TheAuthorityFigures
-
Posts
149 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by TheAuthorityFigures
-
-
I know people get curious, otherwise i've never understood why people get so excited to see their credit score. They know what their credit habits are so i'd think it would be fairly obvious to them where they stand. No doubt it's going to be down if they over extend themselves, apply for more credit than they need, and/or are late paying bills. I know my habits, therefore never felt the need to check my credit score. I know my geocaching habits as well so i'm fairly certain i know about where my GHS stands.
All this is correct and I agree with you. As stated, the question was one out of curiosity is all.
-
Each of the individual geocaches that you've hidden has a Geocache Health Score. And no, it is not visible.
Some community members in another thread are speculating about an aggregate health score for a person, based on their cache hides.
I'm glad you took the time to learn about the Geocache Health Score by reading the article in the Help Center.
Thanks for responding. Yes, I know it's not visible, just as my credit score is not visible, but I have the ability to find out my credit score. I guess I was wondering if a CO can also request their GHS?
-
I saw this term in another thread and was unfamiliar with it. Looked it up in the help section, but I was wondering if there was a way as a CO to "look up" my GHS? I'm curious, just as I track my credit score, is there a way to track my GHS on GS?
-
What would you consider a Deadly Sin in geocaching? What irks you most? I'm compiling a list for an event...
There's a lot of little annoyances about geocaching but I think the one thing that irks me the most is a blasé cache owner. Admittedly this is a catch-all for a lot of behavior; a "Needs Maintenance" flag that isn't addressed or cleared, a full log book that isn't replaced, a damaged cache container that isn't replaced, etc. I've found that Scout troops are particularly bad at this; apparently there's no requisite to continue to maintain your geocache after you've gotten your "Geocaching" badge so there's a ton of Scout-hidden caches out there in various states of disarray and the Scout(s) who hid it are nowhere to be found and non-responsive to emails and messages. I think the worst of the worst are the cache owners who are more concerned with their next hide than they are with their current hide. There's a cache owner near me who has about 25 hides but doesn't maintain them at all; leaking containers, waterlogged log books, the whole deal. I checked and the cache owner hadn't done any geocaching in a couple of years. Not expecting a response, I contacted her to ask if I could adopt them (several of them are in wonderful locations) and was surprised when she responded. After some back and forth I determined that she didn't want anyone adopting them, she had no plans to maintain any of them, and she had several additional caches that she planned on hiding soon. (That didn't happen as far as I know.)
Come to think of it, a very close second to the "irks me the most" title are people who trade crappy and/or inappropriate "trinkets". I'm really tired of finding religious pamphlets, business cards, plastic milk bottle caps, pieces of a toy (like, an arm from an action figure), and junk like that in caches. I also seem to find a lot of medical and personal hygiene stuff; band-aids, individual contact lens cleaners, half-used tubes of Chap-Stick, packets of OTC pain medication, condoms (sealed and unused, thankfully), cigarettes, etc. And what's the deal with people who think leaving disposable cigarette lighters in a geocache is a good idea? Oh yeah, and ACTUAL garbage too — candy wrappers, that little plastic tab that holds the bread bag closed, folded bits of tape, empty water bottles, etc. It's beyond disappointing to find a nice big cache container only to open it up and find a drowned log book, a couple of rusty coins, a soggy copy of the local trail map, a broken pencil, and a yo-yo without the string. Have some pride, people.
First paragraph: if those caches have NM logs, then post NA. Let your local reviewer decide.
Second paragraph: there is a cache in my area with the theme "crap swag" that makes a game of one-upsmanship of who can place crappier swag in it. It turns an irk into a clever and fun hide.
-
Here's an irk from a cache owner...me. On a couple of my more difficult hides, a few finder's say in their log that it was their second time looking for the cache. Logic would demand their first log was a DNF. Nope. Never logged a DNF on their first time looking. What's up with that?? Irritating.
Personally I only log DNF's if I have good reason to believe the cache is missing (been a year since it was last found, construction in the area, high muggle traffic, etc). If the difficulty rating is fairly high and I've only had time to search for a few minutes before moving on and someone found it a few days ago, logic tells me it is still there, I just need to search again. So I don't bother posting a DNF. Now if I've been back 5 or 6 times still with no luck, then I'll log it on the off chance it is missing so the CO can confirm whether I just overlooked something or it is indeed missing.
If I logged every DNF I encountered, I'd have CO's out constantly shaking their heads at me because I missed the obvious lol.
To each his own, I guess. We all play the game how we want to and I find no fault with your philosophy. That works for you. For me, I stepped up to the plate and struck out. I will get another chance at the plate and there is no shame in that. This works for me. As a matter of fact, many times I've DNF'd a cache, it was much like a "tip of the cap" to the cache owner for their clever hide.
-
Other have done a great job of advising you how to deal ith the spoiler log, I'd like to give you an idea about the inability to get out and hunt down those finds in the winter for whatever reason.
As I get older I find that I like the cold less and less therefore I don't geocache much in the Winter. I find that this is a perfect time to stay in the warmth and work on all of those mystery/puzzle caches that I tend to avoid the rest of the year.
You are lucky that your wife caches with you. Sit down with her and attack the puzzles that you can figure out and save the actual hunting for warmer weather.
This is a terrific idea.
-
FIFY. In golf, it's a stroke against your score. I use the analogy only in the sense of fair and proper play, not in the sense of competition, which geocaching is of course not, In My Opinion. If Geocaching were a sanctioned sport, it would probably be subject to enforceable rules, one of which would be "Every attempt must be logged. Failure to properly log attempt will result in a one find penalty."Here's an irk from a cache owner...me. On a couple of my more difficult hides, a few finder's say in their log that it was their second time looking for the cache. Logic would demand their first log was a DNF. Nope. Never logged a DNF on their first time looking. What's up with that?? Irritating.
Meh. If they didn't think their first DNF was important, why should you?
Because I want to know as a cache owner if someone visited and what the outcome was. I pay attention so I can judge if it needs maintenance or not. And yes, I admit a bit of irritation because that's not the proper way to do things. It's like playing a round of golf with someone who doesn't count strokes properly because "they didn't think that one should count..."
If you're comparing DNFs to golf strokes, then, unfortunately, you're unfairly adding a negative and embarassing connotation to them. It's no wonder people don't log them, when this is the attitude.
Embarrassing? No. You're missing my point. You either make the putt or you don't. You either find the cache or you don't. Either way, the attempt counts. It's the way the game is played. I've DNF'd many a cache, and I log every attempt. I'm not in the least bit embarrassed. It's simply communicating to the CO that I didn't find the cache.
It counts in what sense? In golf, isn't a missed stroke a point against you?
I'm all in favour of encouraging people to log DNFs for informational purposes, but this is a very poor analogy to use in my opinion.
-
Here's an irk from a cache owner...me. On a couple of my more difficult hides, a few finder's say in their log that it was their second time looking for the cache. Logic would demand their first log was a DNF. Nope. Never logged a DNF on their first time looking. What's up with that?? Irritating.
Meh. If they didn't think their first DNF was important, why should you?
Because I want to know as a cache owner if someone visited and what the outcome was. I pay attention so I can judge if it needs maintenance or not. And yes, I admit a bit of irritation because that's not the proper way to do things. It's like playing a round of golf with someone who doesn't count strokes properly because "they didn't think that one should count..."
If you're comparing DNFs to golf strokes, then, unfortunately, you're unfairly adding a negative and embarassing connotation to them. It's no wonder people don't log them, when this is the attitude.
Embarrassing? No. You're missing my point. You either make the putt or you don't. You either find the cache or you don't. Either way, the attempt counts. It's the way the game is played. I've DNF'd many a cache, and I log every attempt. I'm not in the least bit embarrassed. It's simply communicating to the CO that I didn't find the cache.
-
Here's an irk from a cache owner...me. On a couple of my more difficult hides, a few finder's say in their log that it was their second time looking for the cache. Logic would demand their first log was a DNF. Nope. Never logged a DNF on their first time looking. What's up with that?? Irritating.
Meh. If they didn't think their first DNF was important, why should you?
Because I want to know as a cache owner if someone visited and what the outcome was. I pay attention so I can judge if it needs maintenance or not. And yes, I admit a bit of irritation because that's not the proper way to do things. It's like playing a round of golf with someone who doesn't count strokes properly because "they didn't think that one should count..."
-
Here's an irk from a cache owner...me. On a couple of my more difficult hides, a few finder's say in their log that it was their second time looking for the cache. Logic would demand their first log was a DNF. Nope. Never logged a DNF on their first time looking. What's up with that?? Irritating.
-
I thought a DNF indicated that I personally didn't find the cache and nothing more. It's up to the cache owner to interpret my DNF for themselves.
This is my sentiments exactly. There are a handful of CO's in my area that are very clever in their hides. When they rate some of them at 3* difficulty or above, I know before hand that it will take me, more than likely, more than one visit to find it. I like it this way, there are hiders that more clever than finders. I see it as a learning experience. I post my DNF and say I'll be back.
-
I "pass" under your earthcache everyday twice a day to and from work(Douglas BP). You're right, I should stop by one of these days. My only excuse is I'm in work transit mode and rarely am thinking about caching then. Nice communicating with you. We've seen your mark in quite a few caches down this way, although most of my finds are in Pima county as that's where the wife and I spend most of our days off together.
-
I recently deleted 4 logs on a multi I own. The same person logged the cache 5 times, apparently thinking they should log once per stage. They never even asked why their logs were deleted.
I own several Earthcaches and have deleted logs several times for failure to submit answers. I give them a few days then a reminder message, but usually never hear anything from them.
One guy logged again after deletion. I sent an explanatory message, gave a few days, deleted again. He logged again, still no message. He gave up after his log was deleted for the third time. Never responded to my messages explaining the deletion, much less submitted answers.
That is so weird. People can be so... odd.
-
1. To have fun.
2. See #1.
That is all.
-
Unless the cache is missing, a DNF means one didn't search in the correct place.
I either looked for it, or I didn't. Without either confirmation from the cache owner, an explicit hint or photo, or other concrete information, how am I to know if I looked in the right place? So if I looked for it but didn't find it, I log a DNF. If I didn't have the chance to look for it, say, due to someone loitering at the cache location, I might leave a note, or I might not log it at all.
Other than that, I use notes for situations when logging "Found it" or "Didn't find it" wouldn't apply, such as noting a subsequent visit to a cache (say, for a TB swap), updating my progress on a challenge cache (not as common these days), or just saying howdy to the CO.
This correct and the way the note log should be used.
-
Is Gerald Roman the same "ROMAN!" who used to be on these forums and frequently make...unusual statements?
I was wondering the same thing.
But Roman! lives in Canada and Gerald Roman claims to be from Florida.
Are you suggesting that Romans, or coconuts, cannot migrate? The swallows could grip them by the husk. I mean, hair.
African Swallows, maybe. But then again African Swallows are non migratory.
-
Are cachers like me the minority?
Yes.
Hold whatever standard you want, it honestly seems a bit strange to me. No log, wet log...seems like a good opportunity to take advantage of the "Needs Maintenance" log. That's kind of what it's for, after all.
Just one example. The log was wound so tight and dense I thought a fusion reaction might happen at any moment. I found myself without tweezers at the time but next time I'll have them. It was just a quick on the scene judgement on my part but I didn't feel I needed to post a NM at that time.
-
On a handful of caches I have logged a dnf because I couldn't physically sign the log, either because I couldn't get the log out of the container to sign it (stuck logs in nanos happen sometimes) or it simply had no log to sign. Reading some of the online logs of caches with similar problems it seems I am in the minority. It makes no difference to me personally if others claim finds when the didn't/couldn't sign the log, it's a personal standard for me though. If my signature isn't on the cache log I didn't find it.
What is your standard? Are cachers like me the minority?
-
https://goo.gl/maps/sVMHCCRD3322
I had a look at the cache location via Google Streetview. Definitely a high muggle zone. Don't fret too much. Most of us hiders have lost a cache or two (or more) over the years. I have hidden 62, probably 10 went missing. Some we've replaced, some we archived instead of replacing them. The first one (in 2002) went missing 3 months after it was hidden. The last one that went missing, lasted for more then 3 years then someone cut it down from the tree (it was a handcrafted birdhouse tied to a tree in the woods). I like to think that someone liked the birdhouse so much they had to have it for their own. Gave me an excuse to hide a new and different cache in a nearby spot but not the same spot, since that location was now compromised.
Anyway, I hope you try again. I like the theme of the cache. It might be worth one more try. If anyone here looks at the streetview map, maybe they might have some good suggestions about how to hide the cache in the current location.
I looked at the location, and anything in full view of the street is at high risk. That being said, 1. the vacant parking lot. Maybe at the concrete parking chocks. If one of the holes that is usually used to stake it in the ground with rebar is unused i.e. no rebar in the hole (they often are unused), a small metal bison that is just a bit smaller than the diameter of the hole in the chock could be used, (secured or a RE magnet) to a piece of rebar and placed in the chock hole. Rebar would have to be cut to be flush with the top of the chock (put the newly cut side in the hole and leave the rusty bitter end exposed on top). 2. If that clothing donation bin is metal, a magnetic sheet cache would work if painted the exact color as the bin. Or, a small altoids type tin with magnets secured in a clever spot on that box and painted might work also. I don't know if any of these suggestions will work in Mass. as they get a lot more moisture than we do where I'm at. These types of caches work great in our desert climate, but may be a maintenance nightmare there.
If it were me, I would have ready made replacement containers in an area like that, like 3 or 4 of em. It's not a matter of if, just a matter of when it goes missing in that kind of area.
-
Lots of good advice here. Never dealt with Australian ticks, but here was my first tick experience in Canada: http://coord.info/GLJJXEJ
On vacation in the summer of 2012 we had a lot of issues with keeping ticks off the dog. He has a lot of black fur so they were difficult to spot, even as we brushed him. At one point we only spotted one after it had engorged itself and swollen to be about the size of a dime. Horrible, horrible experience.
Good googley moogley that sound perfectly horrifying.
-
Similar observations to narcissa, the few trackable "hotels" that we've seen had numerous issues with trackables missing, because they were so easy to access.
We've also noted that hoarders frequent these things, so a trackable "hotel" is the last place I'd ever think to drop one.
Any cache larger than micro can accept trackables...
Good luck with your idea.
I have a couple of TBs in circulation that at least a regular sized cache. But for the most part you are right. Some of the best tb hotels I've come across are in the front yards of cachers. Usually a retired couple who cache and use the hotel to chat up other cachers that come by. Those types seem to be the safest places that I've come across.
-
...what I get in response is an example:
"Thanks for reminding me of the rules! It only makes it more fun! It's important to strictly enforce rules. You will find the log sighed. Hugs and kisses"
And that is from a premium member cache.
Curious, what does membership have to do with it?
You're not actually insinuating that a pm would be more compliant, knowledgeable, or courteous, are you?
Am I the only one reading the log entry as a disguised snide or sarcastic remark?
Nope. I think its pretty obvious.
-
I don't buy for a minute that people do these things because nobody has taught them different. Nonsense. This game is not hard to understand and contrary to some the rules and etiquette are quite easy to understand and pick up. The person who wrote that email to the OP was not a child that doesn't know any better or was "conditioned" to that behavior, and it certainly wasn't an untrained dog who soiled the carpet. It was a fully functioning adult. The OP called them on it, and he/she didn't like that fact. Too bad, toughen up buttercup.
There are those who will blame a victim of theft by saying "it's your fault your things got stolen because you didn't take enough precautions." At the very most, that person can be described as naïve. Count me in as one who says there would be no theft if it weren't for thief's. There are people in this world who don't give a wit about any rules in life and it's not because they are ignorant of those rules. Some will limit this attitude to their harmless leisure pursuit of choice. Others put no limits at all on this attitude in which case these folks usually end up wearing slippers and a number on an orange jumpsuit.
-
No it's not just a problem in your area. It happens everywhere.
No, it doesn't happen everyone, only places where people don't report problems with NMs and NAs.
Oh sorry. I'll amend my statement. Things like this happen from time to time almost everywhere with the exception of dprovans area.
Geocache Health Score?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
So, I guess the answer to my original query is a no? There's no way to request a GHS report?