Comments on: Be the First to Find (FTF) Geocaches!

By: Maria

Maria — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 02:21:21 +0000

Really helpful short video–thank you for the info. Wondered how locals always got FTF.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:21:14 +0000

Good video explanation! We’ve been setup for notifications since we started. I used to enjoy the challenge of FTF’s, but not anymore.

We actually have a “100 FTF Challenge Cache” in our town, which requires you to log 100 FTF’s before you can sign it, to complete the challenge. I just added to my ignore list.

FTFs are too cut throat near me. Not that anyone’s nasty about it. But when you get the email, minutes after the cache posted, drive straight to it & still miss the FTF, because someone was in the restaurant eating dinner next door with an iPhone too. What’s the point?

We’ve only got 18 FTFs after 9 months of caching. Best we ever had was 4 in 1 day, twice. Other than that, 1 or 2 here & there. I’m already a crazy-enough GC’er as it is. Running out at 4am to beat everyone to an FTF, would just make me certifiable, LOL!

By: robnzh

robnzh — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:07:53 +0000

Thomas, ensure that your mail settings are set so that it checks for incoming emails frequently enough. Having said that it may be a delay on the part of your Internet Service Provider, assuming there was no problem with your connection: unless the FTFer had inside knowledge clearly they must have received the notification before you did.
Remember also that you can check for new caches whenever you like from your own profile if you are logged in (click where it says you are logged in as xxxxx and look on the right hand side of the screen that comes up.)
Ensure also that you have alerts for all the types of cache listed that you might be interested in, I got caught a while ago because I didn’t think I would be interested in new earthcaches (as I don’t like to put a photo of myself as required by many of them) and I missed out on a notification of a local one that I could have done easily and quickly and only required a photo of a plaque!
And re 41411 this presumably only works in USA. (maybe Canada too someone else may know?)

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:11:38 +0000

This is a great feature, and I have been using it for years… However, recently I have noticed that the “instant” part of the feature is not so instant… Sometimes a couple of hours after the cache is published! In fact, the other day, I received an automated email that a cache had been found before I was notified of it being published!

Is there a problem with Instant notifies?

By: Pauline

Pauline — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:04:39 +0000

We have been caching over a yr and the ftf still eludes us

By: koriloeb

koriloeb — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:24:50 +0000

I love the internet, this was exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks for publishing this!!

By: pigtales

pigtales — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:27:06 +0000

Good info. Never used this yet, but will. Still was able to get about 14 FTF’s with just pocket queries. Need to go caching more, took too much time off. Thanks.

By: BUCKtown'ers2010

BUCKtown'ers2010 — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:11:21 +0000

……but FYI….you have to be a premium member to access this notification page. : )

By: BUCKtown'ers2010

BUCKtown'ers2010 — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:09:07 +0000

WOW! Thanks for the insite. I am new to geocaching (March 2010) and have always wondered how people get the FTF so quick. Now I know! Thanks and keep up the good work. We appreciate you.

By: Team Looney Tunez

Team Looney Tunez — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:25:30 +0000

Thanks Josh for the info. A fellow Cacher showed the alert feature to me and it is not widely known. It will help others very much and this may help also.

I also do not have a “smart phone”. As totallygomer mentions above, I set the alerts up to email my phone as a text message (Verizon it is 10-Digit-Phone-Number@vtext.com). However the full message is truncated. I only get enough of the message for the Name and GC code of the cache. Not very helpful if you are away from your computer, have your GPSr and no coordinates.

I found this site to fill in the gaps and it works great! http://coord.info/textmark.aspx

I followed the simple 7 step instructions and now…

If I text “GEOC ?GCabc123″ to 41411, I get the coordinates for cache GCabc123.

If I text “GEOC !GCabc123″ to 41411, I get the hint for the cache.

To simply things even more, I made a contact in my phone called GEOC with the number 41411. That jogs my memory to use the GEOC command in text message.

Hope this helps.