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Why Is Geocaching Misunderstood?


jaktar

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Why is Geocaching misunderstood?

 

I feel that part of the blame rests upon the use of words such as, treasure, treasure hunting, booty, hoard, buried treasure, swag and basically other words which imply digging and are more appropriate for a pirate movie. Many articles both good and bad use this type of language giving the impression of finding something of value and buried, even if the "no buried rule" is explained.

We are all guilty of this when explaining our activity to others. I try to use "cache" "hidden", "camouflaged", "concealed" and "search" when describing Geocaching.

 

CACHE - a hiding place or a place of concealment. This does not mean treasure or buried.

 

Here are some quotes from articles posted on Geocaching.com that use misleading language.

 

"Don't bury caches. You can put them up in a tree, so long as you're not disturbing anything, but don't dig up the earth to bury them. You can bury them under a pile of rocks or logs, but don't dig for them."

 

"Instead, the hikers stared at cell phone-sized gadgets in their hands: GPS devices, directing them to the end of a treasure hunt."

 

"The object of Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is to hike the outdoors and seek out a treasure box, hidden from sight, using only the GPS data."

 

There are many other examples, but my purpose is to start a discussion as to how we can improve the public perception of Geocaching.

 

faire winds jaktar

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Its like any hobby or special interest. Either you get it or you don't. I think we do a good job of making geocaching accessible to would-be Geocachers, much more so than many other activities. Many of the articles I've read don't really capture the spirit of my personal geocaching experience. The recent one that Electroqted was the subject of was the exception.

 

That said, its sometimes hard to explain Geocaching to someone who catches you down on all fours in the middle of a park - particularly if they have a uniform on... :laughing:

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You mean caches aren't buried? :)

 

I would say that 90% of caches we find ARE buried!

 

...buried under a pile of leaves. :)

...buried under a pile of sticks. :)

...buried deep in snow (I've "dug" for caches many times in the snow!) :)

...buried deep within a tree. :(

...buried under a pile of rocks. :)

 

But only about 1% of caches we have found were actually buried either partially or completely in the ground in some way. :(

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You mean caches aren't buried? :)

 

I would say that 90% of caches we find ARE buried!

 

...buried under a pile of leaves. :(

...buried under a pile of sticks. :)

...buried deep in snow (I've "dug" for caches many times in the snow!) :)

...buried deep within a tree. :sad:

...buried under a pile of rocks. :mad:

 

But only about 1% of caches we have found were actually buried either partially or completely in the ground in some way. :huh:

 

I've only found one so far that was actually buried under dirt and then covered with a big rock, really got me mad that one when I finally found it an hour later, my geo-compagnion (Galaad) was not too pleased either, but we later learned that the cache was placed this way by some cacher who thought it was too easy to find whe he got to it. :):(:)

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