J Grouchy

I'm pondering a lock & key pair...the key attached to one trackable and the lock attached to another...the goal being for them to meet up and switch tags. I think for it to be a challenge I'd have to do some traveling and start them off at least a state or two apart from each other. I'm hesitant only because of the fact that many trackables go missing, but perhaps TeamMJ2 is onto something there...

I've never found anything edible in a cache before...can't imagine anyone not still riding in a car seat actually thinking it a good idea to consume any they found that way!

There's a cache near my office that goes to the trouble of laying out this puzzle where you have to get clues which give you numbers to use to input the coordinates for Stage 2. Problem is, the owner then proceeds to put those coordinates right there in the waymarks for everyone to see. Not sure why nobody else mentioned it in all the years it's been there, but I called him out on it in my log. If everyone can just skip Stage 1, why bother with the puzzle at all?

"tacky beyond belief"? I'm finding the amount of hyperbole in these forums to be almost more than I can stand. I ask simple, honest questions and get responses that border on angry and mean-spirited. Honestly, I don't see it as tacky. What's wrong with setting a challenge for oneself? I don't "find" my own traditional caches...but the challenge is something else.

clause. I would not log my own cache simply because I owned it. Just me maybe. I have no doubt people would be able to do it...though there is one aspect of it that may be questionable under this: 6.One should not have to 'give up' finding other caches to achieve a challenge cache's requirements. To state that "10% of your find count needs to be Attended Logs" would require the geocacher to stop finding other types of caches and could affect their overall enjoyment of the game. Mine wouldn't require "giving up" on finding other caches, but may require delaying a find in order to fulfill the requirement. Is that the same thing to a reviewer? There's sort of a fine line since one could argue that some of the existing challenges would lead folks to put off finding certain caches in order to fulfill the challenge requirements. EDIT: I've actually just found a very similar challenge cache listing located over in Denmark. It's much tougher than mine, so I'm pretty sure mine could get published as-is.

I'm considering creating a challenge for folks and was wondering if it's considered poor form to do so if I haven't even completed the requirements myself. I'm fairly new to geocaching and have enjoyed seeing the various challenges put forth (A-Z cache names, one-a-day for a year, etc.). I thought a new one up that I haven't seen before (it probably exists somewhere, but I haven't found it in my search yet) and thought I'd try to put it out there for others to go for. Also...let's say I actually DID fulfill the requirements later. Normally I would not log my own cache, but it's sort of a challenge to myself...so is THAT poor form (logging my own challenge)?

My problems with them: 1 - They're in a parking lot! This usually means a shopping center or restaurant or office park or mall. To me, the fun is in the search...and also in the surroundings and what you can see if you are looking closely. Not much to see where asphalt and metal poles are concerned. Once in a while the poles are in a more interesting area - a park, a scenic overlook or picturesque setting. Those are at least worth going to. 2 - The nature of the hiding spot requires them to be smaller (i.e., not much room for swag or trackables...if any). The containers themselves also, in my experience, more often than not are medicine bottles or key-hides and leak like crazy. Logs tend to be damp or wet. Yeah, there's a "skirt" covering it...but those things are only meant to cover the ugly bolted connections at the pole base, not provide a weatherproof shelter. 3 - Noisy as heck to lift those skirts. 4 - Not much of a challenge. You drive into a parking lot and, at that point, there is already about 98% chance of it being a skirt-hide. At that point, all you have to do is get within 100 feet of the spot and you already know where the cache is. Where's the challenge in that? That being said...I'm not ANTI LPC. I'm just not terribly impressed by 90% of them. The other 10% are at least in an interesting location.

I was recently in Reno visiting family and saw this one pop up on my screen: Phantom at a Fathom I don't know exactly what the setup is since we didn't go for it, but since the description says 'no swimming involved' I gather there is some sort of buoy or floating object attached to the cache.

I'd like at least ONE FTF...just so I can have my FFTF. After that, it's nothing new and if I get it - fine...if I don't - no big whoop. Timing is the only thing I don't like. More often than not they are published after I've come home to roost for the evening. Funny thing is, yesterday was the first time I'd seen one published mid-afternoon when it would have been a perfect time for me to go after it. Only problem was it was a cache I had just hidden a couple hours earlier!

Is it wrong for me to feel a small sense of accomplishment for hiding a cache and the first two log entries from other cachers are DNFs? It's kind of nice knowing I hid it well enough to keep 'em looking for an hour. Of course there is that small voice in my mind wondering if my posted coordinates are off just enough to have them looking in the wrong area...but it actually IS a pretty good spot. Just to allay my concerns, I may have to trek out there and see if my device can get me there.

Just yesterday I found a used shotgun shell in one. I found an old surgical glove once. When I first opened the box I only saw the tip of one finger poking out and I immediately thought it was a condom...so I overturned the box and realized what it was when everything came out. I'm sure someone thought they were being cute or funny when they put it in there, not realizing how others might perceive it.

I once thought it would be cool to have a cache attached to or hidden inside a moving object or vehicle that follows a fixed route and schedule. For instance, somewhere on a train car... Then I realized it would involve all sorts of permissions, probably require paying a fee (ticket, etc.) just to find it and then there are the problems of car changes, uninformed maintenance/cleaning crews, and other hiccups that would take the cache out of commission permanently or for long periods of time. There's also the whole 'suspicious activity' factor. Ah well...

There are decals available in the GC store that you can stick on items to make them trackable

By who? Saying that someone must solve a puzzle before they can log a find is called an Additional Logging Requirement (ALR) and is not allowed. If someone deletes a log on this basis, you can appeal to Groundspeak to have it reinstated and locked so it can't be deleted again. You rightfully found the cache, so you're most definitely entitled to log it as a find. It's a puzzle cache. Finding it by accident, while technically a find, isn't a find as intended by the method intended by the CO. It's kind of "cheating" to log it, in my opinion.

I wonder if the app and site could force the user to say whether a trackable was collected before being allowed to submit the log. As it is, the user sort of has to go through a separate step to log a trackable...but if there was a box or menu pull-down that needed to be marked or selected before the log can be submitted, perhaps that would at least eliminate the problem from honest cachers. As for those that actually DO steal the trackables...well, not much to be done about that. Nature of the game....

Personally, I wouldn't worry about calling it treasure. Some of my 6 yo daughter's favorite "treasure" to find is little rubber dinosaurs or frogs. They can't cost more than 25 cents, but she gets excited to find them every time! No, you'll probably never find "treasure", but there are lots of fun things for kids to find and yes, you can teach them about trading fairly (and BETTER) for the items they're taking. And I've been known to drop a dollar or two into a cache when a kiddo found something they just couldn't imagine passing up and we didn't have any other trade items. Same here! There's one king and queen themed series near my office that ends with a 'treasure chest' that has a bunch of fake coins and gems for the taking that the owner refills regularly. It's a terrific idea and I wish it were close to home so I could take my daughter.

If I were the 'poor sportsmanship' type, I'd say that's brilliant. For us fair-minded sort, though, that's slimy!

I can call it a "treasure" if I like. I've often done "treasure hunts" at home, hiding one of her stuffed animals or some other toy and drawing a map for her to follow in order to find it. "Treasure" is just a goal to work towards. She's great about giving up her stuff for trade, so I have no problem referring to it that way. I'm just happy she seems to enjoy the hunt. It's when we find it and the contents are just a log sheet that she loses interest. To me, the goal IS the hunt, so I have no problem with that. The internet community and online cache counts are really just for the benefit of those with an online presence...

Yeah...that's how I got my daughter (6 years old) interested, by calling it a "treasure hunt". I warned her not everything has something in it to take and she volunteered a number of her trinkets to trade for when she found something she likes/wants to keep. It's the larger ones with stuff like that inside that she takes an interest in. Usually when we just find a micro with only a log inside, she starts complaining about being bored. ~sigh~

My wife and I were out in Nevada last week and had some time to hit a few caches in the area near our hotel. While we were signing a log for one, a guy walking by slowly and studying his phone saw us and asked if we were caching. Turned out he also was one, but when I offered him the log to sign he said he usually didn't bother signing them. I was surprised by this...to me it almost doesn't seem like a true find without signing the paper log (though, in fairness, I suppose it wouldn't have been a "true find" since I technically found it for him...).

So, I got the Neongeo app...but man, it is SOOOO slow for me. So much so I find myself closing out of it to open up a different app to get anything done. That is strange... It works at a good speed for me. I am using it on a Samsung Skyrocket HD. What phone are you using it on? Galaxy S3...even on wifi it works slow for me, so I don't think it's just a slow Sprint network speed (Atlanta is on 4G, which is VERY fast)

Man...I wish I could find ammo cans at Target...

So you see, what you did in the quote is good. You need to apply the same principle in reverse to find trackables with any degree of reliability. I don't know...just seems like a trackable equivalent to the "Needs Maintenance" entry on a cache log. Sort of a notice to the owner and anyone watching the trackable or the cache inventory.

That's too bad. I ended up just writing a note on each trackable's log that it is no longer in the cache it is listed for. That won't help anyone going to that cache looking for something that is in the "Inventory", but at least the owner can maybe look into it and anyone who has it on their watchlist can be notified. I don't know if it needs to be anything as complicated as the poster you linked to described it. Seems to me just noting it missing/AWOL from the cache it is supposed to be in is enough for anyone looking at the cache. Only the trackable owner and anyone "watching" it care about any particular trackable item and taking it out of the inventory just reduces confusion, in my opinion.

Yesterday I went on a run to a nearby cache because the app listed an inventory of three different trackable items and I was hoping to move one around. When I pulled the cache there weren't ANY trackables inside. I'd like to see a way of removing trackables from a cache's inventory via the mobile app without "grabbing" it...maybe report it "AWOL" or some other mark to indicate it isn't there so others don't go after it and maybe the owner can try following up on its whereabouts. Also...I don't see any listing of a cache's inventory on the website listing, but it shows up in the mobile app. Am I missing something or is it only shown on the app? EDIT: D'oh! nevermind...I see it now...