the Seagnoid

Recently I came across a cache of mine that needed maintenance that I had forgotten about. Which made me realise that this is a place where geocaching.com could improve the experience for all geocachers: Could we please have a list of my caches that need maintenance or are disabled (but not archived) in the Your Pofile > Quickview page. Already on this page is a list of Your Unpublished Disabled Caches, this would be an ideal area to place the list of caches that need some love. Like Your Unpublished Disabled Caches, this needs maintenance/disabled cache list would dissappear if it has no entries. Yes, I can get this information for other places (my emails, external tools), but that requires me to actively go and look for it. A reminder of the Quickview page would keep these caches in mind, and thus make them less likely to be forgotten about, and thus maintained more quickly. This would be a simple solution for Groundspeak to improve the uptime of caches, which improves the experience for everyone. Thanks, Tom

Yep, I am missing out. I drove past about 400 caches last week - I should log them all as finds! I have had maybe just 10 people log finds on my caches when they didn't. In each case it was accidental. Clicking the usual thing instead of picking the Did Not Find option. I email them and let them know that they accidentally logged it as a find and they change it. It has never been a problem on my caches. I do not allow non finds to be logged as finds.

Also sand the plastic with a very coarse sandpaper. This gives the glue a better surface to hold onto.

My only peeve about geocaching.com is that it counts Found It logs, not caches, and the support it has for logging more than one Found It log on a cache. Recent changes make it look like the website is actively supporting this method (for those who really like going for the numbers and just want to find the nearby cache every day?) There were historical reasons why multiple logs on a single cache were allowed, but that does not seem to apply anymore. And now the website has removed the "You have x finds on y unique caches" which alerted me to my accidental double log. Yes, I can get this from other sites, but at least geocaching.com would let me know. Me, I'd like to see gc.com change to prevent double Found It logging. Existing double logs would stay (historical reasons, remember). And while we are on that topic, deny finds of own caches, which are against the rules yet are allowed. (Okay, there are two peeves!) I appreciate that it is about how you cache, and that while I don't like the ability to double log, others might. What do you think? Tom

All emails being sent via the geocaching send mail facility arrives at it destination with noreply@geocaching.com as the from address. However, if we leave "I want to send my email address along with this message" ticked, then the email reply to field is populated withthe senders email address. "noreply" is incorrect, as the email can be replied to. The point is that currently it is very unintuative. It suggests I cannot reply to this email at all. I cannot tell if I can reply until after I try and I see noreply@geocaching.com as the email address. I should know this BEFORE I try it. How about use noreply@geocaching.com when the "send email address" is unticked, and use <username>@geocaching.com (with the reply-to field set as the correct email address) when "send email address" is ticked. Thanks, Tom

Seriously, guys, you are not thinking this through. I appreciate the church micro series is a significant one where you are (England?) but you are asking for an attribute to describe the location, rather than the hide. Let's say you get what you want - the precedent is now set. Next there will be a car park attribute (which is not the same as a park and grab), a railway station attribute, road barrier attribute, bridge attribute, railway-but-not-the station attribute, LPC attribute, park (green space) attribute, supermarket attribute, hardware store attribute, disused road attribute, roadside fence attribute, seat attribute... the list is endless. You are asking for a thousand attributes to be added! I definatly do NOT support the church micro attribute idea. Better is for Groundspeak to upgrade their SQL backend, to provide full text searching, and for COs of the church micro series to standardise their cache names. And then to allow for searching for a phrase (such as "church") within the title or the description on the Find a Cache screen.

In the old days - a year ago? The cache count on the statistics page was reported as Found x caches on y discrete caches. The problem is that geocaching.com counts Found It logs, not caches. This was due to some earlier caches moving, inviting people to find them again. So the message Found x caches on y discrete logs was an easy way for me to find that I had accidentally double logged a cache, something that needs fixing. This message is gone - can it be restored please. Actually, a better solution is to show the finds by cache type stats, both on the my profile page and on the public profile page, to count the actual caches (rather than number of Found It logs) and provide a self explanatory title, eg "Number of discrete caches found: y" Yes, this information can be found in third party tools, such as Project-GC. I think it is something that Groundspeak should support, especally as moving caches are no longer supported, and multiple Found It logs are now simply errors. (I also think Geocaching should no longer provide a Found It option on a existing find, or automatically change a new Found It log to a Write Note.)

I too would like to see the cache owner's name in a publish log. But... To clarify what someone else said - the notification is a generic notification. A notification of a new cache is EXACTLY the same template used to notify about a found it log. Thus the reviewer's name is there because that was the person that placed the log. There are two main options here. Either: 1. Add the cache owner to the template. This means every time you receive a found it log, you will be told what cache it was found on, and that you are the owner. You already know that, I suspect that this will raise change requests to remove the cache owner name! 2. Get rid of the generic log template, and allow for different templates per log type - a publish log uses this template, a found it uses that one, a DNF uses this other one. This is my preferred option, but will require a little work from Groundspeak. They would have to make 20 copies of the existing template, rename them for each log type, then put in a bit of code that appends the log type so that the notification system can find the right template.

Apologies, I could not find an GPX forum. Is it time to start work on version 2 for the geocaching GPX format? This would allow those suggestions that are problematic at the moment. Features: 1. Require the mobile device to support 15 geocache sizes: We already want to add nano. The size name would be delivered as part of the GPX download, along with a number marking size order/max sizes, allowing a correct display of the name and/or size graph. The device manufacturer could still limit the displayable text length. eg <SizeName>nano <SizeOrder>1/8 (zero = virtual, 1 = nano, 2 = micro, etc, 8 = not specified). If new sizes are added sizes are reordered to suit. 2. Require the mobile device to support 50 cache types: Currently there is some discussion about adding "challenges" as a unique cache type. "Labs" is another that might get added. As with cache sizes, deliver the cache type name with the GPX. Maybe dowload a bitmap image of the icon, or allow the device manufacturer to use no/generic icons for caches types it didn't know about. Where possible, the manufacturer should allow the reading of a file to pick up new cache types, so that new types can be added after purchase. 3. Anything else? In the user profile have a checkbox specifying which GPX version to download - by default the old one. The device manufacturers and the user community will announce when their devices or software upgrades will support the new version. For the existing GPX format, the new cache sizes will be converted to their nearest equiv, or be flagged as not specified, and new cache types as puzzles. Come to think of it, if we use new tag fields then we could use the same GPX version, as applications will ignore fields they don't know. However, I suspect this will slow device manufacturers from converting to the new format. Yes? No? Comments? Brickbats?

Actually Groundspeak have a precedent, if that is the right word. There used to be an FTF challenge series where then FTF of a cache was "cursed" until they laid a new cache, and on that cache they would then challenge the FTF to place yet another cache continuing the series. This is no longer permitted, because, as some above have said, some people are not ready to place a cache, do not want to, and should not feel they are under obligation to do so. I don't like the idea of any cache encouraging the hiding of additional caches.

Or are you no longer saving your cookies? Check your cookie settings.

Actually - I like this idea. Ignore the phrase "church micro" - it's irrelevant. Add a field to add "where cache name includes xxxxx" as part of the pocket query parameters. Also, while we are on that, another for "where favourites => x"

When you log your find or discover a trackable, the default log date is the server date, which is (I think) Seattle server time. In New Zealand, where I live, the default date is correct in the latter part of the evening, but for most of the day the default date is yesterday - The US lives on the other side of the International Date line, almost a day behind us. I have to remember to add one to the date when I post my logs. Okay, I'm used to it, it is not a big deal. The site allows logs placed one day in the future, and saves the date (in a cookie?) so that any date I enter it is the default date for the next entry. So really it is only the first date per browser session that is annoying. And of course all this is relevant only when logging on the date I found the cache, but if we are going to be presented with a default date, it may as well be useful. There are a couple of better ways of handling that first date, where no date is saved in a cookie.. 1 Use Java to pick up the local system date. This would probably be the only thing that uses Java on the site, so maybe not such a good idea. The advantage of this is that if I am caching in a different country - different time zone, it would be correct. I vaguely recall that Java is problematic with phones? iphones? 2. Take the home user's home location Longitude position (east/west) divide it by 24 and approximate that as a timezone, and use this as an offset to the server time. There will still be date errors, but now they will only occur within an hour of midnight other than, as in my case, most of the day. This can all be processed at the server end, although it does require the user having their home location specified. Disadvantage here is that if I am caching in a different country, and logging the finds in that country, the date would still be based on the time in my home country. I would be happy with either option. Any chance of getting this added to the queue? thanks, Tom

I was expecting the GPS reading to be based on the centre of the zone, but it appears to use the edge. So I am going to use a slightly smaller zone and work off proximity instead. Thanks for your help guys!

I am not sure if this is a Urwigo problem, which is what I am using, or just a newbie error - this is my first Wherigo project. I have three problems. In the emulator they are fine, on my Garmin Oregon I get problems. My PC is vista if that makes a difference (apparently that is the reason Groundspeak's builder crashes): 1. Zone activate at 0m. I have range at 50m and proximity at 5m (they are small zones, approx 10m square). Active and visible are set. Any idea on where I might be going wrong? I was expecting the zone to activate at 5m out. 2. Zone commands do not appear on the Oregon. Are they supported on the Oregon? Show up and work fine in the emulator. 3. Can I get the Oregon to play a beep? I doubt it can handle a wav file! If there are instructions (click here, do this) please be precise, I am still finding my way around the interface! Thanks, Tom

I have quite a number of trackables out there, and luckily for me, the vast majority are still active (although one is buried under a landslide ). What I would like to see is a summary map showing all my trackables and their current locations. I envisage a concept pretty much like the current geocaching map, showing two different icons - one for a trackable in a cache, the other for a trackable being carried (location being where the most recent cache is). Hovering over the icon would produce a tooltip the trackable name, when clicked provide a balloon that shows the trackable name and its reference number (not the tracking ID), its icon, and maybe the cache name or person currently carrying it. Prev/next links as per the existing geocache map dialogs. Clicking on the TB name would take me to the TB's page. This could be implemented as an option on the existing geocaching map, or as a "Where are my trackables?" link on the Trackables - Yours page. If opening a new map page (such as the link option) the default zoom to show near enough whole world. If I only had one or two trackables out there this wouldn't be a problem, but with 53 active TBs out there (I try to launch one with each new cache), keeping tabs on them without going through them one at a time is a bit difficult. Thanks for your sterling work so far, GC team! Tom

Ahh. I'm getting old and my memory iis rusting. Thanks, Moun10bike. []

It used to be policy that you could not claim a find on your own caches. And when you attempted to, you got a warning from the website and it prevented you from continuing. This was because geocaching is about the challenge of the hunt - no challenge if you know where you put your cache! It is still policy but now the the website allows the finding of your own caches. Or is this a bug? I have noticed some geocachers logging finds on their own caches, probably some sad belief that geocaching is not about the adventure but just about the numbers. Tom

Yes, DanPan, that is exactly the list that needs to be on the profile page, thanks for the link to it. But as it stands now, it does not beep to remind me to look at it, so I still do not know if I have any that need fixing, and I have no need to go to this page unless I know that I have some that need fixing. I am certainly not going to look there every day on the off-chance that something has changed and I missed the email. I want cache owners to be EXPLICITLY reminded constantly that they have caches that need fixing. This means I will get them fixed faster, and provide a better experience for other cachers trying to find my caches. The banner on the profile page will do the job nicely.

[green] There is an easy way to tell an "ordinary" cache - lots of visits and no favorites. If you want to avoid crappy caches then just visit the ones with favs, and avoid the ones that need maintenance. I recently did a power trail of 101 caches. Worst caching experience I have ever had. Lack of maintenance, maintenance resulting in cache descriptions being inaccurate, nowhere to park so car has to stay two thirds into the the 100km/h lane. Needless to say, no favorites. And lots of comments, and lots of needs maintenance.

The email is, as was said earlier, just an email of the log. I agree with the original request, I would like to see the cache owner. This is easily fixed, but does have side affects. I realise that treating publish logs differently is a bit clumsy. The solution is to add the cache owner name to emailed logs. The main side affect is that found logs will tell me that someone found my cache x, which is owned by me - rather redundant I know it is my cache. However it may also help others who have watches on caches. If we can tolerate having the owner stated on find logs that are emailed to the owner, then this problem with publish logs will also be solved. Tom

Changed the browser icon to a green theme (matching the new banner). Icons for http://forums.Groundspeak.com and http://blog.geocaching.com/ not updated.

Yes I agree with this. A email notification that a image has been posted and an email log when a log is edited. Yes Please! Currently I do it the other way, in my log I state that I have uploaded a photo. But an automated email would be better. It doesn't need to include the image. Just a link to the log that includes the image. Because images are uploaded after the fact, this will result in multiple logs, but I see no way around that unless GS implements a 1/2 hour delay on emails, just in case photos are uploaded.

Nope pocket queries do not work. Most of the time the pocket query will be empty, and an email is still sent even if there are no results. The last think I want to do is spam myself with useless data. The one time there is something interesting it will get discarded as per habit. It needs to be an exception report (ie give no report at all if there is nothing there) and in your face as a constant reminder.

Yes, a pocket query works but is cludgy. Why grab a GPX from an email and have to load it into something to see what it contains, when Groundspeak actively promote that cachers do maintenance but give little tools to identify what caches need meintenance? Especially when they already provide EXACTLY what is needed, as a warning when you start work on publishing a new cache. Just take that query and data and present it on the profile page.