infiniteMPG

Very.... but part of it comes back to an owner's interpretation of things like kid friendly. What an owner thinks is kid friendly may be posted that way as an attribute because he takes his 15 year old son hiking with him every weekend. The next family that brings their 6 year old daughter along might think differently. But the only thing on the page has what the owner thought. If the first dozen finders didn't take kids but thought it wasn't kid friendly, their feedback rating would show that. Same would be for someone that wants to go to unique locations and doesn't care what container is there. If there was a totally cool and unique camo job at a totally terrible location, it might still get a "Unique Cache" award. The person wanting to visit unique locations wouldn't like it yet it could have a "Unique Cache" award. Awards/ratings/reviews/whatever... needs to be broken down into usable information so the major different phases of "unique" or "good" or "friendly" could be defined and searched on. Can't have too much information

Exactly!!! A cumulative and useful rating system with PQ filtering answers a ton of questions....

If you do a PQ then you can restrict the search to caches hidden in the last week. But if where you are is anything like here, you have a couple hours to snag a FTF The best thing to do is turn on alerts for your searching area so you get email notifications of caches as soon as they're posted. You can also direct them to your cell phone. If you read the FTF on my cache Don't HESSitate GCYEMF : September 22, 2006 by BigMahma (174 found) Ughhhh! I was PLACING a cache here when the notification came across my mobile email! No kidding on hesitation! new record on FTF... under 2 minutes of publish Tfth! He had the alerts on his mobile device and got the FTF within 2 minutes of publishing. You have to be ready to pounce and fast on your feet....

Anyone else besides me want to grab up a big ol' ten penny nail and a hammer and drive it thru the middle of that blasted rocker button on the Garmin MAP60-series GPSr's???? We have a MAP60C and also an eTrex Vista. On the eTrex rocker button you push LEFT-LEFT-LEFT and there is nice tactile feedback and the cursor goes LEFT-LEFT-LEFT. On the MAP60C you push LEFT-LEFT-LEFT and you have some mushy spongy feel and the cursor goes LEFT-DOWN-DOWN.... HUH?????????????? What a POS.... I love just about everything ELSE about rh MAP60C *EXCEPT* that dang rocker button. Anyone else have this issue and anyone know of a work-around or some trick to making it move the way you're pushing? Glue a joystick ball to it? Drive a nail in it? Use your steel toed boots to push it????

Sounds like a good step in a good direction but like I said, to get benifit out of it I think there needs to be more then "Rate this cache 1 to 10". Someone who loved guardrail PAG's would rate them high while someone who hated them would rate them low and that would leave anyone looking at the rating confused to what they're reading. They want useful information. There are several parts to a hide that people put emphasis on. People with kids want kid friendly caches. I would rank some caches extremely great but I'd never advise someone to take their kids along. Same goes for technique. An ammo can thrown at the base of a tree at a totally cool location would get a high rating for location, but a low rating for technique. And I don't think it would take much to break it down to get it really user friendly and useful... You mean some people actually pay for this and don't just hack they way into their account information? Dang.... <just kidding> "I'd buy that for a dollar!" ~ Robocop quote

Here's my 2-cents and this could possibly answer a lot of concern's of others as it seems like a topic that comes up is the enjoyment people get from geocaching is from hunting and finding caches they like. Right now a cache has three basic "ratings" (outside of the attributes) that define the cache. Container size, difficulty and terrain. These help but they are defined by the owner, not the cachers. A rating system would help but not just a "Is this a good cache?" system. One that is more encompassing, maybe like this (with ratings from 1 low, to 5 great). RATE THE FOLLOWING Hide location – 1 2 3 4 5 Technique – 1 2 3 4 5 Kid friendly – 1 2 3 4 5 Description accuracy – 1 2 3 4 5 Overall rating – 1 2 3 4 5 This could be part of the LOG YOUR VISIT page and then compiled and averaged for the main cache page. Wouldn't take but a few seconds to answer this when entering a find. So if you looked at a cache and if it had several dozen finds and everyone rated the Hide Location a 1, you might not want to visit it if that is a concern of yours. Or if you are into unique techniques of hide or camo jobs, you'd look for a high rating for Technique. Same would be if you were caching with your kids. As an owner you can flag a cache kid friendly, but you can still do this even if they have to hike a dozen miles and bushwhack thru a hundred feet of thorny vines and march along alligator riddled river banks. Having a way cachers can review the caches would help all the way around. Some people might skew the rankings but overall it would balance out to what it is perceived as. And it could also be used to determine cache ratings to find the "best of" in a certain area when people visit. Add this to the PQ's, too. Search for 100 caches I haven't found near my home coords with a Kid Friendly rating of 3 or better and a Technique rating of 4 or better. Then you'd have incentive for a cacher to hide a unique hide in a good location. I'd buy that for a dollar!

Is there a geocaching license plate in ANY state? Florida has dozens upon dozens of specialty tags (to the point where I don't see how they keep up with what state the tags are from) but I would like to see a GC tag. I just switched from the old Share The Road tag to the new Trees Are Cool tag. I moved here from NC and like the First In Flight tag....

Hmmm, if someone is obsessed about number maybe an update would be your count is based on D/T # of the caches you found, and on multi's you get addition credit for the stages. If you think about it in a numbers kind of way, why would a 5/5 five part multi be the same towards your stats as a PAG on a guard rail? IMHO numbers are not why we're here... http://www.ratethiscache.com/ is cool but very subjective as you could have the best cache in the world, yet if it's found only by people who don't know about the site or don't care about "voting" then it's not even going to be mentioned. And a PAG that is owned by someone with 17 geocaching friends could take the #1 spot on the list.... only way this will work is if it's a part of the GC site itself and people can "vote" or rate a cache as they're entering thier log.

I'm all for every kind of cache, my point was that there is an easier case for removing virtual and container-less caches then there is for trying the same with micros and nanos just because some people don't like them (don't like 'em, don't do 'em!). As far as I'm concerned let 'em all in and let people seek what they want. Virtuals have problems with armchair cachers? Figure out a way to stop 'em and let virtuals live. Kind of like saying too many people litter soda bottles so lets get rid of soda bottles. Or like some people abuse visiting websites at work like Ebay and YouTube so rather then dealing with the problem people, block the sites... ::sigh::

Now you'd have to define what geocaching actually is.... according to Wikipedia :Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 540,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the sport. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. You might notice the use of the word "container". So at it's basics, if there's no container, it's not geocaching. And by the same basic definition, if there is a container (regarless of size), it is geocaching.

Actually there's a local cache that allowes everyone to claim a FTF as part of the rules of their cache is to move the cache each time you find it. That way it's always in a new spot so the next person gets a FTF, too. Looks like it went missing but the theme is pretty unique... F.T.F. Sun City Center GC15GQG

Wouldn't it be better if this thread was in the Geocaching.com Web Site forum instead of the Geocaching Forums...? Hmmmm

FGA (Florida Geocaching Association) already does a rating of the Best Caches in Florida

- Bring back virtuals but bring them back with some sort of validation system to stop armchair logging (picture, code, email validation, something). - Include find and dnf count numbers on a cache owner's page and allow owned caches to be sorted and displayed by name rather then just by date last found. - Allow however many logs you want (up to all of them) for PQ's - Change the numbering scheme under the maps on the cache pages (you never know what map you'll get from what number) - Disallow the same cacher to post more then one find to the same cache - Start a review system for caches like the 5-star rating system (but somehow allow a dispute process to happen as some people may use this for vendictive purposes) - Seperate groupings for nanos and micros - Make a seperate groupings for puzzle caches and bonus caches (rather then mystery/unknown for both) - Get rid of the way the GC code search on the main page displays the GC but when you click in it your cursor jumps in front of the |GC and not after it GC| - Allow wildcards in keyword searches - Ban people from starting cache names with characters like * or " or - so us folks with PDA's with alphabetical listings can find them - Change the Travel Bug section of your personal account information page to be Trackables and include geocoins (the only way to look up your own geocoin is to know the tracking number or look at your account like an outsider would, they are not listed on your account information page) - Behead people who steal your geocoins (well, maybe not behead, maybe just draw-and-quater them) - Add a section to the Groundspeak Forum for MIA camo containers and trackables (I have heard of people 'stealing' a camoed container when on vacation, returning home and putting it out as their hide... just a rumor but I have had some good camo jobs vanish). - Provide the geocaching guides in professional printable PDF format so they can be printed out and handed out and present geocaching to the public in a harmonious fashion rather then everyone's personal interpretation by word of mouth. And include additional ones like "The benifits of having a geocache placed on your land" and "How trackable items work". - Bring back the old way cache pages used to print out - Work with Google Maps to allow the direct import of PQ GPX files straight in (they always seem to fail) so you can store your GC map information on your iGoogle site and access it from any computer with internet access. - Allow the displaying and searching of archived caches in an area. My 2-cents (well, that was more like 8-cents....)

Doubt it. We offer people the right and freedom to live their life in their own personal way as long as they live within the boundaries of our society. Won't hardly find that anywhere else, kind of why we have a higher influx of people then any other country. Opportunities. Kind of like geocaching, if there was a better game out there, we'd all be over there yakking. DEFINITELY!!! But as I've said in other threads, when you come to the table with a complaint, be sure you're placing a suggested solution right along with it. Complaining for the sake of complaining doesn't accomplish much.

I think you'll find a lot of people are of the opinion "Yeah, it would be nice to have this change or that change but until we figure out how to change it we're going to live within the current rules". Maybe a better way to submit suggestions would help. But until the changes are made, we have to live within the current rules, in GC and in life. I think the GC folks know that the same freedom that grants them the right to run GC also gives us the right to knock it around. I think the GC folks are secure enough in the stability of the game to let people chat about anything that we feel a need to chat about. Just like geocaching itself, you have just enough guidance to keep between the ditches while retaining enough freedom to put your own personal touch on things.

Breaker-breaker, down here in Cigar City we think the sock needs to keep the greasy side down 'n stick to da double nickels a'fore a city kitty yanks him off the big slab like an ankle biter in the cookie jar. We'll shake the bushes for ya so keep the hammer down and don't feed the bears. Catch ya on the flip flop. Ouch... that hurt my brain.... hehehehe

Was that post ironic, too? Just checking to see if you were being ironic about being ironic... hehehe

It's 15mph below the posted speed limit.

More specifically geocachers who violate park/preserve policies/rules have caused not only problems, but caused the banning of geocaching in certain areas : http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...ache051016.html http://www.onda.org/defending-desert-wilde...ds-east-of-bend And some parks have had to envoke extremely strict specific geocaching policies : http://www.stpfriends.org/STP_Geocaches.html#SCCP-Policy Which includes statements like : Placing and searching for geocaches may only take place during normal park hours in park areas open to the public. Best I could come up with in 5 minutes so I am sure deeper digging would bring up a lot more examples. If anyone violates the park/preserve/county/whatever rule/policy/regulation, geocaching would be banned. I think that about covers it as I would consider having geocaching banned anywhere due to the actions of geocachers would be considered quite degrading to the game by everyone.

Nope, but it is the cache owner's business and responsibility to protect the security of their cache. If they didn't discourage people from breaking park/county regulations that would put their cache, and caching in that area in general, at risk. What if some of the people visiting your caches caused some kind of disturbance, or littered, or stuff like that and posted it in their logs and the property manager had told you if that happened you'd have to remove all your hides, how would you feel? Would you delete their logs, or just turn your head and say it's not your place to enforce the property manager's rules and prepare to remove all your hides because of what they did?

Totally agree with this as the future of placing more caches on property managed by whoever manages that park would be in jeopardy, along with the future of that area's geocaching acceptance. And I don't think you need to explain common sense on your cache pages. Cache owners are like home owners and when you visit their property you are under their rules, posted or not. As soon as you enter a log on their cache page that log becomes their property, too. I have caches in parks that require entrance fees and are totally fenced off and all that is disclosed on the cache page. I don't explicitely state DO NOT BREAK IN or anything like that as I would hope all us "big kids" would know that. If a single cacher jumped the fence after hours and didn't pay the fees to find a cache I am sure the manager would have every cache yanked out before you could blink! Getting the log deleted is peanuts compared to what might of happened if they got busted violating the county regulations. And as soon as they blurted out "But there's a geocache hidden there, I was just trying to find it" you can scratch geocaching off that county's list of acceptable park activities. Hate to think how bad geocaching would be hurt if people disregarded the rules of the facilities we have caches placed at. Sometimes you have to make examples for the rest of the people to learn by... ask any parent And from the logs they seemed to of learned from it... will anyone else?

Other folks enjoy our parks and public recreational areas at all hours... with their cardboard box houses and shopping carts who leave laying around their used... well... Oh wait, you said respectable... NM....

February 20 by 5daughters (176 found) I could contest the ftf for yesterday as the cache really isn't "legally in the park", the park boundries stop at the metal cable... and can be accessed by walking around the park 'fence' but I won't as she did walk through the park to get to the cache....next time I guess we will have to read the description a little better , but it is all good.....tn,l-gc,sl, tfth... If this is the log of who originally had the FTF it doesn't sound like they're any too upset about the ordeal and they see the err in their ways. If the cache owner did what they felt was right and the original FTF'er doesn't feel slighted, then what is there to debate? And the FTlegallyF kind of says it's not the actual FTF, but the actual "Legal FTF"... straightens that up, too. Sounds like owner and cacher are on the same playing field in agreement. And since an owner has control over their cache (which includes the logs entered on thier cache page) no harm no foul....

I have a couple that you have to solve online (can't print them out and solve them). Crossed Words - GCYJBE and Compass Werkes GCYJB9. A couple other nice ones in the area are My Properties GCY7KH, More See GCY6EB and one that's been archived but you can still reference, November 5th GCY7QD all by BigMahma (who because of family obligations has not cached in a while). All fun ones and just figuring out the puzzle was more fun then finding the cache.