Team Monkeyboy

If the cache is in disrepair, then it should be archived (and will eventually). But if people are still finding it, regardless of whether the original owner is still "active" or not, and it's still in good shape, then what right does anyone have to remove it just so someone new can "enjoy cache ownership at that beautiful spot"?

Maybe the app could just randomly insert one of 10-20 different phrases... "What a great cache!", "Found another one!", "Using the smartphone app to go geocaching!", "That was fun!", "Wow - what a great hobby!". Then they wouldn't have to type at all!

I'm not sure that equating the beautiful architecture of a bygone era to a sandwich box under a dead tree is relevant, but let's roll with it. There's quite a difference between bulldozing St Paul's Cathedral in central London to make way for cheap housing and bulldozing a dilapidated tower block from the 50s to make room for cheap housing. Few people would shed any tears over the 50s tower block, but the cathedral has more architectural and historical value. Even then someone has to pay to maintain the old building. There's no point getting all sentimental about historical architecture if your only solution is that Someone Should Pay, unless you're willing to put your own hand in your own pocket. And ultimately if the owner of the building decides to sell the land to a developer, you can say goodbye to the building. Value is in the eye of the beholder. Clearly some people do value these old listings, whether it's the listing, the GC number, the container, the location, or some combination of those - remember of course that this game is part real-world and part internet, so the history also consists of both. Even if an old container is gone, but the listing remains, the location remains, the logs and GC code remain, so what? I've visited many a historic place where the building/structure/fortification/you-name-it, built by people in the past long gone, has fallen down and disappeared, but the spot remains valued and protected, by new people now... Notwithstanding all of that, and someone else since has mentioned, buildings become marked as historic and become protected simply because they pass a certain age, not because you or I perceive some value in them. I still have no real opinion either way. it's an interesting discussion anyway. The old listing can stay if the cache is archived, and someone else hiding a different cache in a nearby spot (or an identical spot) doesn't change the history. It's really no different to the blue plaques you can see around London that tell people walking by about a well known person who once lived there. A well known person from hundreds of years ago probably didn't live in the opulent office block that's there now, so the history says what was once there while what's there now is different. If people value the listings they can continue to view the listings. If people value the container they can keep their cache active. To argue that a cache must stay forever, even when the owner has long since abandoned the game, just because someone else thinks the container is something special, is silly. It's very rare to find a cache that involves a truly one-of-a-kind containers, and whether the container is a film pot or an ammo can if someone really thinks the listing needs to stay there forever they can have the abandoned cache archived and place their own comparable container in the same spot. The trouble with things being protected because they are "historic" for no reason other than they reached a particular age without falling apart is that we end up with things that are forever protected for no reason other than being old. We end up with the caching (or building, or whatever else) equivalent of the antique dealer who is selling all sorts of old tat that has no value but because it's 150 years old he's put a high price tag on it. When I cleared out an old house after the owner died I found all sorts of things in it. Some had antique value (they were items of specific interest from a specific period) and some were just old junk. Ultimately junk is junk however old it is. I you could simply search an area for archived caches, your argument of "they can continue to view the listings" would be valid. However, you can't see an archived listing unless you know the GC code already. I'd love to see the ability to search for archived caches... not only for the historical aspect, but to check out an area I'm interested in hiding a cache at, to see if there were any past issues I need to be aware of. If an old, abandoned cache means that much to you, then keep an eye on it, replace the container/log when needed, and work with your local reviewers to clear any "Needs Maintenance" logs that appear (if they're willing)... that seems to work in our area. Maybe other reviewers aren't so flexible?

In one fell swoop, all of my filters for email alerts have been rendered useless. I certainly hope this was an experimental move... especially seeing the negative responses in the forums (and on my local Facebook geocaching groups). Someone obviously didn't think this one all the way through before pulling the trigger.

Thanks! I'll try that.

I'd like to request the ability to "Create Pocket Query" from the list of geocaches that appear when you select "Your Profile --> Geocaches (Yours)". It would make personal cache maintenance much easier, especially when using a program such as GSAK to maintain them, allowing you to update stats, cache details, logs, favorite points, etc. It's available from all of the bookmark lists currently, and is an incredibly useful tool.

It would be handy to have that feature, but in the meantime, you can make your search a little easier by clicking on the column header "Last Found." This will bring caches with the most recent activity to the top of the list. If yours are anything like mine, this will mostly have the active caches at or near the top of the list. That certainly helps! Wasn't this the default option for the view previously? That just shows how well I've been able to avoid using this view lately (which I do whenever possible). Thanks for the idea!

Whenever I view "Geocaches (Yours)", all I can see is a sea of red. We've held 46 events, and every one of those are now archived (obviously), yet they continue to clutter my view whenever I pull up my list. I understand the need for them to be an A list, but at least allow me to hide them from view if I choose to. We've also placed 104 traditional, multi and unknown caches, of which 58 are now archived. When I pull up the list of caches I own to see which ones may be in need of maintenance, it's honestly difficult to find then amid the rows and rows of no-longer-active listings. I don't care that the archived caches are listed, and I don't care that they're visible for everyone to see. There's a time and place when that information is necessary. But PLEASE let me click a button and FILTER OUT the archived caches in the current view!!!!! This is not the first time I (and many others) have made this request.

We've created several field puzzles, and several multis - trust me... if you build it, they will come. Each puzzle shouldn't take more than a few minutes to solve - they aren't complicated math equations or Google research dependent or anything along those lines. And the puzzles don't have anything to do with the individual stages - just for finding a final, so they can still claim the traditional without trying the puzzle. My question is about each stage being a traditional cache as opposed to multiple stages of a single multi-cache. I've heard stories about local cachers having troubles getting similar caches approved, and I'm looking for information about why/if it would be an issue before we put the hours of work into creating it.

Yes - that's it in a nutshell. We're not new to cache maintenance... we've published over 100 caches (including a few multis) and took that into consideration in creating the puzzles. I won't say they won't, but geocachers wouldn't be likely to mistake these puzzles as swag :-)

We want to place a series of caches, each of which will contain a field puzzle which will (once solved) produce a numeric code. All of those numeric codes must be combined in order to find the coordinates to a final puzzle cache. According to the guidelines, is that possible? Or does the final puzzle cache HAVE to be solvable from the cache page itself? Also - each cache, while being a traditional hide on it's own and containing a log to sign, will also have a puzzle inside that must be solved in order to find the numeric code needed... in your opinion, would you list those caches as a traditionals, or as puzzle caches? We originally though about creating each of the puzzles as stages for a large multi-cache, but thought we'd get a better response from the local caching community if each stage could be claimed as an individual find, along with the final itself. Suggestions?

This. SOOOOOO much this. I don't like seeing new cachers with 3 or 4 finds placing lousy caches on private property (without permission) because "it seems like fun". Or someone hiding 10 or 20 throwaway P&Gs, then never logging into the site again. This would only encourage more of that.

You're right - corrected. My apologies.

Rounded up from what?!?! The arbitrary price they chose for a PM? Fair or not, what makes you think it's mandatory to charge everyone the same amount? I think you two need to compare notes.

Strange.... any reason you don't understand the point that was made? Any reason you don't understand mine? I think it was pretty clear. Their company. Their rules. "Fair" is irrelevant. As much as we may dislike it, they can do what they want, when they want... you don't have to partake.

Yep, you did. Now start reading again from page one. Unfortunately, I already did - all 16 pages - the same thing over, and over, and over.

Nope, not at all - I rephrased my opinion to better convey my point.

I must have missed something in the thread... I was under the impression that Groundspeak is a COMPANY, providing a SERVICE - they can charge WHATEVER THEY WANT - that's capitalism. It's a business, not a democracy. If you don't like it, don't buy it; maybe enough people doing that may cause changes. I think whoever told you that you could guilt a company into charging less because they were "wrong" and you were "right" was feeding you some bogus information man.

An easy way to fix this "problem" is for Groundspeak to prevent users from changing the date of an event with "attended" logs... if it was already attended, then there's no reason for the date to be changed... then automatically archive events that haven't been archived 60 days after the listed event date. We actually get notices in our area from our reviewers for events that are still unarchived after a month, which we should. POST new events to new listings - don't reuse old ones. If it's not the same event on the same date, it shouldn't be the same GC code - pretty basic. Is it more work for the cache owners? Yes. But really... how hard is it to copy/paste the info to another listing and change a few words here and there before you archive the old one? And as long as you're following the guidelines and getting the listings submitted before the 14 day deadline, there should be no hassles getting the new event published. If there is hassles, then there's a problem that needs dealt with anyway, instead of trying to slide it past the reviewers by reusing old listings. What's the point in only being able to log an event once even though I attended several times? Yeah, I could log multiple "attend" logs for the same event, but that really screws with your log count.

I was getting that for a day or two if I went to "Your Profile -> Geocaches (Yours)" from the toolbar at the top of the page. It's since been repaired, though.

I'd second, double and quadruple that!! Or - better yet - just be able to filter out archived caches in the view altogether!! I've held so many events that I can barely FIND my active caches in the sea of red. One long list is a big improvement. This will be especially useful for COs with lots of hides, who want a quicker view of which caches have NMs. (I'm assuming NMs appear in the Info column). The next improvement I'd like to see is an option to float the active cache hides to the top (and the archived caches to the bottom).

I have a geocache that has a padlock, and 10 keys to the lock are floating around my county on 10 travelbugs. I'm looking for an AUTOMATED way to show all 10 travelbugs on a single map so people can view them in one place and find them. I can manually manipulate data for them all and create a map, but they move daily, and that's a lot of work. Anyone have any automated solutions? Thanks!

We're from Newark in Licking County. We've been caching for what seems to be forever, but I've never visited this particular forum before. We have a small but loyal/active group of cachers in our area - our monthly meetings are the 4th Thursday of each month at the East and West Chinese Buffet in Heath, OH at 6:30pm. ALL are welcome!! Just do a search at N 40° 01.743 W 082° 26.419 for the latest listings. We also join forces quite often with the Central Ohio Geocachers (http://centralohiogeocaching.org)

That status screen can't be correct. It's showing the problems started after Tuesday's update - GC.COM is adamant the only thing they did was to add "Dutch" to the list of languages.

Geocheck.org seems to be down, so their images aren't loading on the cache pages, including counters.... that's the issue (not a site coding change) if that's the checker you use.