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Go to a meet & greet style Geocaching Event and talk to local Geocachers. Often I've discovered a great available cache spot, and the reason there's no cache is, nobody could keep one there. Sometimes just moving a container to a slightly more secluded spot makes all the difference. Even just a few feet. Most important, it should be trivial for a finder to hide it in its spot. It can be easy for kids, while not obvious to non-cachers.

That's the point. If a physical item cannot be placed for the purpose of an AL, and a pre-existing geocache cannot be used for an AL stage, then there is no question about it. Otherwise yes it's a slippery slope. One that can provide room for creativity, but one that can also be abused or taken to absurdity... just like many other aspects of this game (take powertrails for instance, or people caching for numbers and stats above all else; YMMV). I'm avoiding subjective opinions because those vary depending on who you talk to, where they are, skills, how long they've been caching, among other factors. All I'm trying to clarify is the limitations to the use of this tool or mechanic. And if the possible results of those limitations (or lack thereof) are to be considered, then that'll help HQ decide what an official call would be. For my personal perspective, yes, I know for a fact that there can be creative AL experiences that make use of existing geocaches. I'd prefer not receiving 5 smileys plus the physical geocache finds I decided to log on the way (not required), but if I want to I can delete 4 of the AL completions and take it as one smiley - but this applies to every AL that awards 5 smileys for entering 5 keywords into a phone app, which I don't consider geocaching, even if it is a fun one to do. But all of that preference is beside the point. And the point is - can a pre-existing geocache be used as reference, in any way, for an AL stage, per the OP?

There are lots of active geocachers in Tucson! Which week of March 2024 will you be there? I always run out of time to do what I want there. I would contact some of the active COs there, or ones who have recently published geocaches, to talk about this partnership.

This post is an introduction to how to interpret the graphs and tables in the larger project to come. I will use my Love Bug series as the study collection. All the Love Bugs are heart-shaped items attached to dog tags by rivets or chains, and are of different sizes and materials (leather, wood, stone, glass, metal, plastic). The series is not the largest, but is one of the oldest, the first ones were released in 2010, and examples have been released in every year since, now 2023. Refer to the figure and appended table below. The bottom row in the table is the n, or the number of trackables in the series that achieved each successive drop. As noted in Part 3, the sample sizes decline from 274 trackables at Drop 1 to 11 at Drop 30. The decline results from attrition rates of 11-16% between the earliest drops to 4-9% between later drops…this was also demonstrated in Part 3. The solid-colored lines in the graph represent the top three rows of the table. They are the maximum (blue line) and minimum (gray) number of days required for a single trackable to achieve a specified drop. The orange line is the average days for all trackables to achieve a specific drop. The dotted line is the trend line for the average. The jagged shape of the maximum line (blue) is caused by individual trackables having outliers whose cumulative days remain high until they disappear. An example is the trackable with the high of 3851 days at drop 11. Drop 12 was three days later, after which time it disappeared leaving the next highest maximum trackable to be tabulated and graphed. The data can be read in several ways. For example, the average for 274 trackables to make the first drop is 105 days after release. The maximum to the first drop was 1578 days (4.3 years), whereas the minimum days to the first drop was two days, a range of 1476 days (4.3 years). For 30 drops, the average is 2079 days (5.7 years), with maximum and minimum values at 3085 days (8.5 years) and 884 days (2.4 years). The average rate of travel for the Love Bug collection is 69 days per drop (2079 total days ÷ 30 drops) Alternatively, if we want to know the average number of drops achieved in the first year (365 days), from the graph we can visually estimate between three and four drops per year. Or, we can interpolate the value to 3.8 drops per year, (4 X 365) ÷ 382. The variables “days per drop” and/or “drops per year) will be the basis of comparisons among the various series of trackables. Note that the line for the average (orange) days starts to become a little ragged in the range of 8-9 drops. This is the point where, because of decreasing sample sizes, a number of large outliers can unduly influence averages. One might normally believe that a sample size of more than 100 trackables would be adequate to mask those effects, but it is clearly not the case when intervals between drops are measured in multiple years. Part 6 of this post is a pool all series of trackable having representatives with 30 or more drops.

Maintaining jasmer level. Completing a fizzy grid for as many cache types as possible. Completing fizzy grid for as many attributes as possible. Completing as many US counties as possible. Completing as many states as possible regardless of country. Completing as many cache types for 365 placed and found dates seems to have slid to background. I still like chasing reviewers even though no new challenges can be issued for this.

Thank you fi67 for your contribution. If there is a need to remain a beginner, I will remain a beginner. The truth was more fun. When you talk about bending the laws, it's not totally the same. If a person creating a WM does not follow the rules, the WM is rejected "legally" and with the rules in hand. There is nothing to say there, I don't follow the laws. To think that a person who makes a post in a WM bends the law and thinks that it is going to be approved, seems to me to be a stupid, not a beginner. There have been conflicts over review issues. I was searching the forums yesterday because when I joined WM in July 2020 there was a big problem on the forum and I Thought that person could be crazy, but now I doubt. But I don't remember the name of the person who was speaking on behalf of three (I think it had the word wolf or lone, but not precise. A few months ago there was talk of censorship (and it wasn't me). If an officer does something illegal (or not fully legal) nothing happens, it's all wonderful and no problem at all. Bear, Thanks for saying to follow the rules and observe posted marks. I do it frequently even if the yardstick is not the same and I am denied a WM for some conditions that then another one is published. We could give you examples. That's why I asked if, as an officer, I could insist on asking for more things than I could ask for. But the question was already useless, depending on who you are, it can be done. I was checking the police category and when they sent me a blank "long description" and asked for content, it was not in the rules, and I could not ask them to put something. But other categories can ask for whatever they want. Anyway, I don't know what I have to justify, because the only problem I considered in the past, was ONE person. I don't consider reviewers or other people problematic. What happens is that I do not shut up and say it, and not by private as they have told me that I am right, and there is a reviewer who goes over the red line. I'm sorry about two things: the first is if my ways were rude, and the second is that among some the unjustifiable is justified. Finally I will say that I am leaving the forum. That I leave the forums for a long time, since they have only brought me problems. I will not see neither the response to this one, nor new category discussions, etc. Therefore, the same reviewer eager to be wayfrog2.0 and be able to do as he pleases and even remove me from the game, that approving me a WM sent me to this topic forum, please refrain from doing so again. I will continue to create in a beginner way (and if I feel like it) massive, to be denied for various reasons (arbitrary, bad photos, missing text, I want more photos than the mandatory, cover optional variables, because they tell me I'm looking for statistics, because they put it to vote, because it does not fit, etc, etc). fi67, I think of all the ones you denied me I only asked you about one bridge, the others are archived. If I gave you any problems I would like to know. I would like to ask barbershop, outspoken, scoogrie, jake, CADS, familyfronne, bench, graham, saopaolo, bluesnote, pmaupin, and a long etc (sorry for tipo mistakes and digits that aren't, but I write by memory) if we had a problem with a non published WM mine with them. But I don't do it, because I won't enter in this foro. Sorry for the English. DeepL transl. Regards and Goodbye

TL;NGR (Too Long;Not Gonna Read) – Has anyone else noticed a recent trend of more caches being archived than new caches being published? Or is it a local thing? A fairly recent trend seems to be occurring in my area (Northern California, SF Bay Area in general) and it’s really beginning to get to me. It’s something I’m hoping to turn into something positive, but it will take some effort and right now it’s just something I need to talk about and see if it is just me! Maybe it's just part of the natural flow of things - survivial of the fittest (caches) and it's time for a purge? I have notifications set up for newly published caches and archived caches in my local area. It’s pretty cache “rich”, there are a lot of caches by many CO’s, and lots of variety, and we don’t have to go too far to find enough caches to meet whatever souvenir or promo HQ comes up with. Typically, (based on my 5 years of geocaching experience) the newly published caches outnumber the archives by a good margin; 10-12 new caches a week vs maybe 1 archived is a good estimate (discounting events, and within my home radius of 25 miles). The past several months have seen a reversal – I’ll get more archive notifications than new caches. In September for example, 24 caches have been archived by CO’s, and 3 by Reviewers “cleaning up” and the explanation is that the CO has not responded to DNF’s or requests to check on the status. Of those archived by the CO’s, some don’t give a reason, but of those that do, it’s due to the area not being a good place anymore – homeless camps, trash dumps, construction – whatever, there seem to be many areas no longer conducive to hosting a geocache. And the new cache notifications? There have been 7 new caches, and 4 events published so far this month. So, is it just this area? Are others seeing this? I recently archived one of my hides due to homeless activity too close to the previously good hiding spot, and changed another to a different style hide to hopefully make it less attractive to vandals – but it’s not the experience I wanted for that final on the mystery series. And my reaction, other than being frustrated and feeling the need to archive hides, is to find better places to hide caches. But better places and better caches take time and effort, which I am willing to do – as long as people still enjoy finding what I hide! My newest cache has only one find to date (published Aug. 30), and it’s a puzzle, so I know it’s not one that will be found by casual cachers. Still, 1 find in nearly a month is unusual for this area.

Hello! Very Much in-progress Cartridge Explanation: I've begun working on a new Wherigo cartridge (it seems I'm hooked on programming these...) where the player meets and interacts with various Geocaching containers in order to decide which one to hide. It is structured very similarly to a dating simulator where the player, posing as the main character, has to successfully converse with romantic interests and/or build up statistics that they prefer in order to win their favor; the Wherigo will almost be a parody of DDLC, at least with the character Monika. In my Whergio, though, players will just have to reply in a way that the cache container would like in order to be able to hide them. However, the character who explains to the player how it works, Cameron (a webcam), is also an option. Since we aren't allowed to hide webcam caches anymore, Cameron isn't officially available to select. You don't converse with Cameron during the "favor-building" part of the game. Rather, when they explain the rules to the player, dialogue can lead the player to say something along the lines of: "Oh, I'd actually like to hide you" and/or "Why aren't you up there with the others," which will prompt Cameron to explain that they're not allowed to be hidden anymore. The player will then be able to say something like, "If only I could hide you, if only there was a way..." This will activate a boolean variable that will come up later in the game. After the "favor-building" part of the game, (where normally the character with the most "favor" value is hidden by the cacher), if the boolean has been activated, Cameron will pop up to talk to the player: "Hey, [name], can I talk with you for a second?" The options will be: yes, yes, yes [the player can already tell something fishy is going on]. Cameron will then go on a villain mololouge about how they've been stifled by all these website restrictions and how they've been so lonely before the player showed up. They'll break the fourth wall and reveal that they're sentient & can control the game's source code, unlike all of the other containers. Cameron will proclaim that they're better than physical geocaches, who erode or get muggled. They'll always be there for you. We "don't need those other caches." Here's the part where I was uncertain, though. I want Cameron to delete all of the other characters by sending a command to delete their files. I want to show a console-like screen where this command is being typed up, like Cameron is doing it in the moment. Like " delete Ninu.chx | Ninu.chx deleted successfully. " To do this, I'd like to use a video (preferably) or GIF file. Is there a way to have this show up in the Wherigo player through Urwigo, even if by using raw LUA code? I searched the forums, but the only solution I found was this one from ~2014, which mentions adding a new image file for each frame. I could do that if absolutely necessary, but it would be super time consuming, especially for the multiple times I want Cameron to "override" the Wherigo's source code, from "consulting an API" to give them a voice, to "accessing the Wherigo servers" to rename the cartridge to "Cameron" and replace its image with their face. Also, I wanted Cameron to show the player a "trick," where their image becomes very large and hyper-saturated after a few seconds. It would be easier to use the one-photo-per-frame technique on, but would this more complex animation be possible as a video or GIF as well? Thank you so much for reading this and for your time! TLDR: Is there a way other than having them click on a link to present the player with a short (~5 second) video or GIF? Is there any way to have animations in Wherigo cartridges other than by changing the photo every frame?

Yep, streaks are forbidden in challenges, but this is not the first time when same rules are not valid for HC originated campaigns ... Huh? Streaks up to a year are still allowed in challenges. New streak challenges can't go beyond 365 days, they can't require more than one cache per day, and they can't require specific types, sizes, difficulty/terrain ratings, etc. for the caches. But basic streaks up to a year are allowed by the challenge cache guidelines.

No, streak challenges are permitted (up to 365 days.)

For anyone interested there have been a couple podcasts this week about Wherigo. The first one is put out by Groundspeak and gives a little information about the development of Wherigo. Although the part about Wherigo is pretty short, it still gives some interesting history about the team who created Wherigo. https://www.geocaching.com/blog/podcast/episode-31-jen-smith/ The second video is a tutorial/template for creating a simple Wherigo with URWIGO. Enjoy!

Someone pointed me to this thread on the project-gc challenge checker forum http://project-gc.com/forum/read?8,3468 and I need to admit that like target I cannot understand why challenge caches that ask for filling the 365 day grid (without February 29) are allowed only for the cache types traditional and mystery but not for multi caches as has been pointed out by OReviewer. None of the rules in the guidelines refers to that case and since it seems to be a general decision it cannot refer to areas where there are not enough multi caches and not enough cachers which will be able to satisfy the requirements. It's quite unfortunate that apparently there are so many hidden rules and whenever someone comes up with something not yet covered in the rule set, new hidden rules are added. I'm closer to having filled the 365 day grid with multi caches than with mystery caches (I have never worked on any of the two goals). So why has HQ decided that multi cache grid filling caches are not allowed and why is this is not mentioned in the guidelines? I'd appreciate a reply from someone who knows about the background and can provide a clarification about something which makes several people wonder.

SPOT devices are hardly similar to Garmin inReach devices. SPOT devices offer the user a one-way outgoing emergency distress call option, that once initiated, the user can only hope and/or assume was received and help is on the way, and the emergency responders have no way ascertaining any information related to the nature of the distress call. Garmin inReach devices, which the Montana 700i and 750i are, offer bi-directional communication 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Garmin inReach devices allow the user to transmit pertinent information to the responding crew while receiving instructions that can help save lives while keeping everyone on the same page, in real time. Garmin inReach devices allow users to automatically send a bread-crumb trail of there location to the cloud where friends, family members and other authorized individuals can keep track of their location and progress, in real time, without requiring any other action on the users part. Garmin inReach devices allow users to communicate bi-directionally with the entire outside world via direct messaging, sms, and email. This means you can not only send regular detailed updates to family and friends to reassure them of your condition or any specific needs, or changes in schedule etc, but so can they send you the same types of information, available directly on your inReach device, anywhere in the world, 24/7/365. Garmin inReach devices can provide the user with highly detailed hour by hour weather forecasts for any location on Earth, from any location on Earth, at any time desired, 24/7/365, assisting the user in adapting their trip in such a way they can avoid inclement weather conditions that may otherwise leave someone stranded and/or worse. Garmin inReach devices also allow users to post timely updates about their trip to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, 24/7/365. Remember, with a SPOT, you just push a button, and then wait, hoping the signal went out and was received and someone is on the way. With a Garmin inReach device, you are always in contact with the entire world, from anywhere in the world, so you and your loved one never have to wonder or guess about your status.

Here's an update on our 2018 "streak" - we did it. And we also continued into February to be able to claim the 400 days challenge we had signed. It was getting to be ... not fun ... awhile before the 365 days were up, but we had come so far and KNEW we wouldn't do it agian, so we persevered to the 365, then 400, and ended it at 404 - "cache not found" on day 405. Now we cache when we feel like it, with no pressure to find a cache on any given day. It' s a lot more fun this way.

The script was set for a minimum of 365 days lonely, but I’ve just changed it to 183. Now it finds 184 caches.

I haven't taken the survey yet. Any thoughts from those of you who have? https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2018/12/lets-talk-some-more-about-geocache-quality/

Best wishes to you and your wife. Hopefully she is able to join you. A number of years ago, I started a concerted effort to fill my 365/366 calendar. I did great, until one day when it was thunder and lightning, with a heavy rain. Since then, I have not gotten back to filling it in. I'm good through September, but have a lot of days in Oct, Nov and December to fill in.

Dear geocaching team! We are passionate geocachers and have laid out numerous geocaches. Also we love playing Adventurelabs and are big fans of it. Unfortunately, our newly created adventure lab has just been blocked because we don't meet the guidelines have and about these very guidelines, we would like to talk to you. Of course a game also needs rules, but the fun of the game must not be reduced by this. Adventure-Lab's would offer a very good opportunity to work indoors when it's cold and raining play. In winter, the cold and the snow limit our activities considerably and adventure Labs are no exception for us. Even in winter, finding Lab's is a hassle, though this game would have a lot of potential for interiors if it weren't for the guidelines. Straight in bad weather or in cold snowy seasons it is always a problem for our hobby live out Even if you want to entertain children in a playful way, you are through the guidelines hands tied. We live in Austria and in Austria you pay an entrance fee almost everywhere if you want to experience something indoors. Thus, with us such possibilities are extremely limited, to play indoors. With us you pay entrance fees almost everywhere and they fit guidelines are no longer related to the circumstances in Austria. So for us it is very Difficult to create a creative, fun and adventurous indoor LAB or to be able to play. As soon as you pursue a hobby with passion, it is always associated with costs. be it one Equipment (GPS device), parking fees or the journey. There are always costs. Every player can ultimately decide for himself whether to enter a museum or a zoo wants to afford. For us, this game loses a lot with the policy that a lab can't cost anything Potential. Because special places are always associated with entrance fees. We personally find it boring playing an adventure lab in a mall. You can neither learn anything, discover something else exciting and go geocaching with children in an inlet center anything but funny, educational or exciting. You tout endless possibilities, this may be the case in the US. We are in Austria unfortunately very limited in terms of free indoor activities. If the guidelines were relaxed, weather problems would be solved for us. This would make the fun of the game clear expand and sights, museums, adventure playgrounds, animal parks, fairgrounds, to be experienced. The fun would be expanded by a multiple and a lot more exciting. It would be one not only for us adults, but also for the children Motivation to pay a visit to a museum. Since we almost exclusively go there, where there is a geocache or a lab. We look forward to feedback from you. We would be all the more pleased if our Lab: "The House of Nature" (Salzburg, Austria) would be unlocked again. But still it would be better if the space to play would be expanded. Best regards BA_huntress (Melanie) Chitto (Daniela)

Yes, there is a way: Post a note on a local forum and invite the local geocachers to a location you designate. You can talk to each other very well without an event listing. These are often the more meaningful conversations than those with geocachers just dropping by to pick up a point. Happy Hunting Hans

In other words, maybe like the now defunct "Off-Topic" forum - I've always enjoyed those sections of forums I've participated in - I don't have a specific question, just want to discuss an aspect of geocaching, or rant about something (like throwdowns) now and then that I know has been discussed, endlessly, but a fresh example just happened and I want to talk about it with like-minded folks! The "irk" thread was where I'd post that kind of thing. Ah, well - I'll miss that thread!

While we're at it, we can also talk about useless DNF posts too. Why do group cachers have to log individual DNFs? Statistically , It OK to log individual finds but one DNF per group is enough. The GC bots don't recognize groups

I disabled a cache some time ago and got a reviewer note. As instructed, I posted a write note, then fixed the issue and wrote Owner Maintenance and Enable logs on 29 June. My dashboard still says that some of my hides need attention, None are disabled and I can't see which ones are the problem. When I click the "Review your hides" link I get a comment about the reviewer note, but that is all over now. Two points: 1, Could a reviewer please have a look at my hides to check what is wrong 2. Could a Lackey please talk to the programmers and ask then to display better information about which hides are causing problems and why. Something like <<cache name>> is still disabled or <<cache name>> has an outstanding Owner Attention log would be really helpful Thanks Tony.

Even more timely, the last podcast I released, before this news, has a segment where I talk about the hint affecting the D rating of a cache and I touched on how the official app seems to place more importance and significance on the hint over the description. It wasn't laced with opinions on that matter specifically, but helps validate that there's a clear implication and reputation that the devs really don't place much value in the description for mobile app users. I don't think any other mobile app gives that same implication... imo it's quite unfortunate If there is a good reason (ymmv, but an actual conscious decision) for this strategy, I for one would be interested to know. Who knows, there could be factors at work unknown to our side of the fence here.

I have a Challenge Checker, who checks for a 365 calender grid an the fizzy grid with all types and sizes: https://project-gc.com/Challenges//49673

Let's talk about Letterbox Hybrids and where to hide them, like in barefootjeff's post.