careygang

Crewman probably hasn't worked out how to change the display. My son confused me when I found mine set like that one day. I'd never seen that screen before and I had to work out how to get the little man back!

OK, I placed the original thread here, and I admit I've just looked at the PP and found it good, but can we get back on track... I've asked the Scout Assn to publish a factsheet on Geocaching and at the moment the view from Gilwell Park is that just a short bit in the Activity A-Z will suffice with a few live hyperlinks. But if you look at many entries in the A-Z they have hyperlinks to factsheets. I personally think we need both, the A-Z listing that hyperlinks to a factsheet and to the various websites. I'm basically concerned at the damage that could be done if inexperienced leaders head off caching without all the information needed. Not only could they make it a less than enjoyable experience for the Scouts, they could inadvertantly Muggle caches etc. I figure that where possible, whatever people are doing, they should be provided with all the information they need to get it right first time. Perhaps that's just me being an engineer, where getting it right first time is all important.

I saw the item, which was written by a Canadian contributor, so not very specific a handle on UK Caching. There is a more subtantial article planned for early 2007, probably April/May. My concerns are that many cachers get as far as geocaching.com and do not realise that there are UK aspects, such as Land Owner agreements with the major players, guidance on Dry Stone Walls etc. I've found several caches that have been hidden in walls.

A question for all Geocaching Scouters out there... Should the Scout Association have a Factsheet for how Scouts should Geocache, or should they just have an entry in the on-line A-Z of Activities, which would just give a short intro and them give web links? Basically, there are two options: A full Factsheet would give an introduction to Geocaching and then give specific guidance for Scouts and Adult Leaders on how to both introduce Geocaching as pasrt of the programme and how to conduct themselves, how to fit it into various Scout Association rules for Safety etc. The Second option is simply to provide a basic listing on Scoutbase.org.uk, with links to all the various websites. leaving Leaders to work it out for themselves. Interested in peoples views...

It seems the general concensus is along the lines of 'To thine own self be true...' whatever does it for you then so be it. I guess no matter what our backgrounds or upbringing, we will always judge others by our own standards. What other bench mark do we have... Not as much in the way of responses as I thought, I guess it's something that people couldn't be bothered with. As to mjbvbjjb, I think if you have been somewhere, even if it was a long while back, at least you have been there, so why not. I think that is an entirely different thing to claiming to have been somewhere. when you have not. I thought John Stead had the right idea, 'why corrupt the statistics?'... If this topic doesn't get much else in the way of responses, I'll close it in a day or so...

I know its not France, but I found this when I was looking for caches in Spain. It proved very useful. www.2000.com/geocaching/

Seems that this is linked to the recent very short posting about protecting the Tracking Number of a TB. There are people out there who will log Caches that they have never been to, so there must be people who would log TB movement even if they have never seen the TB. A fact of life I guess.

I've not looked at these Forums before, but having seen the numerous entries about ‘congratulations’ for reaching the 'xxxx' number of finds; I thought I'd throw this in for comments. I recently stumbled across the profile of a cacher in the UK, who clearly and genuinely visits caches in this country. They recently got the mandatory plaudits for achieving 200 finds. However, He/She also logs Virtual Caches overseas that they have not visited, apparently just finding the necessary information (date from a building or whatever) on the internet and submitting that information in such a way as to imply attendance at the actual location. The web site defines a Virtual Cache as follows: “A virtual cache is a cache that exists in a form of a location. Depending on the cache "hider," a virtual cache could be to answer a question about a location, an interesting spot, a task, etc. The reward for these caches is the location itself and sharing information about your visit. Because of the nature of these geocaches, you must actually visit the location and acquire the coordinates there before you can post. In addition, although many locations are interesting, a virtual cache should be out of the ordinary enough to warrant logging a visit.” I would not dream of naming the individual concerned, but would be interested in other Cachers opinions on the practice of ‘virtually’ finding, a virtual cache…