jwmoe1973

Many good points already posted here, so I'll reiterate some: Typical PM cachers understand and respect the game and effort of placing caches more than the "typical" phone/intro app folks. I hate the thought of the possibility that any new caches I place will be trashed the way I've seen many around here with the advent of the unvalidated e-mail folks. I don't like the idea of not being able to contact the person that may have had something to do with the last sighting of a cache or may know something of it's demise. It's bad enough that the last cache I archived was taken by a PM cacher with no response to my inquiries as to where they placed it. At least with a PMO cache I have the chance to eliminate not even being able to contact a cacher (and I use the term lightly in this case) that isn't even required to EVER sign on to the site or even create an account. With that said, I've no problem with non PM members finding or even logging my future PMO caches as long as they can be known to play fairly and respectfully. I'll be glad to help them out. I cache with some good folks that aren't PM and have let them know. Maintenance is/was a huge consideration when planning the series I'm currently working on as well.

The quality and length of my logs are, more often than not, a direct reflection of the cache itself. I love writing good longer logs on caches that are memorable (found or not). More and more often though, I find myself leaving the dreaded Sl, TFTC logs. These are usually on caches that the CO has been absent from for years and are in need of maintenance but not yet bad enough for a NA log. For these, I'll write a longer NM log describing what I found. My generic Found It logs are because the CO doesn't care enough to read it anyway. The longer NM logs are for those poor souls that still seek the cache in question. I've found though, that the folks looking for these caches often don't care enough to read or research past logs anyway...

I kinda get where this one is coming from though. I archived one of mine when WE couldn't find it. Seven finds. #6 rehid it and we never saw it again...

Of course, this has been going on for years without power trails in play. There are many "Team" cachers (husband/wife and/or family) logging caches. Husband on business trip in Italy logging caches on the same day wife and kids are logging caches along a bike path in Arizona....all under one team name. Perhaps, but a family could be geocaching for 10 years with one of them taking an occasional business trip while the other finds a few caches at home and it wouldn't add up to the number of caches one could "find" by driving a vehicle along the ET highway in a single day. Why should total numbers matter? Cheating is cheating, right? If ALL members of said "team" are not present to find and log the cache, then its not geocaching...right? I'm not crazy about the word cheating when it comes to geocaching. Maybe because it's a leisurely pastime and not a competitive sport. One's finds is a personal thing. But it does start to bother me when it effects sportsmanship* and shapes the mindset of the pastime. It glorifies numbers over good sportsmanlike* practices. If a family uses a family name and doesn't boast about their numbers that's fine, it doesn't effect the game. It's a personal way that they handle recording what caches they've visited as a family, both individually and together. When asked about their numbers they let people know that they combine their finds into one family account. No deception, it's simply a way they like to keep track of their families finds. But when people come in to the forums and boast about their numbers, claim it's possible to find extraordinary amounts of caches in a single day, this attitude effects the pastime, and turns it into a free-for-all no-holds-barred competitive game, encouraging others to emulate this behaviour. These competitors ten to let people assume they found caches by the original rules, until the actual method is pried out of them. Often, they carry a sackful of pill bottles of which 30% of their finds were the pill bottles they tossed out, and the other 70% were caches they took from one place and moved to another place, That's poor sportsmanship*. *Sportsmanship (or sometimes sportspersonship) is an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors. "Plan to bring at least 50 film canisters with logs (for cache maintenance along the way)". And THAT's how to find 116 caches in an hour. Why even stop? Just toss 'em out the window every 1/10th of a mile. SMH... Not my kind of game.

My Oregon 450 has proven itself more accurate than the DAGRs we used. They were typically unreliable and more often than not glitched...

Naw. I've only placed two hides, but I checked and compared logs from both. One was rehid in the final Found log and "placed the container back more suitable winter friendly place"... Never to be seen again. Both have since been archived. I enjoyed reading even just the names on the physical log.

Hmmmmmmmmmm> So here I was in a cemetery in Fortuna, Calif. Nicely manicured lawns ... crawled in under a bush to investigate a potential target. Yessssssssssssssssssssss, a fake pile off Poo-Poo hiding the goods. EEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW ... a real honest to goodness oooey goooey doggie land mine. Maybe I will give Virginia a try. Humboldt Flier wins this thread!

Delete.

Gutting and remodeling a bathroom so we CAN sell the house and move is interfering with mine

I use a Garmin Oregon 450 and love it. However... I prefer to D/L the gpx. files directly to the unit instead of using PQ's. My personal preference is to delete the individual files off the unit once I've found them and clear my logs. I prefer this especially on those days when I find ten or more. Easier to remember which ones to log online. Accuracy is pretty reliable too. With that said, I sometimes cache with a friend that is fairly new to caching and uses a Samsung Galaxy with the app. The advantages he has are helpful at times. The phone populates caches as he nears them; he doesn't have to have, download, or keep the files on the phone. The satellite imagery available on the phone app is also adventageous over the GPSr maps at times too. We were caching last weekend and he was able to zoom in on imagery that I could not. On the other hand, we searched another cache the next morning and his phone took him in the opposite direction of the cache. Largely personal preferrence as there are pros and cons to both. YMMV.

Nope. Allowing Cos to edit logs would create more problems than the issue of a few spoilers. Some are already deleting DNF, NM and NAs from pages. Don't know what that thinking is... If I write something that's in error in my log, I'll edit it myself or the CO can delete - and I'll just give 'em a tftc. Yep, I typically write a bit about the hunt in my logs, but there are times like these that I simply leave "TFTC." Especially if a CO is difficult or absent. Why bother writing about the experience if they don't care to read it?

Nik's First Cache Found this a few days ago. This cache had issues from the day it was published. The CO knew the coords were off and let it be. Later, with a damaged container and NO log book, the CO STILL left it un-maintained . They did try to update the coords at one point, but they were/are still off by about 120'. I'm still amazed no one logged NA before I did. This cache is a perfect example of how NOT to hide and maintain a cache...

How long to wait before hiding is subjective. It depends on the person playing the game. I've seen folks near me place a cache with less than 5 finds and never log on to the site or play again. The hidden cache quickly becomes nothing more than thrown litter. Other's have the good sense to know how to play the game and show some respect. It all depends.

+1000

As maddening as it is , at least you got a free container

Honest Cacher 4 Member Caches Found15 Didn't find it 04/15/2015 Looks all around for 20 minutes and didn't see anything Clueless Cacher 3 Member Caches Found93 Found it 04/14/2015 Found the container idol Cacher 2 wrote about. Not sure it is right one. It is a sandwich size camo wrapped container. Inside lid it said letterbox. So not sure if this is right as I am new to cacheing. It did have a log and it is soaked. I guess we can find this. Cacher 2 gave good clues. Not Cacher 2's cache to give false clues on... And NO, you didn't find a cache. You found a Letterbox. Cacher 2 Member Caches Found4 Found it 04/13/2015 Not where it is logged on GPS. New hint : your legally an adult on this hole. Its at the base of what once had great life but now has none. . . The log is soaked and is no longer legible but you can check it off your list if found. Good luck hunters. Bring a new log if you can think to. If i return i will replace the box. (^.-) It's not where you and your 4 finds say it is. How 'bout you get some experience, THEN give hints on your OWN cache!? Cacher 1 Member Caches Found3 Needs Maintenance 04/04/2015 In a pond Umm, no it's not. How would you know if you didn't find it? Cacher 1 Member Caches Found3 Didn't find it 04/04/2015 Not there Cacher 1 Member Caches Found3 Didn't find it 04/04/2015 Wasn't there SMH

Wow, this is a thrill ride of contempt and angst! First, AKACRider, you opened the topic with a show of arrogance and defiance. There was no real reason to boast. The fact that you defended your arrogance by saying you weren't proved just that and set the tone. Not a good way to gain a positive first impression. Second, YOU attack anyone who disagrees with you with borderline inappropriate comments and further arrogance. You're fellow Alaskan, NeverSummer, has posted repeatedly in reasonable and measured responses explaining objectively WHY this is a bad idea. It seems as if you came to the forums just to see if you could rattle cages and poke the bear. The guidelines are there for a reason. It's not up to you with less than 4 months of experience to change the world. There is a reason those in the forums respond to issues such as vacation caches and (maintenance throw downs) the way we do. we care about the game the way you claim to care about it. We, however, most likely have more of a passion to see it last. Your passion for the game is a singular one. YOUR wants to buck the system. Story time... There once was a caching couple that placed many hides. They truly thought they were more creative than the rest in their area. They placed cheap leaky containers out in the open and claimed their superiority over the caching land. Those that found their hides were severely disappointed, but alas, the cache hiders maintained their superiority by claiming that since they had thousands of finds, they new best how to place hides and under what circumstances. Their precious geocaches soon found themselves on ignore lists throughout the land, only to be found by those geocachers who used the ever malignant Intro App. Thus, the caches soon began to be misplaced and rehidden with disregard. This led to the park managers denying new caches by other worthy players once they were finally archived. Oh, yes, they lived several thousand miles away, but reasoned that since they had visited and found a few caches in the area that they should be allowed to place them there. Maintenance plan or not, vacation caches are NEVER a good idea. Good intentions count for nothing when you aren't near enough to follow up on the plan in person often enough. The end result too often ends up being a bad reputation on not just you, but the hobby of geocaching and everyone else that enjoys it. It's not just about you. It's about all of us.

+1000

The help link is under the "Play" tab. It's there, but yeah, I agree. When I started, I wished it was up there beside "Play and the others as it's own tab. Ha, I hadn't seen that before. I'm so used to going from Groundspeak.com, that I never noticed it. Ha! And I rarely log in from the Groundspeak end. I usually end up logging in from here to post or reply and then logging into GC.com

The help link is under the "Play" tab. It's there, but yeah, I agree. When I started, I wished it was up there beside "Play and the others as it's own tab.

That's probably not a real good analogy unless you come up with a single definition for catch. For tournament fishing (i.e. Bassmasters), there might be specific requirements, but someone that practices catch and release, some might actually consider a fish caught, if a fish manages to throw the hook before it was touched. In fact, if I can release the fish without touching it, all the better. As a fly fisherman I'm usually not on shore when I've caught a fish but may be standing waist deep in a river or stream. So I guess the fishing forums have arcane debates just like the caching forums. Pretty much every forum in which I've ever participated has arcane debates, probably because they all have one thing in common. They're used by humans (and an occasional dog). I used to frequent the usenet alt.flyfishing group several years ago. Yep, these kind of debates were a daily occurrence Used to be a couple guys named Tim going at it pretty strong... I miss those forums. I remember at least one of the Tims. I was a very active participant in ROFF (rec.outdoors.fishing.fly) and created the charter and initiated the RFD for rec.outdoors.fishing.fly.tying. Yep, I miss ROFF too. You were the guy behind ROFFT huh? Small world Maybe I'll find a usenet client and see what's happening on there...

It's an old bump, and I think the bumper just wanted to say he got an accidental FTF recently. I actually got a not intended, just happened to show up there first one a couple of weeks ago. Checked the website, saw a new cache on the way to where I was headed anyways, and I was FTF, not that I couldn't care less. Nothing, of course, to do with "FTF hogs", which this thread was about. Not that I care, or engage in such a side game, played by a miniscule percentage of the overall geocaching populace. Noted. Seems as if you and I are of like mind on the FTF side game. I won't pass by a cache to avoid being FTF, I just don't worry about getting there first either. There are those local "FTF hogs" near me that I believe would "throw down" for a FTF. Sorry for the really bad play on words

Pray. If that doesn't work, put on some raingear. I go anyway. My best days have been in down pouring rain [] I don't mind caching regardless of the weather. My daughter, not so much. I think she's giving me the finger: Ha! That could be my 11 y.o. daughter! She has the same look on her face that mine gets. "I'm not puttin' up with any more of yer shenanigans dad!" Mine will at least adventure out with me. The older brother sulks in the car...

Eh, seems like the FTF thing only bothers those that play that particular side game. Personally, I don't. If I happen to FTF a cache, cool, but I'm not attaching my reason for living to finding caches before anyone else. I unplugged from the cell phone/smart phone matrix about 14 months ago. I shamelessly smashed it with a big rock. I hated the expectation that I be instantly "connected" to everybody and everything. It was a choking feeling. I can only imagine the feeling of NEEDING to be FTF feels somewhat similar. Needing to be instantly alerted and connected to the point of being paralyzed against enjoying the rest of real life just isn't my thing. My two absolute favorite caching experiences were this DNF and this 2TF. I'll be happy to find the cache eventually..., on my own terms, and in my own time. For me, it's not about beating someone else. It's about my own accomplishments on my own terms.

Lots of variance in local ordinances. Here in my little corner of Michigan it often depends on the county, city or even township. In the city proper, the property owner pays for, and is liable, for the right of way. To include maintenance and repair of the sidewalks. Further out my way (5 miles), the township owns the easement up to the edge of the private property. The last two feet of my concrete driveway is gravel and actually owned by the township. Just a mile or two further east and the county takes over ownership oe easements and right of ways...