Darwould

I went to do a quick look to find winter friendly caches and the filter on the main geocaching page now does not offer any place to filter by attributes... (Nor does it offer to go to the old search) Someone comments elsewhere on the forum that one can do a pocket query to filter for attributes... but this feature should be on the main search.

I must say that it is nice to get a souvenir from each country.... however there is also a discussion about what constitutes a country. Some more remote islands such as Easter Island are part of Chile, yet should have a souvenir as they are a separate unique place. I would suggest that Geocaching should look closely at the Amateur Radio Hobby as having already sorted this one out, as hams also have "bragging rights" for countries... in their case, talking to another operator in a country. The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) has a "DXCC" award, in which operators talking to a hundred countries or more get progressive certificates. The point here, is they have an approved countries list, which includes many small remote places, that could be used and presently has 339 entities. The most recent list is posted at http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/2016%20DXCC%20Current.pdf If this seems too extreme, the UN also defines a countries list with just under 200 countries. Since countries come and go over time if a souvenir is to be developed for each country, then those who want to target more souvenirs need some guidelines as to what countries are "approved". Just a thought... my Geocaching stats say I have found a cache in 37 counties, but no souvenirs yet for some of them . Darwould.

This occurs on at least four different computers, and is still happening. I will ask on our local facebook forum and see if others also are getting this problem, and will in the meantime try clearing caches, and try it on different browsers.

There is a problem with the first map that comes up on cache pages centered on Calgary, AB. If one zooms in or out, the correct map is shown. The map that comes up is showing some mapping from somewhere else, apparently in Europe. The extent of the problem is shown on the following four random cache pages I surfed to find the edges of the incorrect mapping: GC35K25 (West Edge) GC3NWRB (East Edge) GC35FK8 (North Edge) and GC1Q6AH (South Edge) If you Find any cache near the center of Calgary, AB , the whole mystery map appears, but only at the initial page setting. Darwould

I have created a couple of member only caches... but because they are ones I think are deserving of members, and those truly dedicated to Geocaching. The cost of the yearly membership is very minor compared to the other "costs". One of our local cachers has it all added up (I think there is an app for this somewhere... ) and it worked out for him at close to $10. per cache. This includes mileage, torn clothing, extra meal costs, traffic tickets, cost of caching materials to create and maintain caches (as a service to others, but also entertainment for the hider to read the logs), etc. I consider the cost excellent value per hour of entertainment compared to, for example, a movie at half the cost of a year's membership.

I received this nice response to my email, resolving the issue: "Hello Alan, I've added this cache to the list of those excluded from statistics and souvenirs. It will now no longer show as your most distant cache found. It would not work to make the system use the true coordinates of unknown caches rather than the posted coordinates when figuring trackable mileage. Such a design would reveal the final location to those who are examining the details of the trackables that have passed through. This is one reason we ask that the posted coordinates be 1-2 miles from the true coordinates. Best Regards, Jon ("Moun10Bike") Community Relations Liaison to Engineering Groundspeak - The Language of Location Provide us with feedback about our service"

Thanks for the information. I have created an enquiry as suggested to have these reviewed and distance statistics possibly removed from these caches I only know about other finders ignoring the guidelines about dipping trackables by third party hearsay. I also thought that they might jeopardize the cache if this is the case. I do know that it affected my "most distant cache" statistics. Darwould.

In completing the R e f l e c t i o n s Cache -GC2PPNP- this week I became aware that the statistics for an unknown cache appear to be based on the original coordinates on the cache page and not the corrected coordinates. This means that in this case it records this as being my farthest distance cache found. Also the CO requests one does not dip trackables in it, but some cachers have done so, warping the statistics for those trackables. I note there is another cache "Digging a very deep hole" GC19GK9 that has a similar huge error in the present calculations. It also means that statistics for all of our trackables at unknown caches are based on the listed location, not actual location, warping those statistics. Changing the statistics calculations for unknown caches to reflect the actual cache locations rather than the initial posted coordinates would solve all of this confusion, and allow the creation of more devious caches such as the two I have listed. Darwould

The addition of the Avatars on each find is neat visually... but really SLOWS the screen down when you ask for additional finds. I suggest showing the Avatars on the first screen, but eliminating them when you request the total finds... which can and do total hundreds of finders. I'm looking on a fast internet connection... a slow one must be totally painful. If you do keep the avatars, then page the finds in groups of a screen full, with a more button. Thanks for the date "fix"