Goldenwattle

I'm a rare CO who checks logs and will delete logs if no signature. However I do give people the chance to describe the log and hide and allow them their log to stay if they do that to my satisfaction. I hope then it will nudge them to sign logs from then on. I have become more lenient with beginners. One not long ago with five 'finds' didn't sign the log. I sent them a message and explained they need to sign the log, but I will accept this log as they are new to the game (unsaid but thought, how stupid and thick must they be to not know that they must sign the log that others have signed. Do we really want idiots in the game.) But I asked them to please sign logs from now on. Then welcomed them to the game. If I find they haven't signed another log I will delete that find, plus the earlier one. I also check the lost pen types previous logs and if on different days they have continuously "lost" their pen, delete. They are lying and just too lazy to bother to sign.

I have always said that is the most logical. However, either day, month, year, or year, month, day can be easily worked out because of the year, and both versions flow in size. The story though is how I can remember being told it.

It can be a big deal. I know someone who was involved in an international telecommunications link up between multiple countries. Everyone was linked up except one country (easy to guess) and this mucked it up. The person who told me this story rang the person in the USA who hadn't linked up and asked why not, as everyone else was ready to go and they were holding everyone up. "But it's not the day yet," was the reply. They were then strongly told off*, and told that everyone else found that this was the day, and they needed to get with the rest of the world. * I have heard this person telling off someone else, so I could almost hear it.

Cough, cough...only European. But don't worry we who aren't in the USA or Europe are used to being forgotten.

I have found two of those. The Lane Cove one, and recently Europe's First. I took the train (Dart) from Dublin to Bray and walked to it. A trip done no doubt by many geocachers.

Not only Australians. That's how it is in the world outside of the USA.

We did get to Cootamundra and the TB reached it's Goal. I logged the TB into BRADMAN cache GCQQ5A. That cache matched with the trackable's goal to Cootamundra. The famous cricketer Don (Donald) Bradman was born there. We didn't want to leave the TB in that cache though, because of its bad condition (disappointing that), so one of the other geocachers 'found' the TB and then left it in a cache in good condition, but still at Cootamundra. That meant the TB had been logged into the Bradman cache. (It just didn't stay there long.) Unfortunately none of us thought to copy the TB's number, which wasn't realised until after the drive home, so it could only have a note for its log into the new cache. We also almost found all the caches in Cootamundra. Plus some more on the way home. Photographs: TB with a Don Bradman and with the plaque. So that's an answer to "Do you prefer to find TB with specific goals". TBs with goals can be fun. I have also got a TB to Sydney to the suburb of its goal, and another to the Antarctic, which was its goal. Plus some others to their goals.

Today, with some other geocachers, we are going to drive to Cootamundra to leave that TB. That's one of two destinations the TB wants to go to. I picked the TB up on the Isle of Man and brought it back to Australia with me. It's a 400km round car trip. We hope to find all the caches in Cootamundra while there. I am hoping that the themed multicache that matches the wish for this TB is good enough to leave it in. Otherwise, another in the town will have to suffice. No, but a teddy bear TB (not mine) I left in a cache was kidnapped by scouts who came by after me. One of them wrote in their log, "We kidnapped the bear." They really did, as it hasn't reappeared even years later. Taking scouts to caches can be disastrous. Don't do it!

That's why I am not considering one at this time. Last year for instance, during my over 17,000 km drive around Australia, there were places hundreds of kms apart, and even in some of those places it would have been an ordinary power point to charge. If I had been free camping as I have done on previous trips that would have made it even more difficulty, as many free camping spots are far from power. What would work for me is a plug in hybrid. Enough to drive on electricity for shorter trips about town, but petrol for those long trips. Something like the Subaru XV I am driving now. 4WD or a good AWD, with ground clearance for those offroad moments and not too big a car for urban driving. Free Camping

The numbers don't show up on my computer, which is where I plan my trips, so those numbers don't influence me. However, I checked my phone which I rarely use for caching and I see the numbers there. I have never noticed them before. My cache outside my house I see has 80 beside it. Is that 80 out of 100 finds, or 80 out of 1,000 finds. Numbers alone make it irrelevant. I would need to go in and check for the % to get a proper idea, which makes it more time consuming. Putting % this wouldn't be needed. (It's 56%.)

Agree, and those sort of caches aren't going to attract new players. But there's nothing the rest of us can do about this. We can't even report the wrong size rating.

That's fair enough, as you place good, suitable caches. Many people of the publish and forget the cache types though put very unsuitable caches out, which soon deteriorate. How about using these on a power trail and rating them as smalls. Or these, which leak and rust. Also listed as small...naturally🙄. (This shows up on my laptop screen much bigger than it accurately is.)

🤣I get that. That's why I only have 19 physical caches. I don't want to maintain any more, and 19 is too many I think too. The last physical cache I placed was in March 2019, and that is only because it was in my Little free library. I can think of great places to place more, but as I actually do regularly visit them to maintain them, I am not planning to place any more. Many who place great numbers of caches, rarely appear to maintain them. Rather archive and place a new one than maintain the present caches. Not all are like this; there are exceptions. I did place a Virtual last year, but only as I didn't have to visit to maintain it. Plus it is over 2,500kms away, one way. Placed it where there are VERY few caches.

I loaded a jpg onto a trackable's log today, on a computer. Is it just a phone problem? https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=82cef187-aa3e-48a3-b83b-619f0d695019

That's how I feel, and a high percentage of caches here in Canberra are high rated. The result, I don't do many of them. I open the cache page, see the stars, 'my eyes glaze over' and I close the page and dismiss that cache.

Of course you are not responsible for trackables placed in your cache. Has someone inferred this? I would not check up on trackables in any of my caches, except if during regular maintenance if I noticed a trackable is meant to be in the cache and isn't, I would mark it missing to get it off the inventory. But I wouldn't visit the cache just to check on the trackables. The exception is my TB Hotel. Occasionally I check the hotel residents (TBs) against the list of trackables. It's close to my house. Yesterday all the trackables (14 residents) were picked up* by a visiting Irish geocacher. He's taking them back to Ireland. I told him to take them all, as trackables are there to travel. I note they have not been logged out yet. I'll give it a week and then log them as no longer in the cache, so as not to disappoint anyone. I expect new residents will arrive soon. In fact I have some I brought back from Europe I can put in there, as they have done enough touring of Canberra. I like them to visit a few local caches before I offload them into the TB Hotel. Often trackables arriving from overseas are regularly placed in the TB Hotel. My TB Hotel is locked and I think that increases the popularity for leaving TBs there. * It was a small spontaneous geocaching gathering. I was working in my garden with a friend, also a geocacher, when another local geocacher brought the Irish geocacher to my TB Hotel to pick up trackables. We went out to say hello. Then a fifth geocacher who lives down the street saw us and came to join us. He hoped his trackable, which was in the Hotel, would be picked up to go to Ireland. It was.

I have more than once checked the TBs in my TB Hotel and if not there marked them missing to get them off the inventory.

Shame, that was one of my favourite threads. Are we allowed to start another "What Irks Me" without having that closed?

I see what you are saying. That is a problem.

If it's dropped off and picked up again, the TB won't stay long in the DNF cache. Only as long as it takes to make the second log.

They show up on my TB's map.

Maybe not so much for high rated D caches, but for low rated D caches it's very useful if everyone in the group logs a DNF. If the cache is still there and lots of people (as apart from a single log for one person) can't find say a cache rated 1.5D the CO needs to up the D level, and this shows that the cache is underrated and needs correcting. (Although my experience of 1.5D rated caches which are much more difficult than that, is if the cache is 1.5D and way under the true D rating, the CO is stubbornly not going to correct it, and likely rates as standard a lot of their caches 1.5D regardless of their difficult level. Otherwise it would already have a higher rating.)

I would be very tempted (and likely would) delete the log of those who did the throw down. I heard of one throwdown where the CO, when they discovered it, deleted every log on it, and there were many logs I was told. I thought that was unfair though on those who didn't know it was a throwdown, but strongly agree with deleting those who made the throwdown. In that case, as I believe the real cache was still there*, the CO should be able to tell who left the throwdown. * Very well hidden, as I discovered when later I found that one.

Logs of condition of the cache is also for other finders, so this information should not be sent only (secretly) to the CO. It should be part of the log too.

I've had those replies. One CO who'd got upset to get a NM, only calmed down when I showed a recent log where I had thanked the person for logging a NM. The opposite to what this CO was doing. The comparison showed them up as rude. They remind me of spoilt children throwing a tantrum. Owner maintenance 09/Jan/2023 Tested Covid negative yesterday - YAY 😁 - (LOL, great Christmas not, spent in my bedroom, while others partied) so was able today to catch the bus to Civic and leave a new blank log. Write note 06/Jan/2023 Well, that seems to have filled up quicker than I expected, as it was okay in October when I checked it. However, thank you (Name) for the NM notification. I wish more people would make NMs when necessary. I will try to get to it soon. I need to test negative to Covid first though. Owner attention requested 06/Jan/2023 This geocacher reported that the logbook is full.