[Team Deejay]

38, plus 1 multi where the final was missing when we last searched.

[Team Deejay]

Everything should work ok. For GSAK, be sure to NOT install it in the Program Files subdirectory. Instead, just install it in C:GSAK, which will bypass some of the Vista security nonsense. If you get a new copy of GSAK from the website, this should happen automatically, but don’t forget to write down your registration number before you wipe out your old machine.

[Team Deejay]

re: Mega Status

Please note that Groundspeak will not give you this status until AFTER you have your first year with 500 or more attendees. If you wanted to, you might be able to petition for a change in status after the event, but that is obviously not too useful for marketing the event. I think you had something like 300 last year, so a significant increase is still needed to make it to Mega status.

[Team Deejay]

@-cheeto- wrote:

On the subject of “urban hides”… why not stick to hiding magnetic nano’s, I’m sure it’s hard to cram all those necessary bomb parts and fuel into one of those. (not that I know anything about making bombs.. I just watch a lot of mythbusters) and everyone loves unrolling nano logs in the winter.

Note that this issue is generally not the cache container itself. It is the way that people act when they are searching for an urban hide. Even if you are not dressed in camo in the city, not wearing a ski mask with sunglasses, and not slinking around hiding behind trees like the Pink Panther, most people will still act “strange” when seeking a cache. Think about the last time you ran into a “nano in a hollow fence rail” hide. You basically went around sticking your fingers into every opening of that fence until you found it. Anyone witnessing this would classify that behavior as strange unless they knew what was going on.

Of course, you can’t avoid this if someone is watching you with binoculars behind curtains, but if someone comes out to investigate you, the smart move is to be open about what you are doing and ask them to help you. People love to be needed (even if they really aren’t) and love to get involved in new things that they don’t really understand. The best case is that you end up recruiting a new player. The worst case is that they think you are weird and leave you alone. At least they aren’t going to call the police.

[Team Deejay]

This is why I make it a point NEVER to be stealthy, regardless of what the cache page says.* Acting like you are doing something wrong is a good way to get all sorts of the wrong kind of attention. Instead, we try to act like we belong where we are hunting and have no reason to be sneaky. I can’t count the number of random “passers by” that we have recruited to help look for caches. Gardeners, maintenance men, security guards, kids, hunters, police, joggers, fishermen, gas station attendants, you name it. I don’t believe any of them actually ever “helped”, but being in on the game makes it less likely that they will cause problems. 99.9% of the people in the world are not interested in destroying someone else’s fun for no reason. For the remaining 0.1%, well, that is why they make more ammo cans!

* Yes, Steve, I know that you don’t think it is possible for Sasquatch to be steathly!

[Team Deejay]

Just a quick note: If you use the split screen “Online Page” view in GSAK, you will also notice the misalignment. GSAK uses IE for generating this pane. Even if you have Firefox as your default browser, GSAK will still use IE in this context.

[Team Deejay]

Like maybe a tour of the sewage plant???

[Team Deejay]

Unfortunately, that is the problem with our game. Because we hide things on public lands, there is always the chance that someone will make mischief with any cache you put out. Sometimes you just have to step away and let them find something else to do. Then you can come back and place more after they have forgotten about you.

Of course, there is always the alternative of the deer stand and shotgun…

[Team Deejay]

the Chamber folks were adamant that this information not be released early.

I understand they were concerned with people taking “gift certificates” and other swag from the caches early. I can tell you that, with us starting at around 9, we found exactly 0 gift certificates in the caches we located. This did not detract from our enjoyment of the event in the least. In fact, I would suggest that, instead of putting these in the caches, it would be better to provide coupons (like the water coupon) to all the attendees, taking maybe $1 off a sandwich for everyone, rather than free sandwiches for a lucky few.

[Team Deejay]

Whenever you download a query, all of YOUR logs are always included, along with the 5 most recent logs. This means that if you download the bookmark and then load into GSAK (or any other program) and tell it to only show caches you haven’t found, it will work. You don’t need to merge with your My finds query unless your other file is not up to date.

If you really don’t want the finds in the file for some reason, just filter out all the unfound caches, then delete the rest.

[Team Deejay]

@cheezehead wrote:

Do ya think they would use waterboarding to gain goecaching secerts??? 😯 😯 😯
Or worse yet, threaten to take one’s GPSr away!!!

😉

That’s the DNR, not the FBI, cheezehead.

[Team Deejay]

@furfool wrote:

If one is just interested in possibly finding out, or at least seeing, who might be doing this sort of thing, the idea of employing a trail cam has come to mind. Of course, I wouldn’t go out and buy one just for that purpose because they can be quite pricey, but if one had one maybe for hunting purposes, it could be put to use year ’round.

I’ve found a shotgun and tree stand to be much more effective. 😈

[Team Deejay]

OK, I thought of something. While you should still provide downloads to those who need it, I’d like to see a download file made available on the event page or WGA site at around 10PM on Friday before the event. This would ease the burden on those helping with the downloads and also let those starting early avoid some of the lines. You can still control the start time with handing out the stamp sheets.

While easy multis would add variety, I’m not sure that would really add to the game. When we arrived at the one offset cache you had this year, we found a team doing a full cavity search on the park sign which happened to be the START of the offset, not the finish. I took the opportunity to teach them about offsets and then we went for the cache together. As far as puzzles go, I don’t believe they are appropriate for an event like this, other than field puzzles (take the numbers off the sign to make the coordinates…) which are perfectly fine.

Like Zuma said, I wouldn’t mess too much with success here. Maybe spread out a bit to the west and north to get more territory. Otherwise, you’ve got a winner.

[Team Deejay]

I vote for free beer.

[Team Deejay]

The main function of bookmark lists (given their LOUSY display functionality) is to download them in a pocket query to GSAK, EasyGPS, Mapsource, or whatever. Leaving in the archived caches means you have to have more lists, for more pocket queries, for more downloads. Clean up the lists if you have the time.

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