tossedsalad

Yes... well this may be a geocaching forum, but it is *still* an Internet forum. It's not like you have to be voted into the geocaching club to post here. It is full of all sorts of nimcompoops who will disagree with pretty much anything you say. Yes, Walmart sucks in many, many ways on many, many levels. But the main point is that they are giving people what they want. If Walmart did not deliver what people want or need, people would not shop there. You vote with your dollars... tell me again where you bought that GPS??? I am as guilty as the rest. I save $0.25 per 12 pack of sodas, $0.40 on each bag of bird seed and at least $0.20 on my yogurt every time I go to Walmart. After 20 years that may actually mount up to a couple of hundred dollars!!! ( I can't tell which one of those smilies is supposted to be sarcastic)

Oh, I missed that. Thanks a lot! I grabbed the TB and all is well now.

How does that work? How do I "grab it"?

I picked up a TB and moved it to a new location the same day. I can't log that I picked it up because someone else already logged that *they* picked it up from the same cache. I made a log that I "discovered" the TB, but that seems to not do much to help. If it gets picked up again and the new cacher gets this straightened out, I may not be able to record my find and placement. Is there a way to straighten this out? Do I need to contact the owner, is there anything he can do?

How about the Lowrance iFinder GO? It is under $80 and you can find it on sale for as low as $60.

I have also seen this. I think I got around it by disabling the cache again, enabling it with the corrected message and the deleting the first enable and the second disable messages. What a PITA. Why don't they fix this?

Just a note which doesn't even seem to show on the main page.

I just had a cacher log a geocoin in and out of a cache that they did not visit. I know because this cache is archived!!! Am I missing something with this? What is the point of doing that? Actually this person did it to *all* of my caches and a few that I am watching! So I expect this person did it with every cache in the area. Where is the adventure of dipping a coin into a cache by way of the computer? I guess maybe in this hot weather they just didn't want to actually go out and find the caches.

Just for the record, I never for a moment suspected the owner of the cache in question as the one who posted the SBA. I have not met him, but I know he is far above such nonsense. It is not the bogus SBA that bothers me. I had no doubt that it would be ignored. What bothers me is that so many people felt I should not have even addressed the issue or contacted the police just to ask what they thought. When I started caching, I really liked the community and being able to share caching with so many others. But I don't feel that way anymore. There are just too many negative people here.

I opened a thread to honestly debate a topic that I wanted some advice on. I got a few useful comments on both sides of the issue and some insight that I did not have before. But I also got a lot of ill will accusing me of "ratting" out a cache. I was even called a "narc". That is a very odd term to use since it is used as a perjorative, but only by the druggies. I even put in my initial post that I was concerned about "the ire of the local community" and one reply was that I should "Give them more credit". Well, I will give the forum community credit for fully meeting my expectations. I just received notice that one of my road side caches has had an SBA filed on it. Of course any cache can have an SBA filed, but this is clearly a personal issue having nothing to do with the cache. The cacher who filed the SBA has no finds or hides and was only registered as of today. Obviouly this account was created to allow a cacher who likely has never seen this cache to file the SBA anonymously, most likely a result of my trying to discuss the issue in these forums. It all comes back to the fact that this may be a forum of cachers, but it is still a forum on the internet.

I have a Merigold and I get great reception with it. However, there are lots of things that I don't like about it. I find it to be VERY slow updating the map display. When I push the IN or OUT button, it can take up to 8 seconds to fully refresh the display and show my waypoints. When I drive with it at full zoom in the display is blanked more than it is visible. You would think they could leave the current display on until the update the new display and then swap the data around in memory to do the update instantly, but no, they draw the picture in the display memory. I would expect the newer units to draw faster. I have an occational problem with the buttons on my unit, but I have not found anyone else who has this problem. It is not the buttons themselves. If I turn on the beep on button presses, I can get a beep, but the GPSr never does the function that the button was for. The button itself must work or it wouldn't beep, so where does the button press get lost? About the maps... I can only upload maps up to 32 MB in size. I can have multiple maps loaded, but you have to manually switch them. This greatly reduces the advantage of having a large memory on the Merigold. Anyone know if the 400 is the same? I also don't care for the way a lot of features work in the Merigold. Selecting a waypoint is much harder than on my friend's Garmin. He can go to a list that is broken into parts of the alphabet while I have to scroll through the whole thing in one huge list. So instead I try to keep multiple small files of waypoints and that is a PITA! One very large difference between the Merigold and the 210 is the IO connection. USB on the 210 is so much faster than the serial port on the Merigold. My MapSend software is old and limits the speed (and may also be some of the limitation in map sizes). But USB is always going to be faster than a serial port and much more readily available on PCs. On the other hand, you can use the SD card in your PC and copy some of the files you need (like the map files). I don't know if you can copy the waypoint files and read them on the PC using your map software. One other comment. Check out the new XL model. It has a much larger color screen. But it seems to be pretty new right now and last week the Magellan web site did not have the full info on it. It is like the 500 with goggles.

A lot of people have a little bit of knowledge about electricity and a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It is not uncommon for an electrical device to have a bit of leakage in the insulation. This is not uncommon. Normally there is enough resistance that no dangerous amount of current will flow. Had the sign been connected directly to a hot wire, you would not have felt it... for very long! It was a good idea to not place the cache there. But there is likely no danger from this sign... unless you climb it!

Ok, let me ask it this way. Does anyone know of a suit brought on by a cacher against a cache owner? We can all speculate about how litigious our society is, but what are the facts?

I have done this a few times and I don't find it easy. A typical business owner is wary of the possible consequences and likely does not really have a clear idea of the sport or how it will affect them even after you have tried to explain it. I guess this is like your happy meal experience. One thing that I find helps them to accept it is to mention that a typical cache is only visited once a week or even once a month. Very few caches get tons of activity. But then maybe yours will be the exception One thing that is not clear to me is whether you need permission for a cache that is on publicly accessable property, but privately owned. I don't see how putting a cache in front of city hall is different from putting one in the parking area of a business. In fact, many approved caches exist in parking areas of businesses. So do you really need permission? Is your cache going to me invasive or even noticable to the business owner in any way?

Of course anyone can take legal action against you for placing a cache. That does not mean they would prevail, but the legal system is there for them to use. I don't have a clue about what the law says about your responsibility by placing the cache. But the law is vague enough that a claim can be made. It would be up to a judge and jury to decide if the claim had merit. Does anyone think it is even remotely likely that a cacher would try to hold a cache owner responsible for any harm or damages they suffered while caching?

but I won't be posting the coordinates to a Member's Only cache here Funny, that is not the one. But you get a gold star for continuing to post off topic!

One last time. This thread is not about report caches to the police. I did not have sex with that woman and I did not "report" the cache to the cops. I only contacted the police to see if they considered it an illegal activity. Please stop posting off topic. Read the title! The topic is about filing an SBA on a cache.

Even if there was no formal report, that's probably about as close as you can get to one without filling out the paperwork. What is your point? You seem hung up on the fact that I discussed this with the police to get some facts before I came here. Are you afraid of letting the police know that geocachers are out there? You asked a rhetorical question about an unrelated cache and then label my enquiry to the police as "as close as you can get" to a report. I wish you would stop pussyfooting around and say what you have to say. Robert, can you stick to the topic of the thread, when do you report a cache to gc.com?

Do you really not? That PD's first impression of geocaching is an email from a participant who worries that some of his co-hobbyists do things that are dangerous, stupid and possibly illegal. This is what we like to call "really bad PR." Oh, yeah. That takes a Sherlock Fricking Holmes. I went to Mapquest and put in "Commerce Street" which gave me a zip of 21701. Pop that into geocaching.com, and you wouldn't by any chance be talking about the Psycho Urban Cache series, would you? That took me twice as long to type as it took to do. In terms of doing the right thing for geocaching AND the community, you'd have done everybody a favor by filing the stupid SBA rather than talking to the cops on spec. But you have no real info on the cache do you? What are the coordinates? Who is the owner? The cache is PMO. If the cops want to pay the $3 (which will actually cost them a couple of hundred by the time they file the paper work) then clearly they are very concerned and it was a good thing to alert them. Just get off it. Stick to the topic of the thread, when to report the cache to GC.com. Your whole cop thing is a red herring.

yes, but WHO you report the problem to is the subject of debate here. Always start with the cache owner. If their response isn't enough, escalate to the reviewer. Still don't like it? Email contact at geocaching dot com. After that? Nothing! It isn't your concern anymore. Put the cache on your ignore list and walk away. No, who was not part of the original question. The question was when to report a cache.

I made a coin trade last night so drove to the post office today without my seatbelt on. It was dangerous, and I could have been killed. I'm planning to call the Postmaster on Monday and have the Post Office shut down. (Hypothetically, of course. I always drive with my seatbelt.) I've done one of the caches tossedsalad is referencing and had fun with it. I'll admit by the cache pages I thought but they're nowhere as bad as they're listed to be (I'd imagine at some point they could be, depending on the circumstances). Of course there are 6 others but I've seen how a few of them are done. It can be dangerous (like driving to the post office without your seat belt) but if done right, with the proper tools (it's a terrain 5 after all), it can be done safely, and from what I've seen so can the rest of them. One person chose to climb the pole to retrieve the key holder (labeled as a geocache), others have used poles, stood on their vehicles, or like me, drove away since I had no way to retrieve it. Robert, I'm not sure what your point is. There are two issues, the danger level and the legality. You replied to a post that only addressed the legality and you discussed the danger issue. Yes, I agree that the danger alone is not the issue. If this were a light pole in the woods, then feel free to climb or use a ladder or a bucket truck if you have one. But you know where this cache is. Do you really think a cop is not going to have an issue with you climbing or even placing a ladder on this lamp post? Let's face it. This cache requires that you do something in a very public location that will require you to behave very far outside the norm. This behavior may even get you arrested. The question is not should this cache be archived, but when do you report a cache and when do you not report it (to gc.com). Several people have said you should report a cache when it is "obviously" illegal. But mostly they are thinking about treaspassing. I think this cache pushes the boundaries of "legal" as the reply from the police indicate. So where do we draw the line??? When do we question the judgement of the owner?

There have been several posts that don't even deserve a reply (not intending yours). I can't belive how people think you should NEVER report a potential problem. I really can't believe the lady who is bragging about her husband having a long telecoping pole. KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFO TO YOURSELF PLEASE Gah! You didn't have to. If you used the word "cache" or "geocache" or described the activity in enough detail that a Google search would turn it up, you might as well have given the coords. And bonus points for being an actual participant who thinks it's an activity dangerous to the point of being possibly illegal. How stupid do you think the police are? Even Officer Friendly can drive Internet Explorer these days... I am not clear about what you are saying. If my email to the police results in an archival, then they will have done some real sluthing and clearly the cache deserved to be archived. Here is how I described the cache... "The location in particular that I am concerned about is a geocache placed high up on a lamp post. In order to retrieve the geocache, the cacher has to climb the pole or use a ladder. There is a photo circulating in the geocaching forums of a cacher standing on the two street signs of a lamp post near the corner of Commerce St and South East St." The city is Frederick, MD. You certainly won't find anything from google. The best I could find took me to the map of Maryland. Assuming they could figure out where this corner is on the map this is the link they would get... http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=284050 See any info there??? Not unless you are a premium member. If the police go through all this, then clearly they are very concerned and it should have been reported. The reply I got said "If you have any questions please feel free to contact me." so clearly they are not going to dig further on their own unless someone makes a complaint. So how about we just get off the whining about "reporting" the cache to the police (which I did not do) and stick to the topic.

If the local authorities were aware that a geocache is dangerous I am sure they would deal with it without any outside assistance needed. It is another thing entirely to make them aware of it. Oh, I see why the personal comments about contacting the police. I did not mean report it to the police. I meant report it to GC.com! I guess I thought that was clear from the subject.

Isn't it up to the police to decide what would be considered "illegal"? How do you make this call? Is climbing 20 feet up a lamp post illegal? I am pretty sure that if I were not aware of caching and saw someone shinnying up a lamp post, I would call a cop! But I am aware of caching, so I am asking here. As I said in my other post, I only contacted the police to find out what they thought. As much as I would like to have the authority, I don't get to decide what is illegal. No one was ratted out. I really wish people would try not to be so offensive in their posts.

Well, I'm pretty sure what I would NOT do is start off by contacting the local police with an inflammatory hypothetical description of my favorite hobby. Geez. Why do you use the words "inflammatory" and "hypothetical"? The caches are real and I tried to describe them in an accurate, but low key manner. I also did not give the name of the cache or the owner. I just wanted to find out if the authorities considered this cache to be a bad idea. His response was clearly that this sort of cache is a bad idea, but he did not clearly say it was illegal. I figured that this post would get a lot of off target replies. I see several that seem to be saying that I "ratted" out the owner to the cops. I just wanted to get background info to be able to have a rational discussion of when to do an SBA and when to walk away and ignore a cache. If I do anything, it will be to contact gc.com via the reviewer. But at this point I am not inclined to do that. All of these caches are PMO due to the stated danger levels. That is the owners way of "protecting" the cachers. I was able to use the gc.com map and the pictures posted to the local web site to find where they are. I found the containers, but without a 24 foot ladder I couldn't retrieve them; I am not able to shinny up a lamp post anymore. Do you need any more info to judge? How about the fact that they are both about 2-3 blocks from a police station and one is right across the street from a train station? I have wondered about how much of the owner's bravado is just joking and how much is serious. Sometimes his forum posts are about caches on Jupiter, clearly kidding. But he also talks about scouting toxic waste dumps as cache sites and I don't see any sign of humor in it. In fact he specificaly asked if people would be willing to cache in a toxic waste site and said he was not at all kidding! "And, yes, I was serious in asking the questions, which is kinda sad [Very Happy] , because it illustrates just how deranged and eccentric I am! [Twisted Evil]" As to the mental state of the reviewer, I can't comment partly because I have no way of knowing who the reviewer is. The pages are PMO, so I can't get any details.