Mysterion604

I would say regular, because that's the size related to finding it, but also put in the description or hint that there is no room for anything but the log book (so no swag or TB's).

As this is a mountain-related challenge, I hope they continue to make earthcaches the highest (or 2nd highest) point-scoring thing, above things like mysteries and multis. It really is more thematically appropriate.

Not sure if this is a new problem or just new to me. I did post elsewhere about it. Reading some of the above comments, I can't help but add something: On the desktop version, it keeps resetting my default map filters to exclude my finds and my own hides. Every time I go to the map lately (the last couple of weeks), I have to go into filter preferences and change it back to what I like (showing finds, showing hides, and under "not found by", eliminating the entry of myself. I then hit the "apply" button and it becomes the map I want to see. BUT THEN IF I LEAVE THE PAGE OR OPEN MAPS IN A NEW TAB, IT RESETS ITSELF TO IGNORE MY PREFERENCES, AND I HAVE TO GO ADJUST THE FILTERING ALL OVER AGAIN ! You have no idea how angry this makes me. Well, the fact that I logged in to make a forum post or two about it, and the fact I just did all caps shouting should tell make it clear. Like keyboard-smashing angry. "They" probably think this is helpful, but it's not. I want to see what I choose to see ! If I choose to see my finds and my hides, so be it ! 1) The site should be remembering my preferences (at the very least as long as I remain logged in and the cookies are still valid), not resetting them to exclude most of what I see on my local area map. AND/OR 2) The default filtering should be no filtering at all. Let members choose to exclude what they do not want to see - do not make the choice for them automatically !

Reading some of the above comments, I can't help but add something: On the desktop version, it keeps resetting my default map filters to exclude my finds and my own hides. Every time I go to the map lately (the last couple of weeks), I have to go into filter preferences and change it back to what I like (showing finds, showing hides, and under "not found by", eliminating the entry of myself. I then hit the "apply" button and it becomes the map I want to see. BUT THEN IF I LEAVE THE PAGE OR OPEN MAPS IN A NEW TAB, IT RESETS ITSELF TO IGNORE MY PREFERENCES, AND I HAVE TO GO ADJUST THE FILTERING ALL OVER AGAIN ! You have no idea how angry this makes me. Well, the fact that I logged in to make a forum post or two about it, and the fact I just did all caps shouting should tell make it clear. Like keyboard-smashing angry. "They" probably think this is helpful, but it's not. I want to see what I choose to see ! If I choose to see my finds and my hides, so be it ! 1) The site should be remembering my preferences (at the very least as long as I remain logged in and the cookies are still valid), not resetting them to exclude most of what I see on my local area map. AND/OR 2) The default filtering should be no filtering at all. Let members choose to exclude what they do not want to see - do not make the choice for them automatically !

Since this thread relates to what I was about to ask, I would like to ask it here too. I created a cache and on the official app, the in-text photo I uploaded is distorted - it was a 2:1 ratio of width:length, now it is far more tall than wide. Basically, it looks like the width got compressed, and the height increased to compensate. (Note: on my computer, on phone web-view, and on one of those non-official apps, the image is fine; only viewing using the official app has this effect.) At the same time, the background image I uploaded - on the PC version - is not centered properly and wraps around so that the left side of the image repeats and the right side hardly seen at all. (The coolness of the background image is lost; I'm considering deleting it.) Once again, I suspect the culprit is how the image width (and length) is handled. So my question is this: What is the optimal width for images uploaded to cache pages ? First, for those images inside the description? Second for background images so they are centered and do not wrap around horizontally?

There is no rhyme or reason to what pops into my head. Two that I can think of from last year. This one heading up into the woods for a hiking cache: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwWx0TiPu6s This one heading back from another hiking cache (and trying to get back to the car before sunset): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLXQltR7vUQ

Oh, I know they probably would not get directly there, and I haven't made any moves like that yet. I am kinda hoping before too long, that a new YVR airport TB hotel will be replaced, since the last one was archived. That would simplify matters.

2 weeks is a guideline. As far as I'm concerned, the TB's goal and theme is what I base it on, as well as the practicalities of finding a good cache to drop it in. I've waited to put batman themed TB's into a Batman-themed cache, rabbits into rabbit caches. The ones which want to travel out of town, I'm having problems with - not only did COVID squash most leisure travel, but the TB hotel at our international airport got archived, and that's really a bummer. I'm currently sitting on 3 TB's that want to go to the UK, and there is really no way to get them there other than to make contact with a persona there and mail them. I have already mailed TB's to Quebec, but they were small and that was in-county mail for me. And so I wait...

I got the same message as the OP. I had to convince the browser to accept the "risk", and then it worked. I have yet to see what will happen next time I try after closing the browswer and coming back to the site again.

That is hilarious.

I've added paper scraps for people to sign, but I would never replace someone else's container without permission. (It's too integral to the functioning of the cache, how the container is shaped and so on.) If the container is damaged, I put a "needs maintenance" when I log it, or at least give it a mention in my log if it's something that's not necessarily fatal. (Like damp logs.) However, I have one weird example from New Westminster. There was a paper TB proxy inside the cache, and no log sheet or book, so cachers were just signing the paper TB. As a result, the TB sheet became worn and its code couldn't be read anymore. I ended up just "discovering" the TB after contacting the TO, but part of me would still like to rescue that poor TB and stick a proper log sheet in the cache just as and act of charity.

I should note however, that I did finally end up PM-ing all the owners of trackables that I did not find in my caching experiences thus far. Luckily I have only 300+ finds, not 3000+, so aside from running into a messaging limit, it gone done quickly enough. Now that this task is done, I can just report missing TB's one at a time. I think I've received a positive response so far, being replied to by quite a few of the TO's I contacted. It's not like I'm chasing ones which have been supposedly dropped in a cache just recently. I checked in every case to make sure that people have logged the listed cache multiple times (without retrieval) since the TB was dropped in it, and checked the TB listings to make sure it was not getting discovered or grabbed anywhere else. I also make sure that a "not in the listed cache" note was posted on the TB log by me or someone else. (Some of these are TB's that haven't been discovered or retrieved for over 500 days, while the caches they are listed in have meanwhile been logged dozens of times. Or TB's listed in caches that are archived and cannot possibly be physically there anymore.) I think now that the big task is done, I can just look forward to just doing such "due diligence" notifications one by one as they occur in the field. The local map will clear up a bit, which is of general help. Besides, what's the worst that can happen? If someone finds a TB that's listed as missing, and either retrieves it or discovers it, then it is no longer missing.

This is my fear when I've gone to a cache and logged it, only to realize after the fact there was supposed to be a TB inside it. "Was it really not there? Or did I just not search the cache well enough?" is the question I always ask myself, especially with the tiny ones or which look like dollar-store kiddie swag. TB dog tags are a dead giveaway, but I mean I'm carrying a geocoin right now that's so small it could be mistaken for a shirt button or the top of a cufflink.

I expect most people would like to imagine something less metaphorical, like Dr. Frankenstein flipping some huge switch to close the circuit and bring his monster to life.

Someone from Groundspeak could contact the person posing as some random member and then proactively shut that stuff down.

I could be totally wrong, about this, but I will put forth what I think is the explanation. Long ago in the mists of time (the very late 20th century), I had to study something about the subject of the military use of satellite technology. Aside from the burgeoning field of orbital imagery, the potential for orbital weaponry, and so on, there was the use of satellites for navigation / guidance. GPS was nothing new to the military, nor its Russian / Soviet equivalent GLONASS. However, there was also an increasing demand for civilian use for GPS. One of the issues raised was that governments [US/NATO] were worried about the fact that countries other than them might be able to use GPS for their own weapons guidance, getting a sort of "free ride" so to speak. Or non-state actors with rogue weapons and nefarious intentions, and so on. Basically, it was tangentially related to issues surrounding proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic or cruise missiles; they were worried about putting accurate orbital-based navigation into the hands of just anybody. Their solution, at the time was that GPS for civilians was a "dumbed down" version, maybe 1/10th as accurate as the pure version, and so on. It was controversial, and later as things like GLONASS popped up, promising no dumbing down, it forced the powers controlling GPS to finally relent and allow the truly accurate version for civilian uses. From that day forward it spread like wildfire. Now everybody uses it, more or less all the time - and remember this issue being kicked around was before smartphones put a GPS into basically everyone's hand (and other systems in peoples' cars, and so on). So, my guess, is that "blue switch day" is commemorating the day the powers-that-be made GPS accurate enough to be useful to civilians. Did I guess right ?

I thought I was too new to have an "irk" but here it is. IF people are not supposed to put food or candy in caches (which sometimes they do), THEN why would people think it is okay to put band-aids, or even COVID face masks into caches? Nobody needs swag like that.

I released a christmas-themed TB of mine into a christmas-themed cache (not my cache), and attached a wooden christmas ornament to it as a detachable bit of swag for whoever might be FTF my trackable. Is that grotesquely abnormal or unwise? In any case, it was, I believe an ornament which came from a German christmas market so perhaps in central Europe, wood is a more fashionable thing to make trinkets out of.

My first question was "is this some sort of event cache" ? I have wondered whether there exists a sort of "limited edition" sort of cache, where it is released for X amount of time then archived after a set amount of time, as some sort of promotional [probably tourism related] thing. For example, an Olympics multi-cache that might only exist around the area where the Olympics are taking place, perhaps only during the year when it takes place. However, the case the OP describes does sound like what thebruce0 has mentioned (quoted). Seems unethical if it's controlled in a way where only a select group of people (personally notified by the CO) get a chance to log it.

My "conspiracy brain" wonders if somewhere out there, there is a black market for TB's where all the missing TB's not found in caches actually end up. Picturing some boss of the Russian Mafia giving some person a tour of the secret trophy room in his mansion: "... And here's the original master tape of Metallica's 'Kill Em All' album... Here are the Van Gogh and Dali paintings I had secretly replaced from the walls of the Louvre... and here is my collection of Geocaching trackables. That Climbed Mount Everest geocoin? I had to pry it from the cold dead fingers of Sir Edmund Hillary's grandson. Now it is in the hands of... me. MWAH HAH HAH ! "

Looking at the OP again, I think they were aiming for people to just use a bit of common courtesy and common sense (which is a tough ask in this world). Basically, if a cache is can't be maintained, or is just not up to snuff, I guess they're hoping CO's will remove them to make room for others to give it a shot in that area. Makes sense to me: in my area, one of the more popular local caches got archived, because the CO was moving away, [rather than get someone else to take it over] they retired it. It was a well-liked cache, and a popular place for TB's, but I think it was diligent to pull it rather than abandon it until one day its maintenance issues caught up with it, and nice of them to ensure someone else has a gap on the map to play with. The issue with GS's suggestion is how people would measure the "quality" of a cache - is it the metric of "finds" or "favourites"? Neither of those is really perfect for measuring a subjective judgement of a cache's worthiness, or whether it has become quantitatively moribund and/or qualitatively unpopular. There are no easy answers, hence the suggestion from HQ needing to be a suggestion only. I'm just wary of the idea of measuring clicked "favourites", since the world of online popularity is often capricious, and I think it could lead to some arbitrary outcomes.

Yes, I think I would try to put the note on the TB page. It definitely sounds like a lot of work, but if I do it, I'd consider it a community service effort.

Okay. Well, I see what you mean. With all the phantom TB's around, it would be a big job, but I am sorely tempted to do it anyways, to go backto all my cache finds and post notes on all the TB's that were not really there.

Yeah, that might be one downside of such an idea. But there are so many phantom-zone TB's, it did seem like a a way to perhaps reduce that problem. Personally it did not strike me like a good idea to place a TB into some remote hard-to-visit cache, aside from placing one as a prize for a FTF. I guess if a person wants their TB to visit the hardest-to-reach places, that is up to them. I've got a notion to set a goal for a TB of mine to visit caches in the uttermost north (GC60BX6 and its close neighbours), but at the same time if someone actually drops the TB there, that could very well mean it goes to the TB gulag never to return. However, I think far more trackables end up in limbo in more ordinary (and easy to check) caches, just scooped up by people who never bother logging them at all, or something like that. I have no proof of this, but I imagine the people who go to T5 mountain tops and deep wilderness caches are probably hardcore & diligent enough to scoop and log any TB's they find there. If the main issue at hand is over-saturation of neglected caches in certain areas, then some system of flagging truly neglected caches can help start the process, not end it. I do not consider a deep wilderness cache "neglected" just because it gets few visits - in a way, it is designed to get just a few visits. But on the issue of the over-saturation of missing TB's in cache inventories, what can one do but implement something similar to flag the lack of activity in a TB ? Maybe a CO doesn't need to be bothered continuously over every TB, but just a simple note to check for missing TB's the next time they do cache maintenance might suffice. Once confirmed a TB is not in its listed cache, it can be declared MIA and not appear in the inventory anymore, and this can be tied to logging cache maintenance specifically. It doesn't have to force a CO to do maintenance, just be a "since you're already there..." thing. Besides, a CO who doesn't want to deal with TB issues can just state "PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY TRACKABLES HERE" on their cache description. Some already state conditions for leaving or not leaving certain kinds of swag.