[Can CO have too many caches?]

We had record flooding in northern Indiana 2 weeks ago. I forgot I had 2 caches near the river which crested 17 feet above normal. Trying to do the right thing I immediately went to check them. My multi-cache was dry inside but the outside lock was ruined. It's going back out this week. The other one is still under 4 feet of water. I suppose I could change it from difficulty 1 to difficulty 5, needs special equipment like scuba gear  

[Can CO have too many caches?]

I have to say our local reviewer is pretty good. We have to log NM and give the CO a month to respond. If they don't then we can log it NA. Our reviewer then gives them another month to fix and reactivate. Very quick to. Never waited more than 2 days for response from reviewer whether I placed a cache or logged NA. Funny thing, I went through the process about a year ago with one cache. Finally got a message from the CO yesterday saying they hadn't checked on their cache in a while and that it was likely gone. I had about 9 caches archived last year because the CO never responded to NM or even to the reviewer.

[Can CO have too many caches?]

On 2/22/2018 at 2:43 PM, L0ne.R said:

I don't recall discussions in the forums asking Groundspeak to get rid of the power trail clause. If there were any it was minor compared to all the "What the heck has happened to geocaching?!" discussions we now see which all trace back to the power trail ethic that has resulted. 

And Groundspeak didn't just open that gate a little, allowing limited power trails, they just swung those floodgates wide open.

And how has it made reviewers lives easier? Is it better to wake up to 200+ caches that need reviewing on at least a monthly basis. And the growing amount of archiving they have to do for all those caches that have adopted the set-em-and-forget-em ethic of PT style play?

I never even thought of it from a reviewers standpoint. At a minimum it has to make them rethink volunteering their time.

[Can CO have too many caches?]

11 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

When I started caching in 2013 I was very much inspired by many of my predecessors' amazing hides and made, well am still making, a conscious effort to try to emulate their level of quality and commitment in my own hides.

I agree. The few hides I have, have custom containers and backstories. Trying to be original and give people something they likely haven't seen in our area. I like PnG's and such, just no so many so close together and wish others were given time to make their own hides. For my hides I care less about getting 5000 people to find it than I do about the people that do find it thinking "man that was fun" or unique. 

[Can CO have too many caches?]

19 hours ago, Ranger Fox said:

Wouldn't others have already done so had they wanted to hide something there?

And don't you think some of the activity you've been seeing might be in response to Geowoodstock being in the general region?

I believe they would have but they were at least waiting for the construction to be completed and forms pulled lol.

[Can CO have too many caches?]

Thanks everyone. I guess I was aggravated but mostly curious if there was an unwritten code of cacheing conduct. The trail spans 4 towns so far and there is talk of extending it all the way to Lake Michigan. It has been fun biking and cacheing. I just feel like it's less than courteous to span a trail the distance of 2 towns with what appears to be lesser caches when there are many others who would like to place a hide. 

[Can CO have too many caches?]

13 hours ago, The A-Team said:

I'm curious why you would consider quitting the game just because someone hid a bunch of caches along a trail. You already said you weren't planning on hiding any caches there, so what part of it do you feel has impacted you to the extent that you would consider walking away? I would genuinely like to know.

The answer to this will probably vary depending on the region and community. Around here, we don't have a lot of places where you could do something like this simply due to the terrain and type of environment. In general, cachers around here don't hide more caches than they can maintain, with the odd and expected exceptions.

They could talk to the CO and see if they could cooperate on hiding caches along the trail. If they only wanted to hide a cache or two, they could contact the CO and see if they can leave a few spots open.

This varies depending on the person and region, so there isn't a way to give a specific number. In a desert environment, a retired cacher could realistically hide a huge number of caches that require little to no maintenance, and would have enough time to maintain the ones that do. In an environment that has snow on the ground for half a year, a working cacher could realistically hide and maintain a smaller number of caches that would require more maintenance and have less time to do so. There are many other factors at play, too.

If these caches are all being hidden by one CO, you could set up a filter on your email to filter out emails that contain the string "Created by: [insert CO name here]", which would be present on any of the publication emails for that CO's caches. If the caches are all part of a series with a common element in the name, you could filter on that too.

My suggestion is to not get too worked up about what others are doing. Everyone caches for different reasons and in different ways. Some like to hide lots of caches and find few, some hide few and find lots, and many other combinations in between. As long as someone else's play doesn't directly affect you, try not to let it get to you.

Thanks. I don't know why it never dawned on me to block them through email instead of changing some setting for notifications. I guess I was aggravated and not thinking straight.

[Can CO have too many caches?]

10 hours ago, L0ne.R said:

I think what DVS might mean is now that the trail is saturated with pill bottles he does not intend to use that trail for geocaching, even if the opportunity arises. Hopefully DVS will come back and confirm.

That's how I feel when I see a PT saturated trail. That trail IMO has been ruined. It's not that I mind a saturated trail, as long as it grows organically with a variety of cache owners, hiding styles, cache containers, placed various distances apart. I can pick and choose the caches along such a trail that suits me. When it's saturated with abandoned, numbers-style, cheap, junk containers with the same write-up for each and log after log of TFTC, then none of them suit me. The PT behavior is selfish and boring. 

That's exactly what I'm seeing. literally copy/pasted description. All 528 ft apart. I have went caching in area several times. I find separating them out from the rest is shall we say, tedious? 

[Can CO have too many caches?]

I have been unable to find any info on this topic. First I will give the situation. In northern Indiana and southern Michigan there is a new trail being made. In the last month or 2 a CO has put out nearly 300 caches along this route sometimes before a section was even finished. At first I thought it was geoart but that does not appear to be the case. I do not plan to place a cache there nor do intend to look for any of these as I'm not in it for bulk easy finds to raise my "score". This seems like it could be contentious topic and that is not my intent but this is starting to really put me off on geocaching. I am actually considering quitting the game and orphaning my own caches. My questions are: 1. Is there an etiquette to this in the geo community? 2. What would other cachers do to place a cache there?  3. How many caches can a CO realistically take care of properly? (seems many like these are placed and abandoned immediately) 4. How do I stop the 20+ email notifications a day for a New Cache on these yet still get them for others in the area? 5. What are your suggestions/insights?