In your mind, what is a high quality geocache? Minimum: Accurate coordinates, maintained by an active CO (which means the log will be replaced promptly when needed, container will be replaced as needed, updates will be posted if needed) and a reasonable place for ground zero. Better than average: a beautiful/interesting location or container. Bonus: gadget caches! There are some REALLY CREATIVE people out there and I love it when they show off their skills in geocaching.
In your mind, what is a low quality geocache? Bad location choice. I can handle a guardrail cache for the sake of numbers or when I want to geocache but don't have much time. But when there is no pull-out - no safe place to park, I am happy to drive on by. Low quality also means little to no effort towards a cache container. By today, year 18, most know that Altoids tins are NOT a good idea. And yet, they still show up now and then.
What steps can the community take to improve geocache quality? When speaking to a large group of individuals, this can be difficult. Cache owners need to be better about maintaining their caches. It would also be a good idea that if a cache owner hasn't logged in within a specific amount of time (a year?) that their caches can be adopted by interested cachers who will maintain them.
What steps can Geocaching HQ take to improve geocache quality? I would prefer that private residences NOT be used for geocaches. I am ALWAYS uncomfortable searching for those and tend to avoid them. I fully support the idea that some experience in geocaching is needed before one is allowed to hide. 100 finds should be the BARE MINIMUM... and I would readily agree to 500 finds before they start hiding.
Geocache Quality
in User Insights
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