GreyingJay

This tells me right away that nobody else in your area is interested in getting FTF's. In my area, caches get snapped up almost as soon as they're published (well, the grab-and-go ones do, but even the puzzles begin to get a flurry of notes as people work on them...) so there's no way there could even BE 17 unfound caches to be found, let alone to have them all FTF'd by the same guy. Even if we had 17 caches all published in one day, you'd be hard pressed to get more than half of them before discovering someone else has also started to do the same. So, all this to say that in your particular area at least, nobody has any right to be jealous of your FTF hound, nor to be upset that they're not getting any FTF's. The opportunity is clearly there.

Yeah, there is NOTHING I could find inside a cache that I couldn't get elsewhere by myself if I really wanted it. Anyone who earns a half-decent salary could also buy some nice "swag" with the money you would have earned if you had spent that hour working instead of searching for the cache. I cache for the social aspects and for the thrill of the hunt. To get me outside enjoying nature and getting exercise. I know at least one father who loves caching because it is a great family activity and because it gets his kids out. Ask if they want to go for a walk, "Naaah". Ask if they want to go treasure hunting: "Sure!!!" I see picture after picture of families, couples, friends, enjoying an afternoon together. Surely that's worth more than anything you'd find in a tupperware box in the woods. If those aren't where your priorities lie, then either geocaching is not for you, or you will be frequently disappointed.

I found a cache recently that's BECOMING trash. It was (keyword WAS) an Altoids tin magnetically mounted to a metal sign post. Unfortunately exposure to the elements caused the tin to start rusting, and it has only gotten worse. Log after log after log say the cache needs maintenance, and the NM flag has been set for months. Even back in May, people were saying the cache was rusty. Imagine its state when I found it last month. By now the magnet, which was glued to the tin, no longer attaches it to the sign post (because hot glue doesn't stick to rust) and the only reason I found the cache instead of DNF'ing was because I happened to look down by my foot and saw a rusty piece of trash. That's when I said "hmmm..." I looked at the guy's profile, he hasn't found a cache since LAST October, and at least one of his other caches has also been needing maintenance for some months now. I contacted him to ask what's up and ask if he wanted to consider adopting it out, but he doesn't. I figure it's only a matter of time before an SBA shows up.

DO IT!

One other thing I've started doing once I realized the pattern of FTF hounds was to put a find prediction in the first page of my log book. I listed the 5 people I figured would find it first. I have been surprisingly accurate...

Somewhere out there is a Scottish female Christian jeep driver ready to find that cache!

Why don't you put in a nice prize and make it clear that it's for the SECOND To Find? Watch the ensuing fun... And as for this comment: ... you do realize... all of us who call ourselves geocachers ... ?

I don't disagree. However, consider this: I can go to the NASCAR themed cache and choose not to make any trades at all, if I either wasn't aware it was a NASCAR themed cache or am too lazy to go find NASCAR swag to trade. If I go to a minimum-finds cache and don't "qualify", I have no recourse. (Well, I would probably just sign the book and not log it online). Unless the ALR was particularly egregious, I would probably play along, and if I couldn't meet the logs I would either wait until another time or post a note. I've become more interested in the social aspects of caching (interacting with other cache hiders and seekers either through the logs or actually meeting them) rather than a number or a smiley.

Don't worry, FTF prizes are not the norm or expected by any means. It's just a nice bonus. Even in caches without specifc FTF prizes, the first finders will generally take the nicest swag you put in, and unfortunately often don't trade up, so it's kind of self-serving in that way anyway. I never go with any expectation of finding cool prizes, but if I happen to get one, I'm happy

92 feet! Why, that's practically a two-for-one deal!

So I would take that as no, you can not list a cache on this site if you don't use a GPS to ge the coords. Have people done it anyway? I'm sure. Would you get a bad rep with the locals for not having accurate coords? Most likely. Would you get a bad rep with your local reviewer for being a rule breaker? Most likely as well. Right. See, as Jack Sparrow would say.... these are really more guidelines than actual rules. If I have coordinates, and I have a test-finder confirm they are bang on, then it doesn't matter whether I used a GPS myself or got them from Google Earth or divined them from the stars. They work, it's all good. End of story.

But... I can't kiss my elbow!

Yeah, I would contact some local cachers I know and ask them to "test drive" my coordinates with THEIR GPS units, before publishing.

Just a little bit longer after it stops being fun. How's that for vague

You guys have to stop following briansnat so closely, I think he's catching on...

I think I'll be putting some Tim Horton's gift certificates in my next couple of caches (I'd better hurry, we have an event coming up)... I've taken said gift certificates, home-made "Congratulations on the FTF" certificates, an unactivated geocoin, and a Silva compass, as FTF prizes.

Well, yes, the fact that the kind of damage most viruses want to do would require sysadmin privileges (root or sudo) to work. Certainly one could do damage with social engineering (the classic example is the "rm -r *" shell script disguised as some other application) but even then damage is contained to at best the user's own home directory and at worst the user's own machine. Anyway, you're certainly right that my OS X will not always be 100% virus free. In recent months hackers and security consultants have demonstrated a number of vulnerabilities (including one apparent one where connecting to a Wifi network with a particular brand of Wifi card allows a hacker to get shell access!) but it's (for now) certainly nowhere near the levels of paranoia that the majority of users go through (witness this thread). Or worse, utter indifference -- I know one friend who spends entire weekends rebuilding and reinstalling his PC after failures of both the hardware and software variety, and he shrugs it off as if it were SOP!

Language evolves over time, of course, and what was unacceptable is now commonplace. Some of us with more sensitive moral sensibilities (for better or for worse) have been dragged into it kicking and screaming. Consider the classic example of the word "gay". It was an interesting time for me growing up in the 80's and even sometimes still, because there are still (generally elder) people around who use "gay" to mean happy. The Flintstones theme song is a good example. We used to giggle whenever we heard that unintentional double-meaning. ("I'm feeling quite gay this morning") (And don't get me started on the girls in my 7th grade French class, who could not get over the fact that potato chips are called "croustilles" -- which they kept pronouncing as "crusties" ) I'm not sure exactly how or when the use of the word "sucks" became synonymous with malcontent ("That sucks!") but I know that for a number of years I was offended, at least slightly, and refused to use it in my own speech. Now I've caught myself using it a couple of times on occasion, mostly when talking to people younger than 16, and it still doesn't quite roll smoothly off my tongue. Eh.

Yeah, we used to do this too, until one day we were trying to reach my mother and kept pressing the call button and calling out "Mom, are you there?" Turns out she was in the bathroom at the time, and... We've stuck with cell phones ever since.

Actually, there are three groups. The third group uses Mac OS X, which currently has no virii and is immune to Windows virii, so we can put any CD in with impunity Not to start a platform war or anything Actually, any Linux user is probably also in that camp. I have to say though that when I saw the thread subject I thought it would be about something else entirely...

I would post another note (maybe a "needs maintenance" this time?) and send another email. Then wait another week. If nothing, file an SBA note.

When the FRS/GMRS radios first came out, I bought a set and often had one on scan mode. The novelty very quickly wore off, however, once I realized that most of the traffic in my area was just neighborhood kids talking to each other while they played in their yards. I also discovered my local AMC theatre seemed to be using Channel 1 for their concession and janitorial employees to contact each other. I could hear them from my house on a quiet night. One day just to test I brought one with me when I went to see a movie. I hit my Call button and next thing some supervisor was admonishing her staff to please turn off their cell phones...

And the land owner rated this a I like it!

How's this for a series I was thinking of putting out? Wal-Mart Park-n-Grab Micro #001 Wal-Mart Park-n-Grab Micro #002 Wal-Mart Park-n-Grab Micro #003 ...

Just don't be surprised if it's looted. Someone in our area put out a movie-trading cache, and the first few finders happily traded one movie for another. Then, one day, a log shows up... "Took movies, left car holder for sunglasses"