infiniteMPG

If I don't want <REAL NAME> likes this cache posted on the cache page rather then <infiniteMPG> likes this cache, then I need a Facebook account under <infiniteMPG> rather then <REAL NAME> or is there another way to NOT have your <REAL NAME> shown on the cache page when you do a LIKE? I tested this on a listing, then logged out of GC and went to the cache page. Even though I wasn't logged in and couldn't get the coords, I could still see <REAL NAME> likes that cache... ::sigh:: I don't care to have <REAL NAME> showing on the listing pages, if I did I would of signed up for GC with <REAL NAME> rather then <infiniteMPG> Should be something that we should know without having to sign up for a bogus GC account just to test...

One additional question... IF SOMEONE LIKES A PREMIUM MEMBER ONLY CACHE AND IT'S NOW LINKED ON FACEBOOK, CAN A NON-PREMIUM MEMBER VIEW THE CACHE THRU FACEBOOK EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT A PREMIUM MEMBER? Just curious and since I don't have a non-premium member account I can't really test this.

Ahhh, but in this hyper-politically correct world people will do things like that.... and IMHO good-riddens.... As far as posting "real names" on cache pages, yeah, can set up a FB geocaching account but then it's not linked to me anymore which means the FB account I use to stay in touch with co-workers and former school chums is totally removed from my GC FB account, so now I have two FB accounts to track. Geeze.... Guess my big question is what's the advantage to the GC community of tying this in to FB? And what's next, we're going to be able to hide virtual geocaches on someone's Farmville property?

Not sure what prompted someone (GC?) to add the LIKE feature to the website BUT I DIS-LIKE. If you say you like a listing, rather then posting your HANDLE that you are the one who likes it, it lists your REAL and FULL name as the person who likes it. Now maybe it's just me but I have the handle infiniteMPG on GC and everyone else has handles, too. There are some people I am sure that don't want their FULL NAME plastered on webpages. Can we change that to post that <HANDLE> likes the cache rather then <REAL NAME> likes it? If not then dump the handles and we'll all just be ourselves and forget the GC handles...

I have had many people ask me if there's money in the containers when I explain geocaching to them. When I tell them "no" their immediate response is "I thought you said CASH". I doubt I'm the only one. I don't see the harm in doing whatever can be done to reduce the chance of people heading out with misconceptions or misunderstandings. Don't think it's that big an effort to edit some text on the main page and change some words in the video presentation and it wouldn't take one spec of info or PR away from it at all. But if it prevented one person from heading out looking for "treasure" and innocently raiding a cache it would be worth it a thousand times over. Especially to the person who's sentimental item is in the hide, or the owner of the cache who would have to notify them if it disappeared.

I think they could do that better with just two words.... FREE BEER The wiki describes geocaching as an activity where "participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches") anywhere in the world." (edited slightly) which to me sounds clean and good and doesn't use the term "treasure hunting". If you changed that text and then in the video just say "geocache" every time rather then waffling back and forth between "geocache" and "cache" you wouldn't loose a spec of information while keeping the "money" inferences out of the intro. Nothing lost, a LOT gained. When someone gets a little deeper in the game, then let them discover that a "geocache" can be shortened to "cache".

The new intro and video on the GC website is good but it also plants some seeds that maybe should not be planted. The text on the page states "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices." Then in the video it waffles back and forth between calling the hides "geocaches" and then calling them "caches". For the person COMPLETELY VOID of exposure to geocaching when you mention "TREASURE hunting" and "cache" (which sounds EXACTLY like "CA$H") it starts sounding to the newbie that there's treasure in them there hills. Especially when the video makes statements like 'THEN HEAD OUTSIDE TO FIND THE CACHE (CA$H)...". There's a chance that a complete newbie wouldn't even know that "cache" is short for "geocache". Recently found people explaining geocaching asking someone "Do you know what a geocachÉ is?" making it sound very French-like... "geocach-AYE". To an owner who has recently had to deal with dozens of raided caches having to report boat loads of missing TB's and geocoins, I CRINGE when I see implication given out that there's treasure/cash out there to be found. IMHO the word "treasure" should be avoided at all costs when describing geocaching and until someone is a little more exposed to the game, referring to a hide as a "CA$H" shouldn't be mentioned either. Nothing wrong with using the word "geocache" throughout the video. We have explained the game to regular folks on the trails and had the response "There's money in 'em?" so I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that people easily jump to that conclusion. It's a good video, don't take me wrong, but I just think that even subliminally planting the seed that there is money/cash/treasure involved should be avoided and I see nothing lost in avoiding those terms. Just MHO

IMHO log entires for caches are the same as log entries in a ship's logbook, it's a record of what happened. If a similar thing happened three days in a row it doesn't mean you don't log it. You don't log a DNF if you DNL (Did Not Look) and what you interpret as "looking" is up to you. Hopefully if you visit a cache site three times on three different days you don't "look" for it the same way, peek behind the same rocks, the same trees, the same way you did the previous time thinking the cache might magically appear. You look differently and could log those differences...."walked to GZ on stilts to get a better view today", "swam across the river to get a gator's eye view", "parachuted in comparing the spot to Google Earth map during the decent"... something different. Log it. We cache owners get a lot of our satisfaction from our work by reading your adventures in your logs. We might take a little extra satisfaction if you can't find it because it's a primo camo job, but if you're new and DNF several times we'll probably take pity and drop you a hint. And also if you're new, don't feel embarrassed to "contact owner" and say that you tried the cache a couple times and just can't find it. Most folks are hiding caches for people to have fun with and while we like frustrating someone with a 5-5 camo'ed hide, we don't want to make a new cacher mad about not finding a 1.5-1.5. And keep in mind when you use "contact owner" from a cache listing page, include the cache you're writing about in your message. The cache name doesn't get tagged to the message and someone with a lot of hides may not know which cache you're asking about.

Loaded our gear and took off to some nice Florida trails but when we got set to start the hike, I realized I still had the caches from a recent business trip to St. Louis loaded on my GPSr and not the local ones. Waiting for my new phone capable of the GC app

Tell the truth but IMHO don't show them the hide regardless of what you think of them. Unless of course it's one you own. Don't risk someone else's property. Was doing a maintenance run a couple days ago and saw a group holding up GPSr's walking near where I had a hide. They were engaged in conversation with someone walking their dog and I drove the ol' Geo-Jeepster up to introduce myself. When I got close I could hear them ask the dog owner if he'd ever heard of a "GEO-CACH-AYE" putting that odd sounding "AYE" at the end of the word, trying somehow to pronounce the "E" in geocachE and making is sound somewhat French. Seems they were looking for their second hide and already trying to explain geocaching to others Was pretty cool and amusing, too.

Wow.... all this over an upper case "G"? So next we're going to be saying that ʞɐədspunoɹƃ shouldn't be converting my entered text " : D " and changing it to

ROTFLMAO (O: ¡uʍop ǝpısdn s,ʇı uǝɥʍ pǝʇonb s,ʇı uǝɥʍ ʇı ǝzı1ɐʇıdɐɔ uǝʌǝ ʇ,usǝop ʇı ¡¡¡ǝǝs

ʞɐǝdspunoɹb (o: ¡uʍop ǝpısdn s,ʇı uǝɥʍ ʇı op ʇ,usǝop

I think it's a good introduction with a little issue. The text on the page states "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices." Then in the video it waffles back and forth between calling the hides "geocaches" and then calling them "caches". For the person COMPLETELY VOID of exposure to geocaching when you mention "TREASURE hunting" and "cache" (which sounds EXACTLY like "CA$H") it starts sounding to the newbie that there's treasure in them there hills. To an owner who has recently had to deal with dozens of raided caches having to report boat loads of missing TB's and geocoins, I CRINGE when I see implication given out that there's treasure/cash out there to be found. IMHO the word "treasure" should be avoided at all costs when describing geocaching and until someone is a little more exposed to the game, referring to a hide as a "CA$H" shouldn't be mentioned either. Nothing wrong with using the word "geocache" throughout the video. We have explained the game to regular folks on the trails and had the response "There's money in 'em?" so I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that people easily jump to that conclusion. It's a good video, don't take me wrong, but I just think that even subliminally planting the seed that there is money/cash/treasure involved should be avoided.

LOL.... totally agree. But we have people that still log the complaint which also lead to a friend hiding one dedicated to whiners... same people who wear the shirts like "Film canisters are to Geocaching, what Kudzu is to plants"... should be "Film canisters, decons, bison tubes, lock-n-locks and ammo cans hidden with no creativity are to Geocaching, what Kudzu is to plants" but it could only come in an XXL to fit it all on. Not everyone trades swag. We do trackables and find caches, we don't deal dollar store stuff. I'll pre-stock with it but to us that's draw for kids. And many caches aren't where kids will be. As far as micros I have been meaning to stock one of mine, it's a shark themed micro hidden very well near a.... well, near a shark, and have been meaning to run down and put some shark teeth in the container. Micro swag

Ahhhh, like the cache I hid where the bird sanctuary donation center was and it closed and was re-opened as a massage parlor. Cache was enjoyable to find by a cacher who was invited inside during the find, regardless of my intent on hiding it there

It's been suggested about once a month. OpioNate has said that Groundspeak is considering it. I would love a 'rating system'. The hard part is getting people to agree on what a good rating system is. I totally disagree.... I think it's been suggested about once a week But I totally agree that a user rating system would be great. Have it be part of the found it log page and show the average or just show it in the log listings. Could even expand it to include : - Overall rating - Accuracy of listing - Creativity - Kid Friendly <--- I think this is kind of an important one. - Location It would be great because I think people in an area for a short visit might be more likely to visit a high user rated cache then a low one. And people can make a listing "look" great even for a lame hide. And some people put out great hides but aren't good at creating an appealing listing. And I doubt someone wants to open every listing and read the logs to see what people think. Would be nice to PQ the 50 best user rated hides near some location. Still subjective but the whole realm of GC is, would be just another tool to decide what you want to seek. Cut and paste this once a week until we get our user rating system.

The Florida State Parks have a fee that varies from park to park. Some are free, some are $2-$4/per person, some have general "entrance fees", some like HOMOSASSA SPRINGS and WEEKI WACHEE are $13 per person. Florida State Park Fees

You're welcome but my caches are part of my geocaching "family" so I don't like having "issues" with them. A few of them adopted but gotta luv 'em just the same I agree but I don't think people realize that when they make something into a TB. And even if they do, having a TB with a bazillion miles on it and then getting it stolen from a TB motel or something just tarnishes all that travel time. We just get the occasional log stating "How lame! Such a beautiful spot ruined with a dinky micro hide!". Our reply thought is usually "YOU haul a friggin ammo can 15 miles down the mountain bike trails to hide it then!". <"Reply thought", not reply email or log> At spots like that we usually figure most people won't haul their kids along and we'd rather them have water, sun screen and snacks in their packs then dollar store trade swag.

Having to recently write dozens of "Mark item missing" logs for geocoins and TB's from dozens of my caches and having to do major repairs on several regular caches, I am starting to become a micro-lover. Reporting someone's commemorative military geocoin put out in honor of their fallen son is not a fun task to have to do. Actually reporting anyone's fancy geocoin missing kinda s*cks. So does seeing the photos of someone's kid's special toy that Mom and Dad bought a TB tag for and sent out in the wild for other cacher's kids to share end up missing Lots of coins and lots of sentimental stuff probably bouncing around in someone's glove box. And when a regular cache gets stolen or destroyed, it's a good chunk of time and money to buy another ammo can and camo or decorate it, get the log book, pre-stock it with swag, travel out and replace it. Then hide a micro somewhere and catch flack from someone because it wasn't a full sized cache. For some reason I don't have my micros raided. Don't have missing geocoins or TB's in my micros. Rarely have to replace my micros. Even if the camo cover is not done completely correctly micros rarely get muggled. The scrolled up log sheets last for ages in micros. When they do end up missing it's less then $1 to replace them. And for some uniquely odd reason the smiley you get when you find a micro counts just as much as an ammo can find. Not going to even suggesting for anyone to pick micros to hide over full sized caches, but just asking that the micro haters step back and try to comprehend the untold hours and money spent in hiding full sized caches and maintaining them. Hidden with creativity and imagination a micro hide can be as quality as an ammo can. Just being a micro does not automatically make a hide bad... cut the canisters some slack

There is a similar cache in St. Augustine Visitor Center that you have to ask an attendant to retrieve the ammo can and they bring it out to you. But it's no where in sight when you arrive but the instructions are in the listing. Pretty much every state park in Florida has admission fees and they pretty much all have caches. Seems the "commercial" aspect is open to interpretation as you have to state the admission information in the listing. I can recall having a listing declined because I put "adopt your next best friend here" for a cache near an animal shelter so I think the difference is if you're "promoting" or not, more then just being somewhere commercial.

Usually we introduce ourselves and then they smirk and look at me and say "So you're the one that hid <fill in name of some cache that frustrated them here>...."

I believe some people would claim we already do.... it's called "MICROS" Everyone has their own tastes an their own idea of geo-clutter. I have found that most people hide what they like to find, so power trail owners probably like them. In our area we have a series of caches at just about every bus stop in the county. To some people it's geo-clutter.... but others love 'em. You could just as well scream for a way to filter bus stop hides, LPC's, guard rail hides, or whatever turns you off. But where would you draw the line? Where's my filter for 35mm film canisters hidden in busted up rotting palm tree trunk populated with spiders and fire ants growing in wet muddy ground and wrapped up in thorns and poison ivy at the edge of a speedy busy road totally exposed to the public next to a busy shopping center???

Many local caches have fallen victim to raiders including some of mine. One cache in particular was hit hard and has eight (8) trackable items listed in the inventory. I can pretty much nail down that it was hit sometime early February. Since then I have converted it, and several others, to MOC's. The eight trackables are still showing as being in the inventory and I am getting logs stating such. There is a possibility that someone snagged them but hasn't logged them yet but my question is, how long do you wait before you mark the items missing? And when you mark it as missing does it automatically remove itself from the cache listing inventory? And with MOC's is there any way to "advertise" that there are MOC's in the area to try to invite non-paying cachers to pay up and become premium members? Something posted on the non-MOC's listings? I do like the audit logs on MOC's... pretty cool feature.

Agree. Treasure hunting gives outsiders the totally WRONG initial impression of the game. GC has enough people with insight to come up with something better that we can kind of use across the board. On the Wikipedia it states : Geocaching is an outdoor activity 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. Pretty good summary without the word "treasure". Deeper in the description it states : Geocaching is most often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek", sharing many aspects with orienteering, treasure-hunting, and Waymarking. Mentioning "treasure" but only as having "sharing many aspects". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching