Geo-words I Just Can't Figure Out

[whitetailfan]

Been reading lots, but I just can't figure out a definition of the following:

1)Micro-Spew

2)Pocket Caches

 

Thanks for helping the n00b. It's going to make reading other threads way more meaningful. I really am trying

[+Mary&Dave]

Been reading lots, but I just can't figure out a definition of the following:

1)Micro-Spew

2)Pocket Caches

 

Oh gosh... Don't ask.

 

Micro-Spew is a term for low-quality (usually micro) caches placed in supermarket parking lots or equally boring spots. These are often out there not for bringing cachers to an interesting location, but just augmenting their find counts.

 

Pocket Caches are caches that are brought to an event or a gathering of geocachers. Sometimes someone will have a clever cache design that they want to share with a lot of people, but not necessarily to hide. Other times, people want the ability to log a "find" on their friends or new people they meet. There is a lot of argument about this, as many people see it as just a way to boost your total find count. This will likely be the solution.

[+Mary&Dave]

Thanks for helping the n00b. It's going to make reading other threads way more meaningful. I really am trying

 

P.S. Most of the threads containing those terms are pretty meaningless. Honestly -- I wouldn't bother.

[Dan&Chris]

Been reading lots, but I just can't figure out a definition of the following:

1)Micro-Spew

2)Pocket Caches

 

Thanks for helping the n00b. It's going to make reading other threads way more meaningful. I really am trying

 

1)Microspew=A thoughtlessly placed micro cache which could have been a regular or large cache.

A micro cache that has been placed in a lame spot, such as a lampost at your local walmart etc.

 

 

2)Pocket cache-"You get location and log information about individual caches from the "details" link on Geocaching.com. To take this information with you, you can print it out on a piece of paper or cut-and-paste it into a Word document and sync that with your Pocket PC. Premium members of Geocaching.com can also use a program called GpxView (http://strandberg.org/gpxview) to download information about sites to their Pocket PC. A "Pocket Query" feature on Geocaching.com lets Premium members search for caches by specific criteria (date created, type of cache, etc.) and download the results of the query to their Pocket PC. GpxView lets you view these downloaded queries on the Pocket PC."

[+Miragee]

Mary&Dave beat me and Dan&Chris, but I'll add this anyway.

 

When Geocaching first started, many of the caches were in the woods at the end of a nice hike. Some cachers think that is the way Geocaching should be.

 

Then, in some areas, people just started putting out micro-sized containers (35mm film canisters, Altoids tins) everywhere. Some are in back of stores near the dumpsters. Some people don't think the caches should be there at all, some people just pass by the location when they see where the cache is, and other people like to find caches and don't care about the aesthetics of the location.

 

Pocket Caches, as I understand them, are a regional thing at Events. Apparently a person has a cache page printout in their pocket and people get to log the cache when they meet the person and sign the paper.

 

That has caused lots of angst in the Forums because Archived caches were being logged, and people were logging the cache without having visited its original location.

 

The "Retirement Card" is another regional practice where people get to log a cache that has been Archived.

 

In some areas these practices are "normal;" in other areas cachers can't comprehend how these practices could have ever gotten started.

 

EDIT cause I'm too slow, or I write too much.

Edited June 16, 2006 by Miragee

[ju66l3r]

 

2)Pocket cache-"You get location and log information about individual caches from the "details" link on Geocaching.com. To take this information with you, you can print it out on a piece of paper or cut-and-paste it into a Word document and sync that with your Pocket PC. Premium members of Geocaching.com can also use a program called GpxView (http://strandberg.org/gpxview) to download information about sites to their Pocket PC. A "Pocket Query" feature on Geocaching.com lets Premium members search for caches by specific criteria (date created, type of cache, etc.) and download the results of the query to their Pocket PC. GpxView lets you view these downloaded queries on the Pocket PC."

 

That's more like "paperless caching".

 

Pocket cache was recently coined in order to describe the idea of bringing a "geocache" (usually just its logbook or a supplemental logbook) to a meeting of geocachers in order to have everyone sign the logbook even though the cache is supposed to be at its original location according to the website and the "finders" never actually searched for the geocache.

 

For example: I place GCZZTOP (Rock on you Crazy Bearded Guys! Cache) at 42,33.333/102,44.444. At the next event cache I attend, word gets around that if anyone wants to log GCZZTOP, all they have to do is come up to me wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses and I'll hand them the logbook and a pen. They go home and log GCZZTOP as a find.

Edited June 16, 2006 by ju66l3r

[Dan&Chris]

 

2)Pocket cache-"You get location and log information about individual caches from the "details" link on Geocaching.com. To take this information with you, you can print it out on a piece of paper or cut-and-paste it into a Word document and sync that with your Pocket PC. Premium members of Geocaching.com can also use a program called GpxView (http://strandberg.org/gpxview) to download information about sites to their Pocket PC. A "Pocket Query" feature on Geocaching.com lets Premium members search for caches by specific criteria (date created, type of cache, etc.) and download the results of the query to their Pocket PC. GpxView lets you view these downloaded queries on the Pocket PC."

 

That's more like "paperless caching".

 

Pocket cache was recently coined in order to describe the idea of bringing a "geocache" (usually just its logbook or a supplemental logbook) to a meeting of geocachers in order to have everyone sign the logbook even though the cache is supposed to be at its original location according to the website and the "finders" never actually searched for the geocache.

 

For example: I place GCZZTOP (Rock on you Crazy Bearded Guys! Cache) at 42,33.333/102,44.444. At the next event cache I attend, word gets around that if anyone wants to log GCZZTOP, all they have to do is come up to me wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses and I'll hand them the logbook and a pen. They go home and log GCZZTOP as a find.

 

Indeed! I stand corrected

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Pocket Caches, now defunct, were crreated as a socialization tool.

 

I believe it was JoGPS, owner and backer of the Geowoodstock events, that came up with it, iirc at GW2 in Nashville a couple of years ago.

 

The original idea was to get folks to talk and get to know one another. Many folks would attend events yet sit silently in the crowd.

 

The first I knew of them at GW2 was four film cans containing logs, each named - there was a North, South, East and West.

 

These caches were quietly given to random attendees to place in their pocket.

 

An announcement was made that four Pocket Caches could be found wandering around the event.

 

To find one you had to ask other attendees a variation on the old Mae West line "Is that a cache in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

 

If the person being asked did indeed have a cache in his/her pocket they handed it to the requester to be signed.

 

They may or may not then hand the cache over to the finder for them to carry around until asked.

 

It was great fun, it made folks interact, it gave folks a real-life smile and a smilie for logging it. Way cool and harmless.

 

Pocket Caches were made up on the spot, existed for that one event, and were not listed on geocaching.com.

 

You logged them by logging Attended notes to the event, once for the event itself and once for each Pocket Cache you found there.

 

Pocket Caches grew quite popular - I know I have seen many of them at numerous events in ten or more states.

 

Never a secret or hidden activity - lots of them were logged by attendes at GW2, 3 and 4, among other notable gatherings.

 

They could in fact get out of hand, being ceated for silly reasons - I remember one in Louisianna where any attendee who saw a particular geocacher light her fart could log it as a Pocket cache, or at Tennessee campouts where if you saw a cacher relieve themselves in the woods you could claim a Pocket Cache, but by and large that silliness was reined in and Pocket Caches remained a real container with a log.

 

A variation of Pocket Caches were actually hidden at events. The host or attendees would hide caches around the event area and give out coordinates for them; again, those who found them logged the event once for each find.

 

I used them extensively at all the events I hosted and many I attended - I would hide them, give out a list of waypoints, and generally make it a game to find them, with stocked ammo boxes given out as awards to finders, or send the cachers out in a group, the FTF on each cache got to keep it.

 

Try this at your next event - hide ten stocked ammo cans around the event. Form your attendees into ten groups. Blindfold all but one in each group. Give the sighted one the waypoints and have them direct their group to the coords using only voice commands, no touching, the blinded must make the find and return the cache to the pavillion. They get to keep the caches to hide for real. Now, is that geocaching? Heck yeah! Does it fit the 'traditional model'? No, but why should it have to - it gave every participant a life-long memory, made geocaching fun and earned them a cache and a smilie.

 

Or try this - hide some caches, form groups, give one in the group a GPS and the coords, and he has to guide the group to the cache from the pavillion using FRS radios. Great stuff, and why not give 'em a smilie for it?

 

Geocaching campouts all over the southeast soon featured a list of waypoints one could hunt over the weekend.

 

You were given coords, you used a GPS to navigate there and find something, signed a log - heck, isn't that geocaching? Does it really matter that they didn't have a cache page on gc.com? No, not a bit.

 

Again, they were a great socialization tool, a wonderful device to promote the game, a great teaching tool when I conducted GPS-usage seminars, and who would have thought that folks finding caches and having fun would be made pariahs and called liars and cheats? Certainly we never thought of ourselves that way!

Edited June 16, 2006 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+Cardinal Red]

Pocket Caches, now defunct, were created as a socialization tool.

 

I believe it was JoGPS, owner and backer of the Geowoodstock events, that came up with it, iirc at GW2 in Nashville a couple of years ago.

Actually this is claimed to have originated at GW1

 

Or try this - hide some caches, form groups, give one in the group a GPS and the coords, and he has to guide the group to the cache from the pavilion using FRS radios. Great stuff, and why not give 'em a smilie for it?

You seem to think you should be able to toss around smilies just like they were chicklets. We will never agree on this.

 

You were given coords, you used a GPS to navigate there and find something, signed a log - heck, isn't that geocaching? Does it really matter that they didn't have a cache page on gc.com?

YES

 

Again, they were a great socialization tool, a wonderful device to promote the game, a great teaching tool when I conducted GPS-usage seminars, and who would have thought that folks finding caches and having fun would be made pariahs and called liars and cheats? Certainly we never thought of ourselves that way!

Yes, you accurately described how I feel about this. But that doesn't make you a bad person.