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Agree with the three headed dog on this one. Also would add to avoid a call to action. OK to talk factually about CAP; not OK to ask finders to do anything other than find a cache, such as "Take a moment to think about..." If your reviewer has issues, they will let you know. Please give them the benefit of a doubt if they ask you to scale back your description, reviewers are responsible for implementing the guidelines, which prohibit any agenda. I like CAP - I was at Maxwell AFB for three years and am familiar with their mission - but we stay away from agendas here.

The events themselves didn't directly encourage people to place cache listings for the event. They were themed events that were to encourage creation of better geocaches and ideas. People can still host events just like that today if they wish - they just can't directly promote creating geocache listings (publish one cache to gain entry, eg). Those event caches were indeed judged to a degree by a reviewer and hq to become an 'approved' event for the promo period. (not that there were any strict requirements other than the event date - plenty were just "come have a coffee and talk about geocaches" flash mobs) In a sense the promo did encourage the 'hosting of lame events' just for a souvenir; but lame events aren't like 'lame geocaches' anyway. Don't attend them, they go away The key distinction is between how to make better caches vs encouragement to create geocache listings. The former is acceptable, the latter isn't.

Ah, appeal to authority! In theory, the clue types themselves could be connected to a cache property; maybe even the jewels (by colour?). Who know. Bryan Roth was on Geocache Talk on Sunday discussing the promo. I don't recall any clarification to the clue placement algorithm though. (I was partly distracted by paddling in a kayak at the time, heh)

Since you mention freezing, IF you have a tick that has latched on, I always put it in a baggie and freeze it. If you have any signs of anything of disease, the tick can be tested. At least, that is what I heard. I did this religiously when I found one latched onto my kids when they were little. I overheard one of their friends ask my son what that was (when they were snooping in the fridge/freezer). My son said, "Oh, that's our tick.". ha ha. Gotta give the neighbors something to talk about, I guess.

Because jellis is using a small stamp, and he (the CO) hasn't said anything about size being the problem, I think his reasoning against the use of stamps is that people are using the 'divide-and-conquer' group caching style of play in his area. It's done to get more smiley points. A stamp with the groups name is made and each member carries a group stamp. The group's ethos is that at least one person did get to ground zero and found the cache (or in some cases depending on the ethos of the group, at least one person got to ground zero and left a throwdown with the group's name). Sometimes this behavior is assumed by the CO when the group find a huge number of caches in a day and all log generic logs not mentioning a visit to each of the caches. Sometimes the CO hears about the groups practices through the grapevine from other sites like Facebook, or perhaps talk that goes around at events. The CO cannot do anything about this practice. They must allow it. They can not insist that finders write their individual trailnames as more concrete proof that they actually visited the cache.

Hi! I recently posted in the "Lurkers" of Geocaching topic about a month ago about getting back to Geocaching, but also making a film about it. I'm actually looking for anyone in the US who might be willing to be interviewed about Geocaching. A little about the film and myself - I'm a graduate student in the Science and Natural History Filmmaking Program at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana (if you're interested in the program itself I'm also more than happy to talk with you about it - we started with a grant from Discovery and have many alumni at Nat. Geo, Discovery, NASA, non-profs, etc.). I'm currently working on my thesis film with the topic of the relationship between people and technology in terms of nature/the wild/the outdoors. I am going to talk about 'nature deficit-disorder' (a term coined by Richard Louv to describe how younger people have become separated and impacted by the lack of nature and unstructured play in nature) and how technology can actually get people outdoors or enhance their experience. Basically, I'm looking for people who are willing to be interviewed about geocaching and who want to tell their stories about geocaching and why they love it. If you have any questions about the film or the program, let me know and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible! Despite the lack in finds that I have, I always wanted to make a film about Geocaching especially to get people outdoors. Also, before I forget, I am preferably looking for people nearby Montana, but I am open to possibly traveling farther. Maybe even snag a couple more caches nearby too

I have an idea for an earthcache based on one I found in another state, but which can easily be replicated in my home state. I have a location and some general information, but I'd like to discuss my topic with someone who is knowledgeable about earthcaches before I go through the process of writing it up and submitting it, in the hopes that I can do it right the first time. Are there any earthcache 'mentors' out there who are willing to talk about submission guidelines and offer pointers on what makes a good earthcache? I know that there are websites and some FAQ pages available, but I work better with discussion and feedback.

That's true. I can't promote directly. But if all fails just let me know and I will talk with Groundspeak to get the new officer promoted.

Well, there's Cindy, a TB made from a cinder block, but we don't talk about her weight. There's also "Barry", a 3 foot long piece of railroad track.

The first hands-on videos, the Garmin press videos and the Garmin news mail only talk about GPS and glonass.

I can't imagine why they'd bother to shut people up, since if they're doing such research, it's all to their advantage to let people talk about how much research they're doing. But even if they were, I would expect to hear about the nondisclosure agreements whether people could talk about the actual questions asked or not. They do. Last year before the block party you could sign up for a session to explore changes to geocaching. This was covered by a NDA, the participants could not discuss what was said and really could not discuss that they were chosen. GS is a privately held company that likes to keep things close to their chest.

the new notifications stink. I hate the new green, and all the space in between. In reply to the moderator, I have only been catching for 1.5 years, and I find these changes to be for the worse. I only have basic knowledge of computers, to all this talk about reformatting my email and html and other tech talk is lost on me. I hate that I have to add a click to read logs now on the web page of a cache. Also, is anyone else emailing Groundspeak about the changes, or are just complaining here? I suggest emailing as well. Hopefully someone will listen.

I can't imagine why they'd bother to shut people up, since if they're doing such research, it's all to their advantage to let people talk about how much research they're doing. But even if they were, I would expect to hear about the nondisclosure agreements whether people could talk about the actual questions asked or not.

Ok... I found some joke stuff for the Dutch people! I hope y friends from the netherlands will not be offended! They are only jokes I found!!! Since the list is big, my post will be huge! Sorry for that! I hope you will enjoy reading it! If not..sorry!! How To Deal With Dutch People (1) Many foreigners call everything Dutch…well…'Dutch'. Don't! The word Dutch reminds Dutch people of the word Duits which is used for Germans and other things he dislikes. A Dutch person is a Hollander or a Nederlander. (2) As a foreigner, don't ever try to speak Dutch. Not only will you get an enormous headache but the Hollanders will not understand what you mean. Foreigners are supposed to speak English or Gibberish. In the latter case they will be an easy target for pickpockets since they will not be able to talk to the police. (3) Don't ever try to eat 'drop'. (Dutch Licorice) Drop is a sort of candy that can only be eaten by Hollanders. It can be recognized by the colour: black. The taste is a blend between earwax and paint (black). Hollanders absolutely adore the stuff and eat many kilo's of it. There is a nationwide conspiracy to look at the faces of foreigners that were made to believe the stuff is actually edible. (4) Don't buy wooden shoes. They will look completely ridiculous. Which is the reason they will try to sell them to you. A Hollander himself would not want to be found dead wearing them.(Preferably a Hollander doesn't want to be found dead at all). (5) Don't make holes in the dikes. Such behaviour is commonly disapproved and in extreme cases it can get you stoned by wooden shoes. But feel free to put your finger in the dike if you feel the urge. It will at least get you a few laughs from the natives. (6) A Hollander is always right and he knows it. With this in mind it is very easy to cope with most Hollanders. If you ever get in an argument with a Hollander, tell him he was absolutely right and that you now realize how wrong you were. Now he will go crazy: Since you're a foreigner, you can never be right. You agree with him, therefore he couldn't be right. Impossible. He's a Hollander. But…then…he…Now is the time to take a step back and observe how the Hollander will try to strangle himself with a tulip. (7) Mills are inevitable. (8) It is not necessary to fake interest for tulips, mills, wooden shoes or cheese. Every Hollander knows you came for the soft drugs and the Amsterdam red-light district. Both are widely spread and easy to find. Just ask any Hollander over age 6 or a French tourist. (See points 19 and 20) (9) Avoid soccer fans at all times. Soccer in Holland is just an excuse to crush the skulls of practically everybody else, including yours. This mainly takes place when the game is lost…or tied…or won. It is extremely foolish to stand next to a cop during these festivities (see point 10) Also remember never to mention the 1974 cup finals near a Hollander. He will instantly pull you into a long-lasting litany about how good 'Orange' played then and how good…blablablabla… (10)Cops in Holland are mainly used to throw stuff at. If you get the uncontrollable desire to hit someone, take on a cop. No Hollander will pay any attention if you hit a cop, put a knife in his cranium or firmly kick him in the butt. Cops represent authority and not one Hollander recognizes a higher authority then himself. You will notice the fact that most cops are actually foreigners that were lured into this job. (11)Hollanders do not like spending money. They would rather cut of an ear. A Hollander will be your friend for life if you give him something for free. This might explain the great success of McDonalds in Holland. The story that copper wire is an invention of two Hollanders fighting over a found cent is absolutely true. (12)Holland is small. It is sometimes rumoured that Holland is so small they take it inside when it's raining. This is not true because it rains 365 days a year. This also explains the wooden shoes: they float. Yes…Holland is small and Hollanders are very proud of it. They will use any opportunity to say that Holland accomplished such great things for such a small country. A fitting answer would be to refer to it's colonial past. Which brings us to point 13. (13)If you want to insult a Hollander - and sooner or later you will want to - tell him you don't think he's a pacifist. Now start running for your life. He will not stop trying to prove he's the most peace-loving person in the world until your intestines are on the street. As mentioned earlier, mentioning the so-called colonial past in Suriname or Indonesia, will instantly reduce the Hollander to a sniffling child, begging for forgiveness. (14)Hollanders are supposed to be tolerant. Nonsense. They just make too much money selling drugs and Malaysian women, to miss the opportunity to make so much profit. (15)The most important way of public transportation in Holland is the bicycle. Feel free to take any bike of which you can pick the lock. Just don't expect your own bike to be in the same spot where you parked it 3 minutes earlier. Hunting season for bikes is open 365 days a year. Good luck! (16)At almost every bread meal in Holland you will find a mean looking big knife with a sharp slide in it. It is called a 'kaasschaaf' and is used to cut very thin slices of cheese (Yes, it's a Dutch invention). Never cut cheese with a regular knife, you will make yourself completely ridiculous. Another typical eating tool is the so-called bottlescraper. Beware, don't use it for that annoying itch on your back. It's designed to scrape the last bits of yoghurt or mayonnaise out of the bottle. A Hollander will use every millimeter of the product he bought. He paid for it, he'll eat it, no matter what. (17)At the time this was written, the Dutch economy was doing pretty good. Hollanders maintain the idea that this is the result of intensive negotiations between different parties like unions, employers and politicians. They even have a name for it: the poldermodel. One likes to convince foreigners this poldermodel is the key to a successful economy and if those same foreigners would be smart enough to follow their example, their economy would be flourishing as well. This is a load of crap. Hollanders just like to talk, talk, talk. By calling all this chattering negotiating they give themselves the impression they're doing something useful. Talk is never cheap in Holland. (18)Hollanders drown fried patato-sticks (Chips) in litres of mayonnaise and put it in a pointed paper bag. This is called : Een patatje met. One such bag is able to keep you alive for an unlimited period of time. It is only uncertain if this is a life worth living. But there have been sightings of tourists actually enjoying a patatje met. (19)Holland has a unique service for -mainly- France tourist. At the moment they pass the border, they are enthusiastically welcomed by youngsters in fast cars. These youngsters have the explicit wish to show these tourists the way to the many interesting tourist-attractions Holland has to offer. Strangly, they always end up in a coffee-shop or drug house though. (see point 20) Weird people, the French. (20)There is a fast and foolproof way of embarrassing yourself in Holland.Enter a coffeeshop and ask for a cappuccino with a biscuit. Coffeeshops -remember this- do not sell coffee. They do however have a large variety of stimulating products at reasonable prices. For unknown reasons, coffeeshops are very popular amongst young French tourists. (21)A 'Fries' is a sort of spare-Hollander that lives in the north in a province all for themselves. They love frozen water, Beerenburg (a form of euthanasia with alcohol) and endlessly pointing out that other Hollanders are not Fries. The rest of Holland looks at this behaviour the same way parents will look at an obstinate child. (22)When it comes to what books to bring to Holland, I would advise the following:The complete works of William Shakespeare or a leather-bound part of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (part Fr to He of the 1913 edition). Both books have about the proper weight to keep a pushy pimp or dealer away from you with a well aimed swing. After this I would advice you to drop the book since this greatly improves your speed during your getaway. Make sure you bring enough books. (23)Don't bother renting a car. Not only will you be able to steal more bikes then you can use but car traffic in Holland is not something to enjoy. Where the rest of the world uses kilometres to express the lengths of traffic jams, in Holland these are measured in weeks. To be honest, the most steadfast ones are worth a visit. The sight of starving people in an expensive Mercedes can greatly improve your mood if your somewhat philosophical. Bring some pieces of bread to throw through the open windows. The fights over them are often very spectacular. (24)In contradiction of many rumours, it is not legal to bring your mother in law to Holland for do-it-yourself euthanasia. Tourists are warned not to take matters into their own hands. (25)Whether you're catholic, Muslim or worshipper of Urrrgl the god of all Honest politicians, in Holland it will be easy to find a church, temple or oak tree of your liking. Hollanders are supposed to be very tolerant to other religions and believes. This is not true. The only reason Holland has so much churches, sects or cults is the fact they have a difference in opinion about everything. A Hollander is always right (see point 6) and everyone that does not agree can beat it and start his own church. (26)Holland is a kingdom.It just doesn't have a king but a queen and her husband is not king but a prince. The queen does not rule -much- but she's very capable in cutting ribbons and visiting other countries. She is also very decorative at state banquettes. Her son, the crown prince, will take over if she stops queening. His wife in turn will be queen so that Holland will finally have a king and queen again.April 30 is queensday but it is not the birthday of the queen but princes Juliana's, who used to be queen. With things like this it's only logical that more and more people want Holland to be a republic. Queensday, by the way, is just an excuse to drink lots of beer and sell all their old junk on the streets. (27)It would be wise to learn how to swim before you come to Holland.No, the dikes will hold, that's not the problem, but the large amount of lakes, streams, rivers canals and creaks could lead to painful mistakes. That shiny new strip of asphalt you're turning on to with your car during rain might not be an asphalt road at all. (28)Dutch painting.Dutch painters get famous after they die. This is a very sensible rule from the buyers point of view. Not only will the artist have to make a lot of paintings to earn a living, it also produces some very nice investments. The painters however do not share this opinion and in at least one case this lead to selfmutalation of an ear. (29)If one of your Dutch friends invites you for a birthday, prepare for a unique experience. Unique in the way that you can only compare it to taking a seat in a wooden chair with a sharp nail driven trough the seat and afterwards not being able to move for a month. More then one foreigner has been driven to the brink of madness by attending a Dutch birthday. The regular Dutch birthday party consists mainly of sitting still and talking to others about your job, your car, politics and foreigners. You are expected to leave somewhere about 23:00 and you will be grateful you can. (30)Holland has more cities then Amsterdam.There is…eh…and…Well, there are more cities. (31)Dutch beer has built up quite reputation for itself. Some people even drink it! Brewing is on of the things Hollanders are traditionally very good at. Holland has never been a country where anything was more interesting then drinking yourself half blind or painting landscapes. This made the beer industry very popular rapidly. Expert say that once you've tasted Dutch beer like Heiniken, Grolsch or Amstel, all other kinds of beer taste like tap water in a lousy hotel. (32)Dutch tap water is safe to drink. This is remarkable if you realise most of it comes from polluted rivers like the Rhine. Plans to improve the waterquality in the Rhine so that fish like the salmon can return there to mate, invokes a lot of protests from the Dutch. The idea of fish having sex in their drinking water upsets them. (33)Dutch political debates are as boring as a 3-day lecture on famous Swedish sport heroes between 1762 and 1809.No shouting like 'Hear hear!!', no fistfights in front of a camera, not even politicians calling each other incompetent once in a while. (And there really are some amongst Dutch politicians). No, telling your opponent you have doubts about his policy is about the worst thing you can say. The result is that the interest for elections dropped drastically amongst Dutch voters. At the last voting only two elects showed up. The first one got lost on his way to the toilet and the second one was an illegal refugee who thought he came to the right place to get a visa.

If it is a right of way easement, then the land still belongs to the landowner, the government just has the legal right to build and maintain a road there, and people have the right to drive on it. So you'd ask the landowner then. Sometimes the property might actually change hands, though. For interstate highways, it's normally not just an easement, the government takes title to the land through eminent domain. So if you wanted to put a cache in, say, a rest area, In those cases, the state department of transportation might need to give permission. It may be worth it to reach out to some of the local cache owners to get a feel for what they had to do. One last note - the caching guidelines talk about "adequate" permission, not explicit. So if a county has an open geocaching policy on park land, you don't need to ask, just make sure your cache follows whatever rules the county put out there.

For the past 15 years I have owned 2 GPS units that I used for marking fishing spots on the lake. It was not until my 3 boys all got active in the Boy Scouts and were introduced to Geocaching at a BSA event they attended. The next week we decided to try it out. My Garmin GPSmap 76csx did have a geocache option. It did take a while for my computer (using Vista) to update with the latest firmware for the systems to talk back and forth. Last Saturday I told the boys we were going out to look for some caches, it was a little tough to pull them off their xBox after all the games they got for Xmas. So we headed out and we found 7 out of 10 caches. My boys loved it. Sunday my boys came to me and asked to do it again. I was shocked and almost a tear came to my eyes. Going outside vs xBox? We did not pay for an account here. Some cache hiders will only release coordinates to paying members, but others do allow it. These were the ones we found. So it depends on what cache you hunt. Also it takes a little patience setting up the unit to talk to your PC. Don't give up, it is a ton of fun!

Hi RaeRobyn, you could create an event in your area to meet up with other local cachers and talk to them directly. I was thinking of doing this. I went to school in Gloucester which isn’t relevant to your question but partly why I posted a reply!

Sorry that I think out loud and work through problems. But since you like to take personal jabs instead of finding out if there's actually anything worthwhile to respond to, I'll just quote the last part of my brainstorm which sums up the thought process (but I recommend you read the prior paragraph or two just to have context and the 'why', which you probably won't do given your reply but hey, worth encouraging it anyway): As for souvenirs as they are now, I hope they don't stay with just that. The system already exists, and unless they develop automated stats checkers internally, going with that would be essentially a complete end to "challenge caching". If they develop checkers, then they have to deal with the issues raised earlier, and even so it would be nothing like challenge caches as they currently exist. You've really just given my argument more merit...because it's all just a bunch of frustration and debate and nobody seems to be in agreement. Nobody wants to work through a complicated arrangement. Nobody wants to worry about "finds" versus "qualifications" and the implications of separating the two. Perhaps I overgeneralize when I say "nobody", because there certainly ARE those who seem to think it's worth discussing ad infinitum, but I think those folks come here to the forums to talk about it while the other 99.9% would roll their collective eyeballs at the amount of hand-wringing and knicker-twisting that goes on in here. Don't take such offense when I talk about your seemingly endless posts. Your prolixity is admirable, but like I said, most people won't read through it because it doesn't seem to drive home any simple, succinct points. You can expound on the merits or faults of any given proposal, but your way of meandering about the point gets tedious and your point - which may or may not be valid, I won't judge - gets lost. Take it as constructive criticism instead of getting offended.

Can you talk to the cache owner again? Since they know it's not there anymore, if they'd archive it, that would save you a lot of steps.

Same here. I receive and send on average five emails a day in this hobby. Most are people who don't/won't enter the forums. All my other communication is by email as well. People talk to me on the phone too.

Maybe you are right. I encountered these two phrases in some kind of a corporate talk and they were used interchangeably there.

The bit I've highlighted in red is probably what scares me most about this cache quality push, not so much for my own hides which I visit fairly regularly anyway just for my own satisfaction that all's well (and because I put them in places I like to visit), but for some of the excellent ones I've enjoyed over the years that are well-made, well-concealed from muggles and simply don't need regular maintenance. A nano in a busy city might need its log scroll and/or seal replaced every few months, but the same isn't true of a remotely-placed rugged cache with a proper logbook that might only get a couple of visits a year. To fill in a dull evening last week (and to avoid all the endless political talk about our Federal election), I went through the hundred caches I've given FPs to. Of those, 9 have been archived, 23 have had some maintenance done during their life, but the other 68 as best I could tell have never had any maintenance at all (no NMs logged and the only OMs just said everything's fine). They're still the original container with its original logbook and are still in great condition. These aren't just all new caches either; of the ones that haven't been archived, 41 are more than 5 years old and 9 of those are more than 10 years old. The oldest was placed in 2001 and, after being replaced in 2002 following a fire, hasn't had or needed any attention since. A good container in a hiding place protecting it from the elements and muggles will last pretty much indefinitely without any owner attention, so it really doesn't matter whether the owner is responsible and still active or not, the cache remains there to be enjoyed by generations of cachers to come. I'd hate to see any well-intentioned enforcement of regular maintenance designed to rid the world of decrepit micros result in the loss of many of these fine caches either because their owners have left the game or are unwilling to put in the often substantial effort needed to visit them regularly when there's no need to.

But what if I really really need to talk to you? Just kidding. It would be nice if there was an Ignore All Messages option.

yes and no. as there's no other category to choose, you have to choose micro for nanos. that's one thing and relates to the guidelines and to the selectable categories only. the other thing (reality) is what people say and what people mean. if people say "micro" and talk about those, they almost invariably talk about film can sized containers. if instead they mean to talk about containers that are much much smaller than that, they will say "nano" and talk about those. this is reality. language is reality. there's plenty of posts in this very thread which demonstrate exactly that. guidelines are guidelines and do not necessarily appropriately reflect reality. they just tell you what you're supposed to select on the web page, but that doesn't mean that in reality one equals another when at the same time there's a clear distinction in everybody's mind.

I like it. Until I don't get drawn and then I will talk mad trash about everyone who got one! ;) Actually, the nice thing about 2.0 is that won't be the case. I will know I didn't randomly get drawn and there isn't anything you can do about it. However, I would like to see this applied to webcam caches. People with over 25 webcam caches and who opt in get drawn to make a new list of webcam caches. I would love that...because I have found over 25 webcam caches! However, that took a lot of miles and work. It was not easy. I love webcam caches!