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What is your definition of a lame cache?


L0ne.R

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What is your definition of a lame cache?

 

It is often stated in the forums that lameness is subjective. What is lame to me may not be lame to you. I'm wondering if most people differ in what they consider lame or if there is a general consensus of a few certain features which would deem a cache lame by the majority of cachers.

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What is your definition of a lame cache?

 

It is often stated in the forums that lameness is subjective. What is lame to me may not be lame to you. I'm wondering if most people differ in what they consider lame or if there is a general consensus of a few certain features which would deem a cache lame by the majority of cachers.

 

I would say a random container thrown at a random place with no special history, view, nature, hike or other feature. And with a cache description of less than 3 lines of text.

 

\Mette

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Any cache that makes me say "And why did some one think that this was a nice/pretty/interesting place to put a cache?"

Examples.

 

Bad: Guardrail cache along major highway, nothing to see for miles (except that nice park about 2 miles down the road with no cache).

 

Good: Cache about 20 feet off of the same major highway but next to an historic cemetary that can't be seen from the road.

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To misquote Justice Potter Stewart:

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of caches I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [Lame]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it".

You see, for me, lame is more a matter of degree than something specific.

Many factors combine to achieve what I like to call a cache's Lameness Quotient, or LQ.

These include, but are not limited to the location, the container, the hide style and the write up.

A good example of my highly biased thoughts on this matter can be found here.

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IMHO a lame cache may be any of the following:

  • A cache in a completely unremarkable location, this includes many LPCs, Guard Rail and Cattle Guard caches.
  • A cache made from a container which is not up to the elements, i.e will leak or decompose within a year.
  • A cache which makes poor use of natural cover, particularly where there exists abundant cover for a small, medium or large cache, but a micro has been placed.
  • Yet another travelbug hotel - seriously, can we stop creating these? When they are muggled it's a major loss.
  • Needle in haystack - When I see the cache is small or micro in a big pile of rocks, I just move on, I don't have time for that.
  • A cache placed where visitors will do harm to the environment - I've seen a few placed in sandstone or serpentine where climbing to search for it will, or already has torn away the slope or rock face.
  • Any hide which modifies or damages the hide location in a permanent nature, particularly without permission from park, land owner or land management - when a cache is remove there should be no trace it was ever there - no metal plates, no Velcro, no holes bored.
  • Unsafe containers which may cut, pinch or otherwise injure someone trying to open them in a reasonable manner (if you get hit by a ricochet while trying to shoot one open, that's your own dumb fault.)
  • Placed and forgotten hides - the CO thought Geocaching was a blast and wanted to do one or more hides and then abandoned the game - these may be good or ingenious, but a neglected hide eventually becomes a problem for other geocachers.
  • Bottlecap hides - a bottle cap is litter, expect it to be picked up. Try gluing your vessel to a rock or piece of wood instead.
  • Caches which needlessly place seekers at risk - there's challenging terrain and then there's dangerous terrain where a cache should never be placed - i.e. on a branch overhanging a pool of crocodiles.
  • Caches where the CO is off on coordinates by a significant distance, such as 50 feet, or more, depending upon terrain - 50 feet in a fairly open spot, not a problem, but 50 feet in a hillside, thick with undergrowth can be a real bother and encourage a lot of geotrail making.

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As Justice Potter Stewart once said in a different context, "I know it when I see it." I just happen to see a few in lamp posts, parking lots, locations picked out because there was no cache in the area, newspaper stands, garbage-strewn areas, haystacks, and places covered with spider webs.

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DragonsWest has written the best description of 'lame' caches that I've seen.

 

Examples, I've personally encountered recently...

 

Film canisters on dusty backroads with no appreciable view.

Guard rail hide where the CO poked holes in the container to secure it. (It broke and is not watertight.)

Guard rail hide in a bad neighborhood with no view.

Container in a trash-strewn vacant lot in a bad neighborhood, backed up to an interstate highway.

LPH's in Starbuck's/drive through lanes.

Broken plastic container under rocks (CO is missing, no maintenance work)

Cache where coordinates were over 500ft off (and never corrected by CO).

Film canister under a pile of rocks in an industrial area with lots of traffic.

Geocache setup as a commercial cache with advertising literature.

Cedar bush hide on the edge of a public children's swimming pool.

No description/no hint caches

Descriptions that contain no information about the cache

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I was once in a beautiful park hunting a cache. Literally 30 feet from GZ was a tree with a large hole in it about 6 feet up big enough to hold a medium sized cache. I searched the heck out of that tree to no avail. The cache? It was a plastic film can with no camo sitting next to a basketball sized rock. Not that I don't appreciate the work that COs do but...seriously. This cache had little or no description and no hint either. Bleh. I like to write a little something in the logs but this one got the dreaded six letter log: SL TFTC.

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I like to write a little something in the logs but this one got the dreaded six letter log: SL TFTC.

I've gotten to a point where I won't log something like that at all. I am considered to be quite wordy in my logs, often having to utilize an online character counter to get me below Groundspeak's 4000 character limit. Since I advocate honest logging, I would feel obligated to critique something like that rather harshly. Since I also advocate spreading kindness whenever possible, I resolve the inner conflict by following Thumper's advice:

"If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all"

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I was once in a beautiful park hunting a cache. Literally 30 feet from GZ was a tree with a large hole in it about 6 feet up big enough to hold a medium sized cache. I searched the heck out of that tree to no avail. The cache? It was a plastic film can with no camo sitting next to a basketball sized rock. Not that I don't appreciate the work that COs do but...seriously. This cache had little or no description and no hint either. Bleh. I like to write a little something in the logs but this one got the dreaded six letter log: SL TFTC.

Ahhh... but look at it this way.... You saw what you thought would be a great place to hide a cache and you fell for the decoy. You got suckered. Now I'm not saying that the actual hide couldn't have been better but the overall search led you down the primrose path first, and with that you can make one heck of a log story.

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I was once in a beautiful park hunting a cache. Literally 30 feet from GZ was a tree with a large hole in it about 6 feet up big enough to hold a medium sized cache. I searched the heck out of that tree to no avail. The cache? It was a plastic film can with no camo sitting next to a basketball sized rock. Not that I don't appreciate the work that COs do but...seriously. This cache had little or no description and no hint either. Bleh. I like to write a little something in the logs but this one got the dreaded six letter log: SL TFTC.

The cache was lame because it wasn't in the first place you looked?

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A cache placed only because there was a space on the map.

A cache who's only redeeming quality is that I got a smilie for finding it.

A cache placed because the owner created 'this awesome camo', and the location was a suitable place to put the container because it 'blended in' there.

This pretty well does it for me. But I don't quite get the camo thing.

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Many things, most of what was mentioned by others. Particularly I find caches hidden in cacher's front gardens the ultimate in lameness. Especially when the description is just as lame and doesn't tell you this. I just feel so uncomfortable when I find caches like this. If cachers that hide them in their front gardens want to meet cachers then they should go to events!!! Grrrr... :blink:

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I was once in a beautiful park hunting a cache. Literally 30 feet from GZ was a tree with a large hole in it about 6 feet up big enough to hold a medium sized cache. I searched the heck out of that tree to no avail. The cache? It was a plastic film can with no camo sitting next to a basketball sized rock. Not that I don't appreciate the work that COs do but...seriously. This cache had little or no description and no hint either. Bleh. I like to write a little something in the logs but this one got the dreaded six letter log: SL TFTC.

Ahhh... but look at it this way.... You saw what you thought would be a great place to hide a cache and you fell for the decoy. You got suckered. Now I'm not saying that the actual hide couldn't have been better but the overall search led you down the primrose path first, and with that you can make one heck of a log story.

 

The cache may have been originally hidden in that nook in the tree but was muggled and the next person to look for it threw down a film container.

 

My definition of lame is pretty simple. If it appears that the *only* reason for the caches existence is to provide a smiley to bump finders total find count by one, then to me, it's lame. A cache stuck to a guardrail along a heavily traveled road with nothing particularly scenic or historical to see would fit that criteria. Most caches in parking lots would fit that criteria. There are, however, exceptions that are hidden on guard rails or in parking logs that offer something unique (or at least not common) to the experience. That can be done in a variety of ways. All it takes is a little imagination and initiative. If a CO hasn't tried to use a little imagination and initiative it's probably going to be a lame cache.

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Many things, most of what was mentioned by others. Particularly I find caches hidden in cacher's front gardens the ultimate in lameness. Especially when the description is just as lame and doesn't tell you this. I just feel so uncomfortable when I find caches like this. If cachers that hide them in their front gardens want to meet cachers then they should go to events!!! Grrrr... :D

if its in their yards at least it won't go months needing maintenance :blink::):)

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I once went out of my way to create the lamest cache I could possibly conceive of. I took a cardboard oatmeal container, stocked it with absolute junk (broken, filthy things) and tore a piece of paper from a notebook to use as a log. I guess the only non lame thing I did was to stick the log in a Ziploc so it would be dry.

 

Then I found a disgusting, litter strewn spot, complete with poison ivy a few feet from a strip mall parking lot. I called it "The Worst Cache in NJ". It was done as a joke.

 

I guess I didn't do as well as I thought. A number of finders remarked that they had found worse. :signalviolin:

 

 

looks like by the page that its been muggled.

 

Surprise, surprise!

Edited by briansnat
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Little bitty logs in little bitty Ziploc-type bags in containers which are either already water resistant or will retain water, which will accumulate in the tattered remains of the little bitty Ziploc-type bag.

 

Ziploc-type bags only make sense in large caches as an organizational aid - keeping the pen/pencil/logbook and a few travelers together.

 

In any cache the bag will become torn or punctured in short order, which is quite useless in the employment of keeping a log dry, more than likely it will help keep the log wet. If your cache isn't water resistant it should be in cover which shelters it from precipitation or ground water, otherwise, don't bother. Two words - Log Soup.

Edited by DragonsWest
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