Pezdude

This might be an odd question to ask, but I was curious about how people felt on receiving private messages in response to successful virtual cache finds. Whenever someone logs a find on my virtual cache, I verify that an appropriate response was given either in their log or sent to me separately in a private message. I usually don’t make any response unless it is necessary (i.e. the cacher has asked for clarification or incorrectly logged the find.) The question I’m asking above is would people be open to more positive private messages in response to their logs even when it is not expected? For example, messages such as: ”What a cute and original picture!” ”Thank you for sharing your great story with me!” ”Glad you were able to check another cache off your bucket list!” I’ve considered sending messages like those above in response to some great logs but I’m always hesitant that some people might not care for unsolicited private messages. Thoughts?

We are a little over two months away from the new virtual closing date. Could someone with the know-how be able to query how many of the 4,000 virtuals (the approximate number given) have actually been hidden? Thanks!

On a lighter note, I get irked with myself when I miss the giant spiderweb in front of my face

The bitter complainers who show up on every social media or blog post irk me. Take for example the newest post about virtuals. It's been almost 8 months and people are still angerly raving about the selection process for the new virtuals. I'll be up front, I did receive one (though I'm not 100% why) but it's hard to enjoy it when there's a large number of people grumbling about players not deserving it every chance they get.

Getting this message (or something similar) from a puzzle checker.

I tend to initially upload my photos to a separate image hosting site. Is it against policy to use smaller versions of the photographs and then include a link to the outside album that contains the full size versions? Or possibly, as fraggle_[DE] suggested, have them hyperlink to their appropriate full size.

This is more a technical question, but I'm creating a puzzle that involves 18 different photographs that need to be arranged in chronological order. I'm worried that so many image files on one page might put a heavy burden on some older computers or cellphones. Is there more suitable way of handling this or should I not worry about it?

These are some interesting statistics. Thanks for sharing! I'm curious if all of these hidden virtuals were placed by locals of the given countries. For example, are all of the caches hidden in Germany placed by German Geocachers? There were a handful of rules in place when the new virtuals were announced that I believe allowed anyone to place their virtual in a place that they had personally visited in the last two months. I wonder what percentage of US virtual recipients chose to hide their virtual outside of the United States. Thanks GeoElmo6000! It was such a surprise and an honor to receive one of these virtuals. I think I benefited from being a part of a small but very supportive geocaching community (and a bit of luck). I do try very hard to be receptive of any suggestions (both good and bad) in the set up and maintenance of my puzzles. I'll definitely have to check out some of your puzzle caches. They're my favorite type, although I'm terrible at solving most of them, Haha!

I’m a little late posting in this, but before the New Year we as a community have placed and published over 1000 of the newly established virtual rewards. There were skeptics after the initial announcement, but we’re here to celebrate the new adventures these virtuals have allowed us. Have you been tracking down as many new virtuals as you can? Have these virtuals lead you to any new or interesting locations? Have you worn your Geocaching patch proud as muggles tried to figure out why you were posing so oddly at a historic site? I would love to hear your caching stories! Shout-Out to BMars7391, VegasScotty, littleblkdog and the other users who have been maintaining bookmark lists of the newly published virtuals.

As a personal geocaching rule, I have not, nor do I have plans to, make any of my caches Premium Member Only. I have nothing against those who hide premium caches and I can understand their reasoning behind it. However, where I live, I have had no reason (knock on wood) to hide my caches behind a pay-wall or any other method that limits an interested user from searching for it. Again, this is just my own personal rule.

I'm slightly disappointed that there isn't an option to receive notifications when a user edits their cache log. I understand that there are many reasons why this would be a bad thing to implement, but I've missed a few great logs because someone posts a 'TFTC' while out on the trail and then edit's their log with a amazing story a week or so later.

I can't speak for everyone, but I live around the central Florida area and I'm not taking any chances with this upcoming hurricane. Today I went out and picked up and disabled all of my hides. I did not want them to go missing or contribute to any pre-existing geo-trash. I plan to replace all of the caches and re-enable them once the storms have passed. Please stay safe everyone!

I'm placing my money on a social gathering. 'Attend an Event or CITO event during this weekend'. And keeping with the souvenir names being nods to James Bond titles, I'm expecting something like "Live and Let's Socialize" or "The Cacher's Who Love It".

Hello fellow geocachers! I saw a similar post a few days ago, but this question is a little different. In a month or two, I'm taking a week long trip to and around Scotland. I would love to be able to experience geocaching on the trip but I'll be with a group of about 15 other people so I won't be able to wander off and diverge from our itinerary. Therefore, I was wondering if there were any good virtual or earthcaches at the places we plan to visit that I can hit without sidetracking to much. I appreciate any help or advice! This is the tentative day-to-day schedule my advisor sent out: I'm super excited about this trip! It'll be the farthest I've traveled away from home

I feel the same way; I have all the caches I want to find with my college roomate (and fellow cacher) when I go back to campus in mid-August but I've already managed to pick up most the souvenirs without meaning to. However there doesn't seem to be any events with-in a 1-2 hours radius of the two of us. Hopefully one will pop up, or we'll have to make a real road trip out of it. Then again; we could always try to host our own event for the community.

What is everyone’s opinion on easy puzzle caches? Puzzles like, what I call “Rainy Day Puzzles” which are easy to solve but might take some time. To appeal to the general audience of my area I’ve created puzzles that involve puzzles types such as Word Searches, Mazes, and Connect-the-Dots. I’m just curious how others felt about these.

I’m a firm believer in 'writing the logs that you would like to receive'; so I strive to write longer logs for my benefit and the cache owner’s enjoyment. However, when over half of the caches of your mystery series ends in a stop sign base; my creativity starts to run dry.

Tried to jump a fence today. It's been a long time since I've jumped a fence (To lazy to go the long ways around haha) Ended up with a hole in my shorts. Whoops Sadly also left with a DNF.

I’ve seen a lot of threads where people are discussing their very first Geocache finds, but what about your first hide? Was is something you put a lot time and effort into? Did you stick with a traditional cache, or did you jump right to a unique cache type? Is it a hide you are still proud of? Or would you like to forget about your ‘First Hide Sins?’ Is it still there? Or has it been long since archived. I would love to hear your stories!

Gotcha covered!

Well your name IS 'IowaMongoose'. Will you be my geocaching companion and chase the snakes away?

A picture of you is on their forum. +1

These guys! They are so rude. They love to make unannounced visits. Can't they see I'm caching here? What do they think this is? Their home!? Their eight-legged brethren like to make surprise appearances as well.

Puzzle caches that end at a Lamppost or a Stop sign base.

Mine just arrived today! I got 'Mom's Sun Hat.'