Langy

I agree in principal with you to teh 1 in 10 rule unless you know the exact details of how it is being operated. Regarding too many caches I think you will find that there are several people who would like more caches to appear near them. Even after caching seriously for about a month now I have nearly already hit all the local major ones I can sensibly do as I tend to do these in a lunch break or sometimes evenings / weekends when time and family allow. There will always be caches some of us can not possibly do. Again agreed sometimes there are too many caches but these tend to be in pockets in certain areas, especially around built up areas of towns etc there are lots to choose form. Living in the countryside I prefer the country location caches as you often are not looking for a cache right in front of someones house and don't get that intimidating feeling.

I hope it's not. I was replying to the "1 in 10" post, and although I've certainly been guilty of helping threads go off-topic in the past I'd prefer that a discussion about quantity and quality of caches is kept separate. It's a whole can of worms that has raised its ugly head on countless occasions and tends to doom any thread to oblivion. If cans have heads, anyway. The "1 in 10" idea (or similar) has also been mooted many times (probably by Moote, amongst many others), but I appreciate that not everyone has been around these forums for years and they might think that it's a new and valid point. Getting into a general debates about cache quality will confuse the matter, when I was hoping to keep the answer a straightforward one ("don't do it!"). Sticking to a 1 in 10 regime and keeping the caches good quality might in theory be possible, but that's not the point. The point is that it's a poor motivation for cache hiding. So keeping with the 1 in 10, if you are the sort of person that likes to try and stick to rules or guidelines like this but at the same time have your own very strict guidelines as to how the caches are created along with the location, interest and quality then surely it would work as a good rule for someone? Its almost like saying that for every tree you cut down you will plant a new one. Obviously we all expect the person planting the new trees to place these in a proper manageable location fit for their purpose.

I should qualify that figure by saying that of those 41,472 7,805 have posted only one log, and only 21,729 - just over half the total - have posted more than five logs. It all depends on what one defines as an active cacher . OK now you're getting in to what I like doing (usually bores people by statistics). So what is the average number of finds in the country and compare that to the number of active caches. We can then see how close in general we are to the 1 in 10 rule.

You've missed off what is for me the most important - best of all I like to find good quality caches. That includes being in good locations, but that is only part of the story. I hope you don't think that people like me are such a minority that we don't even get classed as one of the main categories! Rgds, Andy Sorry Andy, I did start with a list of three and then soon added. I'm sure that we could deviate from the list several times to cater for everyone. I was just trying to point out that different people have different reason for doing the hobby so therefore we all have different expectations as to what we want from an available cache list.

But then it comes down to why is the cache there? If it's about the lovely view/interesting location/challenging walk then why remove a serviceable 'temporary' cache and replace it with another in more or less the same place? Having a temporary cache which is regularly replaced with a new one just so everyone can get another smiley makes it just about the numbers, which is pretty dire IMHO, you might as well go for a proper power trail with a micro behind every other lamp post . OK I know the post is about 1 in 10 but I think the main part of the topic is coming across about quantity and quality of caches, so let's take another view on the whole thread. Why do we all do this in the first place? I guess that there are three or four main categories that you could put people in. A Geocacher who wants to clock up as many numbers as possible wants something that gives them a puzzle to solve so that they can say yes I found it as and when they like (numbers mean nothing) wants to be taken to a place of interest to be shown something that is worth while seeing wants somewhere to go for a morning / afternoon / evening which may also include other friends or family where geocaching is a nice activity to do With the above four options the site needs to provide enough of everything to cover all of the above. Now temporary caches have been mentioned which can cater for all the above options. Yes they can help the number builder, new caches appearing regularly in a local location. Something new for the puzzle solver. If the temporary cache is in a special place of interest it takes option 3 back to a special place for a new challenge several times a year. Also on option 4 if it's local then at last minute the family / friends can all go out for a short walk to take on a new challenge. Yes I can see everyone is worried about caches being stuck in silly locations just to build numbers, but they don't have to. Yes they will appear because that's life and some people may want to play the number game on managing their own caches. So in conclusion perhaps temporary / themed caches commemorating events etc may be an option that should go ahead. We could have a Jubilee or Olympic theme to start with.

I've found http://www.tb-rescue.com/ can be useful if the cache isn't in your area. It's amazing how many of these sites are out there that don't seem to be in an obviously published area. Perhaps we need a post of useful sites. Good Luck!

Most certainly agree to all that Izzy. Yes if it all became common place then the 160 Metre rule would be used before anything else as we would just be over run. I think that the notice as below says it all on the front page though. There are far more geocachers than there are geocaches which means we should not get overrun as only a small percentage of the geocachers actually place and manage geocaches. We have to be thankful to these people otherwise we wouldn't be doing it in the first place. There are 1,755,661 active geocaches and over 5 million geocachers worldwide. Don't mean to be negative, apologies if it sounds that way but we have to be careful how we treat an individual as we all know in this world that mud sticks and peoples reaction to one person can tar the entire community. There I go sounding negative again.

Like someone mentioned before should we really condemn something before they have been placed and looked at? OK I've been properly active for about a month now and only managed to notch up 47 so far, on that rule I should be looking to place 4 caches so far. Yes I've raised a piece on here earlier about locations and permission which has caused a lot of different opinions being aired with lots of people. From what I have seen different people have different opinions on what they like to find and look for. It doesn't matter if it is a nano on the back of a road sign or a large lunch box at the top of a large hill with spectacular views, we all like different things. Today I took on the GC3E0XA series of 13 caches where I was hoping to break 50 so far. Now the CO of this route had carefully planned a 4 mile walk across some stunning countryside and to better things had some basic caches but had some which a lot of effort had gone in to making. I don't want to ruin things by saying what they had used (go do the series to find out) but that was 13 caches in one walk. This is a highly recommended series if you are about. Here in Suffolk we are full of footpaths across the countryside, it would be quite easy to find locations for a series and place 10 caches in a series in interesting areas. If you can crate interesting caches like the CO of the one I did today then you can soon create yourself quite an armoury of caches. Yes maintenance may become a full time job, but if your caches are in an area which doesn't get a lot of visitors then your maintenance schedule can be quote low. It may actually turn out to be a good thing to have a 1 in 10 rule (which may well need to be higher for some people) as at least it presents someone with a task to create more caches and return something back to the community. Also remember if you live in a highly populated area there are bound to be lots of caches but when you live out in the sticks the quantity of caches and their visitors tends to be much lower.

Wow some real stunning pictures so far. Went out tonight to Elcaro's Treasure (pt. 4) and took the two images here.

Wow that is what you call an extreme one. Would the CO be able to visit if someone posted that it required maintenance? Paul

I joined the site a few years ago but only become active in the last month or so. The radius for me is starting to fill and get wider in two areas, one being where I live and the other where I work as I try and get out during my lunch break. I suspect that everyone will initially have a radius like that which slowly fills and gets bigger unless you travel a lot and able to find caches on route. At some point if you are active and can only work local the radius will fill quickly and slowly grow all the time. For me it is annoying where some caches become inactive, DNF (which I usually try again later to look for) or are Premium only which I am still considering. Regards to the diving gear I think that has to be an extreme cache which if it was at the bottom of a quarry which has since filled with water surely has to be archived at some point. Perhaps there needs to be some trigger where a find is not registered after a certain period that the cache is finally archived or at least questions are asked and the CO has to visit to prove it is still there and active. Paul

I can quite imagine how annoying and worrying that this could have been. As I started the original post it was meant for the sensible locations that sit either along a roadside or a proper public footpath. If you get people wandering through private woods, fields with no public footpaths then they shouldn't be doing it in the first place. I've learn't that the first thing you have to do is find the cache on a map. If it is by a roadside then fine it should be quite easy. The moment you see that it is not near a road then you have to look at a proper map either streetmap or the grease monkey addin so that you can see where the footpaths run. Yesterday I went to a cache alongside a golf course and my GPS was trying to point me to the other side of a stream in the golf course where I was already on the footpath. Looking I could not see any footpath signs on that side of the stream so ended up with a DNF. Looking for these is supposed to be fun and get us to places that we have never been to before because they have something to offer, not take us through all the areas we should not go because you follow the GPS pointing a certain way. Perhaps you should have got the peoples logins who went to the cache and reported them through the site. Maybe the site needs something to deal with people who do the finding at all costs so that especially where they are a paid member they lose their membership as well as the site access. Think there goes another can of worms. Paul

So for creating your first cache I should be looking to sit it on top of some mountain or something where someone requires specialist equipment to get to it and then due to the change in the site terms and conditions get taken to court because someone twisted an ankle or worse got killed by falling off a cliff face as it is my responsability. This reminds me of when I took up photography in a beginners section I took a photo of a sunset and got slated by the judge saying "Oh we have all seen sunsets before". What ever happened to people realising that it was a beginners section where we all have to start somewhere. I beleive I did first post in the thread about being a newbie. Obviously its not practical to post questions in the forums where 90% of the members know the answers. Brings me back to common sense again.

I've just taken a look at the help section which is as below. You assure us that you have the landowner's and/or land manager's permission before you hide any geocache, whether placed on private or public property. Which can be found here Now this is where for the UK common sense should take hold as far as I can see. If you are placing a small nano under a post box or the back of a road sign down a quiet country lane do you have to contact Royal Mail for a post box, the local Council for the road sign or even the local parish council because the road sign or post box is located on their grass verge? Having said all this anything in the UK that requires common sense these days teh government has created a law where you have to get it signed off by some professional holding a piece of paper just because someone got hurt by poking a drill bit in the eye. Sorry but that is how we have become at times in the UK and I just wanted to see how strict the site is on these things. I can understand that some countries are very strict as we all know we all live different life styles etc. Paul

Oh dear have I really opened one? I guess by that this may have been brought up in the past.

A quick question which may or may not help other newbies like myself. Under the rules etc for the site it does mention that you have to get the land owners permission when you place a cache. Now surely this is down to common sense. I can guess in some countries this would be very different but here in the UK if you are placing something simple like a micro magnetinc on the back of a road sign or a 35mm film cannister along a footpath which runs along a field etc then surely do people seek permission of a farmer or the council for placing the cache on their property? Be nice to hear what others think! Paul

With all the rain we have had recently here in East Anglia there is plenty of the squelchy stuff about. That's fine if you can go out in the evening or a weekend, just means more washing as it tends to go all over the trousers. The real downside of this time is though when you want to go out in your lunch break and work in an office. The choice of which caches you visit is limited on the weather. Not sure about ticks etc but the nettles are all starting to take a hold already, hopefully caches are in a reasonable area where you don't have to go down footpaths that are rarely used. Langy

Another member advised on this when we were talking about GPS tracking etc. Now installed this on one computer for Chrome and Firefox and it adds a entirely new element to viewing the caches on the maps. Rather than flipping to various sites with different mappings I can do the lot all from the initial map. Well done and thanks for the app, looks like this has saved a lot of people an awful lot of time.

Hello Everyone A little bit of history first. I joined the site back in 2008 as I love gadgets and had an Acer n35 that I used as for Sat Nav. It's pretty poor has a few niggly issues especially as there is no backup battery and so easy to reset the whole device. Tried a couple of caches with it and found one and didn't find another. Now due to relocating to Cumbria in the next couple of months decided to look for another GPS device for the many times I will probably get lost. Looked on eBay and found a Garmin GPS 38 which I believe to be about 15 years old. Only paid £7 + £4 delivery. Runs on AA batteries and has a long life span. This brought me back to the site keener than ever to try and do well this time. So far things have been pretty good. I know I have a GPS that may find a place in a museum but it works and as far as I can tell works pretty well, especially in open spaces. I would like to know peoples thoughts on the device as it is very unlikely that I will get to use a more modern device. On a couple of hunts I have failed partly due to the enclosed spaces so the GPS was bouncing all over the place. To get over this I thought about using other tools like the web. Again thoughts on either of the procedures I have tried below, especially how accurate you think they are. Copy and Paste Lat / Long in to Google Maps. Creates a Pinpoint to what I believe to be spot on. Copy and Paste Landranger in to Streetmap. Again seems to pinpoint precise location. Thanks in advance for reading and posting any comments. Most Appreciated. Paul

I agree, yes it has to be work. Trying to get out lunchtimes taking a large list of caches to visit and then only doing a couple of these often leads to being back at work 15 minutes late. Just as well I do a lot of extra hours and have a fairly easy going boss!

Hello Mellers Thank you for a quick reply. I've been considering upgrading to premium the last week or so, especially as I have a bit of money in my PayPal account. However I prefer to wait a little while to make sure that this is not another fab and something that I want to continue with on a regular basis. I will have a look in a moment regardign the events that you mentioned. I would guess that these are all family based events especially as the hobby is geared that way. After our move it might be a good thing where the family, especially the wife get the chance to get out and make new friends. Thanks Again Paul

Hello Just thought I would create an initial post to introduce myself and situation and see where it goes from there. I currently live in Suffolk soon to relocate to Cumbria in the next couple of months. I've been a member on the site about 4 years now but only did one find at teh start using a Sat Nav on my PDA which was not ver good. Due to the relocation we (the family) are looking to go out on regular walks around the lake district. With this I am keen to do it the old fashioned way with maps and a compass. However as I'm sure my wife would say and surely the case with many men we don't like to stick to the normal patchway if we can find a quieter way. So I decided to look for a GOS device just to give me my current location where the battery life was good in case I got lost. A quick buy on eBay got me a Garmin GPS38 which is ideal. With buying the new GPS device I was keen to see how well it worked and got back to the site. With 2-3 trips out have started to regularly find the caches. Yes the GPS is old (about 15 years) takes its time to lock on but does work well. The caches I have not found were probably more down to lack of experience than the GOS not working, oh and a bit of tree cover bouncing you around. Oh if you ever do see my posts or meeet me I do tend to waffle on. lol Langy (Paul)

The trouble that I was finding that even in the open the location co-ordinates would not change for a distance, meaning that you can't be very accurate in the open to the exact location. Paul

Hello First posting and new to the geocaching. I currently use Tom Tom on my PDA and managed to find one cache today (helped by the clues). This evening I went out again in a forest to find another and failed. The PDA was setup to give the co-ordinates in degrees minutes and seconds, rather than the decimal version that is shown on the pages. Due to this the reference on teh PDA doesn't change until after a few yards have been walked. I have now seen where to change this will I get a better reading by using the decimal version? Also due to being in the trees and having to make changable movements I'm also thinking of taking the good old fasioned compass so that you can see easier with way to walk. Thanks for your help in advance. Langy