TrimblesTrek

Kinda makes the "caching for stats and numbers" sort of irrelevant doesn't it?

Match containers=micro=not a real "cache"=WHY bother

Perhaps a bit better link... http://bit.ly/lxpfW7

" Halloween October 31, 2011 (not a fixed date each year) " Huh? Since when is Halloween not a fixed date? Just wondering what your thinking is for this.

Hey, it's 1/1/11. Another date every bit as awesome as 10/10/10. Where's my new souvenir?

SO untrue! This tells us quite clearly that Groundspeak... - wasted more money on yet another fluff video. - still haven't figured out how to make their ill-conceived pretty-pixel idea make any sense or provide an iota of real value.

Can anybody explain why a cache found on 10/10/10 deserves any kind of a souvenir at all? Suddenly dates with pretty patterns are important or interesting somehow? (Aside from those who are Hitchhikers Guide fans...and even that's a pretty big stretch). Are we going to celebrate 9/10/11 the same way or will we let Oct 9 next year (or Sept 10 if you read it that way). I can hardly wait!

This stuff matters somehow? People who cheat themselves aren't hurting me, so I don't care. If they want to fill up their profile with unearned souvenirs, let 'em have at it...it's not affecting my caching in the least.

I would have thought they'd have sorted out souvenirs before making them live on the site...seems to be a (really, really late to the party) knee-jerk reaction to badges and awards that are available on social networking sites like foursquare (yay, I'm the mayor of "Bob's Gas Station and Dentistry") or FaceBook (look at me! I mangled 71 virtual cats in Kitty Stomp today). But, is geocaching.com a social networking site? Are these things needed? I think they've totally missed the mark with souvenirs. When I visit a cache the only "souvenir" that will have any meaning to me might be a photograph I've taken on the caching outing. Same thing with an event (or I may buy an event shirt or coin). If they had really wanted to join the "awards and accomplishments" fray they could have better done it with award badges. Using the cacher's stats they can easily produce "challenge" awards: - Want a special badge in your profile because you've found 187 caches on sequential Tuesdays? They can give you a badge for that major accomplishment. - Want a badge because you've logged caches within the ghettos of 43 major metropolitan areas? (The "avoiding-meanies-in-the-'hood" badge). There's a badge for that too. - The list of badge-able quests and accomplishments is endless. I would be in favour of this because it should eliminate so-called "challenge caches". (I like the smiley for finding the cache...I don't need to jump through arbitrary (and often ridiculous) hoops for my find to "count" in the CO's mind.) I don't believe they'd go for these types of awards though. - Difficult to monetize (I suppose they could sell sponsorships for each award though) - ENDLESS requests for lame awards and nobody to review them. (Reviewers would likely want nothing to do with vetting the award idea requests) Anyway, a poorly-thought-out implementation of an ill-conceived idea, in an activity where the REAL award is the activity itself. .

LOL! So funny. I look for caches around every corner (and under every log). Agendas, not so much. Again..I was just stating my opinion. There weren't a "ton of details" when they began the souvenir pixels. Perhaps there are now...I wouldn't know...I'm happily ignoring them. EDIT::: I just want to amend my last post. I decided to take a look at the Souvenir tab on my profile... I clicked on the "learn more" link and found this... Souvenirs are virtual pieces of art that you can discover and display on your profile page. They are associated with a particular location and may also be bound by time. There are two ways to discover a souvenir. The first is to log a geocache within the souvenir zone. For instance, if there were a souvenir for Hollywood, CA and you logged a geocache in Hollywood, you would be awarded the souvenir. The second is to search for a geocache using the Geocaching Application for iPhone or Android when you are within the souvenir zone. Text on your profile page will indicate whether the souvenir was discovered by logging or through an application. If there is a time parameter to the souvenir, as there will be with those discovered at Mega-Events, the souvenir zone will expire at the end of the period. You can still obtain the souvenir by logging your attendance online. If you have previously logged a cache in a souvenir zone, the souvenir will be added to your profile at a later date. We hope that you enjoy discovering these unique pieces of art! I'm not entirely sure but this seems to be the same amount of information that was there back on 10/10/10 when I was gifted a souvenir for this (important???) date. So, I'm still pretty much in the dark about how the souvenirs work...I spend very little time on the forums so I have no knowledge of any additional details provided by Groundspeak on the topic of souvenirs. If Groundspeak want to make things clearer for me (and others?) they should perhaps update their "learn more about souvenirs" page. .

Bias? The hallmark of a forum post I guess. Wouldn't it be a dull place without our biases? Supposition? Well of course it is! Because Groundspeak hasn't stated the details...or more likely, hasn't decided what they are yet. Also...just my opinion...as stated...

Souvenirs. I sometimes buy them when I visit a place where I'd like a physical reminder I can take home with me. Geocaching souvenir pixels. Given to me whether I want it or not just because I happen to have found a cache/attended an event/solved a puzzle/or eaten all my vegetables. Good grief. For me, a "geocaching souvenir" is and always has been my memory of the cache and I don't need or want anything else. If I want a physical reminder of an event I've attended, or a geocacher I've met...I'll buy an event coin if available or I'll trade a personal pathtag with a cacher. Souvenir pixels? What's the point? Whatever happened to just finding Tupperware in the woods at the end of a nice hike...hopefully to somewhere with a WOW factor? I'll tell you what happened, and it's all about the numbers. More accurately, it's all about the Benjamin'$. My opinion of course... The original geocaching.com had very few ways to make any money other than by selling memberships and selling online geoswag. One of the first perks of a membership...pocket queries. Very handy and probably directly resulted in many new memberships being sold. Another perk...bookmarks...I don't use 'em but I'm sure lots of members do. Another perk...notifications...race out for the first to find...handy if you like doing that. Another perk...oh wait...that's it. (Not exactly nothing else...but the rest is all fluff as far as I'm concerned.) I didn't buy my membership for any of these reasons...I simply wanted to support geocaching.com/Groundspeak because I like geocaching. Years passed...more and more people learned about geocaching...and as GPS units became less expensive, more and more people joined the site. More people who weren't necessarily interested in the hiking aspect of caching (also known as "the fattening of America" ), or in the "take something, leave something" trading that used to be a hallmark of caching. Instead, these new cachers started the hopelessly lame trend of the micro-cache and then, if that wasn't enough...the nano cache. Drive-by caches....unheard of 5 or 6 years ago. Now they're everywhere. And, because these new non-traditional geocachers were becoming members by paying their annual dues...nothing was done by the powers that be to stop this bastardization of the whole concept of geocaching as it originally began. All about the money. We also had travel bugs. Another good idea by Groundspeak I think, and another way for them to make money. It's just too bad that there are far too many cachers out there who ruin this aspect of the game by taking a travel bug from the cache and then either decide to keep it, or are careless enough to lose it. So, Groundspeak gets the money for the tracking ID's and the tags, and then the travel bugs disappear....so more tags get sold. Then geocoins came along. I don't know the history here, but I do expect that Groundspeak rubbed their collective hands with glee knowing that they could charge for more tracking numbers and unique icons. Again, another good way to bring in money. I'm not a big geocoin collectorBut again...cheating cachers will simply steal coins if they find them in a cache. Memberships, bugs, swag, coin icons...none of these money-making activities have been a "bad thing". In fact without them, Groundspeak wouldn't be where it is today; we wouldn't have site redesigns, faster servers, iPhone and Android apps. So where do Souvenirs/SUV's/Soovs/Souvis/Neers/Sneers/Venirs fit in? They don't. Not in my opinion anyway. But, I'm certain that Groundspeak have figured out a way to monetize them. How? No idea at this point...they're all very secretive about it. They are saying "well, it'll be easy for you to create a souvenir for your event". It's what they aren't saying that's interesting. HOW MUCH is it going to cost us to add a souvenir to an event? Think it's going to be FREE? Based on Groundspeak history I doubt it. Monetize it or it's not worth doing. Obviously Groundspeak spent valuable programming time and effort on these new collectible pixels. I'd much rather have seen Groundspeak spend more money on fixing/enhancing the iPhone app, or adding a member-customizable "dashboard" to the website instead of the poorly thought out "quick links" at the top of the main site pages. Souvenirs. I'll buy them from gift shops and artisans when I'm traveling. Geocaching souvenir pixels. I can do without them. I just hope there's a way for me to turn them off entirely. Your mileage may vary. ~TT~

One good way is to attend a local event. It's easy to meet people because you already have something in common. You didn't mention where you are from.

I put an Invisible Shield on my 62s as soon as it came out of the box. I don't believe Zagg have them available pre-cut yet but I went to Future Shop and bought a pack of 3 generic rectangular Invisible Shields. I put it on as you normally do but it leaves a lot of overhang...then really carefully, I trimmed it with a new razor blade following the contours around the glass. Worked perfectly. Always use a NEW blade. I've used Invisible Shields for many years on all my handheld equipment with screens that could get scratched, and it has saved many a screen from damage. I wouldn't think of using anything other than an Invisible Shield. ~TT~

I've been watching this thread for awhile and have no idea what it's about....some inside joke I guess? Anyway, one less thing to keep an eye on now if I just remove it from my watchlist. I'll cheer for Juicepig from the sidelines.

Sadly, that seems to be exactly what a lot of people are looking for. Drive-up, hike 2 metres, lift the skirt. Repeat. Makes me nauseous. Can't understand why anybody who cares a whit for real geocaching would ever hide one of these lame things.

Here, here to the NO MICROS sentiment. Real caches get muggled once in awhile...a fact of life I guess. But even a missing, muggled real cache is light years better than a boring micro. I'm waiting for gc.com to open their eyes to the fact that there is a faction who enjoy 3m walks to lampposts to find old film canisters with soggy paper and no pencil. (Or the ever popular magnetic key holder which is the leakiest container on the planet.) (Or, the exciting nano cache which always seems to include getting muggles involved.) There is also a faction who look on these type of caches as a complete bastardization of Geocaching roots. Lets have one site for lame micros, and another for real caches. Wouldn't it be exciting if we knew that when a cache was published we were in for: - a roundtrip hike of 300,400,500 metres or more - a real cache container at the end of the hike, with minimum specifications on water/weather-proofedness (sp?) and size - a real logbook and not a spindly hard-to-handle/impossible to replace roll of paper - and, God forbid...trading swag?! This game has gone downhill since the automobile GPS's came out. And newbies who are joining the game are finding these lame micros...and thinking "oh..this is what geocaching is about....there's a nice trash can down the street I could hide a magnetic key holder on...CooooooooooooooooL!" And yes, along with this...NO travel bugs on micro.geocaching.com. TB's belong in real caches as well. And, since the majority of muggles stick to their urban surroundings, we'd have our trails free of muggled caches, and stolen TB's. Sorry for the rant, but I did try to bring it back to your original topic. -TT-

My opinion...Any REAL cache. Like in the old days. Not a micro cache. Not even a film canister. Something with a real logbook and some trading swag so you can write a note in the cache letting everybody know that this was your #1000. It doesn't matter in the least if the Groudspeak statistics think that it's your 1000th cache. As long as YOU think it's 1000, that's what is important. I've totally messed up my Groudspeak record keeping because I've eliminated some of the old Locationless caches from my "finds"...One of these caches indicated that I had been in Norway, another in New South Wales, and another in Oregon....never been to any of these places, so I got rid of them. Like I said...just my opinion. The nice thing about this game is that you play by your own set of rules, and are completely free to ignore everything else (within the geocaching hiding/finding guildelines of course)

If you wanted a little bit more than an entry level, Walmart have the Garmin 60CX on sale this week for $228. But, don't buy it from them. Instead, go to Cdn Tire and get one from them ($current price is $369) Get them to apply their price match guarantee. They'll sell it to you for $228 PLUS they'll give you 10% ($22.80) in Cdn Tire money. Net price of about $205. NOT as good as the Cdn Tire guarantee used to be. They used to give you the DIFFERENCE between their price and the competitive price in Cdn Tire cash...so you would have got $141 in Cdn Tire money, bringing your net to about $85 for the GPS. I bought a lot of stuff from Cdn Tire while this policy was still in effect, but sadly they just recently changed it.

Congrats!!!

From what I understand, the reviewers main job is to review new caches, and publish them if they meet the guidelines. As a cache owner, it's your responsibility to determine if a log meets the requirements for your cache. If it doesn't, I believe you have the right to delete any Found It (or otherwise) log entry. FWIW, there are loads of people who are doing exactly what you describe. Maybe they tagged along with a registered cacher before they became a member themselves....this happens all the time with kids who used to cahce with their parents and now want their own account. Maybe they signed the log book, maybe they didn't. At the end of the day it's up to you to decide what you want to do about the log entries. For me...I'll let anybody log a find in this manner. To me it's just a game, with few rules. I'm not going to impose my own rules to take away from the fun of somebody else. If they are lying and just logging a bunch of ghost finds...I really couldn't care less...they're only fooling themselves and it isn't hurting me or the caching community in any way. There are no prizes in this game. Just personal satisfaction. Your mileage may vary. -TT-

Wow. That's a load of information. I think I'm at the other end of the spectrum. I don't really care about all the stats. If I find tupperware in the woods, I'm happy. If I find a film canister, I'm not happy. If I'm walking on a dirt trail, I'm happy. If I'm in a mall parking lot, I'm not happy. In any case, I may choose to log the find, or I may choose not to. Because of this, I'm un-stat-able I guess.

Not sure exactly where it would be, but there would be no lampposts. As well, no store within a hundred miles would sell magnetic keyholders, empty film canisters, or nano containers. Only Rubbermaid, Tupperware, or ammo containers could be found to use for cache containers. No Era-Seal or (god forbid) that crappy Glad stuff. I'd be happy moving just about anywhere these conditions are met. -TT-

The Eighth Annual Golden Horseshoe Geocachers And Friends Annual Picnic is coming soon! That's right! GHAGAFAP VIII is being held this year at the Rockwood Conservation Area in Rockwood, ON. The geocaching.com event page can be found here for entering your Will Attend log. The official GHAGAFAP VIII Event Website is available now! Lots of extra GHAGAFAP details can be found here, along with a Guest List (make sure your name is there!) and a dedicated Discussion Forum where you can ask questions of the GHAGAFAP Central Committee, or just discuss past GHAGAFAP fun! GHAGAFAP is Canada's longest running annual geocachers picnic event. Be part of the fun! Sign up today! GCC