Spot check

Also GPS units seem to work best when held flat, with a clear view of the sky. Unless yours has a compass in it keep it pointed in the direction you're moving. Sometimes it helps to let them sit still a while until they can get a more accurate reading. Also what everyone else said (difficulty ratings and they can actually be off by a lot)

You should see me driving a road trip. "Oh my detour is just one state over. And besides, we haven't found one in that state yet!"

Just openly search and if someone asks say "I'm looking for something I lost ("what?"("none of your business"))" or, if you are feeling chatty, explain geocaching to them. If they are copping an attitude for no reason or yelling at you I would advise you to confidently tell them to stop harassing you, it's a public place, and you'll call the police. (or beat them up, lol)

I was done being mad about it's disappearance like, 2 years ago. I never expected to see it again but after 3 years my TB has been logged again! yay! What's the longest your bug has gone missing? Sorry if there is already a topic like this.

I have a T-mobile G1 (aka: google-phone) and it works so well I gave away my GPS unit to a friend who wanted to start caching. Anywhere I am I can just search for nearby caches instantly and start hunting.

That's funny one of the pics in my gallery is titled: Mixing Hobbies I routinely use my board on bike-path caches. I guess it goes without saying I combine photography as well.

I did a cache that had a sketchbook and cachers were instructed to draw a picture when they log their cache. The guy before me drew trogdor the burninator, that was funny.

I use a t-mobile Sidekick II and it has always worked really well for me caching. I export html from gsak and host it myself because it's a little faster and only contains the ones in my gps, but I can search and log from the geocaching.com website fine on it too. Also handy because it's a phone and camera and aim and email.

The cache owner cares. First off you don't KNOW if its missing or not. A pattern of DNFs will let the owner know that either the cache is more difficult that he rated it, or that he needs to go out there and check on the cache. If people aren't logging their DNFs the owner will not have this information, or it will take longer for him to obtain it. If I see 2-3 consecutive DNFs for one of my caches it means there might be a problem. So if Cacher A comes along and doesn't log a DNF, Cacher B does, and Cacher C doesn't, as far as I know as an owner is that there is 1 DNF, when in reality there were 3. I really should be out there checking on the cache, but I won't because I only know about the 1 DNF. Also if people are not logging their DNFs, I will look at the logs and assume that my 1 star difficulty rating is correct. If I see DNFs sprinkled through the logs I'll know that I should raise the difficulty a bit. The way *I* go about it I think my 2 guidelines usually cover when this would be useful information (I'm very stubborn so practically all my DNFs are memorable, and I do take patterns of DNFs into account when deciding if I think a cache might be gone), but you're right, I can't be 100% sure if it's there or not when I don't find it. Perhaps I should be more stringent in my DNF logging. I never thought about how useful it might be.

I generally only log them if; 1. I beleive the cache is missing 2. It was a memorable trip anyway This is because I can't imagine anyone would care that I didn't find it unless 1 or 2 (above)

probably, but only because it sounds like that would be indoors

Yes I know people have a right to an opinion. And I have a right to point out that it might not constitute a valid counter-point. And you have the right to point out that people have rights. etc. There is a rule on the forums about respect however, and I think a few people in the thread may have overlooked it. That makes a very strong case that they are compliant. I don't beleive Johnny's post that I agreed with mentioned non-compliance. Nor are his post and the idea of compliance mutually exclusive, especially if compliance is dictated by the judgement of reviewers (which is how it works I believe).

I agree with Johnny. I also find it admirable that he made his point short and sweet without attacking anyone else (or the religion in question) I think it's humorous however that many who answer him: * project feelings of fear or hurt onto him (that he never claimed), * try to read his mind (telling him he is anti-christian or he would not object to xyz), and * routinely take parts of his sentences completely out of context (he didn't say "requiring a person to read the bible" he said "requiring a person to read a bible TO FIND A CACHE"; big difference for those who like "put a gun to your head" analogies), all the while keeping a tone that JOHNNY is the one who needs to lighten up, or has somehow gone to far. * "You can ignore it" is not a logical argument that something doesn't violate guidelines. * "I am so super-secure in my beleifs that this is not a threat to me" is not a logical argument that something doesn't violate the guidelines. * "My religious beleifs are ___- and I don't have a problem with it" doesn't even adress the guidelines! Johnny's point however, was a pretty logical argument, and didn't attack anyone. (tho many responded as if attacked, while advertising how secure they are) No matter how you feel about religion or how appropriate this cache is, you should all take a page from Johnny's book and maybe theres a chance your point will be taken seriously in this ocean of emotional mudslinging. Props to Johnny for logical argument instead of the ad-hominem he received in return.

Geocaching is fine, just don't try to ride a skateboard around one. oh noes!

don't be afraid of being seen as rude. theres nothing wrong with coming right out and saying "I don't meet strangers from the internet alone in the woods" and that is more likely to make him drop it. "meet me at an event" let's him think he has his foot in the door. (and he probably was at the event, watching you) It's hard to say if it's stalking behaviour or just interest if you haven't said "leave me alone" yet Criminals advice was great, always go with your gut. if it feels wrong it's probably wrong.

Reward or target list? I think the over-reaction displayed in some of these responses answers that question. No matter what you actually say, or what the actual situation is, some people will completely ignore every detail mentioned besides 'ftf' and attack them for being hyper-competitive, ego-building ftf hogs, regardless of how carefully you explained the innocent situation of trying to spark interest in a very uncompetitive area full of first-timing newbs. I guess it's just too touchy a subject right now. I'd advise against what you planned or your new cachers you recruited are apt to get even more turned off should an overzealous do-gooder be too quick to admonish them.

I have a sidekick 2 and it is great for caching. I use GSAK (geocaching swiss army knife) to export my pocket queries to html form, then post them on my own server like so: http://mattmeade.com/geocaching/ That works a lot better for me than using the actual geocaching.com website, faster, and already filtered to what I want. If I feel like logging it asap I can also quickly hop to the actual cache page because gsak includes the link in its pages. Haven't prnted out a cache page in ages.

Maybe just tell people to bring their own marker? lots of caches don't have a pen. I know it's not ideal but if people want to run off with your pen, thats one option.

Thanks, that clarification was very important since "they will totally shut down the interweb for offhand remarks. ZoMg!1!" was obviously super-serious and literal. Only as much as your threatening legal action over a single comment on the internet.. Trolling school? Is that where you learn to blow up offhand comments people make when blowing off a little steam? Or is that where they teach ad hominem name-calling about "children" in the "playground" makes a crushing point against immaturity? Please cite some specific laws concerning obvious jokes made online, I don't think this is ridiculous enough yet. Please let the mods do their jobs, you'll notice their warnings were appropriate and didn't spawn any new arguments, unlike yours. Everyone here was on the same page till you wanted to fight about this so who's the troll?

Now that I think about it, theres pobably a good case legally against cachepolice. I was thinking "stealing" before which is a pretty weak case, but on second thought "stalking" is a pretty solid case. sneaking around, keeping tabs, harrassing emails, sabatoging your game. geocaching is just so behind-the-scenes,,,,, if you imagine him sabatoging a basketball game or golf in the same way, you see how ridiculous and harrassing it is.

lol, are you saying beating someone up is cool, but just don't brag about it on the internet or you might get caught? I've studied a bit to become a PI. I think it would be much more interesting to just post his address, phone number, photo, and employer online with a copy of his nasty email. they will totally shut down the interweb for offhand remarks. ZoMg!1! in other news, the sky is falling.

But what if we're 100% serious and accurate not just exagerating how we feel? lol

I can't speak for anyone else but I just do that so I can remember what order I did them in when I'm being nostalgic. I think it's silly that the site goes to all the trouble to track activity but then only sorts by date and not time, which results in all my caches for a single day showing up completely out of order.

That's over the top. It's one thing to ask a cache to be archived if it needs to be. But this m@*^!$*$@#&r needs a little wall to wall councling. You don't just remove a cache because you don't like it. What a dillhole!!! Yeah no kidding. I was all set to do the ones I mentioned and the dillhole stole them all.

I got up at dawn on a saturday and did them randomly all day and got 14 (with 2 other people along). This weekend I filtered a list to only do 1Diff/1Terr and I didn't even start till noon and got 22 (by myself). That's really going faster than I like tho so I don't do it very often. It's funner to really take everything in and take your time. I was just trying to reach a goal of mine this weekend.