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SeabeckTribe

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We are really new at this. We want to hide a cache. But the Geocach.com site is very vague on what is expected of us once we submit our cache applacation to them.

We have viewed the guidelines and understand that part of a new cache. The only thing I can see any reference to the our once approved cache page is, it say if we want to add images, we'll have the option of uploading them. But it doesn't tell us if we have to or get to maintain our cache page. This is all without doing the page in HTML.

Can we make corrections once it is posted?

Once we up load an image, can we rearrange the text to suit our image?

What if we want to edit the text because once it is on the page it doesn't look good to us?

Do we get a chance to view the page before we actually set the cache in motion? Do we or will we get a password for our page?

 

We see quite a few cachers that personalize their pages.

Do we include our pictures with the HTML information?

Can we upload graphics later?

Can we use a program like FrontPage to style or personalize our page?

Do we just cut & paste the HTML data into the application?

 

I know that we have asked a lot of questions. But we hope that we can get the majority of them answered. Thanks for any help we recieve!

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I'll throw in my 2 cents at this time and I'm sure others will expound on it. As for editing your cache page before the cache becomes available, you will most likely have a few days to edit your page before the cache is approved by your local approver. Yes, you will be given additional options in the top right corner of your page which will allow you to edit the page. These options are in addition to the normal 'log your find' and 'Watch this cache'. Formatting the page is done with HTML, as well as inserting pictures. Pictures can be uploaded after you create the page, and then the HTML url can be modified to display the pictures.

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I will add my 2 cents in also. If I remember correctly, you have 36-72 hours before your cache listing can even be approved. While waiting, you can edit anything that you submitted (i.e. coordinates, your description, the type of cache, basically anything you want). As far as the background goes, you can add whatever backgrounds you want just use your imagination. If you are new to the html stuff. I would suggest to go and do a google search and type in html. There are lots of sites out there that will teach you the html necessary to do whatever you are trying to achieve. I taught myself the html codes and all I did was do a google search. I use Paint Shop Pro to manipulate the pics or animations I want. Then I host my images using my IP (Internet Provider). Check into your IP and see if they allow hosting of images. It is just a start but remember there are people out there willing to help but use the internet and see what you can find. I hope this helps you a little.

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You can (like I do) use Front Page to make your cache page description as you would like it, then copy and paste the html into the cache page description area. Make sure the box (description is in html) is checked.

 

You can add pictures to your cache page. Just copy and paste them into your html editor. The images will need to be hosted on the web somewhere (I use an archived cache of mine). Some sites won't allow linking to pictures hosted on their site. My personal home page is hosted on Tripod.com, and I can't link to my own pictured there (but hey...it's free).

 

Hope this helps!

Ed

TB&TB

Edited by The Badge & the Butterfly
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Some good information and some of misinformation in this thread so far.

 

Which is which? (rhetorical)

 

You can edit anything and everything (well almost) about your cache page before during and after the approval process.

 

72 Hours is the most amount of time it should take to get a cache approved, not the least. Some caches have been approved within 10 minutes of submittal.

 

Advice: When you submit your cache, uncheck the "Is this cache active" box until you have tweaked the page the way you want it. That way the approver sees the final version and the version that gets approved is the one you want everyone to see.

 

Can we make corrections once it is posted?

Once we up load an image, can we rearrange the text to suit our image?

What if we want to edit the text because once it is on the page it doesn't look good to us?

Yes
Do we get a chance to view the page before we actually set the cache in motion?
As long as you keep the "Is this cache active" box unchecked, an approver will not see it. So you can edit it as much as you like before "setting it in motion".
Do we or will we get a password for our page?
When you are logged in to the site, your cache pages have the edit links on them.
We see quite a few cachers that personalize their pages.

Do we include our pictures with the HTML information?

Can we upload graphics later?

Same question. Yes
Can we use a program like FrontPage to style or personalize our page? Do we just cut & paste the HTML data into the application?
Cut and paste. But you could use front page to make it look right on your own computer and then snip out the relevant html to paste into the cache description. You can't edit the cache page itself, only the Short Description, Long Description, and various attributes of the cache. Edited by blindleader
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You can edit anything and everything (well almost) about your cache page before during and after the approval process.

 

After approval you can edit everything but cache type and coordinates (except changes of under 500 or so feet).

 

72 Hours is the most amount of time it should take to get a cache approved, not the least. Some caches have been approved within 10 minutes of submittal.

 

I've had approvals take a close to two weeks and some that were approved while I was still editing the page. It all depends on the workload for the area approver and hey, sometimes they go away too. I'd say 3/4 of the time the approval comes within 48 hours and under 24 half the time.

 

One very important thing to remember is that the new cache submission page will time out while editing it after 40 minutes. If this happens you will lose everything. So its a good idea to submit your cache with the absolute basics, then pull it back up to complete any HTML code and editing.

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With 28 hides, I routinely go back to my cache pages and tweak them. I just learned how to add HTML to my cache pages, so that is what I'm doing.

 

Here are the two pages that I used to learn cache page HTML.

 

http://www.9key.com/selector.asp (You now have similar cache attributes available)

 

http://www.keenpeople.com/index.php?option...tid=21&Itemid=5

 

Here is an example of the final product. Out Foxed

 

Be sure you check the button "this page is written in HTML."

 

Bill,

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We want to thank each and every one of you that replied. Your information is very helpful. We have a better understanding of how it all works now. We hated to just jump head first into it without some kind of knowledge of what we could do. It is to bad that they can't provide some of this info for the newbies.... All I got back from them was to try the FAQ, How to hide a cache or if we couldn't get our questions answered then go ask a tech. We are so glad that there are cachers out there like you. THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP... :huh:

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We want to thank each and every one of you that replied. Your information is very helpful. We have a better understanding of how it all works now. We hated to just jump head first into it without some kind of knowledge of what we could do. It is to bad that they can't provide some of this info for the newbies.... All I got back from them was to try the FAQ, How to hide a cache or if we couldn't get our questions answered then go ask a tech

 

Its all pretty intuitive once you start the process, which I guess is why there isn't a lot out there about it.

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As long as you keep the "Is this cache active" box unchecked, an approver will not see it. So you can edit it as much as you like before "setting it in motion".

Wow, I never thought of that. It's really handy, because it will let me test out ideas where the layout of the HTML is critical. Up to now I've submitted my cache and then felt I was in a race against the approver to get it looking "nice" before approval.

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Yuo can edit anything on your cache page anytime. Well almost you can only change the coordinates by a little bit, someone said 0.1 miles if more is need then ask an approver to change it more. For text style your at the mercy of GC.com unless you use HTML. For images they will not show on the cache page unless you use HTML in the description, there is a check box to say you description is HTML. Otherwise you images just show as links on the cache page. With HTML you can add alot, to a point some tables donot come across very well. But there is a way around everything if you can code it.

cheers

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I had no idea that the reviewer received an updated copy every time I edited and saved a cache page. Do they really? I was playing with two cache websites for the period of a few hours trying to get the html right and I must have flooded the approver's webmail with no less than 20 submissions.

 

I feel really guilty about this -- especially since the volunteer was so good and approved the first cache quickly. Perhaps he just wanted to get me off his back.

 

Anyway, one of the two caches was approved within 72 hours. The second hasn't been approved yet. I am working on the assumption that if the approver got several submissions from me he may have inadvertently deleted my other cache submission with the flood of others. Can this happen?

 

I haven't seen any notes on the page regarding any potential problems so it is not out of the realm of possibility that the approver can be backlogged as well.

 

At least I know now that I can check the "temporarily disable" button while editing.

 

If you're out there mtn-man, I'm so sorry if I flooded your mail last week.

 

Scruffster.

Edited by Scruffster
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Scruffster,

 

Do not worry; there's no e-mail generated when you create or edit a cache page. The volunteer reviewers find out about new caches by going to a special section of the website where they are waiting in a queue that can be sorted by country and state. When we open the cache page, we see it the way you last edited it.

 

Like others, I recommend disabling your cache to remove it from the queue if you need to do a lot of formatting work on the page first.

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As "blindleader" said above... uncheck the "Is this cache active" box until you have tweaked the page the way you want it. That way the approver sees the final version and the version that gets approved is the one you want everyone to see.

 

I must have "tweaked" my first page for a week. That is if you are trying to do your page in html. FrontPage needs a lot of tweaking when you copy and paste. It was quite a learning process for us. But, it is FUN :laughing: designing a html page. The Tribe is now working on two more caches.

 

Happy Caching

Old Squaw

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You can (like I do) use Front Page to make your cache page description as you would like it, then copy and paste the html into the cache page description area. Make sure the box (description is in html) is checked.

 

You can add pictures to your cache page. Just copy and paste them into your html editor. The images will need to be hosted on the web somewhere (I use an archived cache of mine). Some sites won't allow linking to pictures hosted on their site. My personal home page is hosted on Tripod.com, and I can't link to my own pictured there (but hey...it's free).

 

Hope this helps!

Ed

TB&TB

You can use photo bucket to link to pics. It is a free service all you have to do is sign up and start loading pics.

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Keystone,

 

Thanks for the reply. I am relieved that I didn't flood the system. But this brings up another question. I hope this isn't totally off topic.

 

I am wondering why one cache was approved within the 72 hour time frame and the other cache has yet to be approved. They were submitted close to the same time.

 

Is there a limit to the number of caches a person may submit at a given time? Are we allowed, lets say, one submission/approval a week? The reason I ask is that I am currently working on a series of four caches on a common theme and would like to have them all up and running within a month or so. I am hesitant to submit any more caches before the first batch is approved.

 

I have checked the page waiting approval and it has not been archived and there are no notes. I assume it is still in queue.

 

Thanks -- Scruffster.

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Hello again Scruffster,

 

No, there are no limits on the number of caches that can be submitted each day, week or month, provided that all the caches meet the listing guidelines.

 

Odds are, your first cache was the very last one looked at the last time your reviewer passed through the queue for your province. He probably finished just at the time you submitted your second cache. Your second cache is in the queue and it's pretty much at the top of the list for the area.

 

If you have a batch of caches that you want to have released all at once, and by a certain date, just include that info. in a note to reviewer that you can then paste onto each page. (Example: "This is part of my XYZ series of caches that I'd like to have listed on February 27th. Please hold until then.")

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I found the trick to putting pictures on your page is to go to the top of your cache page and click on "Upload images" Once you have uploaded it, I find I need to go out of my page then back in. I then find the image toward the bottom of the page or in the gallary. Click on the image or go to the gallary and bring that image up. Do a right click and copy the http link. Then go back to your cache page into editing. Paste the image in place of the picture name. One of the above cachers gave me this hint...

 

example:

background="mypicture.jpg"

 

background="http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/log/display/1985ab87-7a59-44e2-a695-a80191d4ba6b.jpg" Know this image is hosted on my gallary in Geocaching.com

 

It took me awhile to figure this out, but I am getting better. The disadvantage is that your gallary gets all of them. I also found that when I upload a picture to a cache that I found. It goes into my gallary. If I upload the same picture to several caches I get multi pictures. You can't delete it or then you lose it on the the cache page that one was ment for.

 

;) hummmmm.... Maybe I can upload a picture from my gallary to a log on a cache page???? I'll have to try that...

 

Happy Caching

 

Old Squaw

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I found the trick to putting pictures on your page is to go to the top of your cache page and click on "Upload images"  Once you have uploaded it, I find I need to go out of my page then back in.  I then find the image toward the bottom of the page or in the gallary.  Click on the image or go to the gallary and bring that image up.  Do a right click and copy the http link.  Then go back to your cache page into editing.  Paste the image in place of the picture name.  One of the above cachers gave me this hint...

 

example: 

background="mypicture.jpg" 

 

background="http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/log/display/1985ab87-7a59-44e2-a695-a80191d4ba6b.jpg"  Know this image is hosted on my gallary in Geocaching.com

 

It took me awhile to figure this out, but I am getting better.  The disadvantage is that your gallary gets all of them.  I also found that when I upload a picture to a cache that I found.  It goes into my gallary.  If I upload the same picture to several caches I get multi pictures.  You can't delete it or then you lose it on the the cache page that one was ment for. 

 

;)  hummmmm....  Maybe I can upload a picture from my gallary to a log on a cache page????  I'll have to try that...

 

Happy Caching

 

Old Squaw

You can avoid exiting the edit page by opening a second web browser window. That way, you can open the desired photos in one window to copy their urls, then "alt-tab" to the edit page window and paste the url there. This greatly speeds up the process.

 

You CAN link to a photo on the same cache page, your gallery, a travel bug page, another website, etc. It doesn't matter where the photo resides as long as it's in a location it won't later disappear from and render your artwork a blank box with a red "X."

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Thanks Ladybug Kids... I'll give that a try.

 

:mad: Now I have another question??? I just uploaded an animated gif. When I went to copy and paste the http location of that graphic it was turned into a jpg. Now it isn't animated. Does anyone know how to correct this? Do I need to host it somewhere else on the web? Madness522 suggested "Photo Bucket".

 

Happy Caching

Old Squaw

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