'yakinCacher

1) As a CO myself, a group of DNFs in a row is a red flag to me that something might be amiss and that I need to check on my cache. 2) This does indeed happen. I just followed up on a local cache this week that was an old cache which had been abandoned by the original CO and the local reviewer had reached out to someone else to adopt it because it was one of the originals for this area.

On Saturday, I attempted a cache in a small roadside park. As I was walking toward the cache coords, I saw a cache in a downed log. At first I thought the coords were wrong, then I remembered the cache description didn't match what I found, so I checked the front of the log book. Sure enough, the cache was one that must have been previously archived and not retrieved. I continued toward the coords and found yet another previously archived cache! I continued to hunt for a while, but couldn't find the actual cache. I marked it as a DNF and sent a message to the CO. I'm very reluctant to flag a cache as NM or NA because I believe those notes go to the local reviewers as well as the CO. Just the CO receives a DNF notice. Since I don't always know the details, I prefer not to get "management" involved on the first step. In the case of the small roadside park, if the cache owner doesn't acknowledge the message or DNF in a week or so, I'll go back and hit it with a NM. I believe (but could be wrong) that if a CO fails to acknowledge a NM notice within a certain timeframe, that the local reviewer will archive it as an inactive player or try to find someone who will adopt it.

You're right, it was probably a poor choice of words, but I also didn't want to imply that every missing TB is stolen. I have a TB that was picked up in 2007, then over the course of the next 10 years (yes, a full decade) I received a couple of notes from the same individual saying they put it somewhere safe and lost it, then they found it and would put it in a cache soon, but it appears they must have lost it again. I just wish people would be a little more respectful in how they handle TBs.

For me it's: 1) Stealing or losing a trackable. Don't pick it up if you can't pass it along 2) Leaving trash in a cache. I opened one last weekend that had a plastic fork and the lid from a nightcrawler container. Why?

Thanks Max and 99! That's exactly what I needed to know!

I ordered a couple FTF geocoins for some new caches I plan to hide because I thought they'd be a nice gift to whomever is FTF. However, I don't know the proper etiquette here. Should I activate the coin and log it into the cache? Or should I allow the FTF to activate the coin at their discretion?

Well this thread went off topic quickly. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback. Sounds like we should have a whole other thread on cache containers. :-)

I appreciate all the responses on here. I suppose maybe some of the changes are regional? Some of you have said there's always been trash in your area's caches. When I first started caching, there was almost always something in a cache to trade, usually bouncy balls or fun erasers. I've rarely (from the start) traded anything because the find was the reward. But I have been disgusted by the trash I've found lately and will remove it when I find it. Soggy log books have always been a battle here. Especially in the spring when the snow melts and the temperatures swing so violently from night to day. That just is what it is. But I do find it interesting that many feel the smart phone has caused a decline in the quality of posts. I think I've been guilty of a less than awesome post myself, so I'll try to be more cognizant of that. I also noticed a decline in regular sized caches and see that they seem to be getting smaller and smaller. I don't know that I find this to be a bad thing necessarily. I think the smaller caches are easier to hide. I've also noted a virtual absence of trackables. Have those gone by the wayside? Perhaps my area just doesn't have any for now. Thanks again everyone for your feedback and opinions.

I joined Geocaching in 2005, but stopped in 2013. I've recently started again, but am wondering how the caching culture has changed in the 7 years I was away. I've logged 20 finds in the last month and one major thing I've noticed is that the caches are sometimes full of literal trash. I opened one yesterday that contained a plastic fork and the lid from a fishing worms container. Is this normal now? Do people take things and not leave things? What would you say is a major change in the caching culture?

I wish that you could search for caches based on their attributes as well as their locations. I live in northern Michigan and would LOVE to find a bunch of winter friendly cache's to do while snowshoeing. But, I don't have the time or want to waste the effort to go through all the cache's in my area to single out the winter friendly ones. Didn't there used to be a way to search for winter friendly or kid friendly caches in a specific area? Am I alone on wishing for this searching technique?

I wish that you could search for caches based on their attributes as well as their locations. I live in northern Michigan and would LOVE to find a bunch of winter friendly cache's to do while snowshoeing. But, I don't have the time or want to waste the effort to go through all the cache's in my area to single out the winter friendly ones. Didn't there used to be a way to search for winter friendly or kid friendly caches in a specific area? Am I alone on wishing for this searching technique?

Grr... I am totally frustrated with the new google map. I miss on the old map that I could look at my entire state and then click on the map to narrow in on a certain location. I am having a very hard time looking for caches away from my home coordinates. I've tried to zoom out and then back in, but it won't zoom back into a different location. I've tried panning, but once I've panned more than twice I get a message that says "parsing geocaches" (what does that mean?) and nothing happens. At this point I'm frustrated enough that I may stop using the map feature altogether, which sucks because that was how I did most of my cache searching.