hal-an-tow

You forgot to mention the final step 'Go to this thread and thank the script author !

The mechanical fixing method sounds like the only likely solution to me, but it may not be possible to drive a screw into the 'head' without cracking it , or it may not be capable of holding a screw thread without crumbling. Maybe make another head with a couple of dome headed screws baked in with the heads protruding a little (showing some of the shank)and then bed that in to a thick layer of glue ? I've found Shoe Goo to be a very good adhesive for sticking weird stuff ( e.g. fake turf) to clip box lids, as it is flexible, but I doubt it would work on this combination of materials .

I like reading long logs, and therefore I also generally write long logs myself , maybe about the journey, the weather, the wildlife, the falling on my nose in the mud en route, or the fun I had doing the puzzle or whatever. As a cache setter I've sent thank you e-mails to finders who put interesting logs on my hides . I feel that taking the time to write a decent log is a small thank you to the CO for all the effort of placing and maintaining the cache, we all like a bit of positive feedback for our efforts, it is only polite. As a cache finder (and a fairly inept one at that) I will read previous logs if I'm stuck , sometimes a word of phrase helps focus my attention, and, for instance, if the last cacher mentions they had a long hunt but found the cache I will be more motivated to keep on looking than if they said it was a quick obvious find (and may therefore have been muggled). From both sides , CO and searcher, I detest the copy/paste identical screed logs: I've found myself following a group of several cachers who all copy/paste vast swathes of pointless identical verbiage to every cache, with possibly a brief, cache specific line at the end ( Bob found this one ! ) if you are lucky and if you don't lose the will to live while scrolling down the irrelevancies . On a walk of 30 caches , by the last find you hate them ! Even worse when you are CO and receive all those pointless duplicate e-mails. The CO is going to read the first couple of logs, then delete the rest unread, so any minor issues with the cache which could be mentioned in the log will go unnoticed. I have no idea why anyone would think that logs like have any merit: what's the point ? Quite a few folk round my area compromise by putting a long log with general information about the walk in the cache they started at, then each subsequent log has any detail specific to that individual cache , and a brief copy/paste saying 'Please see cache number 1 for more detail', which seems like a decent middle path to take. Caching personalities come through in the logs folk write , from the mean spirited few words by someone with a grudge against a CO on a cache other people log and express their pleasure with, to the delight of the newbie who is enchanted at logging their first ever film pot, the rushing brevity of the numbers cacher, the whine of the FTFer confounded, the sycophancy of the favourite given to a merit free film pot by a roadsign just because the finder is a friend of the CO, the epic tales of tough puzzle caches achieved after great time and effort ... Yep , our logs tell tales , not just of our caching adventures , but also of our attitudes and values . I've found that folk who write good logs make good friends : 'By their logs ye shall know them' to misquote ...

That pretty much states my view, I don't see any benefit to this whatsoever .What are the big amphibians in the background who control the lillypad geeks trying to do here ? Engineer geocaching.com into some kind of social media site ? Why ? I just want it to list my geocache for others to see, and show me the database of other owners caches. That, and only that, is what I pay my premium membership fee for.

You visit an establishment for work which requires you to sign, time and date a visitors log on arrival : and you automatically scribble the date and your caching name ...

You are correct- I'm sorry I caused confusion by calling 'Seamonkey' 'Mozilla'( I think it used to be called that back when I started using it ). I'd been scrabbling around trying to sort the problem out and got my monkeys in a twist ... So , to clarify , Mozilla Seamonkey V 2.33 update installed on my machine, and when I then tried to use GME it was not working. GME was still listed when I looked in the add ons / user scripts tab , and the next thing I checked for was Greasemonkey. That was nowhere to be seen, so I attempted to download Greasemonkey v3 and got a pop up box which said " Greasemonkey cannot be installed as it is not compatible with Seamonkey 2.33" I am no expert, and having tried that obvious fix and failed the most speedy simple remedy I could think of was to download Firefox and the new Greasemonkey and GME and try using that instead. That worked fine. Thanks, I will see if I can confuse them too ...

I love GME , it and GSAK are perfect examples of knowledgeable people using their skills and interacting efficiently with their community of users , thank you jri. The frog would do well to take lessons from you ... Shmooze over , this is not a moan, but a heads up in case other folk have the same issue as me : I use(d) Mozilla , and GME failed for me after an update to v 2.33 yesterday : I traced the problem to the mysterious disappearance of the greasemonkey script which it seems is not compatible with the update. So I'm now a firefox user ... at least until (and if) greasemonkey catches up.

A really unapologetically bare faced DNF=FTF for your entertainment : On the day of publication: " Didn't find it spent a good 1/2 hour here, searched every nook, cranny, bush, wall, bramble and fence but to no avail" Same cacher, next day : "Found it Joint FTF #523 A bit of a cheeky one! In consultation with the CO we replaced this missing cache and I actually placed it, so it wasn't too hard a find, even for me! TFTC" and from the other half of the team: "Found it Joint FTF We spent a long time here searching yesterday but the cache had obviously gone missing. As we knew we would be back here today, we offered to replace the cache. Obviously we also logged this as a find at the same time . Hopefully the new cache is in its original location and will stay there a bit longer.(......snippage of identifying local info.......) Visited with xxxx. TFTC"

Hello Ratcliffe , fancy bumping into you here ! Contact me , I have a possible solution ...

I know that you're a lynchpin of caching in this part of the world, and it's a shame if you really decide to leave caching (or at least, take a back seat). As we know, Groundspeak will not be affected, nor care, in the slightest about it. Even if all of us that have heard about this issue decide not to renew it will matter to them not one jot. It's an ironic situation that people criticise them for not caring, and then somehow expect them to care when you leave! If it makes you feel better then go ahead, but the people affected will be those who have enjoyed your event organising efforts and cache placements. "TPTB" are unlikely to even hear about it, and if they do they won't be interested. Jacaru didn't say he would stop caching , but that he wouldn't renew his premium membership . It will therefore make them care a jot precisely equal to the cost ( plus VAT ... ) of a premium membership. A drop in the revenue ocean perhaps , but enough drops can become a flood . Thinking that nothing will have an effect on Groundspeak , so why bother to even try , is a depressing counsel of helplessness to say the least . Letting ones premium membership lapse may be nothing other than a gesture , but at least it is an attempt to make a mark .

What a sad tale . A well respected , long serving volunteers experience , discretion and skill lost to the community he was such a central part of . The position of 'man ( okay , person ) in the middle ' between a business with its aims and ethos , and the wildly disparate community ( or , perhaps , customer base ) of cachers in the UK with its own complex local laws and evolved practices has to be , by its very nature , a difficult one. It appears that personal animosity has been pursued , exacerbating the difficulty of Decis position ( Difficult to believe a member of our community would behave like that ? No , I've been , and still am , a target myself . A bully in real life will be a bully when caching and online too) . Deci was the last link in the UK reviewer chain , and fielded the tough problems . As such he had to have the confidence and the support of Groundspeak , otherwise every difficult situation would necessarily be referred 'upstairs' to the Lackeys . Their work load will be climbing without Deci to intercept disputes before they cross the Atlantic. If the Groundspeak corporate rules absolutely deny any room for reviewers to exercise discretion to handle things in a way appropriate to the local situation , and a long serving volunteer who had become expert at being 'the Reviewer with the big stick' was being reduced to reading off the script provided by the corporation , resignation really was the only choice . To my mind , this begs some questions : First : what is a reviewer ? Surely not a volunteer who follows the rules by rote with no application of caching nous ? Why on earth would anyone want to do that ? I understand the 'give something back to the game' motivation , but if by standing up to do that and making sometimes necessarily unpopular decisions you make yourself a target for malicious hounding , and are not supported by the corporation which is making money from your work , well , there will soon be no experienced reviewers left in the UK , and no-one with any sense will step in to take over the task ... Second: Should a volunteer be expected to take on such an onerous task ? Isn't it time all those ( comparatively expensive) European premium memberships went towards actual Groundspeak employees based in Europe ? Some sort of chief reviewer/troubleshooter/manager who could , as an employee, authoritatively lay out the Groundspeak corporate line .This will not happen of course , as it would cost money , lots of money , to employ anyone with even half of Decis skill set . Thirdly : A cacher I respect told me he thought reviewers are too visible now , and I wonder if he may be right . Part of the problem seems to be that their identities are known , they are on social media , so any problems can be made personal and escalated beyond simple cache review related matters by cachers with that particular mind set. Of course , if everyone was pleasant and reasonable then the various social media would be lovely happy places filled with kind thoughts and positive comments and reviewers could revel in the praise and admiration of us humble cache finders who would be constantly and effusively thanking them for their time consuming , boring ( power trail of 50 micros to review tonight ? zzz ) unpaid work on our behalf . The fissure between the corporate Groundspeak and the UK caching community has been wedged a little further open by this needless , nasty episode . Disillusion seemed to be already affecting many of the experienced cache setters I know as quality is swamped by quantity and it becomes all about statistics rather than the experience , the special location the fun of the hunt. "I dont know how that one goes Dave , to quote a well known chimp , "You hum it son , I'll play it ' Sorry , no criticism meant , it's hard to type when you are full of emotion and everything is a bit blurry and that little slip did provoke a little wry smile which leavened my sadness a little . Heres an appropriate lyric to sing off with " Don't it always seem to go , that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone " Thanks for all your years of work Deci , I hope you find a good , appreciative place to exercise all your knowledge and skill where it will benefit society .

Perfectly put Mr. Bogart : "The satisfaction of a cache find is more or less diluted by the style you used " encapsulates my view precisely . Thanks for that .

Strangely enough , I prefer to cache alone , for exactly that reason : I get no satisfaction from someone else finding the cache for me . At nearby events which include a cache loop I tend to drop by for the social part , then return a day or two later to do the walk . I'd agree with what Seaglass Pirates say about more distant events , I'd not log a DNF or write a note if I walked up and 'found' the cache in someones hands , but neither would I particularly enjoy that 'find'. Also I've used a PAF a grand total of twice (0.1% of finds ), despite having plenty available . If it's too hard for me to find , I don't find it. No problem , log a DNF and move on . A lot of people cache in groups as a social thing , thats what makes them happy , and it's one of the nice things about caching , there are many ways to play the game , you choose what suits you . Whilst a lot of cachers who have a high smiley count do seem to habitually cache in groups , it is interesting to note that the top 3 UK cachers (last time I looked ) are essentially solo operators . Which reminds me , hello Simplysup ! Glad you liked the hogs - I'm not sure why Harry evades so many searchers ,maybe it is in an untypical spot : I set it before I'd found many caches . So for me the game is not 'all about the numbers' , but all about the personal satisfaction of managing to find the cache . If the search is preceded by a puzzle all the better , but I want to do the solving myself . Hints from the CO , knowing teasing comments dropped by previous finders , little clues in the logs , those are all fair game to my mind , but getting given the solution ? The puzzle is devalued , it may as well be a 1* trad. How anyone can derive any sense of achievement from that defeats me . You might as well cheat at patience ! I'm told there is a website somewhere in Europe where cachers join up , and gain points for giving puzzle solutions , which are then available to the rest of the members , who can gain more points by finding those puzzles ... As the exam papers used to say : Discuss !

I saw the 'Whitespace' thread (already solved it , but don't ask , my lips are sealed ... still chipping doggedly away at Werewolf too) and wondered what folk think about people who cannot quickly solve puzzles themselves going to facebook , local forums etc to get solutions ? Personally I wouldn't want to be given a solution , I would not feel that I'd earned the smiley properly . There are plenty of tough puzzles around that I know I will probably never be able to solve , but why cheat ? Surely the pleasure of logging a puzzle is partly in having pitted yourself against the cunning of the CO and finally managing to crack the thing . If someone else told me how to solve it I'd feel like a kid cheating on a spelling test - no progress made , just a diminished sense of self respect , and a guilty little secret .