Power Trails - pros and cons...

[+NYPaddleCacher]

5 hours ago, geocat_ said:

This pretty much says it all.  A power trail hide is like any other hide....if someone enjoys it, then it is a good thing.  

Up to the point that it may impact the game for those those that don't enjoy power trails.  In another thread I posted a picture and link of an area in France where someone placed over 5000 caches, all in a series of interconnected trails.  If there are geocachers that happen to live in that area that don't enjoy power trails, and have notifications turned on, they  got to get over 5000 email messages that they had to delete from their inbox.  I have no idea if there are any caches in that huge blob that pre-existed the trails, but if their were, the existing filtering tools available would not be about to show them.

 

[+thebruce0]

33 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Up to the point that it may impact the game for those those that don't enjoy power trails.

That however can be said of any aspect of geocaching. Some people don't enjoy 5D or 5T. Some people don't enjoy water caches. Some people don't enjoy puzzles. Or challenges. Those caches also "impact the game for those that don't enjoy" them. I would say that in and of itself isn't a good argument.

A point against powertrails though is that they do take up more blobbed realestate than individual caches some people may not like. A single cache here or there you don't like is easy to ignore, and it's less likely that it'll be holding up a spot someone might consider better for a cache. That is, a powertrail as an 'entity' of a concept/style someone doesn't like takes up much more realestate than a single cache of a concept/style that's disliked.

Nonetheless, the space issue I don't think is a strong argument, just because every single cache takes up a 322m diameter region that no one else can use, and anyone may not like a certain cache or style. Powertrails are just more prominent on the map.

[+niraD]

8 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Nonetheless, the space issue I don't think is a strong argument, just because every single cache takes up a 322m diameter region that no one else can use, and anyone may not like a certain cache or style. Powertrails are just more prominent on the map.

I think there is a qualitative difference between a single cache that takes up a 322m diameter region and a numbers trail that saturates a 322m wide swath of land for miles.

[+thebruce0]

4 minutes ago, niraD said:

I think there is a qualitative difference between a single cache that takes up a 322m diameter region and a numbers trail that saturates a 322m wide swath of land for miles.

I agree technically, as it's just what I said above what you quoted.  I just think the argument that "this cache/these caches take up space I could place another cache in" applies to vastly more than just powertrails, so I don't think it's a solid argument against powertrails. It just happens that powertrails are more visible because they're clumped together.  Even so, ultimately I think that's the best argument against them anyway, when it comes to how "others are affected".  As effective an argument as against an LPC when next to a large park with great hiding spots. Best thing you/I can do is watch the LPC cache for the moment it's archived, and get out there to place the cache you want to place.  Space occupation (whether a single cache or a series or a powertrail) is part of the nature of the game (especially in more urban areas with lots and lots of caches). =/

[WW41]

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

A point against powertrails though is that they do take up more blobbed realestate than individual caches some people may not like. A single cache here or there you don't like is easy to ignore, and it's less likely that it'll be holding up a spot someone might consider better for a cache.

Agreed.

[+simoktm]

 

Why do we hide geocaches? We hide geocaches in order to make geocachers visit interesting places or we do it in order to increase their smiley count?

I think that power trails can be interesting under some points of view. For example, if a PT is placed in order to make the geocacher follow a particular path (for example along a lake or between two or three mountains) which is interesting under an historical or naturalistic point of view, i think it could be a great idea.

if the PT is placed along a highway, where there is NOTHING of interesting, nothing to see, and the only reason for coming there is finding the caches, i think it's not a good idea.

 

but... a lot of geocachers seem to like PT of ugly caches more than a single very beautiful cache. I don't share this view but I respect it.