igator210

I fully support anything that makes the review process easier. I understand the headaches that challenge create for reviewers. Checkers are a great arbitrary and quick way to verify that someone qualifies. With my example of night caches, looking at my database, if I created a checker to search for: 1) "Night", I would get 13 caches, of which 10 are night caches 2) "Night Cache", I would get 6 caches, of which 6 are night caches 3) The Night Cache attribute, I would get 14 caches, of which 11 are night caches 4) The Flashlight attribute, I would get 15 caches, of which 9 are night caches 5) The Recommended at Night attribute, I would get 28 caches, of which 11 are night caches As it stands, nothing will simply show that I have found 15 night caches. Could this be solved by CO's doing a better job at using attributes, definitely. I would just hate to have to keep bugging CO's with messages like "can you please add this attribute" or conversely "can you please remove this attribute" Again, I do fully support the checker system, as it would cut down on subjective qualifications.

I don't see it as passing the buck, but rather the CO needs to supply a automatic way for someone to check to see if the qualify. I'm ok with that. Relying solely on Project-GC is not good, in my opinion. While they have access to a users data, their site relies solely on the information in the Groundspeak database. Not all the information is adequate. Example... if there was a challenge to find 15 night caches... what is the checker going to look for? The word "night" in the title?, The flashlight or night cache attribute? Not all CO's fill this out in a way the checker can look for.

A one year moratorium doesn't mean that after exact 365 days there will be an announcement. I could be another month or so before they public say anything

I got that today too I can post the full URL without any issue, but can't use the shortened URL

I doubt it was postponed, but rather something unexpected probably happened that is still causing issues.

I'm going on vacation later this year. within 10 miles of where I will be staying, there are 2,700 caches. Within 25 miles there are 8,800 caches. Am I going to find them all while on vacation? No. But in order to have the information, without resorting to Live Mode, I'd have to run a dozen PQ.

I've used Looking4Cache since the day I started caching 3 years ago. Other friends use Cachly and are extremely happy. With other apps seemly "getting it right", Groundspeak seems to be taking a step backwards.

This is probably better handled with a message to the CO. Opinions will run strong in a forum like this.

Seriously? Geocaching is about finding the cache,signing the log, and logging on-line. I always carry a pen with me. That means that I always geocache with a pocket to put the pen in. If one logs: "Found cache but did not have a pen." Then the requirements to log the cache have not been met. There have been a few times that I've lost a pen bushwhacking. I get to the cache, reach for a pen, and not there. I have to dig through my bag for my spare. As I backtrack, I find my pen, stuck on a branch of a bush. Stupid pen thief.

Geocaches and trackables are two entirely and different things. You can place a cache without knowing anything about trackables.

Touchstone.... Rocket357 was asking how to get one of the free trackables that were being given out.

For me, its usually through Facebook. Many times the official Facebook account for Geocaching will announce the trackable giveaways. Other times someone will notice it on the trackable page for Geocaching and will post about it in one of the numerous Facebook groups. You usually need to be quick about it. For this promotion they were only giving away 2000 trackables, and its first come first served.

This is sidetracking, but not sure if I understand you correctly.... Where I live, just about every park closes during the evening. That doesn't make them private property. That also doesn't mean they have to be archived. It just means to search during daylight hours.

Looks like souvenirs are now cleaned up. Everyone can breath again.

As someone that logged them all, I did it for fun. A lot of work went into the creation of the caches and I even tried to write a little unique log on each one (I got through half of them before going cut-n-paste). I even downloaded and played the Wherigo. It is fully on me if I mess up my stats and souvenirs. Whatever HQ decides to do, I'm ok with that. My only wish is that these were set up under the Lab Cache group. I was hoping that even though the displayed web content looks like regular caches, the background database had them listed as Lab Caches. This would have been a nice joke, allowed the GeoArt to remain, and not chewed up the stats.

Here is a better example.... If I'm planning to visit a major city.... lets say LA, there are over 10,000 caches with in a very small area. I want to see if there are any other cachers with a similar user name as mine. Silly, I know, but I want to search for all the "gators" around the LA area. Yes, I know I could create a lot of pocket queries and load them into GSAK, but I was hoping for something simplier, like a wildcard search.

Is there a way to search for users without knowing their exact user name? Example.... If I was traveling to Washington and I heard of this great cache hider called Goblin something or other. If I add the filters Washington and Goblin, it won't return anything. Similarly if I want to travel to West Virginia and I put in Tim, I won't see any results. You can already search for "Geocache Name Contains", but I haven't found a way to do "Geocacher Name Contains"

I'm also in the camp of having a larger return on a PQ. I have to run two PQs to adequately account for where I live and where I work. I have to run two more PQs to account for where I might go on the weekends. Accounting for a bit of over lap, this picks up about 3500 caches in a decent area. If I planning on going to a nearby city, I have to run another PQ. Is it unbearable to run four PQs? No. Do I run the PQs more than once a month? Rarely. Would it be more convenient for the PQ to return more caches. Yes. And this is just for a small market city size. I can't imagine how many PQs you would need to cover a larger city like Los Angeles.

To keep a streak alive, they did a throw down:

I'm starting to plan my road trip now.

Lab Caches have been in testing for almost three years now. It seems they aren't going away, but they are still treated as some weird step-child thing. Most people seem to like them and actively look forward to them at major events. Is there any news as to what / when Groundspeak is going to either bring them out of testing or shelve them all together? Personally, I just want them to open up the API and add them to the My Finds Query.

Wondering if anyone else has had an issue.... I recently update my iMac to 10.9. Prior to the update, when I looked at my statistic on Geocaching.com, everything was visible. But now, in several section, the "?" is displayed instead of any stats. If I look at my statistic using Firefox, everything appears fine. I'm hoping its a setting, but I can't seem to find it.