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Useless Hints

Waazdag

By Waazdag
in General geocaching topics

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Waazdag

+Waazdag

Posted
Posted

This is just a blow off steam and vent about the useless hints you've come across while caching. I always thought that the "ADDITIONAL HINTS" was something the CO's would put so that a searcher who was having difficulty could decipher and help them to find the cache: especially those pesky nano-micros that are becoming the main sort of cache these days... Having come from a 3000 KM road trip/caching trip last month (tacked on to a regular business trip) I came across a LOT of useless hints in my 170 odd finds and several DNFs... I mean really, why bother putting anything if you aren't putting something that actually helps the seeker? I'm one that prints off sheets still to help me remember what I found/left/did not find, so will decipher the "HINT" in the field if I need it... and am really annoyed with the amount of useless hints out there...

 

For example:

 

Micro cache: GZ led to a rural set of mail boxes (metal ones). Hint = return to sender

Micro Cache: GZ led to a grassy knoll with 3 evergreen trees on it. Hint= 1 of 3 trees.

Regular Cache: GZ led to a rock re-enforced bank alongside a bridge. Hint= Under Rock

Micro Cache: GZ led to another rock reinforced bank along a highway and culvert. Hint= Fake

Micro Cache: GZ brought you to an evergreen. Hint= Spruce Tree

Regular Cache: GZ and walking to GZ was a maze of fallen trees. Hint: under fallen tree.

 

And my all time favorites:

 

Various: "No Hint"

or

"None Needed"

or

"too obvious"

 

Of course I am now able to read "AB UVAG" and decipher it without using a pen...

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BulldogBlitz

+BulldogBlitz

Posted
Posted

i love those hints. i really love the hints where is references bark (and the cache isn't in a tree or on a fire hydrant).... or it says "magnetic" and it's a tree covered park with 40 metal picnic tables... or it is just a blank page, 5* multi-cache that leads you to an open field - OPEN... not a tree or item to actually put a redirector on.

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted

Here's a two page thread on the subject that should provide you with some interesting reading. This actually is a rather frequent ranting subject, and one that I agree with you on, even though my paperless caching method automatically decrypts hints for me.

 

 

Here's a hint that you may find useful... when the forum times out on you when you're posting... don't hit refresh. Odds are that your post went through just fine. Simply go back in through your normal forum shortcut and it will be there, but without the double post or duplicate thread.

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted
i love those hints. i really love the hints where is references bark (and the cache isn't in a tree or on a fire hydrant).... or it says "magnetic" and it's a tree covered park with 40 metal picnic tables... or it is just a blank page, 5* multi-cache that leads you to an open field - OPEN... not a tree or item to actually put a redirector on.
... or when it decrypts to, "You can park on 55th St and Main. Do not cross fence or go on private property. Beware of the pitbulls."
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Walts Hunting

+Walts Hunting

Posted
Posted
I always thought that the "ADDITIONAL HINTS" was something the CO's would put so that a searcher who was having difficulty could decipher and help them to find the cache

 

Well, I think you might be wrong on that. The cute ones give me a laugh. The most common hint I put on mine is "Come on It's an ammo can" which is already stated in the description.

 

Let's remember this is a fun hobby and nothing should be taken so seriously that you can't handle it with two margaritas or have some "drank" with JaMarcus"

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Waazdag

+Waazdag

Posted
  • Author
Posted

FWIW, I've seen a few "useless" hints that turned out to be a play on words. If you caught the pun, then it helped nudge you in the right direction.

 

Hints that do not make any sense until after you find it, and then kick yourself a bit, those I do not consider useless... just trickier then coming out and telling a person where to look... and those are the types of hints that I prefer... I don't need to be told exactly where it is, but a riddle or something pointing in the right direction is appreciated...

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

Sometimes "None needed" is just the poke I need to look for the hint in the cache name.

 

Yeah, I've softened my stance on "useless hints", when people brought up situations like this. However, I believe these situations are not the norm. I believe most useless "none needed" hints are there because the people can't read the friggin' text "if you don't have a hint, leave it blank".

 

Oops. So much for my softened stance. Just kidding anyways. I do know of one reviewer that will actually point out worthless hints during the publication process. He could be the only one anywhere though. :blink:

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ihorn

+ihorn

Posted
Posted

I have a hint for a puzzle i am doing that just states "I am an enigma wrapped in a riddle." Hints are just hints. Some people cant give a hint without throwing the answer to you. Some people however can give you a hint without giving you the answer.

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Dread_Pirate_Bruce

+Dread_Pirate_Bruce

Posted
Posted

I don't like useless hints. But, then, useless is in the eye of the beholder. Consider the hint that says "under rock" when there is a field full of rocks. The hint does not tell me which rock. But, it tells me that if I look under each one, I will eventually find it. That beats the heck out of looking under every one and then finding that it is hanging from a nearby tree. Even the "no hint needed" tells me that if I can't find it, it is because I'm making things too hard. "One of these isn't like the others" tells me that I am looking for a cache that is disguised as something common and that it probably is in plain sight.

 

So, which hints are really useless? First, the ones that tell me I need specialized knowledge, e.g. "This is a typical HH242 hide." Great, if only who that was and what a typical HH242 hide is. (Not really HH242 in the clue.)

 

Second, a hint that requires me to have specialized knowledge or to be able to do research, e.g. "The winner of the 1968 Olympic gold medal in sailing." (That would be Lowell North.)

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

You're only encouraging them, please don't.

 

Exactly. "No hint needed" is not a hint. The form clearly says if you don't have a hint, leave it blank. Peoople put "no hint needed" in a form that syas if you don't have a hint, leave it blank, because they have some insatiable urge to put text in that field. :(

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GOF's Sock Puppet

GOF's Sock Puppet

Posted
Posted

You're only encouraging them, please don't.

 

Exactly. "No hint needed" is not a hint. The form clearly says if you don't have a hint, leave it blank. Peoople put "no hint needed" in a form that syas if you don't have a hint, leave it blank, because they have some insatiable urge to put text in that field. :(

 

Some times it is because they are not capable of comprehending what the statement "leave it blank" means. :(

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

You're only encouraging them, please don't.

 

Exactly. "No hint needed" is not a hint. The form clearly says if you don't have a hint, leave it blank. Peoople put "no hint needed" in a form that syas if you don't have a hint, leave it blank, because they have some insatiable urge to put text in that field. :(

 

Some times it is because they are not capable of comprehending what the statement "leave it blank" means. :(

 

Correct. Now don't get me wrong here, I have no angst. Just pointing out that people on a mass world-wide basis, are not following instructions! Nothing you can do about it, and it's never going to change. In a perfect world, HH242's post #16 would say "if I look at the cache page, and see there is no hint provided, it tells me that I'm working too hard, because the cache is too easy for a hint".

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dfx

+dfx

Posted
Posted
In a perfect world, HH242's post #16 would say "if I look at the cache page, and see there is no hint provided, it tells me that I'm working too hard, because the cache is too easy for a hint".

hm, not really. lack of a hint can also mean that the CO wanted the cache to be difficult to find, i.e. a hint would be needed to make it easy, but he didn't want to give you one. of course in this case, the D rating should reflect that.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted
In a perfect world, HH242's post #16 would say "if I look at the cache page, and see there is no hint provided, it tells me that I'm working too hard, because the cache is too easy for a hint".

hm, not really. lack of a hint can also mean that the CO wanted the cache to be difficult to find, i.e. a hint would be needed to make it easy, but he didn't want to give you one. of course in this case, the D rating should reflect that.

 

Well, no arguement with that. I wasn't saying any cache with no hint is "too easy for hints" (one of my favorite useless hints, by the way). :(

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redsox_mark

+redsox_mark

Posted
Posted

I agree that "hints" which really say nothing (for example "sorry no hint"), should be avoided. Leave it blank.

 

Also, if a CO chooses not to give a hint, please consider that in the difficulty rating. Yesterday I failed to find 2 micros in the woods with dense tree cover (hard to get good signal), and no hint... difficulty rating 1.5.

 

I've also been thrown by purposely misleading hints. I found one recently where the hint was "under stone". The cache was a micro attached to a street sign, with a small stone resting on top of the cache.

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kmartcachier

+kmartcachier

Posted
Posted

This is just a blow off steam and vent about the useless hints you've come across while caching. I always thought that the "ADDITIONAL HINTS" was something the CO's would put so that a searcher who was having difficulty could decipher and help them to find the cache: especially those pesky nano-micros that are becoming the main sort of cache these days... Having come from a 3000 KM road trip/caching trip last month (tacked on to a regular business trip) I came across a LOT of useless hints in my 170 odd finds and several DNFs... I mean really, why bother putting anything if you aren't putting something that actually helps the seeker? I'm one that prints off sheets still to help me remember what I found/left/did not find, so will decipher the "HINT" in the field if I need it... and am really annoyed with the amount of useless hints out there...

 

For example:

 

Micro cache: GZ led to a rural set of mail boxes (metal ones). Hint = return to sender

Micro Cache: GZ led to a grassy knoll with 3 evergreen trees on it. Hint= 1 of 3 trees.

Regular Cache: GZ led to a rock re-enforced bank alongside a bridge. Hint= Under Rock

Micro Cache: GZ led to another rock reinforced bank along a highway and culvert. Hint= Fake

Micro Cache: GZ brought you to an evergreen. Hint= Spruce Tree

Regular Cache: GZ and walking to GZ was a maze of fallen trees. Hint: under fallen tree.

 

And my all time favorites:

 

Various: "No Hint"

or

"None Needed"

or

"too obvious"

 

Of course I am now able to read "AB UVAG" and decipher it without using a pen...

 

I agree that "hints" such as "no hint" are useless, but the rest of the hints (ie "return to sender") seem to be reasonable. While a near impossible cache may be made easy by a give away hint, I dont think that its the only hint that works. Several times Ive been frustrated in looking only to find that I AM in the right area looking in the right place and just need to be a bit more persistent.

 

If its IS "in a spruce tree" and you want to confirm that to the finder without saying "third branch up about three feet from the trunk hung by 10lb test fishing line", whats wrong with letting them know that it IS in the obvious spot and they just need to look harder?

 

And to be honest, the hints that really bother me are the ones with a paragraph that could easily be condensed into a sentence. I do cache paperless but it makes me angry for the people who dont.

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thistleRacers

+thistleRacers

Posted
Posted

I am with what dfx said...I think blank hint can be interpreted many ways... I personally like...or maybe don't mind the hint that says, "too easy", or "is obvious". Our only hide has one of those useless hints, and I like that way. It says "I don't think a hint is needed, but if people are having trouble I'll add one" I guess I could have put that in the description and not made people have to decrypt it to read it. Never thought it would be such an annoyance to people...but hey, we have nano's and caches that look like chewed gum and electrical outlets...this sport is full of annoyances :(

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briansnat

+briansnat

Posted
Posted

My favorites are "Too easy for a hint" ( Hey Bozo, if it was that easy I wouldn't be standing here decrypting the hint) and the ones that give you parking directions, or tell you to bring a flashlight, or anything that you need to know BEFORE you get to the cache site.

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mchaos

+mchaos

Posted
Posted

You don't have a hint. If some one leaves No hint needed, the reviewer should not publish the cache and tell the CO that they should either leave it blank or leave a real hint.

 

One word hints are good for decoding in the field. The hints in the one that was posted were good to me.

 

I don't like when no hints are left. I don't always look at the hints, but if I am stuck, I wish I had it to reference. Some times only a word is needed to get you in the right direction.

 

There are a couple cache placers near me who are micro saturaters and they almost never leave a clue.

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GOF and Bacall

GOF and Bacall

Posted
Posted

One word hints are good for decoding in the field.

 

That brings up another aspect of useless hints. The two paragraph hint.

 

Even worse, the two paragraph hint that basically says "I'm not leaving a hint" but has a bunch of rambling filler.

 

All of this makes me glad I went paperless. Hints decoded for me.

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niraD

+niraD

Posted
Posted
I've also been thrown by purposely misleading hints. I found one recently where the hint was "under stone". The cache was a micro attached to a street sign, with a small stone resting on top of the cache.
Yeah, anti-hints are worse than "no hint needed". I don't mind being told in the description that it's a magnetic key holder, when the magnetic key holder his hidden nowhere near anything magnetic. That kind of misdirection is fun. But hints should be helpful, and telling me that it's zntargvp when I need to be looking for something non-magnetic is just rude.
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Skippermark

Skippermark

Posted
Posted
...and the ones that give you parking directions, or tell you to bring a flashlight, or anything that you need to know BEFORE you get to the cache site.

I've seen some older caches (2002 & before) that include directions to parking, probably to help people figure out how to get there back when GPS units didn't have roads.

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FireRef

+FireRef

Posted
Posted

What I don't understand is why reviewers allow people to do this. I have had "no hint needed" rejected when I went to publish a cache, because you're not supposed to put a non-hint hint in the field. One guy in Ohio has "NO SEARCHING PRIOR TO DAWN OR AFTER DUSK !!!! " as his hint for almost all of his caches. He also has this on the cache page multiple times. I understand the issue, but putting it as the hint also is a waste of space and my time to look at it.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

What I don't understand is why reviewers allow people to do this. I have had "no hint needed" rejected when I went to publish a cache, because you're not supposed to put a non-hint hint in the field. One guy in Ohio has "NO SEARCHING PRIOR TO DAWN OR AFTER DUSK !!!! " as his hint for almost all of his caches. He also has this on the cache page multiple times. I understand the issue, but putting it as the hint also is a waste of space and my time to look at it.

 

Well, I do know a reviewer who usually posts a reviewer note "suggesting" the useless hints be removed. I seriously doubt he's ever rejected any caches on that basis. And he ain't from Erie, Pa. so there's at least two of them out there. :(

 

I agree with Skippermark two posts above me. Almost every time I've seen parking coordinates as a hint, it's been on a moldy oldy placed 2002 or earlier. I've also noticed hints on caches of that era where entire purpose of the hint is to tell you what park the cache is in, or what trail it's on. Then again, there's a recent n00b cache in my area whose hint only tells you what park it's in as well.

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MisterEFQ

MisterEFQ

Posted
Posted

"Micro cache: GZ led to a rural set of mail boxes (metal ones). Hint = return to sender

Micro Cache: GZ led to a grassy knoll with 3 evergreen trees on it. Hint= 1 of 3 trees.

Regular Cache: GZ led to a rock re-enforced bank alongside a bridge. Hint= Under Rock

Micro Cache: GZ led to another rock reinforced bank along a highway and culvert. Hint= Fake

Micro Cache: GZ brought you to an evergreen. Hint= Spruce Tree

Regular Cache: GZ and walking to GZ was a maze of fallen trees. Hint: under fallen tree."

 

Somebody like me who just started and has a pretty jumpy GPS, some of those hints are helpfull.

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dfx

+dfx

Posted
Posted
That's what the difficulty rating is for. Even the cache submission page says to leave it blank if you don't have a hint.

but but but .... what if the cache is in plain sight, but requires special tools to be opened?!?!?

 

ni?

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted

One word hints are good for decoding in the field.

 

That brings up another aspect of useless hints. The two paragraph hint.

 

Even worse, the two paragraph hint that basically says "I'm not leaving a hint" but has a bunch of rambling filler.

 

All of this makes me glad I went paperless. Hints decoded for me.

 

LBH JNAG N UVAG, GUNG'F CYNVA GB FRR

BGUREJVFR LBH JBHYQ ABG OR QRPBQVAT ZR

OHG ORPNHFR V YBIR FNQVFGVP SHA

V QBA'G GUVAX V'Z TBVAT GB TVIR LBH BAR!

 

:lol::):D:D

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Chrysalides

+Chrysalides

Posted
Posted (edited)
LBH JNAG N UVAG, GUNG'F CYNVA GB FRR

BGUREJVFR LBH JBHYQ ABG OR QRPBQVAT ZR

OHG ORPNHFR V YBIR FNQVFGVP SHA

V QBA'G GUVAX V'Z TBVAT GB TVIR LBH BAR!

I've always liked the Haiku form...

 

Ybbxvat sbe n uvag?

Fb rnfl lbh qba'g arrq bar,

Abguvat gb frr urer.

 

I dislike useless hints as well. Though I'm kind of undecided about hints that make sense only after you've found the cache. I guess for the last one, it depends on whether I found the cache or not :lol:

Edited by Chrysalides
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