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2014 Cache Placing Slump


nikcap

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Looking at the new cache placements in NJ this year, I noticed a significant drop off on cache placements. In NJ we are pretty much a the saturation point anyway, but my initial thought that this was the result of the ban on new caches on state lands.

2014-Cache-Slump.png

 

So, I compared to several of the nearby states.

 

 

New Jersey

NJCachePlacementHistory.jpg

 

Pennsylvania

PennCachePlacementHistory.jpg

 

New York

 

NYCachePlacementHistory.jpg

 

 

 

What have the cache placements stats in your area?

 

Any theory why hiding of cache have trended down?

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Any theory why hiding of cache have trended down?

 

One does not simply hide a cache. Hiding of cache is a fine art, to be achieved only with the proper inspiration, guidance, and knowledge.

 

Although Google trends does confirm this.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=geocache&cmpt=q

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Www.geocaching.com

 

I believe the saturation point occurs after every storm.

Edited by 4wheelin_fool
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In my local area it has slowed down, used to be any park that had a cache archived there was a rush to go fill it back up. Still lots of caches and occasionally explosions of new caches but I think in my area it has slowed down a bit, especially in my 14 mile notification area. Partly due to saturation, some of the prolific hiders have slowed down, and Caramel Apple oreos.

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Is that all of New York? I doubt it is, but I'd better ask. I don't keep any numbers, but in Western NY, it has slowed down to NOTHING. I mean like 10 caches within 25 miles of my house in the last two months. All while the areas nearby me in Ontario are as steady as ever.

 

Theory? Yeah, I got one, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. It has something to do with bar codes though. :ph34r:

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Is that all of New York? I doubt it is, but I'd better ask. I don't keep any numbers, but in Western NY, it has slowed down to NOTHING. I mean like 10 caches within 25 miles of my house in the last two months. All while the areas nearby me in Ontario are as steady as ever.

 

Theory? Yeah, I got one, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. It has something to do with bar codes though. :ph34r:

 

The NY chart is of the whole state. At least, that is what I requested from the third-party geoaching statistic site that begins with project.

 

I'm not sure about the bar code thing, but substituting that word into 4WF's Google Trends site shows a big up tick, but also a slight down trend over the last year.

But, to your point, I think the "personality" type that enjoyed the big numbers of placing and finding caches, had probably migrated to that bar code thing.

 

On another note, I suspect that there might be some green and blue anomalies that are distracting from the game play. At a recent Geocaching event, there was a lot of talk and activity around that subject.

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By the way, if Lone R. see this, she can verify the worldwide placements or "plants" on the Letterboxing site Atlas Quest peaked 2 or 3 years ago. This Geocaching thing has to slow down at some point. Even with the millions of intro app people out there. :)

 

Here's an AQ screen shot. Peaked in 2009, significant decline in 2013 and continues to decline:

 

346f718c-2a43-4d5f-a6cf-5b859c2cea32.png

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Is that all of New York? I doubt it is, but I'd better ask. I don't keep any numbers, but in Western NY, it has slowed down to NOTHING. I mean like 10 caches within 25 miles of my house in the last two months. All while the areas nearby me in Ontario are as steady as ever.

 

Theory? Yeah, I got one, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. It has something to do with bar codes though. :ph34r:

 

The NY chart is of the whole state. At least, that is what I requested from the third-party geoaching statistic site that begins with project.

 

I'm not sure about the bar code thing, but substituting that word into 4WF's Google Trends site shows a big up tick, but also a slight down trend over the last year.

But, to your point, I think the "personality" type that enjoyed the big numbers of placing and finding caches, had probably migrated to that bar code thing.

 

On another note, I suspect that there might be some green and blue anomalies that are distracting from the game play. At a recent Geocaching event, there was a lot of talk and activity around that subject.

 

Duh. I was actually a very early fan of project-gc, and I didn't even think you might have got it from there. :P

 

All I can tell you is it is DEAD around my area. There is some guy at the extreme outer limits of my 50 mile radius who places a lot of caches and names them after his dog (whatever is up with that) but that's about it. And I do live in an area where that bar code thing has taken off. I'm talking several long time premium members who don't even do Geocaching anymore. One I even know was a premium member since 2005, and just let it lapse. I'm sure that doesn't apply everywhere though.

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Easily enough new caches this year to get one per day. But those come in spurts- new additions to powertrails, events and such. But spread out, no it's gotten less. When I started there was a new cache of two every month, to keep you on your toes. But since I started a few years ago, the total cache count at least doubled. So I guess it's all on how you look at it...

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Is that all of New York? I doubt it is, but I'd better ask. I don't keep any numbers, but in Western NY, it has slowed down to NOTHING. I mean like 10 caches within 25 miles of my house in the last two months. All while the areas nearby me in Ontario are as steady as ever.

 

Theory? Yeah, I got one, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. It has something to do with bar codes though. :ph34r:

 

The NY chart is of the whole state. At least, that is what I requested from the third-party geoaching statistic site that begins with project.

.

 

It's ok to mention project-gc. They're an official partner site and have been frequently mentioned here by mods. In my my area placements may have dropped a bit but they were never really that active. It's pretty seasonal and over the long winter I've seen only a handful of new caches placed within 20 miles over a 3-4 month period. I just found a cache about a half an hour ago in an area that's only had 6 caches placed since 2009 within 50 miles. I spent the previous 4 days in a place which doesn't have any caches within 150 miles.

 

 

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Is that all of New York? I doubt it is, but I'd better ask. I don't keep any numbers, but in Western NY, it has slowed down to NOTHING. I mean like 10 caches within 25 miles of my house in the last two months. All while the areas nearby me in Ontario are as steady as ever.

 

Theory? Yeah, I got one, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. It has something to do with bar codes though. :ph34r:

 

The NY chart is of the whole state. At least, that is what I requested from the third-party geoaching statistic site that begins with project.

.

 

It's ok to mention project-gc. They're an official partner site and have been frequently mentioned here by mods. In my my area placements may have dropped a bit but they were never really that active. It's pretty seasonal and over the long winter I've seen only a handful of new caches placed within 20 miles over a 3-4 month period. I just found a cache about a half an hour ago in an area that's only had 6 caches placed since 2009 within 50 miles. I spent the previous 4 days in a place which doesn't have any caches within 150 miles.

 

I believe the official Groundspeak language is that they are a "trusted partner". Which is Groundspeak's way of saying "we have a closed API". :ph34r: But I probably just threw Nikcap off the way I couldn't mention that other game. By the way, thanks for posting the Letterbox chart, Lone R.

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...

It's ok to mention project-gc. They're an official partner site and have been frequently mentioned here by mods. In my my area placements may have dropped a bit but they were never really that active. It's pretty seasonal and over the long winter I've seen only a handful of new caches placed within 20 miles over a 3-4 month period. I just found a cache about a half an hour ago in an area that's only had 6 caches placed since 2009 within 50 miles. I spent the previous 4 days in a place which doesn't have any caches within 150 miles.

 

I believe the official Groundspeak language is that they are a "trusted partner". Which is Groundspeak's way of saying "we have a closed API". :ph34r: But I probably just threw Nikcap off the way I couldn't mention that other game. By the way, thanks for posting the Letterbox chart, Lone R.

 

I was mostly being a goof-ball. I assumed that Project GC would be OK, now, a game where you capture portals and collect XM might be another story. :ph34r:

 

Anyway, I'm not surprised that cache placement is on a down turn. I also see this as a good thing, without being to optimistic, I think this translates into better quality or more thought out placements. Speaking for myself, I've had more fun finding caches this year, especially the newer placements.

But, I might also be much more selective and the style in my area might be a little better than others.

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Well http://coord.info/GC5FZNM is a new multi on Saten Island which is a great example of an excellent, high quality cache, although you better get it soon because one stage is just too obvious and likely to get muggled. Make sure you bring a UV light and actually use the map pieces rather than taking a pic.

 

Sounds awesome!! And maybe Geocaching isn't slowing down, that's the most caches I've ever seen on the usual dead zone on the New York Cache map of Staten Island. Although it looks like a lot of the newer ones are by that same guy who owns the multi.

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[

Anyway, I'm not surprised that cache placement is on a down turn. I also see this as a good thing, without being to optimistic, I think this translates into better quality or more thought out placements.

 

Unless when a new spot becomes available while you're thinking up a good quality cache or a more thought out placement someone swoops in with a film canister LPC.

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All I can tell you is it is DEAD around my area. There is some guy at the extreme outer limits of my 50 mile radius who places a lot of caches and names them after his dog (whatever is up with that) but that's about it. And I do live in an area where that bar code thing has taken off. I'm talking several long time premium members who don't even do Geocaching anymore. One I even know was a premium member since 2005, and just let it lapse. I'm sure that doesn't apply everywhere though.

 

There isn't a hiding slump in my area (which I think is near Yuck's outer limit). We may be talking about the same dog. At least once a week for about the last 3 months I get a new notification of 10 new caches. A very keen hider with a wide caching zone and a sack full of pill bottles. I live in a cache dense zone and had no idea there were so many spots still left around here. But there will likely be a slump once he's finished covering the area, because then there really won't be a place to hide a cache. tongue.gif

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Things around here have slowed down also, and I attribute that to a number of reasons. People don't seem to do many mystery caches (me included), but there are 6-12 local cachers who enjoy them. Lack of quality caches, although some are very good. Sorry, skirt lifters and guardrail caches normally don't qualify. I'm guilty of placing a few guardrail caches myself. Being FTF on a cache now and then was a thrill for many and a reason to get out and cache, but that has been diminished for reasons I won't go into publically. Seems like placing a multi is the Kiss of Death, so those get left out of PQ's.

 

Thanks goodness we have a strong local caching organization with monthly meetings and 2 great yearly events, it's keeping caching alive in NW Ohio.

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It has seemed to slow in my area as well. I know one cacher who told me he wanted to hide caches but there were no places left. I thought this kind of crazy as I have many places in mind. Then a new cacher popped up right after this conversation and has placed out over 100 caches in our area that all are really cool ones. This cacher even placed a favorite of ours right in the middle of our size series that I thought we had filled up. We placed one of every size from nano to a large in this one area and thought we took advantage of every possible spot. I had another cacher find a bunch of our caches and in a log said they were looking for a spot to hide a cache. They couldn't find a open spot but enjoyed finding our caches. I sent them a PM to give them a few cool spots to hide some caches and they liked them and placed caches there.

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All I can tell you is it is DEAD around my area. There is some guy at the extreme outer limits of my 50 mile radius who places a lot of caches and names them after his dog (whatever is up with that) but that's about it. And I do live in an area where that bar code thing has taken off. I'm talking several long time premium members who don't even do Geocaching anymore. One I even know was a premium member since 2005, and just let it lapse. I'm sure that doesn't apply everywhere though.

 

There isn't a hiding slump in my area (which I think is near Yuck's outer limit). We may be talking about the same dog. At least once a week for about the last 3 months I get a new notification of 10 new caches. A very keen hider with a wide caching zone and a sack full of pill bottles. I live in a cache dense zone and had no idea there were so many spots still left around here. But there will likely be a slump once he's finished covering the area, because then there really won't be a place to hide a cache. tongue.gif

 

I too am from the same neck of the woods as Mr. Yuck and am familiar with the cacher and dog in question. I ran into him a couple of weeks ago in a park. Real nice guy. His dog was nice too. I spent a considerable amount of time last winter finding most of his caches along the canal. I enjoyed myself so it's all good to me.

 

I have noticed fewer new caches in WNY while the number of new caches in So. Ontario has not suffered. I agree with Mr. Yuck's analysis that some of the long time cachers have abandoned the game for bar codes. I think another reason is that many of the cool parks in the area are mostly full. Certainly there are areas left but finding them takes work, especially when multis and puzzle caches are factored in. This may prevent newer cachers from placing caches in those area. With most parks full of caches, some newer cachers may not see the need to place more. Just theories, I know...

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All I can tell you is it is DEAD around my area. There is some guy at the extreme outer limits of my 50 mile radius who places a lot of caches and names them after his dog (whatever is up with that) but that's about it. And I do live in an area where that bar code thing has taken off. I'm talking several long time premium members who don't even do Geocaching anymore. One I even know was a premium member since 2005, and just let it lapse. I'm sure that doesn't apply everywhere though.

 

There isn't a hiding slump in my area (which I think is near Yuck's outer limit). We may be talking about the same dog. At least once a week for about the last 3 months I get a new notification of 10 new caches. A very keen hider with a wide caching zone and a sack full of pill bottles. I live in a cache dense zone and had no idea there were so many spots still left around here. But there will likely be a slump once he's finished covering the area, because then there really won't be a place to hide a cache. tongue.gif

 

I too am from the same neck of the woods as Mr. Yuck and am familiar with the cacher and dog in question. I ran into him a couple of weeks ago in a park. Real nice guy. His dog was nice too. I spent a considerable amount of time last winter finding most of his caches along the canal. I enjoyed myself so it's all good to me.

 

I have noticed fewer new caches in WNY while the number of new caches in So. Ontario has not suffered. I agree with Mr. Yuck's analysis that some of the long time cachers have abandoned the game for bar codes. I think another reason is that many of the cool parks in the area are mostly full. Certainly there are areas left but finding them takes work, especially when multis and puzzle caches are factored in. This may prevent newer cachers from placing caches in those area. With most parks full of caches, some newer cachers may not see the need to place more. Just theories, I know...

 

Yes, I was talking about an American Dog, not a Canadian Dog. :P

 

I don't get ALL the notifications for this Dogs caches, but knowing where Borst lives in respect to me, I'll bet he gets all of them. Some reviewers are Dogs, so it just stands to reason some cache placers are Dogs. :o

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All I can tell you is it is DEAD around my area. There is some guy at the extreme outer limits of my 50 mile radius who places a lot of caches and names them after his dog (whatever is up with that) but that's about it. And I do live in an area where that bar code thing has taken off. I'm talking several long time premium members who don't even do Geocaching anymore. One I even know was a premium member since 2005, and just let it lapse. I'm sure that doesn't apply everywhere though.

 

There isn't a hiding slump in my area (which I think is near Yuck's outer limit). We may be talking about the same dog. At least once a week for about the last 3 months I get a new notification of 10 new caches. A very keen hider with a wide caching zone and a sack full of pill bottles. I live in a cache dense zone and had no idea there were so many spots still left around here. But there will likely be a slump once he's finished covering the area, because then there really won't be a place to hide a cache. tongue.gif

 

I too am from the same neck of the woods as Mr. Yuck and am familiar with the cacher and dog in question. I ran into him a couple of weeks ago in a park. Real nice guy. His dog was nice too. I spent a considerable amount of time last winter finding most of his caches along the canal. I enjoyed myself so it's all good to me.

 

I have noticed fewer new caches in WNY while the number of new caches in So. Ontario has not suffered. I agree with Mr. Yuck's analysis that some of the long time cachers have abandoned the game for bar codes. I think another reason is that many of the cool parks in the area are mostly full. Certainly there are areas left but finding them takes work, especially when multis and puzzle caches are factored in. This may prevent newer cachers from placing caches in those area. With most parks full of caches, some newer cachers may not see the need to place more. Just theories, I know...

 

Yes, I was talking about an American Dog, not a Canadian Dog. :P

 

I don't get ALL the notifications for this Dogs caches, but knowing where Borst lives in respect to me, I'll bet he gets all of them. Some reviewers are Dogs, so it just stands to reason some cache placers are Dogs. :o

 

America dog: "Woof"

Canadian dog: "Woof, eh?"

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Hope this thread's not too dusty to respond to. :) I have been watching the same thing happen in Kansas for the last year or so, but didn't keep detailed notes. Over the holidays, I spent some time grinding through a GSAK state-wide database and came up with this display of active caches (sans all event types) available by Year and Type, totaling 12,202. I discounted the events as they are intended to have short lives, and be archived quickly. So, as of Jan 2, 2015, these would be the "survivors":

 

KSCaches.jpg

 

Note that the ~50% decline in micros placed in 2014 equates to a ~25% net decrease in total caches available placed in that same year.

 

Since the start of the year, I've been keeping those more-detailed notes, and this graph shows weekly new publications and archivals (again, sans events) for 2015. Yes, a limited data set so far, but very consistent with observations from 2014. This is a net decrease total caches of 31 so far in 2015:

 

Jan15.jpg

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Whoa, that first 3D graph is cool. I'm not quoting the graphics, by the way. All I can tell you is new cache notifications slowed to almost nothing in my 50 mile radius during the summer of 2014, and remain there. And the State of New York has a net decrease of 568 caches in the last two months, going back to November 2014. When is the last time you saw that number of active caches on your State page decrease? Answer: Never. :ph34r:

 

P.S. living in a sub-arctic State such as New York, I'd imagine there might have been a few Winter months over the years where archivals outpaced new cache placements by a handful. But 568 less active caches, and a decrease from over 30,000 active caches to under 30,000 active caches? I'd file that under unprecedented. :huh:

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Just another thought, but in another recent thread, there was talk about how Reviewers are getting a little more aggressive thorough about archiving some old listings that do not appear to have much action, say a single DNF in the past few years. I wonder if there is an increase in archival rates because of this, which may also be contributing to having less total active caches in a particular state. I'm not sure if all reviewers in all states/regions are cracking down, but in places where they are it would be interesting to see if this is visible in the stats.

 

Pessimist: Geocaching as we know it is doomed, soon there will be no caches left! sad.gif

 

Optimist: The geocaching database is finally getting cleaned out and people have stopped placing "just because" caches, so the game will be much better for everyone. biggrin.gif

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Or the drop cachers / regular cachers have either filled areas to capacity or (hopefully) putting more thought into their placements, not because they can. I only run a 20 Mike radius.. Two years ago several were posted every week. Now it's maybe 1 or 2 every few weeks / month.

Edited by doc73
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While I still have only recently almost cleaned out the 2 mile radius from my house leave 5-10 caches I still have plenty to find being a casual cacher myself but in my area (South Denver suburban area) We have had 5 new placements in 4 months in about 20 miles of my house. I am almost a year into this and I really don't know what it used to be like in the early days but it seems slow. Most new placements are camp taped pill bottles in pines though so not very exciting. I place almost only regulars with 1 micro that makes sense in its location and is a nice official container, not a crappy film canister/ pill bottle. I have kind of gotten a reputation in my area as one of the best cache hiders in my area (I only use ammo cans and have made custom containers) As a younger geocacher in my caching career I will have to say new placement is little to none.

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Just another thought, but in another recent thread, there was talk about how Reviewers are getting a little more aggressive thorough about archiving some old listings that do not appear to have much action, say a single DNF in the past few years. I wonder if there is an increase in archival rates because of this, which may also be contributing to having less total active caches in a particular state. I'm not sure if all reviewers in all states/regions are cracking down, but in places where they are it would be interesting to see if this is visible in the stats.

 

Pessimist: Geocaching as we know it is doomed, soon there will be no caches left! sad.gif

 

Optimist: The geocaching database is finally getting cleaned out and people have stopped placing "just because" caches, so the game will be much better for everyone. biggrin.gif

 

I get archival notices, my radius is set at 50 miles, and I've seen no reveiwer witch hunts. :P Additionally, I live 7 miles from Canada, so it extends 43 miles into that Country, and still nothing with a different reviewer.

 

I think there is a decline, and it has to be the first ever. You can't see this any more because it changed the first of the year, but project-GC told us that new cache placements were down 23% in the United States in 2014 vs. 2013. Right now it compares 2015 to 2014, and it's only January. But they are indeed down 25% from January 2014 numbers.

 

Will there ever be a 3,000,000th cache? They'd better start waving those Czech Republic and German flags at Groundspeak HQ. :laughing:

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That graph indicates a sharp decline in micros, with small sized and other caches being essentially the same. Don't know how this is a bad thing, really. :D It only reflects different trends. If the decline is from the micro spammers moving to the QR code site, then what's the problem? :P

 

Not a problem at all. :laughing: Micro spammers, eh? That reminds me, I don't think I've heard the term Micro Spew in years. If you too haven't, you have now. :lol:

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Definite slump around us when it comes to new caches being hidden in our county. Curious if whatever the "barcode" thing some of y'all are talking about could be responsible. Someone send me a message about that so I can see if that is happening here. While looking for some caches I have found a few cards zip tied to trees and stuff with a barcode on them but didn't pay much attention to it, doesn't look exciting.

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Definite slump around us when it comes to new caches being hidden in our county. Curious if whatever the "barcode" thing some of y'all are talking about could be responsible. Someone send me a message about that so I can see if that is happening here. While looking for some caches I have found a few cards zip tied to trees and stuff with a barcode on them but didn't pay much attention to it, doesn't look exciting.

Moun10bike mentioned in another thread that there is no ban on mentioning the other game by name, as long as it is not being promoted. However, I'm not sure if sending you to their website constitutes "promotion" :) Search for QR code GPS game and the result will be on the first page.

 

My casual observation for where I am located is that while a few geocachers here are very active in that game, it has not really pulled a significant number of players from geocaching.

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One other bit of data I didn't mention about the graphs above is that, in 2014, there were 1,101 archived caches (sans Events), 1,419 published caches (sans Events), for a net change of +318 for the whole state. Of course, publications can only be counted within one year, while archivals can apply across all years. The archiving of ~1,000 caches in a year seems like a bunch, but that stays generally consistent (900-1400 per year) throughout the extent of my data set. Maybe it is a lot!?

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Definite slump around us when it comes to new caches being hidden in our county. Curious if whatever the "barcode" thing some of y'all are talking about could be responsible. Someone send me a message about that so I can see if that is happening here. While looking for some caches I have found a few cards zip tied to trees and stuff with a barcode on them but didn't pay much attention to it, doesn't look exciting.

Moun10bike mentioned in another thread that there is no ban on mentioning the other game by name, as long as it is not being promoted. However, I'm not sure if sending you to their website constitutes "promotion" :) Search for QR code GPS game and the result will be on the first page.

 

My casual observation for where I am located is that while a few geocachers here are very active in that game, it has not really pulled a significant number of players from geocaching.

 

I'm in a Munzee rich area, and can tell you it has pulled a lot of people from this game. Several in my area, and most notably one of my bestest former caching buds, who joined in 2004, and let his premium membership lapse in 2013. Dude used to keep a database of all caches in the State via PQ's. Well, no more. Just my experience though. :ph34r:

Edited by Mr.Yuck
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My area is just saturated with caches right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if cache placement is down simply because there's nowhere new to put them.

 

That is my issue as well. I have regular sized containers ready, some puzzles created, themes, etc, but I am low on good real estate. Whenever a cache hider gives up the game or moves away, their caches are adopted.

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My area is just saturated with caches right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if cache placement is down simply because there's nowhere new to put them.

 

That is my issue as well. I have regular sized containers ready, some puzzles created, themes, etc, but I am low on good real estate. Whenever a cache hider gives up the game or moves away, their caches are adopted.

 

I know some people around here have a watch on cache archivals so they can run out and grab the open spots. There are some adoptions, but not always.

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While I'd consider existing cache placements to be one possible cause, I'd hesitate to jump. It would be interesting to see what retention looks like for Geocachers - are we dropping off and there for placement is down? I know Groundspeak have done some things to anger people (I certainly feel they don't give existing cachers much respect) and they seem utterly bent on trying to drum up new cachers with lots of trendy (read: lame) ideas.

 

Wiping the Challenges was a symptom of a larger disease, methinks.

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Over here in Southern Scotland, 2014 was a pretty immense year of cache placement. I placed 45 caches this year compared to 28 on the previous year. There has been many large caching "institutions" that have expanded over here, bringing many more caches. I am hoping for another good year of cache placement. Should get my FTF count up further.

 

I can't prove it, because it disappeared from Project-GC on January 1st, 2015, but new cache placements overall in the UK were down in 2014 vs. 2013, and by about 16-18% if I remember correctly. And by the way, good thing you guys decided to stay. :)

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I was talking to a geocaching friend on the phone this afternoon about a 5/5 cache he has been working on lately and asked him when he was gonna finish it so I could go after it. He said he abandoned the idea because he got tired of going back and forth with a specific reviewer (that I will not mention). He told me he is so tired of cache after cache getting denied because of what he says is the reviewer's preferences, or new-more restrictive guidelines. It made me think back to a meet and greet that we attended last year. While at the meet and greet several cachers were in a conversation about getting caches approved. Some of them that have some caches out already said they will not try to publish anymore caches in the area because they feel it is getting ridiculous to try to get a new cache approved; "like jumping through hoops" and getting nit picked about specific phrases used in their description that some specific reviewer just didn't like so they have to keep changing and altering. This may be partly to blame for the decline around here, at least by the local cachers anyway.

 

Before you bash me to bad for saying that I want to say that we own 30+ caches and I do not have a problem getting a new cache approved. Sure a few have been declined, but there has always been an explanation and a link to the specific guideline to go along with why it was not approved. Most of the time we just correct what the discrepancy was, or if we can't make it conform we just abandon it and move on. We have only been placing caches for a few years and though we are familiar with most of the guidelines we certainly are not experts and have no idea if the guidelines are becoming more restrictive. I do know we have attempted to place caches in similar areas as existing caches, or in a similar fashion as an existing cache and have been told our cache is against a guideline; which turns out it was.

 

So for those of you that have been around a while this question is for you. Are the guidelines and reviewers becoming more restrictive than they used to be? Can this be one reason of many to contribute to the decline?

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(SNIP)

So for those of you that have been around a while this question is for you. Are the guidelines and reviewers becoming more restrictive than they used to be? Can this be one reason of many to contribute to the decline?

 

As geocaching gets older and more caches are placed, more of them, because of placement locations or types, are getting complaints--see the thread about caches being archived near power line towers for an example. Last year I also noticed that in a few state parks and similar areas all of the caches were archived due to a request from the park ranger or supervisor. Some of these areas didn't have specific rules for caches and lately have started requiring permits or just outright stating they don't allow them.

 

Maybe caching was just under the general radar until recently and it hit some kind of saturation point or level of awareness that it's harder to get permission. It's bound to happen...imagine a big superstore contacting Groundspeak and requesting LPCs be removed, or utility companies doing the same with caches in/on telephone poles...they might not notice a few, but thousands draw attention.

 

That said, I definitely noticed a decline in my new cache notifications last year. Our area is not saturated by any means, but if I look at the 2,000 or so in a radius around me, the bulk of them were hidden by really only a few cachers--the same names pop up over and over. Maybe the dedicated hiders have hit their maximum now that they've been doing it for 10-15 years and the newer folks hide none or only a couple. I'm trying to think of any new members nearby who have hidden more than three caches...maybe one guy?

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