Search the Community

Couple o' points. First, there are rules regarding how far a Cache Owner may move their own cache through an "Update Coordinates" log, which is how it's done. If it's too far for an "UC" log, see Point Two below. Second, if you move your cache, are you retaining the identity and experience of the original placement? Let's say I found your cache last week. I had a wonderful time seeking it in its location and defeating its camouflage, and thoroughly enjoyed the mountain vista I could see from Ground Zero, which of course was why you brought me here in the first place. Next week, you move it to a different place five hundred feet away, hidden in a different style, and the surroundings provide an entirely different experience. Is it the same cache, even if it's the same container? Anyone who found it in its ORIGINAL placement will not be able to log it in it's new location; you can't log the same cache as 'Found' twice. You may want to simply archive the old cache and establish a new cache in it's new situ. Talk about the original cache on the new cache's page, drawing a connection between them to acknowledge the history. Thirdly, you own 24 caches. To answer your original question, the process would be the same one you followed to make sure all the others were 'legally' placed. Finally, as coachstahly said, your Reviewer is your friend. Work with him or her. Bring a bone and a ball to throw.

Personally, I like puzzles. I enjoy the extra dimension they bring to the game , and that they give me a bit of mental, cache related exercise on days when the hours of light are few, and the weather is, well, the reason us Brits talk about the weather so much, so I can't get out finding. I've made some excellent caching friends (both virtual and real world) through therm contacting me about my puzzles, or me contacting them about theirs. People with enthusiasm for puzzle solving seem to me to be interesting individuals with inquiring minds who enjoy a challenge, I love that attitude and it is fun for me to try to produce puzzles for them to try, and for me to work on puzzles they set. A proper, varied, convoluted, involved set of interlinked puzzle caches can be a thing of beauty, and an absolute joy to pursue. Along with a couple of good (met through puzzles) friends I've worked on a series of 66 puzzles over the last couple of years, each visit involved us in an 80 mile round trip and a lot of rural walking, many multi stage puzzles, field puzzles, and proper big boxes. The series is linked in a way which would no longer be allowed (a pyramid arranged as biblical 'books' , half a dozen or so first level caches each with part of a clue in , leading to a final cache for that 'book' which in turn has parts for one of two cumulative bonus puzzles, and when you find both of those ...you guessed it, they have information for the final puzzle. I can't even guess how many hours I've spent at home working on those puzzles, researching relevant (and turned out to be irrelevant, but still interesting ) topics, learning things about the bible, Inspector Morse, children's TV programs, Disney cartoons, chemistry, the Industrial revolution, the history of Birmingham and various games ... Those 'aha !' moments when the clues fell into place were joyful, and getting to the end of the series was exactly like reading a great book, you want to find out what happens in the end, but are conflicted about turning those last few pages because you don't really want it to be over. So yes, puzzles can be a joy.for those of us who want to invest the time and effort, but they are not exactly popular : in the course of finding those 66 caches, 7 of them were resuscitation caches, not having been found for a year or more (one of them for over two years) , but every single one was in good condition because they had been hidden with the same kind of care and thought as the C.O. gave to the puzzles. Working through and finding the series was a peak in caching for me, However, caching has many tribes within it, and it appears that the tribe with the most members at the moment is the numbers tribe, and specifically the app based numbers tribe. I don't know to what extent app based users who have started caching solely via their 'phones (rather than via the website ) ever look at cache pages on a computer : judging from the times I've looked to see if a cacher is still active, checked their profile, and seen they've never visited the website but they have recent finds , a lot of newish cachers never visit the site on a bigger screen. It's no surprise then when they don't do puzzles, many of which would be so much harder on a small screen, so those cachers have an extra barrier to puzzles even if they want to spend the time and effort on them. There do seem to be quite a lot of very simple puzzles, and straightforward single stage multis being used for the popular 'Church Micro' series over here, and I suspect the cache type with extra tasks has been chosen with the specific intention of having the cache ignored by folk who do not want to make any extra effort above a fast easy find. I guess having less frequent finds cuts down on the chances of muggles noticing less than stealthy cachers, as well as maintenance for full logs , especially if the cache is a tiny one with a tiny log ! Honestly this sort of easy ,make-work puzzle , set either as a simple hoop to jump through for whatever reason, is less interesting to me than the puzzle set by a C.O.who enjoys the puzzling process first, and the urge to set a cache comes second. I see a similar division in earthcaches, where some older ones are uninspiring in the extreme ( "See this weathered and undistinguished boulder ? What colour is it ?How big is it? What rock type do you think it might be ? " ) and just there for the smiley, not the geology. I'm happy that no more earthcaches of low quality will get past the reviewers with the updated rules. Some puzzles are there for the smiley, great puzzles are there for the puzzle. people who like these cache types * , either to set or find , really enjoy them, just look at the favourite points (that series of 66 have accrued over 1500 fp between them) or the found it logs. It doesn't bother me that so many newer cachers don't do puzzles: maybe they will one day, if they discover there is more to caching than trad.s, but I don't care if my puzzles get found once in a blue moon as long as the finders enjoy the puzzle solving and the cache find. I'll keep on setting caches I'd like to find, *Wherigos could be included here tooI think.

Years ago waymark categories/waymarks would state "no cell phone pics" because the quality wasn't the best (I'm guessing). These days the quality is amazing, and everyone takes photos with their cell phone. But now I'm starting to think the community needs to talk about photo options with today's technology: dashcam photos for posting waymarks (I have only seen bad quality) and drone photos.

I don't think that this is true. Often when I talk with geocachers about Waymarking, they have no idea what it is. And after explaining it to them, they usually ask questions like "is there an app for it?", "can I create pocket queries?" etc. And after all the "No" answers I have to give them, only few of them will even start looking at Waymarking.com. The design and bugs of the website will deter more people from starting to publish waymarks. So, my theory is: If Groundspeak would invest as much in Waymarking as it does with geocaching, it would be much easier to find new waymarkers. Just imagine how wonderful Waymarking could be, if the website would have a modern design, (almost) no bugs and features like pocket queries, a Waymarking app, a Waymarking blog, souvenirs for visiting waymarks in a certain country, better options for filtering waymarks, the opportunity to organize Waymarking events .... and the list goes on and on. If all this was there, people would love to be part of it.

Where the heck do you live? Around here we go out of our way to welcome new geocachers. If a new face shows up at an event there is practically a line of people to greet him. Maybe it's a local cultural thing? I don't wanna say where it was, people can figure it out if they care that much, but it would seem rude. It be fair, it was a flash mob, so I suppose time was short. I introduced myself and the wife to about 4 or 5 people saying it was our first event and we usually just got a "hey." out of people. 2 or 3 cachers were really nice to us and we had nice little chats with them, but for most it was like I was asking them out on a date or something when I'd ask what their "caching name" was I know our community here is pretty good (I'm acive on our local group's forum and facebook) so I was pretty shocked when people were disinterested in saying howdy. The only reason we could come up with was our obvious age difference from the other people there. Same thing happened when I visited HQ. The older cachers kind of grouped together and didn't seem to interested in engaging when I'd try to strike up a friendly chat. We had really nice conversations with the lackeys and a geocaching "vlogger" who was there recording his completion of the "trifecta", but everybody else was pretty stand offish and gave one word answers. The few times I've met cachers in real life whiile caching have been pretty hit and miss. During Texas Parks and Wildlife's Texas Gecaching Challenge I met a few really awesome cachers (One of which perhaps ironically hosted the event we attended! Was very nice on both occasions btw!)and a few who couldn't care less. The most notable occasion when my friend somehow managed to deduce from paying attention to cars in the parking lots when we were coming and going from state parks, signatures in the logs and from the person's gender that, "This girl up here is ____. I guarantee it!" As she approached he asked, "Let me guess... you are ___ am I right?" "Yeah." "Awesome! We've been right behind you all day! my name is ___, this is ___ and this is ___" "Cool." *walks away* Very weird stuff... I deal with people for a living and I'm generally considered charismatic by people who know me. I don't LIKE meeting strangers, but I'm good at it. With cacherts though, it seems like a 50/50 shot that they will just blow me off. I've found non-cachers to be friendlier in general than cachers. That said, geeks in general tend to be less friendly than non geeks imo, and geocaching is a little geeky (I can use the "g word" I'm a former dungeon master) First off, a Flash Mob Event is not the best place to meet folks. They're only gonna be there 15-20 minutes, anyway, My brother, Semper Questio, is hosting an event in Austin in October. He tries to ensure that everyone enjoys themselves. Give it a try. Or, take a trip up here to the PNW. We are an event-happy bunch. There are 18 events on the schedule in Washington State between now and Halloween. And, I'm sure there will be more. The folks generally visiting the Lilly Pad seem a tad awe-struck about being there. Especially if they came a long distance. Sorta like going to Mecca, I guess. We've tried talking to out-of-towners when we're there, to not much avail. On the other hand, the Lackeys talk our ears off. Some of them, cuz they're nice folks, and want to talk about what they do. Others, cuz we've known them for years, and want to tell us all about everything. Generally, in our modern paranoid society, I find that most people (including cachers) are not real interested in talking to someone that a) they have never met will likely never talk to again. Except for up here. Most of the cachers that live here will talk to pretty much anybody.

I go through phases, I might check in once a week and at other times I have checked in once a month. Yes, FB is where it's at and I addressed this quite some time ago in another thread. Vendors and designers left this venue for a number of reasons. I will only speak for myself though. For the first 6 years, I designed for fun and not for profit. I designed geocoins and re-invested any $$$ I made into helping me attend geocoinfest and build a website and give coins away whether people were aware of it or not. Considering I was lucky to get out 4 designs in a year, it was more of a break-even thing for me and I loved every minute of it. My interest has slowed over the past couple of years as I have moved into different interests as far as designing goes. In 2013 I became an official business, no more hobby for me but my designs were going outside of the geocoin world. I'm still keeping my foot in the geocoin waters but as a business you have to learn to grow in order to survive. Everything changes and the geocoin forum has changed a lot over the years, even trackables have morphed into it's own animal. Here is what I find as a vendor to be the toughest issues to date. I work a full time job so when I come home my time is very limited. I also take classes to improve my education. I've got my feet in several different world and I have had to learn to pick and choose wisely as to where to spend my time. Since not everything I do is trackable, I can't come here and talk about my "stuff". I get that and I'm not complaining about it. However I can't hit all the venues that are available to me as a business person. Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, Pintrest, personal website, personal blog, etc. I know it seems like it should all be easy but each on of those venues is it's own animal and learning how to navigate those and use them to a business' best advantage is time consuming. I can't tell you how overwhelmed I feel at times trying to figure out these new worlds and how to use them to my advantage. The forum here is very singular so that is limiting for any vendor who dabbles in anything outside of geocoins. I still come here and announce geocoins but I did get bad about it for awhile. I will continue to post geocoins for sale here as I design them but I just won't spend as much time here like I once did. The above paragraph leads me to another issue. I do believe the geocoin forum is a community and at one time I was not pleased when a vendor would come here and only "sell" their geocoin without much interaction with the community. They only saw us as a money machine to buy their coins. I do NOT want to be that vendor, granted it's not like I'm pumping out a coin design every month but I still feel strongly about people using a venue to sell something but never really care about the community. Now that I am in a different position, I find that FB is where I can still interact with everyone but I have my "own" community. What I mean by that is; I can talk about all my stuff and I can talk about geocoins, I can post links and pictures and for the most part, everyone who is there has elected to be there. Instead of me scrambling to be everywhere, I have a couple of places to interact with the community who elects to be there. I run contests, I promote my items, you name it I can do it. Everyone expects me to be doing that. I would love to have the old days back where we all got involved in geocoin discussions and excited about designs but those days have come and gone. Vendors and designers have to go where the action is for business reasons. FB accomplishes that right now and maybe in 3 years it will be someplace else. By all means, stay here and keep this place alive, it's still an excellent format to discuss all things geocoin and learn but at the same time we all have to find the balance in our lives. Please keep in mind, I've only touched on one or two facets of why people don't come here anymore but I'm merely speaking from a business perspective. I will always come here and announce coins and post numbers/editions and interact as time permits. For me this was the beginning of it all and will always hold a special place in my heart. tsun

I'm hoping someone can help me out. I built a cartridge and all during the Beta testing it worked flawlessly, everything triggering properly, no lags or glitches. Most of the changes I made along the way were minor such as zone location, when tasks appeared, and such. I did a final Beta test and it worked great. The only thing I did after the final Beta test was add a media picture to the cartridge. I posted the cache and the first person to try it said it crashed at a certain point. I went out to check it and sure enough, it crashed on mine also. I removed the media from the cartridge and tried again and it still crashes. It works fine on iphone but shuts down my Garmin Oregon 450. It always shuts it down in the same place, When I "Talk" to a character. The actions that are supposed to happen when I "Talk" to the character are: "Show a message to player", "Set 2 different Tasks active true", and "Set Task Complete true". Luckily this happens in the 3rd Zone and only 10 minutes into the cartridge. I have two other Zones set up exactly like the one that crashes and they work ok. There is an Object and a Character in each zone. The player must pick up the object and talk to the character. There are only 4 Zones active when the Garmin crashes. Here is the last few lines of the log. I can't see anything of significance: Nov 19 was when it started crashing Sat Nov 9 13:31:47 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Thu Nov 14 10:29:14 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Thu Nov 14 12:49:12 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Thu Nov 14 14:05:26 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Tue Nov 19 18:58:59 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Tue Nov 19 19:07:54 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Thu Nov 21 15:52:57 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 Thu Nov 21 17:13:55 2013 INFO [Engine]: Logging level changed from 2 to 3 I use the Groundspeak builder if that is of use. Thanks in advance and I hope someone can help Zorkan Heneron

Hi charlenni. Thanks for your response. The GWL last attempt at the cartridge is below. The way I have set up the cartridge is the player comes to the proximity of a zone, say Farmer, then another larger zone called Farmers House is activated and the Zone Farmer is deactivated. The character Farmer and an object Candy are in the Farmers House zone and visible. The player picks up the candy and talks to the farmer. Then they go to the next zone Fisherman which is set up just like the Farmer zone. Then the player goes to the Trapper Zone and the same thing. When the player talks to the Trapper the GPS shuts down. I noticed there are some weird characters in the dialogue of the Fisherman and the Trapper. I think I copied and pasted them from Word, so I'm wondering if that has something to do with it. Downloaded Fri Nov 22 16:53:44 2013 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|MessageBox:Show - Hellow Fellow cachers. This Wherigo is similar to the original event with some slight differences. One thing you will need to take note of is that at certain points along the game, you will need to get numbers off of trees. These numbers will be needed to find the cache at the end. There are messages to let you know when. You have Background, Situation and Mission statements in your inventory. There are also tasks to perform which will guide you along the way. Good luck and have fun. 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|Player:SetInventory - Will add Present Situation 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|Player:SetInventory - added Present Situation 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|Player:SetInventory - Will add Mission 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|Player:SetInventory - added Mission 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|Player:SetInventory - Will add Background 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|Player:SetInventory - added Background 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|AttributeChanged - Interview Fisherman, Active 20131121171407|0.00000|0.00000|0.000|0.000|AttributeChanged - Interview Trapper, Active 20131121171407|43.20073|-79.81531|100.785|13.650|Zone:Distant - Farmer 20131121171409|43.20072|-79.81530|101.650|13.189|MessageBox:Callback - [button1] No script to execute 20131121171508|43.20074|-79.81479|157.559|10.709|Zone:Proximity - Farmer 20131121171508|43.20074|-79.81479|157.559|10.709|AttributeChanged - Farmers House, Active 20131121171508|43.20074|-79.81479|157.559|10.709|AttributeChanged - Farmers House, Visible 20131121171508|43.20074|-79.81479|157.559|10.709|AttributeChanged - Farmer, Active 20131121171508|43.20074|-79.81479|157.559|10.709|AttributeChanged - Farmer, Visible 20131121171508|43.20074|-79.81479|157.559|10.709|Zone:Enter - Farmers House 20131121171515|43.20075|-79.81477|159.575|10.903|ZCommand:exec - Candy:Pickup 20131121171515|43.20075|-79.81477|159.575|10.903|Player:SetInventory - Will add Candy 20131121171515|43.20075|-79.81477|159.575|10.903|Player:SetInventory - added Candy 20131121171515|43.20075|-79.81477|159.575|10.903|ZCommand:Enabled - Disabled Candy Pickup 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|ZCommand:exec - Farmer:Talk 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|MessageBox:Show - Well howdy there young'ns. I was tending to good old Bessie me cow when I heard this here thunderous roar coming out of the east. It was louder than that there twister from '39 if it made a peep at all. Gave poor old Bessie a fright, it sure did. She done did took off on me, poor gal. Hey y'all don’t s'pose you could take a bit a time and fetch 'er up for me could ya, or at least tie er off on a tree? I'd be mighty right happy about that, and there'd be a 2 spot in it fer ya. You could probably follow her trail. She was due fer milkin. She can’t be too far from where we was. Just before that there fancy object crashed, I saw some sort of thingy fall from it. I marked down where it done did fall by golly, but by gosh I must'uv dropped that when Bessie done did took off. Sorry 'bout that. You all have a nice day now. 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Farmer's Sighting, Visible 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Farmer's Sighting, Active 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Find Farmers Cow, Active 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Find Farmers note, Active 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Fisherman, Active 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Fisherman, Visible 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|160.283|11.020|AttributeChanged - Interview the Farmer, Complete 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|161.707|11.050|Zone:Distant - Fisherman 20131121171519|43.20076|-79.81477|161.707|11.050|Zone:Distant - Farmer's Sighting 20131121171528|43.20079|-79.81480|170.333|6.518|MessageBox:Callback - [button1] No script to execute 20131121171543|43.20081|-79.81487|169.538|5.646|Zone:Exit - Farmers House 20131121171543|43.20081|-79.81487|169.538|5.646|Zone:Proximity - Farmers House 20131121171555|43.20088|-79.81499|171.866|5.184|Zone:Proximity - Fisherman 20131121171555|43.20088|-79.81499|171.866|5.184|AttributeChanged - Fisherman's Hut, Active 20131121171555|43.20088|-79.81499|171.866|5.184|AttributeChanged - Fisherman's Hut, Visible 20131121171555|43.20088|-79.81499|171.866|5.184|AttributeChanged - Fisherman, Active 20131121171555|43.20088|-79.81499|171.866|5.184|AttributeChanged - Fisherman, Visible 20131121171555|43.20088|-79.81499|171.866|5.184|Zone:Enter - Fisherman's Hut 20131121171603|43.20091|-79.81501|173.278|4.567|ZCommand:exec - Candi:Pickup 20131121171603|43.20091|-79.81501|173.278|4.567|Player:SetInventory - Will add Candi 20131121171603|43.20091|-79.81501|173.278|4.567|Player:SetInventory - added Candi 20131121171603|43.20091|-79.81501|173.278|4.567|ZCommand:Enabled - Disabled Candi Pickup 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|ZCommand:exec - Fisherman:Talk 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|MessageBox:Show - Hi there. Me and my boy were doing some fishing at the stream and was just heading back. We stopped for some supper, and all of a sudden we heard this horribly loud noise in the sky coming from the east. Well, I’ll tell you, we hightailed it out of there. Just before we took off I saw something break off and crash nearby to where I was. I got the location jotted down, but in my haste I think I left it back where I was having supper. We also left our tackle box behind too. It was over by were Billy was, pretty close to where I was sitting. You don’t suppose you could find that for me could you. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|AttributeChanged - Find Tackle Box, Active 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|AttributeChanged - Find Fishermans Note, Active 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|AttributeChanged - Trapper, Active 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|AttributeChanged - Trapper, Visible 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|175.008|4.664|AttributeChanged - Interview Fisherman, Complete 20131121171608|43.20091|-79.81501|173.215|4.700|Zone:Distant - Trapper 20131121171616|43.20092|-79.81501|177.111|5.072|MessageBox:Callback - [button1] No script to execute 20131121171640|43.20088|-79.81520|175.455|4.647|Zone:Exit - Fisherman's Hut 20131121171640|43.20088|-79.81520|175.455|4.647|Zone:Proximity - Fisherman's Hut 20131121171657|43.20088|-79.81541|176.556|4.212|Zone:Proximity - Trapper 20131121171657|43.20088|-79.81541|176.556|4.212|AttributeChanged - Trapper's Cabin, Active 20131121171657|43.20088|-79.81541|176.556|4.212|AttributeChanged - Trapper's Cabin, Visible 20131121171657|43.20088|-79.81541|176.556|4.212|AttributeChanged - Trapper, Active 20131121171657|43.20088|-79.81541|176.556|4.212|AttributeChanged - Trapper, Visible 20131121171657|43.20088|-79.81541|176.556|4.212|Zone:Enter - Trapper's Cabin 20131121171709|43.20088|-79.81546|179.549|4.646|ZCommand:exec - Candie:Pickup 20131121171709|43.20088|-79.81546|179.549|4.646|Player:SetInventory - Will add Candie 20131121171709|43.20088|-79.81546|179.549|4.646|Player:SetInventory - added Candie 20131121171709|43.20088|-79.81546|179.549|4.646|ZCommand:Enabled - Disabled Candie Pickup As far as the ON Enter function I can't see it in the lua file. I see an On Proximity for the Trapper zone but nothing for the Trappers Hut zone where the problem occurs. I think that is because that zone is activated while the player is in it. I've tried to upload the lua file but the site won't let me. Below are the two functions On Proximity to the Trapper zone and the On Talk to the Trapper if those help. function zoneTrapper:OnProximity() -- #GroupDescription=Script -- -- #Comment=Script Comment -- zoneTrappersCabin.Active = true zoneTrappersCabin.Visible = true zoneTrapper.Active = false zoneTrapper.Visible = false end function zcharacterTrapper:OnTalk() -- #GroupDescription=Script -- -- #Comment=Script Comment -- Wherigo.MessageBox{Text=[[YeeeeeHaw!! I’m crazy Dave the trapper. I’ve seen some weird stuff in my day. Did I ever tell you the time I run across this huge..... Aaaah never mind, you don’t wanna hear about that, do ya. Ok, I was out checking my traps at Bushwacking Point and this loud noise started. I coulda swore it was from the west, but I mighta got myself turned around at the time. I am a little crazy you know. Anyway back to my story. That huge bear came at me.... no wait a sec, that’s the other story. Oh boy. Yah that noise was so loud, I almost got me thumb caught in the trap. Anyways, if I remember right, and I don’t often do, something fell from the sky and landed not too far from where I was. Then I ran from that there bear and climbed a tree. Oh boy, you must think I’m crazy. That’s that other story. Ok, I jotted down where that thing fell, but I musta left it back at Bushwacking Point. If you’re heading that way anyway, do you mind setting my last trap for me? It’s close to where I was, if I remember right. I am a bit crazy you know. Thanks a lot. Oh and beware. There’s rumours that a dragon is in the woods.]],Media=zmediaTrapper,} ztaskFindTrapperNote.Active = true ztaskSetTrap.Active = true ztaskInterviewTrapper.Complete = true end

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone? I just don't use my phone that way very much if I can't plug it in. I may need to call someone or look up something important and the phone is no use to me if it's dead. I know other people use their phones more heavily away from home and allow their children to use them, but that doesn't work for me. i can't remember the last time i needed to make an emergency call, but taught the kids how to do so from a locked phone's lockscreen. no games, but research is allowed sparingly. regular calls are usually handled at home, when it doesn't interrupt our activities/conversations with the kids. getting 8 hours (battery) of screen on time is normal for both of our smartphones, but they rarely see more than two hours a day, caching/hiking included. a quick charger replenishes either phone in two hours or both in about three and a half. pokemon has been great so far. the kids have really enjoyed meeting other people and searching new places along trails. i was surprised how much more fun it was vs looking for another static geocache that was placed solely to be difficult to find, instead of fun. i bet this is a big portion of the reason the apps been downloaded fifty million times since release. fifty million. wow. I'm sure it's a fun game, given how popular it is, but I can't toss out all of the family rules and routines we have around devices just because there's a new game. Just not the right thing for us. We don't use phones for geocaching either, because of ruggedness and battery issues. We each have our own GPS. I'll skip the "but it isn't rugged!" since that was fixed about for years ago, but how is playing pg against family rules and routines, but caching is OK?

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone? I just don't use my phone that way very much if I can't plug it in. I may need to call someone or look up something important and the phone is no use to me if it's dead. I know other people use their phones more heavily away from home and allow their children to use them, but that doesn't work for me. i can't remember the last time i needed to make an emergency call, but taught the kids how to do so from a locked phone's lockscreen. no games, but research is allowed sparingly. regular calls are usually handled at home, when it doesn't interrupt our activities/conversations with the kids. getting 8 hours (battery) of screen on time is normal for both of our smartphones, but they rarely see more than two hours a day, caching/hiking included. a quick charger replenishes either phone in two hours or both in about three and a half. pokemon has been great so far. the kids have really enjoyed meeting other people and searching new places along trails. i was surprised how much more fun it was vs looking for another static geocache that was placed solely to be difficult to find, instead of fun. i bet this is a big portion of the reason the apps been downloaded fifty million times since release. fifty million. wow. I'm sure it's a fun game, given how popular it is, but I can't toss out all of the family rules and routines we have around devices just because there's a new game. Just not the right thing for us. We don't use phones for geocaching either, because of ruggedness and battery issues. We each have our own GPS.

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone? I just don't use my phone that way very much if I can't plug it in. I may need to call someone or look up something important and the phone is no use to me if it's dead. I know other people use their phones more heavily away from home and allow their children to use them, but that doesn't work for me. i can't remember the last time i needed to make an emergency call, but taught the kids how to do so from a locked phone's lockscreen. no games, but research is allowed sparingly. regular calls are usually handled at home, when it doesn't interrupt our activities/conversations with the kids. getting 8 hours (battery) of screen on time is normal for both of our smartphones, but they rarely see more than two hours a day, caching/hiking included. a quick charger replenishes either phone in two hours or both in about three and a half. pokemon has been great so far. the kids have really enjoyed meeting other people and searching new places along trails. i was surprised how much more fun it was vs looking for another static geocache that was placed solely to be difficult to find, instead of fun. i bet this is a big portion of the reason the apps been downloaded fifty million times since release. fifty million. wow.

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone? I just don't use my phone that way very much if I can't plug it in. I may need to call someone or look up something important and the phone is no use to me if it's dead. I know other people use their phones more heavily away from home and allow their children to use them, but that doesn't work for me. I try to not leave the house without my portable charger in tow (the thing is a beast but I can get 4-5 full charges for my phone off of it). I don't have my nose constantly buried in my phones screen when I'm out but some apps, especially Pokemon Go, are real battery drains. Even more so if it's a sunny day and you have to turn the screen brightness way up. If you only use your phone sparingly, a small lipstick sized charger is great for emergency uses and peace of mind. I had one and the one time I wanted to use it, it was out of charge. Not a useful option for me, but I can see how they are useful for people who play phone games or use their devices more heavily than I do. I just can't relenquish my phone to a child for the purpose of playing a game. It's my phone.

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone? I just don't use my phone that way very much if I can't plug it in. I may need to call someone or look up something important and the phone is no use to me if it's dead. I know other people use their phones more heavily away from home and allow their children to use them, but that doesn't work for me. I try to not leave the house without my portable charger in tow (the thing is a beast but I can get 4-5 full charges for my phone off of it). I don't have my nose constantly buried in my phones screen when I'm out but some apps, especially Pokemon Go, are real battery drains. Even more so if it's a sunny day and you have to turn the screen brightness way up. If you only use your phone sparingly, a small lipstick sized charger is great for emergency uses and peace of mind.

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone? I just don't use my phone that way very much if I can't plug it in. I may need to call someone or look up something important and the phone is no use to me if it's dead. I know other people use their phones more heavily away from home and allow their children to use them, but that doesn't work for me.

And here i thought i was the only person on the planet who pretty much only used my phone to, you know,, talk on! I use my phone for all sorts of stuff when I'm at home or work or otherwise close to a charger. When I'm out and about, it's put away and only used when needed. All the other features are nice, but it is, primarily, a phone. Smartphones have been touted as "the end of boredom." On the hand, some say we're losing our creativity by being entertained. (No, that was inane 1950's television that turned our minds to mush. ) However, while sitting waiting for an appointment, if there are no good magazines and no one to talk with, what should we do, practice origami with dollar bills or broaden our knowledge with a smartphone?

My family is 10 (highly supportive) and 0 (ABSOLUTELY refuses to participate). They do nice things like let me talk about the hobby to them and others, support my geocaching YouTube channel, and help me host my big GIFF event in a movie theater each year (they attend and run the entry table while I'm greeting everyone). So, they're awesome and supportive. But they do not enjoy finding geocaches.

A question then. Since, in my particular case, everything did go my way, would it be realistic to dismiss my beliefs as strawmen? A few examples: When the Seminole County Natural Lands folks learned about geocaching, they wanted it ended entirely on their properties. Along with a Reviewer and a UCF professor, I sat down with the head dude and we eased their concerns about the hobby, and helped them hammer out a geocaching policy based on facts, not fears. When the Senior Forester of the Little Big Econ State Forest found out about caching, he too wanted it ended. He demanded that all geocaches be removed from their forest, immediately. I sat down with him, and a couple hours later, got his total ban turned into a moratorium against future caches. Then, I spent a couple years getting the moratorium lifted, and a permit process set in place. Now, I act as a volunteer for the Florida Forestry Service, issuing these permits. When Seminole County Parks & Recreation found out about the hobby, they were inquisitive. I was able to convince them that the existing guidelines, enforced by Groundspeak, would protect their interests, and free them from having to deal with a permit system. The local dude in charge of issuing permits for the St. Johns River Water Management District recently expressed concerns that one player was dominating an entire geographic region with, in my opinion, less than stellar hides. I sat down with him and suggested several avenues he could take to avoid this happening again. I haven't heard back yet, if he's opted to implement those changes, but I'm hopeful. When the National Forest Service decided they would impose a fairly steep fee for each cache placed, I researched the rules which were cited in the creation of this fee. Then I started a letter writing campaign all the way up the food chain, demonstrating that the logic trail of the person who cited the rule in question was flawed. The head dude agreed, and now three national forests are open to caching again. All that text was not to blow my own horn. Instead, I wished to demonstrate that I have gotten directly involved, several times, with senior land managers, in a bid to preserve this hobby for future enthusiasts. I not only talk the talk. I also walk the walk. As such, suggesting that I came up with a derogatory motivation for some land managers as a strawman is a bit absurd. Riffster, take a step back. I wasn't calling your observations unfounded. It's just a little tiresome as someone behind the curtain to hear more of the "it's punative and bureucratic" talk. Like I said, in my personal experinence--as well as supported by your examples, it wasn't punitive. It wasn't unnecessarily bureaucratic. People in general like to use that straw man, but you and I see how we can work within the construct of the systems to find common ground and keep land open, open land for use, or develop processes that can protect and maintain the mission-oriented outputs a station wants and needs to have in place. My use of your quote was not intended to call you out more than to add what I said about a third option. That much was "calling you out". And that much was pretty soft, because we agree about this subject. Read it for what I said, and realize that part of it was a response, and the rest of it was a statement put out to the rest of the readers here. You and I are like minded on this subject so far as I can tell...save for the one-of-two options you laid out.

The title of the thread is the pertinent topic here, not the subjective quality of the caches that are being placed. If you're going to talk about "numbers", then you need, well, numbers, not subjective determinations about the quality of new caches. No one is asking if the number of new quality caches is decreasing and there's absolutely no way that this could be determined, as what makes a quality cache is so subjective to likes and dislikes of individual cachers. Apparently you didn't read the title of this thread. Tell this to @barefootjeff (or any other cacher in an area with not many caches and not much hiding activity), who finds that the number of caches available for them to find is finite and will cause them to either travel extensively to find more caches or hope that someone discovers geocaching in their area and starts placing more caches or someone new moves in and starts placing caches. When there are a limited amount of caches in an area and that number continues to decline, it absolutely affects caching, regardless of whether or not it's all about the numbers. Those experiences you hope that people can enjoy won't be there for them to enjoy or will be very limited in scope.

Sure, talk it over with them. Maybe they think it makes sense. Maybe mom planted the cache and the kid really did run out and find it as soon as it was published. I think it would be fun to find out and an easy way to meet them. They aren't adversaries or opponents, just people you're playing a game with. If you decide the FTF was invalid, then just ignore it. I'd try to make my FTF claim lighthearted. Maybe say "first to find after members of the CO's family" in the log. You get to decide if you're FTF. The CO doesn't have to approve your claim.

Oh we've had instances of proxy-maintenance being noticed by reviewers and being dealt with. It gets to the point that people won't mention in find logs that the cache was missing and so a replacement was set in place (whether knowing beforehand or not, with permission or not). It happens. And when it happens regularly, and the CO continues to allow it as if it's the norm, then reviewers will take action. At least around here. Now, I suppose it depends on what style of 'maintenance' is happening -- replacement caches (throwdowns or condoned) will likely get quicker action than other people merely replacing wet/full logs. But the underlying point remains - if a CO repeatedly allows others to 'maintain' their caches, they could face repercussive action by reviewers. But my thinking is it's one of those things that can be discussed since it's really a matter of CO reasoning and judgments, how bad the situation is, how it affects the community, and well, whether that cacher is in the reviewers' good books or not (how they've demonstrated their cache ownership ethics in the past). The base point is - you're the cache owner, YOU do the maintenance. There can be exceptions to that rule, and it may be possible to set a different approved maintenance plan in place, but that basic responsibility exists - the cache owner does cache maintenance. Stray from that and you risk repercussions. Always, the best course of action otherwise is to talk to your local reviewer. Positively and respectfully. It goes a long way.

More to the point, what do you call the people who you think are geocaching but when you talk to them you realise they're actually just shuffling around near a cache on their smartphone?

This discussion came up yesterday, but unfortunately the thread was closed. I also would like to talk about false or odd ratings. For reference: Discussing false ratings in a forum post is absolutely up for discussion, and has been discussed many times. Without getting into details, that's not all that was happening with that particular discussion, which is why that particular thread was closed.

This discussion came up yesterday, but unfortunately the thread was closed. I also would like to talk about false or odd ratings. For reference:

It looks fine to me. My only reaction is that any one of those requirements would make a good challenge cache, so putting them all together seems like overkill. If I knew you better, I'd try to talk you into doing 5 different wonderful challenge caches about those attributes instead of just the one. But if you're going to do just the one, and you really think the final location is good enough for that challenge, I think it sounds great. I doubt I'd satisfy the requirements, but I might be closer if I lived in your neck of the woods.

Furthermore, it creates problems with challenge-caches especially those covering number of countries covered. Note these states number of 'countries'. So I'd expect Northen Ireland would count toward this, however Project GC still shows my finds in Northern Ireland as part of another _country_... There is no talk in the challenge caches about 'political territories' or anything else. While I agree upon the ease relating to PQ's, searches and such. That has absolutely no bearing to souvenirs nor countries in the relation to challenges...