SG-MIN

Briansnat and his post record were brought up in a differant thread, but I thought it deserved its own. Have you all noticed that he is only 15 posts away from hitting 20,000!!! I think that is worth celebrating. Hopefully that milestone can happen here in this thread.

I am working on a neat cache idea here. I will call it "Choose your own adventure." It will be a multi. When you get to the first stage you will have two sets of coords to choose from. After you choose one, you will find 2 more sets. All in all there will be 6 unique locations. If you are on the ball and lucky it could take you 3 trips. Unlucky it could take 5. Cool way to get people moving around - if they will put up with it that is.

according to your profile, you are in fact still a premium member!!

HEY!!! that's my guess.

Here are my two cents: Make the notifications more customizable (i.e. event distance, what is included, etc). Move the event to below the caches. I love the idea of having tips and tricks at the top

there is a strong KY presence here in this thread. Maybe we have a conspiracy going on to make other areas look back and draw the massive income from geocaching down to our area [evil laugh]HAHA[/evil laugh]

you propose turning every cache in the midwest into a MO cache? I don't think that will work. They will just go to the ones that are not MO.

That just means you get the chance to set to tone for what caching looks like in Lancaster SC.

A couple things on this... you risk not only losing a cache but a very expensive hunting camera. Also, even though it appears to be widespread, it seems like it would be almost impossible to pinpoint which cache s/he would hit.

Ouch... I am the one who started this thread, and if you look through my posts I think it becomes obvious that my intenions were not as you claimed I can't help it if the "discussion" went immediatly to micros.

sbell111 - Mark this day!! we totally agree with each other and we are even talking about cache quality and micros!!! You make a very good point about hiding techniques which I had neglected. I will admit it - I thought the first LPM that I found was a really cool and original hiding technique.

I think what trailgator is saying is that if people could place their caches anywhere, the first choice would probably not be a walmart lamp post. I agree with TG on this modified point, but I think experiance tells us that people will still place urban micros early on - they just might be in a slightly more warrenting location.

Let's try to bring this back on topic. How about we try to answer this question: How will geocaching change as prime locations increasingly become occupied?

well it is your standard parabolic curve. If you compare the two graphs you realize they are very slowly coming to 50-50, but that growth becomes exponetially slower.

That comment is very much in line with the intentions of my original post. We are running out of cool areas in convienant locations to put caches. That leaves 2 options: go to less convientant locations or go to mediocre locations. Both are probably happening, but the I would guess more the latter than the former. Concerning the graphs (which I really appreciate sbell). What they do illustrate is that as overall cache numbers are going up, the ratio of non-micros to micros is on the decline. At the current trend, we will not have more micros than others, but we will perpetually be getting closer to the 50-50 mark. Of course that is only if the current trend continues.

I agree, you cannot make a point without including the chart for micros. Also, that chart is useless without some overall standard such as # of active cachers or # of total cache placements etc. As it is, you are unable to make any sufficient point concerning regular sized caches.

I want to see the graph I don't think we are at a loss for urban caching opportunities as it is.

I am not advocating for a change, but wondering this: Won't placing caches look drasticly differant for new caches in 10 years. I have a feeling all the "good" places will be taken and it will become a waiting game watching for archived caches to open up previously off limits areas. On a plus side, I believe this will prompt more out of the way caches in places that require more of a hike. That is to say, this may in fact force more caches "off the beaten path." It seems like many major metropolises are approaching such heavy saturation that archived areas become the becoming the best way to place a cache in a cool location/

My original post really was really more concerned with how the game may change rather then opening the can of worms associated with standards or cache distances. I just mentioned those because seems to be the only way to actually change the cache saturation issues (and my that I am talking about available locations). Would lowering the cache radius rule increase WalMart Caches, or allow multiple placements in the cool parks. Seems like it would be both. I do tend to think however that people would be more likely to utilize a lower cache radius in areas of interest like parks then in parking lots.

I am not for decreasing the cache radius, it just seems like we are fast approach the place where saturation may be an issue.

It is hard to believe that geocaching has only been around for 5 years or so. Just think how quickly it has grown, especially as of late. As our hobby grows and placements increase, I can't help but wonder what it will look like to try and hide a cache in 10 years. It seems that we will reach a saturation threshold where the deciding factor for cache placement will not be cool/interesting hiding places, but rather available locations. Here in my small town virtually every park already has at least 1 cache in it. I am having a hard time placing a really interesting multi-cache because I can't find the location for it. It seems the exponential growth of this activity will only serve to complicate the matter. What are your thoughts? I only see a few options: decrease the 0.1 mile rule raise standards for cache placement do nothing and let placements degrade.

So how do you really feel about the subject?

why not provide cross compatibility. By that I mean being able to look up Waymarking locations on the geocaching.com website? I for one do not venture to the Waymarking website, but would be interested to see waymarks listed with geocaches (as an optional veiw of course).

Just remember... half the people you meet are below average. Additionally, half the caches you visit are below average.

or how about a feature that whenever you update a travelbug's goal on the website, it automatically updates the goal on the sheet of paper traveling with the actual bug?