SirDonB

I tend to cache alone most of the time. I have made a few friends along the way while geocaching, and only really cache with one other person from time to time when our schedules allow for it. At times I am worried about safety, but caching alone only means I am thinking of it more consciously. When I am with a friend, I am a bit more complacent. I also tend to be caching at the witching hour as well, so even less of a chance to have a caching partner anyway.

If it were my cache, I'd document that I had permission to hide the cache and appeal. But I've found caches near headstones, and didn't see anything "distasteful" about it. And I don't live in a state that prohibits "games" in cemeteries. As to permission, the current residents of the cemetery have no problems with the container being there. As to a "board of trustees" or other power that over sees the cemetery, the last member died a number of years ago and this cemetery has been lost to change and the passage of time. So there is no one to directly speak with, unless verbal permission from beyond is enough. If it was not for the city cutting the grass in the "walkways" the place would look like some of the pics in previous posts of forgotten cemeteries. I am currently researching as much info as I can on this particular cemetery to see if there is anything I can do to help and maybe bring some kind of maintance back to it. There are many toppled headstones from vandels over the years since there is no caretaker anymore. I think given its age, it should be a historic landmark.

This is a heated debate I have seen a few time here... There are pros and cons to each, the smartphone and the GPSr... being as I have gone caching with both recently and lost the GPSr some how and still have my smartphone, I am siding with the smartphone. Then again depending on the phone you have, some are more rugged than others like the one I have. It has yet to let me down and I dont worry about it dropping, getting a bath, caught in the rain or some of the other concerns that most smartphone users have. So my advice is to cache with what you have and find someone with a GPSr and cache with them and see what one you like better. My opinion, I like my smartphone for about 90% of the caching I do, now when I start getting out to the more remote areas where battery life will play a larger concern, then I will will get another GPSr. Till then, my smartphone has put me with 20ft or less the cache I was seeking 95% of the time. That is good enough for me.

out side of an ammo can, you can always build a box out of wood adding the hardware to make it lock via what ever size lock you have or want to use. I will be building my own boxes for an upcoming series I am in the proccess of planning out now... some may be locked, some may not, all will have a visable lock on it.

I recently tried to submit a cemetery cache that was denied becuase it was said to be inapporpriate by my local reviewer... the cache hiding location was inside the cemetery grounds, but near a flag pole in a tree and did not cause any harm to the surounding grave sites. Only one grave site was waymarked because this cache was being placed in honor of him, a civil war Medal of Honor recipiant. This particular cemetery predates the town it is in as well as is no longer looked after and cared for with exception of the city mowing the grass. In the denial note from my reviewer, the following was said: "In looking at your cache submission, I see that the cache location is in a cemetery. Any goecache placed within the interior of the cemetery among the stones would be distasteful and should be moved to the perimeter, maintenance area or an undeveloped area." I do not see how the this cache is distasteful in any way. I have found a number of caches that were on the interior of the cemetery among the headstones. Now given the size of the cache, the location near the flag pole I picked is the only spot in the small cemetery that does not require you to go tramping on graves to get to it. I would like to hear opinions on this particular scenario. Should this cache be allowed to be placed, or should I bow out and find another location to place it, if possible?

ok, I have just about everything done and ready to go on this.... one more detail to take care of first. If anyone is interested in aquiring the files, shoot me an email through my profile and I will get them out as soon as the last bit is done.

I also like some will only log a visit on a trackable, mine or someone elses, if I have physicly had the container in hand regardless if I remembered a pen to sign the log or not. Most times, my personal coin is in my geomobile and not act the cache with me, but I will still log a visit. Once in a blue moon, work will send me way out and my personal coin is still in my vehicle, so I log the coin as visiting, if I have anyother trackables, unless they are with me, there is no vist log for them. So for my personal coin, it gets a visit log regardless if it is with me or not if I log a found it log, all other trackables only get a log if they are with me for the find... It is just a game and trackables are just one demention of the game. The game has very few rules on how to play, so do as you see fit and what lets you sleep at night.

you could have found a hybrid cache that has yet to be published.

To the OP, I do not fully agree with the comment you made in one of your notes... I myself have logged a "needs archived" on only one cache without posting a "needs maintenance" log first. I should not be subject to being reported and suspended because of it. The cache was on private commercial property that I work at. The property owner, my boss, changed placing permission. I contacted the CO and let them know that permission was revoked for the property, after a month, I simply logged a "NA" on it stating that as of that log, the container would be removed by myself and that permission had been revoked. It eventually was archived by the reviewer. Now that opened up areas around that location off the property that I can now hide a cache in if I choose. According to your view in that note, I should be reported because I logged a "NA" before a "NM." I personally will not log a "NM" log unless I have found it and it does need attention, or I have searched for it at least 3 times without finding it. Typically, the "NM" log will only come after I have tried to contact the CO directly with no response after 2 weeks. I will log a DNF after the 2nd or 3rd attempt to find without victory.

I own quite a few coins and tags... I must say, that after reading numerous threads here before buying my first coin, I decided on only sending out proxies of them. The proxies I make are a laminated full sized color picture of both sides of the coin. I try to cut it out as close to the actual shape of the coin as I can with a second tag attached saying its mission along with a clearly readable tracking number. I have sent out few proxies of my coins that were bought with the intent to travel. I will support those that want to send them out, and I will support those who want to send out the real thing. Any trackable is becoming rarer in general, so I don't really care if it is the real deal or a proxy, if it marked as a proxy or not, I am just happy to find and move on a trackable in my area. The only disappointment I had was a SIG item that had a tracking number on it. I thought it was a trackable and went to log it. Upon finding the tracking page, I learned it was not a coin as I thought, but a sig item instead. So finder be warned, not everything you find will be a trackable or proxy, you may have found something else with a tracking number on it.

If the AE is not for sale, How would one go about acquiring one to complete the collection if they desire to do so?

I am not sure exactly what you are asking in your post. Are you asking if you can place a new webcam cache? Or are you asking about placing a cache in view of an already existing webcam? I am confused as to the exact thought in your question. If you are looking to try and place a new webcam cache, then all previous posts would be spot on in advice and guidance given. If the idea is to place a cache that is in view of an already existing business or government owned and maintained webcam, then I would caution you on this and recommend that the location of the webcam be given and noted on the cache page. Again, can you please clarify if the webcam in question is preexisting or one you would be purchasing and setting up just for this cache.

Not that long ago, I did a mystery cache where to solve the coords, I had to go into the library to answer specific questions about books and locations within that library. I am not normally one to read or go to a library, but never the less, I did enjoy the cache and solving the puzzle. The way you have the idea worded puts it into the Additional Logging Requirement category which is no longer allowed as per TPTB. Some very good alternative ideas have been given to help achieve the cache you would like to place. Good luck and I hope you find a solution that works for you and the area you plan to hide the cache.

Bumping this back to the top in hopes others may be able to add to what is here so far... I have gathered my thoughts and ideas from all the printed material I have gathered and have begun to work on putting the class together. I am starting on a Power Point slide show followed by some handouts and worksheets. If anyone has anything to add, I am watching this thread for any additional ideas. I would like to focus on terminology The main vocab list I have put together from the printed reference material is as follows: Activation Code Reference Code Tracking Code Microcoin Nanocoin Macrocoin Sig Item Visit Dip Geocoin Geotoken Travel Tag Inventory Collection Collectible Premium Member Only (PMO) If you can think of any other terms that are specific to trackables please list them with what you think the definition of that term is. I have already sifted though the terminology lists at these sites: http://www.geocaching.com/about/glossary.aspx and http://geolex.locusprime.net/. Thank you again to all who have contributed and to those who will contribute.

Still waiting... Been a while, any new updates?? I would like to hear a ballpark price per coin and for a complete set.

heh, I don't see why you can't still make the same themed event in June, there'd just be no souvenir associated with it You could print souvenirs and give them to people! Dont worry, I fully plan to still hold my event, but since the name of this says "maker," I could apply that to Travel Bugs as well as caches. And that is the themed event I am planning for in June... a trackables tips and tricks type event with an instructional period about trackables. I was hoping to apply the "maker madness" to it as well since part of the event will focus on "making" travel bugs and what makes a good travel bug. Yeah, the next Little Shop of Horrors event is already scheduled for April 19, which is too late to qualify for this "Maker Event" promotion. But the organizer is considering a quick LSOH Lite event during the time period allowed by the promotion. With me being out of work and recovering from surgery at the moment, creating anything during the promo period is out of the question right now. I will have other themed events, and maybe one will line up with an apporpriate promo, till then, its about the event and meeting fellow area cachers.

There should always be a container ... that's one of the requirements for all geocaches (virtuals and earthcaches excepted.) Thats what I would assume, but seeing as this is brand new and i dont know alot about it, I have to ask. For all I know this could be the new version of viruals and no container needed.

I will have to look into this idea as an alternative to Werigo... once I figure out the ins and outs of it. I am glad to see that it can not be done from a home comp and takes your actual location into account. I did follow the link and try to go though it from my comp, it would not let me go past the first grave since I was not at the site. My only real question is at the end of this, is there a container to find or is it just a virtual tour of the area you decide on?

Though the biggest contention here is how to define a "quality hide." The key here is quality, which means something different to everyone. Some people may consider a quality hide to be the location, so they will award a pill bottle in a scenic location a fav point, where as someone else might consider a quality hide to be a well camoed ammo box in a mundane urban environment. While there are those that will take both location and container to into account to be a quality hide. There are others still that may think that a quality hide are those parking lot light pole skirt caches are good quality and anything else that took more time to make or hide is over the top. The quantity part is easy to establish. How do we determine what is a quality hide? I know what I consider to be a quality hide, and I tend to fit into the group that takes the whole experience into account. I personally look at the container, the camo, the location, etc before I award out my fav points. So where do we set the bar to be met or exceeded to be considered a quality cache? Once this can be established, the idea could work for the good of the hobby.

Though I consider Renmin a friend, I have to agree and disagree with him on his original post. I agree that cachers who hide quality caches should be honored in some way... However, where I disagree with him is in the way his idea goes about doing so. For arguments sake, lets say I own 50 caches and everyone was handmade, well thought out, and high quality generating on 5-10 fav points each, by Renmin's stipulations in his OP, I would not qualify to be honored for my caches because I do not have a high enough hide count. Now keep in mind, I did not hide my caches to get that honor or special prize. I hid them for the joy of others to find and seeing the positive logs and feedback on them is reward enough. But if I were to find out that cachers in my area with "200+" hides were being honored for their "quality" caches when only about 25% of those caches were generating fav points, that would put a sour taste in my mouth with the hobby and area cachers. I would agree with one of the latter posts that mentioned an event as a way to honor those cachers with quality hides. I am glad to see that he is considering the idea. If the local event route is how he goes, I would suggest looking at the total hides a cacher has and of those hides with fav points, do the math and those with (lets say) 50%+ of hides with fav points gets honored at the event.

Yes, I created accounts for my kids as well, and rather than backdating logs, when we are out and find one, we just log it. If I've already found it they get the find and I get to enjoy watching them, even guiding them to it but not telling them where it is. My 3 year old is getting into caching, I may make him his own account if he continues to show an interest.

The TOU does not apply to a non-geocacher. BUT, to *upload* a photo or a story, you need to have signed up in which case during sign-up you will have agreed to the TOU. Simply put, a non-geocacher cannot upload anything to the site so they do not need to worry about the TOU. Since everyone who can upload photos or stories to the site has signed up and therefore agreed to the TOU, this is not a problem. In fact, it's kind of the opposite - the event owner should inform the attendees that on their behalf he/she has *excluded* them from having any of their stories/photos used, because that would be the non-default option. No? Yes, but how does that apply if a cacher uploads a story or pic of a non cacher? So as I understand it, if you opt out then TOU does not apply. That means that GS is giving the power to the event owner to decide if the want the TOU to apply to their event or not. If one or more of the caches are extremely well camoed or devious, that "maker" may not want it photed and made publicly known, especially if its a signature style and don't want it copied. Just my 2¢

So then this is a temp thing again?? That kinda stinks... I was hoping to apply the maker event to my event I'm planning for in June. Granted its a trackables event, but I feel that the maker event can apply here as well. I agree that you make a container or camo, not the spot which you pick to hide your cache.

Yes, me too. Hope it's a dark chocolate GPSr.

I thought any pics posted on a website became property of that site and its owner to use as the saw fit. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought there was a clause in the user agreement that covered pics and other multimedia. So any pics posted on any of groundspeaks sites could be used in their blogs, Facebook page, etc. That is, if that clause is there.