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Why doesn't ANYONE find my cache!?!?


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I just archived two caches that had 39 and 43 finds in just under two years. A few months ago, someone placed about 30 caches in the same park. One of them, 0.3 miles from one of mine, has had 16 finds in two months. I'm a little disappointed about this, but I don't take it personally. The area is pretty tough hiking for this region, my caches were a good ways in, and there were only two to be had. Now that people can get many finds on one hike, I think they're more willing to head out there.

 

ETA: I wanted to clarify that my archiving of the caches had zero to do with the lack of finds. The permit required for the park expired this month.

Edited by Dinoprophet
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If you are looking for a lot of finds and that is your goal, then put out easy to find and easy to get to caches. Pick up some hide-a-key containers from your local big box store and slap them on guard-rails, hide them under lamp post skirts or stick them on utility boxes. The key is to place them in areas that are extremely easy to get to and require little effort. Sometimes having to park and walk a short distance can disuade folks from finding them. Try placing the cache in a location where the hunter can roll down the window to grab it and not even get out of the car.

 

Another great idea is to find a really nice park and place the hide-a-key container in the parking lot. That way, the hunter can check out the park while they drive by, or even roll down the window and smell the fragrant flowers from the park.

 

These are just a couple of my ideas. I'm sure others have some good ideas too

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If you are looking for a lot of finds and that is your goal, then put out easy to find and easy to get to caches. Pick up some hide-a-key containers from your local big box store and slap them on guard-rails, hide them under lamp post skirts or stick them on utility boxes. The key is to place them in areas that are extremely easy to get to and require little effort. Sometimes having to park and walk a short distance can disuade folks from finding them. Try placing the cache in a location where the hunter can roll down the window to grab it and not even get out of the car.

 

Another great idea is to find a really nice park and place the hide-a-key container in the parking lot. That way, the hunter can check out the park while they drive by, or even roll down the window and smell the fragrant flowers from the park.

 

These are just a couple of my ideas. I'm sure others have some good ideas too

 

Hey, wait a minute..... were you being sarcastic?

:D

 

(bolding mine)

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"Why doesn't ANYONE find my cache!?!?"

 

:D

 

If it's as well hidden as PorscheSpyder's OP then I'm not surprised folks are having some difficulty with it. :rolleyes:

 

Come back to us, PorscheSpyder! Tell us which cache it is... then I can reassure you that it looks lovely and I'll be sure to do it... ummm... next time I'm in Oklahoma.

 

:rolleyes:

 

MrsB

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I don't know about your local cachers or your cache, but I DO know why our caches get so little visits.

They are (relatively) hard. They require walking (most of them). The camouflage is well done. And people are too accustomed to picking up 35mm film cans behind road signs. So, naturally, a well-painted bison-tube behind a patch of moss in a tree root just next to a big rock clearly hinted at is a bit too much. That sort of things happens. If you don't mind hiding easy tradis, they will come. If like me you are stubborn and insist on hiding good quality and well thought-out caches, you'll get fewer visits.

The choice is ultimately yours!

 

But if you could give more info about your visit problem, that would help a lot!

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I have a lot of caches that get very few finds. A few are lucky to get one or two finds a year. We're not talking remote caches either. This is northern NJ for Pete's sake, how remote can they be?

 

I don't see the lack of finds as a problem. Instead these are caches that were designed to be a challenge and aren't for everybody. Those who do find them enjoy them a great deal judging from the logs, but overall I see the lack of finds as a measure of success.

 

If you want a lot of finds you can slap a magnetic key holder on a 7-Eleven dumpster, but if you put some thought into your hide and make it even a bit of a challenge you are going to cut down on potential finds. Though the finds will be fewer the logs you get are likely to be more glowing than a simple "#5 of 47 today, TFTC".

 

You need to consider why you are placing the caches. If you are trying to make your caches a unique and interesting experience don't sweat the lack of logs. If you are looking to cater to the numbers hounds, obviously you are doing something wrong. See Ready or Not's post above for advice on how to address the latter.

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Location location location.

 

I have a lamp post cache that gets 3-7 find per week.

The Welcome to Las Vegas virtual seems to get hit a few times a day in busy seasons.

I have a few caches that have gone as much as a year before the FTF. No tough hills to scramble, they are pretty much drive up. just remote. Lots and lots of dirt road.

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:rolleyes: Am I the only one that can't see the original posting? Or are we all just responding to the title? I'm confused.

That was addressed way back on page five of this thread.

 

:rolleyes:

 

:rolleyes::D uh, thanks. :rolleyes:

 

I addressed it in my post#6.

 

But the zip code must've been wrong, because it's never been seen since.

 

MrsB

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Looks as though PorscheSpyder is busy playing 99 Wheels of Cheese over in the Off Topics forum. He apparently prefers the serious stuff over our nonsense. Can't really blame him.

 

SORRY! I'm a little baffled too as to why the original post isn't showing up.

 

For those of you who didn't see it, heres a summery:

 

I placed a mystery cache right along a busy highway and it's only been visited by two local cachers. There are three other caches along the same road that have been getting a decent amount of traffic, and I just can't understand why people pass up a mystery cache. I've seriously been considering archiving it. Here is the link again.

 

GC1QKX7

 

Advice is more than welcome!

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I heading back to 99 Wheels of cheese on the wall!!!! :D

Edited by PorscheSpyder
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Ah, now it makes sense. A two stage mystery cache along the highway that can only be solved by finding WP1 is not going to get a lot of visitors. Once the locals that like mysteries find it, the traffic will drop. When I'm traveling and looking for caches along the way it is traditionals or I just skip it. I might be inclined to do a mystery if it is something I can solve a head of time. But multis and mysteries on the fly no. I just don't want to take the time while traveling.

 

Jim

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I placed a mystery cache right along a busy highway and it's only been visited by two local cachers. There are three other caches along the same road that have been getting a decent amount of traffic, and I just can't understand why people pass up a mystery cache. I've seriously been considering archiving it. Here is the link again.

 

GC1QKX7

 

Advice is more than welcome!

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I heading back to 99 Wheels of cheese on the wall!!!! :D

 

The problem is noted in bold above.... A cache that requires thought will not get visited by most cachers. If you remove the puzzle and any other interesting aspects of the cache and turn it into a traditional cache, the numbers will increase. The uninteresting, high visibility, easy to access location is perfect though. You're almost there!

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Ah, now it makes sense. A two stage mystery cache along the highway that can only be solved by finding WP1 is not going to get a lot of visitors. Once the locals that like mysteries find it, the traffic will drop. When I'm traveling and looking for caches along the way it is traditionals or I just skip it. I might be inclined to do a mystery if it is something I can solve a head of time. But multis and mysteries on the fly no. I just don't want to take the time while traveling.

 

Jim

 

That thought occured to me before I posted this thread. The puzzle are four pre-Algerbra problems. I've been thinking that maybe I should do away with the first stage and post the puzzle on the cache's page instead. You think I should do that? And if so, should I disable it and make the changes or archive it and place it as a new cache?

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Looks as though PorscheSpyder is busy playing 99 Wheels of Cheese over in the Off Topics forum. He apparently prefers the serious stuff over our nonsense. Can't really blame him.

 

SORRY! I'm a little baffled too as to why the original post isn't showing up.

 

For those of you who didn't see it, heres a summery:

 

I placed a mystery cache right along a busy highway and it's only been visited by two local cachers. There are three other caches along the same road that have been getting a decent amount of traffic, and I just can't understand why people pass up a mystery cache. I've seriously been considering archiving it. Here is the link again.

 

GC1QKX7

 

Advice is more than welcome!

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I heading back to 99 Wheels of cheese on the wall!!!! :D

 

Mystery and two stage are the key words. The numbers hounds won't touch it because it takes more than 5 minutes, so knock off about 60 percent of all geocachers right off the bat. Those who avoid mysterys for other reasons won't touch it because they don't even get it in their pocket query, so remove another 20 percent or so geocachers. That leaves about 20 percent of geocachers to find your cache.

 

That thought occured to me before I posted this thread. The puzzle are four pre-Algerbra problems. I've been thinking that maybe I should do away with the first stage and post the puzzle on the cache's page instead. You think I should do that? And if so, should I disable it and make the changes or archive it and place it as a new cache?

 

That depends. Do you want to provide a unique experience with a level of challenge beyond the mundane , or to you just want to get 5 or 6 "TFTC" logs every week? Your decision.

Edited by briansnat
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Thanks for all the advice everyone. I think I'll just modify it to make it easier and more, shall we say, attractive. :D I'll post an update when I update it.

 

Thanks again! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Putting myself in the shoes of someone thinking about going for the cache, I'd first consider how far I'd have to drive to maybe find the first stage. Then I'd have to consider whether I would be able to solve it in the field, or if I'd have to bring it home and make another trip back to maybe find it, IF I was able to solve the puzzle.

 

Too many "ifs" for my taste, especially if its a good drive from a populated area.

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I just finished modifying the cache. Here is the link to it:

 

GC1QKX7

 

It is still disabled. I'd appreciate ya'll's opinions before I enable it. :)

 

Seems pretty easy and straightforward to me. Sounds like you previously had it so that you had to answer the question as a stage to the cache rather than posting it directly on the cache page. I've done caches where the person has to stop and figure things out at different stages while they are looking for the final cache. The clues I use are usually pretty easy and straight forward something that most people can figure out. I'll even encrypt directions on how to solve the clues so they don't get discouraged.

I will say that not too many people do those caches, I think many people just don't like puzzle caches, maybe they don't like the idea of not being able to find the cache because they couldn't solve a puzzle, but the ones that do them like them very much.

I'd say the fact that fewer people look for caches that they have to figure out clues for is pretty much par for the course.

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I just finished modifying the cache. Here is the link to it:

 

GC1QKX7

 

It is still disabled. I'd appreciate ya'll's opinions before I enable it. :)

 

I think that you will find that to be much more to people's liking. Keep in mind that a lot of folks (guilty!) automatically filter out "?" caches when doing pocket queries. Best of luck with it!

 

Two small improvements: it woudn't be a bad idea to nest the arithmetic in parenthesis to show the proper order of addition and subtraction. And the addition of some type of coordinate verification link is always a good idea. Keeps those with bad math skills off the RR tracks.

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Persoanlly I'd rather have a cache with one or two log entries of 50 words, than 50 two word entries and I have way more respect for cachers that hide challenging finds than PNG's any day.

 

That said I genarally don't do puzzles when traveling, and never puzzles I have to solve in the field. If I know in advance there is an interesting puzzle where I'm going to be (and other cachers from the area have praised it for creativity) I will go out of my way to solve it before the trip and find it while I'm there, but those are few and far between.

 

AK

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