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Are micros the new virtuals?


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Sorry if this has been raised before.

 

On a recent trip to Newcastle, I did my best ever haul of caches in a day - 25. The vast majority were micros, and the vast majority of those were hidden at places of interest, which, I would have thought, would have been virtuals in earlier times.

 

As I went round, I certainly felt the loss of virtual caches - surely with the right kind of tight guidelines they could be introduced? After all, they are muggle-proof (unless someone demolishes the location!)

 

Any thoughts, anybody?

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I like a virtual but they're not going to come back. Groundspeak has made a lot of investment in Waymarking.com (may as well call it virtuals.com) and no business is going to waste an investment unnecessarily.

 

And you're probably right, micros probably are the new virtuals. Cheap to implement, cheap to maintain, cheap to replace.

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I don't suppost there would be anything stopping you from buying a TB tag, and copying the numbers onto a teeny-weeny version of it and releasing that into the wild would there? Or even a ginormous one, like one of those charity cheques come to that. Or even a same sized one cunningly crafted to look and feel exactly the same as the original.

 

We did a Micro yesterday and a lovely little cache it was too, a 35mm cannister out in the country where I'm sure some curmugeons would make a big fuss, but it pleased us.

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Sorry if this has been raised before.

 

On a recent trip to Newcastle, I did my best ever haul of caches in a day - 25. The vast majority were micros, and the vast majority of those were hidden at places of interest, which, I would have thought, would have been virtuals in earlier times.

 

As I went round, I certainly felt the loss of virtual caches - surely with the right kind of tight guidelines they could be introduced? After all, they are muggle-proof (unless someone demolishes the location!)

 

Any thoughts, anybody?

Personally I prefer finding an actual box of any size to a virtual that demands emailing stuff back and forth. I can't see why you need a virtual at a location when you can grab a physical cache instead; If you want to look for information of interest while near the cache you can, but if you aren't interested then you still get the cache.

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Sorry if this has been raised before.

 

On a recent trip to Newcastle, I did my best ever haul of caches in a day - 25. The vast majority were micros, and the vast majority of those were hidden at places of interest, which, I would have thought, would have been virtuals in earlier times.

 

As I went round, I certainly felt the loss of virtual caches - surely with the right kind of tight guidelines they could be introduced? After all, they are muggle-proof (unless someone demolishes the location!)

 

Any thoughts, anybody?

Personally I prefer finding an actual box of any size to a virtual that demands emailing stuff back and forth. I can't see why you need a virtual at a location when you can grab a physical cache instead; If you want to look for information of interest while near the cache you can, but if you aren't interested then you still get the cache.

I agree about the pleasure of finding a box. The point I was trying to make was that the caches that I did in Newcastle had to have micros because there was nowhere to hide a box. In that event, they were really virtuals, because the purpose of the cache was to take you to somewhere interesting, and the only feasible physical cache was the micro.

 

Of course, way out in the country, or in a park somewhere, a real box, or an offset beats a micro anytime.

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Oh Newcastle micro city hell, I know it well!! B)

 

I do agree under the right guidelines some of the more interesting places could be virtuals.

 

M :P

 

I think that's a bit harsh. Newcastle has got lots of micros, but most of these are in places that there is no way you could hide anything bigger. I would rather do micros and explore the city than have no caches to do at all. I have enjoyed caching in the Toon and did not think it was 'hell' at all.

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I think that's a bit harsh. Newcastle has got lots of micros, but most of these are in places that there is no way you could hide anything bigger. I would rather do micros and explore the city than have no caches to do at all. I have enjoyed caching in the Toon and did not think it was 'hell' at all.

My sentiments about Newcastle entirely. In a day I saw much of the historic side of the city, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Edited by walkergeoff
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I just did a micro in Newcastle tonight; I’ve done all the others too! This one's located on a bridge that’s just been completed and seems to be a this combination of virtual/micro. Actually, I spent longer looking at the surroundings here while waiting for muggles to go past than I would have at a virtual where you can be legitimately peering around. And I got FTF :P

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And the sooner they are classified separately from a cache you can at least get a TB in the better. :anitongue:

 

They are

 

Size:micro.gif(Micro)

 

Micro's have thier place at least you have a log book to prove the visit, many virtuals are easily googled.

 

I know of some earthcaches that attract spurious logs when the right info becomes available on the web.

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Micro's have thier place at least you have a log book to prove the visit, many virtuals are easily googled.

 

 

I came across two micros in Kent, yesterday, in the "trolley" series. I think these reflect all that is bad about micros and would never have foreseen anyone placing a virtual in a supermarket car park. I did not even bother looking for them and would have rather spent my time at home googling, for anything, than waste time looking for these. All the virtuals I have done, to date, were in interesting places or purveyed interesting information.

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I like micros! :)

 

Ok that's a bit strong, but I can see the point of them in city centres where a regular is a no go. The Hikers have done some great caches which were micros in cities, taken us places we would never have seen.

A good example is Edinburgh, plenty of nanos not just micros, several took us to some outstanding places of historical interest.

 

Vitruals may have done this, but atleast there is something to keep the 'tourist cacher' happy.

 

Another plus is that I can get some time caching whilst Mrs Hiker goes off and does the most boring of pastimes... shopping!!!! :P

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Micros ..................... are easier to review

 

In actual fact a micro or nano takes just the same ammount of time and effort as a traditional ammo can to review. The same location and proximity checks have to be done. If it is a physical stage of a multi it takes a little longer. What causes most hold ups in publication are proximity issues, some location issues and the occasional suspect co-ordinates.

 

I don't know about Lacky and Decy but the most frustrating problems are usually down to slippy fingers :D

 

We review and publish a cache and within an hour or so we get an email saying, "Ooops, I typed a number in worng :D " We then have to do the review process all over again :P:):D

 

So.....watch your typos :):D:D:D

 

 

and I nicked his ^ terminal to type this,

 

Eckythump [:D] [:D] [:D]

Edited by dodgydaved
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Micros ..................... are easier to review

 

In actual fact a micro or nano takes just the same ammount of time and effort as a traditional ammo can to review.

I think that Edgemaster was saying that he thinks that a micro is easier to review than a virtual was, because the virt required subjective questions to determine the Wow! factor.

 

I would doubt that, because the virt didn't require proximity checks, landowner checks etc.

 

Edited to clarify and make more sense... :)

Edited by Alan White
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Micros ..................... are easier to review

In actual fact a micro or nano takes just the same ammount of time and effort as a traditional ammo can to review.

I think Edge meant easier to review than virtuals not than ammo cans, in that the guidelines are (more or less) unambiguous, whereas with virtuals it was entirely subjective meaning that it is harder to arrive at an uncontestable conclusion.

 

Edited to add .... Snap!

Edited by Team Sieni
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I came across two micros in Kent, yesterday, in the "trolley" series. I think these reflect all that is bad about micros and would never have foreseen anyone placing a virtual in a supermarket car park.

 

I think that that is precisely what the problem was that sparked the end of virtuals. In the USA some virtuals were set up every 500 feet in a parking lot to make power trails, or else they were as mundane as log a lampost . Rumor has it that it was a certain virtual set at the site of a discarded beer can that was the final straw for our Lords and Masters (sic).

 

I have mixed feelings about 'Off yer trolleys'. The don't have to be bad, but it does seem harder to place a quality cache given such a dull location. My own attitude is do them if I am passing, and they are certainly good caches for me to do when I am in a suit and have this strong need to do at least one cache when I am working away from home in a new area, and don't neccesarily want to go clumping about in the mud. Some of the ones I have found are quite ingeniously hidden and others, alas, are just bunged in with no imagination. I have done 8 out of the available 45, so I would not like to form any sort of meaningful stats out my experiences.

 

The first one I ever found was on the top of my list of the worst caches I have ever done for a while (until the dog poo micro bin took top slot). I think it is now archived. It was in a leaky breath strip container and the log was stinky and mouldy. The cache owner had lobbed it out on a whim and then left the area, never to return. It was stuck to a trolley collection shelter in a huge supermarket carpark. Did I enjoy it? No... Was I pleased to get one smiley in an otherwise cache free desert? Yes! I don't think any of the problems described are unique to 'off yer trolleys' or even to micros in general.

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the virt didn't require proximity checks

 

Edited to clarify and make more sense... :P

 

 

.............in actual fact, at that time, they did, it is only recently that virtual stages and virtual head locations do not need full proximity checks, mind I understand that, in between lessons :), I missed the true concept behind Edgie's post :)

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I came across two micros in Kent, yesterday, in the "trolley" series. I think these reflect all that is bad about micros and would never have foreseen anyone placing a virtual in a supermarket car park.

 

I think that that is precisely what the problem was that sparked the end of virtuals. In the USA some virtuals were set up every 500 feet in a parking lot to make power trails, or else they were as mundane as log a lampost . Rumor has it that it was a certain virtual set at the site of a discarded beer can that was the final straw for our Lords and Masters (sic).

 

I have mixed feelings about 'Off yer trolleys'. The don't have to be bad, but it does seem harder to place a quality cache given such a dull location. My own attitude is do them if I am passing, and they are certainly good caches for me to do when I am in a suit and have this strong need to do at least one cache when I am working away from home in a new area, and don't neccesarily want to go clumping about in the mud. Some of the ones I have found are quite ingeniously hidden and others, alas, are just bunged in with no imagination. I have done 8 out of the available 45, so I would not like to form any sort of meaningful stats out my experiences.

 

The first one I ever found was on the top of my list of the worst caches I have ever done for a while (until the dog poo micro bin took top slot). I think it is now archived. It was in a leaky breath strip container and the log was stinky and mouldy. The cache owner had lobbed it out on a whim and then left the area, never to return. It was stuck to a trolley collection shelter in a huge supermarket carpark. Did I enjoy it? No... Was I pleased to get one smiley in an otherwise cache free desert? Yes! I don't think any of the problems described are unique to 'off yer trolleys' or even to micros in general.

 

Don't get me wrong - I like micros. I live in London so am used to them and even have some of my own! The problem here is probably of my own making - I did not look at the map before going there. I knew I would be in the area so just loaded them along with the other, thankfully, better caches. Unfortunately, my experience of the ones I came across yesterday has probably biased me against the whole "trolley" series and I will probably avoid them in the future. This is unfair to those setters who may have given their trolley caches some thought and made the cache a worthwhile find.

 

Your comments about being suited and booted as opposed to jungle rigged are valid points though.

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