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Who Are The Lurkers? Introduce Yourself.


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Hi! I've been lurking recently. My husband and I did some caching back in the early 2000's, but let life kick us in the tail and stopped until the past few months, when our 4 year old daughter expressed an interest in finding "hidden treasures". We're now caching as a family, and I'm amazed at how the sport has grown and evolved since 2001! We were excited that there were hundreds of caches in our area; now there are thousands!

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Hi,

My name is Gary.

 

I live in Mason, MI and Work in Jackson, MI.

 

My Sister got me started Caching Last year. Her, Screen name is Mrs. Captain Picard, and she is approaching 20,000 finds.

 

I usually try to go caching by bicycle, walking, or jogging. I don't think we should be polluting our earth and using up our fossil fuels unnecessarily, hence my screen name (Jeepers-GasFree). It's one thing to stop on your way home from work, and another to drive 50 miles trying to grab a FTF.

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Well Hi everyone!

 

I do love a good getting to know you thread. I hope it stays pinned for a while so I can read bits of it at a time....

 

I heard about geocaching jsut a few weeks ago and I absolutely can't believe I hadn't heard of it before! I immediately got a Garmin eTrex from craigslist. It's been raining around here and I really want to bring my boyfriend, so to kill time until we get to go out, I've been on the forums a bit. I think I've learned a lot and I'm excited to go out to some woods and parks with my man TOMORROW! :P

 

Sometime last year I really started itching for something to do outside. I got a slackline for Xmas (from my amazingly loving boyfriend) and we've gotten it out a few times but I still had a hankering for hiking or something. I haven't even done much hiking in my life, but when I did it (and wasn't forced at grade-point) I usually enjoyed it. I was looking into orienteering because I remembered it from elementary school (imagine that) but then someone at my work mentioned his son was getting into geocaching. The rest of the story is yet to be written :)

 

Be back tomorrow with my first time out story!

 

~K~

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Brand new to the forums and to geocaching - just registered a few days ago and had our first find about an hour ago. We're a military family and do a lot of moving around, I think this is going to be great for our family.

 

I'd heard about geocaching years ago but didn't pay much attention to the details because I didn't think there were places to look outside the desert. DUH! My mistake, I wish I'd paid attention. Oh well, we're here now and are looking forward to lots of adventures!

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Hi,

 

we are Stefan (39), Anette (20), Shadow (7) and Athos (6) from Finland.

Stefan has been (co-)caching in Germany for a while before he came to Finland and infected Anette with the Geo-Virus. Shadow (Belgian Shepherd / Malinois) and Athos (Belgian Shepherd / Tervuren) are actively assisting with their noses if a cache is hard to find.

 

Greets from Finland!

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Hey all, been lurking on the forums for a while now. Got into caching because of my cousin (b_dog with over 700 caches) and bought his old one. Got my girlfriend hooked on our first trip as a couple when we went to Baltimore. I was explaining it in the hotel room and the look on her face was priceless. She thought I was the biggest geek ever and I knew that this could make or break the trip/relationship. :rolleyes: Needless to say she loved it and were both hooked.

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Gunnerb here, first time on the forum and want to find out where I can get some of the Geocache logs to fit different size caches. Chickencoop and I want to put some out as well as find them and have not been able to find a printable one. Any help??

We just started this fun last weekend and are both bit. Me more than her, but she'd rather canoe.

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I qualify as a lurker or at least an infrequent visitor. I found my first few caches about 3 years ago caching with friends before I had my own unit and only recently started visiting while researching the buzz on the Oregons. I wasn't scared off by the negative reports on its screen but ended up going with a 60Cx for other reasons. Figured I'll get another unit later after upgrades or rev rolls are made and spend some time doing this to see if I want to drop that kind of dough on units with more options, bells and whistles.

 

I appreciate the links people have posted for various help and being directed to places like gpsfiledepot. This place isn't too hostile, from what I can tell from my very brief forays here. I've spent years on the PCGS boards so maybe I'm just used to the hostilities that can come from behind a keyboard. Most of the time I find it entertaining. A good flaming is fun!

 

I'm gearing up to place my first caches and my intent, at least with some of them, is to put the coin in cache (or back into it). I do enjoy finding the simple film canisters and nanos but it is also very cool to come across ammo cans and other containers that can hold more, larger items than just a rolled up scroll. Low grade wheat cents, Buffalo nickels with readable dates, silver Roosies and pre-64 quarters, a few Ikes and a steady flow of uncirculated Presidential dollars are some of the items you'll be able to find and a couple of these I've already been dropping in other cache. Hopefully some find it neat and just maybe it'll spark an interest in numismatics with some kids or even adults. Interleague play is good.

 

S! Maj.

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Hi, I'm a lurker too. :drama:

 

I started Geocaching with my Pathfinder/Ranger Unit when another leader took us out on a Geohike! It was fun to watch the girls figure out how to use the GPS and along with a compass, try to find the cache.

 

I got my own GPS this past xmas and finally took it out a few weekends ago. I'm going out again this weekend.

 

It's fun to get outside and start hiking again, even in the middle of the Canadian prairies... :laughing:

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:blink: not a lurker just a new member trying to figure out what all the acronyms mean just trying to figure out how to use my htc hero with this also.

btw my name is paul I joined this so me and my family could do somthing together thank you all for this fantastic sport

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Hi all I'm a lurker. I don't like to post because of the negative comments I see.That said I was introduced into caching March of this year and have found 59 caches. I have a Garmin Dakota and an IPhone to hunt with. My caching companions are RogerCop, Torchwood, and BluesClues. The four-legged cachers are Victor and Sheila. Both German Shepherd Dogs. Geocaching has really changed our lives for the better. We get out of the house and are much more active than ever before. We have also discovered a lot of history about the area we live in. So we will continue to cache every where we roam.

 

Happy Hunting to all! ;)

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Hello, my name is Jen, and yes, I'm a lurker!

 

I'm a lurker for a few reasons. #1, because I'm new to this and don't really feel that I have something useful to say, other than asking for help!! And #2, because as I read some of the other posts, I find that SOME members can be very catty!! Some of the posts read like they are from an elementary school playground! Name calling, and nastiness, it's really very scary! As I read, I feel like I agree with one side of the argument, however, I am afraid to stand up and express my feelings on the topic, for fear that I will be the next target!! Better just to lurk, and keep my opinions to myself I guess :laughing:

 

Anyways, I'm sure I'll lurk a little less as I get the hang of this new adventure!!

 

Jen

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Hi!

 

I'm Leigh, and I've made a few posts, but have generally preferred to lurk once in a while (alright, I'll admit it, when I say "once in a while", I really mean every day). I'm still new, and I don't really have strong opinions one way or the other on many of the topics yet. The forum threads, even those that get a little negative, have been very informative for me, and I really enjoy reading what the others have to say. The online community is especially beneficial, because the nearest caching group in my area meets over 30 miles from my home, so getting together with local cachers to ask questions and learn is difficult for me.

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Hi all of you.

 

My name is Calle (short for "Carl" in swedish) and I´m a quite overage and not too cute ADHD kid. Well, I´m 44 years old, but my neuropsychiatrical diagnoses some times makes me not too "grown up"...

 

I live in Lysekil at the west coast of Sweden ( my picures of Lysekil on Panoramio: http://www.panoramio.com/map/?user=698858#...p;a=1&tab=4 ). We is a family of three: Me, my spouse and a daughter of 14 years old.

 

I´m a pacifist (but not hater militaries...), ateist (but not hater of religious people) and a firm believer of "what goes around, comes around". My disabilities makes it hard for me to lie in an "effective" way and I may as well be honest in my believes and opinions.

 

I work at our local museum with everyting that needs to be done, from serving the museum visitors to digging ditches. The museum shows the coastal culture of this part of Sweden, and are spanning from Mesolitikum (10 000 f.Kr. - 4000 f.Kr.) to present time.

 

Due to my disabilities I got at Nautiz X7 PDA (Getac PS236 with other shell colour) to use in my work. Because of the quite heavy manual labor involved in the maintenance of the old houses and surrounding land a fully rugged unit is necessary. As a bonus the Nautiz comes with a very good integrated GPS, and then geocaching just became a must to us.

 

I know that the Nautiz is overkill for geocaching. I could never buy one myself on my low wage, but now it´s available and very useful also for geocaching.

 

Geocaching is a perfect hobby for someone that is as restless as me and my daughter. I even think that the ADHD "problem" is a strength then doing something that is a lot like hunting and gathering of ancient times. Planning the process, waiting out mugglers and new places all the time, somehow feels totally natural for me.

 

Other hobbies: Mountainbiking on our smooth cliffs (http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/13140355.jpg ), bouldering (the cliffs again), photography, flying radio control airplanes (mostly 3d aerobatic and combat slope soaring), airbrushing on things and building/modifying bicycle frames.

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New one here. Geocaching for a bout a month and a half now with the family. Got 42 so far. :laughing:

Have a older Go2 and my newer Droid! Love the site and have lurked a few times on the forum.

Learning the dos and don't slowly. Cool forum!

Edited by tooljedi
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Hi! Yes, I am a lurker... There, I admitted it!! Are you happy? I'll be at the lukers anonymous meeting tuesday as well... :laughing:

 

Not just here but everywhere. The reason... It is because I go to a forum with a question in mind or desire for info and with a bit of searching I can spend hours gaining lots of information and have all my questions answered. 9 times out of 10. all the info I need has already been writen about and I don't feel the need to contribute to somthing that has already been contributed to death. Once in a while, I will throw my two cents in (if I feel strongly enough about it) or answer a question that hasn't been answered yet.

The problem is most of the times I do post anywhere, I am either ignored or questioned about my question and the question never gets answered. Strange, but when you post as a last resort instead of the first resort and searched the forums and not found anything, I guess that no one has ever run into the problem.

 

Anyway that's all starting to change and now I find myself writing longer logs all the time and my typing is improving too.

 

BTW. Caching for 3 years and over 400 finds in case anyone is keeping track :)

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:) I also am a lurker :laughing: hiding in the shadows. When I have something of value to post, I will.

But for now I'm in learning mode I have 27 finds and starting to get the hang of it.

A off topic place may help lower the heat on some of these Posts.

that's my 2 cents.

 

Ifoundya

Edited by dwaynedcmc
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I have been geocaching for a couple of years and just today discovered that these forums existed! Gee! So, this is my first day as a lurker. Actually, I would like to find someone to go geocaching with in the Quad City area (Moline, IL area). This area of 500,000 people doesn't seem to have a local group of cachers!

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I generally come on the forum when I have a specific question and just read. As a fairly new geocacher, I've hesitated to actually ask anything because of the sheer nastiness of some of the responses. Also, I'm still trying to learn the language and some of the responses and threads are so full of jargon that I think I know less than I did before I started reading!

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Hello all i mostly lurk because im fairly new to this and the one thing that i have been obsessing over is the fact i cant get my pict on here ( to the left) and i cant add friends- still finding out what i can and cant do as a non- premium member. I tend to only make comments about my finds, im too new to give advice but love to read about others ANYWHO im in the mason city/clear lake Iowa area and would love to be regular with other chatters. Looking forward to the osage meet and greet and trying hard to make plans to go to the west bend bash. ILL see all you geopeople laterz.. :unsure:

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Hi we are the Hix family as our user name says we just got a hand held gps yesturday after finding geocaching.com. We love to camp and that was a good reason to get the gps but this sounds fun. I got a Magellan Triton I hope thats a good one. WE live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I think thats everything.

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Hi, de-lurking now...

 

I am still very new and still in the phase of consuming all information. I've had friends suggesting this for ages and it comes up again and again - I just never needed ANOTHER hobby or another toy to buy.

 

My daughter just graduated high school and is now hiking Oregon while my son has similar adentures in Ohio so i thought I'd take a free class to check it out. But before I went to class, I first wanted to know what my Android phone could do, and now 20+ smilies later I see it can do a lot!

 

I also know its not waterproof and some of these finds are risky places for me to have the phone - so i may need to get something more rugged soon. Loving the hunt, the trackables, and after attending my first event cache - the people. Looks like I'll be here for a while.

 

James

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I just joined and have no idea yet what I am doing.......am excited about this new adventurous game. I am hoping to get out this weekend and try to find my first one!! I wouldn't consider myself a lurker, but that is exactly what I will be doing for a while to gain some knowledge of this sport. I am trying to find a local group to connect with.....any help?? Missoula, MT

 

Thank you

Randy Marie :blink:

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Hi, been lurking for a couple of days... Heard about geocaching 4 days ago and found a gps still in its's box laying around the house (my husband won it but already has one - it's a garmin etrex), so since this seems like so much fun, i claimed the gps as my own and went out with my son to try it out and see what we can find (we found 6 caches on friday, he really got a kick out of the different containers and traders in them), this might get him off of online games and get him outside.. woo hoo!

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Hi everyone, I'm ACE (a play on my daughter’s and my initials) and I'm a lurker . . . (crowd says "Hi Ace") . . . I am brand new to the sport, and am addicted already. Seriously, I bust out the iPhone everywhere to see if there's a cache nearby!

 

Lurking mostly because I'm new, and trying to find answers to my questions before posting (nothing like getting flamed with "hey (insert derogatory name here), this was answered (insert ridiculously large number here) times before!"

 

Hoping to learn a lot, find a lot, and maybe find some new friends along the way.

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I just joined and have no idea yet what I am doing.......am excited about this new adventurous game. I am hoping to get out this weekend and try to find my first one!! I wouldn't consider myself a lurker, but that is exactly what I will be doing for a while to gain some knowledge of this sport. I am trying to find a local group to connect with.....any help?? Missoula, MT

 

Thank you

Randy Marie :)

 

Hey there,

 

My family used to live in Missoula, MT for a while. I was too young to really remember, but that's besides the point. I would just like to say welcome to the awesome sport! My wife and I are new too. We only have about 78 finds so far. We started in February, but really didn't get out until the snow melted away. It was only recently that we got our first off road GPS. So, we still feel like we're fresh.

 

We haven't joined a local group, but we have had the pleasure of meeting some veteran cachers who have been nice enough to take us under their wing. I asked one of them if they would like to join my wife and I for a day of caching. He loves to hike and so gladly took us up on the offer. Unfortunately my wife got sick the morning of the planned trip, and so I went out alone--- with her blessing. I met the fellow cacher over at a nearby forest preserve and another cacher rolled in unexpectedly. He was someone that cacher #1 knew, and so we invited cacher #2 along for the hike. We had a blast hitting up 27 caches that day. Most of which belonged to the orginal fellow that I met up with. Still, he really enjoyed the hike.

I even hid my first cache that day. What fun that was. It was pretty clever too if I don't say so myself.

Point being, if you can't find a local group, start chatting up other local users. It's really made the game a lot more fun.

Again, welcome and happy caching.

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this is my first day on the forums. I have posted 2 new threads and replied to 1. I can't see myself getting too involved in the forum because there are so many obscure threads that have nothing to do with me.

Overall, it looks like a pretty cool resource. Thanks, everyone, for keeping things interesting! :)

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Hi...I really don't post very much on the site for reasons you touched on, but my husband reads the threads often. I just check in sometimes when there is a topic I feel passionate about. I think we as geocachers need to be more open minded and realize that everyone's opinion is important . We need to use the utmost respect and courtesy when replying to a post or commenting in general. We should promote our sport/hobby, whatever you choose to call it, with dignity and manners.

 

I try my best to put a positive face on geocaching, to exemplify what is good about what we do.

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I am kinda new to geocaching. I had a Garmin Nuvi 1250 but was a little disappointed with the accuracy. I purchased a Magellan eXplorist GC and have been loving the new freedom of paperless geocaching. I use GSAK on Linux (Ubuntu with WINE) and save all my geocaches to a new GPX file. This results in a great deal of information that I can have available at any time I want to geocache.

~Michael Dansie

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Hello from Alaska!

 

My name is Marcell. I bought a GPS last summer (a Garmin Oregon 400t). Trying to figure it out, however, proved to be very frustrating! SO... geocaching got forgotten about until this past weekend when my sister and her family reintroduced it to us with the Geomate Jr.

 

I found my first cache in Willow Resort and had so much fun. I am now very excited to begin again. Not only is it so much fun, but it is fantastic exercise. You get outside, walk/hike, and don't even really realize you are doing it. My only complaint is the darned mosquitoes here! :o They are laughingly called our "state bird". :o

 

I would love to "meet" some of you here- and would be thrilled to hear from anyone here in Alaska.

 

Thanks for reading and I look forward to learning more!

 

Marcell

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Often when discussing features of the website, the point is raised that many of the people who might feel one way, or another about a given topic never actually say anything because the forums are so hostile.

 

Another good point that often comes up is that the forum is where people come to learn about caching, and we should try give the best impression we can.

 

I'm curious to know how many people are out there quietly taking it all in.

 

There really is no topic here, so you can't post off topic. And since there is no topic, there needn't be any arguing either. :(

 

Feel free to use this thread to say "Hi", and introduce yourself.

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Often when discussing features of the website, the point is raised that many of the people who might feel one way, or another about a given topic never actually say anything because the forums are so hostile.

 

Another good point that often comes up is that the forum is where people come to learn about caching, and we should try give the best impression we can.

 

I'm curious to know how many people are out there quietly taking it all in.

 

There really is no topic here, so you can't post off topic. And since there is no topic, there needn't be any arguing either. :(

 

Feel free to use this thread to say "Hi", and introduce yourself.

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Hi, I’m George and pretty much a complete newbie here... Yes, I’ve been sorta lurking recently reading and checking things out, ever since my friend clued me in to Geocaching.

 

Our Gamrin 60CSx was delivered yesterday, we’ll give it a test 'run', okay walk, tomorrow. See this as a great addition to our family camping trips.

 

George

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Im new. I go caching w/ my girlfriend. So the profile is really ours. Its been alot of fun so far, and great exercise for both of us. Instead of playing Red Dead Redemption last saturday we went on a 7 hour hike through a huge park. And found some really cool caches. Too bad its taking away my drumming time!

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Ok Well I am a newbie. Just found our first 4 caches. My Wife ( Sandra) an I John love this. We are in Fort Wayne Indiana and would love to know of any cache events going on in the area. Thanks for getting us off the couch>>> Lets find something together!!!!

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Hi, My name is Bree, and I belong to Team Rather-Be... My husband and I are not new to geochaching, but are new to the forum.

 

We are in the South West currently, but have traveled all over. We are starting a new signature swag, they are little hand made crochet trinket bags with hand made doodad inside telling about us, coords, name, etc. They won't be traveling pieces, they are meant to be collected, they will have an email on them so people can let us know where they find them :) that is part of the fun for us, seeing who finds what where.

 

I really like this site and forum, hope you all have as wonderful an experience as I have, and keep up the wonderful threads. TY, Bree.

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Hi!

Did you know that the British encylopedia has this description of a Lurker?

 

(a) Lurker : a person hanging around a space, trying HARD to look like they are part of: A. The landscape, B. The local flora or fauna or C. pretending to have lost something - usually a tupperware item.

 

Lurkers are often observed in their natural envronment in the vicinity og socalled "Gee-o-cashees". If you spot a lurker - take cover immediately as it will blend in as a chameleon if it spot you. On rare occasions you may be so lucky as to observe it attend the cache, but do NOT disturb it unless you have a pocket full of valuable SWAG.

 

:)

 

My name is Tommy, i live in Denmark and have just discovered geocaching... So far ive found 4 caches and had to give up on twice as many, that just makes me want to find them even more (someone say the word stubborn?).

 

I'm trying to convert the rest of my family into geocaching, but in the loving way, not the pushy one - so far ive only gotten the dog converted into a geodog (the leash does the trick - she cant escape).

 

Hope to spend more time in here, have laughed my butt off all afternoon from a lot of hilarious posts, great humour folks keep it coming!

 

See you out there and in here.

 

Bitflux

Edited by Bitflux
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I'm brand new to the forums. I've been geocaching for a couple months now, and I'm so into it that its ridiculous. I love everything about it. The local cachers are extremely nice! My whole family is into it and I thought that the whole geocaching community was super nice. Then I got on these forums and realized not everyone is so nice? Where does all the hostility come on the forums? This is such a fun, nice, relaxing, past time. So I guess I'm gonna be a lurker from now on

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