4wheelin_fool

I would say its fine, although someone may have a negative impression if they didn't know it was an impression.

I had a near-death experience which changed my life forever. I decided to go horseback riding one day. Everything was going fine until the horse started bouncing out of control. I tried with all my might to hang on, but was thrown off. Just when things could not possibly get any worse, my foot became caught in the stirrup. When this happened, I landed head-first to the ground. My head continued to bounce harder as the horse would not stop or even slow down. Just as I was giving up hope and losing consciousness ... a thoughtful K-Mart manager came out and pulled the plug.

Derailed by a moderator, no less. Killed the thread, actually..

Geocaching merit badge is just a bad idea. I remember orienteering merit badge took a little bit of work, but this sounds rather simple, closer to basketry. I'll still bet that the scout caches overall are probably maintained a little better than kids caches overall, but they are still hidden by kids.

But how are people who DNFd it after it was stolen supposed to know that it is back? Put a watch on it and wait for a find, or email the owner for a hint. The history of every cache is not always apparent from the online logs. ...which was really the entire point of this thread... Well now you know. Casually armchair browsing logs can be deceptive. A large percentage of thieves are lazy and have short attention spans. Simply breaking the chain of DNFs with finds without explanation may cause them to lose interest.

But how are people who DNFd it after it was stolen supposed to know that it is back? Put a watch on it and wait for a find, or email the owner for a hint. The history of every cache is not always apparent from the online logs.

Also sometimes the cache owner may quietly replace a hide without any notes if they suspect that someone stole it. I'm guilty of doing that.

Bomb squad shuts down town due to tourism project?

If the eight people came in a single group not necessarily. I've seen some caches where there's a wild psychological phenomenon of a couple DNFs causing more. It would be almost a shame at that point as a CO to go log "went to check and it's still there". On mine, it's not hard to tell it's still there. I keep my caches in great shape, so one may suspect it's gone all they want. But unless I've specified it's gone, it is there even without OMs. It happens all of the time. One DNF tends to snowball until an entire string appears and convinces people sitting at home that it's missing, until someone finds it. The subtle power of suggestion at work. Most of the time it's a needle in a haystack type of hide, or the hint is misinterpreted, or the CO changes things up a little and messes up the PAF hotline.

The ancient Greeks said that as long as someone's name was mentioned, they lived on..

I suppose the CO could also log a temporary "found it" log on their own cache, only to indicate for others that it has been found recently.

It's sad news to hear that, although most would like to know who it is.

Dad told her that they were going on a treasure hunt, but then she found out it was a micro in the woods. Yeah, I could see it happening..

I think you could add that to your Irk list. "Getting yelled at by CO for checking the hint 'to early'." No, the yelling is from the girlfriend who thinks checking the hint before spending a full 5 minutes looking is cheating.

I took a picture that was part of the answer to a puzzle cache. I think I had under 10 finds at the time. Sometimes when I'm stumped on a cache, I guiltily look through the images to see if anyone has posted a spoiler of the container or the location Really? I look through them before I even get to GZ. I thought checking the hint before getting to GZ was bad enough, as I've gotten yelled at for that. Checking pictures is usually an act of desperation.

Why run pocket queries when you can just pull them up on the phone? Filtering can be useful, but just looking at the page and deciding may be better.

I don't think that they can "exploit" the game any more than Groundspeak has. They don't have any apps, its just a little commercialism for the town with some people inappropriately sharing locations without consent. I think you are confusing official exploitation with unauthorized exploitation.

Naw, I'm thinking the illuminati, which Obama is obviously a member of, hacked your computer. Be afraid. Be very afraid. No he's not. According to a book printed in the early 1800s, the illuminati is the 13th level of the Roscrucians, the parent group of the Freemasons. Although it's likely that they may have hypnotized him before he took office to insure he does not consciously destroy the free world, his previous allegiance before that was to Russia, as the son of the Cuban who shot Kennedy. Hope that helps!

In the description is says "Originally a Virtual cache, I've turned it into a Microcache or Virtual." Seems odd that someone could/would do that. In 2002 it wasn't odd. A considerable amount of people considered virtuals "lame", and not really geocaching. It wasn't until the icon became scarce that they became valued. Since there is a container present and it has been unchanged for 12 years, it is unique but not any type of guideline violation. It's marked as a Trad, but is a Multi or Puzzle to find the container... Ok I took a closer look at it. At that time COs could edit cache types and apparently he edited it incorrectly from a virtual to traditional when it should be a mystery icon. I don't think the multi cache icon was introduced until a few months later. Perhaps a reviewer could change it, or not.

Not necessarily. I've encountered a scenario where a Traditional had been hidden right on top of a Puzzle final (the Puzzle didn't have a final coordinate waypoint, and that's another issue), with only an inch or two of pieces of bark separating them. Neither owner knew about the other until finders started getting confused. I was also told by a reviewer once that during one of our local annual cache-hiding events, three different caches were all submitted as being hidden in the same stump! The thing is, a spot that looks like a good hiding spot to one cacher might also look good to another cacher. The same applies to non-geocaching.com geocachers. If an existing cache is well-hidden, as it should be, a second hider may not realize there's already a cache there, especially if they're not using this listing service. I think it is more likely the hider of the traditional knew about the puzzle, but didn't admit it. Perhaps the intention was for finders to get 2 smileys, or to spoil the puzzle, I don't know. Of course coincidences happen and it is possible for such instances to be accidental, but in the OPs case when it occurs 3 or more times, it's more likely to be intentional. They are also using the term "geeocaching", not letterboxing, nor is it a general treasure hunt.

I'm not convinced that they already have accounts at gc.com. From what the web page tells it appears to be a mixture of several elements, geocaching only being one aspect. If it's an urban area with many caches on gc.com, it is very likely that somehow who places several stages around the town will somewhere get close to a cache listed on gc.com. Sending people into stores and businesses is an integral part of the activity described on the web page provided in the first post, but does violate the guidelines of gc.com. I cannot see any reason why these people should care about caches listed at gc.com at all. The gudelines at gc.com are quite restrictive when it comes to projects of the discussed type. Having one, a foot away, as well as another 20 feet away, indicates they are aware of them. Although Groundspeak is not the centre of the geocaching universe, these hides sure seem to be satellites in orbit around existing caches. The planet certainly is wide enough to place them 50 or more feet away. What's happening is that their webpage is being used to have non geocachers find geocaches that other people placed, and without their knowledge. The town manager is involved, and they all think its great. Go to the town's visitor center to find a map to someone else's cache.

Why do they need to have a geocaching account at gc.com at all in order to be able to offer geocaching-like activities to the local population? People can enjoy geocaching without being active at gc.com at all (that holds for cache owners and searchers). I don't know, you tell me. They most likely have geocaching accounts already and are placing these near existing geocaches without the owners knowledge.

I have found 2 so far like this. One was a foot away and the other was about 20ft away. They don't put a contact name or number in the container. It's on public property just like the other geocaches. I guess I can't worry about it too much. I just don't understand why they don't just do a geotour. That would bring more people here. I am pretty active around this area, I have over 150 caches in the area. That's odd. I would first guess that they are trying to get geocachers to play their game by finding the containers accidentally, but without any info it's likely a fellow geocacher who is rather trying to introduce new people to the game by using their site. They won't list existing containers as theirs, but they are trying to get non geocachers to find listed caches. Try emailing them and asking what their geocaching name is.

In the description is says "Originally a Virtual cache, I've turned it into a Microcache or Virtual." Seems odd that someone could/would do that. In 2002 it wasn't odd. A considerable amount of people considered virtuals "lame", and not really geocaching. It wasn't until the icon became scarce that they became valued. Since there is a container present and it has been unchanged for 12 years, it is unique but not any type of guideline violation.

It seems odd that they would do that. How far away are their geocaches hidden, and who is the property owner?