Chakthi
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Posts posted by Chakthi
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11 hours ago, Keystone said:
A simple request on the cache page saying "Please trade even or trade up" is just fine; that is the "norm" for our sport. But the OP appeared to be proposing far more than that, by using words like "must" and requiring the dollar value to be stated. I was imagining cache description language like this:
"The initial trade items' values are as follows: {LIST}. You MUST specify the value of the item(s) that you leave in the cache, and that value must be greater than or equal to the value of the item(s) you took."
The only way to enforce that statement is to delete the online "found it" logs of anyone who ignores the "request." And that's not permitted.
That's taking things a little farther than I had in mind. I had no intention of requiring anyone to log the value of their traded item(s). I only intend to request that people who take something of a certain dollar value leave something of equal or greater value. The idea is that I handle the initial stocking of SWAG items, but if each finder follows the rules of the game, then it will be continually stocked. No one has to do anything extra unless, by extra, you mean following the rules of the game. Those rules are meant to preserve the caches that are out there and therefore make the find enjoyable for the next person, are they not? I mean, I went out caching today and found caches that were in horrible states of disarray. I mean, there were a couple that had SWAG in them, but they were so nasty that no one would want to even touch the items unless it was absolutely necessary. One didn't even have a log, so not having one with me to replace it with (yet), I left a piece of Rite In The Rain paper in the cache so there's at least a temporary log for the next finder and we added a few toy ninjas to it so that there was at least a little something in there for any kids that happen to be part of the next find. It seems like many COs also aren't doing their part in maintaining their caches, at least that's what I'm finding as I go through the logs and compare when maintenance was last done (many times that would be never) with what I find. I don't think it's asking too much of anyone to do their parts correctly so that everyone can continue to enjoy finding these caches. Perhaps it's just in my area of Ohio, but it doesn't seem like there is any oversight at all over the caches in general. So, because of this, I intend to place my first cache inside Five Rivers MetroParks land (with permission) because they have very specific guidelines for caches placed within their borders.
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24 minutes ago, kunarion said:
There are ANT+ adapters that allow iPhone to interact with all kinds of things. Maybe even "detect" a Chirp. Maybe. The problem is, there aren't any actual iPhone Apps that could read it, at least I haven't seen one yet. Chirp is a special part of ANT unlike the usual activity monitor devices.
Quit it.
There's an app called GeoBeacon mention here: http://arkgeocaching.org/archive/index.php/t-3523.html
And I found this little guy here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/202691931123?ViewItem=&item=202691931123
Combined with a lightning to USB adapter, shouldn't that work to find a Chirp?
I haven't checked for the app yet, but I will as soon as I send this along...
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17 minutes ago, kunarion said:
If it's not Samsung, you either have to research the specs, or just try it. I once had a $20 USB Chirp gizmo (the technology is called "ANT+") for my old Acer tablet. But I've hung onto my newer Samsung tablet, so I have it for Chirp testing. Garmin treats Chirp pretty well (the Garmin GPS obeys Garmin's specs and rules for Chirp). Phones, on the other hand, can change, erase, or otherwise mess with a Chirp in the field, including adding text that a Garmin GPS can't read, or making the Chirp readable only by another phone, accidentally or deliberately, and you as a Cache Owner may not immediately know when that happens. On a completely unrelated note, ask me why I haven't put out a Chirp cache lately.
The good news is that there's "iBeacon", a cool Bluetooth broadcasting thing for kiosks and company advertising. Technology similar to this is kind of falling away, but there are Apps for both iOS and Android, no particular phone hardware needed. I was looking at some hobby computer stuff this week, and thinking it would be cool to send clues or coordinates using something like iBeacon. If it was running on a "Raspberry Pi" hobby computer, for example, it would need to be plugged into a constant power source (which a Chirp doesn't need), but it shows promise. Maybe some Parks office would let me plug it in.
Yeah, I've been researching ANT+ just now. Doesn't seem like something easily found for iPhone, but I haven't checked eBay yet.
So why haven't you put out a Chirp cache lately? lol
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5 minutes ago, kunarion said:
I used my Garmin or my Android tablet or phone. But I'm special, because I've been kind of switching between iOS and Android, and although I've currently settled on iPhone as my "real phone", I have "wifi-only" Android for the stuff that iPhone won't do. Such as Chirp. Don't even think about making iPhone do Chirp. For the all the time and money (and finding out that it's not worth the time and money), you could instead find a used old Samsung phone that has all the built-in stuff to read Chirp with no trouble. You just need an App (kind of a crummy App, but it's OK) called, strangely enough, "Chirp".
Well, I take my good friend's son out geocaching with me and he has an Android phone, so between the two of us, we should be able to find a Chirp beacon. I'm not sure that his phone is a Samsung but it's definitely Android. It doesn't have to be a Samsung does it?
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11 minutes ago, kunarion said:
Part of the challenge is creating a cache that's viable, that isn't muggled or raided. It's partly because of who finds it and who doesn't. So adding some limitations to the number of people who may find it, can help. My main goal is to make caches that only Geocachers mess with.
In a spot where nobody could keep a cache, it was always muggled and missing, I made one that was PMO, high difficulty, very aggressively hidden, multi-stage, a puzzle icon, and required Garmin Chirp. Each one of those things limits the number attempts to find (or even its visibility in the Official App). Together, they created a very quiet cache. It was always in fine shape, full of stuff, and never muggled.
But I once saw a post about a Tupperware box on a sidewalk bench in a town. It held up well for a while. So there are many factors that make a viable cache.That makes sense. Question though - I use my iPhone and the official app and Cachly to find caches. Is there any way to track a Garmin Chirp with my phone? The really nice Garmins are pretty expensive and having a phone that does GPS pretty well makes it even harder to justify the expense of a new GPS unit, especially if it's only to be able to track a beacon...
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3 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:
At least the weekend and done geocachers can't see my PM and higher rated geocaches if they are using the free app and are regular members. I prefer it that way.
I'm thinking that any cache that I hide will be PM only at this point. I really didn't realize that there was so much going on "behind the scenes" until now. There are definitely moral and ethical issues here that I didn't foresee. I think maybe it's best to take the earlier advice of not letting all of this bug me too much. I just want to go out there and have a good time and if I focus too much on all of the negative, I'll never accomplish that. Thanks to you and everyone else for the insight though. I'm also reading the Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching to become more informed. Even realizing that the game has its problems, it's still one of the coolest things I've come across in quite some time. I'm not going to let the negatives keep me from getting my exercise and a lot of enjoyment out of it!
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6 minutes ago, kunarion said:
When you place a Trackable, it's in the wind. It's certainly not managed with the care that you would give it. And you can expect to never see it again, even if it remains in play. In my 10 years of Geocaching and many trackables, I've only gotten one Geocoin back. And that was because I made a special trip to the specific cache after the coin arrived from Germany.
Making a mandatory fee may not help when the persons forced to pay are the ones who don't play fair. You see posts on this very Forum when someone begrudgingly pays the fee, then pronounces that they shall extract that value from Geocaches. But you know for sure that they keep an accurate account and stop extracting value at exactly $30.
That's really sad. As you can tell by my avatar, I'm a huge Star Trek fan and I've read a lot of complaints by people who don't feel they should have to pay the CBS All-Access fee to watch the new Discovery series. Seems like too many people think everything should just be free. There are costs for most everything worth doing or having. It's just the way it is. Extracting their membership fee from caches is just plain horrible in my opinion. ?
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1 minute ago, Max and 99 said:
I do not see a correlation between paying a fee and honesty.
Well, if I had to pay for something to play, I'd be more likely to make sure I knew the rules of the game. If, as cerberus1 mentioned, it's the free app and one weekend of treasure hunting that is the cause of TBs coming up missing, maybe it's also the free app that's leading to all the SWAG disappearing as well. People who are just out to take what they can find with the free app would be eliminated or, it would at least cost them a $5.99 membership fee for a month.
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Just now, Max and 99 said:
Don't register the FTF coin if it's a gift for someone. If you register it, it's yours.
Thanks, I thought so, but just wanted to be sure.
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1 minute ago, cerberus1 said:
Well, I for one don't believe it's any fault of a new person interested in the hobby, as the site calls it "the world's largest treasure hunt."
I feel that's where many trackables go bye-bye. "Treasure" from their one weekend and the free app...
Hmmm. I thought of that one day recently when a TB wasn't in a cache that indicated it would be there. I assumed though that the person who had found the cache and took the TB just hadn't logged it yet. But, yeah, I purchased a couple of Geocoins and, at least for right now, I've decided not to put them out into circulation for fear of them being taken. I mean, the coins are so nice! I'd hate to not get it back after it completed its mission.
Has there ever been any discussion of making the Geocaching.com membership fee mandatory to maybe introduce a bit more honesty to the game? I paid the yearly membership fee for myself and my teenaged friend and I didn't find it to be what I would consider too expensive for what we have gotten out of it so far and we've only been going out caching 4-5 times in the past month. I can think of a lot of things that cost quite a bit more for less entertainment. It's also helping me get the exercise that I have been lacking the past several years and getting Lil_Guy130 out of the house and away from the Xbox and PlayStation. We're both having an awesome time!
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On 5/20/2019 at 12:38 AM, K13 said:
I've never seen one, either in a cache or in the wild. Must be a Left-coast thing.
I live in the Dayton, Ohio area, and we went to a small town, New Lebanon, Ohio looking for caches, and one, in particular, was devoted to painted rocks. Not having any painted rocks handy, we decided to skip it, but they apparently do exist, even in the midwest. Personally, I don't have any problem with people using painted rocks for SWAG so long as they realize that you can't really put a dollar value on a rock. That being said, we plan to paint some rocks in case we run into any other caches of that type. My partner in crime's sister is a bit of an artist and I'm sure she can make some nice rocks for us to use.
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Hey, I'm about ready to go through the process of getting permission from a local park to hide a regular size cache. Everything is on order (lost in the mail at this point, but on order nonetheless) and when it arrives, I and my fellow geocacher are going to put together a nice puzzle to make it a bit of a challenging find. I specifically wanted to do a regular size cache so that there would be room for plenty of SWAG items. I plan to include quite a bit of SWAG to get it started, but I'm wondering if others have noticed that it seems like people must be pilfering the caches on a regular basis, because even caches that are listed as having had maintenance done on them and new SWAG left, when found, are nearly empty. Someone isn't playing by the rules of leaving something of equal or greater value - apparently a lot of someones if I'm right. Without giving away the name of my cache, I've been planning on including estimated values of the items included and specifying in the listing that anything taken must be replaced with something of equal or greater value. Yes, this will be my first hide, so I'm just trying to get some input from everyone on what I'm thinking. Good, bad or indifferent, it will help me to decide on the course of action I decide to take. Personally, I've never taken any SWAG from a cache, but my teenage cohort has, but we always leave a proper item(s) in the place of what is taken, but too many times recently, we've sought out regular and large caches and they're basically empty. My only interest is in moving TBs from point to point and solving the puzzles and well, of course, the actual find, but my caching buddy is often disappointed by virtually empty caches that should be brimming with items. Is this a serious problem in all areas or is it specific to certain regions within the US? We have only been looking in Southwestern Ohio and admittedly only have 20 out of 22 finds, but it is already becoming a rather evident and disheartening fact. Thoughts? Solutions? Also, one other question just to be sure - I have ordered a full-size FTF Geocoin to put in the cache. I'm assuming I should not register that particular TB before putting it in the cache, is that correct? As for the SWAG issue, I'm not trying to come across as a jerk or anything, but we have rules we're supposed to abide by and we are doing our best to make sure that we do our part and it's frustrating to find that others aren't doing the same...
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Painted rocks inside caches
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Definitely!