Bronzegoat

My personal opinion is that most cache hides are done with good intent. The problem is that our opinion of the hiders intent is subjective. The most important thing about any cache is simple maintenance. I would much rather go to a well maintained micro (not a lamp pole or guardrail cache but a well maintained micro) than an ammo can with a wet log sheet and moldy contents. Many are the times that I have posted a needs maintenance memo or mentioned it in a log or even gone to a location that I know for a fact the cache is missing. I have returned to the caches months later with a friend to only find the caches in the same condition. To me a bad hider is one who doesn't maintain his or her caches whether one or a thousand and one.

Bronzegoat, are you a numbers hider? You can look at my profile and probably already have. I have 1,606 finds and 112 hides with a few of those having been archived (hmm, roughly the same find to hide percentage as well someone else). I probably have a total of three guardrail hides (that I can recall) and those were hidden with a purpose. I live in a very rural area in mountainous southwest Virginia and like most hiders in the area have caches along rural scenic roadways as well as up rough to very rough mountain roads. You can judge for yourself or check with people who have found my caches what type of hides they are. I can't fairly judge my own hides but I have found that most people (not all) tend to hide caches similar to the ones that they found when they first started caching (at least initially). I have only used the forum a very few times and have read the guidelines but do not (perhaps out of ignorance) know which point you are referring to. I neither defend or attack individual hiders or seekers of any type because I think it is a person's own business how they decide to participate in a hobby. I just like many others get tired of people complaining about caching, hiding, seeking, numbers, quality of hides, contents of caches and everything else caching or cache related instead of just enjoying what has to be the greatest of hobbies and believe me I have had a lot of hobbies.

I think we should have a for crybabies only attribute then maybe all of these complainers could just do those caches.

If you want 1,000 finds without a GPSr, as of January 1, 2008 there were 971 Walmart's in the USA so just visit them all and start lifting light skirts.

If you want 1,000 finds without a GPSr, as of January 1, 2008 there were 971 Walmart's in the USA so just visit them all and start lifting light skirts.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have hiked a mile to do a cache that was a full size cache and still lame. I have stepped out of the car and done micros that were good caches. When it come down to it we all play this game by our own rules and yes it is just a game that we play for ourselves and our own satisfaction. I don't see why everyone is so worried about how other people choose to play or to hide. The one great cache on occassion more than makes up for a bunch of lame caches between those finds. If I get sick of micros or any other caches it is time to quit the game or at least take a break and take up another hobby. If everyone is so upset about micros or lame caches why not just BM hunt and the problem is solved. That way numbers aren't posted in your totals and you still get to enjoy the search and the find but I don't see too many complainers with a bunch of BM finds. Complaining about someone's profile page! I would take that page to be a personal thing and certainly no one forces anyone to even look at profile pages unless the complainers are cruising the site for innocent cacher geeks to prey on (and yes that is a joke).

One of my good friends caches with me on occassion as well as with others. He has an account that someone set up for him at one time or another however he has no computer (there are some people out there who don't, believe it or not). He worked for me for a few days and bought the most basic GPS, hand writes coords to enter later from my GPS or from my field notebook. He keeps all of his logs and notes in a notebook and I am not sure that he will ever logs his finds, maybe one day. He is not interested in numbers (I know that some think that everyone is) but this guy has no idea how many he has found. I don't know if I have ever seen anyone who loves the outdoors more than him. Maybe this is just another way to be outside doing something and the caching just happens because he is with someone who is caching. I don't ask I just enjoy having an avid outdoorsman there to share in the search and enjoy the conversation along the way. This guy had quite a fall a couple of weeks ago. Broke both wrists and his ankle. He will be down for a while but I'm sure that just as soon as he gets back out he will be caching, writing long hand and not techno-logging.