Just plain selfish?

[+muzzys]

Hi

 

My wife and I are new to geocaching, introduced to it by my Mum who was introduced to it via my brother...

Anyway, we are getting seriously addicted

 

My point to make is this...

Is there some form of etiquette we should all be following in terms of finding and placing caches?

I mean, if people weren't kind enough to place them, then the hobby would be dead.

Ive just looked at a leaderboard for UK cachers and was amazed to find several cachers that had found between 1200 and 1600 caches and not placed a single one themselves!

To me that appears quite selfish

 

We have found just over 20 now and placed 2.

 

Is there an unwritten rule to place a percentage back to what you have found?

 

cheers

Mr Muzzys

[SlytherinAlex]

Is there an unwritten rule to place a percentage back to what you have found?

Don't think so.

[+BlueDeuce]

There are other ways to give back to the game than just placing caches.

 

Attending a CITO event, helping with questions in the forums, to name just a couple.

Edited September 12, 2008 by BlueDeuce

[+Renegade Knight]

...

Is there an unwritten rule to place a percentage back to what you have found?

..

 

No such rule. You should place when you're muse inspires you to do so. You are limited in what you can place by your ability to maintain them. Finding doesn't have a maintenance component.

[+L8HNB]

Seems to be a bit of a theme going on here recently..........

 

IMHO better to place a couple of caches that get good logs than loads of caches that get "TFTC, #56 today"!

 

H

[+Pieman]

There are lots of people who enjoy placing caches, so that if some cachers don't want to there will still be more than enough for us all to do. Cachers can give back to the game by posting interesting logs when the muse strikes them.

[+jerryo]

Be careful you don't assume some of the finders of higher numbers of caches haven't had more and then archived them after transferring them into another name, though. They may have decided to reduce their own cache numbers for one reason or another.

[+goldpot]

Hi

 

My wife and I are new to geocaching, introduced to it by my Mum who was introduced to it via my brother...

Anyway, we are getting seriously addicted

 

My point to make is this...

Is there some form of etiquette we should all be following in terms of finding and placing caches?

I mean, if people weren't kind enough to place them, then the hobby would be dead.

Ive just looked at a leaderboard for UK cachers and was amazed to find several cachers that had found between 1200 and 1600 caches and not placed a single one themselves!

To me that appears quite selfish

 

We have found just over 20 now and placed 2.

 

Is there an unwritten rule to place a percentage back to what you have found?

 

cheers

Mr Muzzys

 

They should be named and shamed!

 

No, seriously, what I like about Geocaching is that we all have our own individual rules within the structure of Geocaching and let it be so.

 

And remember there are some people out there who have placed caches but never found any and we're not saying that they should be shamed because they're not finding the caches that others have made the effort of setting up, are we?

[+Bear and Ragged]

>< snipped

Finding doesn't have a maintenance component.

 

Unless, if you find a cache that needs a little TLC, and can carry out TLC, it saves the owner a trek out!

[+jerryo]

And remember there are some people out there who have placed caches but never found any <snip>

Are there? Wow.

[+Gushoneybun]

And remember there are some people out there who have placed caches but never found any <snip>

Are there? Wow.

 

 

I came across an American a while back on the forums looked up the profile and they had found a handful but had set a hundred or so, their profile said they much prefered hiding them than finding them as that gave them pleasure.

[+goldpot]

And remember there are some people out there who have placed caches but never found any <snip>

Are there? Wow.

 

...notable in America where they have been set by park rangers, presumably to pull boost the number of visitors to their own park.

Edited September 12, 2008 by goldpot

[+kewfriend]

This discussion came up a few years ago. Then there were not a vast number of caches and it seemed reasonable to have about 10% of your stats allocated to your own caches. Well the times they are a changing. In terms of totals set I am now at less than 5% of the 800 caches found and the proportion will fall further.

 

Some areas are cache saturated and you do every one a favour by NOT adding to the dross of caches unless its a cracking location, glorious multi or sly sly puzzle.

 

Candidly (and its very much a private view), I prefer one good cache in a lovely spot to a dozen nanos on city high streets or parish rubbish dumps. So there are a few near me I will not even bother with.

 

Good cache setting is a different art to cache finding, and not everyone has it, so I have no problems in those that dont mix one with the other.

[+JeremyR]

And just because the stats show that someone owns zero caches, it doesn't mean that they never have. My stats show 160 for 0 but I used to own one (which got rather nice lengthy logs I have to say ) however, I had to adopt it out when I moved a loooooong way away. Also, some people hide caches under a different name, etc...

 

Bottom line for me though, is that if you had to place a certain percentage of your finds, we'd have an intolerable amount of total rubbish out there...

Edited September 12, 2008 by JeremyR

[+Simply Paul]

There have been some good comments on this very subject here just last month, here in October 2007 and here in November 2004. Just goes to show you can't keep a good topic down

[+mongoose39uk]

And remember there are some people out there who have placed caches but never found any <snip>

Are there? Wow.

 

One example Stoney Stashers

 

Placed a good variety of hides as well.

[andynelaine]

Is there an unwritten rule to place a percentage back to what you have found?

 

I thought this so to be fair to other cachers i placed caches!! Now im archiving them as i placed them for the sake of it!!. They are all rubbish so now i will start again, Quality not quantity.

 

The moral of this story is dont get rushed in to place caches...take your time!!

[+HazelS]

There are amazing people out there like Team Marzipan out there who simply LOVE placing caches, but would rather have fun that way than cache. They have placed 213 caches to their 577 finds...

 

And, as we speak, they are probably out there setting more... I think the average is about 2 a week at the moment... and they are ALL a great hide.... usually something a little different about their caches too!!

[+Gushoneybun]

There are amazing people out there like Team Marzipan out there who simply LOVE placing caches, but would rather have fun that way than cache. They have placed 213 caches to their 577 finds...

 

And, as we speak, they are probably out there setting more... I think the average is about 2 a week at the moment... and they are ALL a great hide.... usually something a little different about their caches too!!

 

 

 

I can vouch for these caches having visited several this week. An amazing amount of detail went into the ones I found, and all in interesting places. Great caches well worth a visit if you come to North Wales.

[+careygang]

There are amazing people out there like Team Marzipan out there who simply LOVE placing caches, but would rather have fun that way than cache. They have placed 213 caches to their 577 finds...

 

And, as we speak, they are probably out there setting more... I think the average is about 2 a week at the moment... and they are ALL a great hide.... usually something a little different about their caches too!!

 

But the problem with placing a great many is the maintenance. I do not know Team Marzipan, they may be the most thoughtful owners ever, but far too many cachers with a high ownership are also the owners of some of the worst caches. Far too many of the really bad caches I find are owned by owners with 50 or more active caches.

[+HazelS]

There are amazing people out there like Team Marzipan out there who simply LOVE placing caches, but would rather have fun that way than cache. They have placed 213 caches to their 577 finds...

 

And, as we speak, they are probably out there setting more... I think the average is about 2 a week at the moment... and they are ALL a great hide.... usually something a little different about their caches too!!

 

But the problem with placing a great many is the maintenance. I do not know Team Marzipan, they may be the most thoughtful owners ever, but far too many cachers with a high ownership are also the owners of some of the worst caches. Far too many of the really bad caches I find are owned by owners with 50 or more active caches.

 

Thankfully not the case with them...

 

Mike is self employed and so has the time to maintain.... plus, most are within about 10 miles from home on their favourite walks, and so it's not seen as a trek to get out there and maintain. Plus, of course, this is how they get their pleasure from caching - setting and maintaining... finding caches is a bonus to them... first and foremost, it's about placing and maintaining. If a cache needs checking out, it's rare it's disabled for more than a couple of days!!

 

I know what you mean about those with high numbers of placed caches though.... caches shoved in a hedge somewhere that's leaked and had a Needs Maintenance icon on it for months.... Owner says - Oh I'm too busy out caching!!!! Great!

 

[+Donmoore]

I think it really comes down to a quality vs. quantity thing.

 

I have been caching for a couple of years and enjoy it. When I started it would not take my search long before I was in a different country. Now I have lots of caches and new cachers and still for the most part people are placing caches in spots, you would not go unless you were caching, spot of interest and areas of outstanding beauty.

 

Now in my eyes as long as thats the case and that you know of such an area you should place a cache for others to enjoy the outdoors. As discussed in another thread I really have no interest in it becoming about the numbers.

 

So I don't think that if I have found X amount of caches I should just go out and bung one under a lamp post, along a motorway, an A road or a boring train station, just so I can say look here is my input.

 

So common sense should prevail here. If you know some quality hiding spot then do it if not let those who do have good ideas place them.

[+muzzys]

interesting replies, thanks all.

 

So far all the ones we have found (except 1) have taken us to nice locations, most of which we never knew existed even though very close to home.

Im sure as we do more and more, we will come across more pointless ones placed for the sake of it.

[+wigglesworth]

Given the ever increasing number of caches I no longer feel the urge to place more caches.

If we multiply the number of active cachers by say 5 (ie everybody sets 5 caches) we would still have plenty of caches to chose from. If cache setters were restricted to the number of caches they can set I wonder if people would be far more selective and possibly the quality would improve!

Peter

[+harrogate hunters]

 

But the problem with placing a great many is the maintenance. I do not know Team Marzipan, they may be the most thoughtful owners ever, but far too many cachers with a high ownership are also the owners of some of the worst caches. Far too many of the really bad caches I find are owned by owners with 50 or more active caches.

 

Oooo..... I must be placing "worse" caches without knowing it, as I have more than 50

[+goldpot]

And remember there are some people out there who have placed caches but never found any <snip>

Are there? Wow.

 

...and Lord of the Cachers.

 

But I suspect he's a bluff.

[+The Mad MG's]

A bit of fence sitting here.

 

As a relative noob I get the OP's point, but also get the quality not quantity point.

Surely its a diverse sport that accommodates us all.

As a Family I love the days out caching, Mrs M takes her photos, me and the kids get a kick out of the hunt/find (sometimes) and we all click Refresh when passing the PC to see if our newly placed cache has been found.

 

I've had the idea/equipment for a new cache for several weeks now, but am still fine tuning it. Hopefully it will get good reviews and cachers will appreciate the effort put in to it.

[+Bear and Ragged]

we all click Refresh when passing the PC to see if our newly placed cache has been found.

 

[+careygang]

 

But the problem with placing a great many is the maintenance. I do not know Team Marzipan, they may be the most thoughtful owners ever, but far too many cachers with a high ownership are also the owners of some of the worst caches. Far too many of the really bad caches I find are owned by owners with 50 or more active caches.

 

Oooo..... I must be placing "worse" caches without knowing it, as I have more than 50

 

I'm sure you guys are fine, but here's an example of 'bad' ownership from over here. GC16PE7

Our Reviewer over here seems to have her work cut out chasing this individual, who never maintains her caches, although she continues to place them out. Perhaps there's a GSP Reviewers Rule that says you can't block releasing someone's new cache, just because they have outstanding maintenance. But I think it would be good if they did, certainly in the case of this individual.

[+maxkim]

There are amazing people out there like Team Marzipan out there who simply LOVE placing caches, but would rather have fun that way than cache. They have placed 213 caches to their 577 finds...

 

And, as we speak, they are probably out there setting more... I think the average is about 2 a week at the moment... and they are ALL a great hide.... usually something a little different about their caches too!!

The're great arn't they... wish we lived nearer to them... LOL. MaxKim.