To hint or not to hint...That is the ?

[+gunpowder]

I just put 11 caches out in and around a neat park. All are pretty easy with two having fake hides with gotcha notes with the real ones within reach.

 

I apparently have two that are giving FTF fits for people. Only one is still unfound but the other a tough find. One is a camo micro 10 feet off a trail in clean ground cover conditions on a dead tree (still not found) and the other one a medium camo bottle hanging from a spruce in a spruce/pine grove 10 feet off a trail but in nice clean ground (dense canopy over head).

 

Ok I hate micro's in the woods like the next guy. I know of similar hides that gave me fits but yet enjoyment even though I have yet to find one of them.

 

I have a tank in a park that has three trips and three hours and still can't find that micro. Another site has two trips with a micro on a dead tree and still have not found it yet. Ya they give me fits but yet a challenge.

 

Question:

 

Would you provide a give-away hint or would you say two out of 11 is a good ratio of tough to easy? Both in question are 1/4 mile from parking on easy scenic trails with 9 other caches in the area so not to make it a wasted drive to the property.

 

I added hints this evening but now am having second thoughts. Keep in mind that only one of the two is a micro.

 

What would you do/provide?

Edited September 18, 2006 by gunpowder

[nonaeroterraqueous]

• Are you sure your coords are accurate?
  
• Is there anything substantial to block a good reading?
  
• Do you want it to be a hard find?
  

I'd say we'd need to know the answers to these questions first before we can know if additional hints are needed.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I want to revisit very few caches, and most of mine are found from dozens to hundreds of miles away from home.

 

DNFs while traveling are a total waste of time (well, excluding the fun of the hunt / location).

 

Assuming that you mean for folks to actually find your cache, then yes, leave a good hint.

 

Tacky encoded quips like "No hint for you!" simply irritate, so please, leave a good hint or none!

 

Ed

[+gunpowder]

• Are you sure your coords are accurate?
  
• Is there anything substantial to block a good reading?
  
• Do you want it to be a hard find?
  

I'd say we'd need to know the answers to these questions first before we can know if additional hints are needed.

 

Both sould be right on. I used a 12Xl and a Magellan 200. Both matched. All were taken with both GPS's on two different days to confirm. Many notes today said I trusted the GPS and it took me right to it. So My system must be working. Will confirm with the 60CSX if I ever order it

 

Spruce area is right next to fence and open field so good signal. The other should be rather open as the 12XL loves to beep at me in dense cover and it was quiet. Magellan 200 has waas.

 

Do I want it to be a hard find? I think originally yes. then I had second thoughts but yet I think others would appreciate a tough hide if the others are easier. The ones 2+ miles back are easy finds. The walk is the tough part. These are pretty close so I tought I would be less generous. I guess I would like it to be a tough find if others appreciete tough finds once in a while without passing it up all together.

easy finds are becoming kinda annoying as I get more caches under my belt.

 

After all the ratings are:

Spruce medium cache: Difficulty 2 Terain 2

Micro hide: Difficulty: 2 Terrain 2.5

 

Hope this helps-

[+gunpowder]

I want to revisit very few caches, and most of mine are found from dozens to hundreds of miles away from home.

 

DNFs while traveling are a total waste of time (well, excluding the fun of the hunt / location).

 

Assuming that you mean for folks to actually find your cache, then yes, leave a good hint.

 

Tacky encoded quips like "No hint for you!" simply irritate, so please, leave a good hint or none!

 

Ed

 

I know what your saying. Would 2 DNF's out of 11 be acceptable? I guess the ultimate question is if you were hiding 11 in a small close area would you make 1 or 2 of them tough for the more experienced cacher to appreciatge?

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I want to revisit very few caches, and most of mine are found from dozens to hundreds of miles away from home.

 

DNFs while traveling are a total waste of time (well, excluding the fun of the hunt / location).

 

Assuming that you mean for folks to actually find your cache, then yes, leave a good hint.

 

Tacky encoded quips like "No hint for you!" simply irritate, so please, leave a good hint or none!

 

Ed

 

I know what your saying. Would 2 DNF's out of 11 be acceptable? I guess the ultimate question is if you were hiding 11 in a small close area would you make 1 or 2 of them tough for the more experienced cacher to appreciatge?

 

It's not a matter of experience or difficulty, experienced cachers likely won't read the hint unless and until they need it - but then even thay need it!

 

Sure, some will read the hints first - I do when I am on a cache run or race, but normally we don't look unless we need them

[nonaeroterraqueous]

Sounds to me like you got exactly the sort of caches you were hoping for. Not everyone is going to like any one difficulty level or another, so you can't please everyone. My opinion is that it's up to you, but keep in mind that people who DNF usually walk away from the experience regretting having wasted their time on your cache.

[Clan Riffster]

As with this cache; "To Hint or Not To Hint", I provide hints as often as practical. Not giving a hint might affect someone's ability to find my cache, which is the main reason I hid it in the first place, while giving a hint does not detract from the hunt for those folks that don't use them.

[+briansnat]

Would you provide a give-away hint or would you say two out of 11 is a good ratio of tough to easy? Both in question are 1/4 mile from parking on easy scenic trails with 9 other caches in the area so not to make it a wasted drive to the property.

 

It depends on my purpose for placing the cache. I generally place caches to be found, not to fool people, so I provide hints. I think hints are important to avoid any "scorched earth" searches and potential damage to the area of the cache. If the area is a durable surface like a parking lot then that isn't an issue, but in the woods it is.

[+Isonzo Karst]

If you know it's a tough micro under heavy cover with no hint, a difficulty rating of 2 (did I read that correctly?) is inappropriate. Sounds like you may need to bump the difficulty up from 2 to 2.5 or 3, especially if one is still unfound. Otherwise, the issue of hint/no hint is up to you.

[Luckless]

If you want people to rely thoroughly on their geo-smarts then probably no hints are necessary yet that might not win your caches a favored status if people have too much trouble finding them. Usually if I don't have hints it's because I've tried to make my cache pretty obvious for most cachers.

If I don't have any hints for my cache I am always willing to send a hint to anyone who asks/emails for one.

I have seen some caches that give graduated hints. Maybe three hints starting with a general hint and getting more specific. That way the cacher can have a general clue or two before one that comes right out and says where it is (look under rock with yellow spot).

Like mentioned before clues are a good way to avoid having the area torn up by cachers bent on finding it and I often include hints for the sake of preserving the area.

Edited September 18, 2006 by Luckless

[+TommyDsTeam]

I think that there need to be hints.

We take our 8, 10, and 12 year olds out to hunt. They are the hunters. They don't like not being able to find the cache. All three love decrypting hints that help them find the cache.

 

I think that there should be levels of hints, so you don't decrypt all the hints at once. Decrypt one set of hints and see if you can find the cache with a little more help. If not, decrypt the next. Etc. In the end, I think there should be a give away hint for every cache.

 

We all know how much help we needed to find the cache.

So what's the problem with helping out? This is supposed to be fun. It has to be fun for the really good hunters and the not so good ones'. Otherwise, the number of players is going to shrink.

 

Just today, I was thinking about some long drives we have to take. I think it would be wonderful to be able to get off the highway. Hunt for a little while, have joy in the hunt and find, and get back to traveling. Yes, that might mean that we use all the hints quickly, but what the hey!

 

Maybe there should be another rating beside difficulty and terrain...perhaps "family friendly".

 

Remember, the children are our future.

 

 

 

I just put 11 caches out in and around a neat park. All are pretty easy with two having fake hides with gotcha notes with the real ones within reach.

 

I apparently have two that are giving FTF fits for people. Only one is still unfound but the other a tough find. One is a camo micro 10 feet off a trail in clean ground cover conditions on a dead tree (still not found) and the other one a medium camo bottle hanging from a spruce in a spruce/pine grove 10 feet off a trail but in nice clean ground (dense canopy over head).

 

Ok I hate micro's in the woods like the next guy. I know of similar hides that gave me fits but yet enjoyment even though I have yet to find one of them.

 

I have a tank in a park that has three trips and three hours and still can't find that micro. Another site has two trips with a micro on a dead tree and still have not found it yet. Ya they give me fits but yet a challenge.

 

Question:

 

Would you provide a give-away hint or would you say two out of 11 is a good ratio of tough to easy? Both in question are 1/4 mile from parking on easy scenic trails with 9 other caches in the area so not to make it a wasted drive to the property.

 

I added hints this evening but now am having second thoughts. Keep in mind that only one of the two is a micro.

 

What would you do/provide?

[+TeamHarrison]

I can't agree with t1m2inkgeo enough! TeamHarrison contains a 3 y/o and an 8 y/o. As you can guess, "having a blast" can turn into "not having fun" pretty quickly if a cache is too difficult to find. Proper usage of the Difficulty and Terrain ratings are one way to help avoid these situations.

 

BECAUSE I mostly cache with my kids, I make it a point to read the cache write-up and logs of any cache we're going to attempt. Often, I can find information in there that will let me know if it should be attempted with the little ones. I also look for that tell-tale information in the Hint.

 

One thing that would also make things easier for family cachers would be a little upfront truth-in-advertising ( ) in cache descriptions. If a hider purposely wants to make their cache insanely difficult to find, then just say, "The purpose of this cache is to be insanely difficult to find!". LOL!

 

There are a ton of games within this game and I don't begrudge anyone their brand of fun. By all means hide those insanely difficult nanos, just drop us family cachers some info in the description or in the hint! My game is for folks to find the caches, so as I begin placing more caches, I'll be sure to leave a hint that, if they choose to use it, will put them right on it.

 

Thanks!

[+OHMIKY]

I like to see finds on my caches - and there are not a lot of puzzle solvers in my neck of the woods, so I always provide a clue when asked directly. The clue is usually more along the line of helping the person solve the puzzle and I try not to make it too easy - which would destroy the accomplishment of solving the puzzle.

[+StarBrand]

Would you provide a give-away hint or would you say two out of 11 is a good ratio of tough to easy? Both in question are 1/4 mile from parking on easy scenic trails with 9 other caches in the area so not to make it a wasted drive to the property.

 

It depends on my purpose for placing the cache. I generally place caches to be found, not to fool people, so I provide hints. I think hints are important to avoid any "scorched earth" searches and potential damage to the area of the cache. If the area is a durable surface like a parking lot then that isn't an issue, but in the woods it is.

ditto - I like them to be found and will generally give hints when asked.

[+gunpowder]

Looks like we are about 110% for leavinf a hint.

 

I hunt with a 6 and 8 year old. Got to the point that the kids ran out the door before the van was in park and had the cache brought to the van before the seat belt was off.

 

HMMMMMM. I will rent them out

 

Myt 6 year old can name every hide and most every found cache. I am luck to remember the on button on the GPSr at times

 

I want the caches found but I do enjoy seeing a stump once in a while or at least a note that they were puzzled and then found eventually.

 

I guess a note that reads "Found It-I couldn't find it at first so after a long attempt, I had to use the hint" "Thanks for the great hide!"

 

will give me much satisifaction over.... "@$%$&*&@* geocache hider".

 

Thanks for the nice thread participation on an important subject.

[salmoned]

I can't disagree with t1m2inkgeo more! S/He doesn't have a group of hunters, but rather a group of finders. Hunters are perfectly happy not finding.

 

Example: My brother loves to fish. I, however, only love to catch. Therefore, I don't consider myself a fisherman.

 

As for hints - it's a question of personal style. In other words, if you haven't got any I can't help you there...

[Team CDCB]

For myself, I've provided hints on both of my caches. I think it's important to help people out a little bit. Especially in wooded areas it can get pretty dang hard to get an accurate fix on the GPS and 15-30 feet is a big circle to search for a small box. I find it frustrating to never get any hint.

 

That said, my hints are designed to narrow the search area, not to give up the cache. For instance, in my multi I have a waterproof match box with the coordinates to the next stage. It's hidden in a knot in a tree, but there's also a lot of brush around, a bench, a small bridge, a trash can... any of these might be a great hidding place for a little micro and a person could spend hours looking under the bridge or in the brush for it. My hint says this: "Make sure you're not barking up the wrong tree." This narrow the search down to trees, but don't explicitly tell them "it's in a knot five up on the tree just west of the green bench." (BTW, that's not where it really is!)

 

The hint hopefully let's them know they are in the right area, and helps narrow the search, but doesn't give away the location. At least, that's my opinion of how hints should work.

[+sbell111]

Personally, I hate to get skunked. I wish every cache had a 'gimme' hint that I could refer to before I gave up. That being said, give a hint if you want.

[+sbell111]

Looks like we are about 110% for leavinf a hint. ...

I'm no mathmagician, but I'm not sure that is possible.

[Skippermark]

We try not to use them, but if we're really stumped, a hint can prove very helpful. The "step" hints are nice where there start off vague and then progressively more helpful, but they take awhile to decode in the field if not done beforehand.

[+olbluesguy]

After a few DNF's and a period of time, I started posting hints on the cache page as a note.

Then I delete the note.

That way if you have the cache on your watch list You get the email with the clue,and it disappears from the cache page when I delete it.

Just a little something extra for people who are serious enough to have it on their list.

[bogleman]

What??? do they need their hand held too .

 

Seriously, I add solid hints and even post my own spoiler pictures.

[Skippermark]

What??? do they need their hand held too .

 

Seriously, I add solid hints and even post my own spoiler pictures.

 

Nice! Too bad we're never in PA to do any of your caches.

[+Confucius' Cat]

My favourite cache pages have many subtle (more or less) hints in the cache name, description, and perhaps pictures. This especially makes it fun after finding the cache and having the "duh!" moment when you figure out what all the hints meant.

 

Mostly, I like to have my caches found, so I generally put a total spoiler in the encrypted hint.

 

If I were to hide an "insanely difficult" cache, all the hints would be in the narrrative with only slightly better in the encrypted hint. I would make sure the hint didn't help and would only be understood in the "duh!" moment. But that's just me.

[+Alan2]

I prefer caches with hints. Spending 30 minutes tromping around the bushes not only damages the bushes (and frustrates me) but exposes you more ticks. I'll often skip even looking for a cache if there's no hint.