73Shuler

I may or may not be a wise old sage, but I definitely did not define the word "cache"

If you're talking about caches around here you'd lose that bet. In fact, around here non-trading caches are a bit of an oddity, including micros. Oh, and yes, I'm talking about 35mm and APS film cans. I was talking about all areas, your area might be a surprising exception. What exactly gets traded in these film cans?

Because I don't want owners of trash micros to compromise my real CACHES.

Wrong. A good majority of micros I've found are trading caches. Sorry if your area is different, but don't try to force the rest of the world into your definition of how the game is played. What are they trading in these, postage stamps? Now that might acutally qualify as a cache if it were the case. But how many of these exist? I bet it isn't 1 per 1000. I don't have a problem with a small cache, just those that are not caches. If the "micro" exists as a trading cache then it probably isn't really a micro, maybe a mini, but not a micro.

I don't dispute that micros might occasionally provide for an interesting hunt and provide a unique challenge. The point is that they are not CACHES - this game is called GEOCACHING, not find the tiny micro. Two different games. While it may be true that there are a few interesting micros out there, the vast majority are terribly lame.

Evidently you missed the whole point; micros are not GEOCACHES, they are scraps of trash.

This is an untruth. You can run a pocket query in the GC search page and filter out micros all day long. --Marky What part are you suggesting is untrue? There isn't anything about PQs on the search page, they have their own section, just like micros should.

Probably the most common answer that you will get is "you can filter micros." This is bunk. You have to be a member to filter them using PQs and other software. And then the GC search page still has them all listed and you have to wade through pages of rubish to see the real caches. Micro caches are a greater threat to geocaching than virtual or LC ever were. The quantity of these things is going off the scale, a regular plague in the wild. How in the world can a micro be considered a "cache" in the first place I don't think a damp folded up piece of paper that doesn't have room to write on qualifies as a CACHE. Micros would be better suited for another web site completely. However... Groundspeak has found a way to profit off micros, therefore they aren't on the blacklist that virtual and LC are. That is the real answer to your question. It isn't about geocaching, it isn't even about the numbers; follow the greenback.

I'll have to use my newly created sock puppet because I don't want to spoil this for other cachers in my area, but I wanted to comment on two that I have seen that are virtually impossible. One is a nail with a small tube epoxyed on the bottom of the head with a log book in the tube and an eraser to seal it. A hole was drilled in a wooden guard rail post and the nail/tube place in the hole. By all appearances it is just a nail in the post, along with a couple other nails nearby holding an unrelated sign! The other was a 38 special bullet shell with a piece of bark glued on the end and inserted in a tree of the same type bark. Again, virtually impossible to spot!