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Useless Hints

Jamie Z

By Jamie Z
in General geocaching topics

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PilotMike

+PilotMike

Posted
Posted

Paperless caching and all being the rage around here didn't want someone to think their hint field got screwed up and didn't download. But for those I always try to use something short like "none" or "n/a" for others using paper. Although 3 of our later caches do just have empty hint fields.

If you insist on having 'none' or 'n/a' for paperless cachers' piece of mind, couldn't you put that in brackets so it doesn't encrypt?

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PilotMike

+PilotMike

Posted
Posted

Although there is no way of enforcing it, it's a nice "Golden Rules" for leaving hints.

 

It could be enforced with reviewers not approving the cache as is. If it's not a 'hint' it shouldn't be allowed in the 'hint' field on the cache submission...

 

I've mentioned to one local cacher that I've noticed his tendency to post non-hints such as "Not at this time" or "None needed." He didn't respond and didn't change anything...

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Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted

The hint on a cache I looked for the other day was:

 

OVT oveqf yvir arkg qbbe... = BIG birds live next door...

 

So, I'm looking around in the large bush for a big bird's nest or something . . . Only after I decide I don't want to look in that area of broken concrete, discarded clothing, and trash anymore, and call the hunt a DNF, do I notice the ostrich in a field 100 yards away . . . :anitongue:

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"fish"

+"fish"

Posted
Posted

i have a cache at my house that has a useless hint the cache is a diff. 4.5 ter1. the hint tells you to look on the grill but the grill is on the deck. the grill in question is not handicap accesable. the cache is. my cache page also says that the hint is a lie. many people do not read the cache pages, just download the cords and hints and go. sorry about their luck.oh the cache is a nanno. i will give hints in person when people are looking for it.

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Aquacache

+Aquacache

Posted
Posted

i have a cache at my house that has a useless hint the cache is a diff. 4.5 ter1. the hint tells you to look on the grill but the grill is on the deck. the grill in question is not handicap accesable. the cache is. my cache page also says that the hint is a lie. many people do not read the cache pages, just download the cords and hints and go. sorry about their luck.oh the cache is a nanno. i will give hints in person when people are looking for it.

I'm one of the people that reads the descriptions and if I saw something that said that the hint is a lie, I'd probably just keep driving. Of course, I'm also not a big fan of micro's and whenever I see a 4.5D micro, I just keep driving without even reading the description.

 

But, everybody is different. :lol:

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Isonzo Karst

+Isonzo Karst

Posted
Posted
What bugs me more than a useless clue is an inaccurate one. So many people out there that don't know a stump from a rootstock

 

A few years ago we did a long (12+ miles) multi cache. The cache owner mis-identifed trees several times.

Hint, "cypress roots". It was an oak. Hint, "cypress swamp" - well, yes, a cypress swamp, but the cache was on a pine. Hint, "scrub oak". I'm not really sure what a scrub oak is, but the cache was on a live oak, quercus virginiana - just about the only oak Ive never heard called "scrub". He should have just stuck with "trees"...

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Harry Dolphin

+Harry Dolphin

Posted
Posted

I did six caches by the same hider last weekend. Of course, I decrypt the hints before I go looking, but:

E-mail me if you need a clue.

Well, if you really need a hint email me.

Inside a log

Itsy Bitsy hiding in a tree.

In a crevice with one rock covering it.

In a rock crevice covered by rocks, leaves and sticks. Keep looking, if you got any closer it would bite you.

Some useful hints. Some useless hints. Define 'crevice'. One rock, no sticks or leaves, but a polyester coonskin cap? Itsy Bitsy was on the ground, Oh, well. GReat day of geocaching, but only one or two hints were useful.

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Isonzo Karst

+Isonzo Karst

Posted
Posted
It could be enforced with reviewers not approving the cache as is. If it's not a 'hint' it shouldn't be allowed in the 'hint' field on the cache submission...

 

Useless hints aren't guidelines violations. So the reviewer can't hold up publication over them. When I'm in reviewer mode, I add a reviewer note* about the useless hint and assuming everything else is okay, publish.

Maybe the cacher edits, maybe not.

 

*A hint is supposed to be something that's decoded after a search has failed and some further clue is needed. This isn't a hint. As the edit page says "If you don't have a hint, leave it blank."

.

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PilotMike

+PilotMike

Posted
Posted

*A hint is supposed to be something that's decoded after a search has failed and some further clue is needed. This isn't a hint. As the edit page says "If you don't have a hint, leave it blank."

 

I like this. Especially pointing out what the page says as instruction...

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Harry Dolphin

+Harry Dolphin

Posted
Posted

What bugs me more than a useless clue is an inaccurate one. So many people out there that don't know a stump from a rootstock. I've gotten to the point that I don't ever assume the writer knows.

 

We went looking for a cache Saturday. The hint is: Run your fingers along the inside of the granite wall about 6 feet north of the corner (of the wall).

The coords led us right to the only granite wall in the area. So we spent some time running our fingers inside the granite wall. Nothing. (It should also be noted that the streets run northeast-southwest.) About sixty feet away (across the street), there is a brick wall with a granite lintel. But, but, that wall does not have a corner! It has a rounded area where it changes direction from southeast to northeast. So we have a brick wall, instead of a granite wall. A rounded edge rather than a corner. The cache was northeast of the rounded edge, not north. And the coords were sixty feet off. We were lucky to have found this one! Though, I will say that it was an interesting cache pointing out an interesting tidbit of history. Oddly, as we approcached the first stage, and read the cache page, something connected in my brain, and I said "That must be referring to (something that I learnt in a history class forty years ago.)" And it was!

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Airstreaming

+Airstreaming

Posted
Posted

We need more of these! they were great to read! Boy did some of them hit the spot. Being new at this I didn't get half the clues. Especially the ones that say 'look in rock' when there are PILES OF ROCKS EVERYWHERE. The tree one is the same thing. Then, there is one that says 'what would yodadog say'.

who is yodadog??? a decendent of Yoda & Lassie????

We did find this cache eventually, it only took 3 times!

It's great fun though and we'll keep on going! I'm stuck on one now that says 'look in the rock palace'. Ok, there is a couple of stone walls that follow the road and also a rock gully. SO which rock would it be in??? Going back again to look! Maybe I should bring a metal detector?

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wvcoalcat

+wvcoalcat

Posted
Posted

Just stumbled across this one. Man O'Day I'd be a little ticked if I decrypted this in search of aid. :D

 

Visited the cache yesterday to add a few more items and discovered the pens don't write very well; but I forgot to take any with me. So if you go for this one; please take an extra pencil to leave in it. I will try to add one soon anyway. Also please note don't try to cross the high banked creek except by the trail or you might be injured. You'll note a couple of people found this out the hard way.
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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted
What bugs me more than a useless clue is an inaccurate one. So many people out there that don't know a stump from a rootstock

 

A few years ago we did a long (12+ miles) multi cache. The cache owner mis-identifed trees several times.

Hint, "cypress roots". It was an oak. Hint, "cypress swamp" - well, yes, a cypress swamp, but the cache was on a pine. Hint, "scrub oak". I'm not really sure what a scrub oak is, but the cache was on a live oak, quercus virginiana - just about the only oak Ive never heard called "scrub". He should have just stuck with "trees"...

 

I would describe a scrub oak as a dwarfed oak tree, sort of an "oak bush". I'd have to say they are common in much colder climates than Florida. :huh:

 

As far as this whole thread, I just don't like hints that say things like "none at this time" or "too easy for hints". What's up with that? I don't get it, why even do that? Just leave it blank.

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tungseth

+tungseth

Posted
Posted

a cache i hunted for a few weeks ago was called woodticks 2 hidden on private property very near some large no trespassing signs my accuracty was fairly pour so i decrypted the hint and it said "check for ticks when you leave" I couldn't believe i wasted my time on this to log a DNF after i logged the DNF it the cache page was changed to say permission was granted for geocaching but i am not driving 60 miles again for that.

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Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted

I tend to take hints way too literally. :) One time the hint said "In the bush." So, we looked and looked and looked for a container in the bush. Finally, I saw it under the bush. :lol:

 

Recently I DNFd and urban cache that said "Magnetic. A few inches from the ground." Never mind that the coordinates put me on the opposite side of the street, I sort of figured out where it might be but, since I was looking for something about three or four inches above the ground, I didn't find it. :(

 

On a return visit, I found the magnetic keyholder about 20" up on a wrought iron rail, that doesn't come within "a few inches from the ground." :)

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elmuyloco5

+elmuyloco5

Posted
Posted

The worst one I've come across is:

 

"What you use to season chicken"

 

Huh? This was at a Veteran's Memorial. We thought that maybe it was near a plant used for seasoning like sage, or tree that had citrus fruit....nope, the whole place was a construction zone. Then we thought, surely this must be hidden in some sort of seasoning can. But the list of original contents would never have fit in something that small. Was this the Jolly Green Giant's salt shaker???? Never figured the clue out.

 

Never found the thing. Turns out, about 3 pgs down in the log, someone mentions that they took it inside the visitor's center because of the construction. We went to go in and ask, but the center had closed by then.

 

Doesn't appear that the owner has visited this cache in a few years as someone else moved it. There's no mention of the move in the cache description and is still listed in the original coordinates which take you to an empty patch of dirt. Would be nice if someone updated the description. We were bummed as we wanted to leave something as we are veteran's ourselves. It was the one cache that we were really looking forward to that day.

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Miragee

+Miragee

Posted
Posted

The worst one I've come across is:

 

"What you use to season chicken"

 

Huh? This was at a Veteran's Memorial. We thought that maybe it was near a plant used for seasoning like sage, or tree that had citrus fruit....nope, the whole place was a construction zone. Then we thought, surely this must be hidden in some sort of seasoning can. But the list of original contents would never have fit in something that small. Was this the Jolly Green Giant's salt shaker???? Never figured the clue out.

 

Never found the thing. Turns out, about 3 pgs down in the log, someone mentions that they took it inside the visitor's center because of the construction. We went to go in and ask, but the center had closed by then.

 

Doesn't appear that the owner has visited this cache in a few years as someone else moved it. There's no mention of the move in the cache description and is still listed in the original coordinates which take you to an empty patch of dirt. Would be nice if someone updated the description. We were bummed as we wanted to leave something as we are veteran's ourselves. It was the one cache that we were really looking forward to that day.

Seems like this cache needs an SBA log . . . or, if you don't want to put a "Should Be Archived" note on the cache page, notifying the Reviewer for that area would be a good thing to do, if the cache is still Active, to save others from the same frustration.

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edscott

+edscott

Posted
Posted
What bugs me more than a useless clue is an inaccurate one. So many people out there that don't know a stump from a rootstock

 

A few years ago we did a long (12+ miles) multi cache. The cache owner mis-identifed trees several times.

Hint, "cypress roots". It was an oak. Hint, "cypress swamp" - well, yes, a cypress swamp, but the cache was on a pine. Hint, "scrub oak". I'm not really sure what a scrub oak is, but the cache was on a live oak, quercus virginiana - just about the only oak Ive never heard called "scrub". He should have just stuck with "trees"...

 

Happens a lot. I did one a week or so ago in NC that was at the base of an "oak" tree. Tree was a Hickory... Most of my caches have their best hints in the name. Those that need to decrypt just didn't think it through the first time.

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legacypac

+legacypac

Posted
Posted

And then there are hints that are just cleaver (IMHO). "at SOUTH POPLAR CEMETARY" for a cache named "South Poplar". Seems totally useless until you realize you are staring at the gate with those words in all caps on it. Most people find it right after they realize the meaning and the fact is a giveaway.

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Steinwälzer

+Steinwälzer

Posted
Posted

Yesterday, very bad satelitte reception in a forest, so I looked at the hint. "At the foot of a beech, next to an ilex". Fine, the whole slope was full of beech trees and ilex next to them...

 

So I started to look for a path or something because looking at every beech in a circle of about 50 meters wasn't really an option. Found the cache quite fast this way :D

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briansnat

+briansnat

Posted
Posted

Good, make sure your hints are up to snuff before we go hunting any of your caches! :unsure:

Just so you know ahead of time. One of my hints is (decrypted) "Read Cache Description"

Because everything is explained in the description, including a picture of the drowning hazard nearby.

 

Now that would annoy me if I decrypted it to see that.

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Klatch

+Klatch

Posted
Posted

So many people out there that don't know a stump from a rootstock.

 

Is there ANYONE besides edscott that knows what a rootstock is (without googling it)? :unsure:

 

Hmmm, let me take a WAG on this. Could it be a large section of root that is exposed above the ground?

No, as I understand it, it is the root system used in grafting. Usually the root stock is hardier than the material grafted onto it, which in turn has special characteristics (think fruit varieties or ornamentals). Some fruit trees are grafted to produce peaches, plums and nectarines on one tree (and they are usually grafted onto plum rootstock).

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OwlCacher

+OwlCacher

Posted
Posted

I tend to take hints way too literally. :blink: One time the hint said "In the bush." So, we looked and looked and looked for a container in the bush. Finally, I saw it under the bush. <_<

I actually had the opposite experience. The hint said "fake rock in pointy plants" but the most logical place to look was under them. On what I think was my third visit, I moved a few leaves, and there it was.

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Knobhiker

+Knobhiker

Posted
Posted (edited)

So... what is a "hint" supposed to be anyway? I don't think it is an outright gimme. You all are right that it's not parking descriptions or to bring a lunch, fishing pole, etc. But can't hints be a little creative?

 

I give hints that, well.. hint. "Fork over a hint" when it's in the fork of a tree, and "You'll 'ced-ar' the hiding spot from a distance' when the hide is under a cedar tree, are a couple of my hints. But my favorite that you all probably would kill me over is the one for a micro tied to a branch and placed up and into a woodpecker hole: "up, down, and inside". But I did hint in the description that I got to place this one verses my dog. His are all at ground level.

 

So kill me if I'm creative with the hint. But it's a game isn't it?

Edited by Knobhiker
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scuba dude

+scuba dude

Posted
Posted

On my first cache I used a hint that was a "hint" from a movie. The cache is hidden along a wall behind tree cover. the hint is "the clue in the movie National Treasure" which leads to the Trinity church. The clue being "Heere at the wall". Maybe cheezy, but it's NOT a difficult hide and I didn't want to just give it away. My last cache clue was "look down, or up, or down then up" The cache is a mag, located on the under side of a foot bridge. So all are correct depending on your vantage point.

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