Jump to content

Mystery distance and Proximity


Recommended Posts

Just wondering if there has been a change in policy regarding the distance between the start point and the final of a mystery cache. I seem to remember that there was a guideline or limit of 2 miles from the posted coordinates to the final. Lately, we have been seeing distances increase and we have them up to 8.5 miles now. That can put them in a different town.

 

We have also been seeing a decrease in cache proximity with many caches being published down to about 400 feet. Has this rule been relaxed as well?

 

Just seeking clarification.

 

Thanks

Link to comment

Just wondering if there has been a change in policy regarding the distance between the start point and the final of a mystery cache. I seem to remember that there was a guideline or limit of 2 miles from the posted coordinates to the final. Lately, we have been seeing distances increase and we have them up to 8.5 miles now. That can put them in a different town.

 

We have also been seeing a decrease in cache proximity with many caches being published down to about 400 feet. Has this rule been relaxed as well?

 

Just seeking clarification.

 

Thanks

 

sounds like your reviewer needs to be reviewed. The 8.5 mile distance can throw off traveler distances and proximity down to 400 feet is certainly well below the guideline. Got any GC numbers for us to look at?

 

Jim

Link to comment

Just wondering if there has been a change in policy regarding the distance between the start point and the final of a mystery cache. I seem to remember that there was a guideline or limit of 2 miles from the posted coordinates to the final. Lately, we have been seeing distances increase and we have them up to 8.5 miles now. That can put them in a different town.

Thanks

 

I'm not sure I see this as a problem. The only real benefit of having the published coordinates withing 2 miles of teh actually coordinates is that it can sometimes make the puzzle easier to solve. Since I've pretty much found ever cache in my town *all* of my finds, except for the occasional new cache, are in other towns or rural areas beyond.

Link to comment

Just wondering if there has been a change in policy regarding the distance between the start point and the final of a mystery cache. I seem to remember that there was a guideline or limit of 2 miles from the posted coordinates to the final. Lately, we have been seeing distances increase and we have them up to 8.5 miles now. That can put them in a different town.

 

We have also been seeing a decrease in cache proximity with many caches being published down to about 400 feet. Has this rule been relaxed as well?

 

Just seeking clarification.

 

Thanks

 

Perhaps these are older 'grandfathered' caches? I found a stage of a multi, and a traditional cache about 48' apart once. Both are older than four years.

Link to comment

FWIW, I've found puzzle/mystery caches that were several miles from their published coordinates. Some were published before the 2-mile guideline and grandfathered. Others had good puzzle-related reasons for having published coordinates further than 2 miles from the cache. Others were puzzle multi-caches where the first stage was within 2 miles of the published coordinates, but the final was a few miles from the first stage.

Link to comment

I assume you're referring to the one mystery/multi-cache you found recently? It starts with a puzzle and has bogus coords, but as a multi-cache also covers quite a lot of ground. That's why it's a Mystery, the "catch all" classification. The final is within 2 miles of the bogus coords.

 

As for finding caches in the 400 foot range, that can easily happen when cache owners move their hides. I've twice seen caches that started well over .1 miles apart be moved onto the same feature!

Link to comment

GC1VE5W is newly published. The final is 8.6 miles east in downtown Abbotsford.

 

GC1VEA2 is new and is about 450 ft from a puzzle final. That puzzle is only about a year old so we are not talking old caches.

 

GC133P8 has one cache at 455 ft and another at 487 feet all on the same trail system. Ours was submitted with the final coordinates and is 2 yrs old.

 

Just a few examples. I'm not complaining here, just wondering if the rules have been relaxed.

Link to comment

I assume you're referring to the one mystery/multi-cache you found recently? It starts with a puzzle and has bogus coords, but as a multi-cache also covers quite a lot of ground. That's why it's a Mystery, the "catch all" classification. The final is within 2 miles of the bogus coords.

 

 

As for finding caches in the 400 foot range, that can easily happen when cache owners move their hides. I've twice seen caches that started well over .1 miles apart be moved onto the same feature!

 

The ones that we arte referring to are simple puzzles with no "multi" component. Posted coords are bogus, solve the puzzle and the final is 8 miles away. A multi can wander for miles and miles. There is one here that is about 7 stages and a total of probably 30 miles, longer if you start in the wrong place. We got lucky and started it in a good spot.

 

No moves, just approved at the lower distance.

Link to comment

Guidelines for Mystery cahces

Unless a good reason otherwise can be provided, the posted coordinates should be no more than 1-2 miles (2-3 km) away from the true cache location. This allows the cache to show up on the proper vicinity searches and to keep the mileage of trackables that find their way into the cache reasonably correct.

The vicinity part makes sense, but it seems to me the trackables problem also applies to multis and letterboxes, yet there is no such guideline for those.

Link to comment

I seem to remember that there was a guideline or limit of 2 miles from the posted coordinates to the final. Lately, we have been seeing distances increase and we have them up to 8.5 miles now. That can put them in a different town.

 

We have also been seeing a decrease in cache proximity with many caches being published down to about 400 feet. Has this rule been relaxed as well?

 

Just seeking clarification.

 

Thanks

 

Two miles recollection, from Mystery or Puzzle Cache guidelines:

 

"Unless a good reason otherwise can be provided, the posted coordinates should be no more than 1-2 miles (2-3 km) away from the true cache location. This allows the cache to show up on the proper vicinity searches and to keep the mileage of trackables that find their way into the cache reasonably correct."

 

Less than 528 feet, from Cache Saturation guidelines:

 

"The reviewers use a rule of thumb that caches placed within .10 miles (528 feet or 161 m) of another cache may not be published on the site. This is an arbitrary distance and is just a guideline, but the ultimate goal is to reduce the number of caches hidden in a particular area and to reduce confusion that might otherwise result when one cache is found while looking for another. On the same note, don't go cache crazy and hide a cache every 600 feet just because you can. "

 

One or more of the reviewers once shared with the forums that a great point was made of "just because a place can have a cache doesn't mean it should have a cache."

Link to comment

I've relaxed that somewhat on some puzzle caches, yes. As the guidelines state, it depends on the cache and the situation around each. I was trying to be nice and get some caches published. I'll try to avoid being nice in the future if that will make you more happy. I guess being a nice guy gets you thrown under the bus in the public forums. :anitongue: It is what it is.

 

I suppose I need to defend myself. Bear with me since these have a story (don't they always?). Here goes...

 

My thoughts are to give maybe 10 percent or so leeway on some puzzles. It depends on the puzzle, its age, its difficulty and its find rate. It depends on the new cache also. Terrain, obstructions such as buildings and walking around them, bridges over creeks... lots of stuff comes into play if the proximity guideline is a guideline and not a hard and fast absolute rule. It is easy to treat is as a rule and just say no. It is hard to be nice and try to find some way to say yes and get more caches listed to find.

 

GC1VE5W is newly published. The final is 8.6 miles east in downtown Abbotsford.
Ah yes. The little joke between curnew and me and the people of Southern BC. That was done on purpose actually. It is something that can be corrected, but I left it way off for the FTF groups just to keep people guessing and add some fun to the joke. Yeah, the "being nice" thing I talked about above. Can't have any of that can we. Now that the joke is over, I'll fix that one. It was fun to watch. (Side note, awesome that geo_canuck77 and Adroit Seeker got co-FTF with TESKELLY and had fun with a cache poking fun at them.)

 

GC1VEA2 is new and is about 450 ft from a puzzle final. That puzzle is only about a year old so we are not talking old caches.
The puzzle is over two years old actually. You were an early finder no less. Time flies when you are having fun. It is more than 450 feet, but I won't say how much to protect the integrity of the puzzle. One thing we look at is the ability to get there as the crow flies. My thoughts were that it would be more than that in this case. Maybe I was wrong. Sorry, but I am not going to be perfect every time. That is the only thing I can guarantee.

 

GC133P8 has one cache at 455 ft and another at 487 feet all on the same trail system. Ours was submitted with the final coordinates and is 2 yrs old.
In this case, your cache *is* two years old. It has 72 finds, which is a pretty high number. The two caches in question were placed by a group of scouts and cubs from what the page says. I'm sorry, but I have a soft spot for kids. This is a game and should be fun. Getting beat up right out of the gate had to be a stinker for them. I had to archive several of their caches due to proximity issues that were much closer. They had obviously not read the guidelines. After archiving a few, I listed some with notes about watching it in the future. They did not. I am not sure why I just listed the second one, but I seem to recall telling them that there would be no more exceptions. I know that right now they have a multi that they are working on and I won't list it because they cannot work out proximity issues yet again. I've drawn the line in the sand with them at this point. In hindsight, I looks like I should have drawn the line one cache sooner. They are new, they are really nice and I hate to discourage them more than I already have.

 

Just a few examples. I'm not complaining here, just wondering if the rules have been relaxed.

They are not rules. They are guidelines. Sometimes I wish they were rules.

 

A long time ago, way early on, I was being hard and fast and treating 528 feet as a rule. Someone appealed a cache that I would not list. Being early on, I got an email directly from Jeremy. The cache was one of the early easy microcaches, handicap accessible and just a quick find for those who could not do harder to get to caches. Jeremy told me that he listed it and to treat each cache individually and sometimes make exceptions.

 

It is a game, after all.

Link to comment

I love puzzles and try to solve lots of them, even if I have no chance of logging them.

 

Two come to mind recently as being over 10 miles from the posted coordinates. Solved 1 while in TN for GWVII and got ticked off because I wasn't about to drive 10 miles out of my way just to grab this puzzle cache. Another I was FTF on nearby, but was surprised at how out of the way the posted coords were...

 

Seems like common courtesy to me to keep the posted coords reasonably close to the final - never mind what the official guidelines say!

Link to comment

I've relaxed that somewhat on some puzzle caches, yes. As the guidelines state, it depends on the cache and the situation around each. I was trying to be nice and get some caches published. I'll try to avoid being nice in the future if that will make you more happy. I guess being a nice guy gets you thrown under the bus in the public forums. :anitongue: It is what it is.

 

There was no intent to "throw anyone under the bus".

 

As the first post says, we were just seeking clarification, and the explanation is all that was needed.

 

Thanks.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...