Nylimb

Thanks, but Google's translations into English aren't usually very grammatical, and I suspect that its translations into Dutch aren't either. I'm sure it would be understandable, but I'd rather not post in Dutch unless I can get a translation from someone who's fluent in the language.

Definitely tacky; in fact I think it's a copyright violation. This has happened to me twice. I recently discovered that one of my old archived cache puzzles was copied in Ohio. I wrote to the owner and asked him to add a note to the description saying where the puzzle came from, and he did. It turns out he'd copied it from another archived cache in his area, and the owner of that cache (who's no longer caching) had copied mine without permission or attribution. Then a friend of mine told me about this cache by eRDeeWee in Belgium, which is a copy of my Dinner for Two - a puzzle cache. The CO even used the same pictures, although he changed the color of the tablecloth from green to brown for some reason. I asked him to add a note to the cache page about where the puzzle came from, but he refused; in fact he was rather insulting about it. I wrote to him again and said I'd post a note to his page if he didn't edit the description. He said "Go ahead" and I did. So now at least anyone who looks at the cache page (and who can read English) will know that he's a plagiarist. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to bother him. I don't mind at all if someone copies one of my puzzles, as long as they tell me about it and say in the description where they copied it from. But I work hard creating my puzzles, and for someone else to claim credit for them is extremely annoying!

I have the same problem. My #2000 involved biking 45 miles, hiking 7 miles, and fording a river twice. But Project Geocaching lists #2000 as a drive-up lamppost cache.

Could you clarify what sort of information you're referring to? I also have finds on 2 retracted caches, Present to Past and The bus don't stop here, that mess up my stats. Both were retracted because they were too close to existing caches. One was created back in the days before the final locations of puzzle caches and multicaches were in Groundspeak's database, so there was no easy way for the CO or the reviewer to know about the other cache about 20 feet away. The other was done more recently, and the CO initially had the wrong coords; when they were corrected (after a few people had found the cache based on the description), it was discovered that it was 443 feet from another one. I don't believe there was any information on either cache page that needs to be kept secret from the public. Even when there is some sensitive info on the cache page, couldn't the cache just be archived in the usual way and then have the description replaced by some generic text saying that it was published by mistake and has now been retracted? Then our find counts at Project Geocaching would be consistent with those at geocaching.com.

Or maybe not. According to their FAQ, in the "My found count isn't correct" section, they're aware of the problem but it's "not something we can do anything about as it works today". I don't know if that means that they don't have the necessary data from Groundspeak, or if it would require a major rewrite of their software to compute counts and milestones differently from the data that they do have. I suppose I could delete my logs for the 2 depublished caches, and create logs for 2 other caches (perhaps archived caches of mine), to bring the counts and milestones into sync, but that seems too kludgy. Oh well...

OK, I guess I'll have to live with it. It's not a huge problem, of course; I just wish my stats at Project Geocaching weren't messed up. But that's a bug at that site, not at gc.com.

My point is that they're not really unpublished. They were published and then had their cache pages hidden. Why shouldn't they just be archived like any other cache that is no longer available?

I've had a similar problem for years. In 2004 I, and at least two other people, found a cache (Present to Past) that was about 15 feet from the final stage of a puzzle cache. (That was back in the days before final locations were in gc.com's database, so collisions like that were more common.) Soon afterward the cache listing became unavailable. Normally when a cache is archived, you can still see the cache page, but that's not the case for this one. Here's my log; if you click on the cache name you'll be told "Cache is Unpublished". Ever since then, my find count, as shown in my logs and my profile, has differed by 1 from the number shown in my All Geocaches page. I assumed that this sort of thing couldn't happen anymore, but it can: In March I, and a few other people, found a nearby cache (The bus don't stop here), although its posted coords were about 900 feet away from its true location. I figured out what the CO had done wrong (confusing degrees-minutes-seconds format with degrees-minutes format), and posted a note explaining how to update the coords. He tried to do that, but it turned out that the actual location was too close to another cache. Again, if you click on the cache name in my log, you'll get the "Cache is Unpublished" message. And now my profile and All Geocaches counts differ by 2. This also affects my stats at Project Geocaching, which doesn't know about those two caches. I think it would be nice if caches that are retroactively unpublished could be converted to ordinary archived caches.

It didn't require any Googling. I'm sure I'm not the only one who read the OP's logs from France in January, saw who he was caching with, and checked to see which other caches his companion had logged. Compared to the research required for lots of puzzle caches, this was easy!

Sure. I think this is all of them: log #1 log #2 log #3 log #4 log #5 log #6 log #7 log #8 log #9 log #10 log #11 log #12 log #13 log #14 log #15 log #16 log #17 log #18 log #19 There are a few others in French which complain about cheating but don't mention anyone by name; I don't think they violate any rules.

Thanks for the reply, Bryan. However you decide to clarify the rules, I hope that you'll do something about the CO's numerous logs in which he refers to Deskdata as a hacker and a cheater (e.g. this one). Those seem to be defamatory, and therefore to violate section 4 of Groundspeak's terms of use agreement:

How about profile pages? Is it possible to use non-ASCII characters there? (I have a list of my FTFs and FTSs on my profile. Some of them have non-ASCII characters in their names, but I've never found a way to include those.) On another subject, I see that the pencil icon bug has been fixed. Thanks!

It's been fixed, at least for my browser. Thanks!

Yes, it still happens after emptying the cache.

For puzzle caches and multicaches, we can replace the coordinates that are shown on the cache page by the actual coordinates, once we've figured them out. This option is indicated by a pencil icon where the coordinates are shown. In Safari 4.1.3 on an iMac, the pencil overwrites the last digit of the coordinates, making that digit hard to read. For example, here I have trouble seeing if the last digit is 0, 6, 8, or 9: I think that this is a recent change, but I don't have a screen image from before, so I can't prove that. Anyway, here's how it looks using Firefox 3.6.28; this is what I seem to remember from using Safari before:

I've noticed another readability problem related to the grey icons: Puzzle cache pages have a grey pencil icon overwriting the last digit of the posted coordinates, to indicate that you can enter corrected coords when you solve the puzzle. It makes that digit hard to read. I usually don't care about that digit in the bogus coords, but the pencil is still there after the change is made.

I agree. I often check the Nearest Caches pages to see if there are any new trackables in the area. Now I have to look really carefully to see if a cache has trackables or if it's PMO. Please use different colors for these.

Thanks!

I tried that; it still doesn't work.

Today I'm unable to enter Corrected Coordinates for puzzle caches. When I click on the listed coords on the cache page, the "Corrected Coordinates (hidden from others)" box shows up. I enter the new coords in the text box and click the Submit button. So far, so good. But when I click on the Accept button, the button turns white as long as I'm pressing the mouse button and then changes back to grey. Nothing else happens: The box doesn't go away, and the coords don't get updated. P.S.: I'm using Safari version 4.1.3 on an iMac. It also fails in Firefox version 3.6.28.

When I click on a thumbnail picture in my gallery, or someone else's, a larger picture shows up in front of the gallery's browser window. If the picture is from a geocache log, then there are links at the bottom labelled "View Log" and "Print Picture". But if the picture is from a log for a TB or geocoin, then only the "Print Picture" link is there. There doesn't seem to be any way to get to the log, or even to determine what TB or geocoin the picture is related to. For example, in my profile, click on the Gallery tab. Then click on the thumbnail labelled "Tags from all over", dated 12/23/2011. The picture is from this log for The Florida Bug, but you can't get there from the gallery. I'm using Safari version 4.1.3 on an iMac.

So would I. Or at least I'd like to have that option for any link that I click on. One place where I don't have the option is on the Search for Geocaches pages: When I do a search, I get a page with the first 20 caches shown. Clicking on Next or on a page number replaces those 20 by another 20. Until recently, using Safari 2.0.4 on an iMac, I could command-click on the link and have the new page open in a new tab. It was very convenient; I could browse through several pages of nearby caches without having to constantly reload them. For some reason, this didn't work in later versions of Safari. And now it no longer works in 2.0.4; in fact clicking on those links doesn't open them at all. (So I've switched to Safari 3.0.4 for geocaching.) Apparently, those aren't normal links; if I right-click on one and select Copy Link, the address shows up as something like javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentBody$pgrTop$lbGoToPage_2','') Does anyone know of a browser in which links like that can be opened in new tabs?

The formatting near the top of a cache page is messed up: Depending on how wide my browser window is, part of the Difficulty and Terrain ratings, as well as the Hidden date, may be in the same space as the "log your visit" box. The partial screen image below shows the problem. I'm using Safari 3.0.4 on an iMac under OS X 10.4.11.

It's working now. Thanks!

I dropped off a geocoin today, but I'm unable to log it online. I've tried 3 times, posting a log for the cache ( http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?wp=GC1GHDT ), selecting "Dropped Off" from the little menu next to the coin, and clicking on Submit Log Entry. But the coin ( http://coord.info/TB39C8Y ) is still in my inventory. I'm using Safari 3.0.4 on an iMac. Before the recent upgrade, I've had no trouble logging trackables. P.S.: While typing this log, the "Insert Link" and other buttons aren't working for me.