etarace

Trackables are not the same as trade items, or swag, that you find in a cache. If you find a trackable in a cache, you may take it and move it to another cache. It is not a trade item so there is no expectation to replace it with something. All the other goodies that you find in a cache, toys and trinkets and the like, that DON'T have a tracking code printed in them, are meant to be traded for....so the "trade up or even" guideline applies to these items, not to trackables. Of course, you don't have to trade or swap items at all....you can just sign the log and move on. Likewise, if there is a trackable in the cache, you are not obligated to take it....only retrieve it if you have the intention and the ability to move it to a new cache. True, but also kind of rude to take nine trackables and not leave anything. But that's a whole trackables etiquette thing that goes to a different section of the forum so I'll stop now. In general, in all aspects of life, a good rule of thumb is to just not be a giant jerk. This is true! I've actually moved around TB's of people who have very few finds, and none for years. But they are still active in watching the TB. They enjoy seeing where it goes, and sometimes getting photographs.

In my case, I found it because it looked like a fun walk, and it was. The fact that it was changed to a 5 after the fact doesn't change my walk at all. It just is silly that the peer pressure of the masses who didn't read the cache page, my log, or look at the area insisted that it be changed, and got their way. So, while I didn't do it "because" of the 4.5, it was nice that it had originally been rated correctly at 4.5 and I could use that on my tortoise crawl to my own personal journey to get all D/T ratings. Just kind of annoying since it is a difficult rating to find, and even more difficult to find a legit 4.5 rating. But oh well. It is the Cache Owner's cache (hence the title) and she can do what she wants.

If you go to a cache page, you will see along the middle right-side-module a box that contains a list of past and present "trackables" which includes TBs and coins. Most caches are home (at some time) to many trackables, that's how they move around. If you go to that section, you can click on any trackable and see where it gone, and where it is now. I would be happy if somebody chose to use my cache to move a trackable along. It isn't rude to use another cache that way, it's what they are designed for. If you take something from a cache, you're supposed to trade up (equal or greater value). We all know that is supposed to happen, reality may vary. If you release a trackable to the wild, who knows what will happen. Maybe it will travel thousands of miles and get hundreds of photographs taken. Maybe some jerk will steal it from the second cache it goes to. Maybe it will sit in one cache for two years. Maybe it will sit in somebody's backpack for a year. Maybe it will get picked up by somebody who doesn't do any online logging so you don't know what happened to it unless he decides to drop it some day and another cacher comes along and discovers it. There is no way to predict what will happen.

I have a cache near me. When I found it, it was D2 / T4.5. Several cachers whined that it should be considered T5. It shouldn't, because it doesn't require special equipment. Those whiner cachers still haven't found the cache. It kind of annoys me that the reassignment took away my "accomplishment" of that difficult-to-find D/T rating. But there isn't much I can do about it.

This is my favorite log by me. It's always a good cache when I have to re-stock my first aid kit.

Your laborious (see - no extra "u" necessary) spelling is what cost you your empire. If you had not wasted so much time with unnecessary letters, you could have invaded Sweden, Mongolia, Monaco, and the other 19 countries. I do have to admit that it's a good idea calling it "lift" rather than "elevator". This is a great history/geography lesson. I was not aware that there are only 23 countries total. Now I'm not nearly as impressed when somebody knows all of the capitals and leaders and Prime Ministers and things. I'm going to become one of those people.

I know you're only joking, but I've always thought that a person's find count ought to refer only to active caches. I like to keep track of how many containers are out there whose subterfuge is known by me. If I stopped playing long enough that my entire find count referred only to archived caches, then I would feel like a newbie. That kind of leader board would keep people from resting on their laurels. Incidentally, I don't think the compilation of voluntarily public information by any party, third or otherwise, is a problem. I can imagine a marine biologist being told not to count flounders in his assessment of biodiversity because that species never specifically opted into the study. That's an interesting idea. I wouldn't want my now-archived caches to vanish from my stats, but it might be a worthwhile statistic to segregate "Number of Active Caches Found" into a count.

I'd like to know Groundspeaks view on lab cats, are they real cats or aren't they, I don't like this "well, they kinda are but in a way aren't" view on them. I refuse to get any lab cats until it is decided one way or the other 100%. I enjoy watching videos of cats, particularly educational videos. I don't believe it is fair to have those views automatically inflate my cat-count. They are real cats, but they are not cats I have ever owned. The guy who made the video owns the Lab Cat, and has already counted the cat on his cat-count. I believe the test of if a cat can be counted should be "have you changed its litter?" This does create additional problems of couples double counting the same cats, and house-sat cats being counted. Nevertheless, this is the best rule we have at this time. What about cats that have died? Are these archived cats? Don't they still count? If so, I have a lot of cats to add to my cat count. What about if my friend has a cat and I was there when he changed the cat litter? Does that count?

I'd like to know Groundspeaks view on lab cats, are they real cats or aren't they, I don't like this "well, they kinda are but in a way aren't" view on them. I refuse to get any lab cats until it is decided one way or the other 100%. I enjoy watching videos of cats, particularly educational videos. I don't believe it is fair to have those views automatically inflate my cat-count. They are real cats, but they are not cats I have ever owned. The guy who made the video owns the Lab Cat, and has already counted the cat on his cat-count. I believe the test of if a cat can be counted should be "have you changed its litter?" This does create additional problems of couples double counting the same cats, and house-sat cats being counted. Nevertheless, this is the best rule we have at this time. What about cats that have died? Are these archived cats? Don't they still count? If so, I have a lot of cats to add to my cat count.

I've been fully aware of the fact that I suck at team sports ever since they started forcing team sports on me in elementary school. I don't play that game. I do play geocaching. I have a low "score" of number of caches found. That's fine though, because the number of magnetic key holders and film canisters I grab from next to a wasp nest has nothing to do with how well I play the game. Also, I have a whole whopping two first-to-finds and neither of them count on the third-party-statistics-sites because I don't say "FTF" in my logs. I won't change it either because I don't care.

If I watch videos of cats does that count as Lab Cats and then I get to rocket to the top of the cats owned thread?

Well, that puts you on another leaderboard... people in this thread who have cats: TopShelfRob....1 Roman!.........1 flask..........0 Hey! I'm finally first in something! (Well, tied for first, anyway) Guess we win, we have 3 cats. Sorry -- I have five (5) cats: How come your white and black kitty is antisocial? Is it so he gets to be the most fat? I have two cats, one dog, six chickens, and a duck. My neighbor has at least two cats, the cats come into my yard often. Also, there is a very fat woodchuck that roams with the chickens.

That looks so awesome! And it went on for over ten years... too bad people messed it up so recently. I'm pretty sure they don't allow this type of cache anymore. That's unfortunate. We have this one nearby which was published in July 2012 - so if they have been disallowed it must be a fairly recent thing. There is a similar cache on Prince Edward Island. You need to find a coin with the coords of the cache http://coord.info/GC1JCVB . Looks like that one's now a combination lock - so I expect people just trade the coordinates - which would be a shame. Yeah, that would suck. I love the adventure of these! I know there used to be a traveling cache in the Rochester area, and that those are no longer allowed. I assumed that any traveling portion would be disallowed. But a TB is designed to travel.

Like I mentioned in the multi topic, there are a lot LOT of phone-only players. They probably aren't even trying to avoid the audit.

That looks so awesome! And it went on for over ten years... too bad people messed it up so recently. I'm pretty sure they don't allow this type of cache anymore. That's unfortunate.

I didn't mean Real Geocacher though, I used the "sarcasm quotation marks" instead to insinuate my disdain. In this area it is not unusual for "real" cachers to get 1000 (and the Golden Ammo Can that goes with it) within a year. I really hate when my ambiguous virtual genitalia is googled, especially by Vermontians. My job sent me to the San Francisco Bay Area many years ago, when geocaching was an infant. I would love to go again, it is quite beautiful there.

I have at times. Mostly to see if we'd get along with the group. We've skipped a local. regular event, due to the competitive atmosphere. We go to events to meet folks and relax. The last thing I wanta hear is numbers. - Being the only ones to log a DNF on a night cache afterwards (that wasn't even there) didn't help... I don't see where asking "how many finds?" gleans you any info in conversation. That person with less than twenty could have all "5" hides with serious technical knowledge (someone you could learn tons from) and you come off as a know-it-all, while that person with 5000 may have simply just leapfrogged a buncha 1/1.5 powertrails, someone we wouldn't be asking advice from... I went to one event in my area. I won't be making that mistake again. I would love to attend another event in a different area. I would like this whole hanging out, swapping advice about gear, community thing I've heard of in tales. In my area, the loudest voices say you are not a "real" cacher until you have one thousand finds. In other words, you have to make a mad attempt to be FTF on each guardrail micro that comes out (and there are hundreds). You have to have a flexible schedule that allows you to be part of a group to do powertrails where one guy signs PFGNIMRF for the "group" on each trailside film container. You have to have "buddies" who will solve puzzles and take you on canoe rides and climb trees or mountains to go get log sheets for you (so you can also claim the DT 81... which may at some future date be the mark of a "real" cacher). With my less than 100 finds, my bag full of cache-repair-essentials, my desire to have a nice hike with my dog which isn't halted every 161 meters to sign something, my love for nature and for the game... it will probably be a very long time before I'm a "real" cacher.

Horribly enough, my waking thoughts were of this forum. I may have an addiction. Anyway... I thought of a real reason that people don't do multi's. You can't punch coordinates into a phone. I'm sure you "can" and I'm sure there are gps-only apps that make it relatively easy to do so. But if you are using a free geocaching app on your phone, I don't think there is a way to put coordinates in for navigation. I might be wrong, I very rarely use my phone and I don't have Premium membership. But I think that there are a lot of either phone only or primarily phone cachers out there. There's all the other reasons listed like not wanting to backtrack while traveling and bad experiences with missing stages. But I think that a major factor is probably the phone. And also the fact that the icons are not pink.

I don't understand why somebody would adopt a cache they have never found. The point of cache ownership is to maintain it on a regular basis. How can you own it if you might not even know where it is? This question isn't necessarily directed at the OP, I have seen people mention this very thing several times.

You can see a listing of all your DNF's here. I've got 409, because I suck at geocaching. I celebrate it by keeping close track of my unresolved DNF's -- see the bookmark list linked in my signature line below. I have some unresolved DNF's dating back to early 2005, but to clear them, I'd have to travel to Chicago or Jacksonville. I have a DNF about 100 miles from home that turns 9 years old on July 4th. Hmmmm, that's a thought. Up until now, my longest interval between DNF and Find was six years and two months, at one of Dayspring's famous "Totally Tubular" caches in Seattle. AWESOME! Thank you so much! ... oh, that darn woodchuck.... I will return....

You're not one of Them. In fact, I would bet that They do not go to the forums. I haven't been around a long, long, time but I think my sentiments are shared by our Elders. Sure, you log some "TFTC" logs. Not all of us like to pretend we are undiscovered great authors. It isn't the relative new-ness. It isn't the short logs (so much ... if the CO did something amazing I hope you tell him so). It isn't even the phone use. It's the attitude. It's the disposable accounts with disposable attitudes towards the caches and the game. It's the offensive PlayerNames and the Found it! logs that make it obvious that they did not find it. It's the trashing of nature in the search. It's the practice of trading-down. It's the trashing of "game pieces" since people have no respect for others, property, or themselves. I like to hike with my dog. You like to go out with your family. We are not Those People.

I have a stupid question... is there a way to see your "DNF list" or is this just an informal thing you keep yourself?

few more "in your face, loser" "you can't even smell my nice kneecaps from how far back you are, can you?" "I clean my nose with your log sheet" "what's your geocaching name again? I want to google your gender when I get home."

It's kind of sucky for those who actually go to the places to NOT be able to log a real log. As I said they are interesting educational monuments of art and science. There's something to be said for them. I think it's pretty unfortunate that the "lab" (at least the NY one) didn't give some little information about the objects it is taking you to. Even just the little tidbit-history-lesson of a mini-tour would be nice. Mine had the Rocket Thrower. The statue looks like a beefcake pose of some guy throwing an eggplant which is wrapped in barbed wire. It would be pretty cool if the Lab Cache gave some information about the symbolism of the Space Age and Man's grasp on the stars and the attitudes of the day. I wasn't alive back in The Day. I don't know. I looked it up AFTER seeing the statue. I don't think most people would bother.

Iko Iko. Oh you broke it. Now my reply and wimseguy's don't look like they make sense. At least mine is spelled correctly. And... kind of applicable to the topic. And a pretty fun game. Sorry, just trying to fulfill Roman!s wishes. Ico made me think of Iko Iko, which got the song stuck in my head. And I always like sharing songs that are stuck in my head. Mine was an old, old "console" game that I got when it was already old, over ten years ago. It is sort of a "puzzle cache" because you have to sit at the game and figure out the different things you are supposed to do in order to accomplish ... uh... the smiley at the end. Some parts were virtual T5, some D5 parts I used a PAF (I consider google PAF since my sister's BFF works for Google).