wrongwayshorty

I had a basic membership until the 17th, when my friend gifted me the premium. (I'm super excited about having that now by the way!) I used the link that Frank Broughton posted to contact Groundspeak about it. I was contacted this morning saying that they've been having problems with dates showing up incorrectly, and that it should be fixed now. It isn't, but I have complete faith that it will get sorted out soon. I just wanted to make sure the error with the system wasn't actually going to boot my PM next month after having just received it. Thank you all so much for the information. I really appreciate the help =)

The year changing isn't the only thing though. Yesterday's date was the 17th, not the 12th.

Hi everyone! Okay, as noted in the title, I have no idea who to contact about this issue, so I thought I would post it here and ask for some help. A friend of mine gifted me a one year premium membership yesterday. However, my email notification of the gifted membership says: "Your account has been upgraded to Premium for 12 months. If you are already a Groundspeak Premium Member, this gift extends your current membership by 12 months. Your Premium Membership will expire on 10/12/2011." This is obviously not a year, or even a month from yesterday. Is this just a glitch, or should I contact Groundspeak, and how would I go about doing that exactly? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

All incredibly good points! Now that it was mentioned, I really like and respect the idea of making a cache a PM to preserve an area and not have all of the foot traffic a regular cache may bring. Smart thinking! I have to say I appreciate there being a back way to logging the finds, because my friend and I go together. I just wasn't sure if it was more specifically for families with multiple accounts, etc. My friend surprised me with a gifted PM today, so I'm super excited lol. Now just to do some searching and asking to figure out why it says my one year membership expires on 10/12/2011, and (of course!!) how to be notified for new caches in my area lol.

This makes so much more sense! Thank you all very much for answering newbie questions without being condescending about it

Thank you both for your responses! There are so many things I still have questions on lol. Really, I just don't want to offend any cache owners, so many of my questions surround cache etiquette. As cache owners, would you be offended or annoyed if a non PM virtually logged a cache that they found with a PM? Or would you prefer that the non PM waited and backdated their virtual log? I guess I'm just thinking along the lines that PMs have added perks because, well... they're membership is premium lol. So if a non premium member is logging a premium cache, it kind of defeats the point of having added perks. I haven't spoken with my friend about this yet, as I just learned last night that there is a backway to log caches. I'm the one who doesn't like the idea, on grounds of wanting to follow the rules, so to speak. Then again... if Groundspeak created the backway for a reason, then I just don't know whether I like the idea or not lol. I just know I love geocaching, and I don't currently have tools accurate enough to hide caches yet. (Working with the iphone 3G.) I greatly appreciate the ones who do hide caches, and feel like I should make the extra effort to not step on their toes when logging their caches.

Hi everyone! So I was reading a few posts of people complaining about PM only caches, and it reminded me to ask a question on here. (Sorry, I'm always asking questions lol!)I recently got a good friend of mine hooked on geocaching. We've been searching together lately, so we typically find and log the same caches. I'm hoping to get a premium membership in the next day or two, but he won't be getting his for a while. He has a notebook where he makes note of all of the geocaches that he finds. Obviously, if I become a PM and he isn't, he can still search with me, he just can't log his find online. (I read about logging finds the back way so to speak for families and such, but I don't think I like that idea.) In the case that he finds a PM only cache with me, what does he do exactly? I was thinking he could sign the physical log, then back date the virtual logs when he gets his premium membership, but I wanted to know what cache owners typically prefer. I know a lot of cache owners make PM caches so they can see who is accessing their cache. That being said, is it prefered that the non PM signs the physical log then logs online through the back way, waits until they can back date, or doesn't sign at all until they are a PM? (I make note of who I found a cache with on the virtual log, so there would be that for the owner's information.) Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. We're hoping to go in the next day or two. Happy caching!

Thank you all so much for your responses. They have all been so helpful to me! I was actually curious where to get the tiny ziplock bags, so even that was answered before I had thought to ask

Hi everyone! I'm still relatively new to this, but I've managed to sucker a few friends into going with me lately I really don't want to teach them bad geocaching habbits, so I'm curious about something. If a log is in horrible shape (soaked, slimey, "felt like it burned my friend's hand" and is just generally a gross, unsignable, mess) is it proper caching etiquette to discard and replace the log if you can and place a note on the online log, or leave it as is, leave a note online, and come back if you can? I'm thinking common sense is to replace it if you can, but I don't want to offend anyone by throwing away their logs. Any help here would be greatly appreciated

By the way, thank you for the story! It was an interesting read. I've never heard anything about it

This is all absolutely fantastic! Thank you, everyone, for the links and the suggestions/advice/input. I'm getting the feeling that I'm really going to have to do this cache when I get more accurate tools! I love that there are so many others that like rubber duckies as much as I do. (I usually get teased for my collection lol.)

Interesting point! I think you should get the souvenir for getting out there after a 12 hour work day. We didn't even know about the event until last night and fortunately had stopped off to grab a find for a puzzle we had solved awhile back. It's a shame that you probably won't get the souvenir after embracing the day while we just happened to make a lucky grab without even knowing of the event. If there was a way to give you ours, we would. Aww, thanks for the thought! It's not that I'm angry or mad that I won't get the souvenir or anything lol. I was just curious about it. I think the souvenirs are kind of like an added bonus of niftyness. I just thought it would be neat to have one in celebration of the first International Geocaching Day. I celebrated the day by looking, and I have some pretty great memories with one of my friends because of it. That's really all that matters to me

I'm not entirely sure where to put this question in the forum, who to ask, or how to contact them, so I apologize if it's in the wrong spot. I was wondering about the souvenir for the International Geocaching day. To make a long story short, I went after a quick PG near my house, hoping to celebrate the day, introduce a friend to the excitement of finding a cache, and receive my second souvenir. Upon investigation, it turns out that the pay phone the cache was hidden in was taken down on July 2nd. Bummed out, exhausted, and out of time (after a 12 hour work day) I logged a DNF, and the cache was later archived. Will I receive a souvenir for the effort? Just curious... Better luck next year

People here seem to like them: http://coord.info/GC23G7C http://coord.info/GC2XNHC Awww, thank you for posting those! But unfortunately, I'm not a premium member (yet!!) so I can't view them.

Ooooh! That's a good idea! Now I need to meet some local cachers to ask Lucky for me, Michigan cachers seem to LOVE getting together, which I think is really nifty. I'm really excited about combining two of my hobbies lol. I really hope that others in the area enjoy the idea as much as I do.

Hahaha, thank you! I'm really short in comparison to all of my friends, (I'm 5'3 1/2 compared to the majority of my friends being 5'10 to 6'7) hence the nickname shorty. And I'm directionally challenged, so after being told, "Wrong way, Shorty!" so many times, they just started calling me that lol! I can get lost with a GPS btw... I still maintain that it was NOT my fault, but it's held against me nonetheless lol. I appreciate the advice! I figure I'll definately get nonduck trades. Especially because if you're like me, you carry a pouch of trade items (that most likely don't contain rubber duckies) and cache on the go whenever you're out and about. I'm hoping that if I put it close enough to my house that I can keep a regular eye on it, I might be able to be consistent in encouraging the theme. How good of a seal does a small(ish) storage container have? Would that keep everything dry? I had to laugh at thinking swim for it. My brother is stationed in Georgia, and is realllllly into treasure hunting, scavenger hunts, hiking, metal detecting, etc. I introduced him to the idea of geocaching yesterday, and he went out immediately (and even found two!) He talked with a friend who used to geocache in California, and already has an idea for a (in my opinion) pretty extreme geocache. It was something about a bridge, being suspended under water held by a weight, only being able to get to it at certain times of the year, and using a laser light to hit a mirror.... I don't even know lol. All I could say was, "dadgum dude... that's pretty extreme. I guess you really are getting into this." The problem for me is that I live in Michigan, where the water is ice cold (or frozen) approx 9 months out of the year. I was considering taking advantage of all of the roads named after lakes though. I really wish I lived closer to Duck Lake Rd lol. That would be perfect. I just don't live close enough to keep an eye on it.

Hi everyone! Before I begin the whole point of this post, I'd like to thank everyone. I'm a newbie, but I'm already addicted. I'm excited that I've already gotten a few people hooked, (and encouraged them to support the site!) I've asked a few questions in the forums, and everyone has been so nice and helpful. I think it's really great that everyone is so helpful and encouraging of newcomers. I also love the idea of meeting others through events. I've seen comments with mention of negativity, but I have yet to personally experience any. I think I've settled into a hobby with a very welcoming community That all being said, I collect rubber duckies. I love that like geocaches, rubber duckies come in all different shapes, sizes, designs, and colors, and you really don't know WHERE you'll end up finding one. I don't exactly have the most accurate geocaching equipment yet, (hoping for Christmas!) so I don't feel comfortable hiding a geocache yet. However, I was wondering for when I am comfortable, if people would be interested in a rubber ducky themed geocache. Other trade items would be acceptable, but the main idea would be rubber duckies of any size (from regular size bath tub toys down to the micro "Feelin' Ducky" brand quarter machine ones), and related items such as stickers, buttons, patches, magnets, etc etc. I don't know too many people that collect rubber duckies, so I don't have anyone to trade duplicates with. I was thinking that if people were interested, this would be a great way to combine two of my favorite hobbies, since finding a new rubber ducky has the similar excitement of "Hey!! I found one!" that finding a geocache has for me. Obviously it would have to be a bigger container to accommodate the bigger rubber duckies. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts, concerns, advice, etc.

I've been having an issue that when I load the map, it doesn't show where the cache is, it shows some different location (always the same when it does it) with a ton of streets that have numbers for names. It has done this about 3 times in the last two days. When I refresh it, it goes right back to where it should be =)

Lol! Thanks for the heads up! Let's see... I started geo caching on Tuesday with my boyfriend, using the free intro app. We went to two locations near my house (in the sticks) and managed to somehow find both of them. I felt pretty silly when I didn't think to look at where the first one was when I was standing right next to it, because I was concentrating on the app saying 19 feet. I was really excited when I found the second one while he was up in a tree lol. I went out Wednesday by myself and found one, scoped out a bunch and decided I wasn't do those alone, (for safety of either a crowded area, or climbing 50ish feet into the woods) and had one DNF. Today (or, yesterday now I suppose) I purchased the paid app, and took a friend along. Not only is he appearing hooked, but we found four out of five. For the accuracy being relatively horrid, and both being newbies, I thought we did a pretty good job lol. Especially for three micros and a small, two of which were just before dark. All in all, I'm completely addicted, and seriously considering saving up the money for a GPS. I'm considering going to an event because I noticed some have learning shops about different GPS units and how to use them. (Plus, the mention of swapping the best stories about run ins with the local law enforcement made me laugh and caught my interest.) I even managed to unintentionally talk a friend into giving geocaching a try (he asked what I was doing when I was playing around with the paid app, so I explained the best I could and let him play around with it too.) He thought the concept was absolutely awesome. I was curious though... On the paid app, is there a way to log a find? Maybe I just haven't messed around with it enough to find that yet. So many questions to ask... Sadly, I tend to get side tracked and forget one when I have another lol.

I just wanted to say thank you so much again, to everyone. I was finally able to purchase the app (with some account help from a friend) and it seems to work so far! Everything appears to be loading correctly, and *knock on wood* it hasn't crashed. I'm heading to town in a bit, so I think I just might need to put it to the test. Thanks for the help!

All great information! Thank you all very much. I think it's great that everyone is so helpful to newbies I was looking at the pics for the upgraded app, and it does appear to be quite different. I would expect it to be though, because it isn't a beginner's app. I just hope it works with my phone so I don't have to constantly hit refresh to find new ones in the area I'm in. I also think I will set up my itunes info today so I can purchase the app. I have absolutely NO idea how to use a handheld GPS, or even what to look for in one, so I think I'll hold off on that part of this for a while. I'd like to get the hang of geocaching with my iphone first before I venture into handhelds lol. Yesterday I went by myself and scoped out a few (decided not to go for ones that weren't PG by myself.) I actually found one by myself, so I was really excited. Living in the Holly/Davisburg area of MI, I think I'll have to purchase a parks and recs sticker too. All in all though, I think the price will be well worth it for something I already enjoy so much. Even the geocache I didn't find was fun because I didn't know the road existed.

Oh yay!! Thank you! I didn't figure it would increase the accuracy. The other night my boyfriend and I were looking for my first one and it said I was five feet away, then I was directly next to it (after he found it) and it said 19 feet. I'm a broke college student though, so I really don't have the money for a nice handheld, but I really like the idea behind geocaching. I love free fun (relatively speaking due to gas) that gets us to areas we've never been to, and helps clean up the areas for further enjoyment as well. It reminds me, on a different scale, of metal detecting with my family when I was a kid. My parents really like the idea behind it too, so I think I'm going to be asking for a premium account for Christmas. I think $10, or even $30 is pretty small in comparision when supporting something that provides such great experiences and memories.

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie to geocaching, but I went out the last two nights and had a great time. I saw a previous post about starting with an iphone 3GS, so I thought I'd ask about my phone too. I have an iphone 3G, and have been working with the free intro to geocaching app. It works pretty well, except the distance isn't exactly accurate all the time. I'd really like to upgrade to the paid version so I can see more than three caches at a time, and (hopefully) support the site by getting their app, but I'm not sure if it will work with my phone. (I'm thinking along the lines that the intro version works well because it's a smaller app with less to run.) Does anyone have any experience with using it for a 3g iphone? I've read a ton of reviews, but they're mixed, and it doesn't say the phone type. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi everyone! I am also a newbie, and using the free app for the iphone 3G. I'm considering getting the paid app, but I'm curious if it's even going to work with my phone because it's older. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.