Dame Deco

Newcomers won't know, right? Humor is hard on the internet because we can't see faces or interpret body language, etc.

Hmmm…but I didn't know what you meant. The internet is funny that way.

See, now--I was about to post: here comes the snarky inside joke, then I looked it and…it's from a moderator! What are forum posters to think?

You can archive them--it's an option under the admin tools near the upper right of your cache page. I'm sorry that they've been going missing!

Those are always tricky--look on the cache page for clues, or email the CO. It probably means take the decimals out just doe 45732 + 1807, etc. But it does always mean that. Try it that way, see where the coordinates land you, then decide. 11.651 should just be 11.651 - .115.

Don't be afraid to ask the cache owner for help with the puzzle after you've tried to solve it yourself. If you can send an email telling them what you've tried, they will usually give you a nudge in the right direction. I agree with others, though, that it's good to start with the easier types of caches to learn the ropes first. Also--go to local events, you can talk to folks about nearby puzzles there.

I agree that moderators often don't step in soon enough.

I agree--there's a lot of jeering at OPs on the forum, and a lot of piling on thereafter.

Sometimes plain old Google is your best bet. Search for cache name plus "geocaching.com" I've often found that for some websites, googling with their name added works better than the site's own search engine.

If the answers are correct, allow the found log.

Do you share an account? It makes it much easier to streak with 2 people, if that's the case--

Have you checked a library and interlibrary loan?

If you've got a smartphone, try this website: http://www.geolifeline.com/projection.php

Check lists of folks who completed the challenge. From the cache pages, click on nearby caches. Maybe some will come up with smilies for you. Of course, you might have some archived ones that would have counted. Still--use the bookmark lists of finders to find the parks, etc.

Beat me to the punch--just look at the lists or bookmarks of other finders, see if any they used are near you.

Don't be so cranky. If you get loads of emails in a day, just set aside a half-hour of your evening to log into the website at home and answer them all. Or wait until Saturday. Just out of curiosity--how many actually don't use their own emails? I think that 8 or 9 out of 10 allow me to just return the email. It's only 1 or 2 out of 10 that make me log into the website. So what are your stats, those of you with 50 or more?

The "work" we are talking about here is the work of: 1. Clicking through someone's profile to send a message. 2. Copy and pasting text from their original message into that message. That's very little work to begin with. It is very little work if you only have a few ECs - but I own over 50 (and growing) - and this "little" work can become a LOT of work as the volumes increase. In the earlier days I was not too worried - but as the volumes increase - so does the frustration! If you can't handle the volume, perhaps you should reconsider how many caches you own. It's not reasonable to expect cachers to compromise their privacy because you have more caches than you can handle. The website lets us keep our emails private for good reason. +1

I generally put 6-8 hours of research into my ECs. I put everything in my own words--nothing is by cut and paste. But, again--I'm a teacher. "Easy" doesn't mean they didn't learn something. People who do the ECs aren't geologists . Sometimes a short, simple lesson is more memorable than a long, involved one they might not understand. Of the over 300 ECs I've completed, about 10% of them were so complex that I really couldn't understand them at all, and I have a good grounding in geology after taking 2 years of courses in college. I try to make mine short and interesting, they can all be completed by simple observation and reading my cache pages (though a couple ask for elevation readings, too). If some folks find ways to cheat and find the answers online, I don't worry about it. I wrote the ECs for the people who enjoy them--that's reward enough for me. I feel like I'm giving back to the game and being a good citizen of the geocaching community.

Ah--but my EarthCaches aren't typical! I teach for a living, and I know how to design lesson plans. I've completed 324 ECs and learned from every one of them because I usually research the topics after simply because they interest me, and I like to learn. You get out what you put in.

My EarthCaches are not really all that complicated. A good and interesting lesson doesn't need to be very complicated, so responding doesn't usually require tons of quoting. I think 80% of the emails require no more than a "thanks for visiting my EC, great answers!" One thing I often do is open their email with the answers in one tab and my email back in a second tab--then I just go back and forth. It doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. I have 11 published EarthCaches, I can go a week without a log easily, especially in the winter. Maintaining my ECs doesn't really take up that much of my time--if it ever got to be too much work, I'd just archive some of them.

It's absolutely their right to keep their emails private. Just email them from the profile page--that's the way they have to email you the first time. It's an extra step, but that's the responsibility that comes with being an EC owner. I respond to everyone who emails me, and I correct them if I need to. I always start with "you've earned your smiley," then I give them the correct info if they've made a mistake. I want folks to learn something--I find the geology fascinating, and I hope they do, too.

+1

I would vote no--the glitter would be trash wherever you hid it.

I did the North Carolina State Star last year. They've archived one of the caches and replaced it with a puzzle (that particular star had you hike the whole thing!), so now instead of a star of smilies on the map, I have a star with one question mark in it.

All land is owned by someone in both Canada, and the US. Take the national forest land. I don't think they allow any geocaching. Certainly there must be some road, and therefore turnoffs, which can't host a cache of any kind. Take small town in Montana. Maybe the town thinks geocaching is a great idea and even pays for a giant cache at a roadside turnoff. Different location, different rules. I believe it was New Jersey state parks that banned all geocaching related activities including virtuals, earth caches, and even way marking. Remember permission is required for all caches. Be it on an individual basis or a blanket basis. Sorry, but that's just not true. I have permission for 3 of my Earthcaches (a bog, a fen, Roosevelt Island in D.C.), but the other 8 are in public places where no permission was required.