Its it appropriate to hint at someones elses cache?

[+saulman1010]

This is an etiquette thing....

I read a web log on a cache and see someone else was there a couple of days ago and could not find it.

I have a clue without giving it away, is it proper to hint without going through the owner of the cache?

 

TTFN

MJS

[+WRASTRO]

This is an etiquette thing....

I read a web log on a cache and see someone else was there a couple of days ago and could not find it.

I have a clue without giving it away, is it proper to hint without going through the owner of the cache?

 

TTFN

MJS

It depends on the cache, the owner and the cacher who logged the DNF. Is this a hard cache and the owner doesn't want to make it easy by giving hints? Did the cacher ask for a hint when logging the DNF? As a cache owner I don't like seeing logs on my more challenging hides that say "couldn't find it so called so and so who talked me right to it!" Kinda defeats the intended purpose but to each their own. If I log a DNF I don't really want someone sending me an unsolicited hint. If I want a hint I will ask for one.

 

If you want to offer to help I would suggest emailing the cacher and asking him/her if he/she wants a hint.

[+Night Stalker]

Normally I would say NO. With that being said there may be circumstances that warrant the hint. The one time I can think of on the top of my head was a cacher where the owner had reversed one of the coordinates so it was about 1/2 mile from where the GPS zeroed out. I was glad that a previous finder had listed the corrected coordinates.

 

My feeling is that if the original owner wanted the cache to be evil, that we should let him have his kicks.

[+saulman1010]

Thanks for the reply's.

I suppose I geocache with kids most of the time and I hate to see them dissapointed.

I wasnt meaning to spoil it, just add to the first part of a multi cache.

I'll keep watching.

[+Moore9KSUcats]

There are several along a nearby trail that are really tough... the owner doesn't really monitor them that much, either.

 

After we found one of them, on our frequent walks along that trail, we noticed a lot of "damage" to a stone wall below the trail. In this case, the owner said something like "you have to move a rock"...

 

Since satellite coverage was really tough there (the side of a cliff, plus heavy tree coverage), and the arrow tended to send you onto some rather delicate travertine terraces about 50 feet away from the cache, several of us left hints in the logs for that particular cache. We also left what we considered to be much better coordinates. We didn't want the wall below the trail to be damaged, when the cache was actually on the other side of the trail.

 

After there have been several DNF's, I usually walk the trail to see if the caches are still there, and report that they are, in fact, still there.

 

There have been a LOT of DNF's on those hides.. all three of them. The difficulty rating is lower than it should be, in our opinion. It took us several trips for each cache to find them, originally, with several people hunting for the caches.

[theminmin]

So it's okay to ASK the owner for a hint?

[+BlueDeuce]

So it's okay to ASK the owner for a hint?

 

Typically, owners who want to provide a hint will place one on the cache page.

[+WRASTRO]

So it's okay to ASK the owner for a hint?

 

Typically, owners who want to provide a hint will place one on the cache page.

It is always ok to ask the owner for a hint if you have done your best to try to find a cache or solve a puzzle. The owner can choose to provide one or not. I will absolutely not give a hint on any cache if the cacher has not posted a reasonable DNF log. And my hints tend to be a bit cryptic. Most times I start by asking the cacher where they have looked and what they saw/found.