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I've held events to go after a series of caches (like this one). We all had to meet up a a central location to head out, so might as well make it a meet-up where we can eat. That way, we all get at the right spot at the right time, and even the locals that won't or can't make the cache trip has an excuse to stop by and talk for awhile. As a personal guideline, I've never logged "attended" on events that I host, so it's never a "numbers" benefit to me.

@DrDick&Vick, it was a security flaw in FB which was one of the reasons I left it years ago, people who I definitely did not want to have certain details of mine obtained them. Some would say that was my fault for entering the info into the site, and I would agree with them mostly, but that's in the past. Reason for resurrecting this old thread is this... There is a wealth of information to be found in these forums including a section which is meant to be informative about UK and regional caching organisations. If you click from the main pages of geocaching.com and select 'Local Organisations' you are taken to a thread on these main forums with a list of countries. From there any new member or anyone who wants to know more about caching in the UK can click on our country and are taken to this sticky thread. The thread is now nearly a 150 posts long. There are various groups mentioned which no longer exist. It would be great if that thread could be tidied up by someone, can the moderators do this? Ideally so that the first post is nice and tidy with a list of links to the various groups in the UK similar to the GAGB site list, and kept up together as people list new groups, and report old group deletions. Whatever my views on FB, and I do feel I am in the minority so will not harp on about them too much, the fact is that FB is a separate entity to geocaching.com. It is a social media platform. Net history has shown that all social media platforms eventually decline. A lot of caching talk has moved to FB, I have seen that through other's accounts, but the younger generation are pulling away from the platform and moving to other newer (cooler) ones, I am seeing this through my own children and their friends and recent reports on the net are saying the same thing. Wherever the main talk currently is at, I feel this forum, as it is still the place Groundspeak directs people to for info, is the main hub and should be clearly laid out. There is no point directing a teenager about to hide their first cache to a FB group for help when they've recently abandoned the platform for another.

To answer the Original Poster, Geocaching is not dead, it is just ever evolving. Urban caching requires nano's and micro's or the homeless, children and other's will muggle it in no time. I have hidden everything from the black nano's to five gallon buckets. Sometimes, my hide is about the LOCATION and not the cache itself. Other times, it is about the fancy cache container. While power trails are about the numbers, while power trail caching, I have seen herds of wild horses, herds of wild antelope, snakes, scorpions, spiders, old buildings, old rail road tracks, thunder storms, dust storms, and so much more. Things you won't see under a lamp shade post across the street from Disneyland. But if you are visiting Disneyland, it's nice to grab a quick one nearby. I have done power trails solo, with 2 of us, 3 of us and with 4 of us. The best time is with 4 as the social aspect is really active. We bring folding chairs and a picnic basket for lunch. We trade stories. We trade ideas. We even talk investing. I guess I really enjoy the many friends I have made geocaching and I have cached with over 150 different people!

I'm not referring to people who don't want geocaches hidden on their property or public officials who may want certain geocaches removed. I'm talking about those who know what geocaches are and are against them on a fundamental level across the board for whatever reason. They don't like them, they don't want them in nature, they think they're dangerous, they don't want to see them, or any other similar reason. Anti-cachers would fall into this category. Those that know what geocaching is and deliberately take or destroy them for personal reasons. I have not met any in person but I have seen and spoken to them online. Generally I've found it's a belief that geocaches don't belong in nature and detract from the purity of the outdoors. They're very open about stealing or destroying any caches they find and don't seem to want to talk about or discuss it. I've encountered something similar with rock cairns I stack along hiking trails occasionally. I enjoy making them and I've been told people enjoy seeing them (a few times people have stopped walking to watch me make them in fact) but they never seem to last more than a day or two on one particular trail. A passerby told me that he had seen kids kicking them down before, which for some reason didn't bother me too much. I looked it up online though and saw a similar type of people to anti-cachers who don't like seeing any cairn in nature because they go into nature to get away from civilization and cairns are a reminder that other people had been there (a mode of thinking I can understand partially which is why I'm mindful of where I make them now.) Have you met, spoken to, or seen online any people like this? People who know what geocaching is and flat out hate what it is and do not think it should exist? Is there any way to change their minds? What do you say to people like this?

Geocaching Activity badge Is there anyone in the Prestatyn, North Wales area that would be interested in giving a brief talk to our Scout group - 3rd Prestatyn? The Scout Association has launched some new badges this year and one is the Geocaching Activity Badge. I haven't done any caches for over 5 years so a little helpful reminder from some active geocachers would be welcome. We meet during school term time on Wednesday evenings. The badge will be a great way to introduce more young people to the treasure hunting joys of caching. As you can see from the link above the badge is quite detailed (myself and the other leaders will have our work cut out) but a brief talk from someone with experience locally would be ideal to wet their appetite. Thanks in anticipation Jane

You are mistaken. Garmins can handle multiple gpx files. In fact, when you use the 'Send to GPS' feature, it just creates a single gpx file for each cache that gets sent, so you can rack up hundreds or even thousands of gpx files quickly if you don't delete them. All of the communicator plugins - whether Garmin, Magellan, DeLorme, etc. were built on the NPAPI platform. It's NPAPI that is the problem, and any plugins and add-ons built on that platform are rendered obsolete as browsers disable support for the platform. Thus the Send to GPS function is affecting every GPS brand. While Garmin may have taken down any support or forums from DeLorme's old website, they can't control 3rd party forums where people go to talk about and get help with their GPS. For example, Garmin can't take down any posts on these geocaching forums related to DeLorme units. For such a common problem, I would have expected some mention of it somewhere on the internet, but it seems to be difficult to track down. It sounds like DeLorme may have had their own format for distinguishing geocaches, and the 'send to gps' feature may have converted the single gpx files to the proper format to be used with DeLorme. Meanwhile, loading a pocket query manually might have loaded the geocaches as waypoints instead? I don't know. Your best bet for full DeLorme support with geocaching will be to use GSAK to grab your pocket queries and single caches (via API search; all of this can be done within GSAK) to curate a library of geocaches in your area. GSAK can then export the geocaches to your DeLorme in bulk, even filtering out your finds, etc. using the proper file formats. It can even take care of those pesky special characters that are causing you problems. Your other option is to switch to a Garmin device.

When local cachers talk about completing the Fizzy Challenge, or the Jasmer Challenge, or the DeLorme Challenge, or any other challenge, they generally don't talk about finding the challenge cache. They talk about the last cache they found for the challenge itself: the remote cache with a rare difficulty-terrain combination, one of the last surviving caches hidden in a particular month almost 10 years ago, the lonely cache in a remote corner of the state, whatever. That's the finish line. With the Fizzy Challenge, that is probably true. But that's not a particular cache. That's a concept all on its own. The DeLorme Challenge, or the County Challenge are specific to one cache. I do not even remember which County was the last for me. (Of course, since we were First and Second to find on that one might make a difference.) Nor do I remember which DeLorme page was the last. It was finding the cache itself that mattered. Even more so on 'Log these particular 26 caches.' Obviously, your mileage varies.

Compared to the tens of thousands of logs that are submitted each day, the number of anecdotal reports of false positives in the forums is vanishingly-negligible. The sample size is far too low to make any meaningful conclusions. About all you can conclude is that - judging by the small number of people who have reported false positives - the system is working extremely well and is triggering very few false positives. Only a miniscule fraction of cachers participate on the forums, so for every false positive reported here there must be many more we don't hear about, indeed there must be enough for the reviewer at the recent mega to specifically talk about what to do when you get a CHS email but you know the cache is fine.

Cachers have a variety of justifications for using Note or DNF, some in no way consistent, and some just plain bizarre. Some start a stopwatch and if they only searched X minutes instead of X+1 minutes, “it's not a DNF”. If the entire area washed away in a flood, “it's not a DNF because I couldn't search because the whole side of the hill is gone”. I would never try to talk someone out of at least a Note log, because even a Note provides information. But I would like to smack some sense into them discuss ways someone might understand and communicate that they “Did Not Find” a cache, which is what the acronym “DNF” is.

No! You said - "A can not visit the coordinates" - end of story, in my opinion and as I choose to play. There's a difference between using a 'team' name so you didn't fill up a small logstrip with the names of everyone who was physically there, and using a 'team' name to get around the unfortunate sticking point that a name must be in the logbook. If Nick A was in California while Nick B was standing at the cache in Sweden, then Nick A has no business claiming the find. Period. I can't think of a single exception. How far would I take that? If I was standing at the base of a tree climb that I wasn't going to attempt, and my buddy was up there with the cache in hand, I would NOT have him sign my name. I DID NOT DO WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO TO CLAIM THE FIND. On the other hand, if I was standing with a group and there was nothing stopping me from putting my hand on the hide in situ, then I have no problem with claiming a group find, although I don't like to cache that way. I'm not so compulsive that I have to "clear my map" as others talk about.

I've been to a number of events. Yet, no one has ever forced me to listen to any conversation that I wasn't interested in. If you don't want to hear people talk about caches that they have found, wander over to someone else and talk to them. Your posts make it appear that you not only want to control the fun of others, but also what they talk about. Surely, this is not true. In the current scheme, no one forces anyone else to make any log or accept any log that they don't want to. There is no boogie man. I think we all understand exactly what was being said here....well, most of us at least.Could you explain it to the rest of us? It appeared to 'say' that the poster doesn't want to be subjected to offending conversation and, therefore, wishes to not allow others to decide what they like or not for fear that they may talk about their enjoyment within earshot of the poster.

Why on earth would you want to watch another cacher? Talk about creepy stalker behaviour. B. Well, I have a few caching friends who I keep tabs on regularly and they do the same with me. We like following each others' adventures when we aren't caching together which is never as often as we would like. It's kind of a virtual way of caching together and we talk about each others' experiences we read about when we finally do get together. Now, doing it with an openly available watchlist? No. What I would like to see is to be able to make this a feature of the "Friends" function. If you want to "Follow" someone you have to first "Friend" them. Then to follow that friend, you check a box or something and then they get a notification and have to allow it. If they do that, then you get an email for every log they submit. If they don't you get an email telling you they have chosen not to be "followed". There could also be a profile option to allow or disallow follow requests from friends in the first place. Another layer of permission.

Do you REALLY want to know??? Ok, My 'enter' button broke off. On Sept. 11th I called Magellan. It was under warrenty. It is an Explorist 100. I was told they are not repairing them, but would upgrade me to an Explorist 400. Fine. He needed my credit card 'as an assurance I would send the old unit back within 30 days" Sucker that I am. I gave it to him after 3 assurances it would NOT be run thru. I now have 6 PAGES of phone calls back and forth. I was told EVERY SINGLE week I would DEFINATELY rec. unit by Friday of that week (TODAY is Nov.10th) Call back on Mon/Tue. for a tracking number for UPS. When I call back I am told they cannot get that number since "their new system does not show that information". One week I was told it would DEFINATELY be there by Friday (this was a Thurs.) I told her GREAT then it will be here by tomorrow! She hesitated and said well, Sat. by the latest.When I called Mon. I was told it would be here DEFINATELY by NEXT Mon. but to call back that next Thurs. for a tracking number (I guess they forgot they cant access this!) I asked if I am getting it on a Monday, WHY would I want to call THURS. for a shipping number. Long Long story short. Last weekend while checking my bank acct. I found $199.99 missing from my acct. (I used a debit card) After 1 Hour and 1/2 I finally talked to a supervisor. You will find they protect their supervisors and will not let you talk to one. They will 'always' call you back which they never do. After being on the phone for 45 min. this time I insisted on talking to their billing dept. I was told they don't have one! NICE. I finally got to speak to a supervisor who kept insisting on mailing me a refund (since it was not suppose to be charged under warranty). 2 days later it DID finally drop off my acct. I have no GPS yet. Last Mon. I called again and was FINALLY sent to the RA Dept. After talking to 3 other people first. I asked what exactly this RA Dept was. Are you ready? Ritten Authority (as in Written Authority dept.) HE tells me ALL my information has to be put into HIS computer and that there is NO RECORD of my information!! He had the audacity to ask for credit card"as an assurance I would return unit in 30 days!" I told him to go talk to supervisor Perry.... He tells me HIS dept. cannot TALK to other depts and kept repeating he needed my credit card info. I kept telling him NO. They already screwed THAT up. I told him I DO NOT TRUST HIM with my credit card. I DO trust myself to send back the unit in 30 days and he should go talk to his other computers. I have him the names of every person I talked to, the amt. of time I talked to them and finally he says. I will ship it 2 day AIR and you WILL get it in 4-5 days (can't figure out THAT timeline!) I told him this has been going on for 2 months and HE can get my credit card information from the Better Business Bureau if they want it. I went down and filed a complaint with them. Magellan is not a member of the BBB (not surprising) and they cannot force a resolution but can build a file. They opened a file on Magellen last June 07 and there have been 10 complaints for warranty problems and from people who sent their units in for repairs and can't get them back. I would NEVER deal with Magellan again. DO NOT give them your credit card information. They have lied to me for 2 months, I still do not have a GPS and I am thru with them.

Events always seem very, highly social. Newcomers are more often quieter and less interactive, but everyone's very friendly. Sure, there could be some divisions and cliques, but rarely do I see any visible negativity or antagonism. If anything, it happens quietly or behind people's backs There's not a lot of talk about the rights ways to do things, because it doesn't seem like there's a problem with people doing things the wrong way... occasionally there's some discussion about new features and the way people like to do things themselves, but I rarely ever get the sense that there's some widespread disagreement. In the greater area I know there are a couple of people who have struck smoe bad chords with the community, but that's general geocacher etiquette, not related to questionable GS features/practices... I don't get the sense anyone feels like there's a "cache cop" in my area either. Keep in mind, this is of course all my own observations. Things could be going on in smaller groups that I'm not privy to. Heck maybe I'm heckled by everyone and I don't know it =P But this is what I see in my general local community. Lots of general camaraderie, especially by those who don't bind themselves to any major group, but some distinct groups of friends and common cachers, though no prominent/public in-fighting or hobby-detracting all-out wars. Quite nNewbie frendly, in short. It's much the same where I am and the events I have attended. Very social, a few known groups that cache together a lot, but they seem open to having others join in too. Most of the discussion revolves around the caches in the area that have been memorable and recently visited, or puzzles that are vexing. Help with the app, questions about stuff in general are welcomed. Discussions about upcoming events and mega events, plans to cache together int he future ... not a lot of maintenance discussions or whether to post NM or NA. It happens if it's needed non discussion necessary. I've posted a few NM's with no negative feedback - the cache was either fixed promptly or archived by the CO or reviewer.

In my area, no one needs to discuss maintenance or NMs and NAs because it all just happens. I don't know how my culture got the way it is, so for all I know it's because there was lots of talk at events about these issues before I came on the scene. COs that hide a lot but don't seem to maintain them don't come up very often, but the cases I can think of, what people think about those COs was "they didn't last very long" because all those caches are gone now and the COs have disappeared. I've never heard anyone complain about NMs and NAs, if that's what you mean. I haven't heard anyone use the term "cache cop" around here (except maybe in jest), but if they did, I'd assume they were talking about someone that regularly posted NMs and NAs that were rude, unhelpful, or just wrong.

Events always seem very, highly social. Newcomers are more often quieter and less interactive, but everyone's very friendly. Sure, there could be some divisions and cliques, but rarely do I see any visible negativity or antagonism. If anything, it happens quietly or behind people's backs There's not a lot of talk about the rights ways to do things, because it doesn't seem like there's a problem with people doing things the wrong way... occasionally there's some discussion about new features and the way people like to do things themselves, but I rarely ever get the sense that there's some widespread disagreement. In the greater area I know there are a couple of people who have struck smoe bad chords with the community, but that's general geocacher etiquette, not related to questionable GS features/practices... I don't get the sense anyone feels like there's a "cache cop" in my area either. Keep in mind, this is of course all my own observations. Things could be going on in smaller groups that I'm not privy to. Heck maybe I'm heckled by everyone and I don't know it =P But this is what I see in my general local community. Lots of general camaraderie, especially by those who don't bind themselves to any major group, but some distinct groups of friends and common cachers, though no prominent/public in-fighting or hobby-detracting all-out wars. Quite nNewbie frendly, in short.

In your area, what's it like at events? Do people talk about the importance of maintenance? Do they encourage each other to log NMs and follow-up NAs? What do they think of people who hide for numbers and never maintain but are avid hiders? Or is there a negative vibe about "cache cop" types?

It's not a hobby that appeals to everyone - a lot of people just don't "get it"! And that's OK. Friends and family know we go geocaching. Sometime they've tagged along with us, and it was fun for that day or two, but on their own, they don't pursue it. If you don't enjoy the puzzles, the hunt, that "AHA - GOTCHA!" feeling when you find it, then it's not a hobby for you. It gives us just a little something extra to do when we hike, or walk, or want to explore a new town. We love it, we realize not everyone else does, and we are more than willing to talk about it with those who are interested in learning more.

That's happened to me a few times. It turns out they really just wanted someone to talk to while out for a walk. Some swear they loved the activity but wouldn't go caching unless I went. And wouldn't download the app (or get a gps) or create an account. I question whether they really like geocaching. One latched on and tried to be a BFF. Can you tell I'm introverted?

Yes, that's why the very first thing I said was that the OP should talk to the ranger - they're the public face of NPWS and, while they don't have the power to approve caches (mine had to be signed off by the Regional Director) they know what's happening on their turf and can make recommendations to those higher up the chain. I gather in this case, the cache was there before the land came under the control of NPWS, but now that it has, they have the final say. Moving the cache might well have been possible - that could be worked out with the ranger - although it'd probably require a formal submission for the proposed new location and the cache would've needed to be disabled while that was going through. I guess it's all moot now that it's been archived, but perhaps it's a lesson for others.

I hate posts to this thread that just seem to ramble endlessly. I mean the ones that go nowhere and really don't say anything. You know like that one the other day, it was crazy man! Folks should really say something. Talk about gravity or how we are too far from the sun or something like that. Or how people should wear pink in the jungles to stand out more. Make a statement about something that matters. Don't just ramble on and on. You know? I'm not sure why it bothers me, but I woke up this morning thinking about this, and I lost sleep over it, so I wanted to post here. I didn't want to just rant about nothing like everyone else. And they go nowhere with their logic, none of them! They just keep droning on and on. I hate that! Why can't everyone be like me (or Harmon) and talk about real stuff like I am now. You know? There has to be something important out there to talk about. Not just silly stuff. How about why Wheaties get soggy in milk. Anyone want to talk about that? Or should we listen to people go on and on about nothing. Ok, I'm done. Not one more word from me. Not one. Total silence. Yep, until I have something important to say. That's it. Total freakin' silence PS. I'm posting here to keep up our 10% ratio of posts to finds. (hey, someone should do a cache that requires a post to the forums to log it!) ***disclaimer*** Laurie had nothing to do with this meaningless log. She doesn't even know about it yet. She's the one that says intelligent stuff. Won't she be embarrassed?

These are the rules on cache location from the NPWS policy document: Talk with the local ranger. Most are more than willing to help but they're also limited in what they can approve so be prepared to compromise. The site I originally wanted to use for my cache appeared to tick all the above boxes but it turned out that the unofficial track out there passed through an area of Aboriginal engravings. After poring over maps with the ranger, we decided there wasn't really a feasible alternative access route so I set about finding a different spot for the cache, eventually settling on one close to the Great North Walk that they were happy with and which they then approved. All up it took close to four months.

If someone is watching we go over and talk to them and tell them exactly what we are doing. This is especially useful when caching near private private property. It also has a side benefit of keeping the cache from being muggled.

Yes, you should, or at the very least go and talk to the park rangers about it. I don't know what the situation in Queensland is, but in New South Wales it took many years of delicate negotiation to have caches allowed at all in national parks, and even then, getting my cache approved by them last year took several months of back and forth with the local ranger and between her and her supervisor. Leaving a cache there when they've specifically (and politely) asked you to remove it could sour the relationship for everyone else.

What kind of price category are you thinking about? The next big step in Phone GPS accuracy is the BCM47755 chip, which allows far greater accuracy than current chips. Sadly, no phones exist with this chip yet. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/design/superaccurate-gps-chips-coming-to-smartphones-in-2018 If you want something available now, it doesn't really matter for GPS accuracy. They are all in the same ballpark.