Davispak

because they are lazy (like me) I find that hard to believe since you cache and spend so much time reading logs....or is it that you are lazy in that you Do all of this from the couch?

It does. Your suggestion allows people to look for the qualities that they like. It also is a solution to those cache owners who don't use the attributes either because they are lazy (like me) or own caches that are pre-attribute (like me). I think this would work better and would actually make cachers add attributes than better describe the cache to get visitors to the cache. Let's face it, we place caches because we want people to hunt them, but we all want to hunt caches that would be fun. I believe we are taking a step in a positive direction. This would even help if you were traveling in that you could narrow down the number of caches to pick from. We just now need to determine what attributes you can pick from. Not all should be moved over to the search or comments portion. The first ones should be: Kid Friendly Pets allowed Quick Grab Hiking involved Significant hike Special equipment needed handicap access Some bushwacking Significant bushwacking Anything else?

The best quote ever by Leslie Nielsenon Golf: The difference between a 1 dollar ball and a 4 dollar ball....is three dollars. Describes life, just because you pay more doesn't mean it's better.

I say this is one of the better ideas I have heard on this subject. Have an attributes checklist on the bottom after you write your find it log. You just click the appropriate boxes. Kid friendly quick find heavy terrain all the regular attributes, Then add some check boxes to the search screen that you click to narrow the search for the type of cache you are looking for. Say I'm looking for a cache that is in a park with a little hike and allows dogs. I click those attributes and it looks for caches with those attributes. Or I'm looking to do some lunch caching, click on the quick grab attribute, and it gives me a list of those. I think this idea removes any chance of retaliation since the only thing you are doing is saying what attributes you would put to the cache and it would narrow down searches for cachers looking for particular caches. Does this sound more of what you are talking about Bell? Sorry, props to Team RJMK for the quote, I messed up in the log.

Again, I only hear one or two who are almost fanatically against any rating system, because............. well they just don't like it. They think it will not make it easier to find good caches. personally I would like to see a survey put to the whole GC community on a few of the things discussed here, and not just this topic. I understand that we are a VERY small minority of the people who GC. So I think putting it to the "masses" might be a good thing. Find out does the distance between micros need to be increased to a half mile? Do people want a rating system? Do we need more stringent criteria for placing a cache? I still firmly believe that a cache rating system will work and would benifit the community at large. I can tell that no matter what is said here Sbell will not think it can be done, but I still believe in it.

Alien experimentation..NO PROBES!!!!!!

I usually write DNF's on my first attempt, then just a find on the next log. I will list any other attempts in that second log. I feel that keeps the logs uncluttered with all my junk. Of course I have only had to make more than two attempts on 2 caches so far. ( just jinxed myself) I do make notes for multi's I haven't completed, or for other caches I went to go,, but for other reasons, could not hunt. (muggles, terrain not ready for, One time a large snake on rocks GPS said cache was around ) Sorry , I know snakes, but will not bet my health on that I'm right.

Im sorry, but your statement is made from ignorance and is only meant to incite a hostile response. The question that has to be asked is how much police protection do you want? Here in NC the average Police salary is around 30-36K a year. That does not include equipment, vehicle, gas, and the hundred other things needed to "serve and protect". ( New York average salary is 110K a year, learned when I went to help with 9/11 clean-up) Multiply that by the number of officers you want to have on the street. Remember, you need coverage 24/7/365, and don't think you can go half staff on Holidays, they are busier than regular days. Now I'm going to base most of the next stuff off of my Hometown of 158,000 people, We have 472 police officers, covering the great metro area. The city is broken into three districts. There are 6 squads working on a rotating shift that overlap. Each squad has between 30-40 officers. At peak times 3 squads are working, at slow times only 1. That means there could be from 40-120 officers working street depending on the time of day. Now exclude a few officers for vacation, sick, or training, and the number is smaller. This is not an uncommon ration of officer to citizen, so don't think it is a small number. Remember, over 90% of us are law abiding and will do the right thing even when someone would never find out, but there are some that need "encouragment" to obey the law (Yes I'm talking to you people with a lead foot ) Others obey the law for fear of being caught. But there are a few who no matter what will do the wrong thing. This is who we are there for. I mean explain the stupid junk people do on COPS, and that is in front of a camera! Ok, now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. In police work it is not what you do, but what is percieved that you do. What!? Yes. For example I drive onto Crackselling lane and observe Joe McCrackdealer sell some dope. I chase down Joe and arrest him and take him to jail. Jimmy Marijuana sees this and realizes I will be tied up the next two hours doing paperwork and other tasks to insure that Joe doesn't have his rights violated and that he is not being falsely accused. He knows that it is probably safe to sell dope for the next 2 hours unharrassed. However, if I announce my presence prior to turning down the street and then get out walk around, talk to people, then leave and come back 10 minutes later and keep coming and going in the area for a time ( If I don't get dispatched on a call) then i can prevent crime for more than just the 10 minutes it took me to arrest Joe. The higher ups like the first thing because they can point to numbers and say, LOOK! we are doing something about crime, Police officers like the other because they stop crime before it happens and less paperwork. Now lets talk patrol, since this is really the crux of the issue. There are numerous parks and shopping centers in my town along with blocks upon blocks of residential neighborhoods. Store break-ins happen at night, and house break-ins happen during the day. crooks don't really want to go into an occupied house. Now for anyone out there who has ever had anything broken into, the last thing you want is to come home to find your house ransacked, so many departments focus on neighborhoods during the day, or at least we do, and businesses at night. Now personally I would love it if an officer walked all parks all day to prevent this lewd activity, but I would rather my house not be broken into. Now you could petition your town to hire more Police, and raise your taxes, and create an almost a Police state with a cop on every corner, but I would rather just have a few more, to allow for more patrol. On a side note, I always checked the parks when working as I got many arrests out of them. Drugs, drunk driving, and other activities. I hoped that helped

Or sports leagues that don't keep score. I think the caching community will survive if we have a cache rating system.

I usually try and check mine every three months just to insure it isn't wet, missing, full of garbage, or muggled. Some people only wait to check when someone says log is full ro there is a problem, but Ilike to keep mine nice.

So glad to see the horned lizard. They were alsmost extinct just 10 yeasr ago.

On another note, the next time you go to a mall around lunch time, look at all the cars parked way out in the secluded part of the parking lot. Yes they are "talking" too.

As a former police officer I can tell you that this happens alot. For some reason a particular park or parking area gets a reputaion as a "meeting" place and it happens quite often. This is the reason most parks close after dark, because usually only illegal activity (drinking, drugs,sex) occurs after dark. I could care less that these people are "talking" ( they always said they were talking, but apparently the talking needed to been done half dressed), but if they are in a park, or parking lot "talking" its usually because they are "talking" to someone they should not be. It has been my experience that they are usually married ( not to each other) in an act of prostitution, or one of them may be much younger than the other. Yes I caught a 34 year old guy with a 15 year old girl. He is currently serving 10 years for statutory rape. So the majority of them are not nature lovers who were suddenly taken by the urge to express their love with their significant other, They know they are doing something they feel guilty about and want to hide their actions from the public. So, to make a long story long, call the police, call them everytime and call often. You may be stopping a pedophile.

Its all the previous visitors to the caches carrying all the ticks out before you get there

Right on Brother! I will be the first to admit that I am NOT computer savvy. I have a palm that I have had for two months and even with the directions I cannot figure out how to download caches to it. So running PQ's and sending it through an algorithm program and then checking with NORAD and LANSAT to verify the exact locations while using Spinnerx and GPS Wowsers to convert the file and make it compatible is beyond me right now. I'm not even sure what program to use and from what I have seen I will need to buy more programs to make it work. What I don't get is why people are so set against something that could make caching a better experience? I mean why do you think there is a 9.1 version of programs out there? Because they found a way to make it better. If we sit around and say don't try it until you got it perfected, we would still be banging rocks and killing wooly mammoths for food. People said the world was flat not to long ago, and you can't fly, or go faster than the speed of sound, or go into space, yet we know these things to be false, because we as humans had the courage to try. So lets try.

people put batteries in them(caches) unprotected and those corrode and ruin everything in a cache. If its in a sealed container and then you put it in a good ziploc bag I think you would be ok.

S-bell has some good points and his way is a viable way to find the best caches in any given area. Given enough time this is the best way to find the good caches. The only thing is I, and I believe many other cacher don't have alot of time to look up caches and read logs. If you see my posts, I do this between tasks and other things i do. Kid taxi, work, cooking, spending time with the wife, and volunteer activities ,I have maybe an hour a day or so to spend on my hobbies. I wish I had more time to spend on caching, maybe I would have a lot more finds, but I wouldn't trade my life now just to get more caches. I think a cache rating system would help me maximize my caching time and enjoy it that much more.

I like this post. Lets keep it going. If you have a photo of an unidentified snake,lizard,or other creepy crawly, lets post it here.

Now this is a new idea that sounds good. It could be done with the Members/Subscribers caches. If you want to list it as memebrs only, it has a stricter criteria to be listed as such. Such as special view, nice hike, or something that would seperate it from other caches. People would strive to get their cache as a members only cache thus it would also be another perk for members. Again to the argument about too many caches being reccomended. 1200 logs to go through is still better that 1500 logs and caches to go through. I don't think anyone here is a specialist. In that someone ONLY hunts micros, or puzzles, or any other. I think we may have our favorite, but I think as a majority we hunt all types of caches. I know there are many types of hunters out there and we all have different tastes. But if you like hikes, wouldn't you like to know that the 3 mile hike cache is at the end of a beutiful view or a micro in the woods? Lets get a cache rating system guys. WE CAN DO THIS. I BELIEVE IN YOU

I usually keep a good look ahead to see if the trail looks like it may go in the direction of the cache. I usually walk a little down the trail first before heading in at the 90* mark. Sometimes this works for me, sometimes it doesn't. I still have a few marks from the last trip

Again the issue is how many caches are in the area? 30? 300? 3000? If you go to Ashboro NC there is only about 25-30 caches within 20 miles of downtown. Easy to read all the logs and pick the good one. Heck even easy to do all the caches in town. Traveling to Nashville? 1500 in the greater metropolitan area. So are you going to read through 1500 logs to see which ones are the best? Did the cache owner, out of anger, delete all negative posts? Did you try and contact someone from the area, but they gave only only about five to choose from or they are super hikers and only like 5 mile hikes to caches and you have only an hour or two to cache? Or are they number hounds and just give you the last 20 they did? But wait. There is a reccomend section. You check that and it gives you a list of the top reccomended caches in the area. Or imagine.You go to a cache and sign the log. You go back to your computer to log on the web site and after you have written your post, just below the narrative is a single question. Would you reccomend this cache? You think about it and make your choice, yes or no. It is added to all the other answers and the cache either becomes a reccomended cache or stays a regular cache. No one knows what you chose, people will only know when their cache becomes a reccomended. I think people will strive for a reccomended cache and better caches will appear. Since you can only answer the question on you first log it can't be padded by friends. Now doesn't that sound better than spending hours reading logs and looking up bookmark lists or getting the opinion of one cacher?

Again, some people have hunted hundreds of caches and are not very imaginative and still just place regular caches willy nilly. Some people find one cache,but are great imaginative thinkers and hide fantastic caches. Numbers mean nothing if it isn't done with alot of thought behind the cache. I have six caches and I only placed them when I had inspiration and then spent hours putting it together. Does that mean they are all great caches? Probably not, but I at least spent some time on them. Again I say a rating system would fix the lame cache problem.

I can see your point, but that doesn't help pocket queries when you are on the road - you never know where you can stop, so you load 100 or so caches. I want to be able to filter results by rating - accuracy ratings still require reading logs. And that is why I believe it will work. It would make even traveling just to the city a few miles down the road even better. There are a few hundred caches near me and then a few hundred in a nearby city only 30 miles away. I don't get over there alot, but when I do, I would like to go after some good caches. This would also work really well with the new route PQ out there. Run your route PQ, then check the reccomended list and you can plan a fantastic cache outing no matter where you go.

lock n locks usually are good at keeping the moisture out. Also good at keeping it in. If it was opened on a rainy day, well there ya go, wet log book.

What is a carpy cache? Sorry Smurf man....just pulling your chain. El Diablo Carpy- a smelly fish that has been in the sun to long .