Team GeoBlast

Not really.

I think it is an excellent idea to revisit the discontinuing of virtual caches when there is a municipality that is struggling with something physical being hidden. I hear a lot of requests for a hybrid of some sort and expanding on the idea of an earth cache to include areas of historical significance. This is the focus of many recreation and parks departments marketing efforts right now. Parks and Recreation departments all over are looking for ways to promote their spaces. They spend millions annually to get people out and appreciate their open spaces. It is sometimes amazing to me how it isn't always a natural connection between parks departments and Geocaching, but it isn't.

Hello my friend. A little advance warning.. This gig is in your own backyard.. Minneapolis in October.

Aloha Everyone, We are putting together a seminar on Geocaching and one of the sections we are debating is "New Developments in Geocaching." Our audience will be 150 Park and Recreation professionals from all over the country. In your opinion, what are significant developments in the past 2-3 years that we could highlight that changed or altered the direction of the game? Examples might be changes in global policy of Groundspeak, upgrades to the website, new services offered, new partnerships with other agencies, hardware releases, new mobile applications but as long it was influential on a broad spectrum of cachers, this could be just about anything. TGB

A TB is a great FTF prize and it is my observation that travelers in general, either that or an unactivated coin are the favorites of most.

Knowing a little bit about how your phone interacts with the Geocaching application could never hurt anyone that uses it. It is not like someone was trying to discuss ice cream or something.

You still have not answered: How come the location works where there is no wlan and no cellular service? This story of aGPS so far seems fairly reasonable and straightforward, but it is not. See aGPS is not some monolithic, written-in-stone-standard. In fact, Qualcomm, who makes the most popular aGPS chips (called GPSOne) has four different possible configurations for aGPS. How aGPS is actually implemented on the device appears to be up to the device OEM/cellular carriers. Per Qualcomm's website, these are the four options: * Standalone - Your handset has no connection to the network, and uses only the GPS satellite signals it can currently receive to try and establish a location. * MS Based - Your handset is connected to the network, and uses the GPS signals + a location signal from the network. * MS Assisted - Your handset is connected to the network, uses GPS signals + a location signal then relays its 'fix' to the server, which then uses the signal strength from your phone to the network towers to further plot your position. You can still maintain voice communication in this scenario, but not 'Internet/Network service' ie Web Browser, IM, streaming TV etc.. * MS Assisted/Hybrid - Same as above, but network functionality remains. Normally only in areas with exceptional coverage. So... in a nutshell, don't worry... be happy. You both are right. The Apple has a stand alone GPS that is assisted (enhanced) by AT&T's cellular tower network.

This is one of the cool things about Geocaching. There are basic rules to follow, but you decide how you want to play the game. One of the early decisions you make is what the smiley means to you. Do you want a lot of them? Then there are several ways to accomplish that and you can adjust your standards and caching habits accordingly. Do you want to remember each smiley and the adventure that brought you to log it? Then you can adjust your standards accordingly. There are only opinions outside of the guidelines posted on the website. Take what you read here for what it is worth. It is on you to play the game how you want to.

That sounds like a blast! I am bringing my tape measure next time I go caching. Holy moly... You don't need a tape measure when your boot is exactly 12 inches in length. Heel to toe, heel to toe. Count to fifteen if you can. You are missing the point. You measured.

That sounds like a blast! I am bringing my tape measure next time I go caching. Holy moly...

No offense intended but did you have fun doing this? Would you classify it as recreation? Did you ask yourself "why do I care so much about this?"

Look at it this way. We are all playing by the same set of guidelines (for the most part) and if one exception is made, then there will have to be another and another, and so on. It's too bad that you feel slighted by the guidelines but, as I said, we are all playing by the same set. Yes, we are all playing by the same set of rules but there are exceptions to this. A reviewer will make an exception if he or she feels it is warranted. I don't think there is a steadfast set of things that will influence a reviewer to grant an exception but this is a list of things that I think have helped others in the past. 1. Information and documentation. Remember your reviewer is probably unfamiliar with the specific area you are wanting an exception with. Demonstrate your request with tangible data that he or she can understand. Such as Google Map mock-ups. Photos of the area. 2. Reputation. Pretty subjective but good geo-citizens can catch a break from time to time when others might not. If you are active in trying to help make geocaching a better activity, at some level it becomes apparent to everyone paying attention. Even reviewers 3. Respect. Understand that you are asking for an exception to a rule that most everyone follows. It is up the individual reviewer and they have a responsibility to follow the rules. If you have presented the best case you can for the exception and still get denied, move on. 4. Learn. This is really part b of number 3 but don't spend your energy asking for similar exceptions. Repetition is annoying and generally not cool. 5. Be creative. Ask yourself, " Have I absolutely exhausted the possibilities to achieve the intent of the cache I want to place? Am I a little too focused on that one spot? Actually.. I'd move this up to number one and suggest it before even asking.

Based on my two months of geocaching experience, it is my opinion that electrical hides aren't all that unusual either. The question was not whether there are a lot of better, more unusual hides but simply whether there were many alternatives. I fixed this for you Evan 6 electrical hides in an essentially random 250 find sample is not an opinion but a fact. So really to fix it, it should be: 'In the Twin Cities area, electrical hides are not all that unusual' since I can only speak of this area. Evan.. post 21 Reread the thread. My response about 'unusual' was not about screwdriver hides but to someone ELSE (not me, not Knowchad) saying the offered alternatives to electrical hides are not unusual. The linked post is irrelevant. Actually, the whole thing has become sort of irrelevant. Bottom line is this. These caches need to be placed with a little forethought due to the ramifications if they are placed in areas with a lot of options. That is really the best you can hope for. Like LPCs, nanos, key holders, and other "common" hides they are here to stay as Groundspeak has not shown the willingness to make the guidelines that specific.

Based on my two months of geocaching experience, it is my opinion that electrical hides aren't all that unusual either. The question was not whether there are a lot of better, more unusual hides but simply whether there were many alternatives. I fixed this for you Evan 6 electrical hides in an essentially random 250 find sample is not an opinion but a fact. So really to fix it, it should be: 'In the Twin Cities area, electrical hides are not all that unusual' since I can only speak of this area. Evan.. post 21

I would have to agree that is a bad idea! *If* he was going to place a cache that needed a screwdriver to open, he first should have made sure there was nothing around besides his cache that could be unscrewed. How was the screwdriver used to open the cache, by the way? Was the lid screwed on somehow? Yes, I agree. It would be interesting to know how many finders logged their concern? So far from my experience 95% think this sort of thing is "cool" "great" "wonderful" "nice" "clever" "tricky" "well done". It only serves to encourage more of these kinds of plants. I hear what you are saying and the answer to this is not an easy one. All I can think of is education in teachable moments and leading by example. Collecting photographic evidence of the damage being done and distributing it to not only the cache owner but to everyone who put a "cool hide" log might net some results. It would no doubt ruffle a lot of feathers too. For example, I recently had a cache owner go pretty ballistic on me for pointing out the damage that was occurring in the area of their cache. I supplied photos and was instantly dubbed a geo-cop. It turned out to be a sock puppet of a pretty experienced local geocacher and someone who I would have thought would have appreciated the effort I made. Instead they elected to rail on me behind the disguise of the sock puppet. It was pretty disappointing when I found out who it really was. If you are going to actively seek out people, you need to prepare for responses like this one: Wow! What a way to start my 4th of July holiday, with a patronizing scolding from the local geocache police! I have added a hint so that you, and all the other frustrated destructive cachers, can find the cache without arousing the noisy neighbor or poisoning yourselves. BTW, there ARE parking coordinates listed on the cache page, which put you at the proper elevation to find the cache. Good luck! Oh, and here's the number for Poison Control, just in case you need it: 941-4411 Happy caching!

This is a pretty good example of the hider not thinking things through very well. All you would really need to do to discern that this hide is going to be a problem is to take the screw driver in your hand and pretend you don't know where the cache is. Look around the area in a 15-20' circle (average GPS accuracy in an urban environment) and consider what a person might do with that screw driver before finding your cache. I'm surprised it lasted 3 months.

Based on my two months of geocaching experience, it is my opinion that electrical hides aren't all that unusual either. The question was not whether there are a lot of better, more unusual hides but simply whether there were many alternatives. I fixed this for you Evan I wasn't going to post in this thread because it seems pointless to have the same discussions over and over. However, I could not resist pointing out the fact that you guys are on the same side of this issue. I don't know why you are bothering to argue with one another. You certainly have a way of making a thread more valuable to the reader. My point was a) Knowschad was talking about caches that require tools to open Evan thought he was talking about electric boxes in general c) Evan is claiming that these hides are very common based on very limited experience. Not sure how you can put us on the same page. Perhaps it is becasue, to the casual reader, you are all arguing that 'Those caches that I don't like are the debbil'. Congrats. Two posts and you are back on ignore. I hope you enjoyed our time together as much as I did.

Based on my two months of geocaching experience, it is my opinion that electrical hides aren't all that unusual either. The question was not whether there are a lot of better, more unusual hides but simply whether there were many alternatives. I fixed this for you Evan I wasn't going to post in this thread because it seems pointless to have the same discussions over and over. However, I could not resist pointing out the fact that you guys are on the same side of this issue. I don't know why you are bothering to argue with one another. You certainly have a way of making a thread more valuable to the reader. My point was a) Knowschad was talking about caches that require tools to open Evan thought he was talking about electric boxes in general c) Evan is claiming that these hides are very common based on very limited experience. Not sure how you can put us on the same page.

Based on my two months of geocaching experience, it is my opinion that electrical hides aren't all that unusual either. The question was not whether there are a lot of better, more unusual hides but simply whether there were many alternatives. I fixed this for you Evan

Because he kinda looks like a movie star, I won't post the pic I have of Knowschad at an event in Minnesota a few years ago. It is too bad because it would be one of those pictures that is worth a 1000 words. It is of several cachers standing around him, while he explains one of his hiding techniques. I've seen his work and it is very good. Long story short: The guy is a master hider and a very creative mind. He also has a geo-conscious that I wish was contagious. So you are accusing him of being disingenuous when he implies he doesn't know of numerous alternatives to electrical hides? No, but I don't think it is too much of a stretch to accuse you of trying to start trouble I was speaking to his experience, integrity, and skill as a hider because I know he would never do it himself. Because we have discussed urban hides at length together, I know that he has not only seen some pretty cleaver urban hides, he's put out quite a few himself. Maybe it might be helpful to reread his post. He was saying that he has never seen an electrical box that needed a screwdriver to open it. Not that electrical boxes are unusual or that they lack alternatives.

Because he kinda looks like a movie star, I won't post the pic I have of Knowschad at an event in Minnesota a few years ago. It is too bad because it would be one of those pictures that is worth a 1000 words. It is of several cachers standing around him, while he explains one of his hiding techniques. I've seen his work and it is very good. Long story short: The guy is a master hider and a very creative mind. He also has a geo-conscious that I wish was contagious.

Good point. I haven't seen any either. I've seen them where you need a way to hook the cache to pull it up out of a hole. That's about it. Just reading through the new posts today and found a few very familar posts about cache hiders not needing any experience to hide a cache. In most respects I agree with this. There are people who enjoy hiding more than finding and they should be able to enjoy the game the way they would like. After getting down this thread this far, I did think of one instance where some seeking experience might come in handy before hiding a cache. You are hiding a camo'd urban cache and it is really really good, but it is near some things that could get damaged if they got geo-fondled. Experience as a seeker might help the hider understand what the seekers might do when presented multiple options. Seeking experience might help prevent this with either a better written description on the cache page or a better hide location away from potential problems.

I am an iPhone owner and I have and use the Geocaching application for some things. Using it as your sole device to find caches is going to get you some DNFs because it really is not all that accurate when you get inside 50 feet. It is much, much, harder to use than my Garmin 60cx. I love the phone but I would not suggest ever using it to place a cache. Until all the caches are confirmed gone, I would not do anything. You can put a watch on them and watch to see if there are other DNFs logged. Now you might understand the reason for logging your own DNFs a little better, if there are two or three DNFs logged it is a very good indication that there is something gone wrong. Right now, there's just finds. Log em as DNFs and see what happens. PS: Just checking... those are not puzzle caches are they? If they are, then they are not located at the posted coordinates.

I remembered your post from another thread of this nature Flask and was hoping you'd see this and comment. Yet another great post but you forgot to say that you are tougher than boiled owl. That was one of my all time favorite quotes from this forum.

That looks like a police visit waiting to happen. I hope you have permission and/or it's on private land... Why did you even bother saying that? This was a bold, but great cache. If it were in your area, you, like 100% of the cachers in my area, would be completely supportive of it. Permission questions have already been spoken to. Please, don't get antagonistic about the hide... you'd be envious if it were in your neighborhood. I think this is an interesting thread for a lot of reasons. Aside from all of the obvious angles that have been covered in great detail in this thread, it clearly defines the Geocachers who I would want to hang out with and the Geocachers who would be the target of my next practical joke.