[-cheeto-]

You talkin to me ❓

I’ve been way too busy ❗

I got an idea 💡 Maybe I’ll take a day off and go find a few lonely caches over there ➡

See, they can be useful 😉 8) 😀 😯 8)

[-cheeto-]

Now there’s a neat reason to unstack. I didn’t realize there were so many…

[-cheeto-]

My COTM breakdown…

The negative:
I liken Cache O’ the Month to one of those informal polls on so many websites we see. Take the actual voting results with a grain of salt. It didn’t take me long to understand it’s a popularity contest.

The positive:
I think the most important aspect of COTM as it is right now is it gives geocachers (and most importantly members of the WGA) the ability to highlight and recognize a great cache or series of caches that they really enjoyed and for a wider audience to see that recognition. It’s a much wider audience than a forum post. And the “runner ups” and winners are all being tracked in a handy bookmark list. I am one of the lucky ones to have had a cache nominated and I could care less if it ever won but I really really cared that it was nominated and felt honored.

I say have fun with the voting and know that it’s not really meant to be that serious and let’s continue to make great nominations and reward all those creative cache hiders so they continue to give us fun things to do when were not at work.

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

Congrats zuma!

[-cheeto-]

No not really. Was jokin 🙂

I’ve posted to these forums from the Wii before and logged a cache or two. It used to be able to do flash based stuff but apparently as sites upgrade to newer plugin versions the wii stays behind and can’t keep up. When we got it my son could play club penguin on it and now it doesn’t work.

I’ve only ever played guitar hero on my son’s DS so I don’t know about internet on it but I know he goes online with it too (once dad got the wireless working of course..)

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

Personally I prefer having some paper around and a notepad to write in. But alas I am a techie so I have tried and do use a palm on occasion especially when I plan on going where I haven’t cached much before and am trying to get a bunch of finds under my belt in a day.

[-cheeto-]

I prefer Google Chrome for browsing. I have other reasons why I use IE and Firefox but most of those are work related or for other add-ons and plugins present in those other browsers. But for just “browsing” I seem to enjoy the simplicity and quickness of Chrome.

Not a mac user so I’ve never touched Safari and I think once a long time ago in it’s heyday I used Opera.

What no Wii internet channel powered by Opera option? 😛

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

and by the way, the “system” let me move my bogus coords around more than 150 feet. I’ve also moved traditional caches more than 150ft without approval as well. I think there’s more to the “algorithm” than just distance at work here. however, you should as cache owner check to make sure that the new bogus coords meet the same criteria as when you published before changing them. i.e. less than 2 miles, unsearchable location, etc.

as my bogus coords posting on my workshop says, you can add creativity to the choice so I would much rather leave it like it is then go to a system of “they’re all the same” as astro-d mentions.

and the problem with calling a puzzle a “multi” when it looks like a multi is that there might already be a cache in the area but the puzzle cache creator would like to take the cacher to a plaque nearby and the “other cache” taking up space has nothing to do with teaching someone about the plaque or the area the cacher is in. doing so with a puzzle cache allows us this flexibility (a multi would be turned down most likely due to proximity). however, I rarely start a puzzle with bogus coords that are a starting point. I use a reference point instead. As soon as you start adding reference points rather than actual true waypoints it’s no longer a multi under groundspeak parameters.

puzzle caches can be lot’s of things and don’t have to be desk puzzles all the time. that’s the fun of the category: the variety! in fact, being a cache owner & creator, i pay attention to the likes and dislikes of area cachers and place a good fair mix of desk, field, and other types of puzzles. sorry for the off-topic comment/response…

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

I actually saw a lot of validity in pharmgirl’s post so for most of mine I have gone and updated the bogus coords. My apologies to the reviewers if this causes undue work for you! 😕

Personally I actually like seeing my historic neenah series unstacked in the river rather than stacked. In areas like around downtown appleton it will probably be ugly and undesirable but in other areas unstacked seems to make sense and allow the “map viewer” type of cacher the ability to see “cache density” of the area they are perhaps finding themselves in while traveling. Considering many geocachers stay at the holiday inn in downtown Neenah (i see this mentioned in lots of logs on my neenah caches) I think it adds a bit to the argument for making them show on the map so they get a better picture of what’s nearby. and they might just try out a puzzle…

I personally think this is a case of owner preference and each owner should be able to make the choice to stack or not and it can certainly be a decision that can take the area into consideration as well as the theme of that cache, puzzle makeup, and so on.

I am not a big fan of forcing a community ideal on others though.

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

Congrats on your 200th find!

Here’s to many more.

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

Congrats!

[-cheeto-]

I think only a couple of mine are stacked and they’re in neenah so it won’t hurt much as that river there is nice and wide and ready for more question marks. I’ll unstack any of mine that are when I find some time.

[-cheeto-]

Puzzle Creator Workshop – That’s Just Bogus!

Most puzzle caches contain some sort of note at the top of the page resembling: “THE CACHE IS NOT LOCATED AT THE ABOVE LISTED COORDINATES.” (this is the exact message I have borrowed and use on each of mine). Unless you have placed a puzzle cache before, you might not know that picking those “bogus” or “dummy” coordinates as we affectionately call them is not as easy as it first seems but it can also be a lot of fun.

First off, cache placement guidelines require us to choose coordinates that are within 2 miles of the actual cache coordinates.

Secondly, the reviewers will often require that the location of the dummy coordinates be “unsearchable locations”. Handy unsearchable locations might include: Rivers, Lakes, Ponds, Middle of Major Highways, Middle of Garbage Dumps, Waste Treatment Plants, Quarry’s, you get the idea. Many cache owners will joke about the location in the cache listing, like “Don’t go there, unless you want to go for a swim!”

Also, note that dummy puzzle cache coordinates do not have to abide by the .10mi proximity rule. They CAN be within .10 of another physical cache, way point of a multi, other bogus coordinates, etc. In fact, they can and sometimes are placed right on top of other bogus cache locations. This has been referred to as “stacking” in the forums and you can visit that thread if you would like to express your opinions on this practice. I
would stay away from “stacking” on other actual known caches and this may not even be allowed anyway.

TIP: You can also think of bogus coordinates as one more way to be creative with the cache listing. Maybe the location can fit into the theme of the puzzle! Maybe the puzzle will involve using the bougs coordinates in some way. Maybe you will have to measure distances based on the bogus coordinates. Maybe the bogus spot will be a starting point or a vantage point for viewing something. Be creative!

Some examples of creatively using bogus coords:
– I’m in a Rut – FINAL (GC1DAJ5) is a final to a “6-pack” like cache final where each of the parts is on a walking trail that surrounds a city park. The coords point directly at the park. The final isn’t in that park but the park is right in the middle of a semi-circle of caches needed to find it.
– Historic Neenah – Old Council Tree (GC1GJ3B) – Bogus coords are actually an approximate location of where the subject tree used to stand based on information from the historical plaque. To find the plaque you use the bogus coords and a measurement and direction from the cache description (thus reversing the information on the plaque).

You can also actually post the “real coordinates” instead of bogus coords 😉 This is normally done with caches that have ‘ALR’s’ (or additional logging requirements) like the Delorme Challenge caches and Marc’s Cemetery photo cache series. In fact with ALR’s that do not also contain puzzles, most cacher’s actually like to know where the final is, especially on the “challenge” type caches.

With so many choices, what is a puzzle cache creator to do?

[-cheeto-]

For non-members (those not logged in to the WGA site), this page would display information about the WGA and link to the form people can use to join.

Very awesome!!! Adding the ability for non-members to very easily see information about the group and making it very simple to join the group was one the things I mentioned on a related posting under the Suggestion box not too long ago. What a perfect fit seeing as most of our redirect traffic comes from these banners.

Great ideas sir Jeremy.

-cheeto-

[-cheeto-]

everyone knows the answer is X

[Author]

Posts