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2qwerqe's Quest: Visiting Cachers Want To Know


2qwerqE

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In planning a trip to Houston, I posted on the SW forums for suggestions of the best caches in the area. I would only have a couple days to cache and only wanted to visit the best destination caches, the kind that make you say 'Wow. Cool place.'

I was also planning to introduce my brother and sister to caching, and wanted them to have the sort of experience that makes a person who's lived there for decades say 'Wow! I never knew!'

 

The response from the Houston area cachers was amazing. Right off the bat, it was twice suggested that we make my visit an event day. (An idea I loved, but had to decline.) Then, through 2 forums (gc.com's SW forum, and Texas Geocachers forum) the suggestions came fast and fabulous. Eveything from woods to swamps to Gulf coast beachfront, to folk art installations, sculptures, formal gardens and a beer can house.

 

So, why bring this here, to the general forums? Because I have seen the same request posted to other local forums, again and again and I'd like to expand my quest to reach across the country. How many times have you planned a visit to a distant city, and wished there was a single place to get all the local's best hides? Here's how:

 

Houston cacher PARKERPLUS created a cache in my honor 2qwerqE's Quest, and asked those who found the cache to post their favorites in the find log.

 

I'd love to see this done across the country and around the world. Obviously, since I cannot create vacation caches across the globe, a local cacher would need to do what PARKERPLUS did, and create one so that visitors to any given city or region can do a search for '2qwerqE's Quest' for their city, and find in those logs the local's suggestions for the best Wow! caches for a visitor to see. For consistency and searchability, the cache titles should include the city or region: '2qwerqE's Quest: Indianapolis' for example. Any cacher can cast his/her 'vote' for his favorite cache and have a say in what visitors will see as caching excellence in that city.

 

What do you think? Anyone want to create a 2qQ for your city?

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I'd rather look at a shared bookmark list or a local organization's webpage to find lists of favorite caches, rather than stumbling across a cache page and wading through logs, then finding the cache pages for the caches mentioned in those logs.

 

Once we can search for shared bookmark lists, and download GPX files or order PQ's based upon shared bookmark lists, the process will be even easier.

 

People are always happy and proud to show off the best caches that their area has to offer. I'm glad that we have a new tool available to help us do that. I believe in using the best tool for the job.

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I'd rather look at a shared bookmark list ... Once we can search for shared bookmark lists, and download GPX files or order PQ's based upon shared bookmark lists, the process will be even easier... I believe in using the best tool for the job.

Fine if you can afford the technology. I don't have a PDA, and don't cache with a notebook computer on my dashboard. It's all I can do to afford the gas. (My basic yellow Etrex was a gift, my computer was a business expense.)

 

'Wading through' local association pages doesn't alway yield the results I'm looking for, and if they do, they are for the whole state or region, not a targeted city. PARKERPLUS' idea has the added component of letting the locals voice their opinions on their favorites.

 

Respectfully, 2q

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It costs you absolutely nothing to browse a shared bookmark list, and check the box to download a .loc file for the caches you like. Going to a cache page for the same information requires me to then find the cache pages for each page that's mentioned in one of the logs on that cache page. Collecting it all in one place, and facilitating downloads of the coordinates for the collected caches, is far more efficient IMHO.

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In planning a trip to Houston, I posted on the SW forums for suggestions of the best caches in the area. I would only have a couple days to cache and only wanted to visit the best destination caches, the kind that make you say 'Wow. Cool place.' . . .

I wondered how this could be done also.

 

A couple of active cachers in this area were leaving on a three-month RV trip and they were going to find caches along the way.

 

They are not active in the Forums, so I wished there was some way they could go to the website and get a list of "the best" caches along I-10, or I-15, or Hwy. 395.

 

Of course, any cache is a good one, but if you are traveling, it would be nice if you could seek the really good one/ones in the area you are passing through.

 

There is one awesome cache I learned about in New Orleans. But how does a traveler know about that ahead of time?

 

To travel a couple thousand miles and be within 10 miles of an "awesome cache" and not know about it and get a chance to look for it would be sad. ;)

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I don't know if this thread is the place for the "top 10" caches, but that would be a start. :D

 

It would be nice if there was a way to Search for "Five Star" caches from the "Hide and Seek" a cache page.

 

However, since caches aren't rated, I don't know how such a thing can be implemented. ;)

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If you follow the discussions in the Geocaching.com forum you will hopefully be happy to know that a "favorites" concept will likely emerge from the shared bookmarks feature. Under this feature:

 

1. Every premium member would get a special "favorites" list.

2. You can put up to X% of the caches you've found onto your favorites list (like, say, 10%).

3. The cache pages would have a legend on them saying "18 users have placed this cache on their favorites list" and hopefully also some sort of graphic symbol to designate them in search results as "favorites."

 

Ideally "favorites" could also be a search criterion in pocket queries. And, another way to get into a list of favorite caches would be to search for favorites lists (either by username or even better, by coordinate/postal code/country/state).

 

Many geocachers have already developed their own favorites list that will give others a rough idea of the new feature's potential. For example, my own Top 5% List is linked via my profile page and in my signature tagline below.

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It costs you absolutely nothing to browse a shared bookmark list, and check the box to download a .loc file for the caches you like. Going to a cache page for the same information requires me to then find the cache pages for each page that's mentioned in one of the logs on that cache page. Collecting it all in one place, and facilitating downloads of the coordinates for the collected caches, is far more efficient IMHO.

Then educate me. I am not aware of this 'shared bookmark list' you speak of. where would I find a list such as my purpose indicates? How does it work? This is news to me.

 

Or is it a members only thing? As stated, I am not well off, (I work not -for-profit for a paltry salary) and I fugure if I've found over 400 caches without paying, then I can find many many more. I am frugal by need, not by by greed, and if I can play the game without the $30, then I will.

 

Please let's not make this about reasons to pony-up the bux. (Been there; read them. ) This discussion is about finding the great location caches when visiting a city not your own. I just really appreciated PARKERPLUS' creative cache idea on my behalf, and thought others might see something useful in the idea. If another way exists, I am not aware, and I know I can't be the only one, since I see posts on the local forums with similar requests often.

 

Thanks.

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You need to be a premium member to *create* a shared bookmark list, but anybody can *read* one created by someone else. So, I won't tell you to become a premium member but instead I will invite you to make use of the lists that others have constructed. If you wanted to visit Pittsburgh, the shared bookmark list linked below in my signature line would tell you about 25 great caches in the area. (Later on, I'll do a whole separate list called "The best of Pittsburgh" that includes even more than the caches that made my best 5% overall.) More and more geocachers are creating similar lists. The feature is pretty new... two months old... so it still needs time to catch on.

 

For more info. about the bookmark lists and planned future enhancements, see the thread that's pinned at the top of the Geocaching.com forum.

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OK, I checked out your bookmark list, and I like what I see, but how can I see all the other bookmark lists? It says I can view them, but when I click on the 'view all bookmarks' link, it takes me to a membership info page. where is the link to see and search the lists? I trolled around the gc.com pages and site map. Couldn't find them anywhere.

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