thebruce0

I would say the adoption wouldn't happen unless the CO approves. If you want to adopt, you have to convince the CO you can. If the CO doesn't care, then it'll just get archived anyway. Cache ownership should never change without the CO's final approval. No way for a person to just 'collect' caches up for adoption.

I think it's only the leaderboard-based ones that have the noon UTC start and end, the others go by calendar date. That's my reading of it anyway... For this daily streak challenge that's how I'd interpret it as well.

I haven't been holding back from posting DNFs. But I wonder how many people look at that number and want to reduce the dnfs! But take that to mean, well, just don't post as many We've seen that debate before, whether to post DNFs. I hope people aren't discouraged from posting DNFs just for the stats, but still stick to posting them if otherwise wouldn't - but instead make more effort to find caches and hope for a better find rate. heh

I think a couple of the biggest issues are this... you can't really apply one strategy equally worldwide. There's always going to be exceptions, and major counter-arguments depending on region and local community. I think what it comes down to is always going to be your local geocaching community. Automated systems are going to come with the significant margins for error, so the next best is manual systems with local folk who know their local region - and community. And that system is in place. It'll never be perfect, but no system will. Across the board, HQ can encourage a proper ethic and spirit of the hobby, but when it comes to specific areas, the community needs to help itself, and the local reviewers sort of set the bar for what the community will expect. I've seen NA/RAR logs on remote caches with DNFs and very few visits, and they go ignored by reviewers, while one of those posted on an urban cache is dealt with almost immediately. That's a choice and judgment the reviewer is making. So they are the ones setting the pace. A community needs people who want to regularly find and place geocaches. A community needs owners who have reasonable maintenance plans for the cache(s) they place (urban or remote) A community needs reviewers who have a thick skin and can put a foot down on the tough end of maintaining a reasonable standard, and a way with words to help steer people in the right direction when there are questions, concerns, and angry rants. HQ can only do so much. =/

Yep, I thought that was a good one. Encourage people to do something that's a little less common. Broaden some horizons. Personally it wasn't hard for me because my region is littered with all of those. But with so many reportedly new cachers likely using their phone in urban centers, those points probably required a little more effort

What about commuters? Is it really just hike/bike, or wasteful gas? There are SO many ways people may be participating without feeling forced, or feeling wasteful. And priorities is so very subjective. To tell someone their priorities are out of whack for do something they may enjoy that you may otherwise not is very projecting. Let people decide for themselves. I would agree if it comes to practical, obvious, or moral or ethical decisions - like skipping your daughter's recital so you can drive an hour for the lamp post. Still, it's not my business to tell you "you bad!" It was your choice, and I assume you've chosen to deal with the consequences - if any - of your decisions. Still this all assumes some of the worst circumstances to 'participate'. I don't disagree that they make it easier for people to be less honest about their habits. But I would not say they encourage cheating. (tho "cheating" is a different discussion) The souvenirs are there. You can do them. Or you can skip them. They may entice us to weigh the value of the effort needed to earn them. But they do not encourage cheating. People who cut corners and are dishonest about their logging in order to earn them - they have made their choice. I certainly don't agree with their practices, and if they do things that are against enforceable guidelines, then they should be reported and dealt with (as per any discussion about TOU violations or whatnot). If their stats are affected illegitimately, well that's their problem not mine. Having said that, I'll reiterate - I am all for finding ways to encourage experiencing the adventure - not reducing geocaching to a numbers game and missing out on amazing experiences (and potentially stepping on others along the way as people find ways to "win" the rewards instead of taking in the totality of experience cache owners are putting out there).

Because I was responding to (as quoted) "Not sure why, but container no longer as stated in attributes by the CO." Thus: if the attribute was "Not a tree climb" (and it is) it would apply. But if there is NO attribute, then nothing is stated in attributes about tree climb or not. I was responding to what I quoted.

"wasteful inefficiency" Well, again, this only applies to people for whom it would be excessive use of resources to participate. For many it may be a matter of a healthy daily walk to the nearest cache, or a daily bike ride. So why must it be "wasteful inefficiency"? It's a very biased perspective. Absolutely Gripe away! It's a completely understandable perspective. Just remember it's a perspective. The other direction is seeing it as a challenge, a goal-oriented "can I do it?" activity. It only becomes a "chore" when the value of having no longer outweighs the effort required to attain. It's no longer something you want to do. So don't do it. Culture today is so taken with trophies and rewards that many feel (effectively) that it should be a kind of right to be able to have what is offered; that the work required should not outweigh the value of having. "Everyone gets a prize!" is a cliche meme (from participation ribbons to Oprah's famous moment) but depicts the mentality well from the absurd extreme. Yes, when it comes down to it, you don't have to do anything. Remove the value of having the souvenir(s) and you're no longer in this limbo space of fighting your conscience to defend what you no longer want to do to have something that ultimately has zero value to you. On the other side of the fence, you have people who see it as a chance to have fun, be healthy and active, aim for and achieve a goal, etc. So, who's right? *shrug* I'd be more upset about easy pointless souvenirs like finding 1 cache. That's the type that reduces the inherent value offered for the souvenir rewards because there's literally zero effort in doing what is already being done. (tho arguably, it could take effort if someone's closest 1 cache is 100 km away) So it still becomes a subjective position based on your own personal anecdotal experience and ability. Instead of seeing it through tunnel vision eyes (legitimate as the concern may be), see that it can also be a positive for so many others. All that said... I'm also kind of bugged that the souvenirs so clumped together this month all seem to be far too similar and kind of clashing, and I'm not surprised there's so much angst about them And I am all for finding ways to encourage experiencing the adventure - not reducing geocaching to a numbers game and missing out on amazing experiences (and potentially stepping on others along the way as people find ways to "win" the rewards instead of taking in the totality of experience cache owners are putting out there). So I'm definitely not saying these are fantastic souvenirs!

Except, that might be more correct if the attribute was NOT a tree climb. If there's no attribute, it neither confirms nor denies that there is tree climbing required. So it's not false...

I agree. And that's one reason streaks are limited to one year. I think TPTB are making an educated judgment based on their internal worldwide stats that a promoted souvenir streak up to a month is still encouraging more caching in the grand scheme than dissuading caching by those of us who may have 'cached out' our area. It's hard to look at something like this and not rely on our own anecdotal circumstance to judge the situation worldwide. So it comes down again to our personal desire to earn the digital souvenir graphic for our profile, and whether it's worth the effort. Because I'm willing to bet HQ believes that a vast majority do feel it's worth the effort (that is, that it actually encourages more caching by people who may get out finding them much less than one per day). I consider it a greater challenge for myself than a relatively newbie. And other friends a bigger challenge who already get out daily and typically drive an hour or more for a caching trip. The souvenir will pose many difficulties across the smorgasboard of geocachers' and habits worldwide. But again. It's a digital graphic. We imbue it a value of our own volition.

Well, it's one benefit of bookmarks, but I wouldn't say they're made for storing customizable form data that was sent in the querystring. It's certainly the best workaround at this point here though. (and I absolutely do it as well having multiple commonly used search settings stored in my bookmarks) Should a "favourite" filter setup be retained in your account as the default view though when visiting the search/map page itself? Different question, and I think there's value in it.

You don't HAVE to earn the souvenirs. You don't HAVE to "drive by car every day to find a cache" if you care about the environment. HQ is not requiring people to be environmentally unfriendly. That is a call each person would choose to make on their own. Is the environment more important than the souvenir if earning it for you means violating your conscience? Then don't earn the souvenir. I'm sure HQ would agree. For many, it can be attainable without "driving by car every day to find a cache". That said, we did just do a streak(ish) challenge (but it's not a streak - just a day count within the period). I'm not surprised there's a lot of irking going on right now for a(nother, effectively) streak challenge. Probably could have at least held it off for another month or more I'll probably try. If I miss a day and it breaks, oh well. No digital souvenir graphic for me.

It's a relatively innocuous feature that goes ignored likely by the vast majority, abused by a very small minority, and can also be useful to a small minority. Anecdotal feedback about it not being useful to a few people doesn't mean it's not useful at all. I have seen beneficial use of the flags, in very rare occasions. I've also seen sarcastic and unhelpful use of the flags. But given how little it affects, it doesn't bother me one iota that such a simple feature exists and can be helpful on rare occasions. Not gonna flail my arms about it to get it removed.

And I'd say it's a very edge case since you can't Attend an event until its event date, so it's not often someone will A] post a Will Attend ON the event date (though it can happen), let alone B] Change an Attended log ON the event date to a Will Attend ON the event date... So I'd also go with either deleting the old log and posting a new one, or editing it to a Note and then to a Will Attend, since fixing it to work with this very edge case could be a whole lot more work than desired (but IANAHQD)

You did the right thing. If you think the listing is inaccurate, you can either correct it (simple fixes for accuracy) or republish it (major changes that have actually altered the experience). As mentioned if you really want you could publish another cache with the old settings if you make changes. But you can also remind people who rant about an accuracy fix that they can look up DT changes on Project-GC, and if it's that important on them for a challenge cache qualification, they can ask the challenge owner to accept their prior qualification on providing evidence your cache's DT has changed. If they're just up in arms about their stats and it's not even about a challenge cache qualification, well bully for them. You're doing it for everyone else's experience in finding your cache, and that's your responsibility, not their numbers.

Well I guess it's not an ever day carry item but the telescopic ladder can certain be carried with easy over the shoulder! Everyday Geomobile Carry

Did you mean "archive" or "achieve"? Did GCHQ archive a challenge?

The cache finds don't show right away in PGC, they have to be imported in their db update process. Check back after some time.

enh. I'm siding with HQ on this one, given the history of Virtuals. No, I don't think everyone who wants one should simply be given one. There's a reason they have minimal requirements, and there's a reason they aren't just plastering the gameboard(world) with them. Unfortunately that necessarily means that some who would otherwise get one, won't get one, because there's a limited number to give. There's no perfect solution. And there's no guarantee that every Virtual given will successfully be created and be quality. C'est la vie.

What? No ladder?! That's always in the geomobile! Whether it's to make a tree climb easier (I'll avoid using it as much as possible for this though :)) or being required for a 5T hide. Never leave home without it Hate being on a drive and not having the telescopic ladder. Could even be used as a makeshift bridge over water (but usually rain boots or waders will suffice, which is also a geomobile essential )

Methinks this is not going to make cachers who aren't awarded one for the fourth time very happy... It sounds like if you have received one previously, you might still this round, but your chance is less than someone who has never received one. Or another way, someone who hasn't received one yet and is eligible has a greater chance of getting one this round than someone who is eligible who previously received one. That almost certainly means there will be people who won't get one for a 4th time. But they can't simply give everyone one who hasn't had one yet. Best one can do is be eligible and hope that, having a greater chance, it's enough of a chance to get one.

Let's just remember that sometimes languages can be a barrier. On top of the emotionless nature of plain text.

As always, the souvenirs have never been based on the actual date/time you create logs, but the date you post TO the logs (representing the date you are saying you found the cache). The only limitation that's ever really been on when you create the logs has been a window of allowance for awarding the souvenir (eg, find caches in X month, but you have until the end of the year to log the caches if you want the souvenir) and I can't name a souvenir that's had that limitation, but I think there's been some.

Also what people seem to forget is geocaching natively only provides 3 digits of precision for publishing and finding anyway, so you could still have the most accurate GPS and only get so close [to the posted coordinates]. There are some COs who might go the extra mile and provide much higher precision coordinates in the description. But in my experience, I've only seen that on caches published as GPS testers for fun. DDM coordinates in this hobby are plenty precise enough. Beyond that, as mentioned, so many other factors...

No, 100% guaranteed the challenge is not to log finds on 20 different days. But in so many words, to have logs that have 20 different posted dates, whenever you chose to actually create them. How do my find logs affect other people's statistics? That's not what I said. Maybe it wasn't clear enough. People say they'll play how they want because it doesn't affect them. Statistics, no that doesn't affect anyone but you (and people who choose to be competitive, which is not required). Log content is read by other people, and what you log can affect decisions by other people. But that's is a topic for a different thread. My point was about Intentionally misleading log content -> the posted log date. That is not innocuous, unlike whether your stats affect someone else.