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Why are really new cachers able to place caches?


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Of course, there's kids hiding caches without adult supervision. 11 km off. :laughing:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=997201de-01dc-4a7b-b341-ad007fdffd34

 

Two favorite points? How does that happen? Unsupervised teen hides are some or the worst I've ever seen. Apparently, you have zero concept of private property until you become an adult. Or just plain common sense, in general. A then 13 year old kid hid the first leg of a mid-summer placed multi buried in a pile of seasonal grass clippings in a park near me, for example. That was in like 2005. I'm going to guess that pile of grass clippings isn't there anymore. Not that the cache lasted more than 2 months. :P

 

I'm not advocating minimum find limits or anything. But I have seen some brutal unsupervised teen hides. And it's generally pretty obvious from the cache page that they are.

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Im sure this thread will be somewhere but we have put off placing caches as we felt we needed experience, recently we have had a spate of cachers with under 50 logs placing very crappy caches in our area, with a spate of vandalism cache owners are feeling in the area I have to wonder if there is a connection. Would it not be sensible to have a minimum of finds before placing one, the same way you earn favorite points?

 

Would you rather those cachers found another 100 wet film pots behind signs, came to believe that wet film pots behind signs are the way caching is supposed to be, and went on to hide dozens more wet film pots behind signs?

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Of course, there's kids hiding caches without adult supervision. 11 km off. :laughing:

 

http://www.geocachin...41-ad007fdffd34

 

Two favorite points? How does that happen? Unsupervised teen hides are some or the worst I've ever seen. Apparently, you have zero concept of private property until you become an adult. Or just plain common sense, in general. A then 13 year old kid hid the first leg of a mid-summer placed multi buried in a pile of seasonal grass clippings in a park near me, for example. That was in like 2005. I'm going to guess that pile of grass clippings isn't there anymore. Not that the cache lasted more than 2 months. :P

 

I'm not advocating minimum find limits or anything. But I have seen some brutal unsupervised teen hides. And it's generally pretty obvious from the cache page that they are.

 

Same here. Very frustrating. That's why I'd like to see a 2 month wait period (not likely going to happen). A 2 month wait period has a good chance of weeding out the unsupervised tweenie/teens who's attention span wouldn't last that long. And the occasional teacher/group leader who thinks assigning a geocache hide would be a great project for each kid.

Edited by L0ne R
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Isn't this ironic timing. Bad teen cache alert! This was placed within my 50 mile notification radius the other day. The cache page has no cache description. It's a micro. I believe the road probably has a 45 MPH speed limit. We're supposed to park where? There will be no shortage of adults walking up on that road, and fondling that guardrail to find this kids keyholder, trust me. Oh, GC number next to the pin blotted out.

 

8768688450_35981b89ef.jpg

Edited by Mr.Yuck
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Would you rather those cachers found another 100 wet film pots behind signs, came to believe that wet film pots behind signs are the way caching is supposed to be, and went on to hide dozens more wet film pots behind signs?

 

Right. In our Russian geocaching community virtuals have never been banned (or in any way limited). Now more than 1/2 of all geocaches published at the national website are virtuals. People used to find 20 or 30 virtuals and believe that this is how geocaching should be played. They place a couple of their virtuals, and so on.

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It's true that some people who are new to the game have placed very good caches (and I've even favorited a few of them). I know that when I started caching I was worried that my coordinates might not be sufficiently accurate. I also wanted to place a quality cache so it was not until some seasoned and well respected cachers in my area provided encouragement and offered to check my coordinates that I finally designed my first placement.

 

Last weekend I kayaked 90 minutes for an unfound micro and it remains unfound since I DNF'ed. On my way back I had some time to think about this very issue since the cache was the first to be placed by a someone who has logged a total of 5 finds.

 

My idea is for Groundspeak to implement a voluntary mentor/protégé system. An experienced cacher whose placements had earned a specified number of favorite points would make themselves available to help with the new cacher's first few hides.

 

Participation could be encouraged by creating a special badge perhaps The Good Cachekeeping Seal of Approval :laughing: for the protégé's profile indicating the number of caches they had placed with the guidance of the mentor. The mentor could receive recognition in many ways, either by a badge, a new category on the statistics page, and/or, the addition of their caching identity to the name of the cache they mentored. I know I would appreciate the latter since it would give an indication what type of cache it is most likely to be e.g. suitable to the location, accurate coordinates, appropriate container etc.

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My idea is for Groundspeak to implement a voluntary mentor/protégé system. An experienced cacher whose placements had earned a specified number of favorite points would make themselves available to help with the new cacher's first few hides.

 

Participation could be encouraged by creating a special badge perhaps The Good Cachekeeping Seal of Approval :laughing: for the protégé's profile indicating the number of caches they had placed with the guidance of the mentor. The mentor could receive recognition in many ways, either by a badge, a new category on the statistics page, and/or, the addition of their caching identity to the name of the cache they mentored. I know I would appreciate the latter since it would give an indication what type of cache it is most likely to be e.g. suitable to the location, accurate coordinates, appropriate container etc.

 

You have a good idea. Something VERY similar is already in the plans on Garmin's geocaching site. :ph34r: I see new listings published on both sites, and I see the same listings that are being rejected in peer review on Garmin's site being published here. The idea behind a cache mentor is to help new geocachers get their listings approved, and some new geocachers just need a little help. I have worked with Groundspeak reviewers to get some of my listings published, and I have worked with some good local volunteer reviewers here. I own listed EarthCaches also, and those GSA reviewers are quite strict, but they will take their time to help get a listing published. Yeah, you have a very good idea. :)

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Would you rather those cachers found another 100 wet film pots behind signs, came to believe that wet film pots behind signs are the way caching is supposed to be, and went on to hide dozens more wet film pots behind signs?

 

Right. In our Russian geocaching community virtuals have never been banned (or in any way limited). Now more than 1/2 of all geocaches published at the national website are virtuals. People used to find 20 or 30 virtuals and believe that this is how geocaching should be played. They place a couple of their virtuals, and so on.

 

I always take a chance when I talk about alternative websites, but I have not seen virtual oversaturation at any of the American-based ones, and most of the European ones (I could point out one European one that was once about 99% virtuals, but no longer is), and I'm not going there either. :lol:

 

I think you have a unique situation there in Russia. Then again, if there wasn't first severe restrictions on virtuals, then later the total elimination of them here at Geocaching.com, I think they would have overrun the game, and became more than half of all caches here too.

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My idea is for Groundspeak to implement a voluntary mentor/protégé system. An experienced cacher whose placements had earned a specified number of favorite points would make themselves available to help with the new cacher's first few hides.

 

Participation could be encouraged by creating a special badge perhaps The Good Cachekeeping Seal of Approval :laughing: for the protégé's profile indicating the number of caches they had placed with the guidance of the mentor. The mentor could receive recognition in many ways, either by a badge, a new category on the statistics page, and/or, the addition of their caching identity to the name of the cache they mentored. I know I would appreciate the latter since it would give an indication what type of cache it is most likely to be e.g. suitable to the location, accurate coordinates, appropriate container etc.

 

You have a good idea. Something VERY similar is already in the plans on Garmin's geocaching site. :ph34r: I see new listings published on both sites, and I see the same listings that are being rejected in peer review on Garmin's site being published here. The idea behind a cache mentor is to help new geocachers get their listings approved, and some new geocachers just need a little help. I have worked with Groundspeak reviewers to get some of my listings published, and I have worked with some good local volunteer reviewers here. I own listed EarthCaches also, and those GSA reviewers are quite strict, but they will take their time to help get a listing published. Yeah, you have a very good idea. :)

 

Do you mean physically arrange and meet up with a new cacher to check their placement? What if you inadvertently arrange to meet up with a 12 year old (without parental knowledge)?

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My idea is for Groundspeak to implement a voluntary mentor/protégé system. An experienced cacher whose placements had earned a specified number of favorite points would make themselves available to help with the new cacher's first few hides.

 

Participation could be encouraged by creating a special badge perhaps The Good Cachekeeping Seal of Approval :laughing: for the protégé's profile indicating the number of caches they had placed with the guidance of the mentor. The mentor could receive recognition in many ways, either by a badge, a new category on the statistics page, and/or, the addition of their caching identity to the name of the cache they mentored. I know I would appreciate the latter since it would give an indication what type of cache it is most likely to be e.g. suitable to the location, accurate coordinates, appropriate container etc.

 

You have a good idea. Something VERY similar is already in the plans on Garmin's geocaching site. :ph34r: I see new listings published on both sites, and I see the same listings that are being rejected in peer review on Garmin's site being published here. The idea behind a cache mentor is to help new geocachers get their listings approved, and some new geocachers just need a little help. I have worked with Groundspeak reviewers to get some of my listings published, and I have worked with some good local volunteer reviewers here. I own listed EarthCaches also, and those GSA reviewers are quite strict, but they will take their time to help get a listing published. Yeah, you have a very good idea. :)

 

Do you mean physically arrange and meet up with a new cacher to check their placement? What if you inadvertently arrange to meet up with a 12 year old (without parental knowledge)?

 

That could cause a few problems. :unsure:

 

However, I do think some sort of peer-review/mentorship system would be helpful.

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My idea is for Groundspeak to implement a voluntary mentor/protégé system. An experienced cacher whose placements had earned a specified number of favorite points would make themselves available to help with the new cacher's first few hides.

 

Participation could be encouraged by creating a special badge perhaps The Good Cachekeeping Seal of Approval :laughing: for the protégé's profile indicating the number of caches they had placed with the guidance of the mentor. The mentor could receive recognition in many ways, either by a badge, a new category on the statistics page, and/or, the addition of their caching identity to the name of the cache they mentored. I know I would appreciate the latter since it would give an indication what type of cache it is most likely to be e.g. suitable to the location, accurate coordinates, appropriate container etc.

 

You have a good idea. Something VERY similar is already in the plans on Garmin's geocaching site. :ph34r: I see new listings published on both sites, and I see the same listings that are being rejected in peer review on Garmin's site being published here. The idea behind a cache mentor is to help new geocachers get their listings approved, and some new geocachers just need a little help. I have worked with Groundspeak reviewers to get some of my listings published, and I have worked with some good local volunteer reviewers here. I own listed EarthCaches also, and those GSA reviewers are quite strict, but they will take their time to help get a listing published. Yeah, you have a very good idea. :)

 

Do you mean physically arrange and meet up with a new cacher to check their placement? What if you inadvertently arrange to meet up with a 12 year old (without parental knowledge)?

No. I mean communicating just as you and I are doing right now in a moderated geocaching forum. :unsure:

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I think you have a unique situation there in Russia. Then again, if there wasn't first severe restrictions on virtuals, then later the total elimination of them here at Geocaching.com, I think they would have overrun the game, and became more than half of all caches here too.

 

Most probably. "The Russian way" is rather specific. Geocaching.com has been a source of many interesting and useful things about the game for years but sometimes it looks like people here discuss some troubles that we here in Russia have already run into. One of them are "Why are really new cachers able to place caches?" The question has been discussed in the Russian community many times. Each time someone suggested to prevent newbiew from placing new caches until they find 10..20..30..40.. caches. However geocaching experience doesn't depend only on quantity of geocaches found. For instance, in our community there are geocachers that are respected as experienced players - but their experience is limited to virtuals and park-n-grab caches.

 

One of such "geocaching gurus" declared some time ago that there cannot be a pencil in a microcache (because a pencil is too long to fit into a micro container). It happened that the guy hasn't found any microcaches in his life. Another "guru" recently talked about that from his experience containers "abroad" (at geocaching.com) were always filled with cheap garbage. After I checked his statistics I discovered that he had found only 5 geocaches of small to regular size. So, you cannot rely on numbers when talking about "geocaching experience". Perhaps a 50-geocache power trail of identical micros hidden identically doesn't provide enough experience to do a good camouflage for a regular container.

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if you feel a CO maybe need a bit help and guidence,

please contact that CO directly and offer your friendly help and support :-)

you get a new friend..

 

with rules and regulations, we just get nothing at all...

I rather want a bad cache, over no cache at all,

new or old CO ?? they just need to try to learn.

better to try, and not to give up, due to too many rules.

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I see new listings published on both sites, and I see the same listings that are being rejected in peer review on Garmin's site being published here.

 

What are some of the reasons the caches don't make it through peer review? Are there placement violations, or merely people not liking the cache, cache description, etc?

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I see new listings published on both sites, and I see the same listings that are being rejected in peer review on Garmin's site being published here.

 

What are some of the reasons the caches don't make it through peer review? Are there placement violations, or merely people not liking the cache, cache description, etc?

 

The last one I remember was a diving cache in Blue Lake on a USAF bombing range (N 40° 30.136’ W114° 01.990’

Wendover, UT). Permission for the placement was one concern, and the CO would not address that concern. The listing was rejected and resubmitted as a cross listing after it was published on this site. The CO did leave a better reviewer note the second go around, but never did address the permission concern. I also see quite a few temporary listings placed by scout groups for weekend events, childrens birthday parties, and caches on school property. Many want private listings published on a public site, I think they are just new to geocaching. Then you also have avid experienced geocachers that want to cross list their EarthCaches, some really nice EC's with the GSA logo and all. The problem is that the CO does not take time to read the guidelines. EarthCaches are not a cache type supported on the other site, but virtual listings are. Many of us use a code phrase, and without it the listing can not be logged as found. The CO's of some of these EC's request that you send them your answers by email and upload a photo with your found log. The problem there is that contacting another member and photo uploads are not an option. I'm going to agree that placement violation is the main reason, and sometimes the coordinates are off badly, and lack of a reviewer note.

Just let me state for the record that I am a Groundspeak fan, and this is where I do my geocaching. But I also am a Waymarker/virtual history geocacher, so many of my listings would only be accepted as Waymarks here. When Challenges were done away with here I listed some of mine on other sites that accept virtual listings. :D

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Thanks for all of your thoughts. Of course, I especially appreciated the positive comments. ManvillePH :rolleyes: I would like to address some of the issues which were mentioned.

Do you mean physically arrange and meet up with a new cacher to check their placement? What if you inadvertently arrange to meet up with a 12 year old (without parental knowledge)?

 

This could be done completely through e-mail until the age issue was resolved. Simple advice such as not hiding a micro in the woods as a first hide would be immeasureably helpful. Also, the mentor could check the accuracy of the coordinates and the appropriateness of the hide after the cache was placed without the presence of the cache owner.

 

if you feel a CO maybe need a bit help and guidance,

please contact that CO directly and offer your friendly help and support :-)

you get a new friend..]

 

I don't know, but I think that prevention of a bad cache is preferable for the newbie's reputation than rehabilitation. And I think that a mentor relationship would be more likely to foster a good caching relationship than an e-mail from a stranger recommending changes.

 

with rules and regulations, we just get nothing at all...

 

Not sure if you are making reference to my idea but since it would be totally voluntary with several benefits to both the newcomer as well as the mentor I'm not sure how rules and regs are involved.

 

If I knew who the mentor was then I would have a good idea whether I would be expecting a quality cache or just another grc. A new cacher would have the benefit of being introduced into the community by a highly regarded cacher. This already happens but to a lesser extent.

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Having cached a bit more since I placed this original posting, I am surprised there isn't a specific event days where learning how to place caches and how to use some of the associated hardware and software is shared.

Not specific days, but one or two times a year there's a geocaching 101 (or similar named) event in my area. I've seen them in other States too.

- One of these days I'll attend one and maybe understand gsak. Yeah, right...

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It doesn't matter how many 'finds' you have.....

 

What exactly is a 'crappy cache'?

 

I've seen some pretty crappy caches from seasoned & experienced cachers.

 

I've seen some pretty awesome caches from newbies.

 

I've seen some pretty creative caches look like crap because no one maintains them.

 

I actually enjoy finding those boring run-of-the-mill caches when they're clean & maintained.

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Thanks for all of your thoughts. Of course, I especially appreciated the positive comments. ManvillePH :rolleyes: I would like to address some of the issues which were mentioned.

Do you mean physically arrange and meet up with a new cacher to check their placement? What if you inadvertently arrange to meet up with a 12 year old (without parental knowledge)?

 

As long as people are honest it works. It falls down when you go to meet someone you think is a 23-year-old cacher and find yourself face to face with a 14-year-old girl who thinks it's really funny this 48-year-old man is now in a position where she can make all sorts of accusations and he can't do a thing to prove his innocence. But it's OK, we all know nobody would lie about themslves on the internet, right?

 

This could be done completely through e-mail until the age issue was resolved. Simple advice such as not hiding a micro in the woods as a first hide would be immeasureably helpful. Also, the mentor could check the accuracy of the coordinates and the appropriateness of the hide after the cache was placed without the presence of the cache owner.

 

If only it were always as simple as that. Sometimes a small cache (maybe even a micro) in the woods can work. Sometimes a micro in the woods turns into guessing which ivy-covered tree hides the micro, and which of the many wet leaves conceals it.

 

if you feel a CO maybe need a bit help and guidance,

please contact that CO directly and offer your friendly help and support :-)

you get a new friend..]

 

I don't know, but I think that prevention of a bad cache is preferable for the newbie's reputation than rehabilitation. And I think that a mentor relationship would be more likely to foster a good caching relationship than an e-mail from a stranger recommending changes.

 

Agreed. With the best will in the world any mail from a stranger that boils down to "your cache isn't very good because..." is likely to annoy the people who are most likely to need a bit of help.

 

with rules and regulations, we just get nothing at all...

 

Not sure if you are making reference to my idea but since it would be totally voluntary with several benefits to both the newcomer as well as the mentor I'm not sure how rules and regs are involved.

 

If it's totally voluntary then the people who need it most are least likely to take advantage of it. Few people perceive their own ability accurately (IIRC something like 70% of drivers rate their abilities as "above average" and 50% of people rate their social skills as being "in the top 10%"), so you'd just create a situation where the people who want to take the time and place a good hide have a few extra resources while the people who just want to throw out a takeaway container with a scrap of paper in it will ignore the help on offer.

 

If I knew who the mentor was then I would have a good idea whether I would be expecting a quality cache or just another grc. A new cacher would have the benefit of being introduced into the community by a highly regarded cacher. This already happens but to a lesser extent.

 

You'd still have potential issues with time. There's a cacher who used to live near me who put out a lot of caches, most of which were pretty good hides. The trouble was this particular person was very bad at maintaining the caches, such that a large number were archived by the reviewer for non-maintenance. Had this person been introducing people and helping them with hides the new people might have put some reasonable hides out there but most likely would never know they are supposed to maintain the caches rather than just leaving them to fall apart.

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Having cached a bit more since I placed this original posting, I am surprised there isn't a specific event days where learning how to place caches and how to use some of the associated hardware and software is shared.

 

I have hosted several Caching 101 events, as well as a Hiding 101 event. A very small number of people showed up for the Hiding event. And half of that number were area "old timers" who like to show up and help me with their collective experience.

 

Unfortunately you can't make people attend these things, despite the fact that a lot of great experience and info is passed around at them.

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Having cached a bit more since I placed this original posting, I am surprised there isn't a specific event days where learning how to place caches and how to use some of the associated hardware and software is shared.

Not specific days, but one or two times a year there's a geocaching 101 (or similar named) event in my area. I've seen them in other States too.

- One of these days I'll attend one and maybe understand gsak. Yeah, right...

I did some simple searches. Over the years there's been around 350 event caches whose names began with "Geocaching 101" -- including upcoming events in Iowa, Oregon and Ohio -- and around 125 event caches with "Intro to.." or "Introduction to..." in the cache name -- including an upcoming event in Nova Scotia. Why not host one yourself if such an event is not common in your corner of the world?

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I had a fruitless effort awhile back trying to find a micro that I later realized had been placed by someone who had a total of 3 finds and hadn't been active in about a year. Based on the profile it appeared to be a teenage girl who probably downloaded the intro app and found a couple, thought it would be fun to hide one on a sign post in her neighborhood, then moved on to the next app of the week.

 

On the other side of that argument, I hid my most popular cache after maybe not even a dozen finds. Though in those days a dozen finds was more than it is today.

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I just checked our stats and it seems we started placing caches 6 days after finding out about the game. I'm not sure how many finds we had but definitely not 50. I feel some new creativity would be lost if we had waited for finding 50 caches. We would have gotten bad ideas from some we had found and not our new ideas that maybe had not been thought of. It has been years and all of them are still active and waiting to be found. I think if there was a limit we might have lost some interest in the game as we like to hide caches as much as find them. As of now we have 150 active caches and only archived one by mistake but it is actually still there and active. We often find caches hidden by users with many many finds and have to just shake our head at what they were thinking. I don't think it is the number of finds as much as the person doing it.

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I just checked our stats and it seems we started placing caches 6 days after finding out about the game. I'm not sure how many finds we had but definitely not 50. I feel some new creativity would be lost if we had waited for finding 50 caches. We would have gotten bad ideas from some we had found and not our new ideas that maybe had not been thought of. It has been years and all of them are still active and waiting to be found. I think if there was a limit we might have lost some interest in the game as we like to hide caches as much as find them. As of now we have 150 active caches and only archived one by mistake but it is actually still there and active. We often find caches hidden by users with many many finds and have to just shake our head at what they were thinking. I don't think it is the number of finds as much as the person doing it.

 

To be completely honest.....Newbies or not... caches become 'crappy' because people don't maintain them, don't learn from the feedback, and a lack of initiative/motivation. In my opinion anyway.

 

Not everyone has a creativity gene. Not everyone has a knack for arts & crafts or building things. Not everyone can 'see' and/or recognize what a good or bad hiding spot is. That's where the *learning* comes into play - learning from the feedback and/or the results you are seeing in your hides. Being able to 'think' about your hides, to make them better than before.... Afterall, there isn't a cacher in the world who hasn't gotten 'better' with their hides over time.

Edited by Lieblweb
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On the other side of that argument, I hid my most popular cache after maybe not even a dozen finds. Though in those days a dozen finds was more than it is today.

 

I am pretty sure that a dozen has always been 12. huh.gif

I'm pretty sure that his point was that back in the day, finding twelve caches took a substantial effort. For me, it would have been something like every cache within 100 or so miles from me. Today, many people could find a dozen caches in an afternoon without having to drive more than a couple of miles.

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Im sure this thread will be somewhere but we have put off placing caches as we felt we needed experience, recently we have had a spate of cachers with under 50 logs placing very crappy caches in our area, with a spate of vandalism cache owners are feeling in the area I have to wonder if there is a connection. Would it not be sensible to have a minimum of finds before placing one, the same way you earn favorite points?

You could always try leading by example. I note you have over 800 finds since October 2011...and zero hides.

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Im sure this thread will be somewhere but we have put off placing caches as we felt we needed experience, recently we have had a spate of cachers with under 50 logs placing very crappy caches in our area, with a spate of vandalism cache owners are feeling in the area I have to wonder if there is a connection. Would it not be sensible to have a minimum of finds before placing one, the same way you earn favorite points?

You could always try leading by example. I note you have over 800 finds since October 2011...and zero hides.

 

Thats the plan waiting for 1,000 finds. :) I also posed the question with alot fewer caches found.

Edited by wyrdsister
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Im sure this thread will be somewhere but we have put off placing caches as we felt we needed experience, recently we have had a spate of cachers with under 50 logs placing very crappy caches in our area, with a spate of vandalism cache owners are feeling in the area I have to wonder if there is a connection. Would it not be sensible to have a minimum of finds before placing one, the same way you earn favorite points?

You could always try leading by example. I note you have over 800 finds since October 2011...and zero hides.

 

I'd rather people didn't place caches unless they are able to commit to looking after them.

 

I found lots of places that would be good for a cache but none of them were in areas where I was able to commit to performing maintenance to a standard I'd consider appropriate.

 

I found a few places very close to home that would have been good but people already put caches in the same area.

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I found lots of places that would be good for a cache but none of them were in areas where I was able to commit to performing maintenance to a standard I'd consider appropriate.

 

Sometimes I feel that some cachers have too high expectations with respect to performing maintenance.

If a cache is hidden at a nice and not urban location, I do not think that it is an issue to wait for example 2 weeks longer for maintenance. Some cache owners who only hide caches very close to where they live appear to think that one needs to check a cache after a DNF the next day or change the log book within 2 days. That's pretty unrealistic and leads to lots of boring caches that are close to the places where people live and work which are typically not the nicest cache locations.

 

Cezanne

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I found lots of places that would be good for a cache but none of them were in areas where I was able to commit to performing maintenance to a standard I'd consider appropriate.

 

Sometimes I feel that some cachers have too high expectations with respect to performing maintenance.

If a cache is hidden at a nice and not urban location, I do not think that it is an issue to wait for example 2 weeks longer for maintenance. Some cache owners who only hide caches very close to where they live appear to think that one needs to check a cache after a DNF the next day or change the log book within 2 days. That's pretty unrealistic and leads to lots of boring caches that are close to the places where people live and work which are typically not the nicest cache locations.

 

Cezanne

 

Sure, if it were required that every DNF were checked within a day I can see vast numbers of caches being archived overnight.

 

The problem comes when cache maintenance can only be done at the weekend, and life is likely to get in the way for more than a couple of consecutive weekends. If I'm not willing to commit to getting to a cache within a couple of weeks there seems little point placing it at all.

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I would certainly say newbies place lower level caches (skirt lifters and such), but that's not always true. A local example (and a favorite of mine) is "AUSTRALIA" (GCTQJJ). It was placed by Cavendish5 who at this point has only 43 finds. Although that would lead some to believe their caches might be less than stellar as they have less experience, this is an amazing cache, and one of the best I've ever found. Certainly not the hardest difficulty, but not all amazing caches are dictated by that.

If they were ever to set a restriction like this, I would say no more than 50 finds required. And really, it's kind of hit or miss. Some people with over 300 finds have placed caches in bad locations, with easily destroyed containers, and don't maintenance their caches even when it's needed. I guess it depends on the cacher :anibad:

 

Your last line is spot on. Its really comes down to the person. Ive not placed a cache yet,but I'm in the planning stage to place a multi. I dont consider myself an experienced geocacher by any stretch of the word but I know im a meticulous and conscientious person who prides himself by what I put out to the world. The last thing I want is people thinking my one and only cache is total crap. So ive taken the time to research what makes a good cache by finding a few myself and by reading what others like and dont like. But again thats just me. I dont want to embarrass myself to the geocache community.

Edited by Calvin and Hobbs
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