Kryten

whilst you may not regard travellers to be a gift that is in effect what they are. You left an item of your property ina public place for anybody to do with what they will. You may get lucky and for a while your traveller travels, but eventually the cache it is in will get muggled or or somebody will take it from a cache and then give up caching, give it to their kids, lose it, or take a fancy to it for themselves, at least that what happened to almost all of mine which is why I gave up launching them.

Groundspeak's business model requires volunteers to both hide caches and act as reveiwers and yet they treat both communities with contempt. I can report that the archive button is reliable and worked every time. Only a few more to go.

Having been a pm for 9 years I also have concluded that it's time to lapse. Groundspeak lost the plot so long ago it's now far away over the horizon. Might also test the archive button a few times to see how well it works Edited for spelling

"We have a TB which took a bit of time and effort to produce" Every TB is essentially a gift to the next person who finds it and will remain in play only until it meets somebody who decides otherwise. Since the destiny of almost all trackables is to disappear it's best to consider them already lost from the outset and each log an unexpected bonus.

Emerging from an abandoned railway tunnel after my first FTF I encountered a dog whose photo I recognised from the local caching website and following behind the owning team. "Hi" I said, but ignoring me they rushed on into the darkness so I left them with that fevered FTF gleam in their eyes. My first encounter with fellow members of the species. The clue said "10 metres NW of Lucy's bench", I was sitting innocently on a bench inscribed with that very name, waiting for the latest batch of muggles to get fed up of admiring the waterfall and clear off when a voice from behind me said said, "you're fooling nobody, aint you found it yet". We then looked together but it turned out to be a DNF. My first encounter with cachers from another continent. Leaving work early I drove into the countryside like a maniac, abandoned the car in a hedge and headed off up the hill, my target an FTF in an abandoned village. Half way up the slope,dressed in office clothing but carrying a GPS I met a more appropriately dressed couple coming the other way, they looked at me, I looked at them, no explanation necessary. We introduced ourselves then went our separate ways. My first "missed it by a minute FTF". There's no point denying what you are, they always know (almost).

In future I'm going to specify all my TB missionas "To be stolen ASAP and after being archived to be armchair logged from Germany". It's the only way I'll get a successful mission.

They key to all of your requirements is pocket queries which are only available to premium members. You then need a GPS with a serial/USB connection, a PC application called EasyGPS (free) and a Pocket PC application called CacheMate (small fee). 1. Run a pocket query which specifies the type of caches you wish to seek. 2. The result of a pocket query is a file in "gpx" format and can contain the details of up to 1000 caches 3. Load the gpx file into EasyGPS where you can view and sort the data and select which are to be transferred to your GPS. 4. Use EasyGPS to transfer the selected cache co-ordinates to your GPS via serial/USB connection. 5. Load the same gpx file via USB into CacheMate on the pocket PC. Your GPS now contains the name and co-ordinates of the caches and CacheMate holds all of the cache descriptions, clues, logs etc. It's the way things were done before the smartphone was invented.

There is an excellent pocket PC caching app called CacheMate (www.smittyware.com) that can hold a database of caches but to get the best from it you need to be a premium member. Buy a GPS that allows waypoints to be downloaded using a serial or USB connection. It's a real pain to do it manually for more than a few waypoints.

It would be great to know in advance if the cache has been placed by someone whose handiwork is best avoided but nfortunately this type of negative functionality is disliked by the powers that be and is unlikely to be implemented. The current system is designed to encourage site visits and they want to keep it that way.

Unfortunately Groundspeak have long since stopped listening to good ideas. A few years ago they did announce a new version of the GPX file format which would contain "Favourite" and "Attribute" information but work on it seems to have been abandoned. These days they spend their time designing washed out colour schemes. You can parse the travel bug data from the gpx file or alternatively run a PQ with the "Have Travel Bugs" box checked. More interestingly, run a PQ with the "Have not been found" box checked and make yourself an FTF map.

Platinum membership doesn't exist, it's a pathetic "in joke" that should have died out years ago.

There are only really two solutions to this "bug" 1. Learn to like it 2. Join another site.

To quote the OP " I had everything but my phone/gps and 1 can of pepper spray in my hand." "Tenants household or guests shall not display or use any firearms, BB guns, pellet guns, sling shots, or other offensive weapons, such as swords, knives, blow guns, stun guns, sprays etc. on the property" Your lease seems to prohibit openly carrying or using the listed items on the property but doesn't seem to prohibit owning or moving such items providing they are not in use or on display. Alternatively if you feel that owning a BB gun would be in breach of your lease surely your pepper spray already falls into the same category . On the firearms issue I think the 2nd amendment might have something to say on the matter.

The handyman was obviously forgetful as surely his employer, having previously given permission for the cache, would have reminded him to move it when moving the sign.

Digital content, like subscriptions, consumed in the EU is subject to VAT. I'm sorry, but we will not be posting our EU VAT registration. I think that you will, If you charge VAT you must provide an itemised receipt indicating the amount paid and your VAT registration number. Failure to do this is a criminal offence. It's always worth remembering that while the police need a warrent before they break down your door, the VAT guys just need a sledge-hammer.

I've seen this used at an event. First a jigsaw was made which when completed revealed the co-ordinates of a cache containing a crate of beer and a crate of soft drinks. The pieces of the jigsaw were then dispersed in caches specially released for the event, with finders asked told to bring the pieces to the event barbecue being held the same evening. Eventually when sufficient pieces arrived the cache was found. (A second copy of the jigsaw was also made just in case some of the pieces didn't make it home, and a few didn't but not enough to cause a problem).

Cache placement guideline #4 "Caches are placed so that the surrounding environment, whether natural or human-made, is safe from intentional or unintentional harm. Property must not be damaged or altered to provide a hiding place, clue, or means of logging a find." A cache implementing this proposal would soon get archived.

"State of mind. Unless Puerto Rico finally lost their collective minds and decided to join the Union." They already did

Currently users have a single ignore list which in areas infested with poor quality caches sometimes isn't enough. I suggest adding a checkbox to all bookmark lists that would cause the list to behave as an ignore list. Cachers would be free to decide how many of their lists to use for ignoring and those who don't want the functionality would be totally unaffected.

I too thought LORAN was dead until I read recently that eLORAN is now the official backup navigation system to be used during GPS outages when docking cross channel ferries in Dover - England.

I think that the ability to upload an image inside the long description was removed in the most recent site update. The only supported method now is to reference an external image. See Here

I don't see a problem with explaining how to examine a listing, explaining what to look for is another matter. The method of examining a listing may be different for each type of browser. In Firefox it is necessary to right click anywhere on the page, a pop-up menu will appear on which you should then select the "View page source" option. This then shows the underlying computer code which instructs a browser how to produce the page that you are looking at.

I think it comes down to the old saying that "You only get one chance to make a first impression". What may be intend to be an easy-going, informal style can easily interpreted by others as lazy and uneducated. Once formed that impression is difficult to change.

Two points on opposite points on the earth's surface are called antipodes but since most of the earths surface is covered with water there are very few places where there is land on both sides. South America and Alaska are the only major land areas where the earth sandwich is possible.

The cache owner hasn't logged in since Sunday, 08 August 2010 so it is likely that a reviewer will archive this cache. There is nothing you can do to change this but if you really like the location there's nothing stopping you from placing a cache there once the original has been archived.