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OK, so still a little new to the game, but getting into it quite well. One thing we have noticed is the difference between good geocachers/caches, and bad ones. Luckily there is a feature to list favorites, bur there isint any feature to rate the caches or dislike them. Hate to bash anyone or cache, but some of them are just ( and this is just an opinion).... Lame. no thought, no creativity, no effort. Just a cache thrown anywhere for the sake of having a cache there. I understand sometimes its all about numbers, but...... Really?!.... WE've seen some great ones, and some ..... you got to be kidding me, ones, lol. Grizzleypark is very much into the geocaching thing, and are advocates of maintaining a good geocaching community and are wondering if anyone else out there is in favor of supporting a rating system? I'm sure you have all been to Lame caches and thought, wow, this was a waste of time, and ones that have made you say, hell yea! this was awesome!....... As a community, for a community, it just seems that positive or negative response to something would encourage the continuation or improvement of caches that are favored, and maybe just a little kick in the pants to the ones that need help. Not trying to make any enemies with this, but what is the general consensus on this???? Because no one likes wasting their time on something half assed...... isint it about the adventure? The quest? The victory of completing the challenge set beforth by fellow cachers?.......... Would anyone like to "cache" in on this topic?

"

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Different people cache for different reasons and different people like different caches. If you look at the various threads here you will note that there is little consensus on what makes a bad cache.

 

I hand pick the caches I want to do when I go out so I don't waste a lot of my time on caches that I can't find a single redeeming quality for. That seems to eliminate some of the problems of what I see as lame in my world.

 

And sometimes I do the occasional lame cache just to do it.

 

This is just a hobby for me. It's nothing more. It's not a quest. Nor is it always an adventure. It's just something I do in my spare time and when I feel like I want to explore a little.

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Since this hobby atracts so many different kinds of people, it stands to reason there would be as many different caches, ranging from "why am I wasting my time" lame, to "OMG, what an imagination" excellent.

The good thing is, after a while, you will have a better understanding of caches and will be able to pick and choose.

There are some that salivate over LPC's and do it for the numbers but it doesn't mean you have to.

Edited by student camper
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Undrstood that no one wants to be negative, but we have been to a few caches that were supposed to be "good" but lack of maintaince or upkeep left them to be disapointing upon arrival. Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

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A while back there were lengthy and argumentative discussions about cache ratings. Groundspeak, I believe, was adamantly opposed to such a system. Many reasons I would presume -- most of all was the subjectivity question regarding same. What you may think is a great cache could very well be rated as a spoiled duck by others.

 

The current system seems (on the face of it) to satisfy. You can vote on your Favorites. If it doesn't fit within the realm of what you would consider a Favorite, then don't spend a vote on it. Simple, really.

 

Give the current voting system some time, and I think it may well prove its' worth. At least it shouldn't alienate Cache Owners by compiling "negative" votes.

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And you're in northern NJ. After caching in a number of other areas I've come to appreciate what we have here. The "Just a cache thrown anywhere for the sake of having a cache there" is the rule in many places. They are starting to creep in here to some extent, but are still in the overwhelming minority. There are a few newer cachers who started placing the things. I'm sure you'll figure out who they are pretty quickly. There is one newer cacher who finds mostly hiking caches and really seems to enjoy them, but when he goes to hide them, he sticks them in parking lots. Go figure. So much for the hide what you like to find ethic.

 

...Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

 

Being that the cache owner might be a friend, or I may see at least see him at an event I'll never bash a cache in a log. I will be honest about the condition though. If it's wet I say it's wet.

 

There was a cacher in this area who would not hesitate to drop a note to a newbie who placed a few "lame" caches telling him that stuff is not welcome here. He moved away though. I couldn't bring myself to do that. Sometimes I wish I could be more honest in my logs, but I'm from the "if you have nothing to good to say, say nothing" school.

Edited by briansnat
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Undrstood that no one wants to be negative, but we have been to a few caches that were supposed to be "good" but lack of maintaince or upkeep left them to be disapointing upon arrival. Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

 

You have a NM and NA log at your disposal if there is a problem with the cache.

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And you're in northern NJ. After caching in a number of other areas I've come to appreciate what we have here. The "Just a cache thrown anywhere for the sake of having a cache there" is the rule in many places. They are starting to creep in here to some extent, but are still in the overwhelming minority. There are a few newer cachers who started placing the things. I'm sure you'll figure out who they are pretty quickly. There is one newer cacher who finds mostly hiking caches and really seems to enjoy them, but when he goes to hide them, he sticks them in parking lots. Go figure. So much for the hide what you like to find ethic.

 

...Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

 

Being that the cache owner might be a friend, or I may see at least see him at an event I'll never bash a cache in a log. I will be honest about the condition though. If it's wet I say it's wet.

 

There was a cacher in this area who would not hesitate to drop a note to a newbie who placed a few "lame" caches telling him that stuff is not welcome here. He moved away though. I couldn't bring myself to do that. Sometimes I wish I could be more honest in my logs, but I'm from the "if you have nothing to good to say, say nothing" school.

I like where you are comming from, it makes sense. obviously, time in the game is essential, and only leads to knowledge, which on the other hand is why i post topics.... to ask, and inform myself. I guess it all comes down to the old adage ..." to each his own" Its a big world and diverse at best, Ones mans treasure is another mans cache. lol

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.... Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

Tactful wording. I mean there is negative and then there is negative. For example:

 

"Your cache sucks - I hated everything about it"

and

"I normally don't like such caches placed in this type of area. Yours was no exception"

and

"Not really my cup of tea. I prefer larger caches in Natural settings."

 

All communicate basically the same thing with differing degrees of negativity.

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I'm pretty blunt about it. If a cache sucks, I say as much. Where I live, there are a lot of caches out there that were placed years ago by people who no longer live in the area or who no longer cache at all. They get no maintenance. Some are still there and doing well. Some...not so much. When I come across one of the caches that is in bad shape, I am blunt about how disgusted I am that noone has posted a NM log for a cache that's been in disrepair for x-number of years. Then I post NM and will then post NA in a couple of weeks if the CO doesn't do anything about it.

 

I have noticed that there are a LOT of caches in the area (usually they're parts of powertrails that are oh-so-popular here) where there's only a few words in the cache description. I won't even try for those. If they put as much effort into the cache as they did into writing the cache page, I know I'll be disappointed. The only reason I don't put them on my ignore list is because I need to know where they are for caches I'd like to place.

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From what I can guess, it looks like your one hide is an awesome one, and if that is true, then I commend you for it, and wish that I could go find it. I hear what you're saying (I suspect we all do) but as has been mentioned, TPTB have decided to take Bambi's mom's approach and let 0 favorites be as lame as it gets, or as ignored as it gets. The method is flawed, for sure... frequently visited, but simple, caches are more likely to get "favorited" (cringe!) than remote and infrequently visited, but awesome caches. But don't worry... if you put the effort in, word of mouth will take care of you.

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And you're in northern NJ. After caching in a number of other areas I've come to appreciate what we have here. The "Just a cache thrown anywhere for the sake of having a cache there" is the rule in many places. They are starting to creep in here to some extent, but are still in the overwhelming minority. There are a few newer cachers who started placing the things. I'm sure you'll figure out who they are pretty quickly. There is one newer cacher who finds mostly hiking caches and really seems to enjoy them, but when he goes to hide them, he sticks them in parking lots. Go figure. So much for the hide what you like to find ethic.

 

...Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

 

Being that the cache owner might be a friend, or I may see at least see him at an event I'll never bash a cache in a log. I will be honest about the condition though. If it's wet I say it's wet.

 

There was a cacher in this area who would not hesitate to drop a note to a newbie who placed a few "lame" caches telling him that stuff is not welcome here. He moved away though. I couldn't bring myself to do that. Sometimes I wish I could be more honest in my logs, but I'm from the "if you have nothing to good to say, say nothing" school.

I'm in BrianSnat's camp. I make judicious use of the ignore list. If it isn't worth it, I simply don't hunt it.

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OK, so still a little new to the game, but getting into it quite well. One thing we have noticed is the difference between good geocachers/caches, and bad ones. Luckily there is a feature to list favorites, bur there isint any feature to rate the caches or dislike them. Hate to bash anyone or cache, but some of them are just ( and this is just an opinion).... Lame. no thought, no creativity, no effort. Just a cache thrown anywhere for the sake of having a cache there. I understand sometimes its all about numbers, but...... Really?!.... WE've seen some great ones, and some ..... you got to be kidding me, ones, lol. Grizzleypark is very much into the geocaching thing, and are advocates of maintaining a good geocaching community and are wondering if anyone else out there is in favor of supporting a rating system? I'm sure you have all been to Lame caches and thought, wow, this was a waste of time, and ones that have made you say, hell yea! this was awesome!....... As a community, for a community, it just seems that positive or negative response to something would encourage the continuation or improvement of caches that are favored, and maybe just a little kick in the pants to the ones that need help. Not trying to make any enemies with this, but what is the general consensus on this???? Because no one likes wasting their time on something half assed...... isint it about the adventure? The quest? The victory of completing the challenge set beforth by fellow cachers?.......... Would anyone like to "cache" in on this topic?

"

 

Newbies like us have it pretty good actually.

As someone in another thread once pointed out, it's easy to be picky while our 'found it' numbers are low.

One cacher in my area has over 13,000 finds which doesn't leave a lot of room for ignoring too many caches.

Right now, I'm pretty much going for the rural caches as they seem to be more fun (for me) and higher quality. Those along the highways that don't involve much hiking tend to be more used / abused due to sheer volume of cachers.

 

Once our numbers get higher, we will be forced to venture into the parking lot and intersection caches (one of which I removed some graphic drawings - come on! ...the KIDS are here too people) just to have finds. As for now though, I'm a fairly big guy who looks real suspicious when I'm snooping around the bushes by stores and businesses. Nobody has called the cops on me yet though, I think...

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And you're in northern NJ. After caching in a number of other areas I've come to appreciate what we have here. The "Just a cache thrown anywhere for the sake of having a cache there" is the rule in many places. They are starting to creep in here to some extent, but are still in the overwhelming minority. There are a few newer cachers who started placing the things. I'm sure you'll figure out who they are pretty quickly. There is one newer cacher who finds mostly hiking caches and really seems to enjoy them, but when he goes to hide them, he sticks them in parking lots.

Because all the good hiking spots are taken?

theres lots of empty lamp post however :laughing:

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Undrstood that no one wants to be negative, but we have been to a few caches that were supposed to be "good" but lack of maintaince or upkeep left them to be disapointing upon arrival. Basically if we cant rate them, what is the PC way to say your cache needs help? Without offending and making enemies.

Why don't you use the 'needs maintenance' log?

 

There was a cacher in this area who would not hesitate to drop a note to a newbie who placed a few "lame" caches telling him that stuff is not welcome here. He moved away though.
I suspect that people who are rude online are probably rude in their real life, also. His boss or wife probably ditched him and he had to move along.
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Grizzly, the better caches around here are the ones you have to work at to get to. I suspect that's the case in most places. I'm making use of the the twit filters more and more these days. I'm also not very motivated to start placing any hides. It seems that trashing hides is becoming more common these days...

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We are still fairly new but I have 2 points. 1) We have been to really nasty caches, moldy, smelly toys logs and all. We enjoy the adventure of finding them. Even if they are not up to par we still enjoy the search. 2) My kids love geocaching and take it upon themselves to fix the situation. Every time we com upon a nasty cache they take all the toys out and replace all of them with nice ones! If we find the log is nasty we have added in a new piece of paper. If there is no pencil we leave one. We cannot make our experience any better, but we can help the next people. One time my kids saw a cache that the computer said had moldy toys and they wanted to goto it right away to "fix" it. I think this is what the whole thing is about it is a community sport. Like football if your running back can't run or do his part, someone else needs to step up and make the touchdown in order for the team to win.

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Experience will teach you what kind of caches to seek and what to avoid. As Favorite votes accumulate, that will likewise guide you. You may also notice certain COs tend to hide caches more to your tastes and/or are more vigilant about cache maintenance.

 

Be vigilant with NM and NA logs. If the cache has a problem then NM. If there have already been a long string of logs (especially NMs) indicating an issue that has not been dealt with by the CO then NA.

 

If you have concerns, politely suggest possible issues with the location/container, either in a private message or the log itself. Especially if the cacher seems new - they may have simply made a poor decision out of inexperience.

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Luckily there is a feature to list favorites, but there isn't any feature to rate the caches or dislike them.

 

My opinion? I've not really been overly impressed with the favorites. Good, Bad, it all takes research.

 

The Favorites ratings have led me to one awesome cache that I would never, never, have found without them. And, as an added bonus, it was located next to what turned out to be a very good seafood restaurant that I also would never have found on my own.

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I like where you are comming from, it makes sense. obviously, time in the game is essential, and only leads to knowledge, which on the other hand is why i post topics.... to ask, and inform myself. I guess it all comes down to the old adage ..." to each his own" Its a big world and diverse at best, Ones mans treasure is another mans cache. lol

 

I wouldn't totally buy into that peace and love and standing around the lampskirt holding hands and signing Kum ba ya thing. All the numbers hounds I know and cache with know darn tootin' well what's lame and what isn't. They just make no apologies about the fact they find anything listed on the website, and like the numbers. Of course I can't speak for every number hound in the world, these threads always will generate a handful of "Someone took time to place it, and every cache is a gift" type respones.

 

Anywho, Yeah, after years and years of debate, they finally gave us the favorites feature last year. Without going into great detail, I think it works a) pretty good, and B.) works better than I expected it to. So just roll with it, I guess.

Edited by Mr.Yuck
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