[Team Deejay]

They have already announced that the dates are being returned.

[Team Deejay]

Clearly there was a lot of abuse in the early hours. Let me fill you in on some specifics.

1. The challenges that players can be create MUST be location based. Worldwide challenges are groundspeak only.

2. The challenges are not reviewed in the conventional sense. Groundspeak is relying on the public to flag or vote down violations, such as non-geographic based challenges. Groundspeak employees (not the reviewers) are responsible for responding to flags and high negative votes and will archive those which do not meet the rules. Anyone logging a find before it is archived will keep their challenge.

3. For location based challenges, (such as the Skip to my Lou challenge), the task must be performed at the location specified (or very close by). People claiming these challenges from a distances are not logging within the spirit of the rules. This includes people in Madison logging something in Wausau, which does not qualify as “very close by”).

4. You can also Flag logs if you want to. I suspect the lackeys would get to them eventually, but they are a bit overwhelmed with all the stupidity of people posting locationless challenges in the location based category.

5. I HOPE that they are going to improve the search facility if they keep this going.

I put this whole thing in the “Be careful what you wish for” category. I know many people were pining for the return of virtuals, which were really from a different time with much less people and (IMHO) much less emphasis on number running. Several people tried to warn GS, but with all the votes for returning virtuals, the warnings were not heeded. Please keep flagging/voting down problem challenges and hopefully this thing will straighten itself out in a week or so. And while we are waiting….GET OUTSIDE AND FIND A CACHE!

[Team Deejay]

That map is a “Premium Member Only” feature, although that might change soon. The location you are seeing is in Seattle.

[Team Deejay]

@AstroD-Team wrote:

Are there guidelines in place for putting out a letterbox or is it all free reign? I noticed UWGB has quite a few of them (5), yet caches aren’t allowed there….just curious.

What is a cacher/letterboxer owner to do if one is on top of the other or in very close proximity? Curious minds want to know!

UWGB asked us to archive caches in their Arboretum around 4 years ago. As I recall, they stumbled across a box (probably from a volunteer trail) and decided the world was ending because of a geocache. One more instance where taking time to get permission could have prevented a larger problem. It should be noted that we now have a geocaching policy in the UW Madison Arboretum, so maybe we can get them to adopt a similar policy there. Any locals willing to take the lead on this? I will be glad to help out with providing other policies and answering questions, etc., but I think we need a local face involved. (Note that there is no review policy for letterboxes on any of the sites.)

If there were a letterbox right on top of my geocache, I would move mine, if possible. The worst case I have encountered was “Two Ponds” in Johnson Creek. The letterbox was touching the geocache, essentially serving as camo. There is another case on the Glacial Drumlin trail (I don’t want to say which cache) where one is at the top of a steep embankment, while the other is at the bottom. Actual distance (not counting altitude) is around 20 feet.

[Team Deejay]

I do think the drawing/stamps are part of the attraction to the event. And really, it is the only time that we have a true gathering where nearly everyone is in one spot.

That said, I’m not sure anyone is all that excited about winning some of the “prizes”. Since the stamps/tickets only affect the chance of winning merchandise, I’m thinking maybe fewer, better prizes would be better. The GPS giveaways were great (even though they were Magellan), RARE geocoins and similar unreleased items are fine, but regular coins, pathtags, trigger locks, and other minor items just drag out the process. I would recommend that we limit merchandise prizes to items worth $20 or more. If someone want to donate a bunch of coins or t-shirts or whatever, make those door prizes awarded randomly at registration or prizes for silly random accomplishments to be awarded by the committee (most unusual hat, geocacher carrying the most dirt on their clothing, wettest stamp sheet….)

[Team Deejay]

Here is a macro (written by me) that I use all the time. It puts the county into User Data 2 and the Delorme page into User Data. Note that you need to be connected to the network for it to work.

Oops, website won’t let me upload a .gsk file. I changed it to a .txt file. Note that the macro currently only finds the Wisconsin Delorme pages, but if you look at the macro text it will be pretty obvious how to add other states.

[Team Deejay]

I’ve never really understood the animosity either, although it seems to be one-way. These days, 90% of geocachers are completely unaware of LBing until they stumble on their first one.

[Team Deejay]

I can answer that question in 3 words: PERMANENT WATERTIGHT CONTAINERS.

I would also lobby for releasing caches the Monday before the event. Not only does this give people time to download queries and plan routes, but a few souls will head out to find the caches early, which will serve to test the accuracy of the coordinates and uncover other problems which might arise when caches are placed in advance.

[Team Deejay]

I suspect they will be made available at the picnic. Stay tuned.

[Team Deejay]

I will just make my bookmark list public and add it to the cache page once they are published. (It would do no good to add it before publication, as it would not work correctly.)

[Team Deejay]

Welcome to the madness!

[Team Deejay]

We could always ask, but I’m not real hopeful. These types of piggyback events are controversial at best, and there is a lot of animosity about how people create multiple events to encourage number padding. (I’m not talking about the WBCB specifically, just multiday events in general.) Me, I kind of look at it as a “meh” thing. If someone wants to pad their numbers, I really don’t care, just like I don’t care if someone spends all their caching time running between guardrails and lampposts. Some people are still hung up on the value of the numbers, however, so Groundspeak might not want to “poke the beehive” by making an associated event a mega.

[Team Deejay]

I can echo Ralph’s sentiments. It has always bugged me that a guardrail cache gets found 10 to 20 times as often as a nice hiking cache. Unfortunately, it seems the majority of geocachers (and I assume our members) would prefer drive through city neighborhoods and parking lots than hike through forests and prairies. So, that is what they look for and what they place. I don’t buy that people don’t know the difference. They do what they enjoy. Just because you and I don’t understand it doesn’t make it wrong. The strange thing is, if you compare Wisconsin to other states, you will find that we actually have a much greater ratio of “hiking” caches to drive ups. Apparently some people are trying to change that.

[Team Deejay]

Make sure that you have the same GPX format settings in GSAK and on the website.

[Team Deejay]

@Marble Guy wrote:

Why not Friday???

Are you volunteering to help man the booth? We can sure use some help.

[Author]

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