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Annoying things about Geocaching


GEO936

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We don't mean to be negative or anything, but we just wanted to find out if anyone else is experiencing the same annoyances as we are?

 

We find it very annoying when cachers place their "cards" or "calling cards" into caches. These little pieces of paper, either laminated or not, take up space in the cache container and can create litter. Often you don't expect these small pieces of paper in a cache and then when you open the container a gust of wind blows through and you land up running to pick up these papers. We have also found them squashed into micros, thus damaging an already tatty logbook. We much prefer the idea of a sticker or stamp inside the logbook. What do other cachers think?

 

PS: We don't mean to offend any cachers out there an on this forum who currently make use of these sorts of papers in caches.

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What do other cachers think?

 

PS: We don't mean to offend any cachers out there an on this forum who currently make use of these sorts of papers in caches.

 

It is for that reason that I have a sticker, which I place into a log book, when the log book is big enough to take my sticker. I also created a micro sticker, but it became to time consuming to peal off the little end from the back when it is so small, so gave up on that idea.

 

Once I even used my sticker to fix the crack in a small container, and another time stuck it to a wet logbook, so others could sign the log.

 

When I do maintenance on my caches, I remove these little pieces of paper, and add them all into my "Found Swag Bin". That way I like getting hold of these little items, as I have something personal from that geocacher.

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When I do maintenance on my caches, I remove these little pieces of paper, and add them all into my "Found Swag Bin". That way I like getting hold of these little items, as I have something personal from that geocacher.

 

That's a great idea - would never have thought of that. :(

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When I do maintenance on my caches, I remove these little pieces of paper, and add them all into my "Found Swag Bin". That way I like getting hold of these little items, as I have something personal from that geocacher.

 

That is what we have been doing to our caches as well. We remove all this paperwork and do keep a copy of each one as a momento! If we find a lot of litter in a small cache (if it isn't ours) we remove that as well - but only in caches that we know won't get maintained (e.g. CrystalFairy as they have emmigrated).

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I don't think it is such a bad idea. I was just checking my thought it was a great idea. If you are creative enough in your calling card, it could become a collectors item in its own right and was planning do make one for my self - when I find a stunning design that people will want to take with them!!!

 

The sticker idea is also great and I might go for some of those as well

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Going to do a cache (Away from home)... find out it was archived while you were not looking and then getting home to find it was replaced the day after you had been there...

 

Or the batteries dying on you just under a hundred meters from the cache.

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Did a cache recently where the hint said that the cache is under the rocks..... Problem is that there was about 2000 small rocks all lying in a big pile together.... Took a while to find it but it still felt like a waste of time...

We have to agree with this one. What makes it worse is when your GPS goes haywire with all the inteference so it makes it so much harder to locate the correct "pile of rocks". We believe that if the site is in a fairly safe muggle free area, a more specific hint should be given to assist in finding the cache.

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Did a cache recently where the hint said that the cache is under the rocks..... Problem is that there was about 2000 small rocks all lying in a big pile together.... Took a while to find it but it still felt like a waste of time...

 

There's a cache here in SW England, on the moors, where the hint is "Placed close to a sheep". :D

 

I don't get much annoyed about anything that's geocaching-related but I have been known to mutter under my breath a bit when we get a NM log on one of our more distant caches saying "Log is full" and when we make a special journey to replace it we find it's not really full at all because folks have only used one side of every page...

 

:D

 

MrsB

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Another pet hate of ours is when geocachers log their finds as "TFTC SL". Or something like "Nice" - that's it - nothing else! We really enjoy reading the various logs about cacher's experiences, for example, GerhardOosMPSA.....you have to love his logs!

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Another pet hate of ours is when geocachers log their finds as "TFTC SL". Or something like "Nice" - that's it - nothing else! We really enjoy reading the various logs about cacher's experiences, for example, GerhardOosMPSA.....you have to love his logs!

We really think the same way! Not only did I start a thread on "What annoys you?" we have similar gripes!

 

Having read a different thread, and from chatting to other cachers, it appears we all have little things that annoy us about geocaching. What annoys you? What are your bugbears?

Here is a chance to vent. Lets keep it clean, no finger pointing, nothing hurtfull.

To get the ball rolling...

As a cache owner I get annoyed by logs which show no appreciation for the cache at all. After all, I hid the cache to share something. I would love to hear what you think (even negative thoughts). Telling me it was an easy find really means nothing to me.

 

So what annoys you?

 

((Slightly annoyed yo started a new thread.....)) :D

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Another pet hate of ours is when geocachers log their finds as "TFTC SL". Or something like "Nice" - that's it - nothing else! We really enjoy reading the various logs about cacher's experiences, for example, GerhardOosMPSA.....you have to love his logs!

We really think the same way! Not only did I start a thread on "What annoys you?" we have similar gripes!

 

Having read a different thread, and from chatting to other cachers, it appears we all have little things that annoy us about geocaching. What annoys you? What are your bugbears?

Here is a chance to vent. Lets keep it clean, no finger pointing, nothing hurtfull.

To get the ball rolling...

As a cache owner I get annoyed by logs which show no appreciation for the cache at all. After all, I hid the cache to share something. I would love to hear what you think (even negative thoughts). Telling me it was an easy find really means nothing to me.

 

So what annoys you?

 

((Slightly annoyed yo started a new thread.....)) :D

 

Oh yes - we remember this thread but couldn't find it so opened up a new one because those little calling cards and bits of paper everywhere were getting really annoying...sorry about starting a new thread. Can we delete threads or move the posts to the other, original thread?

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Some times caches are so lame that there is not much to say about them except TNLNSL.

I see I tend to want to write TNLNSL type logs when I do more then about 8 a day. It gets difficult, and time consuming to get though writing all of the logs. If I do fewer, then I seem to tend to tell a little more about the experience.

 

So... is it maybe that it is more of s numbers game if one signs TNLNSL or similar type log?

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Travel bugs and coins with lame missions like "I want to travel the world" annoy me.

 

Also, idiots who ignore travel bug missions also annoy me. Like the bug that had a mission to get to England, and someone brings it to South Africa from France. Duh?

My views are slightly different:

 

I rather have a bug which travels, even if it is in the wrong direction, but at least it travels.

 

Some bugs (as well as some of mine) get stuck in a specific cache far to long, because the mission is too specific. As an example if the bug states" Get to the UK", but I am going to Bloemfontein, then I am not helping the bug, so I rather leave it, and take the bug which states "Travel the world". So now the bug sits in the cache until there is the exact cacher who happens to come across the bug, just at the right time, before going to the UK, and takes it with.

 

It has also happened to me, that the bug has no info on it when finding it in a cache, and once back at the computer, and logging the TB/coin, then I fing out it was on its way to Cape Town, and now I brought it back to Johannesburg.

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The one thing that really annoys me is the issue concerning lost TB’s and coins. I always like to move them around when it is found in a cache. Sometimes they do get lost and that is a risk one has to accept. Muggled caches are not something you can control but it is the issues that can be controlled that annoy me. I will only drop coins/TB’s in a cache that I consider to be safe and where the risk of being muggled is low. I have adapted a strategy where I will watch the TB/coin as soon as it is dropped by me. Only when it is moved I will remove the watch from the trackable. One thing that I discovered recently is that I do drop coins/TB’s in remote places for the fear of loosing them. This is where the fun starts.

 

I do get worried when a cacher visits the cache and no discovery is made. Is the coin still there or not is always the question. It really does get disturbing when after several visits one cacher is now doing the right thing and he writes “Coin is not in the cache”. I now have to go and check all the logs. Who took the coin is now the mystery. Eventually after several cross referencing the coin is confirmed gone and I feel like a thief because I dropped it. Then after several searches I will inform the owner of the loss. I do not like to do this and I always feel guilty. Then suddenly 6 months later this coin is discovered in a cache miles from the original cache and one that was never visited by me. Someone had moved it around. Out of shear frustration I designed a little database in Access to record all cachers that visited the cache after my visit and where the coin was lost as well as the areas of concerns. Strange enough I have the name of one cacher and with more information and incidents I will write them a not so friendly e-mail. (Privately) This chap is always appearing with a coin/tb issue. I am waiting for number 4 and then it is no longer coincidence that his name is among the names visiting the cache and where tb’s/coins are lost or misplaced.

 

The annoying part is that 80% of these problems are not muggles but with cachers. It is a problem that is manageable. They remove coins/TB’s and they move them around without recording any details.

Gerhard

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Out of shear frustration I designed a little database in Access to record all cachers that visited the cache after my visit and where the coin was lost as well as the areas of concerns. Strange enough I have the name of one cacher and with more information and incidents I will write them a not so friendly e-mail. (Privately) This chap is always appearing with a coin/tb issue. I am waiting for number 4 and then it is no longer coincidence that his name is among the names visiting the cache and where tb’s/coins are lost or misplaced.

 

The annoying part is that 80% of these problems are not muggles but with cachers. It is a problem that is manageable. They remove coins/TB’s and they move them around without recording any details.

Gerhard

 

What kind of little data base have you designed as it sounds interesting

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Nope this is just a stand alone written in Access with manual entry. A query is written against the table and that is that. If you were expecting something commercial with entity relationship diagrams and data modelling with the aid of Microsoft Visio then you are wrong. All the tables are in 2NF and it is good enough for a small application where transitive dependency is not a problem. A database like this is straight forward. Databases and SQL is my strength on the IT side. This is one of the two main streams in the B.Sc that I am doing. The ordinary person with no knowledge of SQL could slap this together in an afternoon with access.

 

But we are getting off the point here. Let us return to the things we do not like.

 

Gerhard

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Nope this is just a stand alone written in Access with manual entry. A query is written against the table and that is that. If you were expecting something commercial with entity relationship diagrams and data modelling with the aid of Microsoft Visio then you are wrong. All the tables are in 2NF and it is good enough for a small application where transitive dependency is not a problem. A database like this is straight forward. Databases and SQL is my strength on the IT side. This is one of the two main streams in the B.Sc that I am doing. The ordinary person with no knowledge of SQL could slap this together in an afternoon with access.

 

But we are getting off the point here. Let us return to the things we do not like.

 

Gerhard

 

Thanks Gerhard. Actually, Rolf was also interested in this setup of yours, so even though it may be slightly off the topic, you have grabbed the interest of other geocachers!

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Yes, we have Gsak with the whistles and bells and SQL who can produce amazing information. If you read the comments on the stats forum then it is quite good. But yet we have nothing on our trackables which is costing us much more money. I only have a couple of trackables and it is slap to watch them all. Maybe we should start with a commercial package that can track and update the trackables automatically which was found by the cacher.

 

There is no proper program for this one and there is a huge demand from cachers to control trackables and their numbers. Maybe this is a project that I need to look into. To discover what cachers want will be easy. To get the information from the listings is also not a train smash because you have its unique number. I am going to retire early. :D:D

 

At least we turned one negative into positive and we are now thinking out of the box. Instead of having annoying things in a forum we started to think about the solutions to annoying and how to make life easier. I like this. The only real issue is when you have a program like this and you do run cross references and a name of a cacher pops up who has a connection with various lost TB’s – what are you going to do? Maybe it is coincidence and not a fact that he is the guilty party. Maybe he is just a very active cacher. Maybe he is a newbie and he does not know better. To slap him out of his blood group will not help as he will still not understand what to do. Maybe you are slapping the wrong person. Information is powerful and the misuse and the misinterpreting of it of it are even more disastrous. It let me think of the one log I found on an earth cache. “I visited your earth cache and I could not find the container, how do I log this, will a photo be fine?” Trackables is in this category.

 

I am out of here. Gerhard

Edited by gerhardoosMPsa
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Hi Gerhard & others

 

I am in the process of drawing up a XML specification for the exchange of TBs and Coins. I am hoping to get other people interested in supporting the format, and so have a standard way of sharing certain BUG and Coin information, much the same way as we share GPS information using the GPX format.

 

Once I have drawn up the specification, I will giving it to the greater community to comment on, and refine any issues which may arise.

Once the specification has been completed, I will write a Windows version using .Net, where a person will be able to track his and other TBs/coins.

A little more info can be gotten from here:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=222213

 

I do hope that there will be other people wanting to support the other platforms and even some competition for windows.

 

P.M me off line, and I'll send whoever a screenshot of what the tracking program most likely will/could look like.

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Cachers who seem to think that Geocoins and TB's are trade items.

 

In: Boris the Bear TB

Out: R50

 

Trackables ARE NOT trading items!!

 

Ditto

Often it's the Noobs.

 

I get annoyed by being at a location some way off from home, a FTF nearby, and skipping it because suicide hour is about to start. ( For non parents, that is the bath, feed and sleep hour of kids).(On the other side, I love my kids, and caching with them is great!)

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We find it annoying when cachers don't read the cache listing and just go and hunt for the cache, because the little icon "appeared on the radar". The problem is that the cache we have placed is on private property and although we have obtained permission from the owners to place the cache, the owners have asked that the geocachers let them know that they are there to do the cache. Yet, these cachers don't follow the rules and thus jeopardise the caches for other "law-abiding" cachers. :)

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Cachers who seem to think that Geocoins and TB's are trade items.

 

In: Boris the Bear TB

Out: R50

 

Trackables ARE NOT trading items!!

 

LoL. I had the fun at my 4th find of it been a large cache with a Lego Bionicle in the cache as a trade item. With two young son's in tow it was going to be a whole lot of fun on who got the Bionicle. The eldest got it in the end when we convinced the youngest that he was still too young for such complex building things. But then it had to come to the trade off. And what did they have. A little plastic toy out of a lucky packet. Mmm in the end I had traded off a bottle of car polish, a screwdriver and some other items from my work tool box. In the end I had to return to home base and go shopping for tools again.

 

Unfortunately the next time we went out to another cacxhe by the same person, yet another Bionicle. And this time it was just one of those days I didn't have any tools. So sadly we had to leave with no Bionicle and a very upset child.

 

You win some you loose some. Unfortunately we must have either been spied on or some local was lucky and they found the cache before anyone else could make a turn there. Everything was gone when the next cacher showed up....

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Cachers who feel they need to move your cache - from the one side of the bridge to the other. No permission, just move it and let you know in a log with great pride.

Do they know the history of the cache? Doubtful. Do they know why it was placed at that particular spot? No.

But lets move it, the owners will be thrilled. ;)

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We find it terribly annoying when NEWBIE cachers do not familiarise themselves with the the geocaching creed and then just blindly go geocaching without any clue on what is the correct way to do things. Then they pick up TBs and have no idea what to do with them, how to log them, etc. The TB is then either lost or out of action for months, before you, as the cache owner, bombard them with emails to get the TB going again. It happened to us last year with our Planisphere Geocoin. Luckily, after 3 months of hard work, we got it back (in pieces which we then had to fix to get the coin operational again).

 

I mean, we have been in the dogbox for holding onto a TB for a long time, but we had difficult circumstances (birth of new baby) which put a slow down on our caching. It happens, but we moved the TB along as soon as we were able to.

 

We wish the Newbies out there could do their homework and be more responsible when they get into the sport of geocaching.

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I notice a couple of new cachers among us. To assist them to be safe and to be well equipped in the ever caching environment of geocaching which involve everything life can through at you – from Metro police with guns to illegal caches I have design a special survival kit just for you. Also we have decided to be pro-active and we want to enjoy the game without the annoying little things.

 

Our research department have exhausted all the resources to design a special geocaching survival kit for the beginner and the more experienced cacher. The final protype is tested and it is working very well. You now have a tool that will assist you with 98% of all challenges geocaching through at you. At a 2% uncertainty level annoying should be quite acceptable to the average cacher. This is the same probability and the confidence level that the Gautrain have not to disappear in a massive sink hole inside the worst dolomite area in South Africa.

 

Please contact the writer if you want to form part of this new innovation system which embraces “out of the box thinking”. Feel free to join hands with us with a new innovative concept. Our marketing department is clearly forecasting that this is going to be run away sales. This will become fashion and please be the first to get yours now at a geocaching shop close to you.

 

Footnote: We sell this with no guarantee, no free refills and with no risk to ourselves and we will not accept any claims whatsoever.

 

Signed

 

Gerhard

 

(I hope this helps to get rid of annoying things) :(

 

dbcdc2bb-b0a5-45ec-863f-094b50d7f46b.jpg

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I hope it was a little bit of a relaxing exercise for some. My personal view is that many things annoy me but geocaching is still good. At certain caches I even manage to annoy the owner. Last night I was applying reversed engineering to this question. “What is the thing that I do enjoy, and where at the same time there are no zero annoying factors?” I like my work but it annoys me not to get unlimited resources, my trip to work every morning, the morning meetings – the list is to long. It seems like there is nothing in the world that do not have this annoying variable build into it. I am now waiting for the next one “gerhardoosMPsa annoys me”. :mad: Will have to keep an eye on this forum. Sorry guys. Gerhard

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Blah blah blah.... the next one “gerhardoosMPsa annoys me”.

 

A certain gerhardoosMPsa annoys me, having me wake up at 4am to find that an SMS came through at somewhere round midnight while I was dreaming of finding FTF's all day long to say a trip is canceled. And then not been able to get back to sleep again.

 

Haa haa but no friendship loss Gerhard. I know all too well about work and caching. My first event was a wonderful one for those that were there. I had to leave when it started to do a call 220km away cause some great co-worker didn't stand in for me. 1km from the branch they call and tell me I need not come as they found that a trip switch had gone off. They switched it back on and everything was OK. Needless to say I still had another 220km to drive back to "My Event". But as I was so upset I went and did two caches in the Drakensberg next to a wonderfully flowing Tugela river. I think that going back to an event in a sour mood is no way to go.... Needless to say it turned out to be a wonderful get-together and great friends were made. Fish Eagle even made his 800th find that weekend. I made my 50th and despite the work issue I had a great weekend.

 

Sorry I never SMS'ed you back Gerhard. For some reason it just wasn't wanting to go through....

 

Time for another I think..... mmm.

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Eish Wazat, that is annoying – with friends like that you will never ever have the need to have enemies. I think the guy has the same name like me but I do not know him at all. I am sure that I never met him. :blink:

 

We have to manage this annoying friend of yours. This is my plan of action to deal with this chap. Next time he comes around you do the following. Tie a rope to your big toe. Hang the rope out of the window and go to sleep. Stick a note to your front door and explain the rope theory on the note. Your friend will no longer be annoying as he will wake you up. The 04h00 time will also be resolved. Ok, if you find yourself hanging about 6 inches from the floor and stuck to the window like a beetle on a windscreen then I will seriously reconsider the relationship just before my big toe departs from my body forever.

 

This is yet another well designed plan against annoying and to make geocaching more pleasurable.

 

Yes, now I feel bad. But we will make a plan for this one. I wonder what this misadventure is going to cost me. Sorry. Gerhard

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