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Our Return to Caching


Team Noltex

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So after an over three year hiatus, we have returned to caching. Upon our return, we have found that technology has really caught up to the game. Shortly after we started caching in 2003, we thought we were doing pretty good to cache "paperless" with PQ's loaded into a Dell PDA. However, loading caches into both the PDA and GPS involved about fifty-eleven steps and was not exactly non-geek friendly. We have returned to smartphone apps, favorite points, logging caches from the field and a touch screen GPS that loads PQ's with little effort. The flavor of the game has changed a little too, and there are a whole new crop of cache hiders to become familiar with. Unfortunately, unimaginably placed micro-spew caches are still way too prevalent, but there are enough creative caches, containers and camouflage to give us hope. It also appears that this forum has changed dramatically as well. The Northwest forum had been vibrant and active, but now, sadly, appears nearly dead.

 

We currently have a cache streak of 69 days of found caches, at least one each day so far this year. Anyone else have a cache streak going?

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Well, not everyone. ;) I still like the forums better than facebook for discussions. I'm an old fogey.:P

I prefer the forums but I play in both mediums. I think the forums are doomed over the next several years. :(

:cry: STOOPID facebook. :angry:

I thought that at first, but now I prefer it. It's easier to post photos and have rapidly interacting discussions, you can create groups and pages for a club or interest area, and have photo galleries and club info as well as 'threads' (posts).

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Well, not everyone. ;) I still like the forums better than facebook for discussions. I'm an old fogey.:P

I prefer the forums but I play in both mediums. I think the forums are doomed over the next several years. :(

:cry: STOOPID facebook. :angry:

I thought that at first, but now I prefer it. It's easier to post photos and have rapidly interacting discussions, you can create groups and pages for a club or interest area, and have photo galleries and club info as well as 'threads' (posts).

Being a mod, I'm probably biased. ;)

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First Welcome back to caching, while I don't believe that I know you, I hope we get to meet one day out there caching or at an event.

 

As far as facebook is concerned, I was semi-forced to join facebook last year as I was part of a organization made up of over 100 people spread out in the Puget sound area. Getting us all together for a meeting was nearly impossible so they had a closed facebook group that we basically had to join. This was the only group communication they used. It was basically fine if you were on facebook once or twice a day, but if you missed something, you never got informed and I found it about impossible to search inside a facebook group for specific information with out hours of sifting though messages. Needless to say I have a very dim impression of facebook, for that one huge flaw. It is easy to view photos and for a business that wants to interact with there customers in that way I can see it working well. But for a group I don't care for it.

Edited by SirKarp
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A little off topic but if you, SirKarp, are still in the group using facebook, you should take a look at Slack. This is the opening paragraph from the site. I have signed up, but I haven't used it for anything yet.

 

Be less busy.

Relax. Your team’s communication problems? We’ve got that.

Slack brings all your communication together in one place.

It’s real-time messaging, archiving and search for modern teams.

 

---

Sorry for the advert. I am not associated with this site, it just sounds like it would fill your needs.

 

Terrible Ts

 

First Welcome back to caching, while I don't believe that I know you, I hope we get to meet one day out there caching or at an event.

 

As far as facebook is concerned, I was semi-forced to join facebook last year as I was part of a organization made up of over 100 people spread out in the Puget sound area. Getting us all together for a meeting was nearly impossible so they had a closed facebook group that we basically had to join. This was the only group communication they used. It was basically fine if you were on facebook once or twice a day, but if you missed something, you never got informed and I found it about impossible to search inside a facebook group for specific information with out hours of sifting though messages. Needless to say I have a very dim impression of facebook, for that one huge flaw. It is easy to view photos and for a business that wants to interact with there customers in that way I can see it working well. But for a group I don't care for it.

Edited by Terrible Ts
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Just wanted to post an update, if for no other reason than to create a tiny bit of activity here. We now have only three days left in our one year cache of the day streak. Back in January, I wouldn't have given any odds that the streak would last for a full year, but here we are. And now, Mrs TN thinks she wants to extend it to at least 410 to make it to another challenge cache. Getting a cache every day, we have definitely gotten back into it in a big way. We also have only a few last puzzle caches left to complete the Tacoma Blackout challenge, an accomplishment we wanted to complete years ago. All together, 2014 has been a pretty good year.

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Welcome back!

 

I've been pretty quiet these days myself, but being a new Grampy, my attention is a bit occupied elsewhere. However, I have been doing some solo hikes (when I can tear myself away) for the sole purpose of setting up a series of caches with a little twist to them. I look forward to seeing you out in the field in the near future!

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Well, not everyone. ;) I still like the forums better than facebook for discussions. I'm an old fogey.:P

I prefer the forums but I play in both mediums. I think the forums are doomed over the next several years. :(

:cry: STOOPID facebook. :angry:

I thought that at first, but now I prefer it. It's easier to post photos and have rapidly interacting discussions, you can create groups and pages for a club or interest area, and have photo galleries and club info as well as 'threads' (posts).

Being a mod, I'm probably biased. ;)

I don't think you're biased. Forums have a place for maintaining a record of discussion and information that can be retrieveable even years after the discussion. Facebook strikes me as an "in the moment" communication tool and once something slides off the front page, it's gone forever. For many people, it seems it's easier to just reask a question rather than be bothered with actually have to see what's available first. Also, few people really seem interested in past history and live/work in the present, making Facebook more revelent for them, but next to useless for me. Edited by Ladybug Kids
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Well, not everyone. ;) I still like the forums better than facebook for discussions. I'm an old fogey.:P

I prefer the forums but I play in both mediums. I think the forums are doomed over the next several years. :(

:cry: STOOPID facebook. :angry:

I thought that at first, but now I prefer it. It's easier to post photos and have rapidly interacting discussions, you can create groups and pages for a club or interest area, and have photo galleries and club info as well as 'threads' (posts).

Being a mod, I'm probably biased. ;)

I don't think you're biased. Forums have a place for maintaining a record of discussion and information that can be retrieveable even years after the discussion. Facebook strikes me as an "in the moment" communication tool and once something slides off the front page, it's gone forever. For many people, it seems it's easier to just reask a question rather than be bothered with actually have to see what's available first. Also, few people really seem interested in past history and live/work in the present, making Facebook more prevelent for them, but next to useless for me.

I think it probably has something to do with how different brains work. I guess I'm more linear or orderly. Facebook seems frenetic and arbitrary. Messy. Short attention. I kind of think of it as the "MTV" of this generation.

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I don't think you're biased. Forums have a place for maintaining a record of discussion and information that can be retrieveable even years after the discussion. Facebook strikes me as an "in the moment" communication tool and once something slides off the front page, it's gone forever. For many people, it seems it's easier to just reask a question rather than be bothered with actually have to see what's available first. Also, few people really seem interested in past history and live/work in the present, making Facebook more revelent for them, but next to useless for me.

Actually, Facebook also retains info for years (just like the forums), you just have to search back to find it (just like the forums) because it disappears off the main page (just like the forums). And just like Facebook, people often re-ask questions rather than searching. I find Facebook more flexible than the forums - easier to post photos, link other pages, etc. But it's not the perfect solution for everything.

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I have a close friend down in California. He has several computer patents and is very savvy about computers while mostly retired now he still does some web pages and trouble shooting. He made me swear NEVER NEVER join a social media group. The evils of social media he lists are nearly endless and after his son became employed at one of those social media companies he became more adamant don't join social media. The amount of information these companies track and save about you is endless and there is no way to stop them.

 

While I do my best to never say anything in an email or post I wouldn't shout from the roof tops I do have a problem with a company tracking every thing about me... but then I hate those dang store loyalty cards... All they are good for is tracking how many bags of chips and boxes of ice cream bars my now deceased dog has bought.

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Wow, I didn't mean to light a fire, and throw this thread totally off track.

 

A couple of quotes from earlier in the thread facebook seems frenetic and arbitrary. Messy Forums have a place for maintaining a record of discussion and information that can be retrieveable even years after the discussion. facebook strikes me as an "in the moment" communication tool and once something slides off the front page, it's gone forever

 

I couldn't have summed up my own feelings about facebook any better.

 

When I was forced on to facebook in 2013 I spent countless hours trying to figure out how to search the facebook group that I was in. I could never figure out how to nor could any of the other members of the group tell me how to. With the forums there is a simple box in the upper left corner and if I want to just look I can thumb though the pages. Not so with facebook, that I can tell. It's actually quite sad to me that social media is slowly eliminating so many of the forums. Forums that specialized it there specialty.

Edited by SirKarp
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A quick Google search revealed that FB has added a new search engine since Sir Karp was looking.

 

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-search-for-old-facebook-posts/

 

As far as companies collecting information on you, don't kid yourself that by staying off of social media that your habits aren't well known by many companies. Amazon knows almost everything you've ever been interested in buying (or have bought) online, and Google knows everything you've ever searched for and the relationship and pattern of your searches. Your mail provider can read your email (Google uses automated routines in gmail to provide targeted advertising). By logging caches on geocaching.com you are providing Groundspeak a specific record of when and where you've been.

 

In no case am I suggesting that any of these companies are using this information for nefarious purposes. I'm just saying that staying off of social media doesn't preclude companies from knowing a ton of information about you.

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Oh I get that there are many ways to track whatever I may have purchased, looked at, searched for or sent. The ease for me to find a recipe for leftover mash potatoes makes it just as easy for anyone interested to track my interest in leftover mash potatoes. To me that's kinda scary... to be looking for a recipe and to have the recipe site not just give me the recipe but which local stores have the ingredients on sale... there is no privacy left to us... Someone somewhere wants to suck every little tidbit of info on me and mine for there own uses. So yes I get that it is happening, I don't have like it or be ok with it nor do I have to make it easier by pinning, facebooking, tweeting or whatever.

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