j_czerwin

It seems to me that you would not put a cache in someone's property without permission, and the bodies in a cemetary are on a leased plot of land. Wouldnt' you need to have permission from the cemetary? What do you think the cemetary would say? Most importantly -- how about a Attribute for cemetary so those against it can stay out of it. Also, another post talked about power cachers and Guinness records -- I would hope that cemetaries would be off of the list for them -- how respectful can you be in 30 seconds?!? And then there is a dead geocacher that WANTS a cache in their headstone. I think they should coordinate with a cemetary to be closer to the road or something. A friend of the family had this EXACT scenario and the cemetary said no. -- not even accepting a virtual. I live in CA and when I travel to the east coast the cemetary ones freak me out. I would filter them if there was an attribute I knew about...

Guinness has a lot of restrictions and requirements on thier records. I think geocaching has too many variables on it to meet their needs. For instance, the difficulty level of the caches, how long the cache has been in place, what the relationship is between the hide and find people, and how well the scacher was stealthy during the find. You would have to regulate the placements so that you knew for sure they did not know where they were before caching day. You would have to regulate how they treated the cache, the area, and the items inside. Throw a little CITO in too.. Imagine I take a desert road in CA, place a cache every .1 miles in day-glo orange down the road, on a stick at car window height, and then invite you to drive down that road to take the record. What would be your requirements, and would they be similar to others.... A local radio station had one of their interns go for the Guinness record for watching TV the longest. They broadcasted from right next to him while he sat in a storefront window in downtown LA for everyone else to watch and it was obvious he made it -- but the medium at which the event was recorded was not acceptable, the way it was monitored was not right, etc...

I like my caches to be either educational or good point-outs of my city. So not only do I do research on specific sights, I scout out the area several times and even consider how the area will change over a year -- for instance -- a few of my caches will be within a fenced off area of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. I am thinking about where the bleachers will be and where security will be and trying to find a place were they will not get muggled for the event. I also try to never repeat a cache style, so I study the area to work on a desing in my head that works for the area. In the TGPofLB mentioned above, I am working on one that is right at the finish line. Now I am trying to think if it is so close that it's a great point out when the race is not there, or far enough away that the cache might still be active during the race. I also have a lot of homeless in the inner city. I visit my site often before a place and try to see where they hang out and either avoid them, or use them as an extra challenge for the finder. Bottom line -- I think the more thought you put in to your caches, the more others will enjoy your individual style -- make it you.

What about most in a 24 hour period. Verifiable...Team and single cacher You got me there -- I don't know if that type of data mining is possible...

Ergo the ratings! Instantly evaluate a buyer or seller's performance and credibility. I agree and that is good advice, but I think the ratings on eBay are a little slanted. What I meant about "playing games" for example is that if you give a seller a bad comment/rating, he/she will most likely retaliate and give you one back in a volly of emails like a violent tennis match. So most people probably choose to avoid the confrontation and the seller looks better than what their performance really is. I suppose the flip side could be true too, where you can be a great seller and no matter what you do, some people will ding you because you can't make everyone happy. But that supports my point about things being like a game on eBay. But again, I agree that the ratings are ciritical and high #s of sales is a good sign of reliability too. Just look at those numbers with a little objectivity.

Check out www.cacherstats.com There are ways to look at worldwide, and in just your state. 18,000+ is #1!!!

The posts look so strange that I am actually concerned about what kind of person this is. I am more open about security on the internet than most people, but geocaching really can give a person a lot of info about your life and I wanted to avoid a local person being angry/psycho towards me. (I thought it interesting that one of the posts more accurately hit the number of caches I was talking about, which means they were clever enough to look up my area, look at the caches, and find the person directly when I was trying to keep things a little vague and anonymous. -- no biggie tho, but an example of what I'm talking about.) I never want to make enemies with the mind of a geocacher!! I figured the reviewer for the area has an anonymous name with no finds or caches -- and that was the advantage. Maybe I open a second account to do that type of communication? I hate the idea of wasting space on geocaching.com to investigate, but maybe that's not a big deal??

Something I learned decades ago is, the best way to screw something up is to let the Federal Government assume control of it. Think IRS, TSA, etc. If they bungle AGE as bad as they mess up everything else they touch, we should have no problem working our way around their perimeters. I'm imagining having to fill out a questionnaire prior to asking for used film canisters; Are you now, or have you ever been, a cacher? Are you affiliated with any underground caching groups? Will this film canister be used for lawful purposes? Have you ever been convicted of felonious caching? Have you ever had impure thoughts about Wally World light poles? Very Funny! Now, the profiling would be an interesting description of people too.... What would the commonality be?

That is such a funny post! Thank you!! Yup, the administrative assistant is getting better at laughing at me when i come in the door and pointing out the evidence of what I was doing for lunch!! Spider web in my hair or on my back was another one... I have been trying to get them in to geocaching to give myself some cover... I've got some VPs now talking about making Geocoins or something to put in to the system!!! Glad to know I am not the only addict. But I could quit anytime if I wanted to....

You couldn't hide the coordinates from a geocacher -- they would hide and find them where the government wouldn't look!! Then there is the same arguement for online gambling and downloading mp3s -- like the government will ever be as fast as new technologies on the internet... It reminds me of a scene in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where they keep having to fill out paperwork to do anything -- too slow of a system we have. "Don't Panic"

I used GPSonSale.com My father used it and is was suggested to him by his friend who happily used it too. I don't know if their price is what you are looking for, but I didn't find anything better on eBay when I was shopping for my Garmin 60csx. And I got the $50 rebate already from Garmin too... EBay freaks me out on some things because it doesn't seem like shopping in a store. It seems to be more of a game for some people out there... Just from my experiences. Good luck.

Recently, there is a geocacher that is hiding about 3-6 caches a day in my area. They only have 2 finds, so they probably don't have a strong grasp on what is and is not a good hide. So they have made nearly 70 cache hides in the last two weeks, all of them the same design and hide style. - which unfortunately are horrible designs, but that is another issue I'll bypass, unless you ask... They are placing them so fast, that about 10% are the wrong coordinates and run FTFs in circles and give the reviewer extra work disabling them, or fixing the coords. Sometimes I wonder why the reviewer didn't stop the post in the first place when the coords are obviously in the middle of a house. Others are in bad areas -- like almost in someone's yard in a residential area, and posts I have seen by others often mention residents comming over and asking what is going on. The caches that are placed poorly are muggled (about another 10%) withing a few days, and I have seen geocoins and TBs lost due to this person. When the caches have a problem, the person just disables it and keeps placing more hides. There does not seem to be a lot of maintenance. The person seems to have a mental problem because there are a lot of spelling errors, and strange terms used -- so I hesitate to contact them to offer help or advice in fear of causing problems on a personal level. They even have their forum name as a swear word that is less than kid friendly. I know I could just ignore it. But I really feel that at this rate there is going to be a problem. It's just alarming to me... Can the reviewer say something? Should he? I will probably contact the reviewer for this area and ask their opinion anyway, but I am often enlightened by folks like yourself right here. Let me have it if I'm out of line. I like different viewpoints. Thank you in advance & happy geocaching, j_czerwin

Thanks to everyone for the input -- I followed your directions and it all got straightened out, but an upset cacher happened anyway. I tried.... Thanks again.

...I hate to think people are rushing around for the FTF .3mi away!! GCYWD9 - Combination of Beers I would adjust it myself, but it is too far from the first point. The North setting is wrong. It should be N 33 46.034 instead of N 33 45.738 I was being patient thinking my Publisher is busy today, but he/she just posted some other work for me over an hour ago... So I'm wondering if they didn't check e-mail or something... Anyway, I'm just freaking out a bit concerned that people are anxiously trying to be FTF and they are in the wrong place -- I went to the wrong coordinates and even posted a physical note there, but they may not see it do to logistical reasons.... If nothing else -- thanks for soothing my nerves if there is not a person here who can fix it more quickly... j_czerwin

Thank you for the replies -- I'' still keep an eye out here, but those are very good starting places for me. time to do some experimentation!!

I like how people put photos, links, etc. in to their cache page. I want to do that. I tried using MS Word to make a layout and then get the HTML over to the geocaching submittal page, but I got an error saying I had too much text or something. What ever my problem is, I am eager to hear how you do it. All suggestions welcome! Thank you in advance, j_czerwin

I saw on like this where the bottom of the bird hous drops out when you pull the stick out (the perch) that the bird would sit on to go in to the hole. The perch stick was a locking pin to hold the bottom in. They had a strap going up over the cache container, over the pin, and back down to the base... It was nicely painted too!!

Fancy sticks!! I bought a fiberglass/metal +5' painting rod from Home Depot that can extend to about 10'. With the thread attachment at the end, I keep various tools in my backpack that allow me to grab, stick, hook, knock, etc. hides from the tops of tunnels, reach through barriers and reach under water. It is light and has a good diameter with a rubber grip on the end. I'm gonna make a camera mount attachement so I can do some high up photographs. I can also attach a broom for CITO (kidding) and a paint attachment for ??? (kidding again) It's cheap and practical -- and represents me well....

There is one in my area that I have not made it to yet. It has been there for some time and the owners might have some advice for you. All that I can really offer is to look at how they designed their cache and look at the suggestions they posted. See The Swimmer's Cache

I like Multi-caches that take me on a path of a story. I also think Multi Caches should have a good size cache at the end so that TBs and Geocoins can be put where people have to work for them. I not only like the idea that the multi leads them back to thier car after a hike, but having fun with the irony that it was right next to them from the start if they had strong geosenses. I agree that each step/WP shoudl be unique in some manner. I HATE ones that require me to get back in to my car to get to the next WP if the distance is not mentioned up front -- wich still can be a problem if I am just using WPs in my GPS only without a print-out. I think multi-caches' greatest strength is that WPs can be designed to me muggle proof. You can have people go to an eduactional site with lots of muggles for WP1 and maybe have them get some data off of a sign or something. Then lead them to somewhere hidden so they can actually get the cache without muggles. I like it sometimes when I can tell people I am geocaching and not worry about if they know what I am doing!

Mine is 300ft from my house so I can watch them. The cache page is themed to let them know my goal is to be a voyer.... Check out the FTF!! See My Terrarium My second one is .1 farther away, but I can see that too from my window in a downtown high rise.

I always like the questions "And what do you get?" and "What do you win?" I actually don't want too many more poeple to join -- like like that nobody knows about it. Without them, we wouldn't have any muggles!!! They have an article about Geocaching in Horizon Air magazine that is on their assocoated airlines. they point out that soon it will be in the normal marketplace but not as a game. If you wanted to buy a particuar item, you'd punch that in to your cell/gps, and it would give you directions to the nearest store stocking that item. You's essentially be geocaching for anything youd buy -- right down to the individual item! OR maybe you'd say you want that and a person in the store would geocache to find you when delivering that item!!

I had one deleted where the owner thought my info was discouraging to others. I thought the cache was in an electrical box that was private property and stated that I would not go in to private property and take a chance of getting electrocuted. They took offense that I would suggest they would put something out on private proterty and that it might be of danger to cachers. So they deleted my log. We worked it out later and all is good. BUT, I would have thought they should not delete it, and just post a note afterwards saying that I was not in the right place. If anything, it would encourage other cachers to stay away from private property or the electrical items.... It seems when people make assumptions about the "tone" of a post, things go very wrong. A simple e-mail or two with an optimistic expectation usually solves things rather well.

We are a married couple. I do about 20% on my own and she does about 5% on her own. We have mainly run in to other couples. Otherwise it is solo guys. I read somewhere the other day that it could be a good dating tool for singles, but sticking to urban/publec caches might be good for new dates as opposed to taking them deep in to the woods!!! (creepy thought) Wonder if my wife would like me doing this on business trips if it was a lot of single women....?

SBA AND NM LOGS ARE THE LOG EQUIVILENT OF ALL CAPS TYPING. Some people type in all caps and don't know that at first becuse it has not been explained to them. We have all seen that. I would think logs are no different. I think it is a good practice to not be offended by posts of any kind and first assume fellow geocachers have good intentions. I hope to maintain my caches to a level that I never see the SBA or NM posts in the first place. And, if I got one -- a good slap in the face is what I need now and then -- humility isn't a bad thing for the ego....