FLtravelers

How did HQ decide on a souvenir for a country that has no caching community (according to the reviewer that denied our recent event there)? Cuba has comparatively few caches and even fewer cachers. The Bahamas seem much more likely, or any of the other Caribbean islands that don't have one yet. Very curious as to the rationale. This is not a complaint. We're happy to have the Cuba souvenir.

YEA! Published today. Definitely fell into several cracks along the way. Thank you to all who helped along the way.

Email sent. Thanks for the great suggestion. Fell through the cracks it seems. I'll post how it goes.

Submitted this EC over six months ago. Still no closer to getting it approved or denied. Posted reviewer notes & sent email requests to everyone but Jeremy Irish. In early February a new reviewer asked for some clarifications. We responded to that and nothing since, and no responses from anyone else that I emailed after that. I guess we could submit a local one and see if maybe we're on a blackball list. Any other suggestions?

This has been such an entertaining thread that I want to join in the fun too – though I’ll probably get blasted out of the water for my heretical views. I’ve always wanted to go to the annual Earthcache Event to discuss many of these ideas. We’ve logged over 1,000 and developed 30 (gave one away and one is pending) earthcaches. We do it because it’s fun. We do it because it brings us to interesting places. For us, the “learning” experience is not about passing the CO’s test, but learning about where we are and what we’re seeing. I’ve gotten pissed when the CO requires doctoral answers. It takes the fun out of it. I’m fine with lame questions. Just bring us to an awesome place and tell us what we’re looking at. I don’t want to be a geologist. Don’t give me a lot of gobbledygook. Tell me what’s interesting about the place. I’m also ok with questions from a sign. I can learn from that. That’s why they’re there. I might not have read the sign if you hadn’t asked questions from it. All this being said, my response to your original question is a question. How did it feel to delete their log? How does it feel to go back and forth with them over this? I don’t know about you or the other posters, but I get an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Kinda takes the fun out of it for me. Maybe I’m just not self-righteous enough to feel good about it. I might call them on it, but I wouldn’t delete their log. They were there. If I wanted to “educate” them, I might tell them that they were missing the point by going at night, and that LPC’s were a much easier smiley. It’s obvious that’s all they were interested in. At the end of the day though, it’s just a smiley, and just a game, and cheaters will be cheaters. Cheaters aren’t hurting you by logging your traditional cache without signing the log, or by logging your earthcache from their armchair. As we all know, they are the ones who are being hurt by their dishonest behavior. Your deletion doesn’t change that. It just creates angst.

You may/must have fallen through a crack if you haven't gotten a response in all this time. Have you tried contacting the reviewer more directly? Just sent off an email. Will let you know how that works. Thanks.

Thanks for your helpful comments. We're still waiting for approval on our 12/17/15 resubmission of an 11/16/15 earthcache in Japan. Have heard nothing from the reviewer since their stock response on 12/20/15. We've posted reviewer notes asking if they need anything else, and have had no response. It's kind of a turn off. It leaves us with the feeling that they are discouraging earthcaches. We really enjoy finding earthcaches as we travel (949 so far). When we find interesting places, we like to contribute by placing an earthcache if there isn't one. We have several in mind from our current trip, but find it hard to get inspired to do the work.

Thanks Touchstone. In retrospect, I probably should have just asked the questions without the examples, which just muddied the water. We're not trying to pursue the earthcache in Haiti. That is long over, but it's nice to know that there is some recourse, even if the end result is the same. I guess we'll just have to be patient and hope that one of these days our pending earthcache gets reviewed.

And how is that done?

Thanks Matt.

My purpose for this post was to determine how earthcaches were assigned to a reviewer, and Keystone answered that one. The other question that remains unanswered: can one request a different reviewer if they are not satisfied? The two different examples were given as a reason why one might want a different reviewer. The first example was a perfectly good earthcache that was denied because the reviewer can, and there is no apparent way to contest that decision. Here is the WHOLE story. I am guilty of asking the (at the time unknown) reviewer if I could get it published before physically being at the site. I relied on a friend's personal account and photos for the submission, and I stated so at the time of my submission. We were going on a cruise with thirty to forty other geocachers and I thought it would be fun if we could go to this interesting place together and do an earthcache. I had heard that geocaching was supposed to be fun. I stated in my request that I would correct any inaccuracies after visiting the site in person. I figured that was the purpose for the guideline. I had also heard that they called them "guidelines" rather than rules. Thus giving "guidance" rather than hard and fast rules. I figured the reviewer had some leeway. My request was denied. I didn't complain. I resubmitted after being at the location, and that took two months to deny, after the rewrites that the reviewer requested. This earthcache was geological and was denied because of access. I will add that there is a traditional cache at that location and event caches. I’m sure there are many caches in the Antarctic that can only be gotten to by one means of transportation. There are two cruise lines that go to this location in Haiti. End of story. Dissatisfied but given no options. If I had never encountered this reviewer again, I would have let it go. Unfortunately that’s not the case, and I find our submissions in their hands again… and possibly in the future as well if we stumble into their “territory”. This discussion brings up other questions. What is a reasonable time for approval of an earthcache? GeoawareGBL responded to this post much faster than they have to any of our earthcache submittals. Where can one go if they feel that the reviewer is “sitting” on their earthcache submittal, or don’t agree with the reviewer’s decision? I brought this to the forum, not to complain, but in hopes that someone would know the answers. Any other suggestions to get answers? Such a serious game… I’m going to have some fun and find a cache!

Thankfully that hasn't been our experience, except with GeoawareGBL.

We have written up 28 earthcaches. The reviewers of these have always been a pleasure to work with, and responded in a timely manner. A couple of years ago we submitted one in Haiti. We were assigned GeoawareGBL. They were not responsive and each communication took over a week. After going back and forth for two months, rewriting the description twice, GeoawareGBL came back and said the location wasn't appropriate - you had to take a cruise ship to get there. We were very frustrated. Why wasn't that call made before all the work we put into it. We didn't complain, but it was enough to make us question whether we wanted to continue writing up earthcaches. We still write up earthcaches and as long as we get a GeoawareUSA or CA, we're fine. I took a recent trip to Japan. They lack earthcaches. I submitted one and a GeoawareUSA approved it within two days. I submitted two more and heard nothing for over a week. Sure enough, we got GeoawareGBL on these two. They sent their stock email advising us of earthcache requirements. Almost a week later, one was denied for being oceanographic. Too bad. It was a really cool whirlpool location. They said nothing about the other one. We withdrew it, hoping that if we resubmitted it, we'd get a different reviewer. Nope. Same reviewer that waits several days and then sends a stock email advising you of earthcache requirements. Now eleven days later, we're still waiting for approval. So how does an earthcache get assigned to a reviewer? Can we request that an earthcache be reviewed by someone else if we are dissatisfied with the assigned reviewer?

Great idea. My wife always wanted me to put in a garden. She's also been bugging me to have an event in our backyard.

I think the thread has strayed into the topic of temporary caches when the real topic was about the definition of an event and whether there are different guidelines for organizations versus individual cachers setting up an event. This "event" sounds interesting, and it's great that the Arboretum has set up caches so that geocachers can enjoy the gardens and geocache at the same time. I doubt that I could use a similar event description and get it approved.

That isn't clear to me. There are 4 older existing traditional caches in the Arboretum. The event says "on Geocaching Day visitors are welcome to seek five new traditional geocaches that have found a home on the property and one special nature-themed “Series Cache”", If you can only find these caches on the one day then yes.. but it could also mean that they are simply being launched that day. I assumed the themed cache will be a multi-cache. They're not temporary in that they will remain active after the event. They archived five older caches to let those areas recover. These will probably remain for some time until they feel these areas need to recover from the trampling.

If you're breaking the rules, you might as well break them all.

For the purpose of clarification: The guidelines state "An event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together geocachers for an organized geocache search." There does not seem to be any other criteria listed for a land manager. The event listing does not mention learning about trees from an expert. "...join an Arboretum Educator for a guided adventure from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. to seek out several of the Arboretum’s caches." (emphasis added) Sounds like an event for the sole purpose of drawing together geocachers for an organized geocache search. IMHO Are the guidelines just guidelines, and not hard fast rules, leaving them to the discretion of the reviewer?

Droo - I thought of deleting them, which I can, but I get two or three a day and I was looking for a way to make it so they can't log it. Deleting them will not prevent others from "discovering". Capt Biggins - There's no doubt. She's released a lengthy list of the geocoins in her possession, and this used to be one of them. Thanks for your responses - Steve

It seems that the previous owner of one of my geocoins, included it's tracking number in a list that she's made public. The coin is not traveling, yet I get many "discoveries", lately from Portugal. Is there a way to turn off discoveries, or unactivate it? Thanks - Steve

#4 Plumbrokeacres #5 TeamEccs21 #6 keewee #7 Toojin #8 LadyBee4T #9 Fianccetto #10 Sivota #11 mamoreb #12 The Fossillady #13 lularib #14 Funkmaster-T #15 fuzziebear3 #16 Family of Goats #17 KBfamily #18 LewisClan77 #19 sheltiedogshowlover #20 enola05 #21 MooseJawSpruce #22 the4dirtydogs #23 yanagi #24 kini_ont #25 usyoopers #26 Maine Family #27 Ashallond #28 FStop64 #29 southern_angel #30 RhinoInAToga #31 ALAUNOS #32 WRITE SHOP ROBERT #33 Team kizb #34 jpbarr #35 CCWashburn #36 sdkonkle #37 Guwapo #38 greenstone carver FLtravelers dropping out for now.

Thanks for the photo. Love seeing "what's inside the box".

Wish I had known this would take so long. I delayed signing up because we were going to be away for the summer. Summer is almost gone and we're heading home. At this rate it could reach us in the summer of 2013 - God willing! Agree that pictures would keep the interest alive in the interim.

Mission Complete Email sent: 6-12-11 Name received: 6-27-11 Package sent: 7-29-11 Package received: 7-25-11 Thanks sheltiedogshowlover! This has been (is) a very fun and interesting mission. One of the best.

Our postal carrier was very generous today. We just got back in town and received the last of our "items" to send out. Hope to put it all together tonight and get it in the mail tomorrow. I know our recipient is chomping-at-the-bit. But best of all - we received a wonderful beachy (is that a word?) package from Southern Angel. The box had scratch & sniff beachy stickers on it that smelled like coconut suntan lotion. The theme was based on ZeeZee the Turtle. ZeeZee wasted no time and headed right out to our dock on the Santa Fe River. Along with several other turtles, there are all kinds of sea stuff – fish (including yummy Goldfish that already "swam" into "someone's" mouth ), shells, ocean breeze soap, mello smellos that smell like suntan lotion, a neat turtle pencil to write in the handmade beachy notepad, and a really nice handmade bracelet with beachy charms. In addition to ZeeZee, there’s a July GCC coin and a gecko traveler who is on vacation and wants to visit turtles, beaches, lakes, etc. Gecko arrived in his own padded conveyance. Thanks so much Southern Angel. What a great mission you put together!