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letterboxing


pie_knee

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If the letterbox is listed here as a hybrid you certainly can log it here. If not, then no point in logging it here because there is no place to log it.

 

What are the pros? It's lots of fun.

 

Cons? I guess numbers can be a con. There are far more geocaches than letterboxes out there. Also letterboxers tend to be a snooty bunch. Buy your stamps in a store and you're lower than whale poopies at the bottom of the Marinas Trench. You're a geocacher? You look up at the whale poopies.

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I Also letterboxers tend to be a snooty bunch. Buy your stamps in a store and you're lower than whale poopies at the bottom of the Marinas Trench. You're a geocacher? You look up at the whale poopies.

LMAO

 

Well, at least letterboxers don't damage the environment. ;)

 

I would guess they really DO do some damage, but they just don't realise how sensitive the Marianas Trench really is. ;)

 

Anyway, both hobbies are quite fun. Both are creative and artistic but in slightly different ways.

 

Much of the creativity in LB is in making unique stamps and writing interesting clues. Much of the creativity in GC is in making cool web pages. Both will take the seeker to cool places. Both have creative hiding techniques. Both use similar containers. Both have their uncreative participants and their fair share of "lame."

 

GC, as practised on THIS site, has a comprehensive set of guidelines for placement and listing.

 

LB has no "approved" or "official" structure and thus in reality has NO RULES other than the "gentlepersons' agreement" amongst its players.

 

LB typically requires less investment in equipment to start.

 

So, really, which IS better... oranges or tangerines?

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As a note: I GC'd for several months without a GPS so my startup cost was free ;) I didn't have a printer so I went to the page, wrote down some stuff, drew my crude maps after I zoomed in as far as it would let me and ... poof, I logged some ;) I was a geocacher!

 

Course, my GC for caching is still minimal since my brother felt sorry for me and bought me a GPS ;)

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Is it allowable to hide a GC under a letterbox?

I've seen vice versa where the letterbox apears to have tossed the cache to one side to claim the cache's spot. Then they whined about all the cachers signing the letterbox log. Alas the cache clue says that the letterbox is where the cache used to be so it looks like they brought it on themselves. I would have emailed them to explain the problem but letterboxers seem to prefer being elusive and shy not liking any kind of internet contact or listing.

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Is it allowable to hide a GC under a letterbox?
No rule against it, but you will probably tick off the owner of the letterbox.
What about a micro inside a letterbox? (embedded in the letterbox stamp) :D
Cool idea. The question is, would you list it as a regular cache, a mystery cache (having to find the cache by finding the letterbox) or a letterbox hybrid? :D

 

I might just have to figure out how to put a logbook inside a stamp...

Edited by Too Tall John
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Is it allowable to hide a GC under a letterbox?
No rule against it, but you will probably tick off the owner of the letterbox.
What about a micro inside a letterbox? (embedded in the letterbox stamp) :D
Cool idea. The question is, would you list it as a regular cache, a mystery cache (having to find the cache by finding the letterbox) or a letterbox hybrid? :D

 

I might just have to figure out how to put a logbook inside a stamp...

 

It would be fun to leave it as a traditional and enjoy the DNF's

 

"I looked and looked and all I found was a stupid letterbox."...

 

Interesting idea..... Geocache disguised as a letterbox.... I'm on it Jim!

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Putting on my cache-snob head now - over here where letterboxing started on Dartmoor the caches are all well hidden, waterproof, and placed (usually) somewhere fairly meaningful. But if you go caching on Dartmoor you're almost guaranteed to find dozens of randomly placed, completely unregulated, badly hidden letterboxes in margarine and ice cream tubs. :D

Do you really want to associate Geocaching with that????? :D:laughing:

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I found a letterboxing cache by mistake.

 

ok. Hope you put it back, and didn't try to trade out the stamp.

 

Can i log it on this site and get credit for it on my profile?

 

Unless its a geocache/letterbox hybrid, no. You'd have to log it at either the letterboxing north america site and/or Atlas Quest. (for some reason, some letter boxes are list on one of the other, and some on both).

 

Letterboxing NA: http://www.letterboxing.org/

AtlastQuest: http://www.atlasquest.com/

 

What are some pros and cons on letterboxing?

 

Pros- it can be as much fun as geocaching, and you can combine the 2. (see if there are LB and GC in the same general local, and go for them.

 

Cons- less so the cons about the activity, but about other things. There are not nearly as many LBs. The above 2 websites are much more primitive then geocaching.com. At best can only record that you found or didn't find it. No logs or the like. I think the reason that AQ was created was the slowless of improvements on the LBing site. LBers seem a bit anti-tech in this. They are also (as another pointed out) big on hand made stamps. They turn their noses up at store bought. And some seem anti-GC for poor reasons.

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Letterboxing doesn't have the guidelines or reviewers that geocaching has, and unfortunately it shows.

 

I've seen boxes placed on private property with the note not to ask employees where it is b/c they don't know about it. Vacation boxes that can't possibly be maintained? No problem! Right now there are 8 or so listed in my area with no clues but "stamp will be available at event on this date, ill place it somewhere later" Seems kinda like cheating, do you bring all your ammo cans to events before placing them so people can pre-log them? Looking at some of the things that happen over their really puts all the complainers over here into perspective. Without guidelines, there's chaos.

 

Not that I mean to bash the hobby. There are pros, I have a lot of fun letterboxing. I have fun coming up with designs and carving stamps; fun following clues. I love flipping through log books and seeing what other people came up with :D

 

There are a lot fewer letterboxes out there than geocaches, and planning an outing can take a little more time; printing clues and weeding out the ones I have no interest in. Because of that I geocache more than I letterbox, but I do enjoy them both.

 

On this site, you can only log containers that are listed on this site.

 

On one of the letterboxing sites, for premium members there is an option to log a box not listed there. This I believe, is because there are sooo many places you can find letterbox clues, many are not listed on any site. I don't think it's so you can have that site count your geocaches though :laughing:

 

 

And I hope those suggestions are jokes! I wouldn't recommend stepping on other peoples toes :(

also, letterboxes and geocaches are mistaken for each other, by people in a hurry, enough as it is! I found a poor TB in a letterbox 50 feet from a cache once :D I'm glad I knew what to do with him ;)

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And I hope those suggestions are jokes! I wouldn't recommend stepping on other peoples toes :D

also, letterboxes and geocaches are mistaken for each other, by people in a hurry, enough as it is! I found a poor TB in a letterbox 50 feet from a cache once :D I'm glad I knew what to do with him :laughing:

 

I don't think hiding a log in a real letterbox would be a good idea.. But wouldn't it be fun to create a "fake" letterbox. Put a bunch of stamps in the box with the stamp book and everything and hide a micro in one of the fake stamps.

 

The only thing left to do is find a nice place to put the faux letterbox. <thinking>

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[

Can i log it on this site and get credit for it on my profile?

 

Unless its a geocache/letterbox hybrid, no. You'd have to log it at either the letterboxing north america site and/or Atlas Quest. (for some reason, some letter boxes are list on one of the other, and some on both).

 

Hmm... If it were within a couple miles of an event, one could probably log it as an 'attended' on the event. :D

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Letterboxing doesn't have the guidelines or reviewers that geocaching has, and unfortunately it shows.

 

Back in January of 2005, I found this on the way to GCGN4T.

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I went to the trouble of going on to Letterboxing.org and finding out which cache was near the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center and e-mailing the placer of the letterbox, complete with the picture of the lid sitting on my table.

 

The letterbox is still actively listed three years after I found an collected the destroyed box (the notes on the letterbox page dated "8/17" were from August 17 2004 and were there when I visted that page the first time).

 

The site has no method of verifying activity level of owners, no "needs maintenance" and no "needs archived" logs. They also have no reviewers that try to find out what's going on and no way of making the listing unavailable that I can see.

 

So - a letterboxer may indeed go out with the clues on the letterbox and still think the box is available - and tear up the woods looking for a non-existant box.

 

I'll take Geocaching.com any day for environmentally friendly.

Edited by Markwell
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And I hope those suggestions are jokes! I wouldn't recommend stepping on other peoples toes :)
I don't think hiding a log in a real letterbox would be a good idea.. But wouldn't it be fun to create a "fake" letterbox.
If I place said cache in my own letterbox, I step on nobody's toes but my own. :lol:

 

If you're going to hide a fake letterbox, why not a real one? :)

I went to the trouble of going on to Letterboxing.org and finding out which cache was near the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center and e-mailing the placer of the letterbox, complete with the picture of the lid sitting on my table.

 

The letterbox is still actively listed three years after I found an collected the destroyed box (the notes on the letterbox page dated "8/17" were from August 17 2004 and were there when I visted that page the first time).

Had almost the same thing happen with this LB. The box wasn't totally destroyed, so I dried it out best I could and left it where I found it. Other than the fact the box is in place (but moldy), same situation. No response from owner, no status change on site.
The site has no method of verifying activity level of owners, no "needs maintenance" and no "needs archived" logs. They also have no reviewers that try to find out what's going on and no way of making the listing unavailable that I can see.

 

So - a letterboxer may indeed go out with the clues on the letterbox and still think the box is available - and tear up the woods looking for a non-existant box.

 

I'll take Geocaching.com any day for environmentally friendly.

I agree 100%, although it looks like Atlasquest is trying to have a system to report boxes that need assistance. Click on the link to the box I found and you'll see there is a field for "First Aid." I have yet to find how to set that flag, though.
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I'll take Geocaching.com any day for environmentally friendly.

Well, in a different thread we're talking about cache owner responsibility for damage done by seekers. Geocaching is not the paragon of environmental friendliness.

 

I wonder how the shear numbers of problem geocaches offset the number of abandoned letterboxes. Oh, while we're at it, what about the geocaches that were archived but never picked up? Sure, they're not being hunted anymore, but they're still there.

 

Don't get me wrong. LbNA is completely open while GC.com is tightly controlled. Both systems can be improved upon, IMHO. I think we need something in the middle.

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i am a firm believer in respect for our environment and I strongly advocate that littering is the one form of pollution that we can absolutely stop with virtually no extra expense or economic downside. All we have to do is hold the trash until we get to a proper disposal location and put it there instead of throwing it out in the wild.

 

But as litter goes, an abandoned box is infinitesimal in terms of real environmental damage. If the most damage a letterbox ever causes is the litter of its own abandonment, it is indeed one of the most environmentally friendly things in the world.

 

When you compare a few hundred lost boxes with the literal TONS of litter tossed out of even the most eco-friendly automobiles, there is really no comparison.

 

still, 2 wrongs <> 1 right

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Geocaching is not the paragon of environmental friendliness.

 

Name a human or human activity that is...

 

Even worse, I'm actually a breeder! My wife and I created two other human who will consume, consume, consume!!

 

And geocache.

OMG!

What irresponsible life-forms you are!

Have you NO social conscience?

I'll bet you don't even care that "Jimmy cracked corn."

What is the Earth gonna do now!!?? <_<

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I wonder how the shear numbers of problem geocaches offset the number of abandoned letterboxes

 

I'm just not seeing this plethora of problem caches. I realize that I don't have thousands of finds, but I've been on probably over 800 cache hunts, which gives me a sizable sample and I've yet to see anything but a

few bent blades of grass, tousled leaves and a handful of lightly worn paths to caches close to parking.

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Oh, while we're at it, what about the geocaches that were archived but never picked up? Sure, they're not being hunted anymore, but they're still there.

 

 

I don't know what they do in other areas, but MiGO here in Michigan runs a cache rescue mission. They list all archived caches that are not known to have been removed and encourage cachers to go look and either remove them or report back that they have already been removed. The list of still unfound archived caches in MI is quite short.

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