Arndtwe

Thanks. But who wants to bump that? I wouldn't have even known with the less than desirable search function on these forums. Yes, I know you can find stuff here on Google with an advanced search. And by the way, the sub-title of this thread got cut off, even though it showed in it's entirety when I created the thread. The sub-title should be "as in making whoopee as Bob Eubanks used to say on the newlywed game". Which makes me very feel very old, by the way. But hey, at least I'm much younger than Bob. I don't think I follow. I found this without the assistance of Google. The search function here works great if you take the time to look through it, understand how it works and then proceed accordingly. Pretty much the same as every other website search function. Of course, using Google often times makes it easier and faster with the ability of more advanced options... but that really isn't necessary.

The original thread..... http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=66071&view=findpost&p=828751

Sent a PM to the OP. All this information is great! Would be great to have a cryptography forum...

A few weeks agon I needed this very tool. I didn't find a pre-made program but I did find the source wirtten in C (or C+/#, not sure). I don't have the knowledge but if someone here knows how to compile it, they could make into a program.

And does not break the ToS, technicslly or otherwise. ?? Really? I thought that it did break it?

Ah I see. You are correct that Google maps is not very good for that. But Locus still is. I don't think there is any type of GPS related function that Locus cannot do. I could be wrong though.

One of the best free/paid mapping apps I have found is called Locus. Extremely modular, supports Geocaching, Offline maps, lots different map sources, fast, clean. It is simply amazing! They make a free version and a paid version. Paid version is not very expensive and it worth giving them the support. Just read the reviews. It's a 5 star rated app in the Google Play store. There are so many features to this app it does take some time to learn but is so incredibly handy! Although the above app is great, there are others and not everyone loves Locus as I do. For regular mapping, Google's map does a pretty good job. It even supports offline maps now too, which is awesome. As far as an app for Geocaching, the official app kinda stinks. If you don't want to break TOS of Groundspeak, try out Neon-geo, or Cachesense. Personally, I prefer Cachesense out of the two. But my favorite (technically breaks TOS) is c:geo. Extremely feature rich and easy to understand.

+1 They can check the coords on Google map ahead of time. You've also given some clues on your cache page. Cachers are smart. And you posted in the forums... LOL! Hope none of them are active lurkers

While I hate the idea of a forum devoted to discussing specific puzzle caches I love the idea of a techie forum. The reason that I think discussing puzzle caches in the forums is bad is because most puzzle caches that I have done it has been more about discovering the method of obscuring the cache coordinates than it has been actually solving for those coordinates. You really can't openly discuss a puzzle cache without giving that away. If methods are being linked to caches then what motivation do puzzle cache owners have to spend the time making puzzle caches. Don't get me wrong. I'm saying that puzzle cache owner don't want anyone to find their cache but if everyone can easily find the cache then how much different is it from a traditional cache? I wouldn't think it would be much different. I think fizzymagic is right about GPS and Tech forum. It has become a "how do I fix my GPS" forum. It is time to split the forum in to two forums; a GPS forum and a Technology forum. Depending on the region it is not about a few people who get the coordinates without work, but many of them. I'm well willing to help those cachers who have interest into my caches that have already invested some work and who have the required background to at least be able to proceed with a little help now and there. You seem to ignore that there are many puzzles out there which require an appropriate background and without this background one has no chance to arrive at a solution not even with quite a lot of help. The same is true for me as climbing caches are regarded. I'm not hiding mystery caches to have them abused by a considerably number of cachers who just want to find further containers and/or increase their find count or clear their home radius. It is not in my interest to motivate cachers to do puzzle caches. That's up to them. In my area it is good for a cache to be difficult or long as otherwise it might get overrolled by visits. The times when a typical cache hider wished that more cachers would look for his/her caches are long gone in my area. Cezanne Well the forum would not be used for these purposes. I think you guys may have missed what I was trying to communicate. The forum would be for cryptography in general. Things like how ciphers work, tools to help you crack codes and so and so forth. I specifically mention the idea of this forum to not be used for specific caches, but rather a place where people can bring new ideas to the table. It would not be for people to ask for help on solving someone else's cache. The name of the forum would not be "Get help solving puzzle caches" it would something like "Cryptography, the ins and outs of coding" or something to that extent. I don't think that anyone misunderstands your idea of how the forum should be used, they are just expressing their opinions of how people would try to use/abuse the forum. As was noted, we get one or two new posts a week asking for specific help. If you create a forum dedicated to puzzles, despite all of the warnings, you'll just be inviting more of those types of threads. More than once, someone has asked for help on a specific puzzle and before the moderator could react, someone else posted the solution. One wanted help and the other wanted to help, but neither had any idea the the forum wasn't the proper place to do it. If you create a forum specific to puzzles, and then say, "but don't do this", it will happen anyway and it will be a nightmare to moderate. Firstly, I want to apologize. I re-read what I wrote and see that it sounds a bit snarky. Not at all my intention. I just want to make sure you understand me clearly is all. I see that you do now. So I am sorry for assuming you all did not. Okay, as far as inviting more people to post for help, I agree that it may increase. However, it might actually help the moderators with this particular issue. Let me explain. If someone were to come to these forums for help on a puzzle, and my proposed forum existed, I believe that you are correct in assuming they would post there (or at least I would agree). No matter what people will always ask for help. But if we could sublimely steer where those kinds of posts will be made then moderating them and closing them before responses are made might actually be easier. Just a theory, though. Now in regards to the forum title being too general. I was simply providing an example. It certainly could be anything, more specific, less specific. I was drawing a contrast between the title inviting people to post for help, and the forum being place for creativity and information. And besides that, I don't think you will lose the context of Geocaching as long as it is on the Groundspeak forums. After all there are already a lot of "unrelated" or out-of-context forums here. Take GPS & Technology, or GPS garage sale for example. Those are both related to GPS units which are not inherently related to Geocaching except for the fact that they are on the Groundspeak forums. This would be no different, only in regards to cryptography and codes.

While I hate the idea of a forum devoted to discussing specific puzzle caches I love the idea of a techie forum. The reason that I think discussing puzzle caches in the forums is bad is because most puzzle caches that I have done it has been more about discovering the method of obscuring the cache coordinates than it has been actually solving for those coordinates. You really can't openly discuss a puzzle cache without giving that away. If methods are being linked to caches then what motivation do puzzle cache owners have to spend the time making puzzle caches. Don't get me wrong. I'm saying that puzzle cache owner don't want anyone to find their cache but if everyone can easily find the cache then how much different is it from a traditional cache? I wouldn't think it would be much different. I think fizzymagic is right about GPS and Tech forum. It has become a "how do I fix my GPS" forum. It is time to split the forum in to two forums; a GPS forum and a Technology forum. Depending on the region it is not about a few people who get the coordinates without work, but many of them. I'm well willing to help those cachers who have interest into my caches that have already invested some work and who have the required background to at least be able to proceed with a little help now and there. You seem to ignore that there are many puzzles out there which require an appropriate background and without this background one has no chance to arrive at a solution not even with quite a lot of help. The same is true for me as climbing caches are regarded. I'm not hiding mystery caches to have them abused by a considerably number of cachers who just want to find further containers and/or increase their find count or clear their home radius. It is not in my interest to motivate cachers to do puzzle caches. That's up to them. In my area it is good for a cache to be difficult or long as otherwise it might get overrolled by visits. The times when a typical cache hider wished that more cachers would look for his/her caches are long gone in my area. Cezanne Well the forum would not be used for these purposes. I think you guys may have missed what I was trying to communicate. The forum would be for cryptography in general. Things like how ciphers work, tools to help you crack codes and so and so forth. I specifically mention the idea of this forum to not be used for specific caches, but rather a place where people can bring new ideas to the table. It would not be for people to ask for help on solving someone else's cache. The name of the forum would not be "Get help solving puzzle caches" it would something like "Cryptography, the ins and outs of coding" or something to that extent.

This a neat idea, and would not be a bad thing at all. Although a little less focused than what I was thinking it is still a good idea. I just feel like there is so much information and tools for cryptography out there that it deserves it's own forum. And as far solving specific puzzles goes... What I am thinking of for the structure of this type of forum would be more along the lines of posting information, not questions. Sure people could ask questions but that would not be the main focus. Rather, different threads would start off with someone explaining a certain type of cipher/tool/whatever and questions could follow. But I know, it would still be hard to moderate.

Ah, I see the problem. So would you prefer not to see this be implemented? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a feel for what everyone thinks, including our mods!

Easier said than done. Such a forum would be a nightmare to moderate, but I obviously speak from a biased perspective. Maybe if they doubled my pay???? Speaking of moderating, I am moving your thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the Feature Suggestions forum. I'm sure it would not be easy, but why would it be of a nightmare? Or at least any more of nightmare then the rest of them? LOL, good luck with the pay raise ...Aaaand I wondered if it should have gone here. Oh well. Thanks for doing your job

Everyone has pretty much covered all the benefits, and while they are nice to have that is not my main reason. This website, and great game are not going to pay for themselves. This service is offered completely free to me and everyone, but you can choose to support Groundspeak for a very low cost to you. It is worth it. Even if all it did was maintain the site and you didn't get all those nice features, it is still worth it. This game has given me so much and I don't mind giving back.

I've been on a bit of kick lately... trying to solve puzzle caches. A few people in my area are very creative and have come up with some great hides and puzzles. I love doing the research on how certain codes work to solve these caches. While doing my research over multiple websites and resources is fun, I have not found an active online community for cryptography related things (although, I may just not have found it yet). Many websites offer descriptions on how codes work and the history behind them, some even offer software to help with the creation and decoding. Seeing as this community uses these things a lot, and there is a lack of centralized resources I think it would be great if we could add a forum for this topic. Of course it would not be for solving specific caches but rather a place to let our creative juices flow and to spread knowledge on how this stuff works. I know there are a lot not-so-well-known tricks in regards to coordinate systems that are poorly documented. This type of information would be awesome to have and share. What do you guys think? Is that something others would like to see as well? Further suggestions or criticism to improve upon this idea? I would love to hear your thoughts, maybe this could become a reality soon!

Yet another option for you is to get into contact with a local geocacher who may be willing to show you the ropes, or even help you with getting to a location. You might start by searching for local geocaching events to meet some locals. From there who knows... maybe you will find someone who shares you interest that is into geocaching!

The shiny part of black one appears to just be the finish of the metal, it does not look to be enamel. I could be wrong of course. But that's what it looks like to me...

Thanks. I'd prefer, if you used 'anonymous' instead of anonym. But then, I'm not a native speaker, might be, that only for my eyes/ears it seems to be wrong. I agree that anonymous would be better suited for this. Other than that, this is extremely cool! I like this coin a lot and would get one regardless of the anonym vs. anonymous. Awesome job on the design, love it! :-D

Oooooh, that red one is cool!

The Etrex Venture is not a paperless unit, therefore you will not have descriptions, hints, logs, etc. displayed on the unit. yup it can't even directly load a .loc file - needs 3rd party software to load the data in those (as well as basic info from a gpx). Although these statements may be true, they lack an answer to the question. The answer is no. Your GPS CAN handle GPX files, you just need the right software. Try some of these and see which one you like best! LoadMyTracks RouteBuddy Let us know if you have any more questions!

This is grayed out because you need to download the map files and put them on the device first, then point the app to the file location. This is used for offline mapping use.

Their response was the same as everyone else... wait a while, and it doesn't appear to be personal. That is the same thing everyone has been telling you. To answer your question: I don't know. Looks like you're the one who could answer that best. If I was that reviewer, I would not look at your cache again until "a week or so" has passed by, just like he told you to wait. He will most likely take another look at your listing around that time frame. Doesn't matter if you posted a note, or fixed the problems. He said to wait because of prior activity and that is what you should do. He has done his job very well, and politely, too. Answer this question: why do you need a response so fast? It is not uncommon for reviewers to not get back with you for a week even when they haven't told you to wait that long. Patience.

There are no official organizations in our town... but there is a cacher (sixrows) here who tries to hold a monthly meet and greet. Usually the event is titled something with D.A.M.A.G.E. in the name (Decatur Area Meet And Greet Event). These are great and lots of locals come to them. Join us on the next one and get to know some of us! We would love to see you there!

Wow, that is beautiful. I really like it. Let us know when they're done, I would be very interested.

I kind of like it. I think that it is a great way for people to learn more about the devices they use for the game. If they understand it better, they will have less questions and less guessing at how things should work. If no one announces that Garmin will be there for this purpose, then who would know before hand? I'm on the fence about the whole commercial free guideline, I can see how commercializing geocaches/events can be an issue, but sometimes it's really great to hear about businesses and what they do. Geocaching would be a great way to spread the word about some good things.