Downtime, phones, and thoughts

Downtime

Just a reminder for everyone that geocaching.com will be going down tomorrow for a few hours.  Actually four to six hours.  It is supposed to happen 10 am Mountain time (GMT -6) and up to 4 pm.  So it looks like all reviewing during breaks, and surfing maps will be halted.  Hopefully you will be able to get in what you need.

Take care of everything now.  For those of you in timezones that may be in Europe.  It will be down during the evening, so I would jump on things now so you don't have any problems.  I am guessing that also means that all apps will also be down.  So run your GPX files now and get them loaded into your phones and GPS units so you will not have any issues in the field.

Phones

For those who follow the Latitude 47 threads and use cell phones, you are aware that updates to the android and iphone apps are coming soon.  Having seen one of them, it is really nice.  It was posted that they will be ready for release soon.  So stay tuned.

Thoughts

Locally I wish to say farewell to Goblincamper2004.  They have been a staple in our area for some time.  They moved to the southern part of the state.  Caching here will never be the same.  Their smiles and their excitement for the game of geocaching was always apparent.   They were at all the events and threw a large number.  They loved the chance to get together.

It was a chance for a FTF nearly three years ago where I headed to a cache a few blocks from my work when I first met them.  Because of the speed at which many responded she had waited to greet the ftf people.  Since that time I have seen them often at many different events.

Farewell and I wish you luck in the south. 

Update on 2011-05-04 05:52 by firennice

May 5th Geocaching Update

For those that want to see a preview of the new geocaching update.  Note this also includes a large hardware update mentioned by Jeremy. 

Update on 2011-05-03 05:02 by firennice

Appealing and Reporting Geocaches

Over a period of time there are a number of times when people see that there are problems.  Sometimes it is with their own cache, other times it is a problem with a review.  Some argue that they realize that there are problems with the cache but believe that theirs is a special exception to the rule.    Other times there are problems with a cache itself, one that they have found.  They see the cache is behind a private property sign, a property owner chases them away, buried, drilled into a tree, or damage done to an area to make the placement, or because of a massive hunt people have destroyed a sensitive area.

Groundspeak thought of that and they have written it into the guidelines, and made ways that people can contact others.

Needs Maintenance

This is the first note that many see on their caches.  It is left up to the cache finder to determine if there is an issue.   I have seen them for full logs, soggy logs, missing logs, and for caches that are damaged or obviously missing.   Those seem to be some of the most common reasons.

A reviewer has no special power to see these, and no notice is sent to anyone but the cache owner.  Like any player of the game, I only see the flags when I specifically search for them or if I look for the icon.

It does attache an Icon to the cache page in the attributes.  This also appears in searches.  Everyone can see it.  If you log a Owner Maintenance log it will clear it up and remove the flag. Please make sure that if you take care of your cache that you perform maintenance that you remove your flag.  I have seen many people traveling through that filter everything out with that flag so that they do not waste their time looking for something that may have issues with it.

the statement from groundspeak on needs maintenance

If you find a geocache that is in need of some help (e.g. container is cracked, logbook is full or wet), please post a "Needs Maintenance" log on the cache page so the cache owner and the community is notified.

Needs Archived

A cache has problems.  There are a number of ways I have seen this used, and heard the argument in many ways.  In essence if the cache is defiantly not there, or has guideline violations people will log this.  Buried caches, caches that deface, or are on public property, seem to be common. 

Many times a cache is a simple hide that many people have found over and over, then suddenly, the string turns to dnf's.  You will have to determine for yourself when a cache has reached a point where action should be taken by the cache owner, or it should be archived.

A needs archived note is sent to a reviewer.   Many times I leave it alone for a little while, seeing if any response is taken, I may post a note saying that something has to be done, or in the case of a cache behind private property signs, the cache is archived. 

This log sends an email to the cache owner and a local reviewer. There are several instances when using a "Needs Archived" log is appropriate. Here are some example situations that warrant a Needs Archived note.

1 - There is a law enforcement, trespassing or similar issue requiring immediate attention. Occasionally a cache is placed in a location that is inappropriate because of security concerns - schools, court houses, or airports among the most common.
2 - There is no immediate problem, but it is painfully evident that the cache is missing AND the owner is missing.

Appealing a cache decision

Once an a while an action taken on your cache will seem to be inappropriate. 

1. Contact the reviewer and discuss it with them.  Contacting another reviewer usually will do no good, if someone contacts me about a decision about something RedHiker reviewed I will ask them to contact him.  I do not second guess his decisions.  Likewise when the cacher from California contact me I ignore those.  I am not from those areas, and will not "plead your case" to your local reviewer.  Sorry it is just not my job.  Contact the original reviewer with your concerns.  Sometimes the case is borderline, and the reviewer has denied the cache and it may not take much to be swayed.
2. Ask them for a peer review.  This entails asking the reviewer to share your listing with others and get an opinion from them.  We see many listings a week.  Asking peoples opinions.  Some are obvious commercial, or distance form other caches.  Others drum up a lot of discussion on topics and open our eyes to new ways to do caches.
3. Take it to appeals.  I recommenced this as a last resort, but sometimes people do not contact me or ask for a peer review and go straight to this method.  There are times i am not comfortable with a cache that someone has submitted, or I am not certain that it fits in the guidelines so I send it on to appeals.   appeals @ groundspeak .com is the proper address for those.  They will then follow procedures.

I have had a few go through each process, sometimes they convince me that there is no problem, other times I take it to a peer review without asking.  They have changed my mind a few times.  Appeals have also gone through, and looked at the decisions that I make.  Sometimes they contact me for more info, and the cache owner. 

Reporting Issues

If you are trying to report problems, please include all relevant information.  GC#, name of cache, your player name, previous contacts.  I get a number of emails that have no contact info. 

Last month you looked at my cache, I think i fixed it. Please reviewer it again.  Bob

That is not helpful.  What cache?  who is this person?  what was the problem?  In the winter months I may spend time tracking info down, in the summer months I will email you back.  I am just to busy to spend 30 minutes going through all my caches on hold to figure out what cache you may be talking aboug.

Final Thoughts

Think ahead, read the guidelines.  If you are stretching the rules, contact ahead of time.  I felt so bad for a guy that traveled 4 hours into a national park and hid a cache full of travelbugs, then left went back to California and I could not list the cache.  He tried again and again, with park approval I would, and he could never get the approval.  Happily he returned the following year to gather the travelbugs and send them back on their way, but I bet most are lost forever.

Think about your arguments.  Just because you see another in another area that is like that one does not make it OK.  Many cache types (virtual, webcams) were ended long ago.  Other things like additional logging requirements (ALR's) might never have been reported to the reviewer, so they they are not allowed. 

Remember reviewers are there to help, along with Groundspeak. 

Update on 2011-05-01 21:45 by firennice

By the numbers

Wow.  That is all i can say... wow....

I was rolling through the numbers and statistics of Utah caches, and all the work I have been doing.  I have not updated my stats page yet, but here is what I have.

In Oct 09-March 10 I looked at about 1950 caches 11 day

In Sept 10-April 11 I looked at 2500 caches 11 day

What is surprising is this year is with a second reviewer.  My first year I averaged about 14/day, this year 13/day.  But once again, two reviewers since last fall, and a busy May is still to go that I would guess will push that number up.

Since September (8 months) We have seen

• 2,000 more traditional caches in the state
• 300 more Mystery caches
• 50 more letterboxes
• 25 more multi caches
• A drop of 9 in the number of Earthcaches to 141
• A drop of 1 in wherigo caches to 4

The total is a total of 2400 new caches in the state, we are approaching 21500 now.   So many so fast.  I think we are seeing an increase in all types, back country, desert, city, and trails.  A mix of them all.

I remember starting and thinking, man there are a lot, and that was then.

Another idea of how much work we do is the number of notes we leave on caches.  My first year I  listed 1200 notes, I am at 1100 now.  Those are almost all caches that we are working on.  Caches that we respond to issues with, not counting emails, that i don't track.

In all, it is busy and fun, and only getting busier.  

I will update my stats soon. Enjoy all.

Update on 2011-04-29 22:12 by firennice

Red Hills Hike

I went down to my parents this last weekend for Easter.  It was a great trip, but the nicest part was a hike that my wife and I took.

There was a lot of rain this last weekend, but on Saturday everything cleared up for a little while. 

My family had a big get together, and an Easter egg hunt.

Of course after everything and after the cold weather I decided to head after a cache.  There was a cache up the canyon near my home that had not been found often.  In fact I had looked for it another time and the coords had placed me up a steep rocky slope and scrambling to keep from falling to my death.

Well this time he had updated his coords and we decided to head up and check things out.

So my wife and I took some free time and broke away from the family that were mostly just relaxing and eating candy.  We headed up to the mouth of the canyon.

Like many of the canyons the mouth of this one is full of a lot of trash.  A lot of trash, targets, and many other items that people have dumped.

I grew up near here and had hiked the canyon many times, but for my wife this was a first time up this canyon.  It is really impressive and I love the rock formations.  There are a few old lime kilns from 80 years ago, one at the mouth of the canyon, and another that is ways up the canyon. 

We hiked up the canyon and we looked for a while for the cache. The cache had been placed right under a small gully.  It had a small crack in the lid so the entire thing was full of slimy nasty stuff.  I could not even get the log out, and when I got water on my hands they stank for some time.  It was vile.

In the end I moved it about six feet out of the gully and into a sagebrush.  I put a rock on top of it and hopefully that will help keep the water out when things finally dry out.

After that we started to walk up the canyon.  We headed up another quarter of a mile before we reached a small box canyon where I found a place to hide a new one.

These canyons do not get visited much, and the caches do not get visited much either.  They are kind of off the beaten path.

There is not much growth and many parts of the canyon are scoured clean of rocks and dirt.  The rains tend to clean all the waist out of the canyon and dump them on the roads below.

In all we spent a few hours up here.  I hope to go back and visit more, someday. 

There are more to find, and more caches to place.

Update on 2011-04-26 04:45 by firennice