Opalblade

I agree but should and reality don't always go hand in hand. Geocaching would be viewed more positively if more of us were CITO-ing. Without some type of extra incentive, most probably don't. Even with the extra incentive many still wouldn't. But any increase of CITO is going to make a big impact over time I found a cache today that had four or five pieces of litter around it. I was frustrated b/c I'd run out of grocery bags in my backpack and had no way to carry it all the way back to the car with my 3yo in tow. It would have only taken one person bringing one bag and it would have been a perfectly clean cache area

You're right, people haven't insinuated that I CITO only to boost my smiley count - they've flat out said it But perhaps a few were speaking more generally and I took it to be aimed at me. I definitely wasn't trying to sound noble when I said up front that when I saw that there was an extra smiley for taking a photo with a bag of trash I made doubly sure to bring trash bags. Doubly because if they'd asked me to please CITO around their cache I would have done it without the extra smiley. But it was an added incentive and it being my ninth cache I thought it was a normal practice. Now this is me trying to sound noble Ever since that ninth cache I've carried ziplocks and/or grocery bags when out geocaching, at first in my car but now in a backpack that goes everywhere with me I CITO when it's convenient. Less so if I'm caching with my 3yo and/or am out of bags, more so if I'm with the older children or with my friends (sans children) and I have bags in my backpack or back at the car or we're near a trash can. I also regularly clean leaves, dirt, broken toys, food, candy, and discarded packaging out of caches regularly. I also picked up litter on occasion at parks in the years of my adulthood before geocaching. Hopefully no matter what level of CITO we're all at, we continue to improve on it As far as the whole extra smiley thing, after reading the constructive explanations, I have a different point of view. I didn't realize that on your profile you could break things down to events, found its, etc, and that each has its own icon. It now makes sense why some posters were saying that the smileys should only be for found its, and having additional smileys would make it tricky to keep track of your # caches found. Why do the events get added to your count in the profile? A question for another thread I guess One potential solution would be for there to be an alternative fun icon and category to encourage posting photos in the gallery of the cache owners' choosing whether it's a bag of CITO or you in that goofy hat I imagine as a cache owner it adds to the enjoyment of ownership and maintenance to have photos added to one's galleries Maybe a little camera icon? That would make both sides happy Anyone like my camera icon/category idea? I'm a bit of a puritan with a little p myself - I like rules and regulations, but rules and regulations must be tweaked sometimes and geocaching is an ever evolving sport right?

Thank you to those who replied constructively. I didn't realize this was a frowned upon practice by some; I started a few weeks ago. I was hoping for more of a supportive vibe as I get ready to put out my first caches than judgmental posts insinuating all I care about is my smiley count. While I understand the sentiment behind saying that finding a cache is the only way to legitimately (openly sanctioned by Groundspeak) earn a smiley, it is not true. In these few weeks of geocaching I've earned myself three event smileys, one of which was a CITO event. According to the home page of geocaching.com, CITO is very much a geocaching related activity, and it was the extra smiley I saw offered for CITO the area around a cache that led me to ask my questions. The question about whether there was a limit to how many smileys one could give wasn't because I was all excited at the prospect of getting tons of smileys for posing with goofy hats on but rather b/c it seemed open to abuse and being very fond of rules and guidelines (I'm a bit OCD that way) I was curious if I'd missed reading about the topic somewhere in the FAQ sections. I did assume it was a Groundspead sanctioned practice to allow an extra smiley to be given, and yes I was aware that ALRs were no longer allowed. However, that was addressing a different type of concern - that geocachers were not being allowed to log a cache as found if they didn't fulfill the ALR. I had no idea it was even possible to log "found it" more than once. With the CITO cache (the only one where I did the extra smiley thing), I assumed that when I posted the photo the cache owner would then be able to give me an extra smiley on his/her end. From my point of view, a CITO extra smiley is like a smiley received for a CITO event cache. And given the discussion in another thread about how lazy geocachers are about CITO, it seemed like a good incentive if putting a cache in a trashy (but not dangerously or grossly trashy) natural area. The only other extra smiley I've seen offered was if you created a regular sized container cache within a certain distance of that one. I definitely liked the sound of that b/c my area is micro central and it's hard to drag my kiddos out if there's no treasure (little toys) to be found So I'm going to put my vote in for liking the concept of extra smileys when they involve geocaching related activities that add to the enjoyment of caching for others and/or help the CITO cause.

The one I especially liked was a mini CITO optional task in addition to finding the cache. It was a beautiful but trashy area and if you posted a photo of your bag of trash you got an extra smiley. Several logs mentioned taking out a bag of trash and when we got there there was not very much left at all. There's a thread in the CITO forum about just asking people to please do it when visiting your cache isn't all that effective but people sure got to work cleaning up for an extra smiley . I was doubly sure to have bags on hand when I went out to find that one

I've seen a couple of caches so far that offer an extra smiley if you do an extra something and post a photo. So my questions (from the perspective of preparing my own caches to hide): Can any CO give out more than one smiley to people who pos a find? What is the max number of extra smileys you can offer or give? Are there any guidelines for extra smiley giving? What are some interesting/fun/unique ways you've seen extra smileys be earnable? TIA

How awesome . I did a CITO event a few wkd ago with some mom friends and the kids wouldn't le us get at the trash, it was like a game to them. I try to have bags in my caching backpack but forget to refill sometimes. Does anyone have a link to a good "little trash grabber" tool? Was just discussing this with my hubby who doesn't want the kids touching trash with their bare hands.

At a local Austin, TX surplus store: 30 cal - $10 50 cal - $15 But one 50 cal get a 30 cal half off

Ummmm.......not in my experience. Mrs. Car54 Now THAT's the ultimate hobby - geocaching trumps the other stuff for sure though

Today is my first rainy day since I started geocaching a few wks ago. I found one parking lot cache in front of The Container Store where I got some waterproof (I hope) containers to hide. Now about to head to Home Depot for camo paints, tape, glue etc So that's my suggestion for a rainy day - make some caches for others to find

Aww, I miss Cape Town. My family and I lived there when I was in high (senior) school, predating geocaching. It's such a beautiful area to hike, I'm SO jealous of you Cape Town geocachers!! It was neat seeing familes of buggles on the side of the road now and then In TX now, which has it's own beauty, but there is no competing with the Cape Here in Africa we regularly have caches "Buggled".......Muggled by baboons.....!

Hehehe. Sometimes all you need is to look from a different (shorter) angle

What kinds of related webpages would be linked to from a cache or event cache? Just curious how this option is used - I don't recall seeing any webpages linked to so far.

Nothing to see here

testing

Hahaha it's really rare that I literally LOL

Check this out - http://tinyurl.com/y9s42au Go to lmgtfy.com then type in the search term and it will create a url for you; also an option to create a tinyurl oh my good that was brilliant, how do you do that???

I found a picture of a geojelly here: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.as...f2-b76d3bc1f5ec Cute

Thank you If I do have a predrilled geocoin and attach a toy to it, and have an explanatory sheet in a ziploc with it, I should be fairly confident that people will figure out what's going on and move it along (albeit thinking it's unusual)?

Can two members share a TB? In other words, can both our names be listed as owners and both have access to whatever it is owners have access to (I'm a bit clueless, have yet to send out my first TB). I've yet to see a geocoin, if the geocoin has a hole in it for attaching to things, I assume it's common to attach objects to it like with the travel bugs?? TIA

Welcome! I'm fairly new too and while I have four guys, my seven year old is the most into it. We have probably gotten more outside time these past two weeks than in the whole rest if the year

Thank you for all the info and advice

Cachers already posted logs with warnings that the container would break soon months ago, and then there are Needs Maintenance logs in August, September, October, and then mine in November with no action from the owner. It seems pretty abandoned. The container is a large so I definitely don't want to replace unless it's my cache with my theme. Would it be premature to ask that it be archived given all the ignored needs maintenances for months and the fact the owner hasn't logged in for over 2 years? How do you find out who your local reviewer is? Is there a way to contact nearest reviewer or how does that work? Thank you

I've read mention of people taking over a cache that is no longer being maintained. There is one in my area that has a broken lid and has at least a few notes of needs maintenance in the recent past. I looked up the owner and he/she hasn't logged in in over two years. I also tried emailing the owner with no response. I love the location. What steps would I have to go through to get the cache archived? Can I use the same spot and coordinates? Would I have to contact the landowner myself or are caches on top of old caches considered grandfathered in permission wise (think I know the answer to this one)

Is there a thread dedicated to glues, paints, etc used in camoflaging caches that are very weather resistant? If not, any recs for a great glue that adheres to various materials?

Ooo these (gloves) are pretty hot: http://www.amazon.com/Ironclad-TCX-23-M-Tu...9790&sr=1-1