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(New Guy) Expressing My Frustration At The Locals...


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The real question is - what are you going to do about it?

 

Id love to ask the owners - what's up? why? what are you thinking? that the best you can do?

 

Yes, I have a few ideas of my own. They are pretty good in fact... thanks for the help!

 

If you attend a pot luck dinner, and the brownies are kinda dry, do you go tell the person who brought the brownies "Man, your brownies suck! Is that the best you could do?" I'd wager not. You're not paying for the brownies, the person who made them isn't getting paid for making them, so you have no expectation of complete satisfaction. If the brownies aren't to your liking, then don't have the brownies, just politely thank the person for bringing them, and if they bring brownies again next time you can just pass on them if you like. There's plenty other stuff at the dinner to get your fill of. No need to be rude or ungrateful about it, just move on to the next one.

 

Like someone pointed out, you've only found two caches, and both of those were TB hotels, which are designed for a particular purpose, which is to move travel bugs. So they're usually placed near interstate exits and such where they're easily accessible but not necessarily picturesque. A little pre planning and studying the cache page can give you some clues about what the cache is like. Give yourself some time and go out and find a bunch of caches, I guarantee you'll find some you like. And once you have a feel for what you like to see in a cache, you'll be better prepared to go hide some great ones yourself.

 

Funny-I often use a dessert analogy to explain the variety of caching styles. Some caches are like a box of cheap grocery store cookies, and other are like grandma's freshly baked peach pie with the sweetest summer peaches in years. Some people will ignore the cookies and look only for freshly baked pies and cakes, others don't appreciate the effort those take and are happy eating grocery store cookies. Most cacher I know, myself included are omnivorous and enjoy them all. It just depends on what your mood is that day, and what you have time to do. Well except for those hard to digest puzzles, I don't do a lot of those. ;)

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In the early days the idea was to hide caches that took people to interesting areas, where the "burn test" was whether the area was somewhere people might visit even if the cache hadn't been placed.

 

That's what I thought Geocaching was all about. LOL I didn't know someone would really place an Urban Cache that was totally pointless cobbled together junk..... just because they could.

 

Thanks for your help!

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There's a difference between posting on a cache page about your negative experience and calling out your entire local community on the forums how they suck and should be ashamed, add to that the fact the OP shows only 2 caches as logged, not the best way to start off a caching career IMHO.

 

How do you go about that then?.... Post a negative experience about someones cache. That is the real question at hand here. Thanks a ton for typing that up. That's the heart of my topic here, no one has really been able to tell me exactly what to say.

 

BTW.... I only show 2 caches as found and logged because all the rest were totally pointless.

 

Thanks for coming in!

I read your 2 logs and as a CO I would be put off by your comment :

"Gone Campin' TB is headed to a Cache in the mountains of Vermont in about a week.

 

Signed the log book, left a key chain. Was happy to see that there wasn't just a bunch of junk and garbage in there like there was a few weeks ago."

 

What was the purpose of that comment?? Very negative. Why not say "thanks for maintaining this cache" or say nothing about the previous state of the cache?

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Here's my 2 cents... if you want to make geocaching a family event, do it! Who cares what the cache is like as long as you are looking for it as a family.

 

There needs to at least be some point behind it right? I'm sure my family doesn't feel like walking to a pointless place just to see some garbage.

 

What I'm going to have to do is run the plan that's already been handed to me and see if things get better.

 

Thanks for the help!

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As much as I see your frustration, I am one of those newbies who logs all of my visits. I do write TFTC a lot, mainly because I don't have much else to say. Not necessarily because I thought it was a "bad" cache.

 

[LOTS OF SNIPPAGE]

 

I don't doubt that geocaching was something else before "everyone" got in to it. And I also don't doubt the quality of the game has "gone down" since more people started doing it. It's kinda like a band is cool until everyone knows about it, and you were the guy who liked them for two years before they actually became famous.

 

Just a side note, before "everyone" got into it, no one ever used to write only "Tftc". :ph34r: The guy with the parking log micro with an 8 word cache page might not mind, but even in this day and age of cache pollution, the overwhelming majority of cache owners want to see more than the two word or less logs that are synonomous with the smartphone era of Geocaching.

 

Thank you for constructive critizism :) I will try to keep my TFTC more or less non-existant in the future. I honestly just didn't really know WHAT to write to cache owners before. I must say I had fun logging my last five-ten in the period around the wedding of my friends, and pointing out when or what we were doing whilst looking for the caches. I will take your comment to heart and become a "better" user (seriously, not being mean or ironic here, not my thing).

 

Big hugs :)

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The real question is - what are you going to do about it?

 

Id love to ask the owners - what's up? why? what are you thinking? that the best you can do?

 

Yes, I have a few ideas of my own. They are pretty good in fact... thanks for the help!

 

Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People: "Nope don't do it."

I've made some fairly innocuous comments that got some rather nasty replies from COs.

HD is right :D

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Only 1 week and you're already complaining?

 

If you don't like what you're finding #1 plan ahead better. Read the cache pages ahead of time. If you don't like film cannisters, avoid micros.

#2 quit whining and hide some of your own caches if you think you can do better.

 

Things could be a lot better.... thanks for the words!

Edited by Escape & Evasion
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That pretty much describes my cache logging practice. I call it the Thumper Method, based on a statement the bunny made during the filming of Bambi; "If you can't say nuthin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all". If I had to guess, I'd say there are about 300 caches which I have located, signed the log and walked away without ever logging them online, because they sucked so bad there was nothing good I could say about them.

 

You should always be able to say something good about a cache. See my DNF log for a P&G right next to a McDonald's dumpster.

I should have clarified that my non-logging rule for crappy caches only applies to ones I have actually located. I am a total DNF junkie, and as a member in good standing of ISAG, (I Suck At Geocaching), I always log DNFs. These are often my most interesting logs. :lol:

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I have placed many caches in interesting places, historical or otherwise. I have put out a Nursery Rhyme series of caches with each container decorated to fit the rhyme. I have made several big enough with good swag for the kids. What do I get in return? TFTC logs, smiley logs. people take swag and leave nothing in return. Etc, etc. I get cut and paste logs that say nothing about the cache to even indicate that they were actually there or appreciated the spot or the container. Do you think I am going to bother to put the effort in the process much longer? Thank goodness for some of the cachers that write nice logs that DO appreciate the time and effort to put out more interesting caches or I wouldn't bother at all anymore. OK I feel better now.

 

 

I got a log on one of my caches yesterday that makes up for all of that. As long as I get that special log every so often, I'll continue to hide caches.

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In the early days the idea was to hide caches that took people to interesting areas, where the "burn test" was whether the area was somewhere people might visit even if the cache hadn't been placed.

 

That's what I thought Geocaching was all about. LOL I didn't know someone would really place an Urban Cache that was totally pointless cobbled together junk..... just because they could.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

It's not "just because they could". It's because there are people out there that actually enjoy finding them. It may seem strange, but there are those that are physically able, but would never consider hiking five miles to find a single large cache hidden next to a waterfall because they could find, (and get credit for), 30 "cobbled together junk" caches in the same amount of time.

 

It's just a different aspect of the game which luckily can be avoided once you learn how.

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There's plenty of great caches out there, you just haven't found any.

 

Perhaps you need to hide a few to show them how it's done.

 

I hope so... you aren't the only one who has told me that there are some caches that have a purpose so I haven't totally lost hope here.

 

From what everyone has told me, having a couple quality caches around here might change things for the better. I plan to let my cache soak for a few weeks before placing it, I want it to be good so I plan to put a lot of thought into it without a huge rush.

 

Couple more days and I'll be in Vermont, wonder what I'll find and run into over there.

 

Thanks again for everything!

 

Look on YouTube and you'll see plenty of creative caches. There is also a long running Cool Cache Container thread somewhere around here. I thought that you were a pessimist at first, but maybe not.

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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Evasion - I hear you 5x5 and all I could think was "Oh man, you have got to relax."

You are a new guy and the new broom sweeps clean, right? I get it.

 

One of my first caches was a pill container in the post cap of a chain-link fence. I was mosquito bit, scratched by raspberry canes, hot and sweaty. For a pill-bottle in Fort Lee NJ?? W-T- what? Then I looked up and saw where I was. - The top of the palisades 200' or so feet above the Hudson River looking down on the George Washington Bridge and out to Manhatten and Fort Washington across the river. Below me was the old ferry slip now a day use area. I had no idea any of these places existed.

 

To me it isn't about the physical cache or its contents, but the find and the connection made between CO and myself. Like finding a message in a bottle. Doesn't have to be a big message. The ping back TFTC lets them know it got through. Then, that's me. I have a golf pencil glued to the corner of a piece of paper by a 3 year old taped to the shelf above my desk. As far as I know it was the first time she glued something. She gave it to me like it was some kind of magic - and it was. and it is.

 

So before you go off and say that someone else is wasting your precious time with their lame-o hides, consider that the only one that can waste your time is you. And that is only in your attitude about your time.

Perhaps geo-caching isn't a good sport for you. That's ok. You didn't fail because you didn't find the golden key on your second try.

Or maybe you can look at the cache and say wow - someone I don't know put this out here for me to find because they and I think it's fun. Then stand up, look around and see a place that caught that person's eye. I have seen rest stops along the highway in whole new ways because someone made an opportunity for me to stop, look and listen.

I recently found an M&M minis container just off the parking lot at a MCDonald's in a green strip that I hadn't ever noticed before. TFTC!

 

Keep looking and logging. That's your side of the game. Even your DNFs. You wouldn't ignore ground balls because you're playing outfield, or not throw it back because the batter didn't hit it fast enough, would you?

 

Slow down. Some days you can take all day to find the "good" one; most days we don't have that much time so a guard-rail key holder does the trick.

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One of my first caches was a pill container in the post cap of a chain-link fence. I was mosquito bit, scratched by raspberry canes, hot and sweaty. For a pill-bottle in Fort Lee NJ?? W-T- what? Then I looked up and saw where I was. - The top of the palisades 200' or so feet above the Hudson River looking down on the George Washington Bridge and out to Manhatten and Fort Washington across the river. Below me was the old ferry slip now a day use area. I had no idea any of these places existed.

 

I'm OK with a micro in a great spot - if there's no place for something larger. Especially a water-tight well-maintained micro. At least it shows that the owner wants to create an overall good caching experience.

 

A beautiful location can be spoiled when I CO puts no effort into the cache.

 

I once visited a little-known pioneer cemetery in old tobacco farm countryside that is the resting place of a township of people who came up to Canada via the Underground Railway. There were dozens and dozens of small cement markers but no names. It was very thought-provoking, poignant, and historic. The cache in that cemetery was a leaky margarine tub. I felt that this unique and historic site deserved a better cache. An unmaintained margarine tub hide with a moldy logsheet seemed disrespectful. When I think about that cemetery I am moved by it's history but soured by the caching experience. Same goes for a film canister at a panoramic location where a larger and more durable container could fit and provide cachers with a better experience. The view is great, but the memory of the cache spoiled the overall experience.

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I've found ammo cans behind dumpsters in parking lots and film cans by mountain waterfalls. I've found ammo cans by mountain waterfalls and film cans by dumpsters........and about everything in between. IMO there are no " crappy ", " lame ", or " _________ " ( you're negative word here) caches. Locations, cache containers, and hide creativity vary greatly. Do I like some more than others, sure. I like a sliding scale rating system also, say 1-5.

1. O.K.

2. Good

3. Very Good

4. Great

5. The Best

 

All the negative comments in these forums regarding caches is a bummer and the OP for being so new has an outlook that is mind numbing. I've said many times in the forums that the VAST MAJORITY of folks who complain about caches have few, if any, hides. Geocaching is a simple little game and a few select folks enjoy it ( the rest think we're nuts ). Its amazing how so much negativity can come from micro-managing, over analyzing, and unnecessarily criticizing such a simple past time.

I would say , in general, if you don't enjoy " the hunt " you should look for another past time...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

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I've found ammo cans behind dumpsters in parking lots and film cans by mountain waterfalls. I've found ammo cans by mountain waterfalls and film cans by dumpsters........and about everything in between. IMO there are no " crappy ", " lame ", or " _________ " ( you're negative word here) caches. Locations, cache containers, and hide creativity vary greatly. Do I like some more than others, sure. I like a sliding scale rating system also, say 1-5.

1. O.K.

2. Good

3. Very Good

4. Great

5. The Best

 

All the negative comments in these forums regarding caches is a bummer and the OP for being so new has an outlook that is mind numbing. I've said many times in the forums that the VAST MAJORITY of folks who complain about caches have few, if any, hides. Geocaching is a simple little game and a few select folks enjoy it ( the rest think we're nuts ). Its amazing how so much negativity can come from micro-managing, over analyzing, and unnecessarily criticizing such a simple past time.

I would say , in general, if you don't enjoy " the hunt " you should look for another past time...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

 

What he said..

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IMO there are no " crappy ", " lame ", or " _________ " ( you're negative word here) caches.

 

I once found a cache that was camouflaged as a piece of trash. It was actually embedded in a piece of junk styrofoam and left at the edge of a drainage ditch next to some other, similar, trash. Much as I like your positive attitude, you've taken your stand on a broad generalization, which makes your argument harder to defend. The fact is, there will always be (your negative attribute here) caches in this world. It's just a question of how many, and what are we going to do about it. We can hide better caches, offer constructive criticism, ignore the ones we dislike or take advantage of the conversation opportunities to talk about it on the forums (my favorite). About the only thing we can't do is find a better species of hominid to play the game with. That one's out (sigh). :anibad:

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IMO there are no " crappy ", " lame ", or " _________ " ( you're negative word here) caches.

 

I once found a cache that was camouflaged as a piece of trash. It was actually embedded in a piece of junk styrofoam and left at the edge of a drainage ditch next to some other, similar, trash. Much as I like your positive attitude, you've taken your stand on a broad generalization, which makes your argument harder to defend. The fact is, there will always be (your negative attribute here) caches in this world. It's just a question of how many, and what are we going to do about it. We can hide better caches, offer constructive criticism, ignore the ones we dislike or take advantage of the conversation opportunities to talk about it on the forums (my favorite). About the only thing we can't do is find a better species of hominid to play the game with. That one's out (sigh). :anibad:

 

+1.

 

Encourage quality caching experiences which includes - pleasant locations, durable containers, maintained caches, swag-size containers when small/regular/large containers will fit.

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...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

 

The reason we got into geocaching in the first place was to discover those hidden gems of locations that we would have never known about if it weren't for caching.

 

Great views, history lessons, pioneer cemetaries and churches, public boat launches we didn't know about...those are the reasons we keep going with this hobby. Winding roads, quiet ponds, rivers and waterfalls...I could care less what the container is when we are taken to these types of locations in search of caches.

 

 

B.

Edited by Pup Patrol
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...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

 

The reason we got into geocaching in the first place was to discover those hidden gems of locations that we would have never known about if it weren't for caching.

 

Great views, history lessons, pioneer cemetaries and churches, public boat launches we didn't know about...those are the reasons we keep going with this hobby. Winding roads, quiet ponds, rivers and waterfalls...I could care less what the container is when we are taken to these types of locations in search of caches.

 

B.

 

That's probably true for a lot of geocachers. The geocache part of geocaching doesn't matter much.

Me, I want the full package - a pleasant location, a nice (not frustrating) hunt, a maintained cache, a durable container so that I'm not handling a moldy logbook and contents, a cache big enough to trade swag. I don't expect it each and every time, and I understand that stuff happens - that a cache becomes a mess unbeknownst to the cache owner. But I sure do appreciate caching experiences that are an all-around pleasant experience.

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Since you brought it up, anything wrong with straightening up peoples history description in the cache comments?

 

I have.

Local cacher set a cache near an interesting building.

Admitted they didn't know much about it, and asked for any info.

 

Found the cache, logged it and added some history of the building.

 

Cacher added info (and thanks!) to the description.

 

And as a cache owner I've been the recipient of a bit of history about the location where one of my caches is hidden. It's hidden on an old railroad bridge (the RR tracks are long gone). Painted on the side of the bridge is "FH Fox" and a number. Hundreds of people drive under that bridge every day on the way to and from work but I doubt many of them know what "FH Fox" means. I certainly didn't when I hid the cache. Awhile back someone logged the cache and included this in their log:

 

"FH Fox was only 65 when the 3rd year vet students started painting the bridge every spring in honor of his birthday. Francis H. Fox, DVM '45 is professor emeritus at the Cornell Vet College, teaching large animal medicine from 1953 to his retirement in 1992. One of the most respected and beloved teachers at the college, his birthday each year was cause for much celebration and mischief, often including putting various things in his office (filling it with hay bales) or moving the furniture ( to the top of the research tower). He is also a well respected veterinarian nationally, some of his work early in his career at the college lead to the discovery of the BVD virus, one of the major pathogens in cattle. Though retired, he still maintains an active presence on the vet college campus."

 

Their log was truly appreciated.

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For me one of the greatest values of geocaching is the opportunity to choose from a variety of caches. Much like movies. If I'm a fan of good old comedies with Charlie Chaplin I would most probably choose one of such comedies or similar movies to watch with my family on Saturday evening. If I don't like horror movies I simply don't watch them. So, I don't complain about a disgusting tasteless movie that I wasted two hours on. Sometimes a movie title may leads to confusion, e.g. it is "Nice love story" and the movie actually tells about some chainsaw massacre. But having certain experience I usually guess the idea in first five or ten minutes and this is enough to switch my TV off. So, it's just about avoiding movies that are far from my interests and tastes. Same with geocaches. I most probably won't go to hunt a cache located "near a hotel where we stopped for night last year". This cache may be important to its owner (some warm memories probably) but I see nothing special in this location so why should I choose it if there are many geocaches in (maybe) more interesting places in the area?

 

This is not about different "standards of quality". I know that there are people who go for every cache they can, enjoy power trails, etc. I don't wan't to say that my approach is better than their, no. It's just different style of enjoying the game. One of obviously positive sides of my attitude is that I rarely hesitate about "how not to offend the CO of this really poor cache in my log" because there are not so many poor caches on my way :)

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Lead by example. You're new. Set up a couple of great caches that you'd love to go visit.

Others will see how cool they are and try to imitate, perhaps with new ideas you hadn't

thought of. And there ya go -- fresh meat to go find.

 

Welcome to the game!

 

Ken

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In the early days the idea was to hide caches that took people to interesting areas, where the "burn test" was whether the area was somewhere people might visit even if the cache hadn't been placed.

Funny, I started during the first year of this game and I don't recall that being the main focus at all. The first cache placed wasn't in an interesting area - no view, no history, no interest outside of finding out if someone could find something hidden and the co-ords published. I look at the list of my first finds and many of them would fall under peoples "lame cache" definitions. It was a grand experiment to see if finding something with a GPSr would work, so caches were placed in all sorts of spots. One of the early ones around here was renamed "Homeless Guy Cache" for the homeless guy that lived nearby. And all the "poor" containers were used because there wasn't any history to tell us they wouldn't work (unlike now, when we have many, many experts on the forums to tell us what is "good" and what isn't), it happens that the poorest container occasionally works fine and so others keep trying them (Gladware/Ziplock containers come to mind, when they first came out we all thought "Great!" but soon found they fail 99% of the time. It's those 1% that fool others into trying them.)

 

So early on it was the hunt that drove us, anything else was just frosting on the cake. I still have that mind-set, so what if the container isn't always up to my standard of a "great cache" - I don't expect that for every cache (even the early ones, which I love to hunt) - but the hunting to see if I can find the cache is the thrill.

 

Edit to add a "n't" that changed the meaning completely.

Edited by The Jester
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In the early days the idea was to hide caches that took people to interesting areas, where the "burn test" was whether the area was somewhere people might visit even if the cache hadn't been placed.

Funny, I started during the first year of this game and I don't recall that being the main focus at all. The first cache placed wasn't in an interesting area - no view, no history, no interest outside of finding out if someone could find something hidden and the co-ords published. I look at the list of my first finds and many of them would fall under peoples "lame cache" definitions. It was a grand experiment to see if finding something with a GPSr would work, so caches were placed in all sorts of spots. One of the early ones around here was renamed "Homeless Guy Cache" for the homeless guy that lived nearby. And all the "poor" containers were used because there wasn't any history to tell us they wouldn't work (unlike now, when we have many, many experts on the forums to tell us what is "good" and what isn't), it happens that the poorest container occasionally works fine and so others keep trying them (Gladware/Ziplock containers come to mind, when they first came out we all thought "Great!" but soon found they fail 99% of the time. It's those 1% that fool others into trying them.)

 

So early on it was the hunt that drove us, anything else was just frosting on the cake. I still have that mind-set, so what if the container isn't always up to my standard of a "great cache" - I don't expect that for every cache (even the early ones, which I love to hunt) - but the hunting to see if I can find the cache is the thrill.

 

Edit to add a "n't" that changed the meaning completely.

 

OK, so in the very first days it was an experiment. IIRC the first ever "cache" was a bucket in a field with nothing in it, which wouldn't last for long these days.

 

I still think it's true to look at the "early days" as opposed to the "earliest days", when finding 100 film pots in a morning wasn't possible let alone desirable and when most caches weren't nanos on guard rails. I think Groundspeak's own guidelines for where to place a cache is as good a place to look when it comes to figuring what's a good location and what isn't.

 

I suppose when there are 3 caches within 200 miles you have to decide whether it's worth the effort to go and find them, but you also hope that the chances are fairly high they are actually there and as described. When there are 200 caches within 3 miles you have to decide which ones you can be bothered with going to find, and when so many caches have so little going for them it doesn't help with the inspiration ("I hid this cache because my wife and I had our first date in the nearby restaurant. The restaurant closed a few years ago and is now a McDonalds but we have such happy memories. Good luck finding the film pot on the back on the green junction box, it's somewhere under the debris")

 

I remember my first ever cache, which was a virtual on a monument I'd walked past dozens of times and never noticed, and being fascinated at the monument. I remember my first physical cache and being intrigued as to what it would contain, and the curiousity of seeing a pile of sticks that didn't look quite right. I remember the first time I ever found a film pot cache and finding it an interesting variation that enabled hiding stuff in the centre of the big city. More recently it seems ever-harder to remember finding anything that wasn't a film pot or a keysafe.

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I've found ammo cans behind dumpsters in parking lots and film cans by mountain waterfalls. I've found ammo cans by mountain waterfalls and film cans by dumpsters........and about everything in between. IMO there are no " crappy ", " lame ", or " _________ " ( you're negative word here) caches. Locations, cache containers, and hide creativity vary greatly. Do I like some more than others, sure. I like a sliding scale rating system also, say 1-5.

1. O.K.

2. Good

3. Very Good

4. Great

5. The Best

 

All the negative comments in these forums regarding caches is a bummer and the OP for being so new has an outlook that is mind numbing. I've said many times in the forums that the VAST MAJORITY of folks who complain about caches have few, if any, hides. Geocaching is a simple little game and a few select folks enjoy it ( the rest think we're nuts ). Its amazing how so much negativity can come from micro-managing, over analyzing, and unnecessarily criticizing such a simple past time.

I would say , in general, if you don't enjoy " the hunt " you should look for another past time...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

Problem with that is...he has travel bugs.

OP, Please, PLEASE! If you decide not to continue, PLEASE return them to the cache you found them or give to another cacher.

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Here's my 2 cents... if you want to make geocaching a family event, do it! Who cares what the cache is like as long as you are looking for it as a family.

 

There needs to at least be some point behind it right? I'm sure my family doesn't feel like walking to a pointless place just to see some garbage.

 

What I'm going to have to do is run the plan that's already been handed to me and see if things get better.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

I feel your pain Escape. Imo, there should be some point behind a cache placement besides it being there just to get an easy smiley. Unfortunately, too many people are only after the smilies these days so things aren't likely to change anytime soon.

 

It takes some work but you can weed out many of the caches that aren't to your liking. For me, i start by looking for caches with favorites,, the more the merrier. Then i look for caches with higher difficulty ratings. Reading the cache description and logs can help also. Of course these aren't foolproof but they can help to find better quality.

 

Geocaching is a great hobby to get the Family into. However, it's likely not going be a hobby that your family will enjoy together very long if the majority of the caches they come across are lame.

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I've found ammo cans behind dumpsters in parking lots and film cans by mountain waterfalls. I've found ammo cans by mountain waterfalls and film cans by dumpsters........and about everything in between. IMO there are no " crappy ", " lame ", or " _________ " ( you're negative word here) caches. Locations, cache containers, and hide creativity vary greatly. Do I like some more than others, sure. I like a sliding scale rating system also, say 1-5.

1. O.K.

2. Good

3. Very Good

4. Great

5. The Best

 

All the negative comments in these forums regarding caches is a bummer and the OP for being so new has an outlook that is mind numbing. I've said many times in the forums that the VAST MAJORITY of folks who complain about caches have few, if any, hides. Geocaching is a simple little game and a few select folks enjoy it ( the rest think we're nuts ). Its amazing how so much negativity can come from micro-managing, over analyzing, and unnecessarily criticizing such a simple past time.

I would say , in general, if you don't enjoy " the hunt " you should look for another past time...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

 

This just shows how different our opinions vary. There are caches out there that i have no desire to try for once i see what they entail. There have been a few caches where i arrived to ground zero, looked at where the gpsr needle pointed, shook my head, then walked or drove away. Those are disappointing to me and aren't worth my time.

 

My scale would go something like this:

 

1. Yuck :rolleyes:

2. Mediocre :(

3. OK :)

4. Good :D

5. Great B)

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I would say , in general, if you don't enjoy " the hunt " you should look for another past time...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

 

The hunt has always been the least interesting thing about this game to me. Finding a nano on a newspaper rack on a nondescript corner, looking for a bison tube in a bush in a parking lot on private property, or searching among trash for a film can has never been the real reason I cache. I find myself ignoring an increasing number of caches that seem to be placed simply to place a container because there is nothing else within the saturation distance.

 

I started this game because caching brought me on trails that I had not hiked, took me to places that were worthy of a photograph, let me experience history . . . Caching gave me a focus for adventures with friends, family, and my dog - or simply something to explore when I had some free time to myself. Every once in a while I find a cache that reminds me about why I continue with this game. They are not the icing on the cake, they are the cake.

 

I try to place caches that I would like to find. One of my favorite caches I have placed involves a relatively easy walk that takes you to one of my favorite trails in the area. In the winter it follows a cascading stream. In the summer it is shaded with redwood trees. It is located near the remnants of an 1880s dam, has themed items relating to a local character, and is a pretty easy search. It has not been found for almost three years. Go figure.

 

I realize that many of us have different reasons for playing this game. Find your reason. Do the caches that you think are fun. Hide caches that you enjoy. And if you find yourself ignoring a lot of placements, it gives you that much more time to explore something that is even more fun than a local parking lot.

Edited by geodarts
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I would say , in general, if you don't enjoy " the hunt " you should look for another past time...great views, history lessons , creative containers are all great but they're just icing on the cake and not the real reason you cache.

 

The hunt has always been the least interesting thing about this game to me. Finding a nano on a newspaper rack on a nondescript corner, looking for a bison tube in a bush in a parking lot on private property, or searching among trash for a film can has never been the real reason I cache. I find myself ignoring an increasing number of caches that seem to be placed simply to place a container because there is nothing else within the saturation distance.

 

I started this game because caching brought me on trails that I had not hiked, took me to places that were worthy of a photograph, let me experience history . . . Caching gave me a focus for adventures with friends, family, and my dog - or simply something to explore when I had some free time to myself. Every once in a while I find a cache that reminds me about why I continue with this game. They are not the icing on the cake, they are the cake.

 

I try to place caches that I would like to find. One of my favorite caches I have placed involves a relatively easy walk that takes you to one of my favorite trails in the area. In the winter it follows a cascading stream. In the summer it is shaded with redwood trees. It is located near the remnants of an 1880s dam, has themed items relating to a local character, and is a pretty easy search. It has not been found for almost three years. Go figure.

 

I realize that many of us have different reasons for playing this game. Find your reason. Do the caches that you think are fun. Hide caches that you enjoy. And if you find yourself ignoring a lot of placements, it gives you that much more time to explore something that is even more fun than a local parking lot.

 

This.

 

If you've got a beautiful park, especially the kind of small park people might not otherwise know about, a film pot behind a sign in the park can be a means of finding the park. If the park is a nice place to be and I didn't know about it before I don't even care if I can't find the film pot.

 

If there's a beautiful church with attractive grounds, a "church micro" (popular UK series, for non-UK cachers that may not have encountered them) that takes me to the grounds to find some information and then gives me an offset of 100 feet or so to take me to a film pot behind a road sign can still work because I got to see the beautiful church.

 

If a cache is just a film pot behind a sign at a busy road junction with some weird reasoning for why the cache is there - "I used to live near here 20 years ago", "This is a church micro. The church is a nondescript red-brick building and you can't quite see it from here but there wasn't a cache within 528 feet and, you know..." - one has to ask why the CO bothered to set it at all.

 

It all comes back to the fundamental question, "is this a place people would want to visit if there wasn't a smiley on offer?". If not, perhaps it would be good to hide the cache somewhere else.

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The real question is - what are you going to do about it?

 

If you don't like the quality of the caches you find, then find a great spot and hide your own. However, please make sure you're ready to do this. Go out and find a hundred or so before you decide to hide your own. There's nothing worse than a new cacher who wants to hide their own cache and the coords are off or many other issues (not that experienced cachers are immune to that).

What's with the having to find a hundred before you make a hide thats insane.there's nothing you can do because a Geo trash cache apprantley is OK and that's usual about half of them

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Hi E & E-

 

First let me say that I haven't read through all the posts, so I may be repeating something already posted.

 

Anyway, we just got home from a 4 day trip to your part of the country--1 day to get there, 2 days there, and 1 day to get home. The first day there we had a great adventure driving from Rock Springs through Clay Basin to the 3 corner area, finding some nice caches and some great Virtual and Earth Caches. The second day we drove down Hwy 530(?) around the Flaming Gorge and back up 191--again we found some nice caches and great Earth Caches. We didn't try to find all the caches along the way but selected the ones that looked like they might be good. The second evening we tried a bit of caching in Rock Springs, but gave up early because several of the ones we looked for seemed to have gone missing or at least we couldn't find them.

 

So--there are the good and the bad. It helps to learn how to be selective.

 

(If anyone looks at my finds and doesn't see the Virtual and Earth Caches referred to here, it's because I have only posted Notes on them so far--still getting my answers and pictures together.)

 

Edited to add a missing word.

Edited by NanCycle
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Sorry about your frustration. Some people play this game differently, numbers hounds for example, FTF hounds, and some will only go after caches in mountaintops or difficulty 4 and above caches.

 

It's easy enough though to filter through the "lame" caches... I have found if you filter out Micro, Unknown (a lot of times used to get around the micro filter) and other (a lot of times used to get around the micro filter) categories of caches in urban areas, you filter out 90 percent of the "lame" caches.

 

I also disagree with the poster who said you had to have 100s of finds. Unlike which came first, the chicken or the egg, we know the first cache was placed by someone who never found a cache before. In fact my experience has been people who place a large number of caches at one time tend to have more inaccurate coordinates.

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I also disagree with the poster who said you had to have 100s of finds. Unlike which came first, the chicken or the egg, we know the first cache was placed by someone who never found a cache before.

 

Yeah, and he placed a P&G buried in the ground containing food and cigarettes that lasted a mere few months with no CO maintenance.

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Is that why we have so many TFTC logs? :) No but seriously if you want the caches in your area to improve place some great ones. Others will try and match up. We have seen it here. Or you can place some lame ones in places no one can get to with out a lot of work. Gets Favorites. Just keep at it. This can be great fun. Remember some of the lame ones might have a reason behind them. We have those out as well but they served a purpose at the time.

-WarNinjas

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... the first cache was placed by someone who never found a cache before.

 

If he had placed a logbook in a baggie and stuck it under a rock, I bet that the game would have died out quickly. I doubt it would have much appeal, especially to families.

Edited by Löne R
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Newbie here giving my 2 cents. I joined this game to help get my son's and daughter's butts off the couch and into the outdoors and so far it has exceeded expectations. For my family it isn't about the cache itself but the location. I live in a very geocache happy area. There is more then 2,000 within 50 miles, over a thousand in my city alone. So it's been easy for me to direct us in good locations that we haven't gone before. To the OP, make it about the adventure, not the cache itself.

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Only been a week or so since I've been at this whole Geocaching thing. (big pause) After seeing the lack of effort to actually be creative, spend a few bucks at the store here, or to make a cache with a... "real purpose"... I am already feeling less then energetic. The plan was to make this a family activity... after what I've saw so far, I'm almost embarrassed to go out as a family.

 

How much negative reinforcement is allowed?

 

Thought there was some kinda code where if your only reason for placing a cache.... was JUST to place another cache, don't do it?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Family activity? If the kids are expecting to find cool toys in caches, they will be extremely disappointed. I'd say 96% of the swag I've found in caches is complete crap. If kids don't like getting out and hiking in general, chances are they're not gonna like geocaching.

 

I wouldn't bash anyone for putting out a cache unless it's obviously been abandoned. Most people don't hide caches. It's better not to annoy the few cachers that actually do or before you know it, you'll have to start driving 20+ miles to find new caches.

 

Boring hides are fine. They have a place in the game. They are typically easy to get to and help keep streaks alive. If you really don't like it and must vent, just leave a simple "TFTC" log. It allows you to let off steam without the cacher owner knowing you secretly hate his or her cache :D

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Wow. I never realized the extent to which the "TFTC" abbreviation for Thanks For The Cache was read as a short-handed way of saying that the finder had nothing good to say about your cache. Now I'm worried about if I've left a comment that could be read as negative because I literally didn't know what or have anything other to say than just thanking them for placing the cache.

 

Sure if a hide or location is phenomenal I may be moved to write a paragraph or so acknowledging that, but if a paragraph isn't written, don't take that to mean that the finder necessarily thought your cache sucked, or even if they did think that that they were intending on conveying that to you with 'TFTC'. Sure a lot of caches do suck, but I'm not going to criticize them -- as others have said, not everyone plays the game the same way. If I (and this is just me) write TFTC, I literally am only meaning "Thanks For The Cache" by that. A truly phenomenal cache will have lots of long-winded logs, sure, but don't take the absence of those to mean people didn't necessarily enjoy your cache.

 

I've always thought the log was as much for the finder as it is for the CO. Hence the amount of cache logs that say things like, "This was the 9th of 13 caches we found today, with so and so, so and so and her pet goat, on our trip from Augusta, GA up to Greenville for the weekend." The fact that this cache was the 9th of 13 they found that day reflects on the finder's desire to keep their records of their cache outings accurate, and not on their opinion of the cache itself.

 

And to the original poster, not logging finds because you had nothing good to say, I'd say that's just as bad as the CO hiding crappy caches. In fact it could even be worse, because not logging your find isn't just affecting your stats, it's also making that crappy cache worse because now not only is it in a poor location, it also has an inaccurate reflection of the amount of times that it has been found in its' stats, as well.

Edited by TopShelfRob
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I'm surprised people write TFTC when they mean LOFTS (logged only for the smiley)

 

I was thinking that TFTS (thanks for the smiley) would be a good acronym to use here. It's unfortunate, but there are too many cachers (i use that term loosely) who are only concerned with getting the easy smiley these days. I figure most of them could care less how good or sucky a cache is. :(

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It's unfortunate, but there are too many cachers (i use that term loosely) who are only concerned with getting the easy smiley these days. I figure most of them could care less how good or sucky a cache is. :(
This may have something to do with the prevalence of meta-games. It's no longer about finding geocaches. It's about filling a grid or maintaining a streak or completing a challenge cache's requirements or some other meta-game. Finding geocaches is no longer the end; it is the means to the end.
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It's unfortunate, but there are too many cachers (i use that term loosely) who are only concerned with getting the easy smiley these days. I figure most of them could care less how good or sucky a cache is. :(
This may have something to do with the prevalence of meta-games. It's no longer about finding geocaches. It's about filling a grid or maintaining a streak or completing a challenge cache's requirements or some other meta-game. Finding geocaches is no longer the end; it is the means to the end.

Reference the highlight;

I suspect this is true for those who participate in challenges, though not necessarily true for most cachers in this numbers crashed evolution.

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I'm surprised people write TFTC when they mean LOFTS (logged only for the smiley)

 

I was thinking that TFTS (thanks for the smiley) would be a good acronym to use here. It's unfortunate, but there are too many cachers (i use that term loosely) who are only concerned with getting the easy smiley these days. I figure most of them could care less how good or sucky a cache is. :(

 

And if the cache really is crappy, TFTCC works well.

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to the OP: YOU ARE ONE OF THE LOCALS. If you don't like the local caching scene, relocate; or lead improvement by example.

 

Might want to change your handle if you go to an event. You could get muggled for your comments here.

I figure he's safe. Anyone too lazy to hide a quality cache is unlikely to go through all the effort of silencing a dissenter. They might need their energy to spit out another pointless film can.

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I'm surprised people write TFTC when they mean LOFTS (logged only for the smiley)

 

I was thinking that TFTS (thanks for the smiley) would be a good acronym to use here. It's unfortunate, but there are too many cachers (i use that term loosely) who are only concerned with getting the easy smiley these days. I figure most of them could care less how good or sucky a cache is. :(

 

That is my basic cache log:

 

XXXX Hrs. Found, log signed. Thanks for the :) !

 

If the cache has some merit, I will elaborate...sometimes to excess. ;)

 

If the cache REALLY SUCKS, I might post a few paragraphs from Moby Dick, or some other classic novel.

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Only been a week or so since I've been at this whole Geocaching thing. (big pause) After seeing the lack of effort to actually be creative, spend a few bucks at the store here, or to make a cache with a... "real purpose"... I am already feeling less then energetic. The plan was to make this a family activity... after what I've saw so far, I'm almost embarrassed to go out as a family.

 

How much negative reinforcement is allowed?

 

Thought there was some kinda code where if your only reason for placing a cache.... was JUST to place another cache, don't do it?

 

Thanks for any help.

Sadly, there isn't a filter on crap useless piece of ... caches for the sake of them. I voiced my concern over this recently. If you want good caches, look for Regular size, or if that isn't possible, NOT micro 1.5 1.5 or easier.

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