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Spew Be Gone!


ReadyOrNot

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Geocaching is speeding rapidly towards critical mass. When a newbie joins geocaching, they will pick a couple caches close to home to go hunt. More often than not (especially in the cities), they are going to find some micro spew. They will assume (rightly so) that this must be the way the game is played. So when it's time for them to place a cache, they place what they know, thus creating more garbage, speeding even more rapidly towards critical mass.

 

1) The vast majority of newbies do not join caching organizations, they go it alone and rely on their own experiences (so training is not a solution)

 

2) Doing nothing will not alleviate the problem (although some folks don't mind this option).

 

The Question: Besides #1 and #2, what ways can you come up with to combat micro spew? How can we put a stop to it?

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I dislike micros on general principal.

I like cache owner freedom.

 

Of the two I like freedom more. That's where my vote goes.

 

Freedom remains. It wouldn't be Groundspeak putting limitations on caches. Cache owners still retain the freedom to place any garbage they want.. But we as cache seekers need to exercise our voices as well and clean up some of the trash out there. If we don't do it, how is the problem going to get fixed?

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Lead by example. Coach and train. Report guideline violations. Best we can do. These usually otherwise fit the current guidelines and so will continue to be published.

 

I posted this on my cache pages. And hide caches that I like to find.

 

KitFoxSuperLogocopy.jpg

 

The main reason Micro Spew is getting worse is because there are still cachers that find them and tell the owners, "Thanks for the cache." Do like I do, and put all spew caches on your ignore list. Imagine if nobody bothered to find caches under lampposts, in parking lots.

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We have all been guilty of being way to nice in our logs and leave a wrong impression. We need a way of saying this cache is lame and uninteresting to me but others can judge for themselves. Recently someone logged just the word 'Found' on one of my caches and I wasn't sure if that was an insult or not. We need a way of politely saying 'BORING' or maybe just not saying TFTC would do it. Do you think the lack of positive comments is a message from most cachers or do the number runners just not say much due to logging so many.

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We have all been guilty of being way to nice in our logs and leave a wrong impression. We need a way of saying this cache is lame and uninteresting to me but others can judge for themselves. Recently someone logged just the word 'Found' on one of my caches and I wasn't sure if that was an insult or not. We need a way of politely saying 'BORING' or maybe just not saying TFTC would do it. Do you think the lack of positive comments is a message from most cachers or do the number runners just not say much due to logging so many.

 

I do this by posting nothing but my find number in my log.

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Please bear with me, gang; I'm a Newbie and have never hunted for a Micro. When you refer to Micro Spew, are you referring to all Micro Caches or just ones placed in "Lame Spots"??

 

Would appreciate a clarification, Thanx!!

 

*MOST* of the garbage out there happens to be micro caches, but by no means is it limited to just MICRO caches.. Just like was said above, an ammo box can be a worthless hide as well, but I think it's less common.

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Please bear with me, gang; I'm a Newbie and have never hunted for a Micro. When you refer to Micro Spew, are you referring to all Micro Caches or just ones placed in "Lame Spots"??

 

Would appreciate a clarification, Thanx!!

I'll give MY definition:

 

Micro Spew is the proliferation of caches placed in uninteresting locations mostly for the sole purpose of upping one's statistics (hide and/or find). Usually very easy to find and one can park within feet of them. These are typically micro caches and are log onlybut are sometimes larger. Some example locations include parking lots, lamp skirts, gaurdrails, garbage containers etc.

Edited by StarBrand
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Stop eating Butter Pecan ice cream

 

Of course if you stop looking for or logging cache you don't like other people will still be finding those caches and logging "TFTC" so it probably won't have much effect.

 

Some people like Butter Pecan ice cream. I can't imagine who they are or why there are so many. I wish there were only the flavors that I like. But so far I haven't been able to convince the manufacturers to stop making those other flavors or the other ice cream consumers to stop buying them. :laughing:

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Please bear with me, gang; I'm a Newbie and have never hunted for a Micro. When you refer to Micro Spew, are you referring to all Micro Caches or just ones placed in "Lame Spots"??

 

Would appreciate a clarification, Thanx!!

I'll give MY definition:

 

Micro Spew is the proliferation of caches placed in uninteresting locations mostly for the sole purpose of upping one's statistics (hide and/or find). Usually very easy to find and one can park within feet of them. These are typically micro caches and are log onlybut are sometimes larger. Some example locations include parking lots, lamp skirts, gaurdrails, garbage containers etc.

 

I guess I have been fortunate for the quality of the micros that I have found. The majority of them have been clever, difficult (almost impossible to find) and in some of the most inventive containers. I have enjoyed finding them even when I have had to go back to them with help. One was a Mr. Magneto attached to a pine cone that was attached to a tree in a pretty urban park. Another was a push pin ( bigger than a normal sized one) that had the center hollowed out for the log. This was attached to a telephone pole and looked like it belonged there. It was placed near a great restaurant where you could go for a meal after a day of caching. I feel good when I finally do find them and appreciated the effort to make and hide them.

 

I recently found a tupperware type cache in a vacant lot in an "iffy area" under a brush pile. I would much prefer the clever micros to this.

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I'll go first.. If everyone did the following, the problem would go away.

 

CITO -- Cache in, Trash Out......

Freedom remains. It wouldn't be Groundspeak putting limitations on caches. Cache owners still retain the freedom to place any garbage they want.. But we as cache seekers need to exercise our voices as well and clean up some of the trash out there. If we don't do it, how is the problem going to get fixed?

Are you suggesting that the unauthorized removal of someone else's cache is a legitimate course of action?

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Stop eating Butter Pecan ice cream

 

Of course if you stop looking for or logging cache you don't like other people will still be finding those caches and logging "TFTC" so it probably won't have much effect.

 

Some people like Butter Pecan ice cream. I can't imagine who they are or why there are so many. I wish there were only the flavors that I like. But so far I haven't been able to convince the manufacturers to stop making those other flavors or the other ice cream consumers to stop buying them. :laughing:

 

Great post! Couldn't have said it better.

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I'll go first.. If everyone did the following, the problem would go away.

 

CITO -- Cache in, Trash Out......

Freedom remains. It wouldn't be Groundspeak putting limitations on caches. Cache owners still retain the freedom to place any garbage they want.. But we as cache seekers need to exercise our voices as well and clean up some of the trash out there. If we don't do it, how is the problem going to get fixed?

Are you suggesting that the unauthorized removal of someone else's cache is a legitimate course of action?

 

If I took a piece of paper, tossed it in a ziplock bag and shoved it under a lamp post skirt, you are seriously going to try to make the case that it's not garbage?

 

I would stand against that logic any day of the week.

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If I took a piece of paper, tossed it in a ziplock bag and shoved it under a lamp post skirt, you are seriously going to try to make the case that it's not garbage?

 

I would stand against that logic any day of the week.

To somebody out there, an ammo can in the woods is garbage. The line of legitimacy can't be drawn by what one person likes and doesn't like - the line has be drawn by the cache review process and the guidelines. To remove someone else's legitimately listed cache because someone judges it to be 'garbage' is wrong.

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Let me get this straight. You are suggesting stealing any cache that you don't like?

 

Man, am I ever gald you don't live near me.

 

No sir. I am suggesting throwing trash into a garbage can where it belongs.

Wow! Judge, jury, and executioner in one nifty package! :laughing:

 

Well, lets hear some suggestions that will fix the problem then... I get it, you don't like my idea... What's yours then?

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Let me get this straight. You are suggesting stealing any cache that you don't like?

 

Man, am I ever gald you don't live near me.

 

No sir. I am suggesting throwing trash into a garbage can where it belongs.

Wow! Judge, jury, and executioner in one nifty package! :laughing:

 

Well, lets hear some suggestions that will fix the problem then... I get it, you don't like my idea... What's yours then?

I hide and find what I like. No problem. :ph34r:
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I'll go first.. If everyone did the following, the problem would go away.

 

CITO -- Cache in, Trash Out......

It has been said by many before, but I will say it again here for myself: I am all for the freedom of cachers to place whatever sane and legal (or relatively-legal) caches they wish. However, what I -- and apparently many other cachers as well -- have a very low tolerance for is picking some caches that appear, from a diligent examination of the contents of the cache listing page, to be choice caches in a new area (i.e., a city that I plan to visit shortly) and then, when I reach the cache hide site, to discover that it is a lame urban micro. And worse, to add insult to injury, it will sometimes turn out that the LUM is a micro stuck on a guardrail alongside a wooded dead-end road in front of a million-dollar home in a high-end exclusive private residential neighborhood where both the road and the neighborhood are heavily posted with signs warning "No Parking -- Even for One Minute!" and where there is a higher density of "Neighborhood Watch" signs than the density of strip bars in Martinsburg, WV. It is at times like this that I fervently wish that there were some iron-clad way of identifying LUMs for afar before I ever hunt the cache. Some possibilities that I have proposed in the past include a special LUM attribute icon, a special set of cache type categories (i.e., lame urban traditional, lame urban multi, lame urban mysetery/ALR, etc...)

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Geocaching is speeding rapidly towards critical mass. When a newbie joins geocaching, they will pick a couple caches close to home to go hunt. More often than not (especially in the cities), they are going to find some micro spew. They will assume (rightly so) that this must be the way the game is played. So when it's time for them to place a cache, they place what they know, thus creating more garbage, speeding even more rapidly towards critical mass.

 

1) The vast majority of newbies do not join caching organizations, they go it alone and rely on their own experiences (so training is not a solution)

 

2) Doing nothing will not alleviate the problem (although some folks don't mind this option).

 

The Question: Besides #1 and #2, what ways can you come up with to combat micro spew? How can we put a stop to it?

 

Take your 3 year old ammocan location and secretly offer it to someone who's cache placements you enjoy. Then when they are ready archive yours and have the new one published.

 

Nothing wrong with new and improved.

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Geocaching is speeding rapidly towards critical mass. When a newbie joins geocaching, they will pick a couple caches close to home to go hunt. More often than not (especially in the cities), they are going to find some micro spew. They will assume (rightly so) that this must be the way the game is played. So when it's time for them to place a cache, they place what they know, thus creating more garbage, speeding even more rapidly towards critical mass.

 

1) The vast majority of newbies do not join caching organizations, they go it alone and rely on their own experiences (so training is not a solution)

 

2) Doing nothing will not alleviate the problem (although some folks don't mind this option).

 

The Question: Besides #1 and #2, what ways can you come up with to combat micro spew? How can we put a stop to it?

Change human nature?

 

It's another one of those things I just don't get. I generally hope that crummy caches have equally crummy owners who won't have the constitution to maintain their crummy hides that will get archived before their time.

 

I also don't get buicks or mercurys... :laughing:

 

Generally, positive reinforcement will work best, and I feel that an effort to establish relationships with new cachers could accomplish some of the things that 'training' would.

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I also don't get buicks or mercurys... :laughing:

 

I've driven some dam fine Mercs and my first car was a Century. Weighed 3800 lbs. (Come to think of it my current car is a Century. eh I'm old.)

 

My point is that there are some dam fine micros out there. Lose the spew, and the recent Cougar models.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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If you don't like micros, don't look for them. It is not your right to remove a cache you do not like. If you do look for it and have a problem with it perhaps a log giving constructive criticism and the reasons you don't like the cache would help. It's easy enough to log "this is a stupid cache" or whatever, but giving reasons would help the cache owner realize that there might be an issue with the cache. Even a "Found it, Signed Log" doesn't let the owner know it might be a LUM.

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What if we could flag the caches as "CRAP"? Get enough people who think it's crap and an image of a tird would show up on the search results instead of the typical cache container :laughing:

 

Just so you know, I was willing to assume you didn't post this thread simply to be a troll. Usually I would jump to conclusions and end up getting a warning from the mods.

 

Silly me.

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Geocaching is speeding rapidly towards critical mass. When a newbie joins geocaching, they will pick a couple caches close to home to go hunt. More often than not (especially in the cities), they are going to find some micro spew. They will assume (rightly so) that this must be the way the game is played. So when it's time for them to place a cache, they place what they know, thus creating more garbage, speeding even more rapidly towards critical mass.

 

1) The vast majority of newbies do not join caching organizations, they go it alone and rely on their own experiences (so training is not a solution)

 

2) Doing nothing will not alleviate the problem (although some folks don't mind this option).

 

The Question: Besides #1 and #2, what ways can you come up with to combat micro spew? How can we put a stop to it?

 

My question is this: Are you saying ALL micros are spew? Or just the unimaginative ones on power voltage boxes?

 

If it is that all micros, that are easily accesible, are spew....then are you advocating that the handicap, temporarily unable to do long walks, workers on break, etc shouldn't have caches to go after?

 

If we took out ALL urban micros what would the aforementioned folks have to go after? How do you propose getting the wheelchair up the mountain in order to get the Grade A (by your standard) ammo can? Sometimes, and I do use that loosely, the "lame urban micros" get those who could not otherwise enjoy the sport/hobby/addiction actually off the couch and enjoying themselves. Even the die hard cacher who suddenly breaks a leg becomes "grateful" (even if only temporarily) for them at one point or another...it feeds the addiction.

 

As a cacher who received bad enough injuries in a car accident (on the way to a hiking cache) two years ago to STILL be off the trails rated above a 2 (and that is pushing it) I am grateful for most of the "spew." However, on that note, there are a few in my area that I have put on ignore (basically all from one hider) due to WHERE his hides are located (all in parking lots with a view of the back of a building, or a view of the trash dumpster).

 

/off soapbox

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What if we could flag the caches as "CRAP"? Get enough people who think it's crap and an image of a tird would show up on the search results instead of the typical cache container :laughing:

 

Just so you know, I was willing to assume you didn't post this thread simply to be a troll. Usually I would jump to conclusions and end up getting a warning from the mods.

 

Silly me.

 

Pardon me Blue Deuce.. Didn't realize I wasn't allowed to be funny. There was an underlying point to my post, which is allowing users to specify "Bad" caches and have the website tag them as such in "some" way.

 

I posted this because I am sick and gal dern tired of micro spew.. Fair enough?

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What if we could flag the caches as "CRAP"? Get enough people who think it's crap and an image of a tird would show up on the search results instead of the typical cache container :laughing:

 

Just so you know, I was willing to assume you didn't post this thread simply to be a troll. Usually I would jump to conclusions and end up getting a warning from the mods.

 

Silly me.

 

Pardon me Blue Deuce.. Didn't realize I wasn't allowed to be funny. There was an underlying point to my post, which is allowing users to specify "Bad" caches and have the website tag them as such in "some" way.

 

I posted this because I am sick and gal dern tired of micro spew.. Fair enough?

Since there are many ways to avoid Lame Micros, including not being a "radius slave," I don't really see a problem. When I was traveling, I didn't mind the Micros I found along the way because they gave me a break from the road. Locally, I only look for caches in areas I want to go to. I don't have a "radius" I need to keep clear, so the "spew" isn't much of a problem for me . . . :ph34r:

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What if we could flag the caches as "CRAP"? Get enough people who think it's crap and an image of a tird would show up on the search results instead of the typical cache container :laughing:

 

Just so you know, I was willing to assume you didn't post this thread simply to be a troll. Usually I would jump to conclusions and end up getting a warning from the mods.

 

Silly me.

 

Pardon me Blue Deuce.. Didn't realize I wasn't allowed to be funny. There was an underlying point to my post, which is allowing users to specify "Bad" caches and have the website tag them as such in "some" way.

 

I posted this because I am sick and gal dern tired of micro spew.. Fair enough?

 

My name is Mr. BlueDeuce. well, once I get gc.com to do the update.

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Stop eating Butter Pecan ice cream

 

Of course if you stop looking for or logging cache you don't like other people will still be finding those caches and logging "TFTC" so it probably won't have much effect.

 

Some people like Butter Pecan ice cream. I can't imagine who they are or why there are so many. I wish there were only the flavors that I like. But so far I haven't been able to convince the manufacturers to stop making those other flavors or the other ice cream consumers to stop buying them. :laughing:

Butter pecan is one of my favorites. I buy it because my husband and daughter don't like it, and therefore won't eat it. I know it'll be in the freezer when I get around to wanting it.

 

I can drive right past those parking lots on the way to the hiking trails, and know that they'll be there if I ever feel the need for a quick caching fix. Frankly, though, I'd rather eat my ice cream...

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Butter pecan is one of my favorites. I buy it because my husband and daughter don't like it, and therefore won't eat it. I know it'll be in the freezer when I get around to wanting it.

 

I can drive right past those parking lots on the way to the hiking trails, and know that they'll be there if I ever feel the need for a quick caching fix. Frankly, though, I'd rather eat my ice cream...

With this kind level headed, common sense answer we're never gonna get this thread locked! :laughing:
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Butter pecan is one of my favorites. I buy it because my husband and daughter don't like it, and therefore won't eat it. I know it'll be in the freezer when I get around to wanting it.

 

I can drive right past those parking lots on the way to the hiking trails, and know that they'll be there if I ever feel the need for a quick caching fix. Frankly, though, I'd rather eat my ice cream...

With this kind level headed, common sense answer we're never gonna get this thread locked! :laughing:

I agree. I am disappointed. A day without a locked thread is like a day without Chinese steamed dumplings. People like Family DNA need to learn to focus, to keep on task, to keep their noses to the angst grindstone! :ph34r::D:D:ph34r::ph34r::D

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Ho hum. You need to pick out a scapegoat to really get the blood flowing. Once the scent of blood is in the air, the pitchforks and torches will follow.

 

I gave away roughly 12,500+ lame micros once. Maybe it's (the micro spew dilemma) alllll my fault. :ph34r::ph34r::laughing:

 

Not actually, since only like 5% of them were placed as caches. :D Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

Oh, IBFTL.

 

And also, :D

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I have a few questions for the OP:

1. How did you determine that Geocaching is reaching critical mass?

2. What methodology did you use?

 

The vast majority of cachers, new and experienced, do not belong to a caching group. So what, it took a few years for Geocaching clubs to even exist.

 

As far as I am concerned hide what you like to find, find what you like to hide. Because I like finding certain types of caches I do not limit myself to what is in my 10 mile radius. While I am not a fan of micros, when I travel on business they are a welcome relief from the hotel.

 

Lame caches of any type sort themselves out; they get muggled or the owner drops out, a maintenance issue occurs, and then you use the SBA button. Thats how you deal with the problem.

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You wrote:

 

The Question: Besides #1 and #2, what ways can you come up with to combat micro spew? How can we put a stop to it?

 

Your sig line:

 

"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

 

Anyone see a conflict there?

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OK, I'll give a serious response. (Post #43 incidently, is not serious). Microspew will continue to proliferate until TPTB decide that it has proliferated enough. That day hasn't come yet, and may never. If it does come, us whiners can sit back and say "we told you so". If it doesn't come, I'll move on to something else, like Ham Radio, or scrapbooking. :laughing: In the meantime, us whiners have been given the ignore list, you can't beat that (I guess).

Edited by TheWhiteUrkel
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My question is this: Are you saying ALL micros are spew? Or just the unimaginative ones on power voltage boxes?

 

If it is that all micros, that are easily accesible, are spew....then are you advocating that the handicap, temporarily unable to do long walks, workers on break, etc shouldn't have caches to go after?

 

If we took out ALL urban micros what would the aforementioned folks have to go after? How do you propose getting the wheelchair up the mountain in order to get the Grade A (by your standard) ammo can? Sometimes, and I do use that loosely, the "lame urban micros" get those who could not otherwise enjoy the sport/hobby/addiction actually off the couch and enjoying themselves. Even the die hard cacher who suddenly breaks a leg becomes "grateful" (even if only temporarily) for them at one point or another...it feeds the addiction.

 

As a cacher who received bad enough injuries in a car accident (on the way to a hiking cache) two years ago to STILL be off the trails rated above a 2 (and that is pushing it) I am grateful for most of the "spew." However, on that note, there are a few in my area that I have put on ignore (basically all from one hider) due to WHERE his hides are located (all in parking lots with a view of the back of a building, or a view of the trash dumpster).

 

/off soapbox

 

This post expressed my views.

 

To the OP... Are you proposing that geocaching be a game/ sport only for the most physically fit? How elitist.

 

I can only walk a few hundred feet thanks to injuries (a fall down stairs) and recent illnesses. Then I start suffering terrible pain. Im hoping to improve my ability to walk by geocaching. If you take away the "micro spew" then I will likely remain housebound and not get out much. I would love to do nice mountaintop caches. I would love to go 4 -wheeling to remote areas to cache. It aint gonna happen tho. I dont get bent out of shape when someone posts those caches. Why get upset when someone posts caches that you dont care for? Use ignore. Write to the cache hider and encourage creativity if you really feel the need to intervene. Just let the rest of us be able to enjoy caching our way.

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Lead by example. Coach and train. Report guideline violations. Best we can do. These usually otherwise fit the current guidelines and so will continue to be published.

 

I posted this on my cache pages. And hide caches that I like to find.

 

KitFoxSuperLogocopy.jpg

 

The main reason Micro Spew is getting worse is because there are still cachers that find them and tell the owners, "Thanks for the cache." Do like I do, and put all spew caches on your ignore list. Imagine if nobody bothered to find caches under lampposts, in parking lots.

Cool banner! :laughing: Add me to the list that is blowing them out of my world with the ignore button. Edited by TrailGators
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Yea voice it in your log. That way the cache owner gets educated. I remember when I could visit all the new caches in the area after in an afternoon or morning, and my map would be clean. They would be interesting and fun. Now we have caches that are put out just to be caches. Hundreds of them in lame meaninless places .

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I'll go first.. If everyone did the following, the problem would go away.

 

CITO -- Cache in, Trash Out......

Freedom remains. It wouldn't be Groundspeak putting limitations on caches. Cache owners still retain the freedom to place any garbage they want.. But we as cache seekers need to exercise our voices as well and clean up some of the trash out there. If we don't do it, how is the problem going to get fixed?

Are you suggesting that the unauthorized removal of someone else's cache is a legitimate course of action?

 

If I took a piece of paper, tossed it in a ziplock bag and shoved it under a lamp post skirt, you are seriously going to try to make the case that it's not garbage?

 

I would stand against that logic any day of the week.

 

What if we could flag the caches as "CRAP"? Get enough people who think it's crap and an image of a tird would show up on the search results instead of the typical cache container :laughing:

First and final warning: Between potty language and advocating the removal of caches owned by others, the OP is going to need to dial it back a notch or two in order to keep posting in his own thread. There are constructive ways to express an opinion on this subject, and there are plenty of examples of that posted by others. A thread can stay open even if its OP cannot post to it.

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