its very difficult to control how other people do things, it's probably a lot easier to just realize people will do things in whatever way they want and watch with amusment.

no, its a one size fits all deal. You either have to 'mentally' filter the weekly notice, or just turn it off completely and look things up yourself

Too bad theres not a stash note of some sort in there to explain what this thing is

I was thinking the manuel for mine specifically says it has to be called HOME or I can't use that feature.

What does it matter? Then you don't mind the caches that look like pipe bombs? A cache in a beer can is just plain stupid. It shows a lack of imagination and will do nothing but give this game a bad name.. I can see it now, a land manager already doesn't like geocaching and finds a beer can with the words "OFFICIAL GEOCACHE" written on the side of it... We all know what happens next. So you yourself has seen the cache container to call it a lack of imagination. All the ones that I have seen used have had the tops cut off under the seam with a nice container placed inside then put back together like it was nothing different than the rest. Pretty creative to me. You try it sometime. There are some many people who cut everyone down here. One guy says the sky is blue while the next one has to say he is wrong. What's wrong with people now a days? Have you even been out caching today, or even when was the last time. Just enjoy your day, there are many people out there that can't So the next time someone says that geocachers are good landstewards and most CITO wherever they go, will they need an asterisk? * except when the cache is suppose to look like trash...

They won't be able to view the page itself, but MOCs still show up in promixity searches! To recap (in no certain order): 1. Its the end of a multicache (but on geocaching.com) 2. its a cache that hadn't been submited yet (but on geocaching.com) 3. its a cache or part of a cache that was archived for some reason (but on geocaching.com) 4. its a cache listed on another geocaching site (navicache, terracache, gpsgames, etc) note: if its on another site it could still be 1 2 3 'over there' 5. its a letterbox (see letterboxing.org, atlasquest.com etc) note: if its a letterbox it could still be 1 2 3 'over there' 6. its none of the above but we assume it is (do you remember any reference to any websites?? ie stashnote say its a geocache)

I understand what you are asking. Like you, I understand the need make sure the data is updated but what is so special about the link on that page that the regualr "Forum" link on the left nav can't handle? I just bookmarked the forum separately and only go through the regular loop when I think my forum account needs updating which is hardly ever. I don't really think it makes that much difference in the end. Exactly!! Thanks for taking the time to think about what I am saying. Where I work, we are grabbing data from other servers constantly. That isn't exactly new technology. When someone logs into the forums, initiate an ODBC call to the geocaching.com servers and update whatever you need. Not rocket science, unless I'm missing something very important here. Yeah, I'm nitpicking, but thats what nits are there for. I don't understand. If going to the 'bridge' or whatever is a waste of resources, wouldn't it be a bigger waste of resources to do this type of thing constantly? huh? Anyone who clicks the "Forums" link on the left is going to always need to click the second link on the interstitial page... so how would it take more resources to just do what ever needs to be done when people click in the "Forums" link rather than when clicking the second link? Unless they intended it to be so annoying that more people would just bookmark directly to the forum and only use that link when they REALLY need to update their info. What I thought (and still think) knowschad was saying is that it the second link should be removed and the site setup so that everytime someone joins the forums a sync of the account info is done. So theres one less link for the site to do with. But I don't understand how doing this would actually help the site since means that all the people that join the forums directly (ie bookmarks etc.) are not going to this this sync, when currently they don't. Elminate usage on one spot and just increase it in another... at least thats the way it seems to me.

It would depend on the situation of course, but unless they either find me holding the cache, I wouldn't show any muggles where the cache is. And unless they clearly know I'm looking for something I doubt I would explain geocaching either. First, I have to no control what they might do with the information later. If they would make good geocachers they'll just have to learn of it from the usual means like media coverage, friends, family. Second, trying to explain the truth could become a very long discussion based on how much they know and how fast they catch onto the concept. Much easier IMO to give them the shortest legal explaintion they would hopefully be familiar with.

hicup