Where are we all from??? (introduce yourself) parts 1&2

[Journo11]

Hi everyone,

I'm a journalist with a Melbourne community newspaper.

I stumbled across Geocaching this week and I'm keen to put a feature together on the sport.

I'm after a Geocacher to have a chat with. It would also be great to get some pictures of a Geocache and a Cache.

I'm after somebody who lives in Melton Shire, Moorabool Shire, Macedon Ranges Shire or Hume City Council.

If that's you, or you know of somebody, please hit me up with a private message with your details.

Cheers.

[caughtatwork]

PM sent.

[2max]

Hi Lmac201 good to hear you are into caching, its a lot of fun and i am sure you will enjoy it, Multi caches are easy and informatitve usally, how ever you will need a gps to do them, can,t be done on a smart phone as at each stage you need to re enter new co ords, A gps is required, if you are looking for a basic Gps then an Etrex H is a good starting option, usually around the $130 mark but sometimes you can pick them up for $99 on special if you look around, Well anyway good luck with it and happy caching

Thanks very much for the welcome darryllm. I really want to get into the Multi's soon, just need to figure it all out. I love that the caches take me to some quite interesting spots and the short little history lessons are fantastic. Thanks also for the tip on a good basic GPS and price. Will wait and see how we go and might invest in one further down the track if need be. Ta

[2max]

Actually, Multi's can be done on Smartphones, specifically the official groundspeak app. Just choose to Navigate to the cache, and in the top right corner their will be a small flag button. That is for waypoints. You can then enter your new waypoint and it will create a waypoint on the cache for you. Then you must choose it as your target point and there you go, a multi on a smartphone

Thanks for the info lemmy, much appreciated I'll look into getting the groundspeak app it sounds like just the thing! We did try to look for one Multi after working out (what we thought was, anyway) the cache location from the maths equation, then tried using the compass on my phone, but it all proved pretty frustrating. Found what we thought was the likely spot but it was empty. I had hoped there was an easier way for a non-GPS-owning beginner, and it looks like you've provided the answer, so we will have to tackle that one again. Ta


ETA following day: Geez I feel daft. I already have the official groundspeak app, it's what I've already been using I just had a play around with creating waypoints and it looks like it should work a treat for Multi's. Thanks so much lemmy for explaining how to do it, I think I've worked it all out so can't wait to get out there and have another crack at the one which eluded me.

I reckon I was thinking that the geocache app and the groundspeak app's were different things. Also remember reading about a geosphere app somewhere too, so with all the new lingo and trying to get my head around the acronyms and cachespeak I was probably getting a touch confused. Well, that's my story... or the one I'm going with anyway.

[LyssLyss]

It also depends on what your mods see at the time.

We don't run ads. We don't charge money for using the site. We don't want people pimping their sites and goods for profit. We want this place to be one of the most "ad free" sites possible.

Umm thanks for the "warm" welcome.

I was aware of the restriction on advertising, but seeing as it's simply a facebook group for melbourne geocachers and has absolutely nothing to do with pimping profit or goods I didn't consider it advertising.

I would have happily removed it myself with a quick pm or perhaps a friendly please remove.

[LyssLyss]

Oh and I apologise if there appears to be "tone" in my post, but I am responding as the mother of the 11 year old girl who wanted desperately to meet other geocachers in Melbourne and we searched this site carefully and as far as we could establish, there were groups for other areas, other states, and yes...many of the posts provided the URLs to the groups so, yes I figured there was a precedent.

As she is now in tears for getting in to trouble when she tried very hard to be friendly and not break any rules when she put in the bit about the group, as a mother it has annoyed me a little, I don't like seeing her upset when it really wasn't necessary to approach it the way it was.

Thanks but she wants to close her account now and feels really embarrassed, more is the pity. Aren't new posters allowed a learning curve?

[caughtatwork]

Learning curves are most definately allowed.

We delete spammers at a staggering rate per day from our registration queue. For January alone we have deleted over 2,000 spam registrations. Our tolerance for perceived spammers is particularly low as everyone who administers the registration queue is a volunteer and do that work for free in their spare time.

Typically the first post of a spam account is a link to another website. As the first post from your account was to a geocaching group, I left your post and removed the link.

Not all mods see every post, so we work as a team to keep people linking to other sites to a minimum. We don't and can't catch everything, but where we do, we remove the links.

We want to keep this site free from advertising and the pimping of other websites. This is especially pertinent to the very first post from a brand new user. Adding to the perception of the link was that without a facebook account, I could not determine what it was linking to, so, again, as a first post from a new user I took that the link was probably spam and removed it.

A general post to the Victorian forum would have been sufficient to garner interest in meeting geocachers from the Melbourne area. Linking to a separate facebook group, especially as a first post from a new user comes across as spam, so I moderated the link out.

You and your daughter are welcome at Geocaching Australia. As I was overzelous in removing your link, I apologise. Please don't add your link back in though. You are welcome to use the link in your forum profile, but not as a direct link in a forum post.

Again, we want to keep as much perceived pimping as we can to an absolute minimum.

[LyssLyss]

I understand, partly my fault for not seeing, with her post-a-reply window already open that she had not posted before. She said she had but we have since worked out that she may have confused this forum and geocaching.com forum. I actually thought we had put something in the Vic forum but maybe it got deleted too.

I proofed what she typed, fixing typical kid grammatical errors and said...go ahead and hit submit. She didn't know how to do her signature and I didn't have time to help her work it out. Maybe if I can convince her that nobody is angry at her (the tone of your comment really did seem that way to a little girl), I will show her how to do it the correct way.

As a forum moderator on several sites myself I understand the extent of spamming.

[caughtatwork]

We don't have forum sigs turned on, but you can add the link in the website section of your profile settings.

http://geocaching.com.au/my/settings/

[Crookedpete]

Hi all,

I'm Crookedpete, a recently converted muggle from the northern side of the river in Brisbane. I saw the light about 6 weeks ago and just clocked up 100 finds yesterday.

Initally, I thought cache hunting would be an occasional interest, providing some desperately needed motivation on a sleepy Sunday to get outside and be healthy. Well, it has certainly done that .

Caching has also taken me to some interesting locations and taught me a bit of history at the same time. I've also now found that I'm addicted to the thrill of the hunt - I recently solved a nearby puzzle and scooted out in the rain at 11 pm to see if I was right!

My three crooked kids and the crooked wife all have varying degrees of enthusiasm, but on any given day at least one of them is up for the chase with me. Failing that the crooked mutt is always keen. The crooked clan also do a lot of camping and a bit of bushwalking, so I'm keen to combine these other passions with caching.

Looking forward to "caching" up with Brisbane members in the future.

Pete

[nellc]

Hi, I am Nellc, I'm a newbie and I have yet to do my first find. Before I invest in a GPS I was wondering if there is someone/team in the Maitland/Newcastle area that would be willing for me to tag along with? I am not sure exactly what to do, geo-etiquette, etc. Can someone help me get started please?

[Just a cacher]

Welcome, Nellc!
I hope someone who lives nearer to you will come along soon, but, in the meantime, perhaps I can help?
When I started, I didn't have a GPS either. I found a cache near me on the website, read all I could about it, made some notes, checked the hint, printed a map that was zoomed in as far as it would go, and off I went. And I found it! I was instantly hooked. I didn't get a GPS for a while, so I did lots of caches this way. I would suggest that you steer clear of nanos just at first, as they are very tiny, and often disguised. Look for a cache that is size 'small' or larger, for your first one, until you get the idea.

Basically, when hunting for a cache, you want to be a bit discreet, so everyone else doesn't wonder what you're up to. We don't want non-cachers to stumble across caches, if possible.
When you find the cache, you sign the log book. If the cache has 'things' in it, you may take something out (only if you want to), as long as you put something of equal or greater value back in. Put the cache back the way you found it. The majority of cachers then go online and write a little bit about the cache on the cache page.

Please contact me, or reply here, if you have any questions.

Have fun!

Wendy

[nellc]

Hi, Thanks Wendy

I'm not having much luck with just a mobile phone but maybe one day I will locate a cache. There are plenty in my area but I just can't zero in on any I will try another one in the next couple of days..

[Keeper of Time]

Hi nellc and welcome, you can always try searching for a Geocaching Australia Guru in your area. The wiki knows all, this link http://wiki.geocaching.com.au/wiki/Geocaching_guru will give you the details you need.

Cheers
Keith & Jill

[nellc]

Thank you Keith and Jill, I have found a guru near me and msg them