[What Was In Your Mailbox Today!]

Jackpot (sorta)

 

I got our shipment of coins we had minted today

 

25 UnitedGeoCachers Paperless Caching Geocoin (Gold)

25 UnitedGeoCachers Paperless Caching Geocoin (Nickel)

10 UnitedGeoCachers Paperless Caching Geocoin LE (Copper)

 

Only problem is that I am still confused as to the problem with our coin and the other PDA Paperless Caching Assistant coin. I have heard rumors that they mixed up all the tracking numbers and alot of people who have activated their ROUND coin are getting the SQUARE ICON, which means it's the PDA coin's icon. Still waiting on CoinsAndPins to get back with me as to what to do.

 

I will post info on our site unitedgeocachers.com as to what ever I find out and keep it updated. Still not sure if we all have to send the ROUND ones back or send BOTH of them back, I know I already activated my PDA one and it's good, but who ever gets the ROUND one with the same tracking number is going to be mad or confused as to why their coin is already activated, and then they search and see that it's not what they have in their hand.

[New in MO]

We live up at the Lake of the Ozarks, but planning on caching soon in Springfield. We would be more than happy to meet up with you then or let us know if you are ever up this way.

 

That would be awesome, I can only "geo cache" on the weekends or in the evening (work, you know). I teach school and would love to be able to do this and share with my students....we might even develop a geo cache for people to find if I can learn enough. Would love to go along as an observer if you are in the area....I have a brother in Camdenton and get up that way sometimes too....thanks!!!

 

As for the schools getting involved, DO IT I am in the process of talking to both Bois D'Arc and Ash Grove schools about doing caches. Still in the planning stages, but you have a "FOOT IN THE DOOR" so to speak being a teacher and all. Vice Pin at Ash Grove who used to be in Bois D'Arc is real interested but doesn't really want to do it alone, sounds like he wants to get a couple at least other schools involved and even maybe have some kind of compitition ???

[New in MO]

I am new to this and the whole concept interests me...are there any out there close to Springfiel, Missouri that would take on a novice and let me accompany you on a geocache??

Thanks in advance....

 

There are lots of us in the area, not sure how many play here on the forums tho, to busy caching ? ? Anyway, the best way to find local cachers would also be to look at all the caches around your area, do a search, and then look at who put them there, then go to their profile and send em a message. Example, most of the ones west of springfield are all mine and phenixcachers. We are always picking up others and doing team caching. I too have been working long hours and 6 days a week, but get out as much as I can.

[Coin "Bag" Idea]

I typed this up last night in word and was going to post it, when I saw someone already hit the idea. I'll just cut and paste it...here is my ideas...

 

 

I have two ideas that perhaps GC.com could make available to member only or the general public. They both have to do with Geocoins.

 

First idea…there are a lot of people that collect geocoins that don’t necessarily want to set them free. They want to keep them in their possession and take them to events to share/discover them. The problem is, the geocacher’s inventory shows all these coins along with all the other coins or TB’s that person has in their possession. Right now, I know a lot of cachers get around this by kind of cheating the system and creating a fake cache. This a cache they create, but just don’t activate, enabling them to drop the their collectables. This permits the cacher to keep their coins separate from “wild” coins. It seems like it would be easy to fix by just adding another option to members.

 

Second idea…this idea stems off the first idea dealing with cachers that collect geocoins. The problem is, lets say there is an event and a geocoin collector wants to bring their coins. If a person has 50+ coins, this would take forever logging each one. I think if there was some way GC.com could make it to where the owner of the coin was able to Drop all coins in a cache and then pick them all up with out having to enter every trackable item.

 

Oh, I just figured it out. I have one easy solution to fix both problems. This would really add to the whole geocaching experience. And I think it should be added as a membership only feature. As a member you get an account that would be called something like “collectable account” which each member could name just as they would name a geocache. In this account you would put your collectable coins in it. This collection would have some kind of a tracking number that would be associated with all the coins that where put in it. This way, when a cacher goes to an event, they enter this one collection tracking number and all their coins that are in the collectable account go into the event cache. When the person leaves, they enter the one collection tracking number and all the coins go with them. This would also be great because you could make it to where people could discover that person’s collection, the owner could give them that number and the discoverer would get all coin icons in the collection. Maybe make it to where the discoverer has to ask owner for permission first. Where if someone wanted to discover the collection, the discoverer would request to discover the collection, GC.com would send the owner an email and the owner would have to grant permission to let the person discover them…so you don’t have someone passing around your collection number around??

 

Yup Yup, see it's not that small of a world after all. Very Good Ideas. As for the Fake Caches that will never get published, yea, I know about 20 people in this area that are doing the same thing, and with the system the way it is, it's the only and safest way to go, and still keep things organized. With todays Techno Savy people out there, I don't see how this could be any harder that things that are going on at the gc.com site now... They took Virtual, Locationless and Web Cam caches away, looks like they could just as easy give one back hehehehe

[Coin "Bag" Idea]

Here is a idea

 

How about a "coin bag", a place on your profile where you could put all your trackable items in it,

 

I totally agree with this idea. I too utilize a cache that I never intend to publish to "hide" all my coins in and keep them out of my active inventory.

 

Having a "coin bag", "purse", or "private inventory" would be a VERY nice addition to the site.

 

<putting on flame suit>

I would also like to see some way of being able to at least pick up your entire "private inventory" from an event. It would make it much easier to retrieve the items, and would have to cut down on some of the network traffic generated from gc.com with all the retrieval emails and logs.

 

Wow, you almost hit this one on the proverbial nail head I too am dreading my first event that I go to with my new collection. Still kind of new to the collecting part of this and have only been to one event, which was the spark that got me collecting in the first place. I too have come to the conclusion that I am not going to release any more coins into the wild… Tired of them getting lost so to speak. I don’t have 300+ coins or anything but if I keep collecting at the rate I am going it won’t be long. I too have made a “Fake Cache” just to dump them in so they don’t clutter up the inventory list.

 

But I was thinking towards the line of a totally new CACHE TYPE.

 

<Also grabs for a flame suit>

 

Kind of a MOVEABLE or MOBILE CACHE. Haven’t worked out all the details even in my mind or how it would work, maybe I’m thinking to simple, but it seems you can make your “Coin Bag/Purse” a cache it’s self and when you take it to an event, the coordinates would follow some how. Then with all your coins/tb’s in one cache, on one cache page you have the option built in already to just click on the ones you want to log and skip the ones you don’t or have already logged from a previous event. Any or all of your coins/tb’s could be available to be discovered, traded, picked up, etc. etc.

 

The idea of dropping your “BAG/PURSE” into an event is something I never even thought of but I like it a lot. Kind of like “Windows Explorer” Click on a BAG/PURSE that is in an event and it would open up to show all the coins/tb’s that cacher has at the event to be discovered.

 

Ok, so maybe that’s more than .02 worth but hey, I look at it this way, why not add features to a great site that’s already established? If you don’t want to use them, don’t, but at least let us that do, have that option. I very seldom use the Query Features or even 50% of the other features that are offered, but I know 100’s or others that couldn’t live without them.

[Aren't you tired of Server Too Busy error messages?]

The point I am making is that the post was made over 2 months ago... Also its not located in this forum where people (people that PAY for this site) are complaining about a problem but yet not getting a response.

 

It's posted in the announcements section of the site. Not sure that TPTB want to post the same thing every 2 days when a new thread pops up about the server error. Everytime I see one, I'm going to post that link, because it is the latest information I believe. Maybe there's nothing new to report?

 

Don't want to get into a big debate here hehehehe, just stating that Team Dubbin gets the point for a win on this one on my topic and what I was talking about.... I DID look in the Geocaching Announcements section before I posted my comment on the 12th, even did a search for some info on what was going on posted by someone other than just us members. It just seemed to me that with all the problems they were having prior and leading up to the 12th of Feb, they wouldn't wait over 2 months to at least say "Hey, We know there’s a problem LATELY, and we are working on it." Coincidence that they DID post something on the 13th? One day after my post?

[Aren't you tired of Server Too Busy error messages?]

Would be nice for someone at gc.com to at least post a little note saying they know about the problem and give some kind of time frame, I hate having bugs in hand and not logging them. but also hate sitting here past my bedtime when it's going to be tomarrow night before it's fixed. No biggie Not mad at them, used to it by now. Man I hate going to watch tv with the family when I could be caching hehehehhe

[Poor Condition or Destroyed?]

You log the station disk on the condition found and then you add to the log "Found the stem of RM1 - Disk missing" and you can also add the same for the azimuth mark. This would be the same for both GC.com & NGS.

 

I don't think destroyed is appropriate since these are part of an horizontal control station and the center of the mark is the survey point used. Even though the disk is gone the center of the stem could be used in a pinch.

 

John

 

Cool, did what you said on GC.com, but as for the NGS, I sent a long little letter to Deb with pictures of all 4 (Station, RM1, RM2, and Azimuth) with both closeup and from a distance showing the condition. That's kinda what I understood I needed to do by reading the info on the page where you do the reporting. Looks like to me since the foundatioin and stem are all still good, they could just attach a new disk????

[Poor Condition or Destroyed?]

Hey, the more I ask the more I learn and the less I will ask latrer hehehehe

 

Ok, here is another one that's stumping me. Topic is going to be on HD1327

 

Station Recovered in Excellent Coindition

Reference Mark 1 Missing

Reference Mark 2 Recovered in Good Condition

Azimuth Mak Missing

 

Here is an example of a new road going in. Road crew must have got dozer happy on some day while working near the Azimuth Mark and shaved it off. And Mower Crew must have got cutting happy and cliped the Ref Mark 1.

 

The foundations are still there and even the rod down the center is there. Only thing missing is the disk.

 

 

This is the Azimuth Foundation

 

 

This is the Ref 1 Foundation

 

Now the question ??? How do you report these? Everything is there, directions to find them is good, it's just the disk is missing...

[Semi-Newbie With Questions]

Been playing with benchmarks now for about 3 years, but just lately got brave enough to really find out what it's all about. One of my first hunts took me to HD1334. Here is my findings:

 

Station was recovered in excellent condition

Reference Mark 1 was not recovered. It's now in a plowed field

Reference Mark 2 was recovered in good coindition

Azimuth Mark was recovered in excellent condtition

 

Question 1, how is the best way to report these 4 distinct locations? on the main HD1334 for the station or on the individual ones like Ref Mark 1 = CN5576, ref Mark 2 = CN5577, and Azimuth = CN5575?

 

Quesiton 2, Here is what they had in the database on the Azimuth:

 

HD1334 STATION RECOVERY (1996)

HD1334

HD1334'RECOVERY NOTE BY MO DEPT OF NAT RES 1996

HD1334'THE STATION WAS FOUND IN GOOD CONDITION. THE STATION IS A STANDARD CGS

HD1334'TRIANGULATION STATION DISK STAMPED -ASH 1959- AND SET IN A 12 INCH

HD1334'SQUARE CONCRETE POST PROJECTING 1 INCH AND IS LOCATED IN THE NORTH

HD1334'RIGHT-OF-WAY OF FARM ROAD -52- IN THE SE 1/4 OF SECTION 5, TOWNSHIP 31

HD1334'NORTH, RANGE 24 WEST. THE STATION IS 19 FT (5.8 M) NORTH OF THE ROAD

HD1334'CENTERLINE, 2 FT (0.6 M) SOUTH OF THE NORTH RIGHT-OF-WAY FENCE, 75.8

HD1334'FT (23.1 M) EAST OF A UTILITY POLE, AND 4.0 FT (1.2 M) SOUTHWEST OF A

HD1334'STEEL POST AND WITNESS SIGN. TO REACH THE STATION FROM THE JUNCTION OF

HD1334'U.S. HIGHWAY 160 AND COUNTY HIGHWAY -V- IN ASH GROVE, GO NORTH ON

HD1334'HIGHWAY -V- FOR 2 MI (3.2 KM) TO A T-ROAD LEFT. TURN LEFT AND GO WEST

HD1334'AND NORTH ON A PAVED ROAD FOR 0.95 MI (1.53 KM) TO A T-ROAD LEFT.

HD1334'TURN LEFT AND GO WEST ON A PAVED ROAD FOR 0.1 MI (0.2 KM) TO THE

HD1334'STATION ON THE RIGHT ON THE NORTH SIDE OF ROAD. AZIMUTH MARK NOT

HD1334'RECOVERED AT THIS TIME. DATE OF REPORT 08-23-1996

 

As you can see Mo Dept Of Nat Res in 1996 said they did not recover the Azimuth, does that mean they didn't look? Or does it mean they looked but didn't find and marked it as destroyed? I think what happened is what happened with us when we looked for it, the directions for where it is can be missleading. We DID find it and it was in excellent conditions. How do I go about proving I found it? Kinda hard to believe something this important would be believed by someone with no experance found it and they take my word for it over the MO Dept Of Nat Res..

[GEOCOIN TRADING, WANTS, OFFERS AND LISTS]

I am searching for a coin that was released by coinsandpins.com that is called "CoinsAndPins geocoin". It is the one that has a picture of the E3 Aircraft on it. I just retired from the USAF and worked on this plane for the last 10 years. Would love to have one of them to add to all my other squadron coins. If you happen to have one or know of any way to get one PLEASE let me know... Thanks

 

[Premium Membership Logo]

When you join the Premium Membership deal, one of the things it talks about is this:

 

Premium Membership logo: Each premium member will have an icon next to their name indicating that they help support the Geocaching.com site.

 

Anyone know where or when these logo's pop up? I've never seen them or maybe I don't know where to look...

 

Just wondering

[Tb's That Stay With You]

Thanks so much "worldtraveler" Never thought about even trying that drop down, on all the other bugs I have seen or found, it has that "Found It? Log It!" link to hit, which personal owned TB's doesn't have....... Thanks so much

[Tb's That Stay With You]

Great, thanks for the input

 

One more question, It doesn't look like I can pick up a bug I put in a cache that is owned by me, haven't done it yet, but looked at the options for one of my other ones I droped yesterday, and Log it isn't one of the options. How you do that? Make a new account to do all the logging?

[Tb's That Stay With You]

Just wondering....... have seen some of these TB's that never leave the owner's hands. They put them in every cache they find and then take it right back out. I agree, it's a great way to see just how many miles you have gone during your normal caching. Just wondering opinions on this. Don't see anything wrong with it myself, but then again not sure if it's against any rules for the TB's. Heck we bought them, guess we are free to do with them and send them on any mission we see fit.......................