lostinjersey

It aggrevates me when people feel the need to say "no help cheater" or some similar crap. If you don't want to provide assistance, I guess that's your business but why throw us a red herring and make us decode something that won't be of any help. I also can't stand ireelevant info even to say "good luck". decoding in the field is a total pain in the butt, why oh why make me decode anything more then necesary? Sometimes it is useful to say "park here" take left fork, etc etc" but unless the average person is bound to be going the wrong way, why do we need directions from the parking lot? Clues generally shouldn't be needed to get you the entire way. If they are, then that person shouldn't be caching alone then. I also (like most of you it seems) hate vague clues. sometimes there really isn't anything distinctive around, but it seems a lot of people just don't try. As I've been led to understand it, the clue is supposed to tell you exactly where it is. It is meant to be a last resort to give it away. Why folks act all hoity toity about it is beyond me. Sometimes signal strength is kaput. Sometimes folks just need a boost. Some folks are better at this then others. Somes difficulties are underrated. Whats the big deal? Oh... some folks might cheat fromt he moment they get there? Oh puh-leaze. Like it really matters THAT much. this is a game folks, not an SAT. www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by Acceptable Risk: Not sure if I like the idea or not but maybe with some changes? I agree, needs to be centered on the US of A. Otherwise my friends from Holland will think we've grown soft or something. It actually pretty good otherwise. I like the strong contrast, and it doesn't feel "thrown together" like some of the others do. (No offense, I wouldn't have even come up with something as decent as those...) Once we get a bunch together we should put together a poll, take a vote. www.gpswnj.com

But there are two folders for this... www.gpswnj.com

Hey floopy, I've run into you a few times (including Compusa, that was funny). It's great that you have a family that enjoys it as much as you do. Not everyone is so lucky. What percentage of your finds do you think Ma & Pa floopy came along? William www.gpswnj.com

J Seward Johnson has created some highly unusual public pieces of art. The vast majority of them depict people in everyday activites, taking picture, reading the paper, talking with others, etc. made of bronze they are so lifelike that people think they're real people. Go to his site & take a look, they're quite amazing. I ran into one of his non-human sculptures & didn't realize what an accomplished artist he was till someone else pointed it out to me. I decided to create a locationless cache based on it. It seems since he is still alive & he does sell his work, it was too commercial? Come on guys, let's not be rules lawyers. I don't think this comes anywhere near being commercial, but even if it does toe the line there are other LC that are certainly far more commercial then this (yellow Jeep, hot dog, the hershey kiss, and many others) I mean does anyone seriously think anyone will be influenced in anyway to buy his artwork based on this geocache? As my grandfather would say "Pish-posh!" I actually was quite surprised, as I was at the site & saw no mention anywhere regarding the sale of his art. The closest I could find was a reference that you can obtain a catalog by writing to them. THAT makes this commercial? Pish. Posh. If you think it is indeed commercial, please tell me what exactly makes it so? As I said I can't locate any reference on his site to selling his art. If he's not selling, then what makes it commercial? I am clueless www.gpswnj.com [This message was edited by Gwho on October 06, 2002 at 07:36 PM.]

quote:Originally posted by Schmidt-Family:I might be a little sick...but I've actually thought about this....on the back side of my own gravestone, the coords, a little box built into the granite.......my find/hidden count....my caching name....why not. William Angus Born: 40 56.963 74 48.127 Died: 48 52.109 72 44.987 Buried: 40 55.482 73 48.923 www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by Alan2:Assuming it could be tracked, should scoring be modified with a weighted value based on whether you used spoilers and hints? Key words here being "assuming it could be tracked" I'd say no, no, & no. And it can't be tracked except to see who clicks on decode. But I can just decode it in the field and no one would know. But if the geogods knew, it still needless to weight this stuff. www.gpswnj.com

hit send, then stop so I could fix something. both messages appear. It says "click here to edit OR DELETE" I click, then click on DLETE, and a message says "this forum does not support deleting messages." HUH?!?!?!?!?!? Gee let's create buttons that we don't intend to support. Am I missing something? Real message to follow below...

I am not a graphics person AT ALL. But I do like the idea of my own coins. I like the wooden nickle one because they're cool & cheap. 250 for $60.00 I was thinking my weird nj logo (wait, what logo? I dont have one yet. Well I'll make one someday) a reference to my website on side A, then the geocaching logo & www.geocaching.com on the flip side. but I'd have to worry about the whole issue of property rights. even if i'm not selling them I'd be worried. come on graphic whizes! let's see what you can come up with! www.gpswnj.com

Someone actually suggested in a forum about an adult themed cache. firecrckers, ammo & porno. no joke. UGG! I'd hate to see the log on that one. (sorry, bad puns are my specialty!) By the way that expression of your face is priceless. And for the record, I'm another costumed geocacher! www.gpswnj.com

I've only sought one benchmark and used it as a log on the benchmark LC, but all I know is I saw a thread titled "your most interesting BM's"... the (benchmarks) part was left out due to space. so I'm thinking, what an off-topic-topic for the forums. How personal am I supposed to get? Then I come here and see that BM meant benchmark. OH. Guess I won't be posting that intersting story behind why I put campers toilet paper in the You Bug Me cache. www.gpswnj.com

I've only sought one benchmark and used it as a log on the benchmark LC, but all I know is I saw a thread titled "your most interesting BM's"... the (benchmarks) part was left out due to space. so I'm thinking, what an off-topic-topic for the forums. How personal am I supposed to get? Then I come here and see that BM meant benchmark. OH. Guess I won't be posting that intersting story behind why I put campers toilet paper in the You Bug Me cache. www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by Whidbey Walk: quote:Originally posted by Gwho:…..it'll take a fair amopunt of votes to get something into the top 5% The problem I see with this system is that it could prevent more remote or difficult caches from making the list. For example, lets suppose that a really good cache is found 50 times and 10 people put it on their top 10 list. Then you have a great cache that has only been found 5 times but all 5 finders add it to their list. By only recognizing the top vote getters the results would end up skewed towards the most frequently found caches and likely clustered around population centers. http://home.earthlink.net/~whidbeywalk/ quote:How would you determine NJ's top 27 caches ? If it goes on number of votes, then there is the very real possibility that the top 5% of caches will have some tied votes. This will result in, say, 35 or ever 50 caches meeting the requirement of the top 5%. Where would the line be dropped then ? I don't there's too much risk. What I meant by "a fair amount" is more then just 1 or 2. Perhaps you just list all those that tied for 10th. Better yet though, why not just use percentages as the tiebreakers. Let say 3 caches are tied for the last spot on the list. they all have 5 votes, but cache one has 50 finds, cache 25 and cache 3 6 finds. well I'd say cache 3 is a hhelluva lot ighly thought of just based on the ratings to logs ratio. This ties in with my next paragraph.... Don't forget though if we do this whole top 10 thing, I've felt that it should be points based, sorta like elimination heats. a #1 rating gets you 10 points whereas a a 10 rating gets you one point. I doubt ties will be much of an issue personally. as for a cache being rated 5x out of 5 logs, thats a really good point. In response, I was thinking of modifying what I said earlier about "upcoming new commers" and just remove the 2 month time table. remember upcoming newcommers isn't exactly the same as a top 10 cache. it reflects a lot of top votes among only a handful of logs. different icon, but same basic thing. maybe it would need a different name then. This way if a cache only gets a handful of logs the first year, and they all are raves, then this would get it the recognition it clerly deserves. alternately maybe they could be some sorta mathmathical formula to give weight to caches with fewer logs, but then we get really technical. Not sure if that would be a good idea, because what's the right "weight"? Just to add something new to the discussion I was also thinking that something else new I'd like to see at the site is statistics and things. I can't recall which one because it was a while ago but some group of geocachers had a really cool website which gave all sorta statistics on caches in their state: most frequently sought, frequently found, travel bugs placed in them, all sorts cool stats. Somewhat useless, but very cool. www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by Perfect Tommy:Or you could http://www.cityisland.com/nautical/ a boat. There are marinas in the South Bronx and City Island. You could split the rental for a 20-ft aluminum with a couple of other 'cachers. however I didn't want to rent/go it alone because of cost/safety/no fun by yourself. as for sharing great, but someone still needs to pilot the boat. Do they usually come with one? I don't think I've been on a boat in 20+ years so I'm serious when I say I don't know. www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by team bubbletree:I have a 20ft trophy fishing boat. Is that too big for the waters in the area your talking about? sounds about right, although some wading may be necesary. Course I know jack about boats so what I think probably shouldn't be relied upon. For the record any weekend this month except 10/5 & 6 & saturday 10/12. www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by DirtRunner: quote:Originally posted by Gwho:For every five finds you're allowed to add a cache to your top 10 favorites. once you get 50 finds, you'll hqve maxed out and now be able to have a complete 50 10 personal favorites. Functionlity is simple: a button on the page next to the "log it" watch it buttons. clicking it then brings up a page where you get to decide what # to place it on your list. you must have logged a succesful find on it to be able to rank it. I like some of your ideas but 10 "specials" after 50 finds is 20% not 5%. 5% of 50 finds would be 2.5 caches. You would get to 10 specials at 5% after 200 finds. only the top 5% of rated caches get the little "cool cache" icon. so if there are 537 caches in NJ, 27 or so will get the icon. Delaware has 33 so only 2 or 2 get the icon. All that has no relvance to my ability to rating caches highly. after 5 caches found I can add one cache to my personal top 10. at 10 I add another, till I've reached 50 finds, at which point I can now have a fully decked out top 10 list. how many of my favorites actually get displayed as such will depend on a) how other peoplr in the area rate caches, and how many caches can get the nod in that state. no relation between the two. BTW I don't think I said it before but I also think everyone's personal favorites would be displayed on that persons about me page (unless they don't want it to, in which case they can toggle it off) So Come On Admin! Jeremy! Whadaya think of all this stuff? I want new features for premium members! I also want ignore buttons on my search page, I want to be able to use all the coll search criteria in pocket queries, but right now when I hit search, not just in queeries. Dirtwell commented about abuse although I couldn't find it, the thread was too long and I searched it 2x) but I get the gist of it. My system only allows people who have experience to rate caches this way. How many jack***s do you know with 50+ finds. Yeah there are some but jerks like geobuddy would be able to do anything because a) he only would have had 1 vote at his peak, and he can't rate anything badly, my system only allows outstanding caches to get a spotlight. so yeah, two people could conspire "I'll highly rate your caches, you highly rate mine" but come on, most cachers wouldn't do something like that. and remember, just because 2 individuals conspire to mess with things, it won't matter unless others join in with them. it'll take a fair amopunt of votes to get something into the top 5% William www.gpswnj.com

quote: Jeremy compromised by restoring the find counts, plus a note that they only update when the cache page regenerates (i.e., when someone else adds or edits a log entry). oh. thanks for telling me. nice if that was stated on the above mentioend page. but at least I know (and I was wondering why it hadn't happened after 2+ weeks) www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by Markwell:For the record, the system still posts found count. Not for long, according to Jeremy's post in the admin forum. to quote... "First, you'll notice that the number of caches found has been removed from the logs. The reason behind this is that now the pages are generated whenever there is a change - such as a travel bug added, a new log posted, or the cache itself edited by the owner. As a result, if you log other caches afterwards (or if no activity occurs for the cache after your log), the number found would be incorrect. You can, however, still click on the user's name to see their profile, which contains their find count." www.gpswnj.com

I've been working on this for a while myself. however I haven't been to any parks recently where I could hide it and KNOW it wouldn't be stumbled on. Not without it being too close to another cache (something I dislike doing) you also risk people dumbing it down... LOG: Great hide. real challenge getting here. nice cache container. Took Doom III. left Super mario brothers/duck hunt for the Nintendo NES system. I've seriously considered making it premium subsriber only for jsut that reason, especially since I'm gonna have a decent outlay to start up the cache. www.gpswnj.com

quote:Originally posted by Markwell:Can you search for Markwell's Favorites? Not unless you go to my profile. Would you know to go to my profile if you were coming to Chicago? Only if you've read this thread. actuall there was a mechanic to do so. just look at a few caches in the target area, then find a log by someone with a lot of finds. now you can't do this since they stopped posting find # quote:Originally posted by Markwell:But let's take a stab at it from the other side. Who is going to benefit from this Hallmark Designation? Local Cachers? New Local Cachers? Visitors? actuall i think you left out one catagory: cache placers. i think it would inspire people to place better caches, stock them better, do better jobs of hiding them, etc. quote:Originally posted by Markwell:I still disagree. Many times I only really like or dislike a cache after I put it in true perspective a couple of weeks down the road. My Top 10% list is now part of my profile, and I will review it periodically to make sure that the list is indeed what reflects my top 10%. i also agree. i like you markwell. we think alot alike here. my favorites have now been added to my page. I ranked my favorite hides also. www.gpswnj.com

disclaimer: this features is for premium members only. that's what we pay extra for, to get cool stuff like this.... For every five finds you're allowed to add a cache to your top 10 favorites. once you get 50 finds, you'll hqve maxed out and now be able to have a complete 50 10 personal favorites. Functionlity is simple: a button on the page next to the "log it" watch it buttons. clicking it then brings up a page where you get to decide what # to place it on your list. you must have logged a succesful find on it to be able to rank it. virtuals, multi's, letterbox, all are in the same catagory and are compared to one another rating wise, equally. i think locationless should be seperate from all the rest because they are reverse engineered and by their nature thew criteria for rating are different then caches that must be found via the gps. from inside your personal profile you can remove listings or rearrange the order. every state gets a top 5% listing. the top 5% of rated caches will get a little doodad displayed next to it. everyone sees this, even non-paying members. I chose 5% as I felt this gives a fairly decent number of possible winners without being too much or too little. premium members get this added bonus. they can do a search for top rated caches in the area. I also think another neat addition would be hot newcomers. if a cache receives at least 5 votes (of any rank) in the first two months it'll be listed as a hot newcomer. this evens out the fact that a a cache with 10 logs & 5 top ratings is really more highly thought of then a cache with 50 logs & 5 top ratings. this "hot new commer" listing would only remain for the first tow months. after that, it's old enough to not be considered all that new. i think all of this is simple, centralized, provides useful info in a short compact way and allows for users to change their minds as time goes by. quote: I guess if it were "officially adopted" you could have a count at the top "x # of cachers have this cache on their top 10% list" just like the "being watched by" count. I think this would also be an excellent addition. great idea. what say you all? www.gpswnj.com

In looking around to see if this topic had been discussed I found a few comments by cachers in this thread about the Spooky Island cache. it's on an island in NYC and no one got to it for over a year. There are a few other island based caches in the area, so I'd like to make an open proposal: does anyone want to get together and make a group hunt on some of these island caches? Someone needs to provide the boat (I don't have one, otherwise I'd have logged a visit by now) One comment that was made was this: The water is very shallow, unless you have a sunfish or real small boat with a removable centerboard, you wont be able to sail in, you would have to wade ashore, and that would be a drag this time of year. That was made in February Pretty soon it will again be too cold. Any takers? www.gpswnj.com

I'd like to complain about all the gratutitous sex on the televeision. I mean, I keep falling off! www.gpswnj.com

I'd like to complain about all the gratutitous sex on the televeision. I mean, I keep falling off! www.gpswnj.com

Um. I guess I get it now. the reverse engineered part was clear, and the no gps part is much clearer now. still off topic though. www.gpswnj.com