kanchan

"Hey, I earned all these extra kudos for Mission GC, but they aren't showing up on my profile. When can we expect them to be shown in our stats? Is there an API call we can use to get the kudos into our third-party stats?" "Hey, I have more questions. I'm thinking to create a Challenge based on kudos (I think it's cool as nobody has done it before!), but I'm afraid that such Challenges may not be attainable by someone who is new to the game (e.g., after the International Geocaching Day 2016). Are you planning to award kudos in the future, or are they only a one-time thing? I hope it's the former! Of course, my assumption is that you are going to provide us an API so someone could write the Project-GC Challenge checker, but The A-Team has already raised that question above. Thanks!"

I have always been under the impression that notification is one of the most crucial features for many cachers. Personally, the PQ and the API are the most crucial premium features for me, as I don't trust Groundspeak's servers and prefer to keep my GSAK database up-to-date. It's been a while since I'd stopped playing the FTF side game, but I've already failed to add some local events to the GBA Event Calendar which some local cachers (including myself) now rely on, resulting multiple cachers failed to attend events they were to attend otherwise (example). Yes, one can say that I should still be able to keep monitoring new events some other ways, and I'm trying, but that's going to be a lot of work for me.

I understand that the developers are working hard trying to fix this, but I hope Groundspeak considers to extend the membership or issue a refund (prorated) as this is a paid service and the issue has not been fixed for weeks.

W.r.t. Bonus points: I think it's just an American humor, or maybe only a West Coast thing? Here, people often try to look silly or funny by (not really) trying to move, attract or motivate people using something with no value or something that doesn't even exist. I see they do this from time to time. It's pretty common. I was born and raised in Japan, and I never saw people do those. I don't know about other cultures, but I won't be surprised if someone who's not so familiar with this type of humor didn't get this in the first place. It's not that they don't understand humor. It's just one type of humor which is common in certain cultures than others. We know that Groundspeak is a U.S.-centric company?

Interestingly, Groundspeak just announced International Geocaching Day 2016 in the latest newsletter, but they didn't mention anything about souvenir. IMHO, if Groundspeak wants to use souvenirs to motivate more people to cache, an 11-day notice is probably too short. Not everyone caches every weekend, and it's harder to move things in the last minutes than, say, a month before. But I agree, if it's August 20, I think they still have a plenty of time to announce. I personally don't care much as I don't get all the souvenirs anyway. I just think that they can still improve something here (e.g., don't add a thing to the help center article before it's officially announced -- they should be in sync, IMO).

You can certainly "ask" them to place it only in PMO caches, but my best advice is to still be ready to get disappointed. P.S. I received a few less-than-friendly messages from cachers who dislike proxies I'd released only after the original had been stolen.

Generous people are generous because they don't expect anything in return. If you expect them to commit to continue the game in compensation, it's probably not a "gift".

I'm surprised to see "International Geocaching Day 2016" souvenir in the List of Available Souvenirs. P.S. I know it's not comprehensive, and The A-Team maintains a better one.

I had to stop reading there - sandwiches are MEGA important! Yes, I agree that certain sandwiches are Mega important. Like..., the one you paid for?

What's a hacker package? I'm not sure if eggzie is still reading the forum, so I'll try to share what I know. The event committee was offering some swags like geocoin, t-shirt, pathtag, etc... to the attendees. I don't recall what exactly was in the Hacker Package as I purchased a different one, but it should have included some of these swags. I remember that the lunch was sold alone separately and was not included in any of these swag packages. The store front was clear about this and I personally didn't get confused at all.

I see that the mega committee has already contacted the OP requesting more information about his purchase, as they are seeing only two Hacker Packages in his order (no lunch).

...and all reviewers and moderators are able to give you a free subscription for 30 days if it's your first time. Of course, if they want to...

Your macro didn't work for me (no qualifying cache), so I used data populated by LonelyFinds.gsk. 394 finds with 183+ days 122 finds with 365+ days 33 finds with 730+ days Longest: 1,813 days Longest FTF: 1,071 days 145,155 days in total from the 394 finds with 183+ days

1.14. Can I Hide a Cache While on Vacation?

+1. If I were the cacher, I would have mentioned why I was logging that late, though.

If you already have a smartphone before geocaching like many people these days, there's virtually no additional cost, while not many people already own a handheld GPS. Sure, many people have smartphones but a lot of them are barely water resistant and most are certainly not waterproof. The Xperia that was linked to is sold these days and is going on Amazon for $325. Read the reviews if you go to looking at this phone as there are some complaints about its quality. The video showed that phone as being able to be submerged but that was about all it had going for it. I'd bet money that battery life would be nowhere as good as most handheld gpsrs. Of course, a gpsr with bells and whistles isn't cheap either. However, i do feel that the pros outweigh the cons if one is to be used for hunting, fishing, hiking, and geocaching. I will say this,,, i'd probably have a different opinion if i came into geocaching using only my phone. I wouldn't have anything to compare it to at that point and i might actually be on the other side of the fence. But i do have both, i've used both, so i have a good feeling for what works better. Thanks, but I'm just so happy with my Galaxy S5 Active, but I admit that I also use my eTrex 30 when I'd like to do so. I was just saying that, if you think of the OP's situation, comparing the cost of getting a new smartphone is not very useful.

If you already have a smartphone before geocaching like many people these days, there's virtually no additional cost, while not many people already own a handheld GPS.

I generally prefer to use a third-party smartphone app because: 1) It'e easier to use. 2) Access to satellite maps (with data service). 3) It's still capable for complete offline caching including topo maps like handheld GPSrs, but with better screen size. But I still prefer to use a handheld GPS when: 1) I hike and I'm within 30 feet from the ground zero -- It takes time for GPS reception to settle regardless of the device type, and while it's easy to always have my handheld GPSr turned on, it's hard to do the same with my smartphone unless I don't care to have it always connected to my external charger. I still use the smartphone app for cache information (description, rating, hint, logs, etc.) and overall map even when I hike. 2) I hide -- I need waypoint averaging, and the app I use for geocaching doesn't have that feature. I'm almost sure that there are other apps that help, but I have not bothered to research.

I don't think Groundspeak or the reviewers are or should be responsible for the listed jurisdiction for caches submitted by the COs. It's sometimes very controversial.

It depends. I once solved a puzzle easily and wrongly. My solving took me to a Costco parking lot. The name of the puzzle was "Hit the Target", so I wondered why Costco, but I went there after triple checking my solve. Yes, I was wrong. I read the hint, and once I hit the bullseye, the right solution (a-ha!) took me to a Target parking lot. The best part of my experience was when I saw a piece of paper in a film canister with some funny messages. It's still one of my favorites, and I'm really glad I didn't solve the puzzle correctly in the first place. This puzzle shouldn't have a checker in my opinion. The correct solution could be legitimately found. I was just dumb. But yes, there are lots of puzzles out there that really require a checker. An easy (too extreme?) example is a puzzle with only 6 digits to solve, and there are tens of ways to derive a digit from each item. How do I know if it's the last digit of the year or the first letter of the last name? I would probably skip such puzzles.

Ah. I see your point now. It's something like GC13GC7, but with (many) additional elements (stories, some puzzles, and so on). I'm personally not a fan of puzzles (or games maybe?) like that, but I do see how it could be fun for some others. In that case, my suggestion is to make it clear upfront that there are more than one valid solutions and the actual challenge is to figure out the one with the actual cache, and they may need to visit multiple remote locations as there is no legitimate path to nail down to a single intended solution. You might also say that you would not confirm the solution. I'm pretty sure that some people would just ask the actual location to previous finders instead of to you, but you'd have to accept that. The thing is that most puzzles are designed to have a legitimate path to a single solution, so people would just ask the CO if they find many, thinking that the puzzle may have an error or two. That's quite reasonable in my opinion, and I sometimes do so.

When someone bothers to ask the CO to validate the coordinates, I would imagine they'd spent reasonable amount of effort to have the coordinates and found some uncertainty (e.g., more than one valid answers, conflicting resource, and so on). I welcome such questions as I could potentially improve the puzzle by removing the ambiguity, so I'm happy to work with them to see how they got wrong numbers (if any). But more importantly, I want people to enjoy the experience, and I personally don't see it as fun to search for something that doesn't even exist.

I too logged them all, just for fun, knowing, or at least expecting that they would all get deleted after the fact. If they don't, I do. They did something similar 2013, and I logged them too. I think they deleted the souvenirs too (at least I'm not seeing these souvenirs from the April Fools' Day 2013), so I think all the country/state based souvenirs will be deleted too. If not, I'll make it invisible or ask GS to delete them. BTW, the cache location (for the souvenirs, stats, etc.) is not determined by the coordinates of the listing. The cache owners can specify any country/state when the create the listing.

I don't think saying someone's viewpoint has less value is same as (respectfully) disagreeing to it. I think both viewpoints are equally good, and it's not rightful to judge one has more value than the other. I think this thread should be locked.

Yes. Similar. I can still live with these challenge caches without frustration, though. They don't bother me. I hope challenge caches are back. With or without restrictions. Edit to add: BTW, they are not morning coffee events in a same out-of-the-way location. They are picnic lunch events in a park.