MNTA

Resistance is futile my friend. The game will modernize as technology and capabilities change. As you noted it already has GS will need to do this to attract new subscribers. A web page with a list of GPS coordinates will no longer suffice as indicated by the current infrastructure and database.

Meta-data in the picture will show you GPS coordinates and date so no need for the sunday paper Seriously though, this is going to annoy some but as technology grows and changes why not have big brother check in the last "pick time period" that your smartphone app recorded you at those coordinates. Same applies to find it folks. No more arm chair logging, if you are not with X distance of the cache no you may not log it. Have a little wiggle room for sure take a picture all this proves you were physically there. If an OM log says they are planning on going to check on it. The reviewer should disable. Remind them of the guidelines and be nice about it. Yes bring it up again, if high density areas if we loose a cache or two it is not the end of the world. If the spot was good a new caching opportunity will be made available and someone will place a new cache for all to enjoy. Remember this is supposed to be fun folks. It's no fun to hunt for a problem cache. It's no fun to find a stinky slimy mess. Is the automation perfect. No. I often ask myself what would a first time cacher think about this find. If they would run away screaming I file a NM log. One GZ I visited this summer turned into a homeless camp in a briar patch, it was not that way 5 years ago, but the place changed and the CO moved out of town the cache needed maintenace, the cache was archived. Is that a bad thing?

From the app you easily only have three choices: Found It, Did not find, and Write note. With those three options how is Write note appropriate for I showed up at the GZ and Did not find it because _______ "fill in the blank". As previously stated DNF needs to be just that a DNF. Regardless of reasons and people should not be made to feel bad for filing it as such. If mugles show up, ran out of time, did not have the correct extraction tool, started poring down rain and I did not want to continue searching. What ever the reason. There should be only small amount of correlation to the cache needs attention. Multiple DNFs on an easy cache maybe but a human reviewer should interpret the DNFs to see if there is a problem. To report a problem you have to be motivated to locate and report the NM/NA menu. Which I suspect is why some people don't file them.

I'll second this one! Can't tell you how many time I show up at a cache start looking. Nope not where I thought it would be. Check the hint. Yep that is the spot. No other places matching the hint. Then three months ago NM filed followed by a couple of DNFs. Pretty frustrating. I agree focus on NM/NA logs that are ignored rather than stringing it out for months.

I noticed the same problem pretty annoying. I've been told, never tried, that you can long press the link and then a menu pops up that allows you to select where to open up the link in. Personally I just copied the coordinates and made a waypoint on another cache so that I could navigate to it to verify correctness.

Forcing an English hint is pretty one sided also inadequate. Sometimes hints are in the description or even as notes in the logs. A better solution would be to support all languages. The real question is would you be willing to pay for this? Either Google or another service would require support and possibly service fees. Best suggestion is to prepare before you go and translate potential caches and use your geosenses. Choose easy caches and be willing to walk away empty handed.

This summer went to the Museum of flight just outside of Seattle. They have 5 lab caches there and if you get them all. A clue directs you to a drawer with a physical cache. https://coord.info/GC5GT6J Spaceflight Academy. Lots of fun. I've also done an intermediate WP for a Multi phone booth cache in a convention center. Find the pay phone to get the number then figure out the final coordinate. Had to take a bearing before entering the building and that got me pretty close. Library caches are great.

Yesterday I got an opt-in friends league on my iPhone app looks like they took your input. Anyone else see this? I can't find any reference to it now.

Yesterday I had a pen which I stored on the side of my head next to my ear. Well I was in the brush and the next thing I know a tree limb moved and flung my pen farthing into the unknown. Could not find it. Though in this case I DNFed the find and will be back another time. Maybe I'll even find my lost pen. With school just started they have lots of sales so I stocked up on 2 packs of 10 for $1 each. Already lost two now. Basically it happens and not everyone is perfect. Please be kind to those of us that mess up. This is supposed to be a fun game remember. Personally I think every signing should have a picture or some sort of digital proof of finding. When the game started smartphones did not even exist now they are commonplace. So a picture that could be purged later as proof would help prevent a lot of the complaints I've read about. Or scan a QR code or something completely different, maybe have the app certify gps coordinates. Make allowances for backward compatibility and folks still using paper printouts and gpsr. Slowly things will change I suspect.

it can if the reviewers put them on a watch list

His/Her reputation precedes themselves.

Why are they secret? Seems to me if they were published there would be far less problems and the reviewer job would theoretically be made easier. BTW not allowing a checker seems very dumb. All it will take is one log post and then everyone who choose to do the challenge will follow the link. Why not make it easy and straightforward. I'm at the point that the new challenges kind of bore me including mine. The remaining grandfathered caches near me require me to go pretty far to complete and will do so when time permits. I liked the idea of something new but yet another anti-challenge policy is in place. To me challenges are like puzzle caches, I work on solving them. I plan trips, I look at my finds, I search the databases. Then eventually I get them. I also lament the fact I had a missed opportunity. I have over 1000 puzzle caches on my ignore list, some I probably could solve but most I don't have a clue to where to begin. If folks don't like challenges they should simply ignore them. Even the D/T rating system seems wrong for challenges, Shout-out thanks to arisoft in working on/creating my challenge checker for me to find a top10 favorite cache in 50 different counties or their equivalences.

Looks hit or miss if people like this type of thing. Scanning a few looks like the smiley is all they want. The 360 degree one had about 50/50 so I guess find numbers rule. Thanks for digging this up.

Has anyone tried to make challenge criteria that does not pass the current publishing rules as a voluntary item. So say you don't want to play the challenge game you sign the log and claim the smiley. But if you do write a note and log it later when you qualify as in the case of the OP challenge idea? I suspect a lot of folks would choose to claim the smiley but not all. Thoughts?

You tell them exactly what you are up to. Show them the app. What ever they want. Luckily never been spotted at night, but during the day out in SW Idaho caching one of the challenge trails he was just making sure I was not broken down and in need of help rather than being suspicious. We then found the cache together. Lot of fun wish I had posted a picture.

There are no rules or requirements. Just common curtesy. Lets say you go to a TB Hotel and there are 100 TBs there it would be pretty rude to take all 100 or even close to that number usually don't take more than one or two unless I have one to trade for which I don't always have. Though if I find a TB or many TBs in a cache that has been languishing for months or years I'll rescue them. TBs are meant to move not sit in a cache or sit in someones car or worse get thrown away. The few weeks of handling is a great guideline. Though sometimes it may be tough to find a cache that may accept that size for example. I once grabbed a Bowling pin TB but then thought better of the activity and dropped it back into the same cache. To be honest I never read the goal before grabbing them and as previously mentioned make sure you log them. If I'm traveling in the near future I might save up a few of the local TBs to help them get out of the area or if their goal is where I'm headed. Have fun with them check out the map to see where they have been. When you are ready get your own and track them. Though get more than one of the six I sent out initially two were lost almost immediately, two lasted about a year then one of those mysteriously reappeared two years later and only two managed to keep going almost 4 years.

Here you go https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4YTMB/4591

So very true!

I've seen it in logs too have no clue. BTW PEI is not close to Ottawa almost 1000 miles away. Here is a log example. https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=db7e0e2c-c654-40ec-8eac-cb39344d351d

HOORAY got my souvenir today after my third find today. With two memorable finds. One I had been to three times in the past no luck D/T 4/2. The hint I got from the CO said it was like another cache of his which I had found so I knew what I was looking for. The cache had been unfound for 1 week shy of two years with many DNFs. Happy dance! Next just down the road was a new letterbox which used the signage and landmarks to lead you to the cache after a decent walk maybe half a mile. Was the 4th to find and now has 4 favorite points for a well done letterbox. Went on to find a total of 7 today avenging 2 DNFs and unfortunately having 3 DNFs. Did a quick maintenance check on a cache near my last find and now back home. Great day thanks for the challenge GS keep them coming!

Why not replace the existing abandoned cache with a new cache that is owned by an active cacher or you. Then the folks in the area have a new find to make on their long trips. And while you are at it drop another one nearby, assuming a good place exists. I agree remoteness does lead to a different set of rules to followed such as for frequency of maintenance or even who does it. Though I disagree with the premise that once a cache becomes abandoned what to do with it. I recently spent hours solving a puzzle, only to find the cache missing and pointing to private property behind a barb wire fence, after confirming with two previous finders not the CO which has not been active for years it was later archived, I plan to hide one close to that location soon though legally. So if I visit you guys again, spent three fabulous weeks going from Sydney to Cairns many years ago before I started caching, and have time for one cache and it is (maybe) missing or I simply can't find it do I replace it? That would be frowned upon here though some do do it with and without permission. Having a common set of "rules" or practices is one way to avoid problems and get along better. My point is look at the opportunities that change may provide you and your fellow cachers. I also suspect that as time goes by even the accepted US, European, or Australian rules will change with time. There always seems to be a lot of resistance to change of any form.

Back to the OP my thought is if it is abandoned it needs to be archived through the standard NM/NA route if problems crop up. I kind of wish that GS would have a I'm alive type check to every few years check on a CO, because I can't tell you how many cache I've been to I show up no cache and 5 DNFs in a row. People are afraid of filing the NM/NA since it is an old cache, but I just wasted my time on this one so I definitely prefer owned and maintained caches. If a local cache is valued by the community I hope they reach out to the CO and specifically ask for a handoff plan. For example GC12, Mingo you get my point. I reality most adopted caches are nothing special in my opinion so a archive and new cache is not the end of the world.

If only they supported Mac OS

Start with https://project-gc.com

That is fine the the information is obtainable without reading 10 pages of text on a teeny tiny screen. You have to realize that I can not see your pictures at the GZ. I went to one this summer that me and my daughter frankly could not understand the question at all. So we indicated that and guessed. No response if we were even close. That same day went to my second favorite EC a public mining site for Sunstones. The requirement find as many as you want and take a picture. In an hour we each had and handful. Was so much fun and was grateful someone found this place way out in the middle of nowhere, took almost an hour to get back to the main road. One of my all-time favorite caches was an EC. But to be honest it's not the science lesson being provided it is the destination and the experience to get there that is memorable. That one had a tremendous hike to an amazing view, and see something geological that you could never see from the road. I've skipped several that feel like read a huge article and write a term paper. I can barely get my kids to read the very simple signs along the road side.