Gill & Tony

I'm planning a trip to the US next year including a drive from Ft. Lauderdale to New Orleans. I hope to find a bunch of challenges in Florida, including one for "four US states in one day". I don't usually go for challenges I haven't achieved, but a few days later I will pass through 4 states in a day. I will make an exception there.

I'm already booked. Will be there in September.

I'm in Australia and am currently planning 3 overseas trips. I'm looking at puzzles in Singapore, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Belgium among several others.

True - but if you Did Not Search, you Did Not Find, right? And if you simply drove past in your car you did not find either. And if you stayed home you did not find. There has to be a line drawn somewhere. For me, the line is that I have to make a serious search. Your line may be in a different place. That's the joy of this game.

It is possible to add them to your profile, and completely ignore the standard souvenirs tab. I did mine with the help of a GSAK macro but it should be possible to do it manually. Then you can rearrange them however you want. It is a bit tedious the first time, but once it is done once, you only need to add new souvenirs as you earn them.

That's how I play it. DNF is Did Not Find, not Did Not Search. If I can't search, for any reason, I usually don't write any log, but may write a note if there's anything the CO might need to know - including just a thanks for the location. I'm not proud of my DNFs but I'm not ashamed of them. They are just part of my caching history. I've even added a section on my DNFs to my profile. So far 11% of my searches are DNF, in other words I fail to find one in nine times I search.

Thanks for that, I knew there had to be a way.

I have created several routes over the past few months and I don't need them any more. Is there any way to delete them? I've looked at the PQ > caches along a route > "Your Created Routes" and they are all listed, but I can't see any way to get rid of them. Any ideas? Thanks Tony

If my cache is big enough to hold a TB then I make it PMO. Gives a better chance of the TBs being treated properly. Micros and nanos are free for all.

If I am simply driving from A to B I will use two PQs. One, for traditionals within 0.5 km of the route and which have scenic view attribute and the other for earthcaches and virtuals within 5 km of the route. That way I find interesting places to stop and a few caches to find on the way.

I have that on my profile. Have a look and see if it is what you want. You need to add the following HTML as the very first thing in your profile <div class='stat' style='position:relative; top:-250px; left:66px; height:0px;'> <img style='vertical-align:sub' src='/images/icons/32/dnf.png' alt='' height='16' width='16' /> 102 DNF Logs </div> <div class='stat' style='position:relative; top:-250px; left:104px; height:0px;'> <img style='vertical-align:sub' src='http://gsak.net/images/Hidden.gif' alt='' height='16' width='16' /> 25 Caches Hidden </div> That actually produces two extra stats. The first is the DNF logs and the second is caches hidden. You will need to experiment, changing the top:-250px to adjust the position. If it is too low increase the number. If too high, decrease the number. You will need to change the DNF count and caches count to suit. Obviously, if you don't want the caches hidden count, don't include that bit of the code. Remember, though, it MUST be the very first thing in your profile.

I'm planning a very similar thing next year. We are doing a European river cruise finishing in Amsterdam and then driving to Switzerland. I'm hoping to get that same cache and my 5 countries will be Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg.

How is that "..completely against the way I enjoy challenges."? The only difference I see is that you don't get a smiley, but instead a badge or souvenir. Because I enjoy the two components of a challenge cache. Completing the challenge and finding the cache. That's why they are called Challenge Caches. I'm planning a trip to Florida next year and there are a bunch of challenge caches there. I'm working on the challenges now and hope to complete the task by finding the caches then.

The problem with just one Jasmer (or whatever) challenge is that it automatically becomes unavailable to the vast majority of cachers. If it is physically in, say, Texas then most non-American cachers won't be able to get it. Can I have it in NSW, please? The alternative is to make it a souvenir, which is completely against the way I enjoy challenges.

In Australia, in 1996, we had one of the worst mass killings by one person ever. 35 deaths and 24 non-fatal injuries. Our then prime minister, John Howard, immediately introduced gun controls which were approved by all states and territories despite a campaign by the shooters party. Before that, we had roughly one multiple killing a year. Since then we have had none. People who can demonstrate a need can still get appropriate weapons. Farmers who live in an area inhabited by feral pigs can own rapid fire shotguns. Hunters can still get licenses for hunting rifles. However, fully automatic and semi-automatic weapons are restricted to military and police use. After all, why does a private citizen need a semi-automatic weapon? Like On4Bam we call people with guns Police or Soldiers.

So, it is a vacation cache as well? Curious why you didn't smash it and free the TBs (if they're really in there) after all? Just because the upper rock might have shifted more? If it is that unstable, I doubt that a glass jar would hold up under the weight. It is at arms length under the upper boulder. I would need a long metal spike and hammer to break it. There is an active catcher on the island and I plan to contact them once I'm home. I believe the CO was an employee here. Tony

I've had a good look at it now and it won't be removed by any equipment brought by a normal tourist to a resort island. It is a small glass container which looks as if it was placed at arms length on a lower rock and the higher rock sat well clear of it. At some point the upper rock must have shifted and is now pressing hard on the top of the container. The best way to retrieve it would be to have a hardwood wedge driven between the rocks. Simply smashing the container would cause the upper rock to move more (I suspect). So, I'm going to leave it well alone. Thanks for the advice, though. As some have suggested, I did think smashing and removing would be the best option but it is always good to get other opinions. Cheers Tony

Jammed under a rock so solidly that at least 10 finders failed to remove it. Good I am, Superman I am not

I'm very close to a cache which was recently archived. The glass container is jammed under a rock, several "finds" were logged by people who sighted the container and an NA was logged followed by the reviewer disabling and then archiving the cache. There are two trackables logged as being in the cache. I'm here for 24 hours. Assuming that I deem it safe to do so, should I smash the container, remove broken glass, retrieve the log and trackables? Or should I simply leave it? Assuming smash it is the verdict,should I claim a find by signing the log or just write a note explaining what I have done? Advice please, Tony

With the Braille one, I would print the picture, then find a Braille alphabet and manually decode the Braille on the printed page.

What would go a long way to solving this would be requiring a valid "paid" e-mail address, one where an ISP somewhere knows your personal details. You could still use a free e-mail address on the site, but Groundspeak would have the real e-mail address on file for every user.

The question is then, do people pretend to log caches in order to qualify for challenge caches who wouldn't normally do so if those challenges did not exist. In my experience the answer is yes, absolutely. I would suspect that the number of people who cheat only when trying to qualify for challenge caches is relatively small. My experience in other areas is that someone who cheats in one circumstance will usually cheat in others. Even if some people cheat to qualify for a challenge cache, I don't see that as a reason for removing challenge caches. Some people cheat to fill D/T grids and that's no reason to remove D and T ratings. Some people cheat to fill date grids. Some people cheat simply because they can. Police cheating as much as possible and don't worry about the rest.

A challenge cache is (usually) a traditional cache, but you have to have completed the challenge before logging a found online. Usually the physical cache is at the stated coordinates, it has a physical container and a physical log. Just like a traditional cache. You can go and find it and sign the physical log. However, unless you have completed the challenge component, you can only log a write note at this point. The actual challenge varies from cache to cache. Examples, Find 26 caches each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet; find a cache in 4 different USstates in one day; find two caches on different continents in one day. Once you have completed the challenge and found the physical cache, then you can log the cache as found.

If you don't have GSAK, you could copy the description and paste it into Google translate.

As has been suggested before, allow the user to edit the souvenir section and insert their own HTML. Default is what we see now, option is roll your own. I like what I have in my FSG profile under Souvenirs. Others will want something else.