JamGuys

I've got to ask for some details? Sound's like someone has a story to tell.Yes, flask, please do tell. If you don't want to talk about it in-forum, you know how to get ahold of me... I think you got the first letter of his last word correct.... Last word? The very last one? Actually, I was thinking he got the last 2 letters right, but missed the 1st two altogether.

That's 'cuz the cacher doesn't log the cache at the end of the trip for us to read! Seriously, if someone was geocaching and died, who would report "He died while geocaching!"? They would report "He died while attempting to climb down a steep embankment, falling and hitting his head on a mysterious Army surplus ammunition can left in the woods." Nah, it would be something like: Man Dies While Playing Hi-tech Scavenger Hunt Game. A local area man slipped and fell to his death on Dead Man's Cliff while playing the hi-tech internet scavenger hunt game known as geocaching. According to eyewitness reports, John Tooshort was reaching for an aluminum tube suspended from a tree at the edge of the cliff when he lost his footing and fell. It was also reported that Tooshort's last words as he disappeared from view were, "Found iiiiiiiiiiiittttttt!!!"

Not sure whether this is considered to be a natural or an unnatural death but it does appear to have been geocaching-related. Mike's Memorial Cache

Actually, the best way to encourage better log writing is to lead by example. Sure, not everyone has either the time or the inclination to do more than the bare minimum but by writing a decent log yourself, you might just encourage a few wallflowers in your area to shed their inhibitions and discover a creative and entertaining new aspect of the sport!

Ah yes, the lost art of logging. I agree, it's nice to read more than "tftf" on a cache page. However, not all descriptive logs necessarily achieve their desired effect. For example, here's a log I wrote for a simple 1/1 P&G cache a few months back: "FTF! This was the third of three FTFs for me on the last leg of a geocaching trip to the SE part of the state that began in Edmond and involved a route through McAlester, Talihina, the Talimena and Robbers Cave State Parks, Muskogee, Jamesville, and Broken Arrow (where my son's HS band competition was being held), before heading back to Edmond. As it turned out, this was also the most eventful and memorable find of the day! I knew I'd need to make my way over to Broken Arrow from Robbers Cave and, having observed that this cache had remained unlogged for all of three weeks since being published, I decided to detour out here to find it. So, I duly navigated my way north across Lake Eufaula to Muskogee before heading west. I was feeling pretty good about myself as I approached the cache site and anticipated a quick and easy P&G. However, when I eventually saw where the cache was situated, I'll confess that my heart sank to my boots. You see, the Jamesville Y Bar is not exactly the kind of establishment I care to be seen poking about on a Saturday afternoon. In fact, the last time I went looking for a cache outside a bar - the Muddy Waters Club in Guthrie one night - I tried to take a picture of the building for my log and my flash went off right in the face of a biker patron who'd just left the premises. As I recall, he yelled out at me while I offered apologies, jumped back into my car, and hastily departed the scene! Anyway, as I drove by the cache site trying to decide what to do next, I noticed a man standing outside one of the buildings to the east of where the cache appeared to be. However, having come so far, I decided to go for it. Returned to the bar and parked outside. There were a pick-up and a bike parked there, the door was wide open, and I could hear both male and female voices coming from within. Hopped out and followed my GPSr into a clump of bushes containing some old discarded refrigerator equipment. However, it soon pointed away into more open ground but the problem was that the man I'd seen before was still there. I stood quietly in the bushes hoping that he'd soon go away and eventually he did. He picked up a shovel, threw it across his shoulder, and walked off to a trailer on the east side of the lot. So, I left the relative safety of the bushes and made my way to where it seemed the cache should be. However, as I poked around on the ground, I spotted the man with the shovel heading back in my direction. There was no way of escaping notice now so I decided to put on a brave face and explain to him exactly what I was doing. Surprisingly, after viewing me with an early hint of suspicion, he became very cordial. He told me that the service station was destroyed in a fire many years ago and that the owner had died last year. It seems as though the owner's relatives now run the bar. I also learned that this place can get extremely crowded when the bikers are in town! Anyway, having determined that the man, who later told me his name was Gene, seemed semi-interested in geocaching at best, I decided to proceed with my search right in front of him. I soon plucked the container out from its hiding position, sat down next to Gene, and opened it up .... another FTF .... woo hoo! Signed the log and, after replacing the cache, took a few pictures of Gene with my cell phone camera. He's a very friendly and laid back chap and will probably keep an eye on the cache for you. Now, some of you may be surprised to know that the Jamesville Y Bar actually has its own website. In fact, you might also be interested to know that Tonya needs some help at the bar. According to their ad, they "wanna gal with spunk, charimsa, someone who loves even the most irriating f**er when he's drunk and definately someone who likes to work and will work". So, if any of you lady cachers are contemplating a career change in these hard times, you might want to check this out! T - TB, L - signature FTF wooden token, SL. TFTC!" I also embellished the log with a few pics including the two below: Now, I was very proud of this effort. It had taken me over an hour to compile and to get just right. I thought that it was both funny and informative. Many would read it and be astonished at my literary ability. Kudos to me. But guess what? Less than two weeks later the cache owner archived a large number of his caches including this one. I had been the only person to find it. The only reason he gave was, "Because." I could only shake my head and laugh. I saw the CO, a highly respected local geocacher, at our monthly meeting a few weeks later and asked him about it. He said he was having some personal issues at the time and I didn't delve further. But all the time and effort I had taken into writing my magnificent log had gone the way of the wind ............. until now, heh, heh!

You shouldn't start a thing like that. Seconded.

I'm supposed to have a green container at the end of my driveway?!? I don't have one! I feel so ... cheated! Maybe it's in your yard?

I posted this message on another thread earlier today mainly because I didn't know that this one was accepting new entries - I guess I'm not exactly sure what "pinning" a topic entails! Anyway, and with my humblest apologies to those of you who might have seen it before, I offer this personal tale of woe to you as a final and lasting tribute to my one and only TB ever, Roy. You see, when I started geocaching three years ago and first learned about TBs, I was very excited. I decided that I'd buy the biggest and cutest TB I could and send it out on a journey of wonder and discovery. And so, for $17 (or was it $13?) and the cost of a TB tag, "Roy the Globetrotting Golden Spider Monkey" was born. His mission was to "swing from cache to cache" around the world! So, I wrapped the TB tag around his neck (there was no mission statement attached), took a couple of pics, and dropped him into my first puzzle cache that I'd dubbed Jungle Fever! Come to think of it now, Roy was selected as my first TB primarily because he kinda fit the jungle theme of the cache. Anyway, he was immediately picked up by the FTFers and I imagined that this would be the start of an amazing adventure. Unfortunately, poor Roy lasted less than two weeks in the wild. He made it to a total of two new caches before swinging out of sight forever. I still harbor a few suspicions about what happened to him but he probably fell victim to the excessive cuteness factor (see pics below). How could anyone resist such an expression?! Poor Roy, I still mourn his loss. Anyway, having learned my TB lesson the hard way, I switched my attention to geocoins. Over the next year or two, I purchased a number of pretty geocoins, dutifully drilled holes in them (with a cheap electric drill bought specifically for this purpose) and attached them to blank keychains (bought specifically for this purpose). I released a total of 15 such coins before my drill began to lose its effectiveness (or they began to make geocoins out of harder and harder metals!). Anyway, as of today, only two of these can be accounted for and the rest have (or will soon be) moved to that most dubious of TB destinations, the "Unknown Location". And so, within the past few months, I've resorted to just leaving unactivated geocoins that catch my fancy in caches that I've enjoyed finding (especially if I was FTF!). This simple activity has already given me more pleasure and satisfaction than I've otherwise had in trying to determine where my missing coin is now or where it was last, or who might have discovered it and who might have picked it up and not logged it, etc, etc.

Pfmmpppffmfpmmmpfmfmm!! (Edited for context!)

Read post #12. It sounds like her original post was made with emotion, and she looked at the situation more calmly later and feels a little differently. That's great news. So I suppose the forum discussion should end in another 2-3 pages by Sunday? Yes, but only if you are an eternal optimist. I predict another mind-numbing debate that will include the in-depth analysis of a variety of hypothetical situations as well as the long-winded viewpoints of a select few, among others.

Read post #18 too. It seems that she's already moved on about this.

Well, to share a personal story, when I started geocaching three years ago and first learned about TBs, I was very excited. I decided that I'd buy the biggest and cutest TB I could and send it out on a journey of wonder and discovery. And so, for $17 (or was it $13?) and the cost of a TB tag, "Roy the Globetrotting Golden Spider Monkey" was born. His mission was to swing from cache to cache around the world! So, I wrapped the TB tag around his neck (there was no mission statement attached), took a couple of pics, and dropped him into my first puzzle cache that I'd dubbed Jungle Fever! Come to think of it now, Roy was selected as my first TB primarily because he kinda fit the jungle theme of the cache. Anyway, he was immediately picked up by the FTFers and I imagined that this would be the start of an amazing adventure. Unfortunately, poor Roy lasted less than two weeks in the wild. He made it to a total of two new caches before swinging out of sight forever. I still harbor a few suspicions about what happened to him but he probably fell victim to the excessive cuteness factor (see pics below). How could anyone resist such an expression?! Poor Roy, I still mourn his loss. Anyway, having learned my TB lesson the hard way, I switched my attention to geocoins. Over the next year or two, I purchased a number of pretty geocoins, dutifully drilled holes in them (with a cheap electric drill bought specifically for this purpose) and attached them to blank keychains (bought specifically for this purpose). I released a total of 15 such coins before my drill began to lose its effectiveness (or they began to make geocoins out of harder and harder metals!). However, as of today, only two of these can be accounted for and the rest have (or will soon be) moved to that most dubious of TB destinations, the "Unknown Location". And so, within the past few months, I've resorted to just leaving unactivated geocoins that catch my fancy in caches that I've enjoyed finding (especially if I was FTF!). This simple activity has already given me more pleasure and satisfaction than I've had in trying to determine where my missing coin is now or where it was last, who might have discovered it and who might have picked it up, etc, etc, etc.

There's a cache near here where the coordinates put you inside a parking garage. You can go to the top parking level (roof) and zero in on the coordinates. Then you have to find the cache that hidden on one of the 5 levels + basement directly below you. Personally speaking, that sounds like a cache that I'd ignore.

Okay, before a certain recent thread was mercifully shut down by MooseMob, I enquired about the precise nature of the "green box at the end of your driveway" that featured tangentially in the discussion. I'm happy to report that I've just found the answer and that it's a "padmount transformer" which is "used in electrical power distribution systems to step down voltage from the high voltage terminal of an underground electrical distribution systems to the low voltage terminal thereof going to the end user's electrical system, etc." So, I did finally gain a piece of useful information from that never-ending discussion!

Hey, what IS that thing, anyway?

This is not a particularly dramatic picture, just a quiet spot I discovered along the trail while hiking to a very special cache last year: STANDING ON THE WALL

Aah, but the advantage to the locals of option 1 is that you've now freed up some real estate for THEM to place a hide there! You have trouble finding places to hide caches???? I find this surprising. There is so much empty land out there. Only a mile or so from the road. Beautiful parks. Lots of open space... I was making a general statement but, having now looked to see where the OP's caches are based (New Braunfels, TX), and having even performed a Google Map search of the area, I'll agree that there should be no shortage of space to hide a cache out there!

Aah, but the advantage to the locals of option 1 is that you've now freed up some real estate for THEM to place a hide there!

The advantage of option 1 above would be that you'd now have two caches ready and waiting to be placed in a new location!

Well, I too try to post at least one photo with each of my cache finds as I feel that it adds a visual element to my meticulously worded log. However, I don't post pictures of the precise cache location, the cache itself, or the log although, as mentioned before, not every photo that includes any of these is necessarily a spoiler. For example, a wide-angle photo of a view near the cache that just happens to include the cache location would only be a spoiler to me if the location is specifically identified as such in the caption, e.g. "View from cache site looking to the east; cache is hidden behind the big rock on the left next to the cliff face". Of course, regardless of how careful you try to be, there's always a chance that a particular cache owner might interpret things slightly differently from you! To be honest though, I've never understood why people post close-up pictures of the cache container or the logbook as there's usually no visual appeal whatsoever in those images. Yes, we know you found the cache, no need to provide visual documentation too! And I do understand the sentiments expressed by the cache owner who complained. The first time someone posted a picture of my cleverly painted ammo can with the logbook laid out beside it (see pic below), I was a bit upset and had the same reaction, "Hey, you're not supposed to post photos of the cache!" I felt that somehow my hide had been violated. It took me a few minutes to relax and realize that no serious harm had been done. Yes, everyone could now see what the logbook looks like but so what? Is this really a spoiler? Looking back at it now, I think it all comes down to a matter of geocaching experience. It was my first hide and I thought there was some rule against posting pictures of the cache. So, chances are you're more likely dealing with someone who's relatively new to the game and just started hiding caches than someone who's been around a while. Having said that, one should always respect the wishes of an individual cache owner when you don't see eye-to-eye and remove any offending images. After all, it's their cache and this is only a game.

Wow, that's a serious location, GuanoGerbil, and an incredible view! As far as a flatlander like myself is concerned though, that should be rated 5/5 all the way!

Actually, I never said that I hated micros, just that they were "unacceptable". Now, nanos on the other hand .........

Did you look in the "Forum Arbitration" section?

Well, this is what the OP said: "My question to you is what do you feel is not acceptable as a cache hide and why? Maybe we can see some patterns of what people really do not like to look for when caching." While I suppose the first sentence could be interpreted to mean, "What do you feel should or should not be acceptable as a cache hide by Groundspeak?" and hence be an issue about guidelines, the explanatory second sentence clearly makes this out to be more a question about personal preference. Just because a cache listing is approved and published on this site does not mean that I have to look for it. Now, if that's not what he meant then, IMHO, his question was ambiguous at best and contradictory at worst!