hal-an-tow
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Posts posted by hal-an-tow
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13 hours ago, MNTA said:
So when the CO deletes your log how do you prove you signed it? Or marked it? Take a picture of the log and your mark?
Ive had one log deleted by a CO, who objected to me mentioning that caches are not actually allowed on roundabouts ( traffic islands/gyratory systems or whatever your local name is for interchanges with circular patches of ground entirely surrounded by a road , and with no pedestrian route across it) but speculating that the reviewer missed that detail as evidently it was a new road feature for a brand new housing estate, so probably did not show on google sat. view yet. I had an annoyed message from the CO too, who denied the hide was against the rules (which it unequivocally is in the UK).
I did not engage with the CO, it seemed unlikely to be a worthwhile effort, but appealed , and my log was reinstated with no question, but deleting my reference to the inappropriate location . HQ said the matter of the GZ being against the rules would be considered, but last time I looked, the cache was still there.
So, with no photographic evidence of my signature on the log, my find was reinstated.
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2 hours ago, EggsTheBest said:
How do complete tasks that require taking a picture? Do you bring polaroid/DSLR camera? Serious question
I've carried a camera with me everywhere it is possible ( excepting , for e.g., music gigs where photography is not allowed) since ... ooh, 1982. Currently a DSLR unless conditions are going to be particularly wet/challenging, then I take a totally waterproof little action cam. in an underwater housing.
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14 minutes ago, daddybeth said:
They own the term "geocaching" in the sense they own the trademark.
Don't get me wrong, I have said before I would much prefer it to be open/non-profit. But IMO most people would see a geocache as something that has been reviewed by a reviewer authorised by Groundspeak.
I don't doubt if you placed a few dozen caches and called them geocaches then no-one would care, but I bet if you started listing thousands of geocaches not linked to Groundspeak they would kick off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching
Other geocaching sites are available, and have been for years.
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15 hours ago, rustynails. said:
If it was working why mess with it?
Amen
A question TPTB don't seem to ask themselves as often as they should.
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There was a blog post which mentioned the upcoming 20 year celebration, search the GC blog for '2020' tosee the whole thing, but here's a quote:
"We’re commemorating the 20th anniversary of geocaching with an awesome party in Seattle!
What: Geocaching 20th Anniversary Celebration
When: Saturday, August 15, 2020
Where: Seattle Center in Seattle, WA
For those who can’t visit Seattle for the Geocaching HQ Celebration, we’re working on details for community celebration events to mark the 20th anniversary. More information to come!"
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On 11/24/2019 at 1:19 PM, Deepdiggingmole said:
The attainable rule says "Challenge caches need to be attainable at any time" - events and CITOs are not there all the time and only available on one day - yes if you happen to be around and can attend then job done, but unlike a trad they are not attainable at ANY time
So are you suggesting that there will never be any event at anytime in the future that you could attend ? Would you also rail against challenges set for a number of souvenirs ? After all, they are only available for certain periods, not 'ANY time', and you can't even set any yourself to help folk fulfill the challenge.
The guidelines for 'attainable' say
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Challenge caches need to be attainable at any time.
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Requiring caches to be found in earlier years, as it is not attainable by someone new to the game.
Which makes it clear that 'attainable at any time' means not limited to a specific time period in the past, rather than 'anyone must be able to go out today and qualify'.
Then in 'source of criteria' it says
Challenge cache criteria must be based upon caches with the seeker’s logs: Found it!, Attended, Webcam Photo Taken.
Challenge caches , according to the guidelines, 'encourage geocachers to set and achieve fun goals' . Not everyone has the same idea of what constitutes fun. If someone doesn't enjoy events, or high terrain caches, or find streaks , or indeed challenge caches, then they can leave them for those who do, and ignore them, who is hurt ?
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I'm not in favour of this, I can't see any point in it, the function of recording a second visit for any reason by a cacher other than the owner is covered adequately by the 'write note' log type. The opportunity to log repeated visits on one cache ( and for C.O.s to log their own caches as finds too) used to be available, and was removed, maybe you should ask Groundspeak why they did that, they can't have thought it was an attractive feature to keep cachers involved and therefore keep the revenue rolling in.
If you have exhausted the finds in your local area, place some new caches yourself, with a bit of luck other cachers will return the favour and provide some new ones for you to hunt , and you will end up with a lively caching community. You can visit your own caches to perform maintenance as often as you like, and there's a log type ( and a count of it ) for all to see on the cache page.
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Oh, and I'll repeat yet again that you can get an OS map from GSAK if you install this macro
Here's a sample:
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On 7/1/2019 at 3:47 PM, MartyBartfast said:
Are you now using the new "Search Map", if so the GME addon doesn't work with that map, you need to use the old "Browse Map" from the "Play" drop down menu select "View Browse map" at the bottom, or just go here : https://www.geocaching.com/map/
I copied MartyB's message to save typing it again , it seems the most likely problem.
Works fine with W7 and firefox for me at the moment, but I recall that sometime around Easter this year I lost GME for a while, due to ( If I recall correctly) some FF update causing a problem with greasemonkey, or possibly vice - versa ! An update of greasemonkey might be one thing to try..
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Messages on another thread suggest the new profile visibility loophole has quietly been plugged, with no mention of the update , reason for it or acknowledgement that there was a loophole there at all apparent from Groundspeak .
You might imagine that a business predicated on the work of a community might at least come forward with a simple ' Thanks for noticing and reporting the error so we could sort it out .'
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11 hours ago, OusKonNé & Cétyla said:
I haven't seen any "Release Notes" about this change.
Other thread ??
Other thread .
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To get a meaningful response, rather than opinions from cachers who may live on another continent I'd suggest your best action would be to ask the experts : one of the UK geoawares.
See who has been the reviewer publishing some recent earthcaches in Scotland, and send them a message or e-mail including the location of your GZ.
I did that when I set an eathcache in the city, when I wondered if I'd need permission for each of several buildings beside public pavements I was hoping to sent cachers to, and got a swift and helpful reply.
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21 hours ago, cerberus1 said:
Most hints we've ever seen were meant for people who'd understand it, if they'd only give it some thought.
Similar to on4bam, I don't feel a "hint" means I should hold your hand and direct you there. It's a hint...
I don't think anyone here would find "Yo, Adriaaan" tough to decipher.
We've yet to see a hint that is meant for an international audience, most not even a thought that someone from another country would stop by.
- When I'm bored and look at caches in other countries, I use google a lot. Both your examples come up right away.
On my garmin, to see the size of the container I'm hunting (something I really want to know ) , I go to a screen which shows me that and the decoded hint as well, something I may not want to know , but I get to see it anyway. Recently I went for a country walk and came to a GZ, looked at the GPS ,and saw the hint 'Neil Armstrong' . I was by a wooden stile , which for anyone not familiar with the word, is an an arrangement of , er , small steps like mini bridges allowing a walker to cross a low fence into a farmer's field and continue along the legally sanctioned footpath .
I reckon that's probably the closest to an internationally understandable yet indirect and witty hint you could get. It made me laugh , and got the cache a favourite point from me .
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On 9/17/2019 at 12:05 AM, daddybeth said:
That said, for historical reasons most highways here are the property of the adjacent landowner, even major roads, and so the normal GC rules of getting landowner permission are almost impossible. As such, if someone says they own the land, even if it appears to be public, they're probably right. They're just required to allow the public to use the land as a highway.
The majority of UK roads are so old there is no owner as such , and the adjacent landowner has no rights or responsibility over them, as shown by the fact that repairs and maintenance of roads, verges and other vegetation up to housholders and landowners property lines are all down to either the local council or the highways authority .Newer roads (that is, ones less than about a hundred years old) are actually crown property.
Here's a lot of useful information.on the subject.
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9 hours ago, barefootjeff said:
Okay, I'm curious how a non-user accesses any profile information. I just went to geocaching.com on a PC that's not signed into my account and there's nothing I can see there that allows me to view any caches or players. It just tells me there are 2077 caches near Penrith (which is nowhere near here but it's where my internet service provider lives), with links to download the app or create an account.
Edit to add: I've found it by doing a web search on "geocaching" and my user name. Yes, that is disturbing that they're displaying so much information to non-users.
Disturbing , yes. There appears to be quite a bit of information given away for free there , before the little red 'Sorry you must first log in to see this profile'
Location, profile photos, dates ... surely it is a GPPR issue making that information , which we assumed was 'cacher's eyes only' freely available to the public ?
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1 minute ago, lee737 said:
It isn't a privacy issue, as the information you refer to is posted to a public venue, and can be withdrawn, as the nearby 'deleted user' thread details....
A deleted user is no longer caching, which I suppose saves paying for a premium membership , perhaps not the outcome TPTB would wish ?
Are logs on premium caches 'a public venue' , when the public cannot see them without paying ?
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On 10/25/2019 at 9:15 PM, The A-Team said:
GDPR ? Which cache pages you open is a privacy issue ? <engages sarcasm mode> Yeah, that sounds likely. <ends sarcasm node>
Much more of a privacy issue : your cache logs available to read by absolutely anyone who cares t look at your profile, your photographs ditto, there's even a link in your profile so people can easily track your posts here ...
GDPR is an easy excuse to make , blame the foreign legislation , so anyone disliking the change will blame the distant lawmakers not the company making the changes.
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On 9/20/2019 at 10:45 PM, daddybeth said:
True, unfortunately in the UK there are very few such caches because everywhere is relatively accessible. I'm looking forward to next time abroad being able to try some of the really remote caches that do require hours or days to get to.
Around Didcot, maybe. but travel further afield in the UK (mostly to the hilly places north and west of you) and there's plenty of relatively inaccessible adventure on offer : here's a tiny random sample of caches in locations that need to be taken seriously ...
Jura , and Jura again , Northumberland , Lake District , Wales , Mid Wales , God's own county , A lighthouse off Cornwall
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What a great fun idea for a cache page and puzzle (as long as you are careful about offending any sensibilities with respect to earthquake disasters, but I think that may be what your second paragraph start refers to.) .
I just checked, and the trad. cache page I made 2 years ago which has animated gifs uploaded to geocaching com works fine , but changes with no announcement or notification do happen (exif data uploads/doesn't upload reverses notoriously affected some puzzles , by turns removing vital C.O. placed information, and providing unwitting spoiler info from finders photos... ) Also some free storage third party providers can change their policies and mess things up .
Could one frame of your gif show the link to your image , something like this , then the image with embedded link could be hosted elswhere, maybe even uploaded to an archived or unpublished cache you own ( they are handy places to hide images and stop cachers bypassing the first part of your page by going straight to the image which shows in the gallery : ssh, don't tell anyone ,
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Another reason why the search map should not be the default.
I'd not encountered this problem because on the odd occasion when I bother with GS maps I use the browse map with G.M.E. to make it useable, never the search map, which is simply an annoying, time wasting barrier between me and the map I want to see.
90% of the time GSAK macros do all the mapping (with cache name labels and extra map types) I need , and print perfectly with a single click , no faffing with screen shots required.
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Personally, I like puzzles. I enjoy the extra dimension they bring to the game , and that they give me a bit of mental, cache related exercise on days when the hours of light are few, and the weather is, well, the reason us Brits talk about the weather so much, so I can't get out finding. I've made some excellent caching friends (both virtual and real world) through therm contacting me about my puzzles, or me contacting them about theirs. People with enthusiasm for puzzle solving seem to me to be interesting individuals with inquiring minds who enjoy a challenge, I love that attitude and it is fun for me to try to produce puzzles for them to try, and for me to work on puzzles they set.
A proper, varied, convoluted, involved set of interlinked puzzle caches can be a thing of beauty, and an absolute joy to pursue. Along with a couple of good (met through puzzles) friends I've worked on a series of 66 puzzles over the last couple of years, each visit involved us in an 80 mile round trip and a lot of rural walking, many multi stage puzzles, field puzzles, and proper big boxes. The series is linked in a way which would no longer be allowed (a pyramid arranged as biblical 'books' , half a dozen or so first level caches each with part of a clue in , leading to a final cache for that 'book' which in turn has parts for one of two cumulative bonus puzzles, and when you find both of those ...you guessed it, they have information for the final puzzle. I can't even guess how many hours I've spent at home working on those puzzles, researching relevant (and turned out to be irrelevant, but still interesting ) topics, learning things about the bible, Inspector Morse, children's TV programs, Disney cartoons, chemistry, the Industrial revolution, the history of Birmingham and various games ... Those 'aha !' moments when the clues fell into place were joyful, and getting to the end of the series was exactly like reading a great book, you want to find out what happens in the end, but are conflicted about turning those last few pages because you don't really want it to be over.
So yes, puzzles can be a joy.for those of us who want to invest the time and effort, but they are not exactly popular : in the course of finding those 66 caches, 7 of them were resuscitation caches, not having been found for a year or more (one of them for over two years) , but every single one was in good condition because they had been hidden with the same kind of care and thought as the C.O. gave to the puzzles. Working through and finding the series was a peak in caching for me,
However, caching has many tribes within it, and it appears that the tribe with the most members at the moment is the numbers tribe, and specifically the app based numbers tribe. I don't know to what extent app based users who have started caching solely via their 'phones (rather than via the website ) ever look at cache pages on a computer : judging from the times I've looked to see if a cacher is still active, checked their profile, and seen they've never visited the website but they have recent finds , a lot of newish cachers never visit the site on a bigger screen. It's no surprise then when they don't do puzzles, many of which would be so much harder on a small screen, so those cachers have an extra barrier to puzzles even if they want to spend the time and effort on them.
There do seem to be quite a lot of very simple puzzles, and straightforward single stage multis being used for the popular 'Church Micro' series over here, and I suspect the cache type with extra tasks has been chosen with the specific intention of having the cache ignored by folk who do not want to make any extra effort above a fast easy find. I guess having less frequent finds cuts down on the chances of muggles noticing less than stealthy cachers, as well as maintenance for full logs , especially if the cache is a tiny one with a tiny log ! Honestly this sort of easy ,make-work puzzle , set either as a simple hoop to jump through for whatever reason, is less interesting to me than the puzzle set by a C.O.who enjoys the puzzling process first, and the urge to set a cache comes second.
I see a similar division in earthcaches, where some older ones are uninspiring in the extreme ( "See this weathered and undistinguished boulder ? What colour is it ?How big is it? What rock type do you think it might be ? " ) and just there for the smiley, not the geology. I'm happy that no more earthcaches of low quality will get past the reviewers with the updated rules. Some puzzles are there for the smiley, great puzzles are there for the puzzle. people who like these cache types * , either to set or find , really enjoy them, just look at the favourite points (that series of 66 have accrued over 1500 fp between them) or the found it logs.
It doesn't bother me that so many newer cachers don't do puzzles: maybe they will one day, if they discover there is more to caching than trad.s, but I don't care if my puzzles get found once in a blue moon as long as the finders enjoy the puzzle solving and the cache find. I'll keep on setting caches I'd like to find,
*Wherigos could be included here tooI think.
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13 hours ago, LeGrand said:
As a cache owner, When I get an email notification, for a DNF log specifically, I always end up checking the user's profile to see how many finds the user has to see how seriously I should take the DNF log
For example if a user with 3,000 finds says my cache isn't there or that they couldn't find it I will go check on it, but if a user with 6 finds logs a DNF (and there is no pattern of previous DNFs) I would probably wait and see what the next cacher logs before going to check it.
If the log notification email would list the user's number of finds under/beside their username in the alert email (just like the log section of the cache page does) it would save me some time and avoid my having to pull up their profile or pull up the cache page and look up the log there to see their find count.
Just an idea.
An interesting idea ,
I have a similar habit of checking out DNFers experience level before thinking a cache of mine might be in need of attention after one DNF. Actually for years now the first line of my found it logs gives my find number for the cache I'm logging, It's a straightforward thing to set up in GSAK , maybe I should extend it to my own ,many DNF logs too ! I'd imagine if GSAK can do it, Groundspeak could include the information with no difficulty.
Mind you,I'm also really good at DNFing even very easy caches and despite having a good few finds under my belt hesitate to suggest a cache is missing unless it has several DNFs before mine ...
13 hours ago, niraD said:Some people with a LOT of finds follow a 5-minute rule: If they don't find it within 5 minutes, they log a DNF and move on. It doesn't matter what the rated difficulty of the cache is. After 5 minutes, they log a DNF and move on.
Yes, I've seen logs like that, copy/paste DNF saying they 'gave it their maximum 3 minutes (or whatever), them moved on' from a numbers cacher, but at least when you open and read those emailed logs their content makes them easy to discount from your assessment of what may need to be near the top of the maintenance list.. So as long as the DNFer explains their custom in the log text, that shouldn't be a problem.
13 hours ago, Max and 99 said:How will this idea fit in with CHS notifications? Does the algorithm consider the find count of those who log DNFs? Just something to consider.
I don't think we have been given that information about the mysterious algorithm, but I'd hazard a guess it uses D/T , time since last find, absence of O.M. logs and number of DNF / NM logs , probably not the find count or years of experience of the cachers posting those logs. I don't think it is that clever.
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Do you think that a cache owner who doesn't care enough to pick up their archived cache is going to care enough to click a button to give someone else a point of some kind rather than awarding themselves the point with a dishonest button click ? The majority of caches I'm seeing archived at the moment are either suburban micros that go missing (and were never expected to last long apparently, as the owners say they are not bothering to replace them in the archive logs) or caches belonging to folk who stopped caching ages ago and after multiple DNF's and mo maintenance are archived by a reviewer. So who gets last to find there ?
With some cachers happy to claim finds on adventure lab caches they've never visited, log virtuals from afar, repeatedly dip TBs in caches to get a souvenir, and drop throwdowns to ensure every GZ has a smiley, a last to find points competition would just be something else to 'game' , encouraging short lived caches at the very least, and no doubt some Machiavellian manipulations I can't even imagine.
Also remember that Groundspeak does not own the caches, they just run the website that lists them. Cache owners need to abide by the listing rules to place Groundspeak listed caches, but Groundspeak don't own any of the containers, morally or legally, and has no right to unilaterally grant permission to take the containers away..
13 hours ago, The_Man_Of_Steel said:This change if implemented would also be an opportunity for Geocaching.com to formally introduce a system of FTF's (First to find's) as well.
The chances of Groundspeak thinking formalising FTFs would be anything other than a giant pain in the neck involving vast numbers of FTF disputes sent to appeals are zero. How on earth could they adjudicate it ?
2 hours ago, The_Man_Of_Steel said:Nope, I didn't, and I don't see how that is relevant to this discussion. This proposal is about this game/pastime. Who knows, if it was implemented well, the other "games" that your refer to may follow our lead.
The other games you are ignorant of are , in some cases , absolutely identical, i.e. geocaching using a different listing site, or letterboxing which is a low tech version of geocaching and predates the GPS system by about a century. The relevance to the discussion is that there are several other equally valid reasons for placing containers, and for leaving them where they are : It's not difficult to imagine a cacher archiving their containers on Groundspeak and then listing them on one of the competitors .
The personal responsibility for honesty and thoughtful behaviour in cache setting and finding is one of the things I enjoy and appreciate about caching. If I see a local cacher archiving their hides without collecting them in I get in touch and offer to collect them in if they want me to . That's my choice to offer help, and theirs to accept it or not, and to my mind, all part of being a member of a community of cachers .
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Ditto, 500 error.
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Will Groundspeak ever introduce paperless logging?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
The thousands of TBs that are dishonestly 'discovered' from afar because someone spent time and effort digitizing a list of codes seen on photos or event lists, or someone came up with a random code generator and logged the 'hits' suggest that plenty of dishonest folk would be perfectly happy to generate and log thousands of QR codes for thousands of bogus finds too.
Signing the physical paper log is
a) verifiable by the CO when they do their maintenance visits
b) impossible to automate and perform in bulk whilst sat on the sofa many miles from GZ to grossly inflate a statistic
Geocaching is a hobby, signing the log inside a container is the sole criterion for a successful hunt .
If Groundspeak go down the automated, always connected, must have a 'phone signal, virtual/adventure lab/barcode , must have the proprietary app route that seems popular with people who want easy urban and suburban caches for the numbers, then they will lose the big caches in wild places , you know, ones where the cache setters place proper boxes in interesting locations (and in my experience of 10 years of hunting, over 50 events attended and a good, friendly relationship with a lot of the COs I respect for setting this kind of cache, the majority of them use a GPS rather than a 'phone. )
I've said it before: I predict that geocaching (Groundspeak geocaching) will pursue the urban option at its peril, because the aspirational caches, the wilderness adventures, the distant travel expeditions, the overcoming of difficult terrain, the stuff of great stories (and hopefully, great logs) are what sells this as a hobby . Those caches are not going to have an anything 'G' signal available: you'll be lucky if you can get a simple text message through in an emergency, and only an idiot would fail to bring a map and compass along as a backup for the GPS.
Lose those figurehead caches, and admit that 99% of what most folk will find is not the wonderful cache of the week but a micro, probably roadside and not in a lovely spot, and the game is much harder to sell *. Unless of course, it really IS 'all about the numbers'.
If Groundspeak wants to make it all about the numbers, I'm confident that those interesting, challenging , great caches will head to other listing sites, where quality can be prized above quantity, setters get some small return for the effort of cache placing, in the form of appreciative logs, and cacher's interests outweigh the profit motive.
* It's analogous to the way SUVs are advertised in the UK, being driven on rocky mountain tracks by beautiful people heading for a hang gliding adventure or something. Buy one ! Buy into the glamour and adventure ! Then drive your pretend 4x4 (most are 2WD lookalikes) to ferry the kids to school, and to go to the supermarket for the weekly shop ...