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This thread seemed like as good a place as any to post an update on the generally poor state of affairs with all seldom|seen physical finals.
There was a time when I, like so many of us in the early years, could and would respond quickly to NM logs or suspected MIA caches when a few DNFs appeared. And for the most part we keep a good handle on it back then, when we had the time and energy.
Many of us old-timers got so much out more out of the game by creating a vast amount of caches. Most of mine at least, had little to do with physical location and more to do with the many other aspects of gameplay and problem-solving. I think it’s fair to say that many of us, gotta_run and myself included, got way out in front of our skis because the final field signature became less important than the thrill of the whole cache solve experience.
Of course, the simple remedy is always staring us in the face. Archive that stuff! But, for the many who’ve experienced the creation or the thrill of a tough solve and eventual find of an early puzzle cache, we understand just how much time and energy went into their creation and letting these go, particularly in one fell swoop, it gut-wrenching.
I have hit that wall several times in recent years, ready to pull the trigger and move on, but have never quite been able to hit the archive button and kill them all. Ii just feels like a tremendous waste, even though I know today’s cachers are not getting the same experience they once did.
That’s the long way of getting to the point of this thread, a couple points actually. For new cachers, I am well aware of the questionable state of many of my physical finds and increasingly broken links to achieved or missing web links. While I try to get to those, the priority of geocaching has fallen of the simmer plate and behind the stove. I appreciate your patience and willingness in many cases to help out with cache replacements!
I am going to do some spring cleaning soon. That will mean the archiving of many caches and I hope the adoption of many others. On the one hand, the geocaching experience should not be lessened because I can no longer invest the time needed. On he other hand, there’s just too much good meat on the bones of these caches that I can’t stomach throwing them all to the dogs.
So, thanks for listening and I will stop back here soon with a list of caches I hope the Fox Valley community can step in to save.
seldom|seen
Decided to left these atrophy over time. Once they go MIA, they will get archived.
To follow-up on bartrod’s question,
I suspect most of the content that existed before the rebuild is still on the site, it’s just that it is no longer presented in that same summary fashion, in a way that allows you to scan through it as cohesively as you once did. Formerly, if I visited the recent posts, I was presented with a single line summary and could see perhaps 30 threads. I might be scanning for a thread title that I read or contributed to months ago and could easily recognize it in that list. Now, I am only presented with a half dozen or so thread summaries, each containing 3 lines of information that I don’t need to see initially to get me stared. This is THE primary reason I don’t go in the site anymore, I just don’t have the patience to work my way through it anymore.
Just recently stopped by the forums to see what was happenin’ and discovered the LCG module in a state of disrepair and the absence of a Sept-Oct LCG list. I know the fix squarely rests on one individual’s shoulders to manage and that one individual is overtaxed and overburdened beyond comprehension. In this sport with thousands of state players, there must be a few code-savvy individuals with some spare time on their hands? We are a resourceful community and should not find ourselves in this rather embarrassing predicament. After all, this forum is seen outside the Great River and Great Lakes boundaries and what we do says much about who we are. Could the BOD not put out a call for coders to help alleviate this current situation?
I’ve traveled the same frustrating road as every other trackable owner and have all but given up. Anyone familiar with S|S trackables knows that many have significant emotional connections, stories I hoped to share with cachers who appreciate what can happen when you tie something significant to a trackable’s mission or existence.
I recently grabbed a trackable from a cache and it prompted me to look at my inventory. I have (had) 30 released trackables. Not counting those in my possession or placed with ghost duplicates (13), 16 of the 17 others are MIA and have been missing for 2-7 years. They not only include some VERY nice geocoins with specific missions, but things like a collection of chips from the Berlin Wall that I removed myself shortly after it came down, a robot that I gave my son after a very scary emergency room visit, a coin with a mission to return to the scene of my own harrowing experience in Prague, and the like.
To witness these inevitably appear with a “No TB’s in cache” or “A cache your trackable was in was archived” or like many, languishing in some newbie cacher’s inventory for years, is hard to take. It’s a testament to the lack of respect both cachers and muggles have for trackables and cache owners intent.
I know there isn’t much that can be done when it comes to muggles pillaging a cache, but there has to be something more we can do to educate and inform newbie cachers to prevent at least some of this from happening.
Most of us want to give back to the community as much as we get out of the sport, but when you face this level of disrespect, it’s hard to motivate yourself to keep giving.
Just a quick bump to remind Wisconsin geocachers of next Saturday’s CITO event along the Fox River in Appleton. Watercraft caching, free brats and hot dogs, mingling with outdoor enthusiast groups, a hidden geocoin kayak race, and of course cleaning up ALL of our parks and the Fox River waterfront… what excuse have you got not to attend?
Great choice for the 1K Puzzle find, I can’t think of a more appropriate cache to log that monumental milestone. I’m honored and humbled to have passively participated in what has surely been an almost inconceivable commitment of time and effort to solve and find that many puzzle caches. Consider for a moment that an average puzzle takes anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple hours to solve and another 30 minutes to track down and find… let’s just call it an hour shall we? That’s 1000 hours, or almost 42 straight days of 24/7 solving. A PuzzleJunkie indeed!
The 8th Annual Appleton Parks CITO is on!GC528WT. This year we are teaming with Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance to bolster their numbers and hopefully get 1000 participants to help clean up parks and trails along the entire Fox-Wold Riverway from the mouth of Green Bay to Lake Winnebago!
That’s an immense amount of territory to cover, to be sure. If you are from any of these communities you evan be part of our event by joining any of their park locations by visiting their registrations site. You even get a free T-shirt for participating. I wil honor Attended logs for anyone who takes part in the Watershed clean-up event on the 26th, even if you can’t make it to Telulah Park (and that goes for anyone who makes it to the Hwy 10 clean-up as well) provided you register on the FWWA site beforehand as a member of the Appleton Area CITOcachers team! See the event listing for more details.
Let’s see if we can top our best of 116 and help the FWWA top their laudable goal of 1000!!
That’s what I was thinking myself, wait too long and you start having issues with new growth, but given the slight delay in spring weather, I think we can push it out another week to Saturday, May 3rd.
I think we all end up brut forcing our way through builds. I managed to assemble Duplicate Bridge Wherigo, but remembering what a pain it was to upload and keep track, i thought I’d give Earwigo a go and I do like the GUI and ability to constantly and quickly edit and save my cartridge.
I am having some issues determining where to build in the multiple choice variables, however, and could use some guidance from anyone whose managed to get something like that built into a comment event.
Please PM if you have some helpfull info, Gwyn or Mike or anyone else for that matter, I could use the assist!
@gotta run wrote:
You have mellowed in your old age, s|s… 😯
Of that there can be little doubt. When you have a near fatal geo-heart-attack you learn to let go of the things the cause you stress. I might be more passionate if I were still as active, but I spend very little time in here or out there creating or finding caches anymore, due in no small part to all the irritating practices this thread touches on. The further away one is the easier it is to shrug off and not sweat it. Don’t get me wrong, this stuff irritates me as much as it ever did, I just throw some “whatever” ointment on it and the itch fades away.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly we will volunteer to become tools of the modern marketplace when carrots like this are dangled in front of us. Before I get flamed I’ll admit that I as guilty and the rest an as much as most of what I see, say and do is influenced by media. But, isn’t it also ironic (and frankly irritating) that cache creators cannot publish “cause related caches” touching subjects like recycling, homelessness or animal cruelty, devoid of corporate connections, that might actually have a positive social impact on the community while corporations can be so blatant in their association with Groundspeak as to promote book sales by stretching the limits of the sport?
I hope very few of these put on any miles, as Lostby7 portends, and the plan backfires on the publisher to some extent. I hope most of you simply add these to your collections and they stay within 10 miles of where they started out.
The unfortunate thing about becoming an avid cacher and then stepping into the WGA forums is that you walk into a room filled with very strong opinions – developed over years of vitriolic exchanges on the ever cycling topics of caching ethics, puzzle short-cutting and solve-sharing. Even the most inane and innocent request for help raises the ire of those who’ve been down this road and been burned so many times before.
It’s been touched on in this and other recent threads. The prevailing issue in all of these discussions, comes down to respecting the wishes of the cache creator, no matter what type or how intricate the cache. If you place a power trial, you should certainly expect nothing more that a “TFTC #___” Conversely, if you place a puzzle cache that took you many many hours to contemplate, develop and execute, you expect a whole lot more in the “found it” log than TFTC or an emotican. There really are no legitimate reasons for not sharing what it took to make the solve, what you may have learned in the process and what the experience of making the find was like. The reward we puzzle creators get from our time and energy invested is relishing the solve experiences in the retelling. Limitations of time and or technology are just excuses for not giving back.
Now, I can totally understand the desire to log complex puzzle caches if you manage to get your hands on solves via the social caching network or other means and I get that it might be difficult to let “?”‘s est un-found if you can just go sign the slip of paper, not having invested the hours into “getting it”. Many of us have even come to accept that some cachers cannot simply ignore puzzle caches, which they have little interest in solving, and feel that the “rules” allow them to make a legitimate find, creator’s intentions be damned.
Yet, even then, these players have an opportunity to stay in the good graces of puzzle owners and it’s so easy that I don’t understand why more power cachers don’t do it, especially when a power cacher’s manner of caching becomes readily apparent in their logs and the geocaching community forms an impression of the their style. We don’t operate in a bubble and every log builds on the previous – we are a curious lot and like to know who’s logging our caches. Add on a few forum posts bolstering the first impression and it becomes indelible and hard to erase.
I’m no authority and If I claim to be a wise man, well…. All I can do is suggest two simple and obvious guidelines.
First, please ASK the PUZZLE OWNER for help, before going down any other route. If they are unresponsive (and please give us a day or two since many of us are not as active as we once were and it might take a few days), then reach out to previous finders.
Second, cache in whatever manner makes you happy, especially if it means getting out with family and friends. But, if you must log a puzzle without understanding how it works, than at least save face and say as much in your “found it” log. Few seem to appreciate how much better the impression left when a log looks like this “loved the idea of your puzzle and even though I didn’t fully solve it, I did learn something and that made it worth the visit” rather than a hollow copy/paste log like “loved your cache, thanks for putting it out”, which communicates the exact opposite.
Most of all, enjoy yourself and try not to get too worked up in here. Most of us become accustomed over time to the machinations of the sport and its players, but even the old Buddha’s like Zuma, who teach tolerance and understanding, can reach a tipping point where the irritation becomes too itchy to ignore and need to get it out.
@gotta run wrote:
I don’t think it’s a dumb reason for archiving at all. We pulled a ton of puzzle caches a while back for a similar reason, because certain people were set out to basically spoil puzzles and couldn’t understand how someone could possibly feel that actually solving puzzles, rather than just handing out final coordinates, was important. We lost that argument so, rather than sit and stew, we went out and pulled. Now I try to take a different view on the actions of others, as I’ve outlined here.
And that is also a value to this forum and why this discussion should continue even though some might not wish it to. I think it is very helpful for the caching community to know that this issue is important to some owners and that some owners will choose to say forget it and pull caches.
I’ve been there too, a few times. At one point I was on the edge… no, I went over the edge, and was hanging on the face of the cliff to the point of archiving many puzzles in response to the similar reason GR mentions. But, don’t you know, it was the same people posting here with long analogies and passionate arguments for civility; words of reason, tolerance and a sense of proportion, who reached down to grab my hand to pull me back up from the edge – GR being one of the strongest pullers.
There are aspects of how some players choose to play this sport that will ultimately get under your skin, no matter how many times you get infected and you wash, rinse and repeat. Eventually you come to understand that some dirt is good for you and builds immunity to the nasty stuff that can really do you mental harm.
I know my immunity to cut-and-paste logs, unnecessary NM or NA flags, poorly re-hidden caches, harsh words about my personality and the like have built my tolerance to the very infections that used to bring me down. These days I just take another swig of HuffinPuffin, Muggle B or CodeJunkie log juice and I feel all better.
At the same time, I see these arguments or wright and wrong reaching beyond the realm of geocaching into a larger dialogue of tolerance, respect for others and cooperation. Gotta Run and I could not be further apart from each other from a political standpoint; I arguing for aspects of a socialist and welfare state and he arguing for minimal government intrusion, privatization and deregulation. And yet, here we are, on common ground in a very public place, bolstering and standing up for each other when those who have no respect for cache ownership or ethics, cast aspersions or treat these topics with little import. It says something about the value of those who post here with passion and those who step in to come to their comrades aide.
…or a prolific cache creator who can’t help creating new ones even though the burden grows on his existing ones which he finds hard to let go of. If you live in the Fox Valley, I’d be glad to offer up a few 😉
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