Malpas Wanderer

Most of us do take it on trust. We also at times get logs blatantly admitting the log was not signed. Its fairly obvious there are many seekers that are totally untrustworthy.

Some people eh! At least you got some words, a lot of logs are coming through blank these days. I'm not sure which is the most dis courteous. I would say the above is reportable as abusive though. Standards are certainly not what they were.

The woods is full of sticks - help yourself. I was going for a multi yesterday, and I'd just got up a bit of hill when I realised ... stick in car. So I found a length of branch lying on the ground, trimmed it a bit, and voila! In North Wales I went to do one cache which was about 100 yds from the parking didn't find that one. Looked at the GPSr and there was another less than half a mile away. Headed off without my usual water, walking pole or anything I usually take on longer walks. The terrain soon changed to very steep and slippery, especially at gz. The only stick nearby was about 10ft long. With a bit of manipulation it was a great asset to descending the almost 45deg slope and might even been better than a walking pole, needless to say I left this 10footer behind as soon as I was able.

I often look at who have viewed my PO caches, I like to see who and how distant visitors are. Its not much different from viewing who posts to forums, and often they are making a fool of themselves. I have spurred several low count cachers or zero puzzle finders on to make a find. I've not had any complaint to date.

All sounds very complicated to me. Solved puzzles just take two forms for me; Easily solved puzzles Ones I've made a printout to solve. Just place a short code in the USER DATA field after correcting them. SPuz or BBP (Black Box Print i.e. in a box file). Garmin GPSmap 60 CSx is set up to display some of the USER DATA field, so I can see this on nearest caches. Can filter in GSAK for these types from the whole UK database. The latest TomTom export macro by BigWolf displays solved Icons and segregates POI types. All I need now vis the time to go caching.

Create a Bookmark list. Then generate a PQ from that.

If it helps your comments I have heard from the person now. He states he thinks all caches should be D1T1 My comment on that is that it would be somewhat difficult to get a wheelchair through a cave squeeze.

Cachers profile claims to have cached in almost 100 countries with sub 500 finds. The squishy cache log was checked today as I work within a few hundred yards. Its been squashed into the container instead of being tightly rolled over the term, there was plenty of white space remaining its not pristine but certainly not sodden. The other one not signed was where a completely new container was placed a month ago and should only carry 3 legitimate logs. Both of these caches does need a seeker of a certain stature, but that is advised on the cache pages. Though I could hit the delete button I'm unlikely to. Likewise I'm unlikely to complete my threat to archive them, after all the logs will drop off most seekers scope of view within a few finds. It did irritate initially though and I contrast it to the honesty and morals of another seeker of my caches with a similar cache find count, who when offered the opportunity to log a technical find on a missing (now archived) cache, declined saying I'll only log caches I actually find. We all know often greater effort is put into finding a missing cache than a present one. This particular cacher also does not use a GPSr finding all caches by maps alone. I know which type of log I prefer. It'll be good to see what the topic reveals on folks conjecture of standards though, keep your views coming.

I was somewhat displeased to receive a bunch of logs on some of my caches today where, almost every log gave a clear indication of each cache position. Two of the logs revealed that those paper logs were not signed, one being too squishy the other they were in to much of a hurry to sign it. The caches were set with no or minimal hints by choice and are not difficult, although some seem to struggle at times. That in my view is how caching should be, no reading/decrypting hints before commencing a seek, just difficuly enough to require a hunt but not prolonged. My immediate response was to email the seeker thanking him for his logs but I would rather not receive logs of that type. Also; "The question that comes to the fore is; Why do you geocache? When; You explicitly reveal the hide in your logs, You claim finds on caches where you reveal you haven't fulfilled the basic requirement of signing the mandatory log within. The series has brought much pleasure to many, none are difficult finds although some seem to struggle. that is what caching is about though. Now the future of the series is in the balance as I might archive the lot as a result of your logs." Do others think caching standards or morals are dropping? Was I justified in my retort? Or am I just a Grumpy Old G**?

Thanks Dave for coming back in and stating your reasoning. I still think current topics should not be taboo when mentioned in a modest way. You obviously judged this as greater than modest mention. Perhaps all parties being agreeable it would be beneficial to provide links to the original submitted page and one constructed that would easily pass review. Or permanently place on the UK resources pages. I'm sure most of us appreciate the sterling work the reviewers do for our behalf, and I'm certainly all for resolution before such actions as Groundspeak appeal process Lets hope for a good caching year where we can all work harmoniously together. Edited to say: I guess the original page would be to much advertising too, so perhaps a similar theme. Though it would be nice to be able to judge the original page.

The issue is not what the people taking the leaflets think. The football club wants that catering business to reach the large crowd of people - who have been attracted to the ground by the game which the football club lays on, on a commercial basis - by buying an advert in the match programme or around the pitch, not by piggy-backing on the presence of the crowd without paying for it. You would be out on your ear courtesy of a couple of stewards, once they'd got past the crowd of fans queueing up for the money-off vouchers. Quite possibly. And this isn't testing the guideline to the extreme at all. It's a situation which the reviewers deal with daily. How long was that coastline again? O.K you are perhaps viewing it from a different angle from me. I was more relating it to how the reviewer would handle the two scenarios. It seems the line or if you must guideline is quite unclear and perhaps more dependent on the mood of the reviewer at review stage. How many more circumstances are we to send for groundspeaks lawyers to paw over?

Because Groundspeak made a specific exception for the Chirp™. It is quite limited in its scope; for example, you can't copy and paste from the Chirp's marketing blurb, include an extensive list of GPSr model numbers with which it works, etc. As far as I know, no money changed hands in that case, but Groundspeak presumably saw an interest in a limited degree of flexibility on the commercial guideline, based on Garmin's importance to the game. In the case of the APE caches, which were explicitly about promoting a new movie, the cache pages were unashamedly commercial, with their own cache type logo - which is immensely "collectable" even today, with people making "pilgrimages" to find the two remaining APE caches. I'm reasonably sure that money did change hands in that case. And if the makers of a movie or other product came to Groundspeak tomorrow with a promotional idea, I'm fairly sure that they would be allowed to make commercial use of the cache pages. The key is that Groundspeak likes to have control over what its pages are being used to advertise. That doesn't seem an unreasonable condition for a private company to impose on the users of its Web site. Some long-time viewers of the BBC may have a model of "non-commercial" which could be summarised as "always say 'sticky-back plastic' and 'washing-up liquid container', never say 'Fablon' or 'Fairy Liquid bottle'". That is not the best model for the commercial guideline. A better model can be obtained by considering what would happen if you stood inside your local football ground and handed out flyers for a local business, without prior authorisation from the football club. You might well be asked to leave, but if the club chairman liked your cheeky demeanour (or saw an opportunity for some collaborative marketing), he might just give you special permission. Perhaps we need to test the commercial aspect to the extreme. Less than a mile from my home is a house regularly used for filming. Indeed it was also used for the film the OP quoted (hey I've not advertised). Equally so it has been used for filming on numerous other occasions. Would a cache get published for quoting an earlier film but not the latter.

Because Groundspeak made a specific exception for the Chirp™. It is quite limited in its scope; for example, you can't copy and paste from the Chirp's marketing blurb, include an extensive list of GPSr model numbers with which it works, etc. As far as I know, no money changed hands in that case, but Groundspeak presumably saw an interest in a limited degree of flexibility on the commercial guideline, based on Garmin's importance to the game. In the case of the APE caches, which were explicitly about promoting a new movie, the cache pages were unashamedly commercial, with their own cache type logo - which is immensely "collectable" even today, with people making "pilgrimages" to find the two remaining APE caches. I'm reasonably sure that money did change hands in that case. And if the makers of a movie or other product came to Groundspeak tomorrow with a promotional idea, I'm fairly sure that they would be allowed to make commercial use of the cache pages. The key is that Groundspeak likes to have control over what its pages are being used to advertise. That doesn't seem an unreasonable condition for a private company to impose on the users of its Web site. Some long-time viewers of the BBC may have a model of "non-commercial" which could be summarised as "always say 'sticky-back plastic' and 'washing-up liquid container', never say 'Fablon' or 'Fairy Liquid bottle'". That is not the best model for the commercial guideline. A better model can be obtained by considering what would happen if you stood inside your local football ground and handed out flyers for a local business, without prior authorisation from the football club. You might well be asked to leave, but if the club chairman liked your cheeky demeanour (or saw an opportunity for some collaborative marketing), he might just give you special permission.

How can "chirp" caches be published which relate to a supplier of geocaching related items and have potential to boost sales for that company be freely published but a reference to something other than geocaching and probably not at the location of the actual site of theatres where the commodity would be consumed be refused? Publish it as a puzzle, use geocheck, and put any further information in the geocheck confirmation.

The beauty of geocaching is that anyone who chooses to do it can. I'm nearly collecting my bus pass and choose to mostly cache alone. Others prefer company. Have a look at the UK rescource pages http://www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk/resources/help.html The local forums often carry invites to group caching, if you are able to attend a pub there are often social events that give you an opportunity to meet other cachers. It will soon be the season for weekend long camping events too. Hope you build some friendships and enjoy your caching.

All seems against the guidelines to me.

I often solve puzzles months or years ahead of a visit, I prefer to have the confidence that its been geochecked. I abhor unclear questions where your research leads you to less reputable sites, which have potential to damage your computer. Puzzles should be entertaining and educational. Make them too obscure and you risk alienating folk against them.

Personally I would post a needs archive on it. Had a needs maintenance placed on it in October and not been remedied, how difficult is it to replace a log? The cache owners duty is to maintain their caches. Well sited and maintained caches are unlikely to get derogatory logs. There was nothing derogatory or offensive in your log, keep logging it until it is accepted and place a needs maintenance on each occasion too.

A couple of little dots and mentioning it wasn't in the UK would have described the quest so much more accurately. Having done the UK Skeg to Ness series as I wasn't feeling up to walking far at the time 200 was enough, think 1000 would be the ultimate bore. Not that I'm likely to ever cache outside the UK. Good luck with your quest

It would probably be best to post a link to one of the caches or a bookmark list of them all. A GC.com search for "ET highway" returns 0 results. Likewise a search of a GSAK UK database fails.

Don't forget that Nuclear Power station police are armed and licenced to use them! I imagine many other spots on the above list would also include armed officers! I hope they would ask questions first! I've not been approached by police whilst actually seeking caches. But like the above, whilst passing by some well known establishments in my campervan, I observed a police vehicle behind me, I maintained a few MPH below the speed limit. Blue lights came on, I thought it would pass, needing to get to an incident. When it didn't I pulled over. The officer approached and enquired if I knew why he stopped me. When I looked my normal stupid self, his reply was because there is a roof level camera on the van. He said he now could see it was a reversing/interior mirror replacement and I could continue my journey. It was a reasonable days caching, I even found a Dragons egg. First to PM me with the establishment name and date of my caching trip, can discover my by invitation only,coin.

The beauty of GSAK is you can tailor it to your individual needs. I keep both found and unfound in the same database. I have separate databases for My Owned, Archived before I found, Campervan parking/overnighting. When the archived ones get too bulky I save the GPX file which can always be reimported. Quickest way to learn is to play with it

It used to quite part of the pleasure of setting up a good cache with a good FTF gift too. With the utilisation of more micro, nano, and throw down caches, it became less routine. Massive circuits where one caching team is likely to pick up many FTF credits also added to the demise. My early caches saw unactivated coins as gifts, now I rarely bother with FTF trophies. The joy of geocaching is the diversity though, and the individuality you create will be treasured. A surprise if usually more appreciated than the expected.

Probably best to post somewhere other than Groundspeak forums. Moving caches are not permitted under Groundspeak guidelines

Like keehotee #5 does not apply to me I've never used it. #3 what holidays I don't do them either. Yes the exponential growth of caches placed has perhaps reduced the thought and quality that goes into placements There now is ongoing action by the reviewers to archive uncared for caches and we must be eternally grateful for their efforts As with everything in life its up to the users to shape how things evolve but it will always be a fight against those obsessed with numbers. Like the OP I've not physically cached for a while but caching is still dominant with puzzle solving and identifying what I call choice caches which will become the start locations for my caching forays. Whilst its not an ideal system as not every one can contribute and some previous finders will have retired from caching, we now have the "Favorites" to help you choose more desirable caches. The cogs of the brain tick wondering if this was designed such that it further weeds out caches of lesser quality. There is still enjoyment to be reaped, it just need all our best efforts.