strontium87

My experience with geocaching is that it overwhelmingly white and male. That influences the caches placed, the (obvious) anger about being even possibly challenged on the appropriateness of a cache, and what new people might be drawn to this game. Most seem to think this post is political or supporting a specific agenda, though not my intention in the least. I can appreciate, however, that many, many, many of you don't want to think about these issues because geocaching is just a fun/game/hobby/good time for you. Cool! It's more than that to me. Peace and love from the Lone Star State.

I think the replies are pretty self-evident. What is there to respond to? People yelling about how they're right?

Nothing to defend. Was an open conversation met with hate instead of discussion.

I'm disappointed that Groundspeak has not spoken out about the racist turmoil happening in the US especially around Confederate monuments/statues. I live in the South (Texas) where you can find several caches encouraging people to visit places that highlight / glorify the Confederacy without any context in the cache descriptions as to why these are ok. Geocaching is supposed to be family-friendly; a teaching tool; fun. Confederate-centric caches tarnish geocaching and promote racial division. As much as we might like to think that geocaching is "fun for all", it's really not that inclusive or diverse. This is not a call to archive all Confederate caches per se. This is a request that we speak out to Groundspeak and demand specific guidelines around hate speech, following in the footsteps of other large tech companies in the wake of Charlottesville. Thank you.

I have the same problem as OP. One of my trackables was also on the list at the GIGA in Mainz, and I've received 46 emails of bogus discoveries so far. How do I know? I started contacting the people and asking, "Do you know which cacher brought my trackable to this event? Because it's still logged into a cache in the Houston area." I got this response from user swasti: "hi, sorry, cant tell you. i was not @mainz. i picked your tb code from some of the many pictures on the web or from some floating tb-code lists you can find ..." original tb log I want a way to disable my trackable. I don't want to get emails anymore. I can't delete it, get rid of it, nothing. Groundspeaks needs to provide TB owners a way to stop getting dozens of emails. UNSUBSCRIBE! UPDATE: I contacted Groundspeak support, and they said they could archive (actually lock) my trackable. Now, if someone tries to post a new log, he'll see this message: I realize this does not solve the issue of giving TB owners more control, but it's something if you are fed up and want to abandon the trackable.

When in Seattle last week for the Block Party, I found and logged the 12 available lab caches. These have since jacked my geocaching.com statistics. I currently have 811 finds, yet my stats still don't show a milestone for 800. I expect that when I find 812 tomorrow, it will show up as my 800 milestone, but that's really confusing! Further, I don't have a way to "delete" these finds if I wanted my stats to again be in sync with my actual total number of finds. Will this problem be addressed?

Thanks for the vote of support, The A-Team. Groundspeak makes and sells the app, so I'm just requesting that it be consistent across versions and emulate similar distance readings to GPSrs. What I actually find this to be most convenient for is seeking out new cache placement locations. It's super quick and convenient to do a search of the immedidate area and see what other caches are in close proximity. Given the likely degree of uncertainty for exact distance, I like knowing if a cache that is showing up as "0.1" miles away--that is, at the mandatory 1/10 of a mile cache saturation minimum--is it really 0.1 miles or farther? -strontium87

Hi NeverSummer, No, the compass view does not show more detail. If the Android app is able to show two decimal places, it seems reasonable that the iPhone app should too. I disagree about using a GPSr (traditional device) for this purpose. I own two but most of the time, I'm out with my phone and I can see what caches are nearby in an instance using the cell network. As TomToad pointed out, if you're hiking and have multiple trail choices, knowing whether a cache is 0.19 or 0.1 (as is displayed in the app) would be very convenient. This is a secondary point, but I think there is a lot of unfounded distrust and dislike for the smartphone caching apps from people who don't even use them. Smartphone GPS is phenomenally accurate as it is now. I have cached with my phone while others have GPSrs, and I have compared my phone's readings to both my GPSrs and they are very, very close, within 10 feet. Given that just about everyone says, "Once you're within 15-20 feet, put your GPSr away and start looking..." this is completely acceptable and usable. I have found caches in the middle of nowhere using offline mode and downloaded maps without a problem. The maps on the phone are soooooooooo much better than on the GPSr and I think having accurate satellite views far outweighs the benefits of being 10-20 feet more accurate. I do a lot of hiking and remote caching, not park and grabs, and phone works great. -strontium87

@TomToad, I'm using the official Groundspeak Geocaching app for iPhone, v5.1.1. It shows only one decimal place: My friend uses the official Groundspeak Geocaching app for Android, v 2.5.2 and confirms that does show two decimal points, but for some reason, iPhone does not Thanks, -strontium87

Sir, you always seem to post the most negative and condescending comments in response to people in this community. If you don't have something nice to say, please don't respond to my posts. I would simply like to see mileage (or kilometer) readouts have two decimal places like other GPSrs. Most people would agree knowing whether you're 0.1 miles away or 0.19 is really helpful. Given that that readout switches from miles to feet below 0.1, your point is moot. I can see it tick down from 528. Please go troll elsewhere. -strontium87

I've noticed that with pretty much all traditional GPS receivers, they display the distance to caches using two decimal points which is more and more useful the close one gets to a cache. But, in the mobile apps, the distance to cache shows only one decimal point. So for example, as I get close to a cache, the reading goes jumps from 0.2 miles to 0.1 miles away. GPSr will show 0.21, 0.18 and so forth which is VERY USEFUL! Is there some reason the apps don't show this second decimal place? I'd really like to know if I'm actually 0.19 miles away or 0.1 but in both cases, the app only display 0.1. Thanks, -strontium87

Any update on this one? I've run in to the issue again on the <td> tag. The HTML instructions on the cache creation page explicitly list title as an accepted attribute for the <td> tag but my title attributes get stripped out. I need this information for accessibility reasons. I have a series of boxes where a person needs to fill in the answer to a question, and one of the letters in each answer is used in a key to get a number. If someone is blind or otherwise can't see color on his or her screen, then the flagged block is not obvious. I had title tags in the <td>s that indicate a space between words (title="space") and in the <td>s that indicate the key letter in the answer (title="key letter"). Please advise when this issue will be fixed.

I wanted to see what people's opinions were about using "tools" to retrieve caches that are described as requiring climbing (3.5-5 terrain difficulties) and are placed up high in trees, hanging from light posts, etc. There is a series here in Austin that says it was designed to promote caching cooperation, like going with a child and lifting him/her up to the cache or into the tree to retrieve it. But, as I have come to find out, many people cache with tools like ladders, grabbers, long sticks and so forth to make getting to caches like these easier (or not at all challenging). To me, that seems against the spirit of the cache and I wonder what the community sentiment is--is this an issue of geocaching ethics? On the other hand, while I have been the one to climb and get a couple of these caches, it is usually another cacher doing so (I couldn't climb a light pole to save my life) and I sometimes think that isn't right either since I didn't personally make the grab or physically assist the other person in doing so. Thoughts?

Just about every HTML tag should allow the title attribute to provide hidden tooltip text. But I've done several tests adding code in the text areas for creating a new cache and the title tag is stripped out of the rendered code every time. Use of the title tag is integral to certain tags like <acronym> and <abbr> where the title provides information about what the text means. When a user check the box for "The descriptions below are in HTML", the list of tags shows that title is an allowed attribute for many tags but it doesn't get displayed on the final page. Please advise.

You should be able to add a title attribute to just about any tag, but that actually seems to be the problem. I just tried using a <span> tag with a title attribute, and the tag gets stripped out. But, if I use a <span> tag with a style attribute, that shows up. I think this might be more an issue of not allowing the title attribute as well as issues with supporting some tags like <acronym>.

Yes, I just tried it myself. This seems like a bug as neither of those tags render correctly, but if I go back and edit the listing, the HTML still appears in the field. I guess this needs to be posted as a bug. I just tried three other random tags--<center>, <h1>, and <marquee>--and those are working. Perhaps they did not correctly allow for <acronym> and <abbr>. Good find.

Try using <abbr title="European Union">EU</abbr> instead.

You can also just temporarily disable your cache while you move it, then post new coordinates if you wish to keep everything else the same.

Hi Rich, Yup, that's the way to do it: one log for maintenance and another for finding (or not finding!). Hope you're enjoying geocaching. -RED

Make sure you have a day of the week scheduled for the PQ to run and ensure that it has actually run. On the "Your Pocket Queries" page in the list of "Active Queries," the last column in the table shows when the query was last generated. I just created a new PQ, set it to run on Sundays, and it is showing up on my iPhone. The "run once and delete" option will not allow the PQ to show up on the iPhone it would appear.

Geocaching.com has an "Introduction to Geocaching" presentation available for download here: http://www.geocaching.com/tools/intro.aspx

?? Not sure what your reply means. I have found every single cache I've searched for using the iPhone app; it works great. I do use a traditional GPSr to place caches though as everyone has pointed out, it is more accurate. But depending on the type of cache this person is placing, it might not matter if s/he uses the iPhone app to get coordinates.

You can't create virtual caches anymore--that cache type has been grandfathered. As Pup Patrol noted, there is now a separate game called Waymarking that is essentially all virtual caches. From http://www.geocaching.com/about/cache_types.aspx: Grandfathered Cache Types These are cache types that are no longer available for creation on geocaching.com. Visit the Waymarking web site for other GPS hunting activities. Virtual Cache A Virtual Cache is about discovering a location rather than a container. The requirements for logging a Virtual Cache vary—you may be required to answer a question about the location, take a picture, complete a task, etc. In any case, you must visit the coordinates before you can post your log. Although many locations are interesting, a Virtual Cache should be out of the ordinary enough to warrant logging a visit. Virtuals are now considered waymarks on Waymarking.com.

You can also download the official iPhone geocaching app and it will show you your current coordinates on the default screen.

It looks like the user ID shows up if you go to the user's profile page and copy (or hover over) the URL where it says "View Forum Posts for this User". For example, my URL looks like http://forums.Groundspeak.com/gc/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&mid=4764941 and my ID appears to be 4764941. I verified that this works even for users who have never posted in the forums.