Jump to content

Groundspeak is removing Benchmarking and the logs/photos


Michaelcycle

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, Michaelcycle said:

It seems that HQ did not see the need to make a specific note to this effect on the Benchmarking forum so here is the link:

I don't know if I have ever been more disappointed in a short-sighted decision by this organization,

 

I have to agree totally and I am heartsick that they are going to wipe out everything that my dead husband and I did all those years away. All the pictures and logs that John took and logged, all of the posts we made here in this forum, the work we did on the contests we thought up and ran where there were many that enjoyed the extra challenge. I miss you all a lot and this makes me very angry and sad and heartbroken. I do not think there is changing their mind about this terrible decision.

 

Sorry guys, I know you will be just as angry and upset about this as I am.

 

Sincerely,

Shirley Bloomfield = half of the 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

  • Upvote 4
  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
12 hours ago, Michaelcycle said:

I don't know if I have ever been more disappointed in a short-sighted decision by this organization,

 

I'll be the wet blanket and say I won't miss it...

I "found" over a hundred benchmarks not even in the system, so could never log them.  Eventually I stopped looking...

I don't log many caches and most events, so maybe that's why this doesn't bug me that much.

Even with my limited knowledge of the tech involved, having to maintain something not used by many seems silly.

I lost my Windows phone app for the same reason...

Besides... If I cared enough to log them, I could go to Waymarking.  They're all able to be logged in Waymarking...

  • Funny 1
  • Surprised 1
Link to comment
14 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

Besides... If I cared enough to log them, I could go to Waymarking.  They're all able to be logged in Waymarking...

Unfortunately not all of them.  I didn't do an exhaustive search, but right off the bat the two closest benchmarks to my home coordinates are not on the Waymarking website.

  • Upvote 2
  • Funny 1
Link to comment
5 hours ago, streudelz1222 said:

Unfortunately not all of them.  I didn't do an exhaustive search, but right off the bat the two closest benchmarks to my home coordinates are not on the Waymarking website.

That's how Waymarking works.  You go there and add them if they aren't there already.

 

I will add myself to the list of those who will miss them though.  I had not found many, as I don't live in the US, but when I travelled there, and remembered to look, I enjoyed them.  I would have loved the opportunity to search for some that had never been "recovered".  It seemed to me like something that fit quite nicely with the mentality behind geocaching.

 

What next?  Let's face it, only a minority of geocachers bother with multi-caches, so get rid of them too? :/

 

  • Upvote 1
  • Surprised 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

I sent an email just now to DaveD. I thought he should be made aware of this going to happen here. Of the people that helped us all, I could come up with him as the one who was to us, an official that knew all the answers, because he had all the official knowledge of the U S National Geodetic Survey at his fingertips due to him being employed by them and our friend. 

 

I hope he will come and post something as to how he feels about this happening....

 

Shirley~

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

Shirley - I haven't been in there for a while - sorry to hear about John. I always looked forward to reading your logs...was like being part of the adventure! I hope the BM forum threads will continue to exist as a Waymarking topic. I'm going to have to quickly save logs & pics from some of my favorite Benchmark Hunts - would be nice to have BMs ported over to the Waymarking BM category.

 

As the current leader of the US Benchmarks Category, I'll try to revamp & put in some more info on using resources that we collectively have all discovered & come to rely on in our benchmarking journeys...

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment
8 hours ago, 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) said:

I sent an email just now to DaveD. I thought he should be made aware of this going to happen here. Of the people that helped us all, I could come up with him as the one who was to us, an official that knew all the answers, because he had all the official knowledge of the U S National Geodetic Survey at his fingertips due to him being employed by them and our friend. 

 

I hope he will come and post something as to how he feels about this happening....

 

Shirley~

Was thinking about Dave when I read this. Last I heard, he's still local to my area here, I I will often see his recoveries - post-retirement - in stations I'm looking for. :D

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Like others I will really miss the challenge of finding and photographing benchmarks; that added so much to my geo trips. But the real loss will be that all of our photographs will be gone in just a couple of weeks. There just isn't time for me to go through eight hundred logs and retrieve them. My log photos for geocaches are just fun, but benchmark photos are part of the historical record. And all of that will be lost...

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 2
Link to comment
2 hours ago, Ernmark said:

Shirley - I haven't been in there for a while - sorry to hear about John. I always looked forward to reading your logs...was like being part of the adventure! I hope the BM forum threads will continue to exist as a Waymarking topic. I'm going to have to quickly save logs & pics from some of my favorite Benchmark Hunts - would be nice to have BMs ported over to the Waymarking BM category.

 

As the current leader of the US Benchmarks Category, I'll try to revamp & put in some more info on using resources that we collectively have all discovered & come to rely on in our benchmarking journeys...

Thank you so muchly! I love that you read some of our logs -- they were true adventures. There was one BM that was way off, but John had gone back many times to hunt for it, he knew it had to be there, and finally on the 10 time we measured from the previous BM (that was off also) in the same group and last one we found in the group and he somehow figured out where it had to be. So one beautiful day, we went back and Lo and Behold, John went there and walked over and started looking and then he did a dance like the Navajo that we have many friends who have taught us so much. And then he looked at me and smiled and winked. I knew it was worth all of the gas and time to finally find a silly disc on a rock that had been covered by dirt, leaves and time itself. Was it worth all the time, effort, and trips to the beautiful Kaibab National Forest? YUP! And would we have gone through it all again? YUP! I will always remember that golden time... That is one thing that GC cannot take away from me. My memories of John and his resolve to try again and again and again until on the 6th try, he finally recovered that mark. The sun was shining and my husband was very happy and finally had his prize, a few pictures, the extra knowledge that a string of BMs that had all been very hard to find and how to get the job done of finding them all and logging them to let others be able to continue to find them also, that is what the benchmark hunt is all about. 

 

It was about going out in the great outdoors, finding things that might not have been recovered by anyone else for such a long time by just a description written by the person who set it many moons ago... My hubby loved this sport, I so, I too loved this sport because I helped him hunt and had the pleasure of seeing him find every single one of the them! 

 

At least GC cannot take the memories away...

 

Sincerely, Shirley~ 

 

Finds = 1211 result(s) Didn't Finds = 184 result(s) Mark destroyed = 43 result(s) All logs = 1465 result(s). = a work of love and fun of the hunt.

Edited by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)
Old age is my reason for this edit.
  • Upvote 1
  • Love 4
Link to comment

Those who want to be helpful, are careful about identification, and take the trouble to emulate the NGS style of report can log recoveries at the official NGS site.

 

You can input updated To Reach, HH2 handheld coordinates DDD MM SS.S format (if it only had SCALED), and photos. You can use the category L GEOCAC group code and your initials as Chief of Party.

 

There is a helpful guide on their site.

https://geodesy.noaa.gov/datasheets/SurveyMarks_FAQ.shtml#RECOVERY

https://geodesy.noaa.gov/surveys/mark-recovery/index.shtml

 

It will ask if the mark is suitable for GPS. You can say UNKNOWN if you aren't sure. Suitable generally means most of the sky clear except for perhaps poles or isolated tree not too close. Hold your hand outstretched with little finger at the horizon and see what is higher than your thumb.

 

Generally they want reports if it has been 5-10 years or more since last recovery OR condition has changed. Don't log it unless you have useful information to add. They don't need a dozen "me too" logs.

 

At this point only marks with ADJUSTED or GPS elevations on the data sheet are of high interest. I think they still accept  Triangulation stations, but do not want Intersection stations (towers, etc).

 

Condition means how well the mark has held position and not cosmetic condition.

 

So you don't have to give up the hunt.

 

Edited by Bill93
  • Upvote 1
  • Helpful 2
Link to comment
On 10/19/2022 at 12:34 AM, 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) said:

I have to agree totally and I am heartsick that they are going to wipe out everything that my dead husband and I did all those years away. All the pictures and logs that John took and logged, all of the posts we made here in this forum, the work we did on the contests we thought up and ran where there were many that enjoyed the extra challenge. I miss you all a lot and this makes me very angry and sad and heartbroken. I do not think there is changing their mind about this terrible decision.

 

Sorry guys, I know you will be just as angry and upset about this as I am.

 

Sincerely,

Shirley Bloomfield = half of the 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

 

FYI Shirley - when we went to Hoover Dam, we used John's logs to find some of the harder-to-locate marks, and now that tours don't operate like they used to, y'all may be the only ones to find the BMs inside the dam.

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Benchmark Blasterz said:

 

FYI Shirley - when we went to Hoover Dam, we used John's logs to find some of the harder-to-locate marks, and now that tours don't operate like they used to, y'all may be the only ones to find the BMs inside the dam.

Wow! That is amazing... We had a local tour guide that had been a regular shopper in Safeway where I worked and he was kind enough to take us around to where he had seen them inside the dam. He thought it was rather funny that we were so excited to be able to log those at all, but he was pleased to help us out in that way. 

 

Thank you for letting me know that we were very lucky to have been able to get pictures and go places that others cannot go now. 

 

Sincerely, Shirley Bloomfield

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment

Shirley & all,

I have not been active in the '2oldfarts' area for several years, but always enjoyed reading their founds.  Sorry that John is gone. 

 

Have fond memories of spending a delightful day, 18 November 2011, with him at the Lees Ferry historic landing.  Ran levels from GP0234 down to the rivers edge, trying to get an elevation correlation to assist in locating GP0236.  Not found that day, nor on later visits by me.  The campground host gave us a boat ride four miles up river and put us on a rock shelf that had marginal potential for GP0237, which also remains Not Found.

USGS photos taken 24-29 Sept 1921 pinpoints the 'large rock in the river with a vertical staff'; but I don't believe the slopping shoreline rock ever had a disk in it.  This is the only BM that I will bother to salvage from Groundspeak.  kayakbird

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment
2 hours ago, kayakbird said:

Shirley & all,

I have not been active in the '2oldfarts' area for several years, but always enjoyed reading their founds.  Sorry that John is gone. 

 

Have fond memories of spending a delightful day, 18 November 2011, with him at the Lees Ferry historic landing.  Ran levels from GP0234 down to the rivers edge, trying to get an elevation correlation to assist in locating GP0236.  Not found that day, nor on later visits by me.  The campground host gave us a boat ride four miles up river and put us on a rock shelf that had marginal potential for GP0237, which also remains Not Found.

USGS photos taken 24-29 Sept 1921 pinpoints the 'large rock in the river with a vertical staff'; but I don't believe the slopping shoreline rock ever had a disk in it.  This is the only BM that I will bother to salvage from Groundspeak.  kayakbird

I also have fond memories of John getting with you and quite a few others to benchmark hunt. Those strings of square shiny white rock posts with U, S, G, S on each corner with a perfect chiseled square in the center. I would have to pour through so many ones of those logs to find those posts. They were beautiful! 

 

And I remember we followed your finds as well. You have found so many in very rough places... I will miss you and all of the others that we had gone hunting either benchmarks or Locationless Caches on this site. It once was the place to come to for fun of many types. 

It was good to hear from you again. 

Shirley, = half of the 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
3 hours ago, bigeddy said:

As a Charter Member I am appalled at this decision. I have enjoyed the challenge of locating historical benchmarks while geocaching. It seemed a great fit. I simply don't understand the reasons given. Groundspeak keeps disappointing me. 

I agree wholeheartedly, but the powers that be has already made up their minds. We lose a lot enjoyment from a sport that we all loved for so many years.

Below is where you may go to read about the entire thing and the why of what they are doing. Something about the Benchmark program code being to old to mess with as it would take to much time and money to update the entire Benchmarking side of GC. I have now accepted it, but with so much sadness and soon even this forum here will be deleted also. 

Sincerely, Shirley - half of the 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) :(

 

Edited by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

I suppose in retrospect, given the attitude that Geocaching Inc has had toward Benchmarking for many years now, it is hardly surprising. But it is sad.

 

I logged my first disk, HV1697, on August 4, 2002, near the Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. The most recent was on Christmas Day 2018, HV1926, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. I haven't been very active in recent years, but for ca. 2002-2010 especially, I spent an awful log of time on my knees, garden pruner, probe (screwdriver) brush, handheld Garmin eTrex, and camera at the ready, explaining to passersby —and once to a CIA cop — what I was doing. (Printout of datasheet on a clipboard was my standard prop to certify I was in some way legit. Government employee ID, which had nothing to do at all with geodesy, was also helpful in supporting my "official" status.)

 

I am probably forgetting a few, but my logged finds (or not-found) include benchmarks in Massachusetts, Rhode Island (?), Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Puerto Rico, and possibly others. (There was also at least one in France, embedded in a cemetery wall, which of course I could not log on geocaching.com.

 

I liked the idea that the pursuit took me to places I wouldn't have found, even if not far from home. It was instructive reading descriptions from decades past, which often were completely useless because of the road re-alignment or changes in the built environment.

 

I thought maybe the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (archive.org) would have captured our logs, but I didn't have much luck. They do seem to have captured at least 20,000 of the official NGS datasheets frozen in time ca. 2000 that were never updated. Early logs seem to have static URLs in the format  < https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=HV9203 > but success is inconsistent (at least for me). Also, users can nominate web pages for saving in the Wayback Machine, but my attempts always failed.

 

The front page of the Benchmark section has this report:

        In the last 7 days, 858 benchmarks have been logged by 163 users.
        Overall, 166487 benchmarks have been recovered in 233644 logs.
        There are 736425 total benchmarks in the database.
        Last Generated: 10/28/2022 19:12 PST

 

Almost a quarter-million logs! Benchmarks may be a small part of Seattle-based Groundspeak's activity, but it's not like no one is participating.

 

Is this forum also going to be deleted?

 

I know this is a business decision, and there is some cost in maintaining the Benchmark logs, etc. I would like to think it's relatively small compared to the benefit. I wonder if the surveying community could be of some help. I have contributed more than 2,000 logs, and at one point was a pretty busy benchmarker. I'd hate to see this all go away. But I'm not optimistic they'll change their mind. After all, Groundspeak hasn't cared much about Benchmarks for most of the past two decades.

 

Regards to all,

"Artman"

(Art Chimes, retired radio journalist and benchmarker, Arlington, Virginia)

HV1926_benchmark_2002-08-04.jpg

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

This is sad news.

The only reason I hadn't participated in the benchmarking feature is that I live in another country. However I log benchmarks in my country on another website and find the hobby very enjoyable. There is something special about confirming something historical is/isn't there that could have been placed many decades ago, an experience that can't be provided by finding 35 micros in order to get a pointless souvenir every 2 months.

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

Definitely sad news to hear of these changes.

I'll definitely keep the benchmark maps I created up and running, I'll have to remove the geocaching links but that is a minor change.

 

Are there any other benchmarking forums that exist out there that people here are a part of?  While I am definitely not as active here as I was years ago, I definitely still pop in and read the messages and lurk week to week.  It would be a shame to lose the camaraderie and knowledge and friendship that exists in this forum.

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

I am very sorry to see this go.  Many thanks to so many who have posted great pictures and hand-held positions that I've been able to harvest and improve the quality of tens of thousands of stations in the National Spatial Reference System.  I'd like to think that I've made some friends here along the way as well.  This has been a great site to help the National Geodetic Survey do a bit of educating about the importance of these data to the country.  If anyone has follow-up comments or questions about these marks just drop me a line -- base9geodesy@gmail.com.

 

Peace to all and thanks again -- Dave Doyle

owner Base 9 Geodetic Consulting Services

NGS chief geodetic surveyor (retired)

1959599960_Goldnobackground.png.5129e9c4ca21ef287473e446f54783e2.png

  • Upvote 4
  • Love 2
Link to comment

Thank you Dave D for coming back here to add your thoughts and your Email address for us to use if we choose to do so. You have always been in the forums when we have had questions and either you or Z15 has answered all of the them or some of out long time benchmark hunters who have been so good about logging into the NGS their professionally written logs there. It has been a privilege to me to get to know so many good people and professional people on this forum. 

 

Soon this forum will be gone along with all of our logs on GC. But our memories of the good times will remain. I feel sorry for those people that never got the chance to go hunt for those very old benchmarks and have that thrill when they are able to see something very old and still there and in good shape and then able to log it also. I hope that something else will come up somewhere some day that will rival what we had and accomplished here. 

 

Goodbye everyone! It was wonderful while it lasted.

 

Love to you all, my dear friends...

Shirley~

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 3
Link to comment
On 10/28/2022 at 4:45 PM, bigeddy said:

" Groundspeak keeps disappointing me. "

As they do for a lot of us. This was a very interesting and, if you wanted it to be, technical form of gps gameplay. But it doesn't seem to hold it's own against chasing down bison tubes with wet paper every tenth of a mile. Server space costs money and its getting expensive to pay all those people who do the work for free...

  • Helpful 1
Link to comment

Countdown until midnight. Anyone want to make any bets on how long until this forum will be deleted - lock, stock and barrel? And how long they leave up the Benchmarking logging? I guess it doesn't matter much one way or the other... To me it was worth it to be able to see my hubby happy. A happy hubby is a wonderful thing... That should be a song... Just saying.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/226226-a-good-day/

Okay, I found a thread on Benchmarking Forum that I think might give people an idea why it means so much to all of us benchmarker hunters, please go and check this one out before it all goes away... My favorite part of it starts on page 2 about half way down the page, my post that says - YAHOO! We had a blast on Saturday and Sunday!!  And be sure to check out the picture of the square white granite post with the one of the letters USBM chiseled into each corner and a perfect chiseled square in the center.

 

Please read that one and then go down three posts later to see just how many marks we found and how old and how he was answering Okie by telling him the distance from the spot that it was posted on the NGS data sheet had been off and that was why he had not found it. (which was changed by Dave D after he found out about it.) 

 

In that thread so many tell of times like that of going out and finding something that had not been found since it was placed so long ago. I shall remember always those special days I had with my husband of almost 50 years just going out and finding those sometimes elusive marks.

 

My best to you all. And may you enjoy whatever you find to do in this world and don't forget to share those good times with others... Just saying.  

 

That was our passion, geocaching was just a side game we did if there were any close by a benchmark.

Sincerely Shirley~

Edited by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)
Old age is my reason for this edit.
  • Love 1
Link to comment
  •  
4 hours ago, Geocaching HQ said:

We do appreciate the feedback shared in this thread, and understand how disruptive this change will be to benchmarkers. However, for the reasons stated in the original post and in subsequent posts by the Product Manager, we wish to confirm that we will remove benchmarking from the Geocaching.com website on January 4, 2023. This is slightly later than the original time frame, due to the holidays.


 

I am posting this so if there in anyone still checking back here every once in a while, you will know the date that it will go poof. January 4, 2023. 

 

Goodbye everyone. It was great while it lasted.

 

Sincerely, Shirley - half of the 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

Edited by Keystone
Quote formatting repaired by moderator
  • Upvote 2
Link to comment

All,  I haven't been active here in about ten years, but from about 2004-2012 it was a fun and educational place to hang out.  Not only was it interesting to check out everyone's new photos and logs, but often a unique find would trigger a fascinating discussion here.  The photos could be works of art!  I loved the 2oldfarts finds out west, where the landscape was so different from the East.  And the discussions -- some examples that come to mind were about the 4 Corners [mis]location where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado meet, or about the Wheeler survey markers in Utah and Salt Lake City, or the Mason Dixon markers,  or some of the old-time aerial navigation markers before radio navigation, or the MIssouri River finds, or the IBC Canadian boundary markers.  And then there was Dave Doyle's endless patience and boundless knowledge with respect to the NGS and geodetic datums.

 

Thank you all for a great community and fun hobby.  In internet years, this niche of geocaching.com goes back to nearly pre-historic days, and it is a wonder it has been kept around as long as it has.  Nevertheless, it is sad to see it disappear.  I just went back and captured all of my logs as PDF files, because some of the discussions happened in the logs where one report would comment on another report and could result in a little micro-community around certain areas.  Harry Dolphin and I would frequently follow in each others footsteps, and occasionally puzzle over a hard to find mark -- and never once met in person!

 

I wish you all the best,

 

Holograph

 

  • Upvote 1
  • Love 2
Link to comment

Well, that's it. I had one more mark that I hadn't logged onsite from our Florida/Alabama trip in November, PID AB4069. Nothing special, just a metal rod monumented in 1996. But it did have scaled location so the 'Cycles were able to add handheld coordinates to the log. I feel like someone that just carved my initials in a log on a bonfire that is about to be lit.

  • Upvote 1
  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, Ernmark said:

..assuming a lot of the links we've used over the years are gone.  In case the BM forums go away on this side, I'll try to keep one going in the Waymarking side...

Thank you Ernmark, that will be wonderful. I am pretty much done with GC now as they have taken away so much from me that I had found a link to my life with John, I will go to other sites now to play and converse with several other people who I now consider friends. I will miss all of the great people who were Benchmark hunters and posted here in this forum. It was an exciting time of my life. 

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment

This is the 2nd time something I put time into on the Internet has been nuked.  The first was Panoramio, the photo layer on Google Earth.  I spent a lot of time and uploaded many of my photos, photos of things that don't exist any more.  Then Google nuked it.  At least they gave everyone warning and the option to download their own pics.  It was still a gut punch.  I haven't logged any benchmarks for several years, work got in the way.  Good times then, sorry to see this happen. 

  • Upvote 1
  • Funny 1
Link to comment
On 2/15/2023 at 8:07 PM, sjkimmel99 said:

This is the 2nd time something I put time into on the Internet has been nuked.  The first was Panoramio, the photo layer on Google Earth.  I spent a lot of time and uploaded many of my photos, photos of things that don't exist any more.  Then Google nuked it.  At least they gave everyone warning and the option to download their own pics.  It was still a gut punch.  I haven't logged any benchmarks for several years, work got in the way.  Good times then, sorry to see this happen. 

We also had many pictures on Panoramio with all of them tagged for us as places that were very special to us and knew others would enjoy them also. = gone. But we have them on our computers yet. And then they shut down my favorite place here on GC = Off Topic. I cannot fathom the reasoning on that one either. I have been very hurt since my Husband died Jan. of 2019 and Off Topic then died and now, Benchmarking is dead and wiped off of the site, so I cannot even go look at our finds and remember happy times. I do not think that much else can be taken away from me anymore, except this forum that we both had posted in. It also, will be the next to be deleted I suppose. 

 

  At least I do not feel targeted anymore like I did when I first learned of GC's decisions, as there are so many others that have lost so much when they did this without proper notification to everyone via the news letters or emails or texts like we got when our premium dues were due. That would have been the correct and thoughtful way to do this. 

 

  I appreciate these threads here in the benchmarking forums. Thanks everyone for the time that everyone took in uploading and going out to find hundreds of beautiful places where the marks were located and logging them for everyone to enjoy. And to those who came here to play and tell about the really good times they had and also be in the many benchmark contests that were run here by several people. They are in my memory until the day I die. 

 

May all of the people who touched our lives and who became our friends have a good life and still enjoy the outdoors and take many pictures... I miss so many of you all...

 

Love to you all.

Shirley Bloomfield = half of the 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

  • Upvote 1
  • Helpful 1
  • Love 2
Link to comment

I too have been AWOL as life just got in the way but was going to try and ease back into this enjoyable pasttime. I am learning what has transpired in my absence and hate to see all my logs gone. It does sour me a bit. Glad to see some of the familiar names I have associated with in past forum threads are still active here somewhat. made 

Link to comment

Hey Y'all. Just in case you missed it, here is a way to look up your old logs minus the photos. You will just need to know the PID for the benchmark which you can find on Scaredy Cat Films viewer still. 
 

So has anyone transitioned and started logging benchmarks directly on the USGS site? I have not. Now I sadly just ignore benchmarks. 
 

Edited by elrojo14
  • Helpful 1
Link to comment

Essentially, it's using Web Archive's last scraped (backed-up) data of the page. By going here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221208090238/https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=[PID]

Replace [PID] with the PID. (Which you can get ANYWHERE, not just Scardycat's site - Google Earth, my android app, NGS site).

Note that depending on how often Archive scanned the page, things posted near the time of takedown could have been missed.

Note that some images are still viewable - only the ones that were moved to AWS storage are still viewable.

Edited by foxtrot_xray
Link to comment
On 10/9/2023 at 5:40 AM, elrojo14 said:

So has anyone transitioned and started logging benchmarks directly on the USGS site? I have not. Now I sadly just ignore benchmarks. 

It's good you haven't tried yet, since USGS doesn't accept recovery reports anymore (and never did electronically except for email), and NGS is the one that maintains the survey marks today.

NGS also has some basic rules -

(1) Keep it professional. No personal details, no amusing stories. If you recovered it, and do not need to update any description or directions, leave the description blank.

(2) If the status has not changed, or details/directions have not changed from a report made less than a year ago, do not submit another recovery. Only submit if: (1) The previous recovery is more than a year old, or description, status, or directions have changed.

(3) Pictures need to be named following their guidelines, and need to be marked in the image how they say here: https://geodesy.noaa.gov/web/surveys/photo_submissions/

 

 

Link to comment

Fox, thank you for the archive link. I wouldn't have figured that out myself. This is a huge benefit for any of us who were depending on GC to keep notes for us. I have my spreadsheet but there are a lot of other details in those logs, particularly for ones researched but not found the first time around.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...