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Is geocaching decreasing in popularity?


essap2

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This is a really tough question to answer without the total number of finds everyday, total  number of active user, etc. that I'm sure HQ has, but from my own perspective I think it has decreased somewhat. The two biggest signs that I notice personally are:

  • The number of lonely caches in many areas is increasing a lot, particularly in areas where there are many caches
  • Looking at the number of attendees on annual mega events, it seems generally the number of people has been going down

 

The problem with the above observations is that the number of geocaches and mega events has also increased significantly since I started geocaching in 2009. So does this mean that there is roughly the same number of finds, just spread across a lot more geocaches?

 

I also think that geocaching culture has shifted quite a bit since I started geocaching that might explain why so many caches are becoming super lonely. I would say, generally, that

  • People are much less likely to look for DNFed/lonely caches now that a decade ago
  • Stats has always been a big part of geocaching, but it seems to have grown even bigger and many cachers will mostly target specific caches to work towards stats/challenges and pass by many other great geocaches that don't have anything significant about them stats-wise

 

The above observations would led to a gap in which the caches found often would be found even more often, and the caches found less often would be found even less often.

 

Has anybody investigated this in the past? Agree/Disagree?

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Don't know that I'd think "lonely caches" and Mega events an indicator of popularity...   

High terrain "lonely" caches are often set as a destination. 

For me it's if it's at least more than 500 feet from parking it's a destination - and probably a lonely cache...  :laughing:

Low terrain "lonely" caches are simply found by most of the locals.  Now they sit, waiting for someone "passing through".

If anyone else is similar to me, it'd never be found because of the low D/T.  Nondescript hides just unfound for some time...

Most Mega events have been too far away from us.  We've attended a couple and didn't much care for such a crowd.

Asking around, we found that there's a lot who aren't into the gamification of the hobby, or the need to socialize beyond local events.

This is like any other hobby.  Do it when I can, when it fits with the many other hobbies we have... 

 

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This thought crossed my mind the other day. I got into geocaching in 2017, but even since then, I’ve noticed there are generally fewer new caches in my area, though the Pandemic seems to have boosted it somewhat. I would say there has been a decrease in popularity but the extent to which that is true is debatable. 
 

One factor I have to wonder about is whether the rise of micros and nanos discourage new cachers. In my experience, those are the least fun type of geocache for those who aren’t already in the hobby to look for and find. But, it might not have much of an effect either. My experience is merely anecdotal. 

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Our area, definitely a slow down on both events and physical caches. One example, a CITO event held yesterday has only 5 attended logs. Unfortunately, some of this may be due to people like me that don't geocache much these days and therefore don't keep up with new events coming down the pike.

 

I do have notifications set to alert me of newly published traditional caches and archivals of existing ones. The archival rate is higher than published unfortunately. One thing for sure, the majority of our caches are slow to get found these days. Part of the problem there, I believe, is that most of them are a bit higher in difficulty which I believe, keeps them from being seen in the free app. 

 

What I wouldn't give to see geocaching revert back into more of a hobby than the game it is today. Was sure fun finding and placing caches that had a little thought and creativity put into them. Sometimes with neat containers, sometimes in great locations, sometimes just flat out challenging to find. There's still some good caches out there for sure but the vast majority placed these days fail to come close to meeting any of the above specs. :mellow:

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Seems to me that newcomers to the hobby do not stay that long. I have seen several new comers find a few caches then put a few out, then six months later you do not see their names, checking their profile they are not active anymore. 

Edited by Jayeffel
I spelled a word wrong!
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Back in 2017 Florida peaked with well over 40K active caches. By late 2018, largely thanks to Hurricane Irma, that number dropped to under 40K and has never quite reached that milestone again, though it's close now.

 

Much of the geocaching old guard from the first decade has died or otherwise moved on from geocaching. Many big annual events started in that first decade didn't remain active by the end of the second decade.

 

One would think the pandemic might have made geocaching more popular, as a reason to get outside more. I'm not sure that was actually what happened. I'd be interested to see Groundspeak's numbers about total find logs for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. I don't think the community has recovered.

 

I also think what geocaching community meant 10-15 years ago vs what it did by 2019. CITOs seem in decline. Community seems more often to be about working together to divide & conquer power trails or create geo-art rather hikes or paddles.

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The number of hidden caches per day in Germany (excluding events) has been steadily declining since the peak in 2012. In the Corona period, however, more caches were hidden again.

1173818379_Germany-HiddenCachesperDay.thumb.jpg.b80e69b42ce51bc431107da0a43d465d.jpg

 

The number of logs for caches per day in Germany (excluding events) has also been falling steadily since the peak around 2014, but not as much as the number of hidden caches. Here you can also see the Corona effect.

592826115_Germany-LogsCachesperDay.thumb.jpg.37af18f4f73209bbbb5a4cdf1c26c41f.jpg

 

The data is from Project-GC, many thanks for that. The data can be broken down by many other filters.
(Menue "Statistics" under the point "Over time".)

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According to Google trends, Google searches for Geocaching peaked in 2011 and has been dropping ever since. Interestingly, there appear to be cyclical searches of geocaching throughout the year. I suspect these are occurring in the summer and winter months when kids are out of school and people tend to travel or go on vacation. 

 

From experience, back in the 2011 days people in my area would be placing caches like crazy. It was when the geocaching app first launched (well, really 2010), so a lot people began downloading it to try it out. Nowadays the number of active cachers has dwindled, but there still are a few hiders, definitely not like it was before.

 

I try to make up for it in my area (I hid 10 last weekend). Last year I put out a geoart of 30 and a few months before that put out a geotrail of another 30. I try and add more caches since there aren't many people hiding them anymore. And those that do hide them are new, inexperienced cachers who most of the time never hide the cache until after it publishes or are veteran geocachers like myself and place one or two a year.

 

I've been geocaching since 2006 and I know from personal experience the vast majority of active geocachers (ones that geocache regularly throughout the year and over many years) are usually seniors and older folk. That said, with a peak in 2011 (12 years ago) many of them have either moved out of the area, quit caching, or have passed away. In my area, I can say all three have occurred.

 

I'm in my mid-20s. I am not aware of anyone in a similar age bracket that finds 100s of caches per year like I do. I suspect most new cachers try it for a few days and get bored of it fast. Luckily for me, I've never got bored of it and I don't think I ever will :)

 

image.thumb.png.8e4610574134401418ae6af9ab95c2ab.png

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5 hours ago, bluesnote said:

I'm in my mid-20s. I am not aware of anyone in a similar age bracket that finds 100s of caches per year like I do.

 

I started when I was not quite 30, and am still going at 41. During that time I have encountered few geocachers under the age of 40, excluding children caching with parents. Admittedly, I'm in Florida where lots of hobbies and recreational activities are pursued predominantly by retirees.

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4 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Maybe briansnat needs to update his famous quote to "When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that cache. If the only reason is for the location, then make a better cache."

The pessimist in me is silently concurring to this statement :mellow: but for my demand I'm still able to find worthwhile caches.

 

And to make a connection to the opening question: Probably yes but I don't consider this as a huge problem B)

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5 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

This pie chart from the Pi Day blog post I guess explains why my caches (and others like them) that are mostly about bringing people to interesting locations are generally ignored by finders these days:

 

5-656x550.png

 

Maybe briansnat needs to update his famous quote to "When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that cache. If the only reason is for the location, then make a better cache."

 

I'm pretty sure that pie chart, like the rest in the blog post, are in jest and probably completely arbitrary. 

 

Also, "caches with a view" and "caches hidden in plain sight" aren't mutually exclusive. 

 

That said, I think the last two pie charts in the blog post do reflect some truths about Groundspeak. Specifically, that it tries to treat all reasons for caching as equally valid because they all make some geocachers happy.

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Reflecting gripes and not endorsing them, there may be other reasons.

 

Locally, folks are posting caches in different regions because the standards for paperwork/permission have gotten so high they are not willing to cross them or are not getting assists in approaching landowners. This may be a function that there are not local caching organizations.  

 

Challenge cache placers also seem to be griping that reviewers are adding clauses to the guidelines that are not in the published terms.  The big one being that the challenge must be completed with "local caches". If someone is going to put in a lot of work to comply with the rules/guidelines and then they are told there are other unpublished rules/guidelines, I can understand the frustrations.

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7 hours ago, sloth96 said:

Challenge cache placers also seem to be griping that reviewers are adding clauses to the guidelines that are not in the published terms.  The big one being that the challenge must be completed with "local caches". If someone is going to put in a lot of work to comply with the rules/guidelines and then they are told there are other unpublished rules/guidelines, I can understand the frustrations.

 

Or just hide fewer Challenge caches. They're supposed to be something special, not something spewed.

 

I question how prevalent the "must be completed with local caches" is. There are quite a few challenges, particularly geographic ones, where the entire concept can't be completed in any one local area.

 

That said, sometimes the restriction makes sense. For one hypothetical scenario: why place a challenge for finding 100 caches in a county with only 5 or 10 caches of any kind? That's probably an extreme example but you get the idea.

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The counter argument looks like the following.  The submitters have already checked that a reasonable number of local cachers qualify.  Also if it is so straight forward just change the guidelines.  They were modified to disallow County word spellings. 

 

As for the local caches restriction it has been mentioned on atleast two continents.  

 

You objection to the 100 cache caches would probably also disable fizzy, jasmer, multiple state, multiple CountY, and many other challenges.  

 

Some people love them. Some don't.  I know a guy who does nothing but mysteries and probably things trade are spewed.  Everybody likes different aspects of the game.

 

In Any event, after going through the work of constructing a locally unique challenge, getting a checker made, and then finding adequate local cachers who qualify, the Co's likely put in as much work as a gadget cache creator.  They may feel it as a slap in the face.

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On 3/15/2023 at 12:52 PM, essap2 said:

 

  • Stats has always been a big part of geocaching, but it seems to have grown even bigger and many cachers will mostly target specific caches to work towards stats/challenges and pass by many other great geocaches that don't have anything significant about 

Favorite points are a bigger part of the game than when I started.  Perhaps my style has changed.  HQ seems to hype them more as well.  I don't remember old souvenirs encouraging favorites as the labyrinth series has.

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2 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Maybe the rules are different here because the cache density is a lot lower than in some parts of the world, so almost any non-trivial challenge would be difficult to create if all the qualifying caches have to be within its immediate local area.

 

I suspect "trivial challenges" are part of the problem.

 

There will be few, if any, places with lots of legitimate 2/4 hides. Impossible with a Jasmer, a multi-state challenge, or "a cache in every county in the state."

 

I'm in Florida. It would be reasonable for me to place a challenge to find every county in Florida, or every county in any one state, or every county in N states.

 

It would be unreasonable for my challenge cache in Florida to require finding a cache in every county in California or every province in Canada, even if I found find enough local cachers besides myself who qualified.

 

There are a few rural counties in Georgia with less than five caches in the entire county. At least one  county had exactly two caches last I checked. It would be unreasonable to place any kind of challenge cache in one of those counties.

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3 hours ago, sloth96 said:

You objection to the 100 cache caches would probably also disable fizzy, jasmer, multiple state, multiple CountY, and many other challenges. 

 

You need to work on your reading compression. 

 

I said:

"There are quite a few challenges, particularly geographic ones, where the entire concept can't be completed in any one local area."

 

I also said: "sometimes the restriction makes sense" Which logically means sometimes it doesn't.

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16 minutes ago, JL_HSTRE said:

I'm in Florida. It would be reasonable for me to place a challenge to find every county in Florida, or every county in any one state, or every county in N states.

I wonder if a challenge cache in Florida could require finding a cache in every county of any state other than Florida. (Or replace Florida with the state the challenge is located in.)

 

The whole point is to do a fair bit of geocaching in a state other than the one where the challenge cache is located.

 

Of course, if you could just visit one of the states with a single-digit number of counties (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island).

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4 hours ago, JL_HSTRE said:

 

What's the challenge entail? Spell it out for us.

 

That seems like asking me to predict the next gadget cache.  If knew what creative challenge they would come uo with then so would the guidelines folks.   Spelling with county names were rejected before the guidelines were updated.  Cache in multiple counties.  Plays on fizzles.  People put alot of creativity into containers, puzzles and all other aspects of the game.  Why not challenge creation?

 

The point is that the guidelines apply all the time.  Imagine someone creating a gadget cache and then after building it being told they used a prohibited paint or adhesive or other component.  It would frustrate the builder unnecessarily 

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There are a few things that most of us do not have insight to.  One is has the percentage of approved caches changed significantly.  Another statistic I wonder about is has the churn rate changed much. Yet another is the deathrate among cachers.   Also 

 

So as someone with over 15k caches what makes me do a cache.  First is I happen to be there already. Urban caches, rest stop and airport caches fall under this.  Secondly it has to be unique somehow. I've been to many beautiful places.  There are many more I could go to.  How do I pick the next one?  Personal goals, challenge goals, reports from friends, someone is willing to drive, I need the exercise, these all impact things. 

 

When I started geocaching was a lone wolf activity.  It has shifted for me into a more social activity.  Oddly my stats shift based on who I am caching with.

 

Another aspect is that the game space near me doesn't fill in.  Others have commented on this.  For me it means I stop looking locally and look for expeditions.  

 

Sometimes I wonder if tourist placed caches were a good thing as they created new hides to find.  Having every cache be well maintained means they never go away.  But in Aruba a good chunk are tourist caches and many survive well. 

 

Is this possibly the result of good ideas with the best of intentions?

 

Another thought is around geotours.  There I stopped being the consumer and started being the product sold. 

 

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Is geocaching decreasing in popularity?

 

Since I started in 2006, no, it's increased a lot.

 

However looking at the logs of some caches, especially those near schools, it seems there was a trend over the past couple of years of new cachers (presumably school kids) with few finds logging caches and this seems to have died down now. I remember reading somewhere that geocaching was trending on TikTok thanks to a few popular TikTokers mentioning it so I guess that could have been responsible for this period of lots of new young cachers. Geocaching seems to get popular with journalists occasionally which could also influence trends of people starting up.

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On 3/15/2023 at 1:08 PM, RuideAlmeida said:

 

I would say so, yes...

 

 

 

Ummmm those stats are from 2017, that's 6 years of who knows what the graph looks like.

However, I figure I'll add my experience to the thread. I've been [regularly] caching for 10 years this year. A lot has changed but the one thing that seems to matter MOST is location!
 

I have cached in three countries regularly and lived in four different places (plus spent substantial time in others). Here's what I have noticed in my experience only contributes to whether geocaching is in decline or on the rise:

1. Local cachers who are active and interested in keeping the "game" alive. 
2. Nearly equal to #1 is whether there are good reviewers or not, and their - for lack of a better term - behavior.

3. General location, i.e. does the area get a lot of tourists? Is that seasonal?

4. Whether the local caching is mostly P&Gs or tougher hiking-oriented, or a good mix.

 

Here are some very specific observations:
1. I've lived in two places with SUPER active caching: NYC has a handful of active COs but also a big active group nearby in GoLI (Geocachers of Long Island)... plus heavy tourism. The other is generally the capital region of NY (Albany/Hudson Valley) which bumps up against the Berkshires and MA. I'm in the latter now and not only is it active, there are loads of great outdoor areas and the COs are good about maintenance and also archiving old stuff and doing new. Actually it's the best caching area I have experienced in all my travels (not super wide but cached in 6 countries and about 30 or more states in the US).

2. I am currently visiting Kingston, Ontario (Canada) where I have spent time regularly for 30 years. Despite the nearby annual Mega in an adjacent county this city hasn't had a new cache in so long that my map has been complete for a long time, excepting a couple of tough puzzles I've been lazy about (all of which are old, some over 10 yrs). So being here is disappointing and I have to travel to find unfound caches.
3. California is pretty active, particularly the Bay Are where I grew up - lots of events, good COs, good maintenance, active bunches and regularly new stuff where there is room.
4. In the UK where I started it's mixed but - just for example - Oxfordshire has a very active group and COs who cycle their caches. But other areas are a lot less active.

 

My conclusion is that it TOTALLY depends where you are. And my comment about the reviewers stems from the huge range of attitudes or whatever I have encountered. I won't point fingers but they vary from loose on the rules to SO uptight that they put reviewer notes on active caches with 2-3 DNFs from people with less than 10 finds! (Not kidding, the COs in their area end up leaving testy maintenance notes, which I totally understand.) So I think that can contribute to how active COs are. I'd also add that things like guard rail caches and other P&Gs seem to have really proliferated since I started caching. But agree with whoever said there seem to be an increasing number of folks who treat it as a competition (numbers etc). I'm only aiming for a fizzy as a way to decide what caches I choose to do, and it seems like something of an accomplishment.

Finally, just an opinion: people start caching because they somehow find it interesting. Some take to it and stick with it for years (hello, that's me) and some find a few caches and decide it isn't for them. I don't think you can know who will stick or not but it's definitely a toss up. I sing its praises to people I meet all the time, a handful have joined and gotten into it, some started and never got far. You never know! (Wow this was longer than intended! Kudos if you read it all!)
 

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On 3/16/2023 at 12:49 AM, bluesnote said:

I'm in my mid-20s. I am not aware of anyone in a similar age bracket that finds 100s of caches per year like I do. I suspect most new cachers try it for a few days and get bored of it fast. Luckily for me, I've never got bored of it and I don't think I ever will :)

 

I started caching with my dad when I was 10 years old. I'm now 24 and still caching. But yes, I see where you come from. Not very many younger geocachers. I do have a couple geocacher friends also in their 20's but they are definitely few and far between. I think geocaching is generally more popular with older generations as they have more free time as well as it can be a relatively low-impact activity if you choose to make it so. Will be interesting to see what geocaching will look like in 20 years time. 

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I'm just going to throw this out there as possible factors:

 

Travel is getting harder & more expensive. 

Inflation is up globally, and disposable income is dropping for many.

 

Even if Geocaching is relatively cheap as hobbies go, it still costs. If life is getting harder, the first thing people usually sacrifice is recreational activity.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, mysterion604 said:

If life is getting harder, the first thing people usually sacrifice is recreational activity.

Unfortunately. But thankfully during the pandemic, geocaching in many areas thrived. And older folk tend to pick it up because it's a safe and healthy hobby, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, intellectually... So I'd say it has just as much going for it as against it. Or at least, while some would think it would be the first to go, there's as much reason to keep it as an essential recreational activity if the good can outweigh the bad.

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On 3/16/2023 at 4:49 PM, bluesnote said:

I'm in my mid-20s. I am not aware of anyone in a similar age bracket that finds 100s of caches per year like I do. I suspect most new cachers try it for a few days and get bored of it fast. Luckily for me, I've never got bored of it and I don't think I ever will :)

I've said before I think geocaching is in desperate need of an injection of young blood, to keep this game going in the future..... Most of the younger players seem to bore after a short time and leave, very few seem to latch on....

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I think the prominent style of geocaches in any particular region will also have a major influence on the average age of geocachers. Get an owner who makes caches that are appealing to teens and you might get more teens enjoying them. Get cheap ugly containers placed in meh spots mainly for numbers of any kind, you'll probably have more people who don't mind getting messy and find ways to just pass time. Get extreme caches out in the wilderness or require higher intelligence or skills and you'll attract outdoors enthusiasts or older and wiser to the community. Have an environment with lots of trails and forests and prime places for larger containers often well populated with swag, and you'll probably have a lot of adults with young kids and baby carriages out for fresh air and one or two caches on a family walk.

 

I think there's a lot of factors that influence the makeup of any particular community.  I see some regions thriving with younger folk, youth, and those typically have more "fun" style geocaches (owned by maybe a couple of enthusiastic owners who put out things like gadget caches, for instance). We don't have gadgety-cache makers in my area, so we have loads of numbers-cachers and retirees and a handful of family groups because we have trails and rivers and provincial parks. Rarely is any geocaching around here for the cache container itself. LOADS of challenge-related caches. That influences our community. I'd love to see more youth involved. We just need owners who can figure out what type of geocaching will attract them and keep them (and ideally broaden their horizons to all the rest of the experiences the hobby provides :))

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Its in steady decline here in midwest US with good reason. There is a lot of community drama caused by a few old salty members with nothing better to do. You know that guy who acts like the parking attendant directing traffic at a sports event. Its the one time he’ll ever have power over you and he’ll be damned to hell if he doesn’t take the opportunity to ensure you pump your breaks. Yeah, its like that here. You usually see newer users grab a few caches and then they never log in again. We picked up Beverly as our 100th cache early this winter and the drama afterwards has been nothing short of disappointing. The variety of misery caused by different users within the community is unlike any other that I have ever belonged to. IRC included. It was never this bad. 

 

You guys deserve eachother.

 


 

 

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Here are some numbers from project-gc (I'm not sure if this is a premium feature so if anyone at project-gc wants me to remove the pic I will of course do so). For me, the issue is the lack of churn rate of local caches... exacerbated by some caches put up for adoption rather than archived. Fair enough to adopt out if it's a high FP cache, old or unique in some way - otherwise, just archive it. It's now a good 30 minutes or more each way from home before I get in to any new caches (and travel is expensive now). Maybe time to think of refreshing some existing caches with new placements would help? Maybe GCHQ could release a batch of old cache types again (similar to the virtual scheme), like webcams or think of new Apecache type caches ... would incentivise new placements. Anyway, just my two cents.

Screenshot 2023-03-28 at 20-31-53 Project-GC - Overview.png

Edited by Boomshanka
Typos and further thoughts
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23 hours ago, LewisFlyers said:

Its in steady decline here in midwest US with good reason. There is a lot of community drama caused by a few old salty members with nothing better to do. You know that guy who acts like the parking attendant directing traffic at a sports event. Its the one time he’ll ever have power over you and he’ll be damned to hell if he doesn’t take the opportunity to ensure you pump your breaks. Yeah, its like that here. You usually see newer users grab a few caches and then they never log in again. We picked up Beverly as our 100th cache early this winter and the drama afterwards has been nothing short of disappointing. The variety of misery caused by different users within the community is unlike any other that I have ever belonged to. IRC included. It was never this bad. 

 

You guys deserve eachother.

 


 

 

 

So much anger from relatively new players!

 

Would you care to explain the things you've talked about? I'd be interested in reading about your experiences, without identifying specific people, of course.

 

And, which 'you guys' are you referring to and why? Please don't throw a bomb and then disappear.

 

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On 3/28/2023 at 10:12 PM, MNTA said:

2022 being a covid year. Would be interesting to see few more years.

 

The real reason to post is why is 1st of January until today different from the whole year? 2 people must have done some time traveling.

I think “whole year” would be comparing all of 2023 so far (January 1 2023 - March 30 2023) vs all of 2022 (January 1 2022 - December 31 2022), whereas “January 1st until today” would be comparing January 1 2023 - March 30 2023 to January 1 2022 to March 30 2022. At least, that’s how I would interpret it. 
 

Also, as far as Canada goes, project-gc is showing declines so far in 2023 compared to 2022. I wonder if it will continue into the summer. 

5F6343D7-7492-4957-BBB1-8044BCD95FF0.jpeg

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On 3/29/2023 at 3:43 PM, geodarts said:

If the game is decreasing — and locally it appears to be the case — then I don’t see that as a bad thing. As I wrote on my profile, “Am I the only one who thinks there are around 3 million containers too many . . “

 

We're still getting notifications steadily, small parks n (sub)urban it seems mostly.

Now that the other 2/3rds took some time off from play, I can go only for caches I like, lotsa green on the map and a good walk.

My idea of this hobby is the older slogan that I consider product value, "the language of location". 

To me it's a unique or newly opened area, and/or a great view...

When that "location" means you skip by hundreds of nondescript "there's an empty spot..." hides to find one in the woods, I get what you mean.

 

Edited by cerberus1
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I asked a senior Lackey at Spring Fling why there aren't any GIGAs or GPS Mazes in Europe published and she said that they have to earn the GIGA status back.

 

Also, there was a Czechia caching couple at the same event promoting their Mega in August near Brno and I posed the same question. They told me that the GIGA in Czechia is returning in 2025 because they aren't seeing the interest. Project 13 in Essen had a poor showing last year as well. 

 

So, this tells me things are decreasing. 

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38 minutes ago, TTO2 said:

I asked a senior Lackey at Spring Fling why there aren't any GIGAs or GPS Mazes

...

So, this tells me things are decreasing. 

One factor about the GPS maze is that it's apparenty VERY expensive to get the maze to come to your event, as far as I know it's only been to the UK once, so can't read a lot into that.


The only conclusion you can really draw is that big events might not be so popular, the percentage of cachers who go to large events is tiny, and many cachers won't have even heard of Mega or Giga events, so I don't think you should read too much into it.

 

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4 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

One factor about the GPS maze is that it's apparenty VERY expensive to get the maze to come to your event, as far as I know it's only been to the UK once, so can't read a lot into that.


The only conclusion you can really draw is that big events might not be so popular, the percentage of cachers who go to large events is tiny, and many cachers won't have even heard of Mega or Giga events, so I don't think you should read too much into it.

 

Having driven the Maze around the US for three and half years I know from personal experience that it wasn't that expensive, assuming you treated like a business. It didn't cost the the event holders anything but volunteer time. 


Not sure that agree with your "percentage" analysis. 

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50 minutes ago, TTO2 said:

Having driven the Maze around the US for three and half years I know from personal experience that it wasn't that expensive,

I was told by someone who enquired about getting it to a UK Mega event that they didn't do it because of the cost.

 

 

Edited by MartyBartfast
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This anecdotal, however this year I am seeing quite a bit of geocaching activity with my hides, of about eighty caches, mostly Premium Member newbies  (understandable as most of my hides are PM). It's also pleasing that many write readable and informative logs - rarely see any emojis.

Lee737, if he sees this this, may be able to add if he is seeing anything similar as he and his 737 fleet are not far from me.

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1 hour ago, colleda said:

This anecdotal, however this year I am seeing quite a bit of geocaching activity with my hides, of about eighty caches, mostly Premium Member newbies  (understandable as most of my hides are PM). It's also pleasing that many write readable and informative logs - rarely see any emojis.

Lee737, if he sees this this, may be able to add if he is seeing anything similar as he and his 737 fleet are not far from me.

Yes, we've seen an uptick of late, maybe the past couple of years. We've even had some new hiders. Logs are a mix of reasonable write-ups and tftc.... :)

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3 hours ago, lee737 said:
5 hours ago, colleda said:

This anecdotal, however this year I am seeing quite a bit of geocaching activity with my hides, of about eighty caches, mostly Premium Member newbies  (understandable as most of my hides are PM). It's also pleasing that many write readable and informative logs - rarely see any emojis.

Lee737, if he sees this this, may be able to add if he is seeing anything similar as he and his 737 fleet are not far from me.

Yes, we've seen an uptick of late, maybe the past couple of years. We've even had some new hiders. Logs are a mix of reasonable write-ups and tftc.... :)

 

Some statistics on the find rate on my Central Coast hides (excluding events) since I started in 2013:

 

Year        Active Hides        Finds       Finds/Hide

2013                 2                     33              16.5

2014                 7                   158              22.6

2015               16                   231             14.4

2016               24                   259             10.8

2017               29                   184               6.3

2018               32                   185               5.8

2019               35                   168               4.8

2020               39                   178               4.6

2021               43                   268               6.2

2022               40                   117               2.9

2023 so far    42                     62               1.5

 

At the current rate, this year looks like being better than last year, otherwise it's a pretty consistent downwards slide. Of the eight caches I've placed since the beginning of last year, only two have reached double-digit find counts (10 and 12) and the latter is almost a P&G (a T2.5 scramble 50 metres from the road).

Edited by barefootjeff
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11 hours ago, lee737 said:

Yes, we've seen an uptick of late, maybe the past couple of years. We've even had some new hiders. Logs are a mix of reasonable write-ups and tftc.... :)

From what I read in the logs, along with photos, there are quite a few that are young family groups rather than solo players.

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Good morning,

 

I have been reading through the thread and I thought I might give my prescriptive on Geocaching as a new Geocacher.

 

A bit off topic, more about how to increase interest.

 

I am in my late 50's and new to the hobby.  I have heard of Geocaching before but never had much interest in it.  What changed is I joined a walking class where we walk the trails in some local parks.  The park's website advertised Geocaching as an activity, so I started Geocaching at the parks because I was already there for class. 

 

I also do POTA, which is a ham radio activity at State and National Parks.  I also geocache when I do that activity.  For me Geocaching for me is not a stand alone activity but a fun add on activity when I am already at the park.  So as a hunter, I am going to search for caches at parks and places where I participate in other activities rather than just stand alone places (like a cache in a empty parking lot). 

 

I would think interest may increase if people were aware how it could be paired with other activities.

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