Leek

Soon after the Asian Tsunami happened, a player came up with a very novel idea... He felt very sorry for the victims of the disaster and thought it would be a good idea if he and other players could organise a charity appeal for the Tsunami victims based on the game that they played. The player wasn't sure if this was a good idea or whether it would get enough support, so he sought the opinion of a few other players and also asked the local authorities. They all thought it would be a great idea, but thought that they should probably check with the international ruling body before going ahead. Before doing this, they decided to flesh out the details and decided that: - the game wouldn't follow the normal rules for such events - the game would be open to players of all countries of the world - all play and donations would be on a voluntary basis - it's aim would be to help to raise the profile of the Tsunami appeal within the sport and also to a broader audience... The international body was consulted and due to the nature of the appeal they immediately approved it and gave it their sanction as an official international event and even threw in some money to get the appeal started. They promoted the game heavily to ensure that all players and fans from all over the world knew about the event. All the organiser needed now was a venue to host the appeal... Luckily a major venue (in fact one of the most famous in the world) decided that they would donate their venue for a whole day free of charge - they also donated the time of their venue staff to make sure that the appeal went smoothly... As expected, there was enthusiastic support from all corners of the world and many players donated to the appeal. The appeal was a great success and raised an enormous amount of money that was put to very good use by the selected charity... Am I talking about what should have happened in our game / sport??? Well yes I could be, but actually I'm talking about CRICKET... When today's Tsunami Appeal cricket match (currently being played in Melbourne) was proposed I bet the original organiser didn't have hordes of people attacking him - asking questions like: - "What's this got to do with cricket???" - "If we allow this then what's to stop people organising future charity matches for other minor charities - Where do we draw the line???" - "How can people possibly gain pleasure from taking part in or watching this match ? Aren't they profiting from all those people's deaths??? No, their sport (and many others) saw that this was a unique event in world history and threw their weight behind it - making it a success... What's the only thing that this story has in common with Piggy's Tsunami Appeal cache >>> The American approvers probably won't have a clue what this thread is about either... I hope this helps some people see why some of us have been so upset about this issue and why we feel it necessary to take a stand against geocaching.com Leek A concerned Aussie...

Soon after the Asian Tsunami happened, a player came up with a very novel idea... He felt very sorry for the victims of the disaster and thought it would be a good idea if he and other players could organise a charity appeal for the Tsunami victims based on the game that they played. The player wasn't sure if this was a good idea or whether it would get enough support, so he sought the opinion of a few other players and also asked the local authorities. They all thought it would be a great idea, but thought that they should probably check with the international ruling body before going ahead. Before doing this, they decided to flesh out the details and decided that: - the game wouldn't follow the normal rules for such events - the game would be open to players of all countries of the world - all play and donations would be on a voluntary basis - it's aim would be to help to raise the profile of the Tsunami appeal within the sport and also to a broader audience... The international body was consulted and due to the nature of the appeal they immediately approved it and gave it their sanction as an official international event and even threw in some money to get the appeal started. They promoted the game heavily to ensure that all players and fans from all over the world knew about the event. All the organiser needed now was a venue to host the appeal... Luckily a major venue (in fact one of the most famous in the world) decided that they would donate their venue for a whole day free of charge - they also donated the time of their venue staff to make sure that the appeal went smoothly... As expected, there was enthusiastic support from all corners of the world and many players donated to the appeal. The appeal was a great success and raised an enormous amount of money that was put to very good use by the selected charity... Am I talking about what should have happened in our game / sport??? Well yes I could be, but actually I'm talking about CRICKET... When today's Tsunami Appeal cricket match (currently being played in Melbourne) was proposed I bet the original organiser didn't have hordes of people attacking him - asking questions like: - "What's this got to do with cricket???" - "If we allow this then what's to stop people organising future charity matches for other minor charities - Where do we draw the line???" - "How can people possibly gain pleasure from taking part in or watching this match ? Aren't they profiting from all those people's deaths??? No, their sport (and many others) saw that this was a unique event in world history and threw their weight behind it - making it a success... What's the only thing that this story has in common with Piggy's Tsunami Appeal cache >>> The American approvers probably won't have a clue what this thread is about either... I hope this helps some people see why some of us have been so upset about this issue and why we feel it necessary to take a stand against geocaching.com

Really???

I also write to express my absolute disgust that Groundspeak has archived the Asian Tsunami Disaster cache. We Australian geocachers fully recognise that this site is hosted in the US and that the majority of the geocachers are probably from the US. We are frequently incredulous at the US-centric nature of the site and the lack of sensitivity shown to other cultures / nations (particularly on the forums), but we always bite our tongues. However, while I am normally personally very supportive of the US and their actions, in this case, I cannot bite my tongue: 1. I find it rather sad that certain geocachers (who appear in this thread) have nothing better to do than hunt down caches which may possibly fall outside the guidelines specified by gc.com and debate them endlessly with other geocachers with similar anal retentive tendencies!!! 2. I find it extremely insulting that certain geocachers (who appear in this thread) accused me and other geocachers of only donating $2000 to the charity so that we could gain a smiley!!! (Apology please...) 3. I find it a great shame that Groundspeak has bowed to pressure from the peanut gallery and archived this very well meaning and very productive cache… In the 24 hours it was on the air it raised $6500 – that almost half the amount that the generous US president has donated!!! 4. I find it extremely hypocritical that Groundspeak bent the rules for the 9-11 Donate Blood cache, and indeed actively supported it (Link to Jeremy's Log), and that local UK approvers were allowed the latitude to approve caches to support Children in Need. Yet we Australians are not allowed to have a cache that aims to support victims in our region… Victims of the greatest human tragedy ever known… Over 5,000,000 affected... Does it really matter that much if someone in the Geocaching community tries to prompt fellow members to donate money to a worthy cause?? Can you not turn a blind eye??? I have been approached at my camera club for donations... I have been approached at my supermarket for donations... I have been approached at work for donations... (and in all cases have donated something...) WHY SHOULD THE GEOCACHING COMMUNITY BE ANY DIFFERENT??? Through personal experience I know that US news & current affairs programmes severely tone down / censor coverage of anything like this, so let me leave you with a couple of images of the tragedy that some people have turned your back on... <br> I would strongly urge Groundspeak to reconsider their decision and reinstate this cache... Many Australian eminent cachers would rather not, but are considering removing their caches from your site... I would urge all geocachers to consider donating something or demonstrating your donation via this cache - even if it has been officially archived... [/b]

Hi Stuey, What problem did you get when registering for the .com.au forum? I'm not aware of any issues and there are over 500 registered members, so something must be working. Let me know if I can help. Leek

Hey Jeremy, Mapquest and all those other map sites may work well for you guys in the US, but they don't offer much anywhere else... Why don't you provide a link to Multimap on the cache page for a decent map of the cache area... As far as I can see Multimap seems to cover most of the world with decent maps... Use a URL of the form: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?&sc...=600&height=600 to get a decent map anywhere in the world... Yours hopingly, Leek (Rest of the World)

Not sure what happened to all the old forum posts here, but there used to be a post pointing out that most of us now inhabit an Australian forum at http://geocaching.com.au/forum... Hope to see you there...

Here in Sydney, Australia one of the cachers has established a depot cache for Silica Gel sachets (big ones)... It's called The Incontinence Pad. Cachers call by to replenish their stocks of dessicant and let the owner know when its running low. The best way to keep a cache dry though is to use a truly waterproof container such as an ammo box... I've seen some pretty bad excuses for cache containers out there sometimes (e.g. chinese takeaway containers) - How people expect them to keep dry is anyone's guess...

and again...

Up to the top of the list again...

Up up and Away...

Hi there... I don't exactly qualify as an Aussie, as I'm an immigrant myself... Yes the restrictions are pretty tough, but there are various ways of getting in... It would really depend on your skills / age and what you want to do when you get here... If you have skills that are attractive to an Australian based company, you may be able to find a company that is prepared to sponsor your application for temporary residence (2-4 years) which would allow you to work for that company in Australia. At the end of that period, if you are still in employment, you can apply for a permanent residence visa. Alternatively, you can apply for a permanent residence visa in your own right. This is likely to take more time, but gives you more freedom to work wherever you want once you get it... After being in the country for (I think) 5 years, you can apply for Australian citizenship... An excellent source of reliable information can be found at: http://www.immi.gov.au/level2/01_migrate.htm Hope this helps, Leek

Geocaching Australia has launched a new discussion forum... All activity from the ezboard forum will transfer to this new forum as from 10th April... For further details, see: http://geocaching.com.au/forum [This message was edited by Leek on April 08, 2003 at 06:44 AM.]

Hi Geopiggies, Personally I'm glad to have you back in the game, even if I wasn't around when you were first active... I enjoyed your old caches, and I'm sure I shall enjoy your new offerings... My observations would be: - The 'game' is only as competitive as you want it to be, and if you don't want to log finds and only notes, that's fine by me... If you just do it for the enjoyment of the search, then don't pay any attention to those who like to run up their total... - I think the objections to your latest caches are probably related to the mechanics of the geocaching.com site more than anything else and the fact that even if the cacher goes out of their way to find the cache, they cannot log a find and it therefore remains at the top of their nearest not found list forever... How about allowing newbies to log 2 finds and experienced cachers to log only one... that would solve the mechanics problem... p.s. I'm sure you will like Mind Socket when you get to know him - he's a really nice guy and I'm sure he wasn't really trying to be snide... He lives and works within a kilometre of both your new caches (as do I), so the nearest caches problem would have been particularly applicable... [This message was edited by Leek on April 02, 2003 at 04:57 AM.]

You beat me to it Mind Socket... Yet another "rule" to limit the choice and creativity within geocaching... As MS said, there are many moveable caches within the Sydney area and they are very popular. Unless they don't read the cache page before they go on the hunt, most people accept the challenge of getting there before their caching colleagues and that is part of the fun... Some of these caches (such as MS's) have very interesting themes and should be embraced rather than suppressed. I think that I speak for the vast majority of Sydney cachers when I say to Jeremy, please reconsider this absurd decision, or at least try to explain your reasoning in more than 2 words... If, as some other contributors to this thread have already said, the reason for this decision is that the approvers don't have any control over the location of the cache, isn't this also the case for the second and subsequent waypoints of multi-caches - are they to be banned too??? We are perfectly capable of policing geocaching on a local basis, and bad / unwise cache placement is swiftly commented on and corrected... If this decision is not reconsidered or if further "rules" are introduced I regret to say there will be another member who will not be renewing his subscription... One angry Leek in Sydney, Australia... You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

Hi 2 Dogs, I have no objection to you logging your own cache, but also have another suggestion... Why not compile a list of Australian trig stations (with coords) and supply to Jeremy for inclusion in the Benchmark Hunting section of geocaching.com... That way, all Australian geocachers could log as many as they liked and multiple finds could be registered for each trig-station... As this locationless cache (unlike some others) involves a significant amount of effort to find & reach the location, I think that this is appropriate... If it helps, I have a list of all NSW trig stations (with very inaccurate coordinates (rounded to one decimal place)) You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

I am a member and had been using the .LOC and .PRC downloads with MobiPocket... Hadn't noticed the drop-down which allowed me to select GPX format... Thanks... You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you generate the GPX files to feed this application? You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

Snow??? It's 40degreesC here (110F)... haven't seen snow for years... Move down-under - it's always perfect caching weather... You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

Another message to get this to the top... I wish people would use one forum instead of 3... You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

Red Dwarf, If you look closely at the top of the page on the Nearest Caches in Australia page, you will see a list of states, if you click on NSW, you will see the most recent NSW caches... If you want to see which caches are nearest to you, you need to fill in your home coordinates in your profile, and then use the Nearest Caches from home coordinates link on the top-right of My Cache Page - this will give you a list of caches in increasing distance from your home (which is probably what you're looking for)... Cheers, Leek p.s. If you have questions for local cachers, you will probably get a better response if you use the http://pub66.ezboard.com/bcachingaustralia forum... Read through the messages in the various sections there and I'm sure you will get answers to many of the questions you have... You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

I've recently noticed that while HTML is fully supported while your hiding a cache, only certain HTML codes are supported when placing a log on a cache... e.g. Leek works, but Leek doesn't... Is there a definitive list of HTML codes that are allowed in log notes??? You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

That is indeed a great tragedy. (particularly as I hadn't found any of the above yet ) - I will include a book of condolence for your caches in my next one... I hope that some have survived by some miracle... Cheers, Leek You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

bringing it back to the top of the pile... You will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)

I can help you with that one this weekend... I'll pick a nice spot in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park... or maybe Whale Beach... See map I assume the latitude can be anywhere between S 33° 36.780 and S 33° 36.789... is that correct? Cottage Point would have made for some lovely photos, but that's a little too far south... Cheers, Leek From there you will seek the Cache, and you will find it if you seek it with all your heart and with all your soul...(with apologies to Deuteronomy)