Lovejoy and Tinker

Boy I am glad you said that, not me Tell me about it, our press is crazy. If there is no real shock horror element to a story they will make one. Yesterday the news was FULL of a shock horror story that a Bull that had been born from a cloned cow had been killed and....eaten! By people. It was the first 5 minutes even on BBC radio 4 news (which is normally quite rational). Turns out that eating such meat is lawful in the States, but not over here. So the short story was actually "British people have eaten what American people eat" Headline news? Hmmm You know, I don't think I have ever thought twice about going caching anywhere on my own. But maybe we are lucky in that we live in a pretty crime free area of the UK. I'm certainly not brave, so maybe I am stupid. And need to be more paranoid?

Interesting thread. In that, if I am not mistaken, every contribution has been by someone from the US/Canada (and I realise the risk I am taking putting those two together as one ). I know forum members are mostly American or Canadian but when these topics come up rarely is there much of a comment from someone outside the US (apart from my silly flippant one earlier). Also, the topic itself does pop up from time to time, always by someone from the States. So the question is, do you think the States is a more dangerous place to cache than anywhere else? Some of our inner cities are pretty dodgy, but we don't have the huge national parks you guys have. In fact whenever I hear talk of 'parks' I think of our little municipal town parks with swings and slides and bandstands but yours are probably as big as the UK! Or is the fear of something bad happening when out and about greater over there when in fact the risk is no greater? It's interesting that I don't think you would ever hear Brits talk about going out with pepper spray or any other form of self defence equipment. Not seriously anyway. Just curious, and certainly not saying that I think the US is more dangerous.

Not splitting hairs at all, appreciate your view on it, couldn't make my mind up whether having to solve a physical puzzle after finding the cache was an additional task or not. But I see your point, once you get to the log there's nothing else to do.

If it is listed as a traditional, and the finder finds the location, finds the cache, but then has to solve a puzzle to open the box to get to the log book to sign it, could this not be seen as an ALR? Just curious as to whether the ALR rule comes into play here or not. Because for a trad cache you would normally expect that once you got to GZ and found the box you would be entitled to sign the log and claim the find without jumping through any more hoops or accomplishing any more tasks.

Re: Item 3 above (Be Instantly Notified of new caches) ... on your cell phone or other mobile device. Presume this is USA only? Bit naughty to include it at No.3 if only people in the USA can get it. Or do they simply mean you can get it on your mobile if you set your mobile up to receive emails? And they missed off Access to "Member Only" caches.

Bet it would.

so yes, in this case there is clear indication that the cache is missing, meanwhile the CO refuses to even make a comment Ah, I can see how a string of DNF's and then a long gap may be grounds to suspect it's missing and report a cache as needing maintenance. That's logical. Because if there is a string of DNF's (2 is our trigger, but it depends on the difficulty of the cache I guess) then the CO should be out there checking it. In that instance I can see how a time period may be relevant as like someone else said, others may be being put off by a string of DNFs and not even try and find it. The one I saw this morning was: Last Found April 24th 2 DNF logs dated June 27th (by people with identical find counts, so suspect they were together) 1 DNF and reported as NM on August 2nd with a note it had not been found for 3 months. Well it was there on April 24th, then no logs at all until June 27th, so people were not being put off during June. Then one group couldn't find it, then it's reported for NM. I do think people use the 'not found since...' as a reason for assuming it's gone and them not being able to find it and demanding someone goes out to check it. BUT, I agree with the OP completely, there are many situations where there is clear evidence for suspiscion that the cache is gone and the CO does not respond. And that's bad.

This always confuses me, and I see it on people's logs often, words along the lines of: "Owner might want to check this out as it hasn't been found for 3 months" What does that mean? If there were 10 DNF's in those 3 months then the fact it is missing might be a fair conclusion. But I have seen it (and one popped up on the notification email this morning) where someone will post a Needs Maintenance log after just 2 DNF's and state "Not found in 3 months". What has the timescale got to do with anything? The cache doesn't go missing just because a certain amount of time passes without someone going out to look for it. Does it?

I upload filtered waypoints as POIs directly to my 60CSx from GSAK without going through Garmin's POI Loader. It gives me the the waypoint code, the first two lines of the cache name and the decrypted hint, or at least, the first 80 characters of the hint which is usually sufficient unless it's a particularly long one. If your Legend is one of the newer variants with a USB interface, you may be able to use the same (or similar) method. I created a 'How to do it' web page HERE, if anyone is interested That's pretty much what I get using the Garmin POI loader, not sure what would be different? I started using the POI loader as it provides an easy way to clear the unit first before putting the new database contents onto it. Because sometimes I include 'found' caches and sometimes I don't.

Hi 4Flem You have to use a bit of software to generate your own stats from your My Finds PQ then just keep them updated by inserting the HTML code the software generates into your profile. We use cachestats from www.logicweave.com if you want to take a look. There are others, so you need to find one that gives you the stats you want in the format you want. It's all free. Hope that helps. Lovejoy

I run the MyGME mapping macro with GSAK (the macro is free) It produces great maps with accompanying cache lists showing the key info for each cache. If you do go with GSAK, make sure you check out the MyGME mapping macro. One day I was out and about and forgot to take my printed map for the day with me. I did however have my netbook, so I thought "I wonder..." Fired it up and found the GPX file I had downloaded for the day. Imported it into GSAK again and set 'user flags' for the imported caches. (This sets an easy filter to extraxt just the caches in the GPX file). I then hit the MyGME maps macro button and, without an internet connection, the map was generated and popped up in a browser window. I don't know if this was because I had already done it once, or if this map can be generated without an internet connection. But it certainly helped me that day. The most useful feature of GSAK (for me) is that it produces (via another free macro) perfect output to load onto my tomtom car satnav. I update GSAK weekly with PQs covering approx a 100 mile radius from home. I then use GSAK to run the tomtom macro and output POI files which I then copy across to the tomtom SD card. As I drive around, all the caches are visible on tomtom and are fully searchable by type. Then I do the same thing with my partner's Garmin Etrex Legend. GSAK outputs (via yet another free macro) the POI files for the Garmin which I then upload to the unit using Garmin POI loader. This gives the Legend the cache name/number, child waypoints (parking etc) and hint. Which is a bit more than the basic number and coordinates you get by putting the raw GPX file onto the unit. In addition to all this I use GSAK to filter and sort caches, to plan a day out, to look up distances between caches, to keep a record of my finds, FTF's, updated coordinates for puzzles, notes for geographically spread series etc etc. In short, I wouldn't be without GSAK now, and I am sure I probably only use about 10% of its features. It was daunting when I first downloaded it as it seemed way too complex for what I needed. But with all these things, you soon find you want to do something and it isn't possible on the website alone, but there is a way to do it with your database. So the thing becomes more and more useful as you discover its features. Hope that helps more than it confuses !

While I understand your frustration, I would like to respectfully point out that you received helpful and pertinent advice in the first 10 replies. Even if the OP had just read those replies and never returned (but lets face it who starts a thread and stops coming back to see what folk are saying after the question has been answered), that's not really an excuse or a reason for what happened after those 10 replies. Is it? By that logic, if an OP has had what others consider to be helpful replies that fully answer the original question, for goodness sake don't revisit the thread because after that it turns into a playground and people will just start being nasty about you. Hmmm. Nice. Don't think the OP can be blamed for seeing, reading and being upset by what was written. It simply shouldn't have been written. Bear in mind also that the OP is used to another forum where I wouldn't mid betting things are a little more gentile than they can be here, so reading on through the thread might, in her mind, have made her new friends and got her into geocaching with her kids/grandkids. That's another reason why she might not have stopped reading the thread after she got her answers.

We tend to call that "having a great day out with friends, with good conversation, a good walk for the dogs, usually a nice picnic and sometimes a pint in the pub at the end if we're lucky and have any cash" We all have some sort of GPS device so that when we get to the bit that interrupts the "..good conversation, good walk, etc etc" (the cache finding bit) we all stand a chance of finding one. Being with friends is what makes our days out. Never seen this as 'cheating' really.

O M G Reading that has put me off my breakfast this morning. Wish I hadn't. But also glad I did. A lot to be learned about different aspects of human nature in this thread. And I know who came out with the greatest dignity, and respect, in my mind. Also a great explanation as to why lots of folk don't read the forum and won't post in it. Poor lady. Wonderful lady. Dignified lady.

GCCB makes the text box on the log page completely disappear so you can't write a log. Which isn't very helpful :-)

See here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread...49&page=374

For traditionals with one set of coordinates, paperless caching works well. But for multis and puzzles you will often need to write things down in the field as you go along. That's how multis work, you get to stage one to find stage 2 and onwards... Get yourself a little notebook and carry it in your caching bag. It will be invaluable. Even in traditionals you often get series where each cache has a clue or part coordinate for a bonus at the end. You can't store these clues or part coordinates in a gps (although you could on a PDA), so you are going to need to write them down. We have done series where each traditional cache holding part of the clue to the bonus is miles away from the others, meaning you'll never get round them in a day. Some have taken us months to get round all the individual caches. Then at the end you put all the clues or part coordinates together to go find the bonus, which could be anywhere. The bonus is listed either as an 'unknown' or 'multi' cache. You will need your book to keep a track of all the clues - keep one page for each series - so that after you have collected all the individual parts you can go to your book and put all the bits together to go find the bonus. Paperless caching will never be a complete reality while there are people putting out these interesting, entertaining and sometimes challenging series. I love them.

Disabling static maps was a fix for version .45. .47 did away with the need to disable static maps. They should now work. Except they don't at the moment as .47 has now been broken by the website changes. But let's not discuss this software here as there are better forums to do that. And I PM'd the OP to explain where to look for help but never heard anything back so maybe he's solved his problem and is not talking to us any more

Mine's OK. Did you try disabling GreaseMonkey to see if a script is messing it up? Yep, that was it. GCCB code caused the problem. You get so used to the scripts being part of the browser and website that you forget they're there in the background and can be 'broken' by changes to the site. Cheers

Same here, no text entry box in Firefox. Removed GCBB code and it's working. Sorry, VuurVos's post wasn't there when I wrote my original post

You are using a very old version, which does not work any more, that's what is causing your problem.

I see, plenty of Holy Grail fans but no Life of Brian fans.

Where's Brian during all of this? Out getting coffee for the group? Does he still log the find? If Brian is off getting coffee, or or standing there chatting and not participating in the hunt, he does not log a find. If he is actively involved in the hunt he will. Right, who's Brian? To which you all should respond....

Don't put one up there, no one will ever find it

Which notifications have you got set up? Just 'Published'? If so maybe nothing new has been published in a 30 mile radius. Try setting some other conditions for your notification - enabled, disabled, reported, that kind of thing. Should start to get some emails coming in and you can then tell that it's working properly before removing the notifications you don't want. From memory, you also have to set the notifications up for each type of cache individually, so if you've only set it up for multis, it won't report new traditionals. Not 100% sure on that one, it might be worth having another play in the settings screen. HTH Lovejoy