JL_HSTRE

Businesses should stick to business and stay out of politics. I'm in favor of temporarily suspending geocaching in war zones for safety reasons, but considering how things were handled in Iraq that's unlikely to ever happen

Send the coordinates where you found it to your Reviewer who can tell you of it's archived, unpublished, or a multi/mystery final.

Germany has a longstanding reputation for having a disproportionate number of armchair cachers. Most European countries have much less restrictive private property / trespassing laws than the USA. There is also a larger urban exploration scene in Germany than America. Thus I get the impression there are a lot of caches that couldn't exist in America because they take you places that would be illegal here but aren't illegal in Europe. I imagine power trails are much more common in the USA than most other countries because we're much more automobile-centric.

At this point COs should probably not put links on their cache page unless absolutely necessary, such as for solving a puzzle or accessing a third-party geochecker or as part of a permission requirement. Pretty much any information link, no matter how innocuous, will run afoul of either commercial or agenda Guidelines.

For those without Project GC membership, you can also get stats on just Earthcaches in GSAK. Download myfinds, filter just Earthcaches or copy them to their own database, and run a macro like FindStatsGen. A few more steps, but free.

That is what I did some years ago. I had a roadside cache by the entrance to a scout camp. It was on the road ROW behind a tree. There was plenty of room on the road shoulder to safely pull off, the coordinates put you in the correct area, and the description explicitly stated you did not need to enter the camp. I even asked the camp manager, who was fine with it as long as it wasn't on the camp's property. So of course someone (probably following their navigation app) drove into the camp, got told to scram by the staff, and left a DNF complaining the geocache needed to be removed from the scout camp. I left a OM addressing the situation, figuring this wouldn't be the last time it happened. Thankfully, I don't think there were any further such issues (at least not that were logged), and the cache lasted a few more years before being muggled or washing away.

It is better to have a durable, waterproof container, clear or otherwise.

Some land managers require clear geocache containers, including Army Corps of Engineers recreation areas. Other land managers require only ammo cans, which obviously are not clear. Most land managers don't have specific requirements.

There's a lag on my phone getting message notifications from the app. Usually a couple hours; sometimes the next day.

How do you get the coordinates for the locked container?

Adventure Lab bonus caches do not have an Additional Logging Requirement. There is no requirement to complete the AL to log the bonus cache, although that's certainly usually the easiest way to find the coordinates. Additionally, Adventure Labs (and Wherigos) are official Groundspeak products. That avoids certain restrictions on third-party apps or sites that otherwise have the same functionality.

If you use pictures on a cache page, upload them to the cache page. Do not rely on any third-party hosting. Keep photos to a minimum. Not too big. Preferably not more than one. Only if it really adds something to the description.

What type of container? Any limits on access? Ex: daylight only. If applicable: what park/preserve is it in? What trail is it on within that property? (These things aren't always obvious or accurate on the map.) Why is the cache here? Is it one for the numbers or is there something worth seeing?

If you can back-log the date that wouldn't be too bad. However, I have a feeling most of the people who log weeks or months later don't keep close track of their exact find date.

A missing container could be taken by muggles or animals or bad weather. A container swapped out for an inferior container, with the log and other contents transferred to the new container, is rare. Especially for a mundane micro (when this happens it's usually an ammo can).

GSAK is another option. Especially for geoart that uses a sequential naming convention.

@FDor you are assuming that the codeword in the cache would be legible and remain legible. These would usually end up written on paper (often handwritten) that gets destroyed like the logs. Even a laminated, typed code can be water damaged to the point of being illegible. Under the current system when I find a cache with a log of wet mush or a missing blog then I can still log a Find (and NM). With a code word now I can't log a Find at all. I live in Florida where probably half of all micros have soggy logs. I assure you I would support a better log system if I thought what you propose was that.

And they also exist for TBs too.

I agree the current system has little deterrence. But the code word system, while good in theory, will not in practice actually solve or even really improve the problem. In terms of cheating, codes will simply be shared online, limiting effectiveness against armchair loggers (and in some cases enabling additional armchair logging by those not as brazen because now they can "prove" their find) while doing nothing against dubious methods like divide & conquer. Any cache that suffers problems with a lost or damaged log will still suffer the same problem with a code word system, but with the added drawback of also denying Finds to some legitimate finders. Your intentions are good, but your idea is neither new nor effective.

If you can Find your own cache once why not every visit? Why not log a Find on other people's caches every time you revisit it? How much does the cache need to be moved by a previous finder to count as a Find? It easily spirals into absurdity. Far simpler to say the cache only counts once, either as a Find or a Hide. Events no longer have logbooks, or at least can't have mandatory physical logs. So that's a difference between Event's and non-Virtuals. There are some who argue Events should not count toward one's overall Find count since they're not caches. There is nothing (no thing) to find; you are seeking people rather than an intimate object.

I've noticed an increase in recent years of people finding their own caches via sock puppet hides. It started with team accounts used for hiding event caches or power trails. Occasionally for thematic reasons. This had a certain amount of legitimacy because the team account was a management decision, not intended with any abuse. However, this has escalated to people creating accounts for their children, pets, etc specifically (or the event account would place caches unrelated to the event) specifically for stats abuse. Extending streaks is probably most common reason, and various challenge qualifications (rare icons or specific DT combos) accounting for most of the others.

Depends how narrowly you define "find." I think there's a difference between finding as part of a group and "finding" via divide & conquer.

It's possible to be the host of an event and not attend the event. Life happens. It's also an Attended log. When logging a Find on your own cache was removed (and should have never been allowed) logging an Attend on your own event was retained. I think this was always an intended feature. Logging an Attend gives the host the chance to share their experiences at the Event.

As long as cheating occurs it is broke.

It seems like the API started treating Not Chosen as Other awhile ago. IMO, Not Chosen should never have been a size choice, except perhaps as the only size for Events. Since the logbook can't be required Events should be size Virtual. Also, all Earthcaches should have aways been size Virtual.