Caches for Muggles

[Glennren]

Hi everybody, just had this idea of placing caches which are designed so that muggles can find them and then find out about geocaching. This would give immediately give muggles experience with geocaching and we would be able to convert many more people. We could include pamphlets about geocaching and just some basics. If the muggle finds it and then makes an account then he/she could place it back for other muggles. For this to work we have to place it in easy and obvious places. We could also include a log for geocachers so they can find it too.

 

However, there are also problems-bad muggles. Yes, they could just take away the container and not do anything but that should be a risk i think that some people should take. I mean using your used mint in for one of these caches and then losing probably won't be such a tragedy. But that's your opinion.

 

Post your ideas and possible ways to make it something we could do in the future.

[+briansnat]

I don't think it's a very good idea. First off they probably won't last very long. Caches in the open get stolen frequently. Second they could be reported as a suspicious package and then you have the police to deal with.

 

There was a cacher in this area a few years ago who thought along your lines and placed caches in plain sight, often painting them bright colors so they couldn't be missed. It didn't work out very well. Most were stolen within a few days.

[Glennren]

Hi briansnat, thanks for your reply, but what im saying is if we use cheap containers we can afford to be taken, it might work. The muggle can than take it home to check it out in detail. However, i do agree with you that the police would be a problem in America especially, but i live in australia so yeah, the police aren't always blowing up geocaches here

[+FraenCache]

Why do people always want to turn everything in a "Trendy-Everybody-Must-Have-Seen-And-Done-Thing"? Can´t you just keep a secret? C´mon, it´s way more fun to cache inbetween all those muggles insteadt of turning EVERYBODY into a Cacher. Where would be the fun then? I like doing things that have at least a little breeze of individuality/originality/ uncommonness left.

 

Or should we be asking e. g. Nike to make a major campaign about geocaching, starting all people to run out in the wild with theyr iPhones in hands and iPods in ears, stamping everything to the ground thats in theyr way from one to the next chache?

 

Please, JUST DON`T DO IT! At least once ...

Edited July 30, 2011 by FraenCache

[+Panther&Pine]

Many caches have the basic "You've found, intentionally or not" note them. I think that is enough.

 

There is a cache in Silverton that is a film canister on the side of a building with red paint circling it and an arrow pointing to it with the word "Cache" written on the wall as well. I don't think its ever been muggled. (Yes it is placed and the paint job was done with express permission of the building owner).

[+Ms.Scrabbler]

NO! NO! NO!

Has this been "recruit the world" week?

Lets hope August is "shhhhh" month

[+GeoBain]

Make sure you slap one of these on the outside too!

 

[+sword fern]

NO! NO! NO!

Has this been "recruit the world" week?

Lets hope August is "shhhhh" month

The forums would be quiet then!

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

I agree with Brian's post completely. Concur with the shhh in August movement. Geocaching is growing fast enough just through word of mouth. Search for Fizzy's thread and you'll be convinced.

 

We don't need it to before mainstream. That would take a lot of the fun away.

 

That geocaching advertisement is burning my eyes, dear god!

Edited July 30, 2011 by SeekerOfTheWay

[+NYPaddleCacher]

caches for muggles? Sounds like a fair trade.

[AZcachemeister]

Sure, I'll trade ten muggles for a good cache!

 

Did I just type 'muggles'?

 

I must be getting old and soft.

[+TheLoneGrangers]

go ahead and place it, you will get tired of replacing it with in 10 days. If you even know it's gone, since it's a cache for muggles and not geocachers, it will never be reported as missing. So yeah GREAT idea go ahead and do it.

[knowschad]

Many caches have the basic "You've found, intentionally or not" note them. I think that is enough.

 

There is a cache in Silverton that is a film canister on the side of a building with red paint circling it and an arrow pointing to it with the word "Cache" written on the wall as well. I don't think its ever been muggled. (Yes it is placed and the paint job was done with express permission of the building owner).

 

LOL! That is on my Must-Do list for my September trip to the area! Does anybody ever DNF it?

[GOF and Bacall]

I'd DNF that just because.

 

There are too many of you Johny come latelys as it is. Everyone who joined after me should go away. -

[AZcachemeister]

 

There are too many of you Johny come latelys as it is. Everyone who joined after me should go away. -

 

Joined in '06?

 

n00b!

[Mr.Yuck]

Hacked my editing job, see the next post.

Edited July 31, 2011 by Mr.Yuck

[Mr.Yuck]

NO! NO! NO!

Has this been "recruit the world" week?

Lets hope August is "shhhhh" month

 

I'm sorry, I edited my post. It's hard not to be a smart aleck on this one, especially when it's come up twice in a week. It's already bigger than I could ever have imagined! Let people find out about it in the same ways they've always found out about it. Except one of those ways wasn't always surfing the App store for Android or IPhone.

 

These two threads are not the first time this has come up though. About a year ago, some guy wondered how we could "grow geocaching" from a social media standpoint, and had a proposal to integrate Geocaching.com with Foursquare. Yeah, that one went over real well.

Edited July 31, 2011 by Mr.Yuck

[+Bear and Ragged]

go ahead and place it, you will get tired of replacing it with in 10 days. If you even know it's gone, since it's a cache for muggles and not geocachers, it will never be reported as missing. So yeah GREAT idea go ahead and do it.

 

"I found this box, apparently it's called a 'Geocache'.

I moved it and re-hid it.

How do I tell people where I moved it to?"

 

Yea, lets tell 'em all, everything there is to know about caching!

[+Ms.Scrabbler]

NO! NO! NO!

Has this been "recruit the world" week?

Lets hope August is "shhhhh" month

 

I'm sorry, I edited my post. It's hard not to be a smart aleck on this one, especially when it's come up twice in a week. It's already bigger than I could ever have imagined! Let people find out about it in the same ways they've always found out about it. Except one of those ways wasn't always surfing the App store for Android or IPhone.

 

These two threads are not the first time this has come up though. About a year ago, some guy wondered how we could "grow geocaching" from a social media standpoint, and had a proposal to integrate Geocaching.com with Foursquare. Yeah, that one went over real well.

If I'm not mistaken - 3 in one week

[Mr.Yuck]

NO! NO! NO!

Has this been "recruit the world" week?

Lets hope August is "shhhhh" month

 

I'm sorry, I edited my post. It's hard not to be a smart aleck on this one, especially when it's come up twice in a week. It's already bigger than I could ever have imagined! Let people find out about it in the same ways they've always found out about it. Except one of those ways wasn't always surfing the App store for Android or IPhone.

 

These two threads are not the first time this has come up though. About a year ago, some guy wondered how we could "grow geocaching" from a social media standpoint, and had a proposal to integrate Geocaching.com with Foursquare. Yeah, that one went over real well.

If I'm not mistaken - 3 in one week

 

I must have missed the 3rd one.

 

OK, I'd like to say something to the OP, and some people who might think we're obnoxious for wanting to "keep it a secret" and say it's "big enough already". Consider the similar hobby of letterboxing over at AtlasQuest.com, where they really like to stay under the radar. You can actually make your hides (they call them "plants", not hides, but I digress) available only to people with X number of letterboxing finds or plants. For example, your box would be invisible to a player who has never planted a letterbox. Or 10 letterboxes. Or invisible to someone with under 100 letterboxing finds. How ya' think that one would go over here?

[AZcachemeister]

You can actually make your hides (they call them "plants", not hides, but I digress) available only to people with X number of letterboxing finds or plants. For example, your box would be invisible to a player who has never planted a letterbox. Or 10 letterboxes. Or invisible to someone with under 100 letterboxing finds. How ya' think that one would go over here?

 

Elitist snobs!

[Mr.Yuck]

You can actually make your hides (they call them "plants", not hides, but I digress) available only to people with X number of letterboxing finds or plants. For example, your box would be invisible to a player who has never planted a letterbox. Or 10 letterboxes. Or invisible to someone with under 100 letterboxing finds. How ya' think that one would go over here?

 

Elitist snobs!

 

Now that you mention it, a 100 find "newbie filter" would take care of about 95% of the "TFTC" only logs I've seen in the past year. Can someone say feedback thread?

[+JL_HSTRE]

Geo-awareness is good because it cuts down on things like accidental theft of caches, panic over suspicious packages, and worry about suspicious behavior that turns out to just be geocaching. But geocaching is like some other hobbies or genres of music: even if everyone on the planet knew what it was the majority of them would not want to participate.

 

I think the best outreach/growth of geocaching is more grassroots:

 

1) positive news coverage, especially of large events or CITO.

2) geo-awareness targeted to hiking groups and similar that are most likely to want to become cachers

3) filter down of geo-awareness via friends & family. The photos and stories from my geo-adventures on Facebook are followed with by many friends and acquaintances, though few have actually been interested in caching themselves.

4) presentations at local community events, fairs, libraries, or similar.

 

This creates a slow-but-steady growth of geocaching where most people learn about it from existing geocachers rather than surprise finding a mysterious container and hoping their response is excitement not concern.

[Mr.Yuck]

Geo-awareness is good because it cuts down on things like accidental theft of caches, panic over suspicious packages, and worry about suspicious behavior that turns out to just be geocaching. But geocaching is like some other hobbies or genres of music: even if everyone on the planet knew what it was the majority of them would not want to participate.

 

I think the best outreach/growth of geocaching is more grassroots:

 

1) positive news coverage, especially of large events or CITO.

2) geo-awareness targeted to hiking groups and similar that are most likely to want to become cachers

3) filter down of geo-awareness via friends & family. The photos and stories from my geo-adventures on Facebook are followed with by many friends and acquaintances, though few have actually been interested in caching themselves.

4) presentations at local community events, fairs, libraries, or similar.

 

This creates a slow-but-steady growth of geocaching where most people learn about it from existing geocachers rather than surprise finding a mysterious container and hoping their response is excitement not concern.

 

Yeah, I like that. This could be like an outreach to people to make them aware of us, but necessarily aware of, or if they even care about, the specifics. Like someone mentioned in one of the other "recruit muggle" threads the other day, it could get as big as Dungeons and Dragons, where pretty much everybody has at least heard of it, but not necessarily played it. Put me in that category, by the way.

[+Panther&Pine]

Many caches have the basic "You've found, intentionally or not" note them. I think that is enough.

 

There is a cache in Silverton that is a film canister on the side of a building with red paint circling it and an arrow pointing to it with the word "Cache" written on the wall as well. I don't think its ever been muggled. (Yes it is placed and the paint job was done with express permission of the building owner).

 

LOL! That is on my Must-Do list for my September trip to the area! Does anybody ever DNF it?

To Two Too Easy it has no DNFs.

I recomend you try Lime Creek1, Lime Creek 2,Lime Creek 3 and Lime Creek 4.

[+all done]

"Speaking words of wisdom" "Let it be"

Edited July 31, 2011 by Pipeline Putters

[+kunarion]

Hi everybody, just had this idea of placing caches which are designed so that muggles can find them and then find out about geocaching. This would give immediately give muggles experience with geocaching and we would be able to convert many more people. We could include pamphlets about geocaching and just some basics.

Those caches are already in place. They're easy to access, have been found by non-cachers, and are used as a community toy box. You've probably seen a few of those caches. The neighbor kids raid it for nice Geocoins or anything they like, and you'll often find a cigarette or candy wrapper in "trade", and nasty entries in the cache log.

 

When I find one of those Caches For Muggles, I place a laminated card with a very brief explanation of Geocaching, or how to handle Trackables. And I remove the garbage, rescue any TBs and add no other items to be swiped.

 

Whatever you were gonna do for your Cache For Muggles idea, you could do with one of those existing caches instead.

Edited July 31, 2011 by kunarion

[+WarNinjas]

I'm new and worry about this becoming to popular I like it the way it is and don't want to many more doing it. Kind of a fun secret for us! Many are finding it on there phones as I did. I want people finding my caches and hiding new ones but don't want everyone who might not be like us finding out about it.

[Lady_Muffy]

You can actually make your hides (they call them "plants", not hides, but I digress) available only to people with X number of letterboxing finds or plants. For example, your box would be invisible to a player who has never planted a letterbox. Or 10 letterboxes. Or invisible to someone with under 100 letterboxing finds. How ya' think that one would go over here?

 

Elitist snobs! no not snobs just letterboxers that don't want the boxes left out in the open. They want to ensure the boxes survive. I have considered putting restriction on my letterboxes but havn't yet.