2-hobbits

That would be great. I will be patient!

I like the idea of new country souvenirs - I will qualify for two of these immediately. It is however, anti-climatic. When you earn something it is a reward when you achieve. When you qualify for one in the last year, and the other seven years ago, not so much. I'll likely look at them once. A good idea would be to have a souvenir designed for each and every of the two hundred some odd countries listed on GC.com, and they will feel like a goal, and then a reward. Just saying! Thanks anyway!

Unfortunate. Any comments available from lackeys to confirm this is the case? Fizzy grids are a feature of GS cacher statistics. It would be nice if the databases supported this feature in a more consistent manner.

Is there not a way that Groundspeak can code finds so that D/T and other stats can be frozen to the date of the find, rather than change at the whim of the CO?

Being 'it is what it is' is still better than it 'isn't what it was', or 'it might be what it might be'!

If a cacher finds a cache that they feel the D/T rating is not correct, they are free to post a log other than a 'found it'. They can express their opinion, and why they are not claiming the find. Everyone has their own personal integrity to manage as they see fit. Personally if I find it, I claim the find, and take the rating as in a game of chance. I may not agree with it, but it is what it is.

I like the idea of freezing D/T as well as country and flag on the date of a find. If it changes afterword it's effect on grid completion, challenges, etc. should be null. If someone wants to cheat by creatimg a dummy account, creating a cache, finding it, changing the D/T and finding again, who cares. They are only cheating themselves. Even the owner of a challenge who knows someone is cheating should only laugh at someone's ability to cheat themselves. As far as country and flag, I mention it to see if there is support for freezing similarly to date of a find, and clearing up amiguities such as St.Martin / Sint Maarten, and the other 'nations' that comprised Netherlands Antilles. In the dynamics of an ever changing political world, and human ability to war incessantly, countries and territories will continue to evolve and political boundaries will change.

Too bad country designations, d/t ratings, flags, etc. cannot be frozen as earned and updated as required so that future finders would get appropriate based on date found. Do you think that it would be 'more rewarding,' to look at your profile after the find and find a new souvenir rather than randomly in the future... maybe?

Recently returned from St. Kitts and Nevis and did get credit for two separate countries. This is obviously in error. There are other similar foul ups in the Caribbean, one that I have written about previously. Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in 2010 but is still country designation on many caches. The island of St. Martin is divided into separate Dutch and French 'countries'. The designation on some seemingly refers to the island not the country as St. Martin is arbitrarily used on both sides, along wit NA. The Dutch side, Sint Maarten is not recognized for country designation although each of the other former constituents of the Netherlands Antilles are. To digress even further, I like souvenirs. I like getting them when I add the new country, not retroactively if ever. My 2 cents? Souvenirs for ALL countries - including tiny Saba! To whine further, Groundspeak has no Flag on file for Saba. Sorry. I'll go away now.

My home location is in Newfoundland, Canada. So why, if I "Start with the most Popular Searches" and go "Oldest Geocaches Near You" or "Nearby Geocaches with Favorite Points" are the results 800 to 1000+ kilometers away in New Brunswick, Canada?

Netherlands Antilles is still on the list of selectable countries for cache placement as is St. Martin (island) but neither Saint-Martin nor Sint Maarten as you say. It has been 3-1/2 years since Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. You mention South Sudan was added to the selection list promptly. It seems as were Saba, Bonaire, and "Statia". Maybe Saint-Martin and Sint Maarten just fell through the cracks. Once the new 'country' name is added to the selectable list, is it then up to the CO to make the change on individual caches, or does Groundspeak make the changes en bloc? I wonder too, are there other examples that were updated in a timely fashion, and others that were not?

A little curious about political designations. The Netherlands Antilles was dissolved Oct 10,2010. Sint Maarten was one of the entities. While the other islands were given designations (Saba, Bonaire, St. Eustatius), Sint Maarten was not. Therefore caches in the Dutch side of the island are labeled under the old designation, Netherlands Antilles or incorrectly as St. Martin, the name for the French side. Saba was another of the constituent parts. There are a small number of caches on the island of which most are still designated as located in the Netherlands Antilles. Now you may say they predate the dissolution of the political entity. There is one cache that dates from 2004 that has the current country designation of Saba. There is even one that says it is in St. Martin! My questions I guess are, is it up to the cache owner to make the correct decision as to country, or does a reviewer verify? After publication is it up to the cache owner to make the change? Should it even be changed? Or should caches be archived under the old country listing and re-incarnated in the new? After all, in 2009 on a trip to Saba you would have visited the Netherlands Antilles. After Oct 10, 2010 you would not have. If you visited before dissolution would you want your country visited arbitrarily changed. If you visited after, would you want to show an erroneous visit. This line of thought may only prove that I studied too many political geography courses back in the day... Or there is some obsessive disorder involved... But is anyone interested enough to comment?