kittehkat

If GS implemented some sort of quiz it would work better if each question was multiple choice. For example, 1. What is a travel bug? A. a type of insect that is often found in geocaches. B. an ailment commonly cause by traveling between geocaches C. a trackable tag that you attach to an item D. something that is responsible for 10% of groundspeaks revenue. If you answered D, it would respond: Incorrect. The correct answer is C. For more information see the Travel Bug page. The point of the quiz should be educational, not to test if someone knows all the answers. You can take the quiz several time in a row until you answered, say, 8-10 questions correct. Since you would always be told the correct answer to each question, the quiz itself will educate new users. Good point about not having to retake the quiz until all the answers are right, and I like the idea of linking to the right answer. I still feel like a really broad quiz for learning purposes would be great. We can't really fault newcomers for not knowing all the rules, since there is a LOT of information available, and it can be difficult to know what is the most important information to seek out when you're new to something. The quiz would solve that. Even if you have a friend teaching you, they may not share ALL of the most important info with you. Maybe rather than the extra step of an approval code, just requiring people to take the quiz (and being directed to the right answer if necessary) is enough. An approval code might make geocaching seem a bit elitist, but a quiz on it's own would still get the job done of helping new cachers be good at it.

Okay, after reading through some of the horror stories on here, it's clear people should have to take a multiple choice/true-false style quiz and get all of the answers right before being allowed to download this INTRO APP. No joke. After they get all of the answers right, they're given a unique code required to download the free app. I've been caching since 2010, as an iphone user from the moment I found out about the app, but I don't consider myself to be a horrible geocacher (although I once kept a travel bug for too long, and I would have learned about that faux paux much earlier had I been quizzed on it). But I started geocaching because a friend got me hooked, so I had someone to teach me many of the rules. BUT I can completely see how someone with no one to teach them wouldn't know a lot of things. I've come up with some questions (I didn't create answers as I'm sure GS is the most qualified to create the actual answers to choose from.) Questions: 1.) What is a travel bug? 2.) If you find a travel bug, what should you do with it? 3.) What is the most accurate geocaching device? (i.e. handheld GPS, iPhone app, or car GPS.) 4.) What is the only type of device that should be used to hide geocaches? (i.e. handheld GPS, iPhone app, or car GPS.) 5.) Which of the following are characteristics of good hiding spots for caches. 6.) It is okay to hide caches on private property? (T/F question.) 7.) What should you do with the items you find in a container? 8.) Which of the following are characteristics of a good cache container. 9.) What should you include in a cache you are hiding? What else could go on the quiz...

I've been caching with the iPhone app, but decided for a multitude of reasons (probably the same reasons as most people) to buy a basic GPS. After reading some reviews plus doing my own research it seemed like the Magellan Explorist GC would be about the closest to what I'm used to on the iPhone, so I went with it. One thing I love about the phone app is not having to download caches in advance. But for my explorist GC, the instruction manual says the "View Nearby Caches" function is to Display on the map all the caches that are stored in the gps. Right now the only way I know to store caches in the gps is by sending them in advance from geocaching.com to the gps. What I like to do is download the nearby caches when I'm already at a site (having to send them in advance from my computer is an extra step which is fine at times, but that I definitely don't always want to be bothered with). Please please please tell me there is a way to do this, and I'm just not seeing it? Thanks