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sdarken

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Everything posted by sdarken

  1. If you pay for a membership you can set up notifications so that you can properly participate in the FTF fun. Without those notifications you'll be at a disadvantage.
  2. It looks as though you're a premimum member. Log in and then visit this page to set up notifications.
  3. While there are many variations on how people play this game, the number of instances where people submit bogus finds is pretty low. For a cache that you own, if you have any reason to believe that someone hasn't found the cache, send them a polite email and if you don't get an appropriate explanation you have a right to delete the log. People who are submitting bogus finds are unlikely to even reply to your email.
  4. New cachers make mistakes. Old cachers make mistakes. Since Groundspeak has said they wont support a "must need x finds" rule the best we can do is to help newbies with their caches by making constructive suggestions and offering help on common problems.
  5. The top cachers in the world probably average around 15-20 per day (300-600/month) Averaging 50-100+ per day over a long period would be pretty unsustainable I would think.
  6. While I agree that people should be forewarned about dangers and hazards, it's not a good idea to request a cache to be archived just because it's dangerous or inconvenient. Cache owners should avoid putting caches around poisonous plants but it's not a reason to have the cache archived. By the way, not everyone is gets affected by sumac. Urushiol oil is ingredient in sumac, poison oak and poison ivy that causes rashes. I'm immune to the stuff for now. I have pulled out in poison oak from around caches with my bare hands and have yet to experience any rash.
  7. With kids it's better to do less, than more. If you overdo it on one outing you'll have a tough time convincing them to come out again. As noted above, larger caches are generally better for kids but dont focus on the "treasure" aspect of the game or they are likely to be disappointed. Have fun!
  8. Welcome to the obsession Kev. Yes, it sounds as though geocaching will be a great addition to your list of interests. You'll find that geocaching will take you to all sorts of obscure and interesting places that you never knew existed. Before I started geocaching I never enjoyed hiking. It just didn't seem to have much point to me. Geocaching gave me destinations for hikes and over time I learned to appreciate hiking with or without caches along the way. As for spoons, I have no idea. Perhaps a local geocacher leaves a spoon in every cache he/she visits (as a kind of signature item). I can't say that I've seen spoons in geocaches around here. Have fun!
  9. What's the reasoning behind saying it's ok to log as log as you revisit at another time? I don't really get that approach though other people in this thread have said the same thing. In most cases nothing is going to change between your first and second visit. Does making the effort to visit a second time somehow negate the fact that you already know where the cache is hidden?
  10. I thought that the maximum number of votes that you could give an idea was 3. Given that, anybody see anything weird about this screen shot of the votes for that API idea:
  11. I am not going to say what I think here as I don't want to get banned. Allow me... A new cacher hid a cache, in a seemingly lovely environment, choosing a regular size container. A grand total of one cacher hunted for it, posting a DNF. A high numbers cacher who is way too full of himself used this one DNF to justify a ranting SBA. The high numbers ranter didn't even bother searching for the cache himself. Groundspeak caved in to the ranting cacher, archiving the cache. You missed the bit where the cache owner didn't trust their own coordinates and disabled their own cache for 2.5 months. However I agree that the response from the seasoned geocacher was over the top. He makes it sound as though he has suffered some kind of personal injury from this placement.
  12. I think you need to broaden your perspective a bit. Environmental impact? Probably not a reason geocaching is disallowed in cemeteries. Cemeteries can be historic locations which would make them bad locations for a cache. Also, some people find the idea of people playing a game (geocaching) around dead people to be a horrific idea. Many people find geocaches in cemeteries to be disrespectful. That's not my own view but you'll find many people here share that view. I have come across a cache in a cemetery that required people to walk on a grave to reach it (behind a headstone). There was no indication that the cache owner was related to the person in the grave. I thought that crossed the line between OK and not OK.
  13. As someone else said, I think this is one of those things that probably has regional norms. Around here, people that were present when someone else hides a cache will generally sign the log halfway down the page or on the second page so as not to spoil the fun of the FTF. Online logging generally occurs after the 3rd person has made a find (so as not to upset those that track FTF, STF, TTF stats). The main reason we log these as finds is to keep an "unfindable" cache from showing up on maps and in pocket queries. I think that the ignore list could probably be used to hide these but that's not the way the community handles things around here. If a cache owner ever did object then we wouldn't log. I dont see this situation being much different to what happens when caching in a group. Only one person actually makes the find but everyone in the group will log it as a find. I've never met anyone that would say that it's wrong to log a find in that situation. (Though there are one or two people on these forums that wouldn't log a find in a group caching situation unless they actually made the find.)
  14. Oldest CA cache with a big asterisk..... It was archived for 4 years. Here's a list of the first 100 geocaches. Most have been archived. Mingo ( GC30 ) is the oldest unarchived cache.
  15. Rusty bolts:- just the right size to keep my bike wheel from falling off again on the ride home. How about a very old looking prophylactic. Fortunately this one is still in it's packet.
  16. I'd like micros more in general if the ratio of interesting to not-interesting micros was better than 1 in 20. I don't like spending a long time searching for a cache but if the cache is difficult to find due to creativity I'll certainly appreciate it. (needle-in-a-haystack type hides are not creative). If only there was a way to filter the choices to locate interesting caches...
  17. Someone in local regional forums suggested that the best hints were the ones that told you where the cache isn't hidden eg: "not in the rocks" "not in the bushes" "not on the ground. " Those kind of hints can greatly reduce the search area while not being a complete spoiler.
  18. I waited till had found 100 caches before I placed my first. I think the experience I gained in that time was very valuable and I'd recommend the same approach to other new cachers but Groundspeak has already said that they wont support/implement this kind of rule. My main reason for wanting this kind of rule has very little to do with the quality of the hide but rather it demonstrates a commitment to the game. Such a large number of people find 20 or 30, hide 1 and drop out. I don't think that most caches deserve to survive forever if the owner has dropped out of the game. (The logistics of how caches would/could be terminated is a whole other discussion).
  19. If you just want a workaround, I've found that using Google to search the forums works pretty well, especially with those short search terms.
  20. There are lots of different reasons why people make some or all of their caches premium-members-only. I'm not sure why so many people jump on the "elitist" thing so quickly. Some of the reasons: - you can see who has been viewing your cache page. (this can be interesting reading and lots of puzzle owners like to see who is working on their puzzles) - I've made a couple of my caches PMO to help prevent them from disappearing repeatedly. caches cost money for me to replace and, where necessary, making a cache PMO provides extra protection - i've known people to make all their caches PMO after many of their caches disappeared over a short time - some people think there should be more benefits to being a premium member and supporting the site so they make their caches PMO to reward premium members - one of my caches is full of unactivated geocoins. I want to limit the visitors to that cache for obvious reasons In very few places are the number of PMO caches a substantial percentages of all caches. In most places, they make up a very small percentage. It's perfectly possible to spend your entire life caching (all day, every day) without ever running out of non-PMO caches though you'd be crazy to miss out on pocket queries if you were to make geocaching your entire life.
  21. In today's newspaper I read this story about a court case where the U.S Federal Appeal s Court made an interpretation of littering in federal lands. It made me think that the same thing could be applied to geocaches. Geocaches wouldn't fall under the definition of "discarded or useless material" either. Article: Leaving water in desert not litter, court says I thought it was interesting because the definition of what exactly constitutes garbage/litter comes up from time to time around here. Of course it's a moot point since reviewers wont publisher caches on most federal lands so people are not likely to be charged with littering but I was wondering if it might provide a frame of reference for other courts.
  22. Swag degradation is inevitable. The more often a cache is visited, the quicker it occurs. If you search for caches that require significant effort to get to you're likely to find the quality of the swag is better. (Assuming some decent swag existed in the first place). If you only cache for the swag (like my son used to), you will be quickly disappointed and most likely lose interest in the game. My son lost interest when he realized there was no treasure at the end. For me, the treasure is the experiences i have along the way.
  23. I carry spare logs that are suitable for small caches or larger but I dont carry nano-sized logs. For one thing I dont like to encourage nanos to survive if they are not being maintained properly and, as the OP described, nanos have the issue of what to do with the old log. I dont want to mess aroudn scanning or mailing old logs though I'd imagine that only one in a thousand nano owners would actually want to see an old log.
  24. Yes. The "zipper" part will stick at first and then suddenly gives way causing he bag to be split along the seams. This happens with brand new bags. I put a bit of tape on each end of the "zipper" and also over each of the bottom corners. I think this probably extends the life of the bag though I don't have any statistics to prove it.
  25. From my profile: The Kinds of Caches I Dislike: * Needle-in-a-haystack hides : A bison tube in a tree or a container hidden in ivy. * Caches near private houses or anywhere that someone might get nervous due to me being there * Light pole caches. (Do we really need any more of these?) * Most parking lot caches
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