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E-mailing CO for a hint


Sharks-N-Beans

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We notice many logs on caches that state 'thanks to CO for the extra hint" etc. which makes me wonder if those with many caches get their e-mail full of requests for help? Personally, we have only contacted COs to give a heads-up on something troubling we may have seen at GZ. I guess I was surprised to see the following in the newsletter as a suggestion for new cachers who can't find a cache:

 

"As a last resort, you can email the cache owner for an additional hint."

 

This tells us that maybe it's not abuse, and, as we are seeing on logs, the suggested resolution to finding tough caches.

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We notice many logs on caches that state 'thanks to CO for the extra hint" etc. which makes me wonder if those with many caches get their e-mail full of requests for help? Personally, we have only contacted COs to give a heads-up on something troubling we may have seen at GZ. I guess I was surprised to see the following in the newsletter as a suggestion for new cachers who can't find a cache:

 

"As a last resort, you can email the cache owner for an additional hint."

 

This tells us that maybe it's not abuse, and, as we are seeing on logs, the suggested resolution to finding tough caches.

On rare, one or two occasions, I've received e-mails from unsuccessful geocachers requesting assistance. I'm always very happy to oblige and enjoy hearing from them. My worst fear is that moms and dads who finally get the kids out for a little geocaching can't find one of mine, so I'm eager to help out.

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We notice many logs on caches that state 'thanks to CO for the extra hint" etc. which makes me wonder if those with many caches get their e-mail full of requests for help? Personally, we have only contacted COs to give a heads-up on something troubling we may have seen at GZ. I guess I was surprised to see the following in the newsletter as a suggestion for new cachers who can't find a cache:

 

"As a last resort, you can email the cache owner for an additional hint."

 

This tells us that maybe it's not abuse, and, as we are seeing on logs, the suggested resolution to finding tough caches.

 

Most high number cachers use the PAF system. I get plenty of texts that said, I am here at GZ and cant find it! Most the time its MIA.

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I see nothing wrong with emailing the CO. After having trouble with one particular cache I contacted the CO whom I had met briefly at a meet and greet and he offered to take me out caching so we could grab his cache and several others in the area together. I've learned a lot from him about clever hides. All in all emailing of using a phone a friend makes the game more social for me....

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I am sure a CO would rather have you email them for confirmation rather than trample down a large area around the GZ.

 

I suspect these people that contacted the CO went to look for it once first.. that is what I do.

 

Wear and tear on the area is not worth and it and the CO most likely would like the contact.

 

Shaun

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I've emailed cache owners on a few occasions such as when I'm totally stumped with a puzzle or can't find a cache after several searches. Some don't respond, others are very helpful.

 

Funny enough, one of the local puzzles I've been stumped on for a while was only solve-able when emailing the owner and asking for the coordinates politely. There is a riddle and PGP puzzle in the cache description. After a couple emails and reading between the lines of the description (and his responses) it became clear the puzzle is just smoke and mirrors.

 

Moral of the story is you should not hesitate to ask for help if you need it, it may be the only way to find the cache!

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I have one mutlicache out where people have to get every single thing right to open the lock.

I included my phone number so people could call when needed.

It has had like 15 finds on it so far, but like 5-6 needed help.

 

When I get stuck or when something seems odd, I just send a mail.

 

I don't really see a problem. If people don't want to reply (as in: find it out yourself), fine.

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Funny enough, one of the local puzzles I've been stumped on for a while was only solve-able when emailing the owner and asking for the coordinates politely. There is a riddle and PGP puzzle in the cache description. After a couple emails and reading between the lines of the description (and his responses) it became clear the puzzle is just smoke and mirrors.

 

Unfortuantely that kind of puzzle is against the guidelines. You cannot have a cache where you have to get the coordinates from the owner.

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Funny enough, one of the local puzzles I've been stumped on for a while was only solve-able when emailing the owner and asking for the coordinates politely. There is a riddle and PGP puzzle in the cache description. After a couple emails and reading between the lines of the description (and his responses) it became clear the puzzle is just smoke and mirrors.

 

Unfortuantely that kind of puzzle is against the guidelines. You cannot have a cache where you have to get the coordinates from the owner.

They never said you had to get the coords from the CO, they said that THEY politely asked for the coords.

 

The puzzle you had to solve was figuring out that there was no puzzle at all. I've done a couple like this and they can drive you batty until you figure out that it really is simple.

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Funny enough, one of the local puzzles I've been stumped on for a while was only solve-able when emailing the owner and asking for the coordinates politely. There is a riddle and PGP puzzle in the cache description. After a couple emails and reading between the lines of the description (and his responses) it became clear the puzzle is just smoke and mirrors.

 

Unfortuantely that kind of puzzle is against the guidelines. You cannot have a cache where you have to get the coordinates from the owner.

They never said you had to get the coords from the CO, they said that THEY politely asked for the coords.

 

The puzzle you had to solve was figuring out that there was no puzzle at all. I've done a couple like this and they can drive you batty until you figure out that it really is simple.

 

Funny enough, one of the local puzzles I've been stumped on for a while was only solve-able when emailing the owner and asking for the coordinates politely.

 

This is the line that I focused on - it sounded like you had to email the CO. Re-reading (and re-reading) the rest of hte post, I would agree with you.

 

However, my statement is still true in general. A CO cannot require you to contact them for the coordinates of a cache (puzzle, Challenge, etc).

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Funny enough, one of the local puzzles I've been stumped on for a while was only solve-able when emailing the owner and asking for the coordinates politely. There is a riddle and PGP puzzle in the cache description. After a couple emails and reading between the lines of the description (and his responses) it became clear the puzzle is just smoke and mirrors.

 

Unfortuantely that kind of puzzle is against the guidelines. You cannot have a cache where you have to get the coordinates from the owner.

They never said you had to get the coords from the CO, they said that THEY politely asked for the coords.

 

The puzzle you had to solve was figuring out that there was no puzzle at all. I've done a couple like this and they can drive you batty until you figure out that it really is simple.

Exactly right ngrrfan.

 

The description said there is one easy way to get the coordinates, but it's up to you how easy (or hard) it is. I kept trying to decipher the puzzle, thinking it couldn't be as easy as simply asking.

 

If this is against the rules so be it, but I thought this was a cool puzzle.

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I have emailed for help a few times but never asked until after I have searched and loged a DNF.

 

Once I got two answers as the CO was a team. 1 answer was very general the other went into great detail. Tried to find using the very general hint but had to use the easy one in the end.

 

Two times I was out of town and emailed the CO after a DNF and included the fact that I would only be in town for a short time. Got back quick hints and made the finds.

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I wish I would have known I could email the cache owner when I was new to this (oh wait, I'm an eternal newbie, forgot). I had a hard time with a lot of them to start.

 

I've emailed a number of cache owners for hints since then, but generally I seem to get about a 50% reply rate.

 

I've just accepted that's going to be what I'm going to get, and if I really want to know, I'll email at least two people (a recent finder and the C.O.) and I usually get a reply from someone. I generally get more cachers that respond than cache owners. (yes, I know cache owners are cachers, you know what I mean :) )

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Several times when posting a dnf many CO's have emailed me asking if I'd like a nudge, so a lot of times it's initiated by the actual cache owner.

 

That happened to me on the first cache that I attempted. The fact that the CO responded in such a welcoming and helpful manner was one of the things that initially attract me to the game.

 

As a cache owner, I have only initiated contact twice. Both times were for DNFs from almost brand new accounts that had zero finds. I did not want them to become discouraged and give up on their new hobby, so I wrote a welcoming email and offered to help in any way that I could, as well as invited them to our monthly Meet 'n Great. I also suggested other caches in the area that they were pretty likely to find without help. One never returned my email and seems to have never cached again. The other seemed very grateful and became an on again, off again cacher.

 

I don't see anything wrong with asking a CO for help, provided that you are willing to accept the fact that they may not be willing, nor are the obligated to provide help. I think that the sentence in the newsletter could have been worded differently to reflect that.

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Whenever someone emails for a hint, we give 'em. We want folks to find them and none of ours are really tough to find (though one may be tough to access).

We often get an offer for a hint from the CO when we post a DNF.

I emailed a CO once when parking for a hide was on private property. Turned out coords were off quite a bit and he gave me the proper location. Saved a 100 mile trip.

I'll rarely email the CO if I'm miles in on higher terrain and spent a considerable amount of time in the area. I went more for the hike, but finding the hide would be nice too.

- Night-shifter, most folks work when I'm off, so usually get a hint when I'm almost back to the truck. :laughing:

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I got one geocacher who emailed me for hints. I gave him one. He has found 1200 caches so he is no novice. He found the cache. Next cache I put out was in town and an easy find at a light pole. He wrote in his find log "Another one of those again". I think the whole idea of geocaching is founded on having some that may be difficult to find otherwise why all the fake bolts, fake rocks, fake logs, fake electrical plates and connections, fake dog poo, fake snails, fake branches, etc. as far as the imagination can produce. Those are there to make it a challenge. If you don't want the challenge, then move on to the next one. Some have tried the same one several times and when they find it they get the reward. I no longer will provide hints for my special hard to find caches and I say so in the description and even name the series "It just got harder". I have three of the 38 out that have never been found and I have checked to verify they are still there.

 

I make some large ammo cans with goodies for the kids too.

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I no longer will provide hints for my special hard to find caches and I say so in the description and even name the series "It just got harder". I have three of the 38 out that have never been found and I have checked to verify they are still there.

 

I can see no help before FTF established. But no help period? <_<

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I no longer will provide hints for my special hard to find caches and I say so in the description and even name the series "It just got harder". I have three of the 38 out that have never been found and I have checked to verify they are still there.

 

I can see no help before FTF established. But no help period? <_<

 

If a cache is especially difficult to find, and is rated accurately such that providing hints reduces the over all difficulty I think that would be understandable. For example, a CO might have created a cache with the expectation that the average geocacher might have to search for an hour or more without any hints before finding it, and has rated the cache accordingly. If someone has only spent 5 minutes searching for a cache asks for a hint and expects to get one that will allow them to find it after another 5 minutes searching, they've effectively turned what might be a 3.5 difficulty cache into a 2 star difficulty.

If a cache is rated a 3 or higher it's *supposed* to be hard to find.

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I have asked for help before - in cases where I just wanted to know for sure it was really there B4 looking again. On one puzzle - derived from a poem I needed to eliminate some irrelivent clues, that confused me and made the puzzle way to hard. Once that was cleared up I was solving a real puzzle not a wild goose chase.

Edited by GPS-Hermit
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I no longer will provide hints for my special hard to find caches and I say so in the description and even name the series "It just got harder".

I do the same with my D3.5+ puzzle caches since I think nobody's entitled to a find. I made a couple of pretty easy mysteries just to balance the universe though, and there are plenty of easy trads and puzzles in the area anyway. No reason to dilute someone's personal D5 "value" just because someone else is impatient or on the verge of a full-on OCD attack over a lonely map icon.

 

I *will* answer emails begging for hints, but the answer may not contain an actual hint <_<

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It looks like the focus has turned to whether to give extra hints or not and maybe my OP eluded to that. I guess what I was really interested in was feedback from those with tons of hides. I would think that responding to requests for hints on 100 or so hides could get old even if it's just 4 or 5 a day. We've had a few that start "we're at GZ" which usually makes me feel bad because it was sent a couple of hours before I checked my e-mail.

 

Maybe it's not such a big deal due to those with tons of hides having a high percentage of easy hides?

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It looks like the focus has turned to whether to give extra hints or not and maybe my OP eluded to that. I guess what I was really interested in was feedback from those with tons of hides. I would think that responding to requests for hints on 100 or so hides could get old even if it's just 4 or 5 a day. We've had a few that start "we're at GZ" which usually makes me feel bad because it was sent a couple of hours before I checked my e-mail.

 

Maybe it's not such a big deal due to those with tons of hides having a high percentage of easy hides?

 

Ah, Here's the deal. Caches are meant to be difficult to find regardless of the difficulty level.

 

No, I will not help you find some easy way to tell these people that fact.

 

Provided you are maintaining your caches, cut and paste this response: Keep looking.

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It looks like the focus has turned to whether to give extra hints or not and maybe my OP eluded to that. I guess what I was really interested in was feedback from those with tons of hides. I would think that responding to requests for hints on 100 or so hides could get old even if it's just 4 or 5 a day. We've had a few that start "we're at GZ" which usually makes me feel bad because it was sent a couple of hours before I checked my e-mail.

 

Maybe it's not such a big deal due to those with tons of hides having a high percentage of easy hides?

 

Ah, Here's the deal. Caches are meant to be difficult to find regardless of the difficulty level.

 

No, I will not help you find some easy way to tell these people that fact.

 

Provided you are maintaining your caches, cut and paste this response: Keep looking.

 

Ha, no lot looking for advice, just curious about lots of hint requests of power hiders.

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It looks like the focus has turned to whether to give extra hints or not and maybe my OP eluded to that. I guess what I was really interested in was feedback from those with tons of hides. I would think that responding to requests for hints on 100 or so hides could get old even if it's just 4 or 5 a day. We've had a few that start "we're at GZ" which usually makes me feel bad because it was sent a couple of hours before I checked my e-mail.

 

Maybe it's not such a big deal due to those with tons of hides having a high percentage of easy hides?

 

Ah, Here's the deal. Caches are meant to be difficult to find regardless of the difficulty level.

 

No, I will not help you find some easy way to tell these people that fact.

 

Provided you are maintaining your caches, cut and paste this response: Keep looking.

 

Ha, no lot looking for advice, just curious about lots of hint requests of power hiders.

 

I don't know, it seems like complaining about having to be an cache owner.

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It looks like the focus has turned to whether to give extra hints or not and maybe my OP eluded to that. I guess what I was really interested in was feedback from those with tons of hides. I would think that responding to requests for hints on 100 or so hides could get old even if it's just 4 or 5 a day. We've had a few that start "we're at GZ" which usually makes me feel bad because it was sent a couple of hours before I checked my e-mail.

 

Maybe it's not such a big deal due to those with tons of hides having a high percentage of easy hides?

 

Ah, Here's the deal. Caches are meant to be difficult to find regardless of the difficulty level.

 

No, I will not help you find some easy way to tell these people that fact.

 

Provided you are maintaining your caches, cut and paste this response: Keep looking.

 

Ha, no lot looking for advice, just curious about lots of hint requests of power hiders.

 

I don't know, it seems like complaining about having to be an cache owner.

No, not at all. We only have 2 caches, so it's no big deal. That's why I'm curious about the experiences of the power hiders.

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It looks like the focus has turned to whether to give extra hints or not and maybe my OP eluded to that. I guess what I was really interested in was feedback from those with tons of hides. I would think that responding to requests for hints on 100 or so hides could get old even if it's just 4 or 5 a day. We've had a few that start "we're at GZ" which usually makes me feel bad because it was sent a couple of hours before I checked my e-mail.

 

Maybe it's not such a big deal due to those with tons of hides having a high percentage of easy hides?

 

Ah, Here's the deal. Caches are meant to be difficult to find regardless of the difficulty level.

 

No, I will not help you find some easy way to tell these people that fact.

 

Provided you are maintaining your caches, cut and paste this response: Keep looking.

 

Ha, no lot looking for advice, just curious about lots of hint requests of power hiders.

 

I don't know, it seems like complaining about having to be an cache owner.

No, not at all. We only have 2 caches, so it's no big deal. That's why I'm curious about the experiences of the power hiders.

 

Then I read too much into your posting. My apologies.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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If we've attempted a cache find or a puzzle and are truly stuck I usually contact the last person to find/solve it before I contact the CO. If I don't get the help I need there then I will contact the CO. But I always tell them where we have looked in our search or what methods we have tried to solve their puzzle in the message so they know that we really did try and aren't just looking for a freebie hint. There have been a couple of times where a CO has not responded or hasn't given much help but most of the time we've found very responsive COs. They want us to find their caches so why wouldn't they want to help? And when I've had someone write to me to ask a question about one of our caches or one we've found previously I'm more than happy to help. There's nothing we all hate more than driving miles out of our way too look for a cache to end up with a frownie.

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If we've attempted a cache find or a puzzle and are truly stuck I usually contact the last person to find/solve it before I contact the CO. If I don't get the help I need there then I will contact the CO.

 

Why not contact the owner first? I for one am more than willing to give a nudge (not the solution). I know folks appreciate the "Aha!" moment when the solve something on their own.

 

I don't get people's hesitance to contact the CO.

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If we've attempted a cache find or a puzzle and are truly stuck I usually contact the last person to find/solve it before I contact the CO. If I don't get the help I need there then I will contact the CO. But I always tell them where we have looked in our search or what methods we have tried to solve their puzzle in the message so they know that we really did try and aren't just looking for a freebie hint. There have been a couple of times where a CO has not responded or hasn't given much help but most of the time we've found very responsive COs. They want us to find their caches so why wouldn't they want to help? And when I've had someone write to me to ask a question about one of our caches or one we've found previously I'm more than happy to help. There's nothing we all hate more than driving miles out of our way too look for a cache to end up with a frownie.

 

That seems to be backwards. If you contacted me about someone elses cache, I would refer you to them. I had a guy contact me out of the blue and ask for the coordinates of the third waypoint of someone elses multi, because he was unable to find the second waypoint. I told him that he should contact the CO and ask for help. If I know for a fact that the CO would not mind me giving a subtle hint, then I may help you out, but I think that it should be the CO that distributes the hints on their caches.

 

We have several caches around here that I have DNF'ed several times. One or two of them it seems that only one person actually found the cache by looking for it. Every log afterwards mentions how they got help from a previous finder. I think at that point, you're just racking up numbers.

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