Mysterion604

Well, I'm one of those people who does not like his photo taken, and also my phone is both camera and GPS device so it cannot take a photo of itself. As a result, I have a nametag I use for events and just take a photo of that. No CO has ever rejected this idea, but I suppose that's often not what the requirement are stated as in most write-ups.

(More BC stuff... ) I've been to that one. There is also a very similar virtual at Kamloops Airport (YKA), with a different fighter jet: GC9P5R2. Also, I guess for anyone going to Vancouver BC (YVR), there are now two virtuals there: GC9P653 and GC890WX, plus an Advanture Lab called YVR: Planes, Trains, and Gondolas. The YVR TB hotel is GC9F4GZ (about 2 km. from the terminal, just off Miller Rd.) Finally at Victoria airport (YYJ), there is a virtual GC9P5DJ at the NW edge of the airfield, and another TB hotel south of the airfield (GCT2N4).

I'm on a PC running Firefox. Drop down menu: "Play" ---> "Trackables" comes back as "Error 404: DNF". As always I ask: Is it the website or just me? Well, it works on my phone so that's a clue. Next question: Does it not like Firefox anymore? Hmm... Perhaps all you techies can help me figure this out.

Weirdness going on. First I got this: - - - - - - - - - THEN I followed the alternate link to Certitude posted above in this thread, and after signing into Certitude that way, the cache I am trying to check does not appear on its list at all. Tried it by phone and by PC - same result. EDIT: Okay, I searched by owner name and not list by quadrangle, and it showed up. Now let's see if it works...

I got a message like this too - regarding a local (YVR) airport-related "global" cache.

In the end, I decided I could not change the hidden date for my Helloween (GC9HZK6) cache - not because peoples' stats mattered to me, but rather because it was published by the reviewer on Oct.30, 2022 (and hide date was officially Oct. 31, 2021). Couldn't imagine it making sense that it was somehow published by the reviewer before its official existence at GZ, not to mention having two "notes" by people who solved but did not find. Normally, dates mean little to me, but having my Helloween cache be on Halloween was an important thematic detail. In the rest of the cases, I think the hide date is not important for the theme of the cache, so I will will alter the hide dates of my pending caches just so it makes it seem closer to the publishing date (despite the long development process), and I will do it before it is published.

I guess I like regular and small sized. Large is good, but a specialty / novelty thing, placement-wise. Like many others, micros in the woods, in places where one could easily put a bigger cache without any concealment problems, is something I find cruel / pointless. However, my least favourite size is "other". When I see that, I expect a container type that is some kind of custom job, with a shape that's undefined. However, in practice, I have found caches listed as other that could just have been called small, micro, etc. (with some unusual concealment).

That's the biggest thing about AL's which irks me. Should be 1 for completing it, regardless of how many stages. (A multi with virtual waypoints does not pile on the find count, and those are generally harder.) If AL's adhered to this completion = 1 rule, then they might count towards something for challenges. As it is, "lab caches" (stages really) is a listed stat, but fairly useless to know. Divide by 5 to see the actual achievement... maybe. I guess the only other irksome thing about AL's for me is the inability to see the stages/waypoint locations without opening the app and starting the AL (something which eats power like crazy on my phone).

Does this extend to municipal or regional boundaries within Canada?

Apologies if this should be a different topic, but: Can one change the Hide Date of a cache after the fact? For example: I registered a GC (cache request) for one Halloween, but could not place the cache at that time, so it was published the next Halloween. 2022 would be more appropriate than 2021. Can I alter it? For example 2: I have a series of caches I have been working on for an absurdly long time. When I get close to actually being ready to publish, can I change the hide date to reflect that?

There is at least one such cache in my local area.

Not sure if discussion of this is allowed here, but... I'm trying to log in to project GC to check on my calendar for this challenge: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8A0WM When I get to the authentication stage, and I get to the page which has a button on whether to share info from Geocaching to Project GC, I click the "I agree" button and it does nothing. I tried on my PC w. Firefox, I tried on my phone with Chrome. Got the same result - stuck at this page, clicking button and it does not work. Nor do any of the other alternate buttons to achieve the same result seem to work. Clicking isn't even an option for some reason. (And yes, I tried following the Project GC link from other challenges. Same problem occurs there.) That's the problem in a nutshell, and I am wondering what the problem is. (What has changed to make it problematic now?)

I think there is only one legit webcam cache in all of BC (in Victoria). One cache using a webcam nearby (at a beach) is listed a a virtual, but I wish they would convert the category.

What justification do they give? Some sort of thing about cache purity? Or do you mean a group of non-cachers trying to spoil jigidi itself? (I'm not on FB so I cannot look it up.)

This is what I have assumed. Harder to get approval for (multiple coordinates to keep distant from other caches), and harder to maintain since it can end up unsolvable if a stage goes missing. (In fact, quite a few older multis I have attempted seem to have missing stages that interfere with completing it.) As I have one such multi in the development stages, I have considered this issue a lot, and it is daunting.

Maybe I am wrong on this but, my opinion on the logic of this: - The cache owner should just strive to keep their ratings reasonable & current. If a rating or attribute, actually needs changing (and is not just the opinion of one disgruntled finder), change it. The CO responsibility is to the cache itself, not worry about peoples' collecting of stats for challenges. Part of cache maintenance duty is making sure your cache description stays realistic. - The CO of a challenge cache should consider the "proof" of the challenge being met at the time the cacher logs it. It really only matters at the time the challenge is logged; you are not required to re-qualify for a challenge for the rest of time. If a cache found changes its ratings and messes with your stats, that is unfortunate, but if you qualified for the challenge and locked that achievement in by logging it, that is what counts.

I would add: 1.5 Preliminary GPS measurements. Yeah, if you see it, measure it ! It will help later, when you 2.5 Doing the cache page write-up (averaging coordinates & checking their viability, arranging clues, and actually typing it up with links / images that work). 3.5: Taking more GPS readings & averaging coordinates. I always get stuck on 2.5 too. Usually [for a non-traditional] my steps go more like: - Discovery & brainstorming (sometimes 2 before 1; sometimes disconnected and later matched up.) - Decision on what goes where, coordinates check submission to mentally prepare for the rest. - The actual planning & write-up stage (longest part of process - can take months for the complicated caches) - Container preparation & placement - Submission for final publishing - "The wait", followed by either more editing or publishing, and a frantic check to make sure I have got the details / layout correct once published. - The FTF and tweaks to cache page that result from first few finds. That's as far as any of my caches have gotten. I am pretty new to this, so no long twilight yet. On the other hand, I have had traditionals where it took less than 2 days from concept to placement to publishing.

This may sound odd, given that I will likely be throttling-back on how much caching I do, but I do have some goals for 2023. - I'm coming up on the end of a caching streak that I want to reach, so there's that one happening in January. Not sure if it helps me with any more challenges, just a nice number to reach. - I want to pass certain milestones on the number of earthcaches, multis, and letterbox caches I have found. (Those are also helpful for some challenges.) - It would be nice to get some caches outside of my home province (but that is dependent on my travel plans). - I might try to host an event, maybe a CITO. - BIG GOAL: I have a bunch of caches that have been "in development" for too long. I want to finally get them written up and placed. It won't be easy to get them done soon, since both life and the finding of caches seems to eat up all my time & energy (at least it did so in 2022). EDIT: So apparently I posted above, and here. Not very smart of me.

Yeah, I have also seen a Large hidden inside a large tree stump (and lots of regulars). In more than one instance, the cache was attached to a rope, and the other end was tied to a (natural) stick which was suspended across the entire top of the stump. Thus by reaching the stick, you could retrieve the cache by pulling up the rope even though the stump was quite deep inside (to deep to reach the cache by hand).

This is odd. I always thought it was just part of France. Off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, true, but France would be dismayed to discover it was not theirs anymore.

I just get mine from finished vitamin bottles*, those sometimes shipped with electronics, and also those found in those rapid COVID test kits (you know they are sterile coming out of the box at least). (*never use vitamin C or B for this or the containers - strong smelling and will attract animals.)

Wish I had seen this before Geowoodstock. I shall have to revisit this post.

Same problem as the first poster, different Samsung phone. Never heard of this app. Sounds interesting. Anything more you can tell us?

Well, it was quite an old cache too, so I'm not surprised that it was either not attended to, or the owner just gave up rather than rework the concept around different locations.

I like jigsaw caches, and there are quite a large number of them in the region to where I am. Some creators even do nested jigsaws, where one solves multiple jigsaws to achieve different stages of the solution. You can even make the jigsaw puzzle just a stage of a larger mystery cache which is based on other things. (That's what I did: GC9QA6T .) I guess my only advice would be to choose the image wisely, and try out a few different puzzle sizes, before finalizing what size you want and linking it to the actual cache page. You can solve jigidi puzzles without logging in, so you can do that unlogged solving as a testing method for your own puzzle. Getting the link to work properly on your cache page can be a bit tricky, but the cache creation page allows one to toggle between showing codes or not, so that might prove useful. Always check that it works before submitting for final approval and make sure your reviewer knows what info the puzzle completion message will contain.