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Just a question


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Yes and No

 

 

Maybe that should be

 

 

No and Yes

 

There has always been a lot of "interest" since I have been around and I have account number 36,000 +/-

and there were only a few thousand caches back then.

 

 

"Interest" = news stories in print/radio/TV, new cachers coming on board, new ideas for caches etc....

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I simply wanted to know what a gps was capable of, originally planned on using it for hunting.

Not many caches about then. Was more of a loner, with no real desire to seek others. Still had a lot of fun.

NOW, there's caches all over and some folks go out together on weekends in groups. More of a social thing.

Just look at the forums and you'll see caching has changed a lot.

It's possible that the "draw" right now is lot's of finds and a social arena. Status may come into play. Nearly all high-end vehicles come with a nav system.

Caching is the new hot game right now.

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personally i think there is a linear relationship between # of caches, and # of cachers. this is how it makes sense to me. there will always be people who cache regardless of the amount of hides to look for. but you get to a point, like the saturation point, when the sheer number of caches will attract larger numbers of seekers. whether by word of mounth, seeing others caching, etc. and conversly, if the number of caches were cut by 2/3 say, then i would bet the number of dedicated cachers would decrease similarly.

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Do you think the interest in geocaching depends on the amount of geocaches present and the amount of geocachers active?

 

Yes and No.

:o

Interest in geocaching comes from a person's background- not everyone will be interested by the activity. The number of caches available to find makes a difference in making folks start and return to the game. When I signed up in 2001, there was one cache within 100 miles or something silly like that. About a year later I signed onto the site again after taking a class on computerized mapping with GPS systems and discovered there were about 50 caches within 100 miles. That night we went out looking for a cache for the first time. We reached the point 3 months later where we would travel to nearby (200-300 miles away!) cities to find caches because there were not many left in our area that weren't on top of mountains. Having caches to find may be a major way to keep folks interested in the game. But I also hold the opinion that some caches may keep people from continuning to play. Finding soggy gladware behind a truck stop may be an interest killer for new folks. :D

 

On the Active Geoachers thing- we may not have gotten as excited about caching without the social aspect. When we started finding them in 2002 it turned out that 5 of the cachers in our area all worked in the same building as my husband. Instant comfort level at events- we knew folks already! I like the social part, events and caching trips with folks. Dean is starting to get into geocoins and likes the signature item stuff currently but his focus is always been finding caches. He would like to find some in every state.

 

An interesting graph I would like to see would be along the lines of Join date activity for different years. Something that shows how many folks who joined in 2001 are still active and how many from 2002 and so on.

-J

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Do you think the interest in geocaching depends on the amount of geocaches present and the amount of geocachers active?

<snip>

 

An interesting graph I would like to see would be along the lines of Join date activity for different years. Something that shows how many folks who joined in 2001 are still active and how many from 2002 and so on.

-J

That would be an interesting graph. When I have found some older caches around here, the logbooks have made interesting reading. On the first several pages of the logbook, there are no familiar names. :o All those early cachers have either moved on, or moved away.

 

My reply to the question would be "Yes and No" and "No and Yes."

 

There has been an exponential growth of caches here and some people have quit caching, or limited their caching, because of the poor, uninspired locations of these new caches. :D

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Like has been said. yes and no.

 

When I started there were about 76 within 100 miles. Maybe less. I found most all of them in my first year of caching. What got me started wasn't the 76, I would have started if there were 10, or 2, or 2000. The motivation was that something was hidden and was out there to find. That sounded like fun and so I did.

 

However what keeps me going is that after I found those first caches, others came along and placed more for me to find. If there were no new caches once I found them all, I'd have said "well, I guess that's it" and found something else to do.

 

Thankfully that's not it and the new caches being placed keep me in the activty.

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meteor.jpg

I purchased a GPSr for logging meteorite impact sites and cataloguing strewn fields. As you know, it is virtually impossible to make such a purchase without hearing something about geocaching. Speaking for myself, I do the geocache thing solo. So it would make little difference to me how many geocachers there were in my area. However, the amount of caches in my area would effect greatly where geocaching appeared on my priority list. I believe there are close to 500 caches in my zipcode, so this should keep me occupied (for a time, anyway). AND, just as a side note, I am much more interested in rural placements and caches in the wild, that I am urban and interurban micros. X

Edited by X-isle
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Do you think the interest in geocaching depends on the amount of geocaches present and the amount of geocachers active?

I spent a few hours looking at the spread of GeoCaching in the UK a while back and my thoughts at the time are here. It is also quite informative to go read the forums on NC & TC which often have postings from early cachers and lots of comments on the you set them and they will come lines.

 

Having recently moved from SE England to an island off the west coast of Scotland it wasn't long before I had found the existing six caches. When it costs £50 (c. $90) for a family to come onto the island for a day by car you do end up setting a fair few easy caches just so that folks get the numbers - although when you have a whole island (175 square miles) to play with the possibilities are endless as long as you are not into urban micros/nanos.

 

I only get a couple of visitors to the island a month over the winter but take my bike and go to the mainland evry month for a day. Cache bashs are a good way to keep up interest, that and setting interesting caches that sit there as some folks closest uncleared cache just taughting them but 20 miles away across the Firth of Clyde.

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