Jump to content

Useless Hints


Jamie Z

Recommended Posts

I once placed a cache specifically for my brother. One of the clues for the final cache location was "On a bearing of 375 deg look for the igneous tussock"

I thought it was an easy clue but he didn't get it. He actually sat on the "igneous tussock" and pondered what the clue meant.

I was laughing my head off! :wub:

Link to comment

i ran into this hint recently:

"Know your aerospace history."

 

thanks. helpful when you're standing in the woods, ignorant about aerospace history. at least it's short and useless.

 

lol I know that cache, it's helpful in understanding the name but not in finding the cache. I was out with my mom when I found that one and by sheer luck she spotted it. Here's a better hint for you on that one vree, "look up"

 

I've actually stolen the concept of that cache for stages of my multi.

Link to comment

lol I know that cache, it's helpful in understanding the name but not in finding the cache. I was out with my mom when I found that one and by sheer luck she spotted it. Here's a better hint for you on that one vree, "look up"

 

I've actually stolen the concept of that cache for stages of my multi.

thanks! that would definitely have been more helpful. :rolleyes:

Link to comment

Avoid hints like: "near the big rock".

- every rock is a different size to everyone else.

 

Another common one is: 120m from point xxxxx. Of course, the owner has never held a tape measure in his hand and in fact it's 50 m.

 

"Behing the rock on the road" . We have thousands of kilometres of paved roads that are FULL of stones. :(

Link to comment

Ever been on a cache hunt while it's pouring rain? You can't find the cache, so you decrypt the hint and it tells you where to park?<BR><BR>Have you decrypted a five-sentence paragraph only to learn the history of the area you are standing it, with no help at all about where the cache might be.<BR><BR>Leatherman (among others) have expressed this sentiment, and I've been there too. <BR><BR>Therefore, this thread is dedicated to those useless hints. Post 'em here (but not the cache) so next time we're all fighting mosquites while trying to decrypt a useless hint, we can laugh. ...Jamie

 

Let me think.. uh.. from one single cache..

 

half of seven steps the clue used to read (has recently been changed)

Turns out it was six steps. I'm looking and looking for seven. Great.

 

On the left is one hint.

okay, which left. My left when I am about to go up the steps (that I can't find because all have 6 not seven, except the ones under construction on the wrong side of the building) or on my left when I've just walked down them? Doesn't matter, can't even get that far<G> and looking both sides won't be hard so then why the clue?

 

In the garden.

Only it's a bush.

A bush is a garden? Pardon me. A bush does not constitute a garden in my book, so I looked and looked<G>. Lots of spots with bushes there, by the by.

 

Remarks originally about not at the coordinates. Yep. Like 455 ft away!! A bit further than I'd have figured on<G>.

 

Not going to go there again even if he did update his clues<G>.

Link to comment
Be careful, a pile of barbed wire lays seven feet to the south of the cache.

So, the owner thought it was important enough to warn people about the wire, but not so much as to but it in the description?

Actually I think that is less of a warning but rather more of a clue with the words "Be careful" added to the front. If you took off those two words then this would be a great hint -- assuming (1) that there are not many piles of barbed wire laying around and (2) no one removes the barbed wire and (3) that it is actually a noticable pile. Looking at that hint all a person would need to do is to walk 7' north from the barbed wire (which should be easy to locate) in order to find the cache.

Link to comment

Stage 2:Cavity

 

We were in a huge rock/boulder field and it seemed like just about every rock was positioned to form a cavity. Turned out it was hidden in the cavity of a tree.

 

For the same cache

 

Stage 1:Blaze

 

Stage one was ORANGE and had nothing to do with fire beside the color. We were like, "Blaze was the clue. Does anyone see anything releating to fire?"

 

Those were more frusterating than useless. It was a great cache and I am not insulting the cache owners in any way. The hints were just.... overly cryptic.

Link to comment

Actually... the orange that hunters use is referred to as "Blaze" or "blaze orange". Some caches hidden in areas where there is seasonal hunting warn cachers to remember to wear their "blaze orange" so a Cheney isn't pulled on them.

 

The cavity one... well, I've been the victim of being pointed at a "many trunked tree" and wound up looking at the wrong one.

 

But I don't like the hints that are not a hint, but the "i may add a hint later" or "so easy it doesnt need one". At least I cache with CacheMate.

Edited by mikeylou
Link to comment

I don't mind there being no hint, but I do mind wordy non-hints that waste my time when I decrypt in the field, such as:

 

" To tell you anything about the cache site would be silly as it would no doubt give it away. Trust me - you will know where it is placed as soon as you get with 100m of the GPS reading."

Link to comment

 

Stage 1:Blaze

 

Stage one was ORANGE and had nothing to do with fire beside the color. We were like, "Blaze was the clue. Does anyone see anything releating to fire?"

 

Those were more frusterating than useless. It was a great cache and I am not insulting the cache owners in any way. The hints were just.... overly cryptic.

 

Now, I would be thinking trail marker, not fire, if the clue was blaze......

Link to comment

Why not just leave the hint blank?

 

Didn't seem appropriate because many people around here use GSAK. 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. Kind of like those pages in a book that say, "This page left intentionally blank"... 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. None of those is really a puzzle ("Where's the Barn?" is really just a multi but the reviewer wanted it to be a puzzle so people would park in a certain place and not somewhere else) I do have to agree that putting something like "This cache is just so easy that you won't need a single solitary clue to finding it" is out of line and probably would just make someone frustrated.

 

Plus, you are never really sure how much people want you to give away in a hint. Do they just want it given to them? Do they just need a nudge? I guess I could switch to putting in markers at certain points in hints that tell you how much is being given away. I've seen that done a few times, and it was nice because you could choose how much of a hint you needed to decode.

 

Also, some paperless Garmin users get hosed by long detailed hints. Something like "Check the fallen tree with three branches and no needles", a possibly useful hint, might get turned into "Check the fallen tree with" (I think it is actually a 32 char limit), a completely useless hint.

 

Since it is a "hint" field it also depends on how someone defines "hint". Someone posted the "You can find it" hint early on in this thread. Its a hint. Granted, a hint with limited usefulness, but a hint. I've seen others that say things like "Reach into the drainpipe and feel around. You'll find it about 2 inches up." Is that a hint, or a giveaway? Couldn't tell you either way (as there might have been several drainpipes in the area), but someone thought it was a hint.

 

Besides even hints that were probably good when the cache was placed like "Check the fallen log", similar to what I posted before, but which prove to be worthless after a hurricane and there are hundreds of fallen logs can be frustrating. The cache owner couldn't have known his hint was useless unless it was just a joke hint (i.e. "Between a rock and a hard place" in a field of rocks). But I was sure frustrated by it.

 

After examining our caches the only hint that we've given that I think is really bad after following this thread was "Try everything" (expecting the find to be difficult, but not wanting people to give up TOO quickly)... However, because of that hint, a cacher went to Walmart, bought a ladder and checked high up in a tree... Made for a good log, but I have been considering revising that one since it ended up in a DNF for him as well as a ladder. As yet haven't come up with a clue that just didn't give it away (the container is nicely camoed for the area so we expected people to take a LITTLE time to find it) so I haven't changed it yet, but don't want people to rush out buying ladders either.

Edited by roboknight
Link to comment

The cache owner on this one I presume just wanted to give some additional information on his cache. The "hint" reads as follows:

 

The house belongs to a foundation, and you can actually stay there for a week. We did. it was marvellous, it is even nicer inside than outside. The name of the foundation is "The landmark trust" and they have an office in the applefarm uproad, Scotts farm.

 

Thanks for making me decrypt that in the field for nothing. :laughing:

Link to comment

 

After examining our caches the only hint that we've given that I think is really bad after following this thread was "Try everything" (expecting the find to be difficult, but not wanting people to give up TOO quickly)... However, because of that hint, a cacher went to Walmart, bought a ladder and checked high up in a tree... Made for a good log, but I have been considering revising that one since it ended up in a DNF for him as well as a ladder. As yet haven't come up with a clue that just didn't give it away (the container is nicely camoed for the area so we expected people to take a LITTLE time to find it) so I haven't changed it yet, but don't want people to rush out buying ladders either.

 

Sometimes I'd just like to know if I should look high or low. There can be soooo many choices in some locations, if it's hot or I don't want to spend an hour, maybe too many for me to bother. Don't tell me where, just narrow down my hunt options a little bit. :unsure: Of course I could just be lazy too :laughing::)

 

Of course really clever and creative hints are fun. May not help me if the brain isn't working but I'll appreciate it after the fact. :P

Link to comment

On a cache we DNFed this weekend. A NANO cache.

 

[Hint 1] <cacher> wanted a harder cache out of <hider> so blame her for NO hints...

[Hint 2] Sorry...

[Hint 3] Did I mention it was SMALL?

 

THREE flipping lines to say "no hint". Thanks. :P

 

And a hint about hints to anyone wanting to put SOMETHING in the hint box:

If you want to put something in the hint field so people don't think they didn't get it, please put the info in brackets so it doesn't encrypt.

That way they're not decrypting just to see "No hint for you!", but they do know they got the "hint" info downloaded.

Link to comment

We looked for a cache this weekend. A typical lampost hide....didn't really need the hint but DBF always decrypts them anyway "just in case". This hint was "14".....hmmmm, lamposts are numbered.....GPSr is not pointing at lampost 14...but perhaps we should look just in case...... no cache. We located the cache by following the GPSr like we should have in the first place. It was located under lampost....16. ?????

Link to comment

We looked for a cache this weekend. A typical lampost hide....didn't really need the hint but DBF always decrypts them anyway "just in case". This hint was "14".....hmmmm, lamposts are numbered.....GPSr is not pointing at lampost 14...but perhaps we should look just in case...... no cache. We located the cache by following the GPSr like we should have in the first place. It was located under lampost....16. ?????

 

Some previous finder thought the hint made the find too easy and moved the cache?

Link to comment

OMG this topic just rocks.

 

I went and did a multi ummm east of me (and this is the reason why I tend to veer clear of multis unless they are on my homepage)..

 

Went and dug around for almost 2 hours looking for the cache. Finally deciphered the clue and it said

 

Under a boulder

 

This was in the old remnants of a rock quarry.........there were boulders for a quarter mile in each direction.

Link to comment

A couple hints from the Cambridge, Ontario area. It was because of the first one that I always decrypt before heading out.

 

1. On a multi where you're searching for a micro:

 

NOTE: LEG 1 IS NOT AT THE BIG SIGN, DUE TO WASP NEST.

 

Thanks a bunch! I would have rather known that before I started examining the area around the sign.

 

2. It is not in the tree stump.

 

Now that I know where it isn't, how about a hint as to where it is?

 

Of course, I'm pushing it with the hint on a new cache. I'm using 'At a natural meeting place', and the cache is hidden under the intersection of two fallen trees.

Link to comment

"It's under a rock". This in a rock field about the size of a football field.<BR><BR>----------<BR>I will prepare food with my iron fist!<BR>Then I will work my way up to ruling you all with my fist!

 

In relation to this experience, here's some info from a cache near me...

"Cache is a quart Nalgene jar covered with dark tape. It's hidden under a rock ... but which rock, and where?"

 

The hint was:

"Got a light?"

 

This was in a tunnel, under a road, so large you needed a flashlight to see even in broad daylight... Hint was good in this respect... but... It has a stream that runs underneath it, an artificial one. Anyone in Maryland knows how Maryland likes to line streams... with LOTS OF unending ROCKS... On both sides of the stream, ROCKS everywhere... we looked for about an hour before finally stumbling upon the cache. Oh, and one of two of my flashlights died on the way...

 

This was THE most challenging cache I've done so far. (unless you count the library cache at Annapolis Rocks, which has you climbing over a scree pile on a mountainside... at least the hider for that one was kind enough to note make a hint involving rocks... I still have not found this one.)

 

-Hybridgeek

Link to comment
Lots of nooks and crannies, but this isn't a hint. Aren't you mad that you took the time to decode this hint?

It's really a lot of typing for no reason at all, but you actually took the time to decode this while your GPS'r was losing the signal. I could go on like this for a while longer, but I'll let you get back to finding the cache. Thanks for looking! Have fun. p

You got it right - so why post such a stupid hint?? Edited by alexrudd
Link to comment

There's a couple of guys in my area that consistently use the cutsey "too easy" hint. I think they think its funny. :tired:

 

One thing that goes hand in hand with hints is difficulty rating. A 1 or 1.5 difficulty cache should be obvious to find and probably not require a hint. 2 or 2.5 difficulty should have a decent hint.

Link to comment

This is the hint to a cache I have searched for 3 different times. The cache is supposedly hidden on a loop trail. In other words the trail is like a big circle.

 

Hint: "Walk from the turn in the path to the clearing, turn back towards the path, look just a little left for the V tree, look under it."

 

The trail is one big turn with several clearings and V trees (I counted 17)

Link to comment

Just looked through a couple from caches we've done.

 

"Site name is hint enough" - I know that isn't too bad, but still.

 

"If you have access to a little one, bring them! They will act as a decoy while you search." - GPS Unit, check. Batteries, check. unknown child to act as a decoy, dang it I knew I'd forget something!

 

"If you can`t find this one,you might as well hang it up!" - Think this one annoys me most of all. I'm guessing that most of you are reading it thinking, "Oh well, it's probably hanging in a tree." And if you were actually there searching, you'd probably take notice to all of the trees hanging low above the area. Then after wasting all of that time you'd find it no where near the trees and not "hanging" by any means. A worthless hint that is also misleading!

 

This next one is actually my favorite and is intended as a joke by the cache owner (the cache is a huge drum chained to their front porch).

"If you can't find this one, sell the GPSr and take up knitting!" - Honestly, if there was a neon flashing sign above this cache it wouldn't be anymore obvious. This is about the only time when a hint like this is funny.

 

Jared

Link to comment

The Golden Rules of Hint-Writing: write the hint you'd want if you got stuck on this cache. (Yeah, admit it, it's happened to you!) That doesn't mean it has to be a dead-giveaway, it could be auxiliary information that just makes the find a little easier. In other words... you know... a hint!

  • Hints shouldn't be written to supply information for the benefit of the hider (e.g., remember to replace the container exactly as hidden). They're written for the finder.
  • Hints shouldn't be written assuming that the hunter is going to read it ahead of time (e.g., where to park, what equipment is needed, etc.). They should be written for someone who's already hunting for the cache. With that in mind, with a little creativity it's easy to write hints that are a little enigmatic in a fun way that would only be meaningful to someone getting to the area.
  • If you're writing information that people should know before going to the cache, don't include it in the hint; include it in the description.
  • If you're not going to give a hint to help the finder, that's fine - leave the hint field BLANK.

If everyone used the rules above, then cache hunters would be less likely to feel the need to decode every hint before hitting the trail, just to avoid missing important information they should have known ahead of time, or wasting time decoding unhelpful text.

Edited by captainmath
Link to comment

The Golden Rule of hint-writing: write the hint you'd want if you got stuck on this cache. (Yeah, admit it, it's happened to you!) That doesn't mean it has to be a dead-giveaway, it could be auxiliary information that just makes the find a little easier. In other words... you know... a hint!

  • Hints shouldn't be written to supply information for the benefit of the hider (e.g., remember to replace the container exactly as hidden). They're written for the finder.
  • Hints shouldn't be written assuming that the hunter is going to read it ahead of time (e.g., where to park, what equipment is needed, etc.). They should be written for someone who's already hunting for the cache. With that in mind, with a little creativity it's easy to write hints that are a little enigmatic in a fun way that would only be meaningful to someone getting to the area.
  • If you're writing information that people should know before going to the cache, don't include it in the hint; include it in the description.
  • If you're not going to give a hint to help the finder, that's fine - leave the hint field BLANK.

If everyone used the rules above, then cache hunters would be less likely to feel the need to decode every hint before hitting the trail, just to avoid missing important information they should have known ahead of time, or wasting time decoding unhelpful text.

 

Very well put Captainmath. :laughing:

 

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

Link to comment

How about this one...

 

After you log a DNF, just e-mail me and I'll send you a hint. :huh:

 

We were over 2000 miles from home, and will probably not be back in this lifetime. :laughing:

 

Yep, just had that tonight.:

 

If you're ready to go back for the third time email me.

 

Go back? I went there once! Thanks for nothing!

Link to comment

How about this one...

 

After you log a DNF, just e-mail me and I'll send you a hint. ;)

 

We were over 2000 miles from home, and will probably not be back in this lifetime. :blink:

 

Yep, just had that tonight.:

 

If you're ready to go back for the third time email me.

 

Go back? I went there once! Thanks for nothing!

You guys weren't in Orlando, were you? I just had that one too! ... and I'm 800 miles from home also! Sorry, got better things to do than go back after that one.

But better yet ... I just saw a hint with corrected coordinates in it!!! :unsure: Fortunately for me, I saw the owner's name and just blew right past that one without even stopping ... but not before reading the hint to see what he came up with that time. Could you imagine searching for a half hour (or more) before reading that hint?!? :D

Link to comment

My favorite hint was under the rock. The cache title is Rocky Top. It is on a ridge line. Rocks the size of washer/dryers all the way up to house sized rocks. I didn't find it too amusing in the middle of the night, in the snow in 20 degree weather. But I think the vague hint made me more determined to find te cache. The smart alec hints are irritating. I usually just pffft and move on.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...