Asking For Hints / Help

[+wristbander1]

What is the edikit for asking for help / hints when you can't find a cache? I know about looking at the hints on the pages and doing benchmarking, but if those don't work what is the best thing to do when you want a hint / help? I have asked for hints / help on the pages of the individual caches, but folks haven't replied to my posting.

 

I want to go back and try to find caches that I haven't been able to find, but my 9 year old son sometimes gets impatient - which is why a hint / help would be good to have.

 

What is the best thing to do?

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

 

Wristbander1

[+Miragee]

Sometimes I will email a previous finder. I did that recently for a cache two of us couldn't find after a long search.

 

The recent finder told me the coords were off and told me where to center my search the next time.

 

Sometimes I will email the owner of the cache.

 

As a cache owner, I want people to find my caches, so I am glad to extend help . . . however, I have very explicit hints on my cache pages. I don't want anyone to DNF one of my caches . . . unless it has actually gone missing.

[+TeamToro]

I would contact the owner first. If that fails, contact a recent finder. I know if I ever received a message asking for help, I would provide as much as I could without actually giving it away, unless the requester really wants it given away.

 

TeamToro

[+AuntieWeasel]

Make sure you post a DNF. Very often, the owner or a previous finder will email and offer to help. Stress that you're a newbie and you'll up the chances. Describing the hunt a little can help, too, in case you were nowhere near where you should've been.

[+The Leprechauns]

I am very respectful of the cache owner's desire to have people find the cache the way he or she intended it to be hunted. Therefore, I *only* ask for hints occasionally from the owner, and *only* by e-mail after first logging a DNF. The only time I've ever used a "phone a friend" is when there was an issue of safety and obeying the law (we still wound up getting locked up inside a park that closed at dark).

 

As the hider of some challenging caches, I'm well aware that hints are exchanged among local geocachers. That saddens me, as part of the challenge is taking the time to overcome your assumptions and figure out the cache's secret. Having someone tell you that the such-and-such object is fake and opens up -- that gives away the secret. So, as a finder, I try to extend the same courtesy to other owners.

 

As an owner, I will give out hints that point the finder in the right direction or cause them to re-examine an incorrect assumption. I try to avoid dead giveaways on my more difficult caches, because I feel that cheapens the finds of those who found it totally on their own. I also strongly prefer that a seeker log a DNF before asking me for a hint.

 

And to all of you who have been in a group that hunted a cache with me, and gave warmer/colder and other hints to point me the right way -- well, that's different. I suck at finding caches and I hate to hold up the group, so after a reasonable time I will cave in to all the snickering!

 

I am very cognizant of the fact that many people have different beliefs on this subject. Those are mine. I respect the alternative approaches taken by others.

[+Team Red Oak]

I usually email the owner after I post one or more DNF logs. Then all I've ever asked for is to know if I am at least searching the correct area.

 

I've had cachers email me on caches I found but they could not. When this happens, I give very minimal hints because I don't want to out right tell them where the cache is, but I will tell them if they are searching the right area. It's not my place to tell them where the cache is.

 

Dawn

[+baloo&bd]

I'm just chiming in on the posting the DNF thing. On my caches I usually send a message either asking if they want a hint or with SPOILER in the subject and then the hint is WAY DOWN on the page, that way if they do not want the hint, they don't have to read it.