LostInTheWorld

Personally, I'd like to see a voluntary rating system for each hide. Maybe a simple 1-10 rating that is purely subjective and entered when you log. Each finder could "grade" the hide thereby helping everyone who comes behind them. The average rating would be shown on the cache page. Sure, the ratings would be all over the board but eventually a pattern would develop for each owner. If their ratings are consistently low, they might reevaluate their hides. Then again they may not, and that would be fine too. If a subjective scale were added I'd be inclined to seek a 1/1 cache that was running a 7 or 8 on the subjective scale. I'd probably stay away from a 1/1/2. But then again, I read product reviews before I make a major purchase.... and read the seller reviews on eBay before I purchase there too....

Interesting posts. As a newbie I realized very quickly that some hiders in my area were thoughtful and creative. Others it seems, simply stuck a container in a bush on a busy street corner and had it published. When I found my first cache it was fun and exciting. It was equal parts of learning the new piece of equipment I had; learning to view old areas in a different way; and seeing how this game was played. In my area there are now several newbies (5 or less finds) that are placing a lot of new caches. All have more hides than finds. I experimented the other day when 6 new hides hit my email. I printed the pages, left my GPSr turned off, and found all six in less than two hours. I logged one or two and didn't bother logging the others. I also decided that maybe this game isn't for me. I'm not complaining about those hides, or the people who hid them. I'm simply saying that they weren't my cup of tea. It sounds like geocaching, like all things in this world, keeps changing. We each need to determine how we fit with those changes.