Sandy
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Posts posted by Sandy
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Thank you for your feedback. We do aim to be communicative with the community throughout our forums, but cannot always cover the width and breadth of the forums.
We can update the engineering team that use of our site on tablets exacerbates this issue.
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This bug has been reported to our engineering team, and has yet to be scheduled for a fix.
We apologize for the delay in reporting back to you on the matter, and will endeavor to be more communicative about this bug as it is prioritized for a fix.
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Suspensions from Geocaching.com might occur if the behavior of a cacher has violated our site's Terms of Use. A geocacher may actively try to circumvent the Geocaching.com cache placement guidelines, and this has at times resulted in a site suspension. A geocacher may violate the forum guidelines, which has at times resulted in site suspension.
Reports of behavior come from members of the geocaching community, volunteers, organizations external to Groundspeak, such as land managers, and lackeys. Each case is assessed and decided on its own merits, and after careful consideration. Suspension length is part of this consideration. All correspondence between Groundspeak and a geocacher who has been suspended is considered confidential.
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We get people asking for help with puzzles because it's the natural thing to do. How many people will ask a family member or even a complete stranger for help with a clue in a crossword. It's almost "what's a five letter word for stereotype?". Most of these are people doing their best to figure out the solution and find the cache. Some may even have contacted the cache owner first and got no help, while others may feel more comfortable just posting the question on the internet.
We have a few puzzle owners who think any hint some how ruins the fun of the puzzle, and they've been vocal enough to get Groundspeak to adopt a silly rule forbidding sharing of any information. At one time they even had Groundspeak using wording that forbid publishing a hint in any form on any media. The rule, even though now just limited to Grounspeak websites, is so broad that it's not clear that if someone posted some general methods for working puzzles in response to a question about a specific cache, that the cache owner couldn't claim it gives too much away.
I've been through this enough times to realize that my view is not widely shared in the forum or by the cache owners who fell strongly enough to complain to Groundspeak. It makes no sense to me to try and stop the natural order where people ask for help when a problem is too tough to solve on their own, and the natural propensity of others to help. I'm glad I'm not a moderator who has to enforce such foolishness.
Current Terms of Use (Section 4m) You agree not to..."(m) Publish, on any Groundspeak owned web property, the solutions, hints, spoilers, or any hidden coordinates for any geocache without consent from the cache owner." This was updated earlier this year. The idea of preventing spoilers to caches on Geocaching.com and related sites is to support cache owners who have developed puzzle caches. 'Spoilers' are aptly named, and we ask that no one post a spoiler on Groundspeak's sites without the express consent of the owner, as is respectful practice.
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All done.
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We have applied the souvenir to remaining accounts. If you are still affected by this issue, please email us directly with your username.
Many thanks.
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Hello everyone.
This project has been put on the back-burner for the time being. That said, there are active discussions about implementation here at Groundspeak. I will certainly update this thread when we know more, and/or if a roll-out date is decided. Thank you for your continued support of this cache type, which I will be passing on to the appropriate lackeys.
Cheers!
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We identified an error while generating Pocket Queries. The issue has been resolved, and PQs can now be generated again - error free.
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An update for all affected cachers. We apologize and we will fix this.
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An update for all affected cachers. We apologize and we will fix this.
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Hello everyone.
We hope you had a brilliant time geocaching this past weekend, and particularly on August 18th, International Geocaching Day. We realize that some users have yet to be awarded their souvenir for that day, and we apologize. We will be updating all currently-affected profile through our database by Wednesday a.m., Seattle time.
If your account is not updated correctly, please email contact@Groundspeak.com after that time.
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It may be that linking to an external survey violates forum guidelines, particularly guideline #9. As we do not generally permit surveys in our forums, it is unlikely we will permit links to external surveys. These are 'guidelines' rather than 'rules', as they allow for assessment of each case by the forum Moderators and by Groundspeak. They also allow for exceptions at Groundspeak's discretion. I understand that this may not be concrete enough of a response for some participants.
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Groundspeak asks that you honor the forum guidelines posted here. At times, our Moderators make assessments about content that does not comply with our guidelines, particularly #9. There is no 'black list' as such, but a determination about content is made on each post, and each forum report. If you have questions about specific content, you can email Groundspeak. If you want to dispute content that was removed from our Geocaching.com forums, please email Groundspeak.
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Premium Membership:
1.2 PMO Caches (Explanations of how to identify them)
1.4 CAAR (clarified instructions; added link to video)
1.5 Instant Notifications (clarified instructions)
1.6 Favorites (added links)
1.8 Google Maps (page added)
1.9 Map Filtering (page added)
1.10 Geocaching Premium Statistics (page added)
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ok, there apparently is a disconnect of the Earthcache review team on this issue.
So Geoaware, PLEASE note this and let your reviewers know.
Recently a friend of mine worked with me and the local science center to build an earthcache that did ask that you at one point go inside the center to look at example of the science concept.
However, the cache was denied because "General indoor displays are not permitted as the subject of an Earthcache."
Again, I quote the FAQ:
Can I develop an EarthCache as part of a museum or other exhibit?GSA strongly encourages the development of EarthCaches outdoors rather than indoors. However, EarthCaches can be developed for indoor locations. Like an outdoor EarthCache, an indoor EarthCache must meet all general geocaching guidelines as posted at www.geocaching.com, as well as all EarthCaching guidelines, as posted at www.earthcache.org.
I am working with my friend on crafting the appeal, but since this is now the third earthcache that has been denied that was solely on the fact that it was indoors that I know of because it was posted on this thread, there is obviously a disconnect between this rule change and the understanding of the reviewers.
it's getting sort of hard to help people who want to make an earthcache make one with the new rules when the reviewers aren't following the FAQ. Just to be clear, I am posting this to bring awareness to Geoaware of this issue. It's not my cache, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but this is becoming a consistent pattern.
The GSA worded their FAQ about indoor EarthCaches to indicate that there will perhaps be exceptions that warrant publication. The caches are all assessed on their own merits. Your friend can forward their case to Appeals@Groundspeak.com. They will want to address why this indoor location is the only way a cacher can experience this specific geological feature.
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Our email system has caught up. Again thank you for your patience.
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Correction: pending emails will be delayed until midnight Seattle time. All delayed emails should have gone out by this time. Thank you again for your patience.
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Pending emails will have now been sent. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience.
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We are still catching up with emails and hope to have them sent out by midday Seattle time.
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Groundspeak just spoke to the Fayette County Sheriff's Department. They do not have any intention to remove all caches in the area. They had been contacted by the land management organization on whose land the cache, and others, are placed. The organization indicated that there may need to address permission for caches in the area.
Groundspeak will reach out to the land managers, but to be clear the Sheriff's Department is not going to be taking any action regarding the removal of caches.
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Updated Mega-Event article for grammar and contact information. No major edits.
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Updated Event Cache, CITO and Mega-Event guidelines with relation to external sponsorship.
Mega-Events are bound by an additional guideline about this aspect of organization, and other events types are not.
From guideline for Mega-Events: "In consideration of the significant resources we devote to publicizing the Mega-Event, Groundspeak reserves the right to deny or retract publication of Mega events sponsored by other commercial geocache listing services, as well as parent and affiliated companies, unless written permission has been granted in advance by Groundspeak."
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This thread has digressed; it is now off topic and includes (many) posts that violate forum guidelines. Closing.
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Thanks for the update!
A SERIOUS WARNING!
in General geocaching topics
Posted
This thread has degraded irretrievably. Posters are reminded not to name call or belittle, or be sarcastic, caustic, or rude, or to SHOUT in all caps. Closing.