Riggyman

You can accurately place caches with a smart phone, you just need to be careful. Spend a few minutes averaging the co-ordinates. Go back in an hour and repeat. Go back in 6 hours and repeat. Then the next day, maybe three days after and then a week after. This is probably overkill, but your cache will be placed as accurate as it ever can be...

So, my second cache GC3MZ9E is being enjoyed by a number of eager geocachers. Thanks to this community for helping me work out and sort the issues preventing this cache being published. It's a strange experience asking for advice on-line. Mostly positive assistance, but some particularly negative. I seem to have fallen foul of some guidelines that I wasn't aware of. My aim was to release a cache that others could enjoy. I seem to have achieved that. I don't think I should be criticised by pedants who vehemently push obscure guidelines. I'll continue to enjoy geocaching with my family, but I won't be posting on here anymore.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't see anything here that's remotely surly.As to the topic, a caring concerned CO accidentally getting a cache published when it wasn't in place is a tiny, tiny issue compared to newbies that think they'll be able to put the cache in place after it's published. Cheers mate. I do try to adhere to all the Groundspeak/Geocaching rules, obviously something went wrong this time, but all sorted now Hzoi: sorry for being admittedly a little short with you, but I don't feel I should be criticised for trying to place a geocache for other peoples benefit.

Mate, I'm a premium member, I choose to be as I think Groundspeak deserve some recompense for all our enjoyment, but I'm lucky that I can afford this without a worry. Maybe in a few years you'll be able to justify premium membership, maybe you won't, kids are expensive Anyway, my point is that, even with premium membership I still get stuffed when trying to pace a cache. I dunno where the last stage of a multicache is or, even worse, where the co-ordinates of an unpublished cache are. My advice would be simply to take it on the chin and place the cache somewhere else. I hope you have lots of happy cache hunting with your son

Well, I know there were some hiccups with getting this cache published, but still, when you submitted the cache for review, you certified that it was in place, ready to be found. Next time, make sure that's actually the case, and you'll avoid the issue. Did you not read the rest of this thread, or are you just being pompous? Obviously the cache was in place when it was submitted for review. When I was told it couldn't be placed there as it was too near an unpublished cache, guess what? I removed it with a view to putting it somewhere else. After advice from this forum and contacting the local reviewer (in fact a different one to when first submitted) the cache got published with no warning in its original location. And incidentally the cache was back in place within 2 hours of it being published.

Good news, GC3MZ9E got published on Friday night. Without any warning though, so we had to rush out to put the cache back in place before a FTF got there...

Don't be worried. I've found about ~1400 with only my iPhone. And shhhhhh...I hid a micro in the woods with one too! A 3GS no less!! And i get constant comments on the coords being spot on...... Crikey, don't tell anyone, but I hid my geocache with co-ordinates from my iPhone4S. Took my time, did some averaging and guess what...

No That's not the only delay. Lets say the reviewer checks every morning at 7:30. He notices XXX cache was posted for review, checks it and tells the owner it is too close to a stage for a multi. Then the owner has to go move the cache, take the new co-ords and report them. then it doesn't get published until the third day. Or say the owner had a broken leg, or went out of town for a funeral. That could prevent him from getting new co-ords. There are lots of delays, That could prevent a cache from being published right away, in fact I took over a month trying to publish one cache, and it never did happen. You just have to be patient, and don't get mad and start trying to cause trouble or you will end up like the last person who had the same problem...Vanish in a puff of pink smoke.Okay, cool,I think I need to talk to the local reviewer, give a little bit of doubt to the other cache placer, and see what works out. Okay Community, any advice on the lastest update on this saga? The cache blocking where I'd like to put mine remains unpublished. I've politely e-mailed the local reviewer a couple of times but with no reply. What do I do next? Leave it a couple of weeks and e-mail again? Go Postal? Complain to my MP and the UN? Or just let it lie and find another equally fabulous location for my poor little cache?

My GPS does indeed do the co-ordinate averaging automatically in a couple of minutes. However, in the interests of accuracy, I prefer to use the average of a number of automatic averages taken over time and preferably different days. I.e. the average of averages. There was quite a spread, up to 35ft differences, over the two hours. To be honest, the majority of the two hours or so was spent in the pub next door with a pint or two while writing the description, while popping out periodically to do another automatic averaging...

Okay, seems to me that I could have tried to contact the local reviewer (if I could find out who they were) to see whether the co-ordinates were near any other (unpublished) caches. However, I just followed the Groundspeak guidelines, having the cache in place before submitting the forms etc. Does the guidance need re-writing? PS The A-Team - okay I'll let you off :-)

Off topic - I am so with you on stupid people :-)

No That's not the only delay. Lets say the reviewer checks every morning at 7:30. He notices XXX cache was posted for review, checks it and tells the owner it is too close to a stage for a multi. Then the owner has to go move the cache, take the new co-ords and report them. then it doesn't get published until the third day. Or say the owner had a broken leg, or went out of town for a funeral. That could prevent him from getting new co-ords. There are lots of delays, That could prevent a cache from being published right away, in fact I took over a month trying to publish one cache, and it never did happen. You just have to be patient, and don't get mad and start trying to cause trouble or you will end up like the last person who had the same problem...Vanish in a puff of pink smoke. Okay, cool, I think I need to talk to the local reviewer, give a little bit of doubt to the other cache placer, and see what works out.

Once I've submitted a new cache, the local reviewer obviously reviews the cache and either allows it to published, or suggests revisions are needed. What I would like to avoid is having placed a cache, averaged the coordinates, written a factual, yet amusing description, finding that there is an unpublished cache 50ft away...

Cheers lil devil! :-) That's what I'm trying to do - create a cache that is interesting (albeit not original). The A-Team - your post is not at all helpful. Thanks to everyone else. Riggyman

I very much doubt I'll get a FTF in this shenanigans as I have a chronic inability to get up early of a morning. I'll contact the local reviewer and see what's what. If the others publish their cache soon, fair enough, I was too slow! What I would like to understand is that, I thought that if you'd placed a cache, and filled out the forms, the only delay was the local reviewer doing their stuff? I'm not after an argument, I just would like to understand this delaying business, as I'd prefer not to put the work in to placing a cache, just to find out it is too near an Invisible one... Cheers Riggyman

Thanks, that's really quite helpful :-)

How would I know who the local reviewer is, so that I could contact them?

Just thought I'd post this to see what people think. I suspect the general response will be suck it up and move on, however... So 18 months in, we're really enjoying geocaching, and the first cache we placed seems to be a success (GC3A0T3). Being keen and that, we wanted to place another. The river in Chester seemed a great place to hide a cache. After a bit of difficulty we found a good location (bench overlooking the river, scenic views, rowers going past, very easily accessible) that was just over 0.1 miles from the nearest one (GCP1RW). But it turns out from the local moderator that there's another cache within 400 feet that hasn't been published yet (GC2HECP). I'm sure that's a great cache and everything, but couldn't Groundspeak let you know there's an unpublished cache about before you spend time ( a couple of hours actually) averaging co-ordinates and writing mildly interesting descriptions? For the record my new cache is GC3MZ9E, but I don't think it'll ever be published as any further away are rather grotty locations. Be interested in any opinions. I appreciate some people don't like small magnetic nano's, but these are most appropriate for a busy city. Our next one will be waterproof box and camouflage bag etc, Cheers, Riggyman.

Yo Momma?

Delete it. Caches should only be logged on line if they've been found in the wild. Outside of exceptional circumstances, the only way you can demonstrate this is by signing the log. That's how the game works.

I don't think they're better, but I liked the idea of supporting the website and having more caches to find...

I've only been geocaching for a year. Love it. Couldn't find my a** from my elbow when I started. Now I can spot a "geocachers path" or the place you know it will be from 50 metres. Bought/put together/planned my first two potential caches after 6 months and 100 caches. Due to procrastination only placed the first one on New Years eve, which was found loads and well received on new years day. The bit of advice I appreciated the most is that you should place a geocache somewhere interesting, a place that you'd go to if you knew about, even if there wasn't a cache there. Mine is in a beautiful little park that not many people know about. So I'm glad people have found the park because of my cache. What I dislike is boring caches placed in the arse end of the world like concrete car parks or somewhere covered in litter and used nappies. And for the record, modern smart phones eg iPhone 4S or a Samsung Galaxy II work great as GPS's. The ability to search for a cache on a whim, wherever you are is wonderful. My favourite is when you take a long, hard hike up a mountain and stop to have your sandwiches, and think "ooh, I wonder if there's a geocache up here", and there is!

I use an iPhone 4s for geocaching. I started off using an iPhone 4 a year ago. It's great for impromptu caching, wherever I am in the world I can sneak off for a cheeky cache. Battery life can be an issue, but you can get 4 hours out of it, and then charge it up in the car when you eat your sandwiches. Generally speaking accuracy is well within 20ft depending on buildings/mountains etc. It should be noted that iPhone 3GS and earlier are too inaccurate to be used in my experience. Back on topic, I hid my first geocache on New Years eve. I used my iPhone 4s for the co-ordinates. Went back 3 times and used the average of 6 readings. Asked people to let me know if the co-ordinates were off. The cache logs report that the co-ordinates are spot on.