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Renewing a cache


SSO JOAT

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So, you've got a cache in a little city park. The park is small enough that only 1 cache can be listed there. There are many spots where a cache could be hidden in this park. There are only a couple dozen active cachers in the area and they've all found it. You get an occasional tourist stop to visit from outside the area. You want to "reboot" the cache with a new container and a different hide. Also, in the winter you want a different type of hide & container than in the summer. What's the best way to handle the listing?

 

A- Disable listing, pull old cache, put new container in a different hide, edit the listing of the original cache (keeping the name & GC#), post coordinates adjustment, then enable the listing and allow everyone to log a new "found it".

 

B- Archive original listing with a note that it's being changed, pull old cache, put new cache, publish new listing with the same name or a variation of it (e.g. Cache II), so it gets freshly published with a new GC#. Repeat this every time you feel like changing the hide (maybe twice per year), but never using the exact same hide twice so that each time you republish, it will be a unique hunt for the same group of cachers.

Edited by SSO JOAT
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There is a guidline about expectation of perminance, is there not? I would think that 6 months falls short of this rule.

 

Geocaching.com lists 3 months as the minimum, but I certainly don't want to change it nearly that often. This would be a "permanent" cache since there will always be a cache at the site. It will just "updated" every once in awhile (no more than twice a year when the seasons change), but any time someone shows up to seek, there is a cache somewhere in this urban park strip that's about 500' long and 100' deep. The point is to change the nature of the cache enough that local cachers who found the original cache could seek out the revised cache and log another found it note. I can even place a micro note at the previous cache spot providing the updated coords just in case someone shows up searching with old data after the change is made. Have no problem with allowing plenty of time between such changes, be it 6 months or a year, whatever.

 

If you change a cache, would it be best to keep the original name and GC# and simply post updated coords and edit the cache listing to relect the change, or do you create a whole new GC listing so that it gets pushed to the system as a "new cache"?

 

Not trying to break any rules, just trying to provide more search opportunities for our local community by rejuvinating caches that everyone has already found. Call it recycling, rebooting, upgrading...

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Option C, hide a new cache.

 

Before you modified your initial post you mentioned that the cache would always be hidden somewhere in a 500x100 foot strip in a city park. So, if the intent if to let people up their numbers, then why not also take them somewhere new?

 

Is this minuscule strip of land really the only quality place in which you can hide a decent cache?

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Not at all and numbers mean nothing to me. Being the constructive type, I've got a half dozen cache builds on the bench right now. I'm all for planting new caches. That's not why I ask, though in a small hick town the real estate within the city to place caches IS rather limited.

 

I'm just thinking that after a small urban cache sits there long enough, the visitors become infrequent and the local cachers are chomping at the bit for something to do without traveling way out. Why not periodically change a cache? Engineer a new hide within that 500' window, move the cache and give everyone a chance to hunt the area again.

 

It's the logistics of moving the cache... if you keep the same GC#, then it will show as found on everyone's logs, so if you move it there's a good chance that many who found it before won't know it. If you archive and republish, then it shows up as a new cache, however it's really the same cache with the same swag, just a new hide nearby.

 

I can come up with 6 reasons to keep the GC# and a half dozen reasons to publish a new one. I'm guessing this may be one of those topics that may be hotly debated across the aisle...

Edited by SSO JOAT
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Yep, six of one, half a dozen of another on whether to archive and start over, or just shift it some from time to time.

 

If you're a builder, "half dozen cache builds on the bench right now", I'd go with archive and start over. There are multiple elements to each cache - the page itself, which can be funny or informative, the hide and the hunt, and the location.

 

If you can alter the hide and hunt enough with some specially constructed cache to make it a fun new experience, by all means, archive and resubmit a new hide. This will show up as new and give the locals something to hunt without a long drive, as you say.

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I vote for Option "C" as well.

 

There must be other interesting places outside this park and time will take care of the original cache hide as well. If you get a reminder note after three month without any found on the original cache, you could still think about archiving.

 

I usually do not like going to the same location twice, only to find a new cache on known territory.

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Not at all and numbers mean nothing to me. Being the constructive type, I've got a half dozen cache builds on the bench right now. I'm all for planting new caches. That's not why I ask, though in a small hick town the real estate within the city to place caches IS rather limited.

You're in Alaska. It seems to me that there ought to be lots of places out hide a cache outside the city. Is there something particularly interesting about the small hick town that warrants putting a half a dozen more caches in it?

 

I'm just thinking that after a small urban cache sits there long enough, the visitors become infrequent and the local cachers are chomping at the bit for something to do without traveling way out. Why not periodically change a cache? Engineer a new hide within that 500' window, move the cache and give everyone a chance to hunt the area again.

 

Personally I'd prefer find ways to cater to new cachers rather than give a bunch of old timers a few more smileys in their profiles. It seems to be a fairly common practice to try and come up with more difficult caches, more difficult puzzles, and replace/move caches that have already been found by most of "the locals" to appease local cachers that have been around for awhile. Why not try and create a few caches that specifically cater to newcomers to the hobby and/or traveling geocachers.

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I can certainly understand where you're coming from on this one.

 

There are a few of my favorite parks that are saturated with caches. I wouldn't mind if they were archived, and new ones put in their place (especially if they are good hides). I don't get out on many caching trips nowadays, and I'd really welcome the hide in one of my regular stomping grounds (don't get me wrong, I like new places more, but I don't get the chance/opportunity much with everything else going on).

 

I'd place a new cache, archive the old one and start over. I don't like it when caches start 'moving'. It makes it awkward for people who found the old cache, but want to find the new location.

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