JJnTJ

You're calling all "higher number" cachers dishonest?

Huh. The little mini-map on a cache page below "Navigation" has the +/- zoom buttons. Is that new?

That may have been an accident. I've logged a DNF with a "Found it" log before (and hopefully only once); I was about the 10th person to DNF a difficult cache (no FTF yet, lots of watchers) and chose "Found It" for the log type without thinking. Boy, did I get a lot of emails about that one...

Team Dennis, I'm somewhat local to you and I also have a 300, if you need to look at a working one.

Still showing GC.com as "impaired", but the other services are green. For me the site seems to be working adequately, but it's good to know Groundspeak's definition of "impaired" is stricter than mine (or maybe it's a geographic thing).

http://status.geocaching.com/ Out across the board.

I use Neongeo. At any time, you can press and hold anywhere on the Map and enter a waypoint name and coordinates. You can enter a comment, too, which is nice for more complicated Multis where you have to note bits of information. On the same screen you can also check a box to make a waypoint from your current coordinates, which is nice for reminding yourself where you parked, trailheads, etc.

If two dozen people get a hint on a puzzle and find it thanks to some cliquey connections, it's not like they're showing the world how smart they are. If the puzzle is actually unsolvable without some goofy connection to a childish clique, it's a bad puzzle and not worth ten seconds' thought. Nothing happening in this sport today will matter to anyone in 20 years. You can't change other people's behavior with emails or cache logs, so find a way to enjoy it for what it is.

You've put Groundspeak's emails into this thread. Would you be willing to post your own emails as well? From the quote above, it sounds like there is much more to the story than what you have shared so far.

It must be peculiar to your area. Around here, there are some really hard puzzles that I can't solve, some really hard hides that I can't find, caches in trees I can't climb, and plenty of caches with "soft" coordinates that annoy me when (or if) I finally find them. But there are tens of thousands of other caches and I enjoy finding those, and since the game has so many players I think this diversity is inevitable. You've hidden more than a few, so just continue to lead by example. I wouldn't post a "needs archived" just because I couldn't find a cache or solve a puzzle. I might post one if I'm the latest to DNF a previously easy cache, especially if the CO just doesn't respond to Needs Maintenance logs or long strings of DNFs.

Our reviewers have been requiring us to tell them about the puzzle-solving method for a while now. It hasn't been a problem; for my last two, the short paragraph I wrote was sufficient. And as far as I'm concerned, reviewers can all have a free find on my puzzles (though I'd appreciate them not going for the FTF ) as a thank-you present.

I'm reluctant to post details in public. Let's just say I'm kind of nerdy about infrastructure, and I was happy to learn something that I hadn't known before. In a similar way, I'm glad that geocaching opened my eyes about Benchmarks.

Neongeo is a good tool for this, but it's hard if you're not a Premium member. 1) Load Neongeo with all of the caches in the area without mobile coverage. This can be tedious if you're a basic member since Groundspeak limits basic users to three caches per day (the official app doesn't have this restriction). Pocket Queries are a quick way to load lots of caches into Neongeo too, but again you have to be a premium member to use those. 2) Use Neongeo's Offline Map Wizard to pre-load Google map tiles in the area. Near caches, the wizard loads map tiles at high zoom, and loads zoomed-out map tiles elsewhere. 3) Log field notes as you find caches in Neongeo, then upload them when you have mobile/WiFi coverage.

Like this one? http://coord.info/GC6557 That one is at least mildly interesting (I learned something in my email exchange with the owner). This one is the lamest of the virtuals I've found. The view from the area is kind of nice, but the name of the virtual and what you have to do to claim the find are completely different. It doesn't make any sense.

I found a cache recently where the RitR logbook had been soaked for a long time. It was just as bad as soaked thick regular paper. I managed to dry one page enough to sign.

You're a premium member. There are restrictions for everyone, but for PMs it's something like several thousand caches per day. Basic members are limited to 3 caches per day, no matter what the app. Or at least that's how I understand it.

Seriously? The way it was before this update, you had to click "View Dynamic Map". Total clicks = 1. The way it is now (and possible before, too), you can click the "Google Maps" link just to the left of the map. Total clicks = 1. (Plus this one is full-sized and has more functionality) Huh. I could've sworn the Google link previously didn't have a pin, which made it less useful. Maybe that was a long time ago; I'd basically forgotten it was there. Thanks. Sorry my expression of disappointment caused you distress or increased your exasperation or whatever you meant my "Seriously?"

Here too, even after a browser cache clear. Firefox 11.0/WinXP The loss of Google Maps from the cache details map is more disappointing to me than their loss from the main maps; it was great to be able to quickly show the aerial maps and Street View. Here's hoping a Greasemonkey workaround is in the works.

Fanty is still prettier.

edit: never mind

It seems like you also increased the font size in Personal Cache Notes as well as the text fields in the cache editing screens recently. Thanks for that. I like the HTML hints in the cache editing screen too. Edit: Ah, looks like those changes were in January's update.

General Rules for Cache Sizes: Urban caching = micros (or smaller), with the occasional small. Rural caching = regulars and smalls, with the occasional micro (or large!)

I just checked the boxes on three pocket queries (about 2000 caches), and they were available within a couple of minutes. Here's hoping that means the database is back to full health.

I had a single ~150 cache query run normally this morning, but a larger query did not run. What's more worrying, using the API as a backup to a pocket query is not working either. With both GSAK 8 and Neongeo, I cannot download caches, except one at a time (and only if I know the GC code).

Common Sense. (I'm totally making one of those safety-pin nano tools. That is a genius idea.)