MyBoys&Me

Let's see: Definitions of sport on the Web: A hamster that is genetically different from the norm www.hamsterific.com/Glossary.cfm No, I guess in that context it is NOT a sport.

I both agree and disagree. When you place a cache, it becomes part of the community's cache resources, but you as owner are expected to maintain it as your own. However, if you cannot, you should welcome the assistance of others in the community to help monitor and maintain it. If this was not the intention, there would not be a "Did not Find It" or "Needs Maintenance" option for logging a cache, nor a link for contacting the owner to report problems. Granted, these options can and have been abused by the less experienced (or less considerate), but generally serve the purpose to alert the owner that a check needs to be done. As for Reviewers and Groundspeak in general, they should have every right to monitor and moderate the cache logs, and if a particular cache poses a serious problem should have every right to refer someone dedicated to Geocaching who is nearby to review and/or remove it in support of the sport and its commitment to safety and environmental concerns with proper notification to the owner. As long as we all play fair, it will stay a Game. Let's not make it about politics and property, 'cause it's not.

Point taken Renegade. I thought posting the "Needs Maintenance" was best way to alert other cachers that problem was being addressed. Didn't dawn on me that owner might take it as a slight, and thankfully he didn't. I've used the "Did Not Find" log several times, when I truly could not find a cache. This is the first time I've posted a "Needs Maintenance", and I think it was well justified. I would never post a "Needs Maintenance" if I simply couldn't find it, or found it moved but still in good condition. I will be much more careful with such posts in the future.

I see this can be a touchy subject. Here's how we handled it. Went for a small park cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...51-f42c03b5647e and fount it badly muggled to our bitter disappointment. Re-hid at original location best we could, logged the "Needs Maintenance" and followed up with an email to the owner. Also emailed owners of Travel Bugs reported in but not found with the cache. It was also ominously close to a new construction project and several nearby trees were clearly marked for removal. Owner couldn't get to it soon, asked us to do what we could. We recovered it the next day (it had been re-muggled in the meantime), restocked and re-hid it safely clear of the construction, emailed new coordinates to owner for confirmation and updated our log to reflect the same for any others still looking for it, pending owner's update to cache page with new coordinates. Also consulted with other local more experienced cachers before taking action here. The cache had apparently been left in this condition for months when we found it based on older posts. We may have stretched the rules of etiquette somewhat, but I think we did our best to respect the owner and preserve the cache for others to find and enjoy this nice little park.

Also new, just got our yellow "thingy" (still waiting on PC cable from bluelight.com). But great help here. Vet cachers are wonderful to us newbies when it comes to information. Thanks for the pointers! "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also new, just got our yellow "thingy" (still waiting on PC cable from bluelight.com). But great help here. Vet cachers are wonderful to us newbies when it comes to information. Thanks for the pointers! "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

...in dreams will ever be visions of what used to be. Or something like that. Ever heard the song? We're in Loveland, about 20 miles NNE of Cincinnati and the Ohio river. "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don't know how long the sale's going, but Dicks Sporting Goods (www.DicksSportingGoods.com) has the Garmin eTrex and Magellan 310 on sale for $99.95 right now - I ran right out and got mine! "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We're in Loveland, 20 miles somewhat NE of Cincinnati. Look at cache map for Cincy: it's a big blue blob. What a bonanza! But surrounding area has a lotta blanks - and a lotta parks and other interesting places - we hope to see them filled in. If you'd spend an hour to find it, what's the big deal about another hour's drive to get there? Hope to see a lotta folks at our local event on 8/25!! MyBoys&Me "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We're 38/2...gosh that's awful. But we're still newbies. It'll get better, right? "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I consider myself quite well-behaved considering how enthusiastically (and naively) I jumped into this. Started planning a multi-cache tour of a local park within days of first find, but told myself "WHOA...read some and get a few more under your belt first!". I've done an awful lot of research on potential locations...but I am not going to just drop a box off-trail in the woods, and I'll get other more experienced local cachers to check out my plans before I EVER place a cache. I'm not even going to approach park managers or land owners for permission until I know way more about it so I don't sound like an idiot. These boards are wonderful for newbies, but there needs to be more specific info with support and advice for them going in - I've spent WAY too much time in here trying to read every thread to get a grip on the bigger picture; the "How to place your first cache" page is just vague enough to leave rise to the careless caches that concerned Taz. Had I not bothered to read all the smiles, gripes and advice, I probably would have a tupperware container hidden under the bush in my neighbor's front yard! "Men are what their mothers made them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before I changed name to include rest of team, got in touch with US student at a university in India nearby name coordinates. It's like penpals with a twist! Our contact's home for summer, but we'll have a stab at it when he gets back to school (and change the name back to match coordinates for the find). Meanwhile, we're learning about another part of the world we've never been to. I imagine it wouldn't be fair to try for coordinates to new name - that's like logging twice - but we were tempted! MyBoys&Me

Before I changed name to include rest of team, got in touch with US student at a university in India nearby name coordinates. It's like penpals with a twist! Our contact's home for summer, but we'll have a stab at it when he gets back to school (and change the name back to match coordinates for the find). Meanwhile, we're learning about another part of the world we've never been to. I imagine it wouldn't be fair to try for coordinates to new name - that's like logging twice - but we were tempted! MyBoys&Me

I'd never heard of the Moon Trees - how interesting! Sounds like a great idea for a virtual.

Ya know, I thought if I asked about it first, a bunch of friendly people who share interest would offer helpful suggestions, constructive criticism, open-minded opinions... That is NOT what I got from these boards. I was asking for help, but instead I got derision, smearing, and name-calling. From local cachers I contacted directly, I got the response I was looking for: "No, you can't do that, but here's what you CAN do, and we'll help you do it." They asked questions to clarify my intentions - my posts here were to add those clarifications for the benefit of anyone following the thread who didn't understand exactly what I had in mind. After reading everyone's posts, I THANKED all for their input and put the dadgum thing to rest - or at least, I tried. Shannah, I contacted you directly because, as I said in my email, you made a powerful point. I plan to discuss it with local cachers to see if they agree, because it made me look at the whole thing in a new light. Silly me, I thought you'd appreciate my LISTENING to your advice. IrvingDog, you mentioned somewhere that you don't get off making people look stupid? From someone who's new to geocaching and TRYING to learn about and enjoy it - looks like you're having a great time.

Stopped by to check on cache for tomorrow's trek and saw it's up to 138! Which ones have been added?

Stopped by to check on cache for tomorrow's trek and saw it's up to 138! Which ones have been added?

I was about to logout when this thread started. Having been DIRECTLY accused of being a "TROLL" by datum, Harrald, BrianSnat, and Irvingdog (love the pic), I had to see what type of horrible person I was. So I read the definition first. I liked Seneca's suggestion best - if you thought my posts put me in any of these categories, I would have appreciated your personal input and advice. Afterall, that's what I was looking for to begin with. 1. To utter a posting on [usenet] designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" ... How can a newbie troll for newbies? How could I deliberately be trying to inflame an audience I'm only just beginning to learn about? I've spent countless hours reading these boards and looking at information on other websites to educate myself about geocaching so I can enjoy it responsibly and share both the fun and learning experience with my grade-school aged sons. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion... Annoying you was not my intent. I had an honest but admittedly naive question, and I was hoping for users' input to answer that question. I also contacted Eric, Jeremy & local cachers privately to get their opinions. My efforts to further explain my motive and intentions was to assure I was clearly understood, which it was obvious I was not by the posts: WhiteRabbit offered to trade me a deck of cards for my dining room set! I may be new, but I'm not THAT stupid. Perhaps there are Trolls out there who get a kick out of messing with new folks like me, and I'm sure I'll fall victim because I'm so new. I'm also quite lucky to have a group of VERY supportive cachers in my area who do not take offense to a newbie's lack of knowledge or reply to honest questions with snide remarks and derision. They helped me figure out how to accomplish my goal, and most plan to attend both the event and my personal ontaking. I don't think I could be considered a Troll, and I don't think you should be so quick to label. But that's just my MHO, right? NEW TROLLS ON THE BLOCK MyBoys&Me

We post our not founds, but not on every attempt. Would you read through all 8 of our posts on a cache rated 2.5/2?! Or rephrased, would you bother after a cache WE'd hidden after seeing all those posts?! One in particular in a nature preserve we tried 4 times (still have no GPS, so topo maps and park trail map was all we had to work with - they only showed main trail loop, not the 10+ intersecting minor trails). For 4th attempt, we first contacted each cacher who had found it within the last 60 days to see if they'd share a hint as to it's general hiding spot - we did NOT want to have to hack through stuff to get to this. They assured us it was just "under", not "through" stuff. Then aligned our bearings on map with a waypoint from road that could be seen from trail in park and tiptoed painstakingly 100 yds SSE straight through every weed, bramble, sticker bush and poison ivy plant (God bless Levi's and long socks!). Looked every where we didn't need a machete to look... still no luck. After we gave up (sad to admit), emailed the cache owner directely, to ask if it might have been removed. Reply was one short sentence: "We have retired from geocaching and found other interests". That's it. No hints, no "Yeah, we took it out"; no, "Oh, $#%^! Someone musta grabbed it!". We logged a single not found and described our numerous visits. We're asking fellow cachers in area for help on this, in light of the email response, and included that in our "Not Found" post in hopes the owner will realize there may be a problem. Or maybe we just need a GPS, more experience and better hints! MyBoys&Me

We post our not founds, but not on every attempt. Would you read through all 8 of our posts on a cache rated 2.5/2?! Or rephrased, would you bother after a cache WE'd hidden after seeing all those posts?! One in particular in a nature preserve we tried 4 times (still have no GPS, so topo maps and park trail map was all we had to work with - they only showed main trail loop, not the 10+ intersecting minor trails). For 4th attempt, we first contacted each cacher who had found it within the last 60 days to see if they'd share a hint as to it's general hiding spot - we did NOT want to have to hack through stuff to get to this. They assured us it was just "under", not "through" stuff. Then aligned our bearings on map with a waypoint from road that could be seen from trail in park and tiptoed painstakingly 100 yds SSE straight through every weed, bramble, sticker bush and poison ivy plant (God bless Levi's and long socks!). Looked every where we didn't need a machete to look... still no luck. After we gave up (sad to admit), emailed the cache owner directely, to ask if it might have been removed. Reply was one short sentence: "We have retired from geocaching and found other interests". That's it. No hints, no "Yeah, we took it out"; no, "Oh, $#%^! Someone musta grabbed it!". We logged a single not found and described our numerous visits. We're asking fellow cachers in area for help on this, in light of the email response, and included that in our "Not Found" post in hopes the owner will realize there may be a problem. Or maybe we just need a GPS, more experience and better hints! MyBoys&Me

Other than gas and leisure time, we haven't invested anything other than a few sheets of paper printed from map programs. Worth it?! - considering everything my sons and I have learned and will continue to learn about area parks, outdoorsmanship and the environment... Priceless! "Will you spend the $$ to get a GPS?" OKAY: Who was the joker in the audience who asked THAT question? MyBoys&Me

Other than gas and leisure time, we haven't invested anything other than a few sheets of paper printed from map programs. Worth it?! - considering everything my sons and I have learned and will continue to learn about area parks, outdoorsmanship and the environment... Priceless! "Will you spend the $$ to get a GPS?" OKAY: Who was the joker in the audience who asked THAT question? MyBoys&Me

Picked up a Tbug last week on our second find (woohoo!). He's headed back east to my own home state, so I felt a personal obligation... We planned a trip some miles east in general direction Tbug wanted to go. But today's trip yielded no finds for this GPSless team, so alas! he must return to abide with us for another week until we can venture again. (I think we're feeding him too well - he seems to be putting on quite a bit of weight). Perhaps travelers should post in advance if they'll be in the area of a Tbug and willing to help on its journey. Even though I'm new to this, it was immediately clear to me that the Tbug's owner didn't invest in the tag so I could hold on to it for weeks or months at a time. Stuff happens - we couldn't send him on the next leg of his trip as soon as we would have liked; but we have every intention of doing so at the next opportunity. It may take two or three weeks before we manage to move him further east; if we still don't succeed, we'll put him back in the cache we found him in. (NOTE: we did contact the holder of the other Tbug who's supposed to be meeting our guest... it hasn't moved yet either). Had anyone planned to pick the bug up and take him further, they should have posted a note to both the bug's page and the cache to let others watching the bug (or the cache) know they were planning to move it on. Had we seen such a post, we never would have taken it. Perhaps you could email cachers who have located the cache or placed caches in the general area to see if they can contact who has the bug? I dunno. MyBoys&Me [This message was edited by MyBoys&Me on August 05, 2002 at 06:54 PM.]

Picked up a Tbug last week on our second find (woohoo!). He's headed back east to my own home state, so I felt a personal obligation... We planned a trip some miles east in general direction Tbug wanted to go. But today's trip yielded no finds for this GPSless team, so alas! he must return to abide with us for another week until we can venture again. (I think we're feeding him too well - he seems to be putting on quite a bit of weight). Perhaps travelers should post in advance if they'll be in the area of a Tbug and willing to help on its journey. Even though I'm new to this, it was immediately clear to me that the Tbug's owner didn't invest in the tag so I could hold on to it for weeks or months at a time. Stuff happens - we couldn't send him on the next leg of his trip as soon as we would have liked; but we have every intention of doing so at the next opportunity. It may take two or three weeks before we manage to move him further east; if we still don't succeed, we'll put him back in the cache we found him in. (NOTE: we did contact the holder of the other Tbug who's supposed to be meeting our guest... it hasn't moved yet either). Had anyone planned to pick the bug up and take him further, they should have posted a note to both the bug's page and the cache to let others watching the bug (or the cache) know they were planning to move it on. Had we seen such a post, we never would have taken it. Perhaps you could email cachers who have located the cache or placed caches in the general area to see if they can contact who has the bug? I dunno. MyBoys&Me [This message was edited by MyBoys&Me on August 05, 2002 at 06:54 PM.]

Our thanks. We read and considered all opinions, official or otherwise. The yardsale will happen, and so will the cache event, but not on the same dates or in the same locations. I hope I didn't offend anyone with my newbie fresh attititude-in-defense-of-my-own-ideas. If I did, I apologize. I was energized (still am, actually), but I didn't focus it correctly. The MWMBO have spoken. My torch has been extinquished. MyBoys&Me