MNTA

Answered the 1% for what has been disabled in AZ previously. 14% Of the caches in your region is horrible. Let's perform a thought experiment. Let's say a good portion of those are not just needs a new log and something is wrong and needs correcting. Now let's assume a family has decided to give geocaching a shot and down loads the app. They hit one or two of these caches and maybe they don't find it because it is missing. Or maybe the container is cracked and filled with water. So this new family says this game is not fun and deletes the app. Now if all the available caches were well maintained and they have a good time. They may change from just a finder to a hider and replenish the caches in your area.

1% comes from the OP talking about mass disabling by what I assumed the new reviewer of Arizona. 43,330 unarchived caches Currently 445 disabled caches which the reviewer disabled a significant number of so I assumed 1% Now there are 1737 caches in Arizona with the red wrench which is ~4%.

The action in discussion is 1% of active caches. This is is not going to bring down the game. I believe GS agrees that maintenance is the key.

The exception being if they lock the cache. Otherwise yes log away!

How do you know. This is not always true or even obvious.

Does not matter NMs need to be cleared. The rules state you need to maintain your caches. So the reviewer is giving multiple options from his log: You have lots of choices so pick the one that applies from this handy list: Check on the cache, repair and/or replace the cache or do whatever else is needed, post an Owner Maintenance log indicating the cache has been checked and ENABLE your cache. Then sit back and wait for the praises. If you really hope to get it fixed but there is some unusual reason why you can't do it soon, then at least post a Write Note log (within 15 days). Be sure to indicate when you expect to have it fixed so that everyone knows you are on top of it. For ongoing issues, please ensure you visit the page and post a note every 28 days so as to keep everyone up to speed. If you don't plan on fixing it then you could consider passing it on to another geocacher by asking them to Adopt it or alternatively, you need to Archive it, so it is removed from searches and someone else can have the spot. Don't forget to remove any remnants of your previously enjoyed cache too.

Awesome! Needs to be done world wide. The number is shocking but in reality only accounts for ~1% of the caches. Time to clean up. Filed 8 NM logs this month. Most on inactive COs, getting tired of unmaintained caches and soggy mushy logs. If your cache is truely that special. CO needs to have a plan and communicate that plan should they pass away. I do think a small (very small) number should be taken over doubt most of those disabled come close to qualifying. Few favorite points in 20 years.

Fully aware of that used to live in Bavaria many years ago. My thought was for some countries it has a picture that is relevant to the national identity, see Scandinavian countries. But for US and German states they are a bland thumbnail. Could be something interesting like the edelweiss.

Here are some thoughts: 1) Cheating happens. Does it hurt me or the CO no. It hurts just the cheater. So why make the rest of the game miserable to avoid cheating. A virtual smiley just like NFTs has no intrinsic value to the player or the world. I have deleted obvious armchair finds, but in general if a new cacher with 10 finds claims a false find on any cache does it hurt me or you no. 2) I enjoy some puzzle caches. But I pretty much refuse to beg the CO for hints and help getting started. I'll ask if I get close but thats all. How is PAF or begging to solve some of these. These older caches with no checker and the CO no longer active and no finds in years. Nope not going to even try. GS should automatically add checkers to all pages. Sorry to digress. Now solutions all of these are possibilities and can be refined/changed. 3) In urban areas with dense cache placement. How do you know one circle from the other. Sure you can look at the log and then check all mystery caches within the 2 mile radius. If that floats your boat sure why not. But it goes back to cheating see #1 4) An algorithm could be developed to randomly grow the circle and then randomly change the center so as to obfuscate the actual center. Treat it as a visual notice that a cache is nearby and to check with the reviewer. Again people could theoretically use this to cheat see #1 5) Have cache expiration dates for all new caches. If a CO fails to maintain the caches then after an expiration date X years if no maintenance. This takes care of the caches that languish after the initial set of local cachers have solved and signed from sitting there taking up space on the map but because no one solves these they never go away.At least with traditional caches someone can visit and file a NM log. My ignore list has 10 unsolved & unfound caches the oldest dating back to 2014 and 11 not found in 5 years, 52 not found in 3+ years. One of the unfound ones recently was requested to be archived by a different cacher with this comment: "I accept that I can't find every cache or solve every puzzle, but this one is essentially unsolvable - no checker and 8 yrs with no finds and an inactive CO" My point is that improvements to the hiding game should be made. Say I'm on a hike see an amazing spot for a cache. I should be able to quickly get a yes or no. If yes go through the review process. Cheating should not be the reason to not improve things. There is nothing preventing me from logging the 52 caches today, I won't but I could.

Sorry saw Keystone's response after commenting so deleted that. I really wish the whole hiding process was easier. The above issue could easily be avoided by including in the App (I know some folks hate it) but the above information should be easily made available to the future CO at the early stages of hiding in the field. Next add support for what you can't see. But I'd start with the App better supporting hidding.

Honestly the US states thumbnail is boring as well so the DE ones are at least consistent. Love the Osterreich one. Bayern could possibly have the blue & white flag in the background. Maybe when they finish supporting all locations. Maybe they can revisit some of these states but the difficulty is how do you represent a single area with a single picture. Sometimes it can be hard I'm sure.

weird that it was not automatic Glad you got it straightened away

Souvenirs are here to stay, they are not geared toward the folks here that are already hooked. As for the comment about burnout. Nope don't see it. Heck thinking back I usually qualify very quickly in the month.

League of Idaho Cachers have a challenge series of 154 cache in the desert outside of Mountain Home. Love it. Completed 88 of them might need to make another trip to the area to complete. They also have several power trails through the desert back roads, which I'll maybe one or two but challenges I'm addicted to so will do them till I'm exhausted, some of these are png others you have to walk hundreds of feet. When the dog and kids do not want to join you out of the car you know it's time to go. ]

I'll say it again. Very few caches should be adopted.

Quick check shows active caches placed before 1/1/2001. Regardless of location significant travel will be required, my longest geocaching road trip 3 days and 1800 miles to get Potter's Pond. A true gem of a cache. Should have added another day and camped there. Non-US placement December: Australia Scotland New Zealand November: Australia New Zealand Canada October: Australia September: Denmark Finland August: Sweden July: Belgium June: Canada Kenya Ireland May: New Zealand Australia

What ever motivates you personally. I've found my personal motivations shift over time. Streak been there done that. Don't want another t-shirt. Clear out your immediate area. Work on challenges. More countries or counties. Thats the beauty of this game you get to choose.

Probably already discussed but I thought I'd ask again. Please display AL's on the web maps. I use the web maps to plan my caching outings and it would be awesome if I knew that there was an AL in the area that I was planning on traveling to. Don't need all the details of the AL just that they exist.

Bonus only works if you log through the app

For me the county lines are only visible when zoomed in. Really should be able to see them at the state level.

I think the idea of a silly pose or a picture of a name tag or piece of paper with you ID on it is really the way to go. I changed my requirements for my virtual after the first few did not follow my requirements and I could not tell if they visited when they found it or visited years ago and grabbed an old picture. I did not want to police folks who may have simply not understood my requirements or something. Now it is clear and your trip to remote location 10 years ago does not qualify.

Instead of adopting after inactivity. I'm a fan of auto-disable/archival should a CO become inactive. Say 5 years from last maintenance log as a possible example. Get out of the "property" discussion. If the CO cared to have the cache continue after leaving the game then they would have made arrangements. Instead they are abandoned and should be treated as such. Even if the cache is high quality. Allow others potentially to hide their own cache and allow the community to revisit the location for a new cache. As an example a former prolific hider who ran into conflict with our reviewer and a few locals for relying upon community maintenance had over 1,000 active caches in the area, most being PNG park benches or stop signs. 5 years after leaving he still has 275 active caches and with time they get an NM and archived or in the case of a several puzzles remain unsolved indefinately. Now if all of these caches were to suddenly disappear I don't expect a hundreds of new caches to be placed but it might open up the map a bit for some new folks to hide a cache or two. This is an extreme case but if there was an expiration date it would save the cachers from visiting unmaintained caches and save the reviewer from having to eventually intervene on each one individually.

Good luck You are definitely taking the scenic route. My biggest geocaching regret/miss was driving right by Mingo on a road trip to take the kids to visit the grand parents in Topeka from Oregon. Actually spent the night in nearby Goodland (50 mi) visiting my wife's college friend. I did two caches that morning just did not know what I was missing at the time. Oh well maybe another time remember Kansas IS in fact flatter than a pancake. I did a mini 3 day road trip to Potter's Pond. That was one of my all time favorites well worth the trip. Beautiful area nice little hike. Far better than corn fields.

I ran into this problem Sunday. I was driving home crossing the Cascades mountains and notice the road up to an area with a cache I had been wanting to get was open after two years of closure due to forest fires and hazzards due to the fires. Well I got close but hit some snow on the road so turned around. However, I was still off the downloaded map area of the cache and could not tell if there was an alternate road to get to the cache. I got home to an internet connection and realized my mistake. Had the app stored a wider area of the map I might have gotten closer. Previously I had stored a few caches along the way as bread crumb waypoints to store the maps along the way but I guess I deleted those. A better solution is the store details of large regions.

Something has been bothering me lately and today decided to speak up about this to see what other think. Longest Slump 278 consecutive days without a find from 03/30/2013 to 01/02/2014 Why is longest slump even tracked? I can never fix or improve. It is in a way a negative statistic that at least for me does not help anything in my enjoyment of geocaching. For me this period was between the first time I went caching with my parents and then going caching on a subsequent visit where I got hooked. I'm no longer a fan of streaks after my 423 day of insanity but at least if I chose I could improve on that. Using Challenges requirements: Challenge criteria must be positive and require that a geocaching goal can be achieved. I'm fine with current slump as that can be reset and possibly motivate me to go out and find a cache but longest in my opinion detracts from positive accomplishments. Thoughts?