Continue reading »]]> Spotted online today is this small article on the small town of Athens, Ohio that has introduced geocaching trails as a way to boost tourist numbers and bring more tourist revenue to the town.

Geocaching, a game of high-tech treasure hunting, has landed Athens a small fortune by attracting tourists to the town.

“It’s had a great economic impact and it’s been really successful and a lot of fun to see,” said Jenna Dill, Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau Marketing and Sales Manager. “Sixty percent of the people who have done the trails have been outside of Athens.”

Since June 2011, geocachers equipped with a GPS, or a map for the old-school players, have made more than 2,000 finds at the various Athens County locations, but fewer than 200 people have actually completed the trail.

The article leaves out all the info that geocachers might actually want. The two trails that Athens County has set up (a traditional trail and a fully accessible trail) seem to be made of 16 caches spread out around Athens. Most of the caches seem to be at interesting locations and the listing appear well thought out with lots of information.

The cachers are not only attracted to the trail, and the 80 other geocaches in the area, but in completing an Athens GeoTrail you are eligible for an official Athens geocoin. You have to collect answers from each cache on the trail to show you completed it and be eligible for the coin.

The local Holiday Inn appears to be part of the initiative and offers a special rate to geocachers.

It seems like a very clever initiative. The numbers don’t appear huge at first glance, 200 people in six months is not massive, but the economic impact would appear to make it worthwhile.

“It’s been a big hit for us,” said Dill. “We’ve had a lot of people come from outside the area, and everyone that’s traveled in from out of state has stayed overnight, which has been pretty awesome.”

According to Dill, those who stay in town often venture off and spend money in the uptown area, providing revenue for Athens businesses.

“We don’t have any numbers yet or statistics of the economic impact, I haven’t calculated that yet but from what I can estimate, it’s been at least a $500,000 economic impact since June of 2011,” Dill said.

As the game grows it would make sense for communities to set up small geotrails. They cost very little and seem to have a great return on investment. A few thousand on geocoins for a $500,000 return is pretty good!

Continue reading »]]> That’s right, in what seems to be an unexpected announcement the Geomate Jr has come to an end. A letter on the GPSr’s website reads:

Dear Geomate.jr Community

What can we say – this good thing has come to an end. We are no longer able to offer the Geomate.jr for sale or continue the Update Zone service. We do hope you’ve had as much fun geocaching as we’ve had working with everyone.

To help keep the adventures happening however, we have made some software available here that will allow anyone with an Update Kit and a PC to load a Pocket Query from Geocaching.com to a Geomate.jr.

Regrettably,

The Geomate.jr Team

It was just last month that I reviewed this fantastic kids unit and nothing at the time gave the impression that the Geomate Jr was in trouble.

In some respects this is a real shame as the Geomate Jr, as my review showed, was a great entry level GPSr and a wonderful way to give kids the forefront in a geocaching outing. With it’s removal from the market there is now a kid friendly GPSr hole. It will be interesting to see what comes about in the coming months to fill this gap.

With the Geomate Jr’s demise it may be a good time to pick up a cheap Geomate through auction sites/online stores so it would be worth keeping an eye out.

UPDATE: 

This entry in the gc.com forums from a former Geomate Jr staffer shows the suddeness of the Geomate’s demise and the pain that occurs when one company takes over another.

If any one else is reading this, please know that all these changes happened in a very short time and the staff of Geomate.jr tried everything in our power to prevent 2m/Airity from taking the Geomate.jr. As we knew that they neither understood or cared about the Geocaching community. We had worked so hard over the last few years on the Geomate.jr, and more importantly we felt that the Geomate.jr still had more to give. To see it end like this is very hard for us to watch. We had been lucky to be embraced into the geocaching community and we have met some great people along the way. So thank-you to you all and again we are deeply sorry for the ending of the Geomate.jr.

Jo

Continue reading »]]> Rediguana hails from the shaky city of Christchurch, New Zealand. He is an emergency manager by trade, and some of his interests outside of geocaching include travel, photography, mapping, and open source software and data. An ‘old-skool’ cacher, Rediguana (real name Gavin) starting geocaching in May 2001.

It’s been a little while since I’ve written on a blog, so I figure I’ll start slowly and introduce myself. Never fear, this isn’t my first time blogging – I have done plenty, including under a pseudonym in the rather vitriolic atmosphere of the New Zealand political blogging scene quite a few years back.

Prof. rediguana from the DGSc

I don’t think I can deny that I am what you’d call an ‘old-skool’ cacher. I purchased my first GPS – a Garmin 12 XL – in Sydney, Australia in April 2001, and then went on to find my first cache in Christchurch early in May. From then I was hooked, and have remained so. I have a rather inglorious record of placing the first micro cache in New Zealand (a 35mm thrown in a bush), which was also our first true puzzle and crypto cache. I think I can also be blamed for the green spray-painted containers with yellow, stenciled ‘geocaching’ lettering that you often see around the South Island.

Since those early days, I’ve cached in 10 countries worldwide, including Iceland and Sri Lanka. I found my 10,000th cache earlier this year. I’m also lucky enough to have found a Project Ape cache, and have done the caching quinella of the Original Stash memorial and Groundspeak HQ. I have a simple caching philosophy – gotta find them all. Given the last 2-3 years of placement rates however, I’m increasingly having to find contentment with clearing out areas instead. I’ll do pretty much anything for a cache, and I’m happy doing puzzles, or long physical days for just a find or two. I also love well-designed challenge caches (not Geocaching.com challenges) and my current focus is on completing the Doctor of Geocaching Science – of which I am one of the ‘Professors’ responsible for its placement.

In late 2002, the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) discovered geocaching, and became interested in collecting a concession (a charge for commercial operators on DOC land). At this point, the geocaching community jumped into action and formed the New Zealand Recreational GPS Society Inc, so that we had a legal entity to operate with, and form agreements if need be. I was one of the 15 founders of the society, and remain on the management committee to this day – I’m currently Secretary/Treasurer. Once we had communicated to DOC that geocaching is, at its heart, a non-commercial activity, they left us be. These days, the society is more interested in the promotion of GPS and geocaching for active outdoor lifestyles, and we’re in the process of organising New Zealand’s inaugural MEGA event in Dunedin this coming October.

Garmin Montana

I will admit now, that I am a Garmin addict, and I much prefer the traditional ruggedised handheld GPS receivers – my current tool is the Garmin Montana 650. I carry an iPhone 4 as well but it’s for backup, notes, photos and Wherigo. So you’ll definitely find me a contrarian to the smartphone-loving crowd, but the smartphone definitely has its place in my pockets! I also enjoying tinkering in GSAK, and have been known to write a macro or two, mostly to help track completion of some New Zealand challenge caches, but have also developed the county boundaries for New Zealand as well as the New Zealand region and state maps that you see in FindStatGen.

Slightly further out on the periphery, I am a keen mapper and strong proponent of open mapping data. I have been involved with the New Zealand Open GPS Maps project since its inception, and I am finding myself increasingly contributing tracks and roads visitied whilst out caching to OpenStreetMap.

All this geocaching results in travel, and I’ve been to some pretty amazing places over the years as a result of both. This has also cultivated a very keen interest in photography, and I love nature, landscape and wildlife photography.

Anyway, enough from me. Why aren’t you caching?

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The mysterious Ninja Duck is a geocacher after Cumbyrocks own heart. Not only does he have an excellent name (if we told you we’d have to kill you) and young caching companions but he is a Blackberry and Android geocaching proponent. Here he shares some of his evil ninja genius

———————–

Are you a geocacher, trail runner, mountain biker or anyone else that needs excellent GPS accuracy from their Android device, but find that at times it just doesn’t seem to be updating our position even though you are moving?

You may be the victim of something called disabled Static Navigation.

Disabling Static Navigation is seen as a desirable feature that intentionally filters out apparently minor position updates once you are going at a low/slow speed. The idea is that your position will not be accurate anyway, due to the GPS signal being degraded by bouncing off buildings, being under trees or walking through a canyon.

The weird thing is that the chip is still receiving updates, and it is still calculating your position, but it simply stops telling you.

I don’t know who decided that being told you are 10m away, 11m away, 8m away, 10m away over 4 seconds while you are standing still is not desirable, and instead fixes your position semi-permanently anywhere up to 50m away instead. As a geocacher, I think it’s idiotic. If all you are doing is trying to find a petrol station, I guess it’s close enough!

Here is a good way of checking if your device has static navigation turned off. I’m assuming you already have software you know how to use that tells you your position and/or how many meters your are from some sort of mark.

Take a small drive in your car towards the mark, stop a few hundred meters short, get out of the car and slowly walk towards the mark. In my case, I had to walk less than 5 km/h. And when Static Navigation is disabled on your phone, you’ll see that your distance-to-mark isn’t being updated.

If you happen to own a dedicated GPS unit, then for every step or two you take, no matter how slowly, it will update your position and show this on the GPS. If your Android device isn’t doing the same thing, it has Static Navigation disabled.

Now, this article is only for Samsung Galaxy S2 phones with the SiRF StarIV GPS chipset. But you may find that your solution will be very similar.

For reasons that aren’t clear, Static Navigation isn’t a setting that is accessible to users of Samsung Galaxy SII phones. It appears to be a case of Android or Samsung “knows best”, because it isn’t a setting or otherwise easy thing to access and change.

The solution for a SGS2 involves

1. rooting your phone (see below)
2. downloading and using GPS Control SiRF StarIV from the Android Market

GPS Control SiRF StarIV is written and published by Stefanos Fatouros (fatdroid) and it was specifically written to solve this problem on SGSII phones.

When I loaded the software, it didn’t work with my phone. An email to Stefanos had a reply within hours, and after I sent him a specific file from my phone for him to analyse, he had an updated version on the Market within 24 hours. I’m not suggesting he’s that quick all the time – but he invites such questions/feedback on your SiRF StarIV chipset device as he hopes to make it work for your device too.

Now, you do need a rooted device. In the case of the Galaxy S2, here are instructions that work for me using a PC, but do take note that this is something that will void your warranty and has the potential of turning your phone into a dead paperweight: [Editor - You have been warned - don't blame INATN or Ninja Duck if something goes wrong]

How to Root your Samsung Galaxy SII

After rooting your phone, you will need to download this free software from the Market

GPS Control SiRF StarIV by fatdroid

Stefanos also has the same program available for sale on the Market so you can make a donation. If you get value from using the software - especially if he helped you personally – you may want to consider sending him a practical token of thanks!

Please note you’ll only have to run the software once to enable Static Navigation. It can also turn the setting back to disable Static Navigation again at a later time.

And that’s all there is to it. Easy when you know how!

——–

Don’t think you need Static Navigation enabled? Fine! However, have you ever noticed that when you are driving with Google Maps and when you go around a corner, or drive away after having been stopped at a red light, your position seems to take anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds to start updating again? Well… welcome to Static Navigation.

Since I turned on Static Navigation, Google Maps updates my position even when I am turning or immediately after I set off from the lights. And in spite of the intentions behind disabling Static Navigation, which may be quite necessary if you live in city canyons with lots of high buildings, for those of us who enjoy relatively good access to the sky when we are out and about seem to only benefit by turning Static Navigation on. I have really not found any negatives. So much so that it leaves me wondering why it comes disabled by default, and it is (almost) impossible to turn off!

Continue reading »]]> I am geocacher, hear me roar …

Okay, so maybe I’m taking the Year of the Dragon a little too literally and heard Carol King too often on the car radio lately (it’s stuck on some lame, classics station) - especially as my (slightly belated) 2012 geo-goals will be nowhere near as extensive as my previous 15 pledges.

But they’re also about as fire-breathingly dangerous as I’m likely to get.

1. Beat Cumbyrocks just once, even if it’s only by one find: Officially, we’re meant to race to 900 – he currently being on 835 and me on 814 – but I SO want to nudge ahead now that I won’t mind if I don’t slay that dragon.
2. Host an official geocaching event: I’ve played host at several informal outings over the last eight months so it’s time I finally took the plunge. I know where, I have a rough idea when; it’s just a matter of convincing the local city council to let me proceed.
3. Get a trackable tattoo: Nobody tell my mother, though. For now, I have no idea as to a design but it could include my recently deceased geo-dog, Cola.
4. Help make New Zealand’s first Mega event the best ever: Self-explanatory really. And as the party is at Cumbyrocks’ place, I won’t get stuck with the clean-up (Just kidding, Peter).
5. Reach 1250 finds: I finished my first year with 388 finds and the second at 802 so 450 over the next 12 months seems do-able.
6. Attempt a Level 5 Terrain cache: Notice, I put attempt.
7. Write more posts for It’s Not About The Numbers: Continuing my goal from last year, though this time I won’t be racing my brother. Better still, I’d like to source a GPSr for us to give away (Magellan, Garmin if you’re reading …)
8. To place (at least) one new hide a month: Especially something electronic or equally stunning. Perhaps even an Earthcache. Ideas more than welcome …
9. Complete my hometown’s 30-puzzle cache Zealandia Power Trail: Starting with GC2YJ3A, even though it’s supposed to be a real gut-buster.
10. Log at least one geocache available only by boat or kayak: There are at least three here in the Wellington region, all of which are calling me like a siren’s song.
11. To build my own monkey puzzle: But I’m not saying any more for now; you’ll just have to wait and see …

Continue reading »]]> Now you too can learn the “shocking secrets” of the caching elite. Why struggle to shed that lowly finds tally on your own when “a master geocaching expert will reveal the truth” about your new favourite sport for just NZ$34 (US$27)?

But wait there’s more … You’ll also become a well-respected and well known geocacher just by reading this new Geocaching Mastery Guide – that’s “GUARANTEED”!

Getting the picture yet?

It seems the new e-book currently being pushed on Facebook – “Sick of going home empty-handed? For your free copy of The Beginners Guide to Geocaching ($47 value), click ‘Like’ today!” – is little more than a rip-off by an Australian university marketing graduate hoping to cash in on the latest fad.

According to the guide’s own website, the fountain of all this geocaching knowledge is Josh Gaskin, a self-described geo-master despite the fact he’s found only 51 caches – all easy traditionals – since he joined GC.com in June 2011.

Apparently, Gaskin (GC handle: Jaskins) has just been too busy slaving away online for hours and hours to complete his ultimate 42-page geo-opus as well as the free 18-page enticement PDF mentioned above on Facebook.

Read for yourself:

“You see, not too long ago, I was just like you. My record was terrible, I constantly logged ‘could not find’, I had to deal with insults from my friends and I was getting terribly frustrated with the hobby.

“Let’s face it, geocaching is an awesome past-time, but if you don’t have enough skill to find geocaches then it simply will not be fun to continue playing. I knew there had to be a way for me to get better at the sport in general and, more specifically, a way to completely master geocaching and become a true force to be reckoned with. So I turned to the internet and spent many late-night hours researching the best geocaching strategies and tactics to use.

“I practiced for days and nights, and even bought several online strategy guides. I quickly found that there is a lot of BS out there … After struggling this way for months, I finally started to improve and now my record is outstanding and I’m a geocaching master. I knew that there had to be other people out there who were frustrated just like I was. I knew that I had the knowledge and experience to help them become geocaching masters, and I knew I had to do something about it!

“After slaving on my computer for many, many hours, I have put together the ultimate solution to gaining mastery over geocaching. Now introducing The Ultimate Geocaching Mastery Guide! In this high-quality, BS-free guide, you’re going to be taken by the hand as I walk you through each and every step that you need to take in order to become a master geocacher and finally start getting the results and respect you deserve.”

Sounds too good to be true, right? At first I figured this was just an unfortunate case of somebody using that tried and true weight-loss marketing approach to flog a valid geocaching product.

But – aside from Gaskin’s blatant (and likely unauthorised) use of Geocaching.com’s logos and obvious resemblance to the company’s own The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Geocaching book - three things made me particularly sceptical of the Geocaching Mastery Guide:

1. A line in the FAQ section of the Australian’s website which reads: “Q: Will this work in my country? I’m worried about not having the foods that are required: YES! We have customers on the program in 152 countries. The program is super flexible – You can adapt the program to work wherever you live.” Yes! That’s right, it’s the exact question and answer found on many of those miracle weight-loss sites, such as Tony Venuto’s Burn The Fat.
2. An expletive comment supposedly by the Geocaching Mastery Guide’s author from his YouTube channel JaskinsOuterWear, praising a video record of another user’s excessive alcohol use – until a quick look at Gaskin’s Facebook page revealed this to be closer to his true persona, than a geo-guru.
3. And the funny feeling I’d read his Essential Geocaching Equipment article before. In fact, I had: it’s reprinted almost word-for-word from the popular (and very informative) Geocacher-U website.

As I received a new ‘buy my book’ email from Gaskin each day, I became more and more intrigued. Why was an Adelaide University-qualified marketing whiz giving away a free PDF worth $47 (presumably that’s US dollars), yet selling his full guide for only US$27? Surely, he’s shortchanging himself?

I was also curious how he could shop at American chain store Walmart for a geocaching vest when he lives in Australia, though his Facebook page does indicate Gaskin is well-travelled. And similarily, why did his ‘Win A Day Out Geocaching With Me’ competition not have any terms and conditions – or a close-off date.

As Gaskin reveals online, he doesn’t have many peers at his level of expertise with which to cache with – though I don’t know if that has anything to do with this gem of an insult: “Right now there are only a handfull [sic] other geocachers that I am regularly challenged by, and the level of skill in the geocaching community as a whole is really lacking.”

Over the last week, It’s Not About The Numbers has repeatedly tried to reach Gaskin, without success – using his GC.com account, the email given for his Geocaching Mastery Guide and that of the fancy-dress company he runs called Jaskins (which, curiously, sells those colourful, full-body suits popular at major sporting events and which make everybody look like a member of The Blue Man Group).

So while we must point out that, despite extensive investigations, our suspicions are only that at this point.

However, we have advised those geocachers whose work has obviously been plagiarised for Gaskin’s e-book – in particular, Bret Hammond (GC handle: CYBret) of Geocacher-U, who earlier today posted a note on the guide’s Facebook page for its author to contact him immediately.

If you simply must read the Geocaching Mastery Guide to improve your geo-record, then we strongly suggest you try before you buy. What appears to be the full, 42-page e-book is available online free by simply entering the title in a Google search and scrolling through the results presented.

And so as to be fair to Gaskin himself, it does seem evident that he spent some time at his computer keyboard finding relevant geocaching information to cut and paste into his own document. From reading his guide – or should that be reading his rehash of others’ work -  I did learn of the cloverleaf search technique (used to find aeroplane black boxes and missing persons) and that geocacher Grin N Bear it has “a five green-face-grin approval rating system” to rate caches.

I also got numerous chuckles reading his personal take on the game, especially: “GPSr: ‘Global Position Satellite Receiver’. Slang for a GPS device although I think adding the ‘r’ to the end of it was not the best choice since many items ending in r are vowels.”

I’m just glad it didn’t cost me US$27 to do so.

Are we being unfair to Josh Gaskin and his Geocaching Mastery Guide? Let us know below. If you have bought his complete opus, we’d LOVE to know what you thought of it.

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Lara Croft looking a little more human than normal ...

Just in case you didn’t know: Geocaching.com has teamed up with Crystal Dynamics/Tomb Raider to create a series of unique location-based adventures that will “embody the spirit of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft’s drive to discover new adventures and locations”.

No more details are given yet, except to say that “Crystal Dynamics will be tapping into both the traditional GC.com treasure-hunting format” and the listing service’s latest photo-based adventure project geocaching challenges.”

From comments I’ve read on the various websites repeating the news, there is a mixed response to the initiative, with some loving the excellent fit between the two entities, whilst others lament another commercial invasion of their game.

But instead of delving in the dark and dirty world that is the geocaching commercialism debate, I thought I might highlight some thoughts and questions others might not have yet considered with Ms Croft about to our ranks …

Tomb Raider caches might actually have valuable swag in them: Why not? Lara is always finding jewels etc, so you’d expect nothing less from a Tomb Raider cache!

Pistols: Required equipment for Lara and now geocachers?

The race for FTF will be hot: And not just because we’ll all be wearing our short shorts and tight tank-tops out to ground zero. There’ll be a brilliant reason to get there first … beyond having the right to gloat to the one other person who was in the race.

Pistols will become a required caching tool: Lara Croft has one and, in my experience, seems to shoot a lot of monkeys with it. Which is exactly what we’ll need them for … except we’ll be shooting at the FTF caching monkeys and not the muggle monkeys. The big question here is – having just shot a fellow cacher in order to be FTF (and get all the loot), do you still log it?

Of course, this is assuming you get past the GIANT ATTACK ROBOTS:  … which are surely powered by the same hamsters that drive the GC.com servers. Those poor hamsters; when is someone going to give them a break!

If Lara is appearing in the geocaching world, will Signal be appearing in Tomb Raider? Wouldn’t that be great to see our froggy friend Signal pop up whilst playing Tomb Raider? Just don’t mistake him for one of those damn pesky monkeys …

Have you noticed how much Lara Croft and Jeremy Irish have in common? They’re both white. Strands of hair droop over both of their faces. They both love technology. They both have brilliant home bases (Lara has Croft Manor and J-Rish has Groundspeak HQ). They both facilitate the expenditure of huge sums of money in the pursuit of hidden treasure. They both look hot in their treasure-hunting outfits … though I can’t say I’ve ever actually seen J-Rish in his. (Maybe you could send us some photos Jeremy?)

How long will it take until a Tomb Raider cache listing is copied over to OpenCaching.com?  Jokes, guys. No seriously, it was a joke. I know you all carry guns.

Will there be a geocaching challenge that requires you to climb a vine, swim through a tunnel or scale an ancient building? Those ones might have to be worth a smiley before I’ll attempt them.

And lastly, will there be a geocaching event that Lara Croft will make an appearance at? And will it be Angelena Jolie or one of the numerous other Lara impersonators?

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An important question for It’s Not About The Numbers’ readers: Can you connect an Android phone to Garmin’s Oregon GPSr?

Obviously, there are some issues with getting an appropriate connector (my Android has a micro b USB port, while the Oregon 450 has a mini b USB port) but – assuming that it could be linked through some manner of cables and adaptors – could the Android utilise the Oregon’s ‘mass storage’ mode?

If it is possible, then you could add additional GPX files or completely refresh the database in the Oregon whilst on the go. As someone who hates having to plug their Oregon into the computer (when are the wifi/bluetooth versions coming, Garmin?), this would be very useful.

*Yes or no? Can anyone come up with a workable solution to stop Cumbyrocks whinging? 

UPDATE:

Okay, so a Micro USB Host cable was purchased so the Android could take advantage of the Oregon’s mass storage mode.

The Good News…the phone detects the Oregon.

The Bad News…it recognises it as a High Powered Device so it refuses to read it!!!

However, I have stumbled across another solution. It is not quite as convenient but it still achieves the same goal of being able to update the Oregon with the Galaxy whilst on the go.

The solution is to (in advance) set up a GPX folder in the Garmin folder on the Oregon’s micro SD card.

Then, when you’re on the go, you remove the the micro SD card from the Oregon. This is the inconvenient part as it means you have to remove the batteries and (if you are a purist) recalibrate the compass.

Using a micro SD card reader with the micro USB host cable you can then upload the required GPX into the micro SD card. Reinsert into the Oregon and you’re done!

I also used CacheSense for Android to export the GPX to the Oregon’s micro SD card. It was particularly useful that it allowed me to select the folder I wanted to save the GPX.

The whole process only took a couple of minutes. Unfortunately this is twice as long as I had hoped, but still an acceptable in my opinion.

But there is also another possible solution that I am yet to try. This would involve using a dual input USB to connect the Oregon to the Galaxy AND an external power source (which in my case would be a carabineer charger). I’m doubtful this would work as whilst this provides extra power to the ‘High Powered Device’ that is the Oregon it will possibly not solve the issue of the Galaxy refusing to read it.

Continue reading »]]> An interesting piece from TEAMVOYAGR over at CacheMania on the Peer Review system over at Opencaching.COM. This review system has been debated at length for quite sometime, over TEAMVOYAGR have an interesting example of one of it’s major flaws:

The first listing I looked at had a score of -126.  I thought perhaps this was a poorly executed cache so I looked at the listing.

In reading the reviewer comments all them them used the same option: From looking at the map, it looks like the coordinates might not be correct. Please double check them.  Well how bad are those coordinates?  I did what you would do and looked at the map.  I zoomed in as close as I could and sure enough the cache looked like it might be in the river.   Then I looked at the scale on the map.   Based on that scale the cache is about 5-6m in the river.   I don’t know about you but at best I get 3m accuracy on my GPSr and in most cases it’s closer to 5m.   Add in the fact that the arial imagery may be off slightly doesn’t that make it it more likely that this cache is in a tree than in the water?

It’s common sense really. How many times has a map shown the cache to be in one place and then you find it is somewhere else entirely?

And how often are the maps wrong? I recall a conversation on a forum regarding a recent geocache bomb scare in the US where the cache location had been viewed on Bing Maps. It showed a clear section, which lead to lots of questions as to why there was a problem…until someone noticed that the satellite imagery was from 2010 and since then an extensive shopping precinct had been built!

So I’m a little concerned that peer reviewers with so much weight are seemingly not taking this into account.

Why do I think the cache is in a tree?  Well because the cacher left a reviewer note that said “small pill bottle in hole of tree about 61/2 feet high”.    To be fair I don’t know if the reviewer note came before or after the cache was reviewed.  In either case wouldn’t it be prudent to revise a vote if there is a better understanding of the cache placement?

And that’s where the GC.com reviewing system works and the OX.com peer reviewing doesn’t. A reviewer and CO can have a discussion on the coordinates. In this case I can imagine the conversation might go something like this:

Reviewer: The coordinates appear in the water. Are you sure they are correct?
CO: The tree cover next to the river is pretty heavy but I averaged the coordinates with my Oregon 550.
Reviewer: Great. Perhaps a note in the listing saying there is no need to go in the water would be useful.
CO: Okay, no problem.
Reviewer: Published!

Surely that is more constructive than a CO having to go back, check coordinates and then convince not one but many peer reviewers, some of whom may not have been involved in the original attempt to list, that the coordinates are correct, especially if the coords still show as being in the water!