Sycamore5

Even though you ripped her, calling her cache "lame." Plus, the hint didn't say "behind the sign", so your rebuttal doesn't hold water. Another lovely forum user proving my point above.

Your repliy perfectly exemplifies why many new players don't stick around. So we have 3 finds posted, so what. Rather than helpful tips, you spew insults. Sadly, I would note this style of reply is not uncommon on the forum pages. Luckily I have many positive messages from others, and will continue to play. Oh and we don't always post our finds online, but just sign the logbook. As for the "not true find" so many of you old timers have pointed out, the QR sticker was placed exactly where the hint indicated a cache would be. Luckily, a nice email exchange with the hider gave us a clearer tip. She didn't rip us for not finding her cache and noted the confusion was common. Relax, it's a GAME.

Couldn't agree more!

My family is new to this GAME. Here are a few observations I have noticed in the last week. Yes one whole week of seeking and finding. Just because a cache is not interesting to YOU does not mean it isn't interesting to someone else. Just because YOU did not find a particular search fun, does not mean someone else did not enjoy the search. Just because YOU didn't like or find the cache, thought it was too small, large, hard, easy, etc doesn't mean the person who spend time and effort to place that cache didn't think it was and interesting cache or placement and had fun creating and placing it. The GAME has two sides, the finder and the seeker. Each has their own excitiement and enjoyment. Stop trying to tell the 6 million people who have geocached how it "should be" or what it is "all about" according to YOUR own biases and YOUR own experiences. Relax, it's a game. People from 3 to 100 year old can play it. Smart people can play, stupid people can play, fit athletes can play, wheelchair bound people can play, singles can play, families can play, nice people can pay, jerks can play. There are 3 million caches posted, you like some, you don't like some. So what. Hide what you enjoy, chances are someone else might too. Chances are others will hate it too. Stop telling people what is a good cache or not. hide what you like where you like (within the hiding guidelines and law obviously) What makes a cool cache, hide and location to you, can be a terribly annoying, lame cache, hide, and location to someone else. And vice-versa. If you've found a few caches, go hide some caches if that makes it interesting to you and gets you and some friends outside and exploring and wanting to play more. No you don't need to find 20, 50, 100 caches to "get it". Come on people, at the end of the day it's GAME of exploring, observing, and thinking to find trinkets hidden in plastic boxes and a log book. Oh and a very nice BUSINESS for Groundspeak as well. Don't tell someone they "don't get it". I would suggest you don't "get" their reason for trying the game and getting involved. If you have found 1 cache, you are a geocacher! Welcome and have fun! Go search, go find, go hide stuff! If you enjoy it for a week, great. If you enjoy it for 10+ years that's great too. Stop complaining... just go hide and find. Feel free to private message me if you disagree and would like to pontificate on your own grand theory of geocaching and educate me on how it should be and what's "it's all about".

Great read, thank you. Very simple and straight forward.

I couldn't disagree more with this. If you are new, place whatever you like, wherever you like! You DO NOT need to find 20-50 items before placing something! e If you get into it more, then you will naturally want to get more creative and hint driven. It seems if you are an 'expert' you will enjoy looking over 2 sq feet for hours and not finding anything...or maybe something so camouflaged and microscopic only the truly gifted or stupid or lucky will find it. For most of us that isn't really all that fun. Start hiding something basic and fun that YOU enjoy. Don't worry about it. Your opinion is wrong. How can I say that? Because you don't understand why it's suggested to have finds before placing a cache. When you place a cache there are certain guidelines to follow. You are encouraging someone to do something in which they don't have the experience to know how to do.... And it affects others as well. It affects us as finders, and if for example the cache is buried it can affect the game big time. Place what you want where you want? A piece of paper ripped from a note book underneath a rock is not ok. I honestly don't think with 4 finds that your advice has any experience to back it up. People suggest finding many different types of geocaches, not just many geocaches. Finding 500 film cans only tells someone what a film can looks like, it's not better than finding one film can. By find many different caches, you see what works- what's waterproof, what's not. How well camo'd they can be, or how they can be a LnL 5 feet from a busy sidewalk. How annoying a cache in a spruce tree can be. How something that may seem like an amazing idea has been done, and over done, like a cache under a lamp post skirt. You also see what you like, and what others like, so you can hide caches like that. You also start to notice things- things like geocaches aren't buried. Geocaches can only be so close to another one. That there are some areas where there aren't geocaches, when the whole area around is packed with them.The first two are the in the guidelines here, and the third may represent a place where the landowner doesn't want caches. You also get to know if your into the game- if your gonna think it's cool for a month or two then never come back to geocaching, you just left that cache to turn into trash. Thats not fair to others- someone may want to place a good cache that they will take care of there but can't. People will find the cache with a wet logbook because there's nobody to take care of it. New cacher will find the abandoned cache, or the crappy cache placed by someone with 6 finds and either be turned off geocaching by it, or think that's what caches are supposed to be, then hide the same thing themselves. Telling someone to do what they want when they want is like handing a 10 year old the keys to your car. Sure they may happen to be good drivers, or know a couple things like ted means stop, green means go, but they would t be very good drivers. There's a reason we don't do that- and not just driving, many things. But for some reason it's ok to do it with geocaching? Remember the big thing here- it affects others as well. The reviewer who wastes time because the cache is 150 from another when the person didn't read the guidelines. The finders- those who have to find crappy caches because the CO didn't have the experience. The new cachers who find these caches and think that's what geocaching is. Even the hiders time and energy in placing the cache only to have to move it because they didn't have the experience. Honestly I'd rather turn someone off because they don't want to do a good job than encourage them to do something that's not in anyone's best interest, Ok let me edit, hide something you like and enjoy...within the placement guidelines. But hide what you personally find interesting, and no you don't need to find 50+ to get the hang of it. Can't learn if you don't try. Remember, it's a game.

Reddit.com's favorite description of geocaching: "We find tupperware in the woods using multi billion dollar satellites."

Signed 2 log books. We though is was good fun. Didn't find 2 others, but looking again. Anyone who is new to it should participate and can hide similar items.

I couldn't disagree more with this. If you are new, place whatever you like, wherever you like! You DO NOT need to find 20-50 items before placing something! e If you get into it more, then you will naturally want to get more creative and hint driven. It seems if you are an 'expert' you will enjoy looking over 2 sq feet for hours and not finding anything...or maybe something so camouflaged and microscopic only the truly gifted or stupid or lucky will find it. For most of us that isn't really all that fun. Start hiding something basic and fun that YOU enjoy. Don't worry about it.

We were in the same spot as you, the site seems to miss the BASIC STEPS. Here they are: 1) Go to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/default.aspx i2) In the right hand column, click "create a geocache" button 3) If you already know where you want to/ or have hid it...look on the right hand side again "Already know your hiding spot?" and click that. 4) this leads you to a new page, you will click "traditional geocache" on the left. 5) then this brings up the coordinates page. Type in the GPS coordinates in ANY format to locate it on the map. Any iPhone or Android has an Ap for GPS coordinates you can download for free. 6) after this step you create a write up for your cache. 7) it has to be reviewed for some reason, make sure you click 'submit'!

Agree, some of the "hints" are just awful. Some of these Caches must have been moved or removed.

Totally disagree. If you like it, hide some caches! Go for it.

no, you don't have to find more than 2-3 to get the hang of it. Hide new ones!

We were in the same spot as you, the site seems to miss the BASIC STEPS. Here they are: 1) Go to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/default.aspx i2) In the right hand column, click "create a geocache" button 3) If you already know where you want to/ or have hid it...look on the right hand side again "Already know your hiding spot?" and click that. 4) this leads you to a new page, you will click "traditional geocache" on the left. 5) then this brings up the coordinates page. Type in the GPS coordinates in ANY format to locate it on the map. Any iPhone or Android has an Ap for GPS coordinates you can download for free. 6) after this step you create a write up for your cache. 7) it has to be reviewed for some reason, make sure you click 'submit'!

That's a stupid reply. It really isn't that stupid a reply. The guidelines even include similar statements: "The more geocaches that you have found, the better you will understand the various elements that make up a great geocaching experience. This knowledge will be invaluable when you place a hide, and likely make your geocache more enjoyable for the community. We encourage you to find at least twenty geocaches before you choose to hide one." You can quibble over whether 20 finds or 50 finds is a better benchmark, but both are better than the 4 you've logged so far. Personally, I don't think any specific number of finds is going to be right for everyone. But I do think it is important that you find enough that you know what kinds of containers work well, what kinds of containers don't work well, what kinds of caches you enjoy, and what kinds of caches you want to own and maintain for the long term. 4 was more than enough to figure out what type of cache we wanted to place. Thanks. This isn't rocket science. 20 to 50? come on. A "great" experience for our family are ones that are found from helpful hints. Maybe that's different for others. All I was asking was a simple question about GPS formats. Thanks.

Thanks, what's WGS84? "style #2" is an easy answer, much appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks, what's WGS84? "style #2" is an easy answer, much appreciated. Thank you.

We just started geocaching and found our first few items. Now we want to place a few caches and have a question about GPS style/notation/format. Not using a GPS device, just an iPhone and an Ap call "GPS Location" When noting the Map Cordinates it asks which format to use. I have no idea which format to use and need a VERY non-technical answer for which style/format/notation to use. Here are the styles, (I'm only entering the latitude ) style #1: ##º##'##.#" example: 12º34'56.7" style #2: ##º##.###" style #3 ##.#####º style #4 ##.##### thanks in advance!