fishiam

I realize TPTB don't worry about the FTF hunts and that quite a few cachers have strong (negative) opinions about cachers who engage in FTF hunts but ... for those interested in making FTF hunts more of a fair challenge to those who do engage, I have an idea to float. In my area (Seattle), and no doubt many other areas, there is a predictable pattern to new cache listings. The local reviewer has a set time when he/she can review new listings and the result is a rush of new listings at a particular time of the day ... here in Seattle it is often between 9 and 11 pm. New caches regularly published at that time invariably favor certain cachers (those who stay up late or get up very early in the morning) and make getting an FTF for others almost impossible. That's just the nature of the time schedule for the reviewers and I understand it. But what about this. What if reviewers were to review caches and, once approved, they then submitted the cache to a random timer that would cause the listing to be published at some random time over the next 24 hours? Each cache, once approved, gets a random publish time 24 hours from approval. New caches would appear at all times of the day and different sets of cachers would benefit from the publish time. This would be a very minor programming challenge and it would certainly change FTF dynamics. So ... good idea or ridiculous or not worthy of further consideration? peace fishiam

I was attempting to find a simple way to list out archived caches in my area that I found in the past. The main reason for dong this is to see what areas might have opened (in the cache rich city of Seattle) due to cache archivals. In composing a pocket query, I can select for caches that I have found and that were not active. But that only results in a list of disabled caches. Now I realize this would likely be a little used option, but would it be possible to make listing archived caches an option in a pocket query? Probably there are reasons not to, but if the archived ones were restricted to caches that were published before archiving, that would leave out all those that never got past the submission stage.

Thanks - I should have thought that through!

Well, that would probably mask the virus if it has one ... I'm not sure I want to take a chance of getting one on my laptop. And the previous successful PQs were not zipped.

The last two PQs generated I was not able to download from my Yahoo mail account. The most recent one generated this message (from Norton AntiVirus which Yahoo uses to scan all email): The file you attempted to download contains a virus and it cannot be cleaned! 642015.gpx (1462KB) Yesterday and the day before I generated and download a few PQs just fine. Anyone else have this problem? If TPTB see this message perhaps they can check on the file for me? It was created under this name and I titled the PQ - BC (and the number is listed above). I repeat that the Norton Antivirus is used by Yahoo email, it is not my copy of Norton. peace fishiam ps - I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow and now I'm worried about getting my PQs downloaded in time!

I can report on the Seattle palcaching experience. The listed coordinates were for two stores - both sets of coordinates were wildly off. Through Googling we were able to ascertain that you had to go to one of two stores in the greater Seattle area and there you found an ammo can with a log book you signed and a code listed on the underside of the lid. The workers at the store really had no idea what the palcaching thing was all about. With that code, you went to the web site, entered it and got coordinates to three other locations. I found two of the caches - ammo cans in really poorly chosen locations. The third location was never found by anyone. One of the others is now missing, the third I checked on today and it's still there. Anyway, by entering the code from one of the palcaches, the first five finders got a free pair of shoes. By entering a second code the first five finders got "$100.00." Well, we got the shoes (after about 8 days). The cash ... nowhere to be seen. My shoes turned out to be too small. I tried emailing them at their support email and have heard nothing back from them in two weeks. I tried calling their support 1-800 number and the message is that the phone number has been changed and there is no further information. The whole thing reeks of amateurism. Other cachers in the area - after the first five - have logged their finds and just gotten a "thanks for finding the cache message." This could have been so much better ... like the APE caches. But it is obvious they did not enlist the aid of experienced cachers. The large ammo cans had nothing in them save a logbook and a pen. The hides ... wow, really, really poor. It is no surprise 2 of the 3 are already muggled. I was surprised the 3rd was still there. I know I shouldn't criticize ... I did get a free pair of shoes (though too small and no way to exchange them) ... but still ... why didn't they put as much effort into the hides as they did in the graphics? I'd be curious to hear the experience of cachers in the other 4 or 5 cities where the promotion was held. peace fishiam

I am happy to report that this morning there were 18 emails from Geocaching.com in my Yahoo email Inbox - 14 of these were Insta-Notifications of new caches (Lortd Stirling was busy approving caches this morning!) within 50 mi of my home cordinates. It seems to be fixed! thanks fishiam

Your competitors may have paid me to write that you know Hmmm, If they have that level of access, then I am truly sunk, But I prefer to believe that you folks at the helm are immune to their petty shenanigans ... right? peace fish

Hurrah! I am glad it turned out to be something real and not a product of my evil FTF competitors hacking! peace, fishiam

OK, here goes - these four caches were published yesterday early evening and I should have received Insta-Notify for them but didn't. I've included the distance from my home coordinates (N 47 39.018 W 122 18.726) Pure Evil by Camp Latona (GCX7BA) - 0.8 mi N The New and Improved Miss K cache by Miss K and fishiam (GCX7ET) - 3.6 mi NE (my daughter's cache) VEM !ÓÛa by FunnyNose (GCX05M) - 4 mi SW You Can't Always Believe Google Earth by FunnyNose (GCW5Y6) - 7.5 mi S Hope this helps -fish

I don't know either. But as of just a few minutes ago, we've successfully delivered 11 Instant Notifications to you today so far. Elias I did receive every one of the emails that originated from Groundspeak today - but none of those were Instant Notifications in the sense I am talking about, i.e., the notifications that (used to be)/are sent out when a new cache is published wihtin X miles of one's home coordinates. Those kinds of notifications are the only ones I'm not getting. I went through the long headers you sent me for both the emails I successfully received and the ones you sent, but I didn't receive (the new cache notifiactions presumably) and I find absolutely no difference in the content of the headers. Both sets indicate successful sending but ... the results (on my end) are 100% different. I know this must be really puzzling. cheers fish

I'm aware of that. But it doesn't mean it is Groundspeak's fault that you aren't getting your emails - especially if the logs say that they were delivered. Have you attempted to contact your email provider yet? No I haven't as I wouldn't know who to contact at Yahoo. But many others are experiencing the same problem as I am, including users with gmail and other accounts. Another Seattle area cacher just emailed me saying he was having the same problem. I know Groundspeak shows the emails as sent - I show them all as received except for the Instant Notifications. Why would those be different? I can't imagine an email provider would treat those any differently.

Further up the page I saw that Elias already researched and discovered that your emails were being delivered from our end. My suggestion to you in the interim to create an alternate address to have them go to that address instead of yahoo. Yahoo has been known to throttle emails from Groundspeak so this would be your best bet for now. I suggest Gmail since I have tested it with no issues. Jeremy Sure I will try this but I just want to note that up until 2 weeks ago, there was no issue. I got the notifications just fine. Something then changed. In addition to the user Slightlynorth, there is at least one other Seattle regular (nevcowpok) that also lost access to the Instant Notifications. I worked with Elias on the emails that were being sent and we identified on one particular day that 14 emails were listed as sent to me from Groundspeak but there were 5 that I never got. Apparently, not enough information is retained to determine the content of those 5 (only the headers, not the email contents, is retained) but they had to be Instant Notifications. I have a gmail account and a work account so I'll try one of those. Thanks for paying attention to this and helping to sort it out.

Well, nothing has changed in regards to my situation. There was a flurry of new caches published this evening in the Seattle area (including one by my daughter that was about 2 miles from my home coordinates). None of the 5 or 6 new caches within 13 miles of my home coordinates resulted in an Instant-Notification sent to my email. As I've said before (I think) I get all other kinds of email from the site - logs on my caches, pocket queries, a notice when someone archives a nearby cache .... but NOTHING on new caches. I deleted my old Instant Notifications and created new ones. Still nothing. So something strange is still going on. At any rate, the other FTFers here in the city are thrilled at my predicament - most of them are experiencing no problems - though at least one other is and I've informed Elias about that person who is in the same predicament.

The city of Seattle is very close to being completely booked up - there are roughly 550 caches within the city limits. I would say 80-90% of the city is closed to new caches due to the 0.1 mile proximity rule. So, we're pretty dense here. However, we also have a, perhaps disproportionately, large number of puzzle caches so you'd want to do homework ahead of time. I am happy to report that while we do have a number of bus stop hides, there are only two lamp post hides in the entire city! And just across the lake from Seattle, the eastside suburbs are also quite densely populated with caches. And to boot, the weather is just perfect - while most of the country bakes in 100 degree heat, we hover in the 70-75 degree range. cheers!

Yesterday, the site sent you 10 instant notification emails. All emails were sucessfully delivered to your provider, almost all of them in under 5 seconds. Did you receive these 10 emails and were expecting more, or did you not receive them at all? Elias I also checked my Spam folder and they weren't sent into there either. Yahoo mail recently upgraded and that transition occurred about the same time I stopped getting the notifications, but I don't know that it was at the same time. I seem to get all my usual emails from other cachers, colleagues, etc.

I checked the email logs, and every email we sent you yesterday was delivered within 15 seconds of being generated. If you want to send me a PM with the headers from one of the late emails, I'd be happy to take a look to see where the delay might be. Elias I never got them. They show as sent to fishiam@yahoo.com?

For almost two weeks now, I have received no Insta-notifications of new caches. My query is set for 10 miles from my home coordinates and there have been more than a half dozen caches published the past two weeks that have not generated a notice - but should have, including one about an hour ago (GCX4ZC, which is 9.1 mi from my home coordinates). Several other Seattle area cachers are experiencing the same trouble (though others are not). I never changed anything on the query page and looking at my settings, there does not appear to be anything wrong at all. Once guess is that I am within 2 weeks of my annual premium membership expiring and haven't renewed that yet (of course I will do so) ... could there be some link there? peace fishiam

You can be forgiven for not finding this out - it is totally unintuitive. The simplest way I've discovered is to use the Find Waypoint/Nearest. Then on the page labeled Nearest Waypoints, move the cursor to the top of the screen, highlighting the left of the two symbols (the one to the left of the "x"). Click on that and you are offered the choice to Find by Name, Delete All, Delete By Symbol. Select Delete all, you get a confirmation question and ... Bob's your uncle. Like I said ... not completely intuitive. peace fish

Cache Across America - Washington has been published. Now for a confession - I did forget to write the code on the cache logbook for those seeking the Cache Across America FTF. I will add the code this weekend - for those seeking this goal, and finding this before I get there this weekend, email me your photo and I will send you the code. peace, fishiam

Hmmm, It would appear that one of my caches is being used as some kind of example. A frequent poster to the forums has logged a fake find on a cache of mine (why in the world is he perusing my caches - I have 60+ hides!) to show the folly of finding a cache lid and claiming a find. It's one thing to debate such things in the forums but to go forward and log a find on my cache, leave it there at least overnight, and in doing so draw me in trying to figure out what is going on? And then friends email me about the situation? I tracked down what was going through the forums but ... I don't want to be part of these debates. I saw the log he referred to - I disabled the cache after that post and then I get this forum poster's Found It log. Debate all you want, but please leave those of us not part of the debate out of it! The log I am referring to.

If you go through the tunnel, be aware there are TWO caches hidden in the tunnel: Bloody Fingers, Dirty Diapers by The Fen Dweller Old Bald Bison by by fishiam, OBE, myshoes, TMP, geokilt, Dache The second one is a simple projection puzzle with a fairly challenging hide (a bison in the tunnel). peace fishiam (who would love to go again having done the tunnel twice last year but doesn't appear to have the time to accompany)

I have indeed received the email and hopefully can get to this sometime this next week. I assume we want these caches to be fairly high quality so it's worth taking an extra day or two to scout a good location. cheers fishiam

Is this the final cache title, Cache 50:50 ? Personally, I still think The 50:50 Challenge sounds much better. The Cache 50:50 combination sounds like something to do with a 50:50 percent chance of something happening, like - the chance I go caching today is 50:50. Also if you inserted the implied words you would get Cache 50 States:50 Caches , which sounds really awkward compared to the expanded (and as I originally intended) The 50 States:50 Caches Challenge.

OK, I'll throw in a potentially silly suggestion: The 50 State:50 Cache Challenge or, more simply The 50:50 Challenge Perhaps with each of the caches including a hyphen and the state such as: The 50:50 Challenge - Washington