When a cache needs maintenance

[+-CJ-]

Just an example about how widely accepted understanding "when a cache needs maintenance" can be different in different conditions.

 

About two weeks ago one of my caches was logged by some cacher as NM. The guy said that he was pretty sure that the container was gone and it was time to check this cache because it hadn't been found by anyone for long period of time. The cacher came from a European country and had about a day in Moscow to spend on geocaching.

 

I checked the cache several days after this log and the container was in its place. The long period of time (about 3 months) may be a red flag for a cache in downtown London, Berlin, Prague or Madrid. However, in Moscow it's quite common that caches aren't found by anyone for weeks and months. The local community is small, the economical situation doesn't allow it to grow quickly, and the flow of foreign tourists/businessmen (including cachers) has decreased in recent years. Additionally, few visitors come to Moscow in winter. So, this "silent time" is quite common and we locals usually don't worry.

[+Telfer Treasures]

Well, I think this depends very much on the terrain too. I live in an area which is full of geocaches (about 1000 in a 10-mile radius, almost 50.000 in 100 miles), and lots of tourists here too in addition to the very active local community. But it is a mountainous area, so it happens that there are caches around my place which require quite some hiking. So whilst the caches in the valley are visited quite frequently, the mountain-caches obviously tend to "hibernate", because even as some of them might be accessible by ski touring, finding them under the snow is another thing. Also, depending on the difficulty or "inconvenience" (it seems that not too many "statistics" cachers want to hike a 1000 meters of elevation just to log one lousy cache ) some caches tend to get very few visits. There is at least one FTF to log just 25 km away, which has been out there since August 2014.

[+Path Pacer]

I'm not sure how a visitor would know what's normal for your area. They have little to go on but their own experience.

[+The A-Team]

I'm not sure how a visitor would know what's normal for your area. They have little to go on but their own experience.

^This

If someone is visiting your area, you're going to have to give them some slack because they likely won't know about local customs. Use it as a chance to learn about how geocaching works in other regions.

 

It also isn't hurting anything if you do too much maintenance on your caches.

[+L0ne.R]

I'm not sure how a visitor would know what's normal for your area. They have little to go on but their own experience.

^This

If someone is visiting your area, you're going to have to give them some slack because they likely won't know about local customs. Use it as a chance to learn about how geocaching works in other regions.

 

It also isn't hurting anything if you do too much maintenance on your caches.

 

^^ These

[+-CJ-]

I'm not sure how a visitor would know what's normal for your area

 

Drop me a message. Use the "All nations" forum. Make your own meet-and-greet event and get acquainted with locals. Read the previous logs for this cache and probably other caches in the area. Contact the owner by the Message center before adding a NM or NA log to his listing. This is what many cachers do. As it was said, use it as a chance to learn about how geocaching works in the region you visit.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I'm not sure how a visitor would know what's normal for your area. They have little to go on but their own experience.

 

Having a fair amount of geocaching in other countries (even though I haven't done so in Russia) has led me to spend a little time before I go to that country reading logs on a variety of caches. That can tell me, in general, how often caches are found in that area or where issues have occurred that may influence whether or not I should try to look for one. For example, I was looking at some listings on a few caches in South Africa (near Johannesburg) and came across one which had a couple of different logs which mentioned mugging that occurred nearby. Reading cache logs (assuming that they're not all just TFTC logs) can at least give some idea what's "normal" without actually visiting the area.

[+The A-Team]

As it was said, use it as a chance to learn about how geocaching works in the region you visit.

To be clear, what I meant in my post was that you, as the CO receiving the uncustomary NM log, have the chance to learn from the visitor how caching works in other regions. In the case of your example, you learned that cachers from the visitor's country think several months is a long time for a cache to go unfound.

[+-CJ-]

Thank you, what you meant was clear from your first post. I learned nothing new from this example. I knew that before from my visits to different countries where I got acquainted with local customs/traditions/etc.

 

I didn't think there could be any discussion or misunderstanding out of my first post. It seems so obvious that one gets more fun once he gets acquainted with the place he wishes to go. If the visitor only did anything of the list I added to this thread, he would (probably) find the cache, make friends with local cachers, know more about hides in the city, and more, perhaps even spend unforgettable time by joining a guided tour. He did nothing of that for no good to anyone.