Hi all,
Firstly, please excuse the rant... but it's constructive Secondly, I haven't been a cacher for all that long... but I've been doing it long enough to know how it works, what is 'right' and what is not. However, I am sure there area few flaws in my argument below, I look forward to debating them
One of the things that irritates me (and many others, it seems) is poor cache maintenance. it seems to be that the 'Needs Maintenance' icon doesn't seem to have much of a point... many times it gets ignored, or sometimes it gets left there after maintenance has been performed by another cacher (E.g., log/pen replaced). Sometimes the only way to see if a cache is still there / in a half-decent condition is to read the previous logs.
Regarding the 'needs maintenance' icon, at first if I saw this, it would put me off and I would pretty much overlook the cache (how many others do this)... but it then became clear to me that sometimes a) The C/O has left the NM icon there even though cache no longer needs maintained... or it was flagged as NM for a reason that is no longer valid, or has since been fixed by someone other than the C/O - in which case the icon can't be removed. So, now I don't just ignore NM caches... I read the logs carefully, and if it seems like all is well, I'll go for it.
On the flip side of the coin, how often have you got there and found a waterlogged container, full of soggy and/or rusty(!!) junk ? I read a DNF log recently which said "Got to GZ and couldn't find it... searched for 30 mins" etc etc... the next was a found log which read "Found pieces of a lid with a Geocache sticker attached, no log..." etc etc. This had been flagged as needs maintenance for quite some time, but the C/O hadn't responded/acted - sure it could have been flagged as 'needs archived', except this could actually be an exceptional cache if someone would just maintain it !
Sometimes the C/O might be away for a while, sometimes they might have given up on the game, or maybe moved away and haven't had anyone adopt their cache... or maybe they just can't be bothered ? Who knows... but the amount of long-term NM caches, certainly around my location, is starting to get a bit ridiculous.
Now, for the suggestion. We have a network of volunteer reviewers... how about we put together a network of volunteer maintainers and/or adopters ? At the moment, the needs maintenance logs get flagged to the C/O, surely there would be a way to also flag them to a volunteer maintainer, or have it added to a queue... this could be followed up on with the C/O after a week or so by a 'nearby' maintainer/adopter... and if there was no response the maintainer could go and do the maintenance - or if someone else has already done it, e.g. replaced log/pencil, they can remove the icon - they could also adopt the cache (even temporarily) if it is apparent that the C/O is MIA.
Along with the clear benefits this would have to the game & the community, I can see only 2 drawbacks to this suggestion: a) Sure replacing logs / cache notes / pencils is cheap.... but containers ? How would these 'maintainers' be compensated, or given the 'volunteer' status, would that even be necessary ? This could encourage C/Os to not bother maintaining their cache, with the thought that someone else will do it for them if left long enough.
It's this last point that bothers me, and I can't really think of any reasonable solutions to that - other than perhaps flagging it for archival after 2/3 'repairs'.
Anyways, thanks for reading / listening / whatever - I look forward to reading your thoughts/comments ?
Cheers,
Chris.