What Kind of Owner R U?

[K!nder]

I initiate this topic to try and discover what kind of owner are you. 

When i entered the game in 2007, i was teached that in general terms, geocaching was a treasure hunt where the main goal was to show a place, its history, view or particular characteristic about it. So for me in the beggining geocaching was about the place. 

 

When i start developing myself as a owner and start publishing my first geocaches i had that in mind and always tried to find that place with a WOW factor. Along the path i did at this hobby i start to get more excited when i was looking for a geocache with a physical and/or phisicological barrier. So i start looking for T5. And a while after i was more attracted to the ones i was with during the hunt and the feelings i was feeling.

 

So as i like those kind of concepts i start to develop my new geocaches in that path. So i am not an owner focus on the place but instead i focus on the geocacher. I don't create a geocache to show a place with a great view. I prefer to show a place with something interesting but then focus on people feelings.

When i am thinking about a new geocache i try to pursue one that will make geocachers experience some of the most powerful feelings. Make them fear, make them hate me, cast a spell upon me, make the angry, or with wrath. And believe they usually pass around those feelings. But at the end when they finish the geocache and look behind they will see they had surpassed some of their fears, they had gone far beyond they were expecting and then the feeling of conquer will fill them.

 

Usually i try to finish making people feel that they acchieved something.

 

How to?

 

Giving geocachers a great story behind the physical space. Giving a physical and physicological challenge to them. Use something that they are not expecting, never seen in other geocache. 

 

Tools:

 

Urban and abandone structures/Caves - Mines

Using two of the most powerful geocache types we have: Wherigo and Letters - with them we can be really creative and innovate. (We should have more topics about the potential of letterboxing)

 

What about you? What kind of owner are you? What do you think about my way of hiding?

 

[+cerberus1]

I like to show interesting locations that most wouldn't be aware of without this odd hobby, and make it fun.  Simple.

I'm not interested in creating a life experience, or helping others find their inner selves ...

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I'm not that ambitious.   As long as that cache demonstrates I've put some thought into the hide more than it's a spot that doesn't currently have a cache within 528'  that's better than many.  The more thought a CO puts into all aspects of the hide (a good container, a good location, an interesting hide technique, an informative cache page, etc) that more likely I'm going to enjoy the find.  At the very least, a good container is a good location is, to me, sufficient.

[+niraD]

28 minutes ago, K!nder said:

When i am thinking about a new geocache

I generally don't try to think about placing new geocaches at all. I wait for an idea to come to me. When an idea comes to me, I try to turn the idea into an actual geocache. More often than not, the idea never makes it to the point of me publishing a cache listing.

[+thebruce0]

7 hours ago, niraD said:

I generally don't try to think about placing new geocaches at all. I wait for an idea to come to me. When an idea comes to me, I try to turn the idea into an actual geocache. More often than not, the idea never makes it to the point of me publishing a cache listing.

Likewise. And I'm not one who likes to copy other people's ideas (even with permission) -- well, unless it's absolutely amazing and so far away that no one around will have seen it before so it's a new experience for them too. Even so, yeah, I'll only place when an idea comes to mind, or on a whim I determine an excellent location (which just happened this weekend when I was at a park, had geotools, spotted a tree, noted nothing in proximity, and published one).

But I am more about the experience the cache provides (whether physical or in the listing) than just merely having another cache to find because "I thought this place needed one" as we often see in descriptions

[+barefootjeff]

A wise person once told me that I should hide the sort of caches I most enjoy finding and I've tried to follow that advice, so there's a strong correlation between my favourites list and my hides. Coming from a background of bushwalking and orienteering, I most enjoy caches that involve lots of hiking, especially when it takes me to amazing natural features I would never have otherwise found. I really love those caches that take time to savour and would much rather spend a day (or more) hiking or kayaking my way through a long multi than to drive around finding a dozen P&Gs. To this end I've just added a new challenge cache based on the "takes more than 1 hour" attribute to give a bit of encouragement to this style of cache.

Above all I want my finders to have fun. If it's a long uninteresting hike along a fire trail to reach my amazing GZ, I might make it a multi with a field puzzle to solve at waypoints along the way. I might also provide a surprise little twist at the end with a themed container or some themed swag. My greatest hope is that, at the end of the day, the finder will say, "that was great fun, can we have some more please?"

One of my pet hates though is remote caches with no obvious access route, so I tend to go overboard with parking, trailhead and reference waypoints to make sure people don't go bashing their way through T4.5 terrain when there's a much easier way in. I'm sure some think that's too much hand-holding and would rather figure it all out for themselves, so to each their own I suppose.

[+SeattleWayne]

I'm the type of owner that tries very hard to maintain my caches, and not hide more than I am capable of maintaining. 

[+thebruce0]

11 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

One of my pet hates though is remote caches with no obvious access route, so I tend to go overboard with parking, trailhead and reference waypoints to make sure people don't go bashing their way through T4.5 terrain when there's a much easier way in. I'm sure some think that's too much hand-holding and would rather figure it all out for themselves, so to each their own I suppose.

This! Especially with larger forests. For one, it protects nature from bushwackers, it protects cachers by following regulated parking/trailhead access points, and it protects cars by avoiding having people search needlessly for good starting spots. If it's a trad, there shouldn't be a 'field puzzle' in the difficulty of finding the starting point (obviously this is not a rule, just imo).

What I did a ways back was take my entire database over the years in Ontario, and strip out ALL trailhead and parking waypoints that have been added to all caches I ever downloaded, including archived caches since 2009, and create a separate collection of them to import into my app (Geosphere).  That way most any cache that's published now will have at least 2 or 3 other parking/trailhead waypoints nearby I can see that may have been used for previous or other caches.

That's especially useful for, say a forest series that was archived recently, then a new one was published deep within but with no waypoints added. Those old waypoints I can still display easily as a guide (then most likely mention those coordinates in any log I post for followup cachers).

[+bflentje]

Not exactly sure I have just one style. but one thing IS for sure, I am not in the top 1% ;-)

[+The A-Team]

Who I am as an owner pretty closely aligns with what others have already said.

• Generally, my hides just happen. I'll either stumble on a good place, or I'll come up with an idea and then try to find an appropriate place. Not very often do I hide a cache just for the sake of hiding a cache (though it has happened on occasion for various reasons).
• I actively maintain my caches and appreciate it when finders mention the state of a cache, though my caches generally require little maintenance because I use good-quality containers that are large enough to hold a logbook. I currently only own one Micro, with all the others being larger.
• I write my descriptions under the assumption that finders will read them (ie. I pass along useful/critical safety and/or legal access information)
• Like bflentje, I'm not in the top 1% either.

[elmbeard]

Interesting thread.

I am a goat rather than a sheep, and enjoy as much variety in approach and style as possible.  The more imaginative the variations, the better. There's nothing worse than an entire area saturated by identical micros.  There's a TV series on at the moment about sheds - prizes go to the most imaginative way to stretch the definition of a shed.

I have set six (the first with my brother in South Australia), but have broken my own rule somewhat, since they are all so far traditional sandwich box caches, because I personally find these most satisfying - I like the ritual of swapping goodies, and also finding a home for a travel bug.  Four of mine are also puzzles, since part of the fun is looking around the area before diving for the find, although I don't like to make it too hard. Graveyards are a handy source of numbers.  My last one was inspired visiting a small city in the South of Austria, with a historic centre rich in architectural features, so these were put on a photographic trail, and I had to put them in the right order.  I got all but five of them, but not enough to get the co-ordinates, so when I did the same thing in Great Malvern, I assembled the images in groups, so just getting one group in the right order will lead you to the box.  Nobody's yet found this one, so I wonder who will win the FTF award.

The other two were cache-and-dash traditional finds.  One I put on an island in the middle of a brook a long way from civilisation. The challenge here was to find the fallen tree, to get to the island without getting your feet wet. This was washed away in the floods of 2007, and had to be replaced.  For the other, I wanted an easy-peasy find - a 1/1, so someone in a wheelchair could find it. This is by far my most popular box, and a lovely spot too, right next to a graveyard (I can't seem to get far from graveyards!).