WGA

We can fit a total of 100 people on the groups campsites, according to DNR rules. Registration is currently at 81 campers. It is possible the group sites will fill to capacity. If we fill the group sites, people can still camp at the regular family camping sites. They about 1/2 mile away from the group sites, and often have first come - first serve sites available. Hope you can make it!

The WGA Geo-campout is open to EVERYONE Our message boards are also open to everyone. Actual "membership" is restricted to Wisconsin residents. This is done so we can say we actually represent citizens of the State of Wisconsin. Our large membership has given us strength when working with local municipalities and government officials. The only difference with being a Member is being able to vote for, or to hold a seat on the WGA Board of Directors.

Bjorn74, how about making your starting a topic a comprehensive list of all the groups as they are listed?

I pinned the topic as requested. Lets try to keep this topic to a list of midwest geocaching organizations. I'll keep it pinned as we stay on topic.

I'm using a Nokia 6340i. It has an IR port, and I have a serial cable. I can connect to my laptop by either IR or Serial. I've also enabled the wireless internet on my phone which lets me connect to my PDA via the IR ports. To do so, I just point the phone at the PDA and then open up my PDA's brower program. The phone dials up and connects my PDA to the internet. I've used this setup while on vacation to go completely wireless. I'm also able to log my finds, while I'm still at the cache site. While not very practical, it's pretty fun to do. Just a word of warning, the cellular modem connections are extremely slow, around 9600 bps. It goes a little faster if you disable the pictures on your laptop's browser. I use this setup primarily for pulling up radar images when I'm out chasing storms. It's slow, but it get's the job done.

Yes, a little too far off topic. Doesn't have anything to do with Geocaching, unless your sending up some new WAAS satellites in those rockets. Closed

"A" ! Our Association has always allowed, and encouraged attendees to log each temp as a find on the event page. The quality of each of our temps has always exceded the average 'traditional' cache. Bottom line, let the organizers decide how they want to handle the logs.

We have a cache here in Wisconsin that's be submerged for a few years now. It's called Under Where?

Unfortunately, no new news from DNR. I have yet to receive their mailing. I spoke to my contact at State Parks and she wasnt sure when it will get mailed. I'll post an update the minute I get the policy in my hot little hands.

For those who didn't get this info at the picnic... I received a phone call from Wi State Parks. They were requesting my mailing address so they can mail us the DNR's policy on Geocaching. This was supposed to go out in last Friday's mail, so hopefully I will receive it soon. In our phone conversation, they indicated that their managers have met and developed a policy to govern Geocaching. They stated is is mostly based off the policy recommendation that the WGA developed and submitted to the DNR. It is most likely going to REQUIRE permission and/or notification to the land manager when a cache is placed. They also hinted that differenty types of land may have different rules, ie: Parks vs. SNA's. I'm wondering what will be in the works for pre-existing caches? Will we need to get permission for them, or will the be grandfathered? Once I get this policy in my hands, you can bet that we will get it posted on the website ASAP. We also need to really get the word out to ALL Geocachers that we now have "X" policy in place for State lands. We have a lot of cachers in Wisconsin that never visit our WGA website, and thus, are not aware of these developments. Stay tuned for further developments, and keep your fingers crossed that the policy is something we can live with! Admin-Brian wga-admin@wi-geocaching.com

A couple days ago I archived 23 caches that were "temporarily disabled". Many of these have been disabled for over a year. IMHO, this feature is so that a cache owner can take a cache of service while repairs are made. If the cache owner chooses not to fix the cache, it should be archived. These disabled logs litter the search pages and can lead to confusion. Contact your local admin with the problem cache and ask them to take a look at it. Otherwise, let me know an I'll also take a peek. WGA-admin

Hello, It's unclear what the problem is with the site. It appears the server is down and the webmasters are currently looking into the problem. I start twiching when the site goes down Brian WGA Vice President wga-admin@wi-geocaching.com

What is the waypoint number for the cache in question? I would be glad to take a look at it. WGA-Admin

According to our webmasters, if I got this right, we got slammed by some virus that uses a back door to enter the system. We've had several hard drives distroyed and lost a lot of data. The webmasters want to be sure we close all these door and take all preventative measures before putting the site back on line. I'm going through WGA website withdrawl !!!! Brian WGA Vice President wga-admin@wi-geocaching.com

This might help in your particular question, its from the geocaching.com FAQ: quote:What is usually in a cache? A cache can come in many forms but the first item should always be the logbook. In its simplest form a cache can be just a logbook and nothing else. The logbook contains information from the founder of the cache and notes from the cache's visitors. The logbook can contain much valuable, rewarding, and entertaining information. A logbook might contain information about nearby attractions, coordinates to other unpublished caches, and even jokes written by visitors. If you get some information from a logbook you should give some back. At the very least you can leave the date and time you visited the cache. If your container is not big enough fro even a slip of paper... well, then you need a slightly bigger container. I have personally managed to put a 'This is a geocache' note, a log sheet, and two micro pencils into a water-proof container that is smaller than my pinkie finger, so I know it can be done. Mr. Snazz, I liked you post __________________ Alan - geocaching.com admin

We needed this thread's pat-on-the-back, thankyou. With the recent bashing, there was some serious consideration to there being even fewer admins working the new cache queue. We each love this sport enough to give up spare time we could be caching and/or spending with our families etc. to review and work with cachers to get your new caches online. But it doesn't take too much beating and kicking to get us to turn off our PCs and step away... __________________ -Alan

This site is supposed to be a database of geocaches, not a database of Interesting places, Interesting monuments/sculptures, Interesting historical markers etc. If its an interesting place you want to lead someone, post it over on www.waypoint.org which IS a database of Interesting things. As virtual caches by definition don't actually have a cache, which is what this activity was created to hunt, there needs to be compelling reasons to qualify as more than just a point-of-interest (POI). If there is a great hunt or hike involved, well then perhaps a virtual might qualify. But a drive-by location, or as this cache owner states ...just steps from a couple of very popular (to the locals anyway) coffee bars and a community centre and on the bike path around the Creek..., just doesn't meet the requirements of a VC to me. As the guidelines state, a view is a view, a park is a park, and to paraphrase, a sculpture is a sculpture, not a cache. __________________ -Alan

The old ones are grandfathered. I doubt you will see any taken down unless a problem develops with them. As the overall rate of new caches keeps increasing, I doubt that you will see fewer new virtuals than you did say a year ago, but I do believe that you will indeed see the ratio of virtuals to traditionals drop. In my home area, the ration or virtuals to traditionals has already dropped. __________________ -Alan

I personally question every single virtual I review as to why a physical, even a micro, could not be placed at the site. I then further question if necessary as to why some clue or offset at the site could not be used as a stage of a multi that leads to a physical somewhere nearby. I do not play favorites, I personally hold every virtual to the same requirement. Only after I have been satisfied that no physical cache is possible, even in a nearby area, do I start to review the other aspects of the Virtual such as the verification etc. As of the posting of the new guidelines, the bottom line is that preference is now always being given to physical caches over virtual. Many times we receive submissions where the cacher states that the location is a really neat place, worth of people going to. Yet they don't want to put an actual cache at that spot for whatever reason. Well, I always point out that this is after all geocaching, and the priority is to have a cache. If its just an interesting place you want to send people to, then perhaps you should post it over on www.waypoint.org instead, since your purpose is to post a point-of-interest (POI) rather than posting a cache. POI sites have as their primary goal to create a database of interesting places. I belive that geocaching.com has as its primary goal a database of geocaches. __________________ -Alan

quote:Originally posted by ~erik~:For Dutch, Babylon is about all there is. It only does one word at a time, so it's only useable if you already know most of the words and don't recognize one or two. For Dutch (and other) translations, I use InterTran which translates whole passages, not just single words. If you limit the passage to 20 words or less, it will even provide drop-downs for words with multiple meanings. If the passage has over 20 words, then it just picks the most common meaning. __________________ -Alan

Some of us use online translators too.

quote:Originally posted by Cheesehead Dave:...it's not like I didn't have to make an effort to find them. It was just the fact that there were many caches in a small area and a whole day to find them that enabled this. I agree with Dave's comments, just wanted to add that the events I've been too, the temps weren't even in a small area. Some were miles from each other. Indeed, I've worked very hard for many of the temps I've hunted at events. On the other hand, I've hunted some caches where I didn't need to shut the engine in the car off. Just step out, walk over to the bush, pick it up and log it, and away I went. I am allowed to count that cache towards my experiance, but not the one at the event I had to hike 3 miles for. Go figure.

quote:Originally posted by crr003:Isn't that what I said? Nil Satis Nisi Optimum Yep... and that's why I tried to delete my post after I saw yours, which was further down the page than I had read. But since this forum doesn't allow postings to be deleted, I changed it to now be a completely differnt post. Which of course makes your quoted rebuke look confusing now

quote:Originally posted by crr003:Isn't that what I said? Nil Satis Nisi Optimum Yep... and that's why I tried to delete my post after I saw yours, which was further down the page than I had read. But since this forum doesn't allow postings to be deleted, I changed it to now be a completely differnt post. Which of course makes your quoted rebuke look confusing now

Its a shame that this thread got so off-topic. We're no longer discussing the proposed VC/LC policies as we were requested to do. As to their length, considering all the the gc dot com group has done, I think we can take the time to review this for all our benifit. I guarentee that it takes less time to read them than it takes to put together a new cache, submit it, and have it denied because it didn't meet one of the policies For my two cents, I like the new policies! [This message was edited by wicacher on October 09, 2002 at 09:07 AM.]