Confusing press article 'The Daily Telegraph'

[+Cache U Nutter]

Have just read a very intresting article in Saturdays Travel section of the Telegraph.[14th July]

The article by Jon Bryant was mainly about 'Cistes' that being the French equivalent of Geocacheing. Whilst the article did mention Geocaching, it was only referred to as secondary to the Ciste organisation and by implication derided geocaching. To quote 'cistes.. will never be as big in Britain because British people don't have such a strong attachment to the countryside and local history'

Also the article mentioned another organisation'Terracaching' as having better treasure/ harder clues than Geocaches, and 'letter boxing' as well.

France has some 20,000 'cistes' and we now have somewhere in the region of 20,00 Geocaches in this country so do not really know what they are going on about!

I feel that the article should have more accurately expressed the strength of Geocaching what does every one else think?

Should perhaps GAGB put the Telegraph right on these issues and at the same time promote our cause?

[+Dobunnis]

Here's the article: Hide and ciste

 

Not quite so bad; at least they mention geocaching and include a link!

 

The quote is from a Frenchman so we should forgive him for his misunderstanding of the British attitude to history and the countryside... or stick up two fingers

 

I would say leave it as it is an article about a French game which has become popular and it is more based around riddles and descriptions rather than coords,

 

Helen

[+Team Sieni]

It's online here (providing my link works).

[+The Mars Bars]

And I quote:

 

"With cistes, you need only a sunhat and a computer, and you can solve much of the riddle at home. In fact, one search could occupy the children for the entire summer holiday"...

 

It's not all about "the numbers" then!

[+Mr'D]

It's online here (providing my link works).

So hands up then... how many UK cachers go armed with 'trowels' when caching?

[+ZoomLens]

well I must say i'm interested... I might have to go and look for one...

 

anyone actually looked for one yet?

[+keehotee]

My wife's got one on her neck - it was really easy to find. She's having it removed next month. Don't really see what the attraction is - but those French people do have odd tastes, don't they?

[+Mr'D]

My wife's got one on her neck

LMAO

 

Jon

[+Lotho]

Terracaching has better swag? I doubt it. Even so, how does the reporter know this? I hate it when things are wrote wrongly.

[+sTeamTraen]

France had about 30,000 cistes last time I checked the site. It is indeed - give or take the longer "ee" sound of the "i" - pronounced the same as the English word "cyst". (A cyst in French is a "Kyste" - yep, with a K - Scrabble players love it, as K scores 10 in French scrabble.)

 

Most French cachers have stumbled across one or two cistes, because they outnumber geocaches by about 12 to 1, and of course they will tend to be placed in similar interesting locations (which France is indeed not short of).

 

However, if you thought some caches were junk, you clearly haven't seen many cistes. An instant coffee jar is a high-end container. There is no review process, and no maintenance is expected. (And of course, with no GPS usage, there's no proximity guideline.) In most countries this would give landowner issues, but in France, public land is public land, and anyone can do more or less anything on it that doesn't prevent others from doing the same. (For example, with only a few exceptions, you can hunt - with shotguns - anywhere, on public or private land, as long as it's 150 metres from the nearest house!)

 

There is a rudimentary TB-style feature called "bourdons" (a "bourdon" is a bumble-bee) which "buzz" from cacheciste to ciste. Everything is done by mail, so for example if you want to go and hunt ciste number 12345, you click on it on the site, which notes - publicly visible - the fact that you've expressed an interest in it (if this sounds creepy, remember that Premium Member-Only caches have a slightly similar feature), and mails you the details.

 

One other big difference with cistes is that swag is important. You are expected to meticulously log every McToy exchange on the site, and when you're looking for cistes on holiday (away from your PC), you're asked to have someone who can log the trades for you. So if you thought some cachers were a bit obsessive-compulsive about their logging: this game kind of obliges you to be!

Edited July 16, 2007 by sTeamTraen

[+keehotee]

Sounds like fun - is there some sort of blood sacrifice requirement if you don't play by the rules?

[+Lotho]

Play cistes by our rules, or pay with ALL YOUR CYSTS!!!! AHHH! XD

[Edgemaster]

Just thought I'd add that since there are very few Terracaches in the UK, it is most certainly "more exclusive".

Terracaching is just another geocache listing site, set up when Groundspeak bought/took over Geocaching.com

[Deceangi]

Just thought I'd add that since there are very few Terracaches in the UK, it is most certainly "more exclusive".

Terracaching is just another geocache listing site, set up when Groundspeak bought/took over Geocaching.com

 

Just to clear up things Groundspeak never bought or took over Geocaching.com the site started of as a hobby site. Over time as as it became obvious that the way forward was to become a commercial site. Jeremy and partners created Groundspeak as the company owning the site. Possibly as this allowed them to broaden their commercial base, with Geocaching.com being just one of the company's commercial interests.

 

Terracaching like Navicache I believe was set up by cachers who were not happy at the the way things were being run or progressing on Geocaching.com, There were at one point another 2 listing sites, both of which have long disappeared. Whilst Geocaching.com gains in popularity every day

[+Mr'D]

Possibly as this allowed them to broaden their commercial base

Probably maybe?

Jon

[Edgemaster]

Take over operations/forming, almost the same thing, it's what I meant.

[+goldpot]

I read that too and I thought it was a bit below the belt of a Frenchman saying that the British don't like the countryside and local history

I supposed it explains why the whole of France is one big black hole...for Geocaches, because they are all too busy picking their cistes.

Edited July 17, 2007 by goldpot

[+SidAndBob]

Just thought I'd add that since there are very few Terracaches in the UK, it is most certainly "more exclusive".

Terracaching is just another geocache listing site, set up when Groundspeak bought/took over Geocaching.com

Terracaching' as having better treasure/ harder clues than Geocaches

I've got to agree that they're much harder too. When I looked last year there wasn't one within 100 miles of me. That's pretty hard.

[+sTeamTraen]

I supposed it explains why the whole of France is one big black hole...for Geocaches, because they are all to busy picking their cistes.

 

It's true that a lot of people who might otherwise have discovered geocaching, are getting their fix of slightly nerdy outdoor-yet-with-Internet-tie-in activities (oh come on, we're all friends here ) in this way.

 

To start with the cistes game, you don't need a GPSr for which you may well have no other use (€€€) and you don't need to speak English. Until the superb French site came along, the amount of English required to use geocaching.com was an insurmountable barrier for many French people. Now it's merely a huge barrier. (From the analogous point of view, the Telegraph article was a classic example of "journalism with no point"; I doubt if one in a hundred people who read it, will have the level of French required to find the average ciste. But hey, it fills up the travel pages with "something unusual", which people can feel they're taking part in, while booking two weeks in Crete same as last year. It's like the cheese counter at Tesco: most of the cheeses are there for show, so you feel like you're Jamie Oliver while you buy half a pound of Cheddar.)

 

At least one of the top 20 French cachers cut his teeth on cistes, which he's since given up on since he prefers the higher "game quality" with geocaching. But there are several other people who play both games. (There's also a few low-quality, hard-to-find caches placed by "cisteurs" who think that Google Maps gives a good-enough accuracy for latitude/longitude. )

[+keehotee]

At least one of the top 20 French cachers cut his teeth on cistes, which he's since given up on since he prefers the higher "game quality" with geocaching. But there are several other people who play both games. (There's also a few low-quality, hard-to-find caches placed by "cisteurs" who think that Google Maps gives a good-enough accuracy for latitude/longitude

 

Sounds just like the Geocaching / Letterboxing comparison.........

 

[duck]runs for cover[/duck]

[Claret Zip]

I supposed it explains why the whole of France is one big black hole...for Geocaches, because they are all to busy picking their cistes.

 

Maybe it depends where you are going. We are going to France on our hols at the weekend and I have compiled quite a good list of caches in the area we are staying in. Almost certainly more than we will manage to get to.

[+Cache U Nutter]

It's online here (providing my link works).

So hands up then... how many UK cachers go armed with 'trowels' when caching?

My wife had a cyst removed from about HER BODY!

The surgeon used a scalpel and not a trowel however!

Not sure if he was a geocacher or a Frenchie however.

[+Globetrotter.uk]

It's online here (providing my link works).

So hands up then... how many UK cachers go armed with 'trowels' when caching?

 

My Hands up! well actually both are, because I have a folding trowel not for digging caches, but for emergency useage.

[+scottpa100]

Though there are substantially less geocaches in France than the UK (last year when I went to La Rochelle, it seemed that just about the entire geocache co-ords were on my GPS) it does seem that their growth rate is increasing exponentially now according to the graphs on this web page. http://www.geocaching-france.com/?page=stats

 

Which is a good thing - I could only get one cache done in La Rochelle and it was 30K from where I was staying and the next nearest one was something like another 50K further on!

[+sTeamTraen]

Though there are substantially less geocaches in France than the UK (last year when I went to La Rochelle, it seemed that just about the entire geocache co-ords were on my GPS) it does seem that their growth rate is increasing exponentially now according to the graphs on this web page. http://www.geocaching-france.com/?page=stats

 

Yes, our cache numbers have been increasing literally exponentially for the last year or so, doubling every 330 days a year ago and now every 260 days on average. We've lost a few days in June-July but then I think everyone north of the Danube has, with the awful weather.

 

The number of caches in France is now about the same as it was in the UK in February 2004, putting us 41 months behind. A years ago it was more like 48 months.

[+paul_and_judith]

I hate it when things are wrote wrongly.

 

Yeah, I hate it when things are written wrongly too !