+ringling Posted January 26 Posted January 26 (edited) Dear moderator it is so sad that geocaching has become a fill your quota game. When Geocaching started it was quite a challenge and a great exploring adventure a wonderful way to be outdoors. Since its conception in 2000 it sadly has become a joke. The throw a used pill bottle out every 10th of a mile is a disgrace to the geocaching world as we knew it. Kevin Brewer Edited January 27 by Rock Chalk Shortened subject line 3 1 2 2 Quote
+Smitherington Posted January 26 Posted January 26 You must have missed mine. Not pill bottles every 1/10 of a mile. Lots of other good ones - waterfront in Iceland, castle wall in Spain, unique castle in Idaho, the gadget caches in WV & ND, library on US/Canada border in VT, the list goes on and on. Don’t do the ones you dislike. Do the good ones. And place good ones yourself. Still loving it after 20+ yrs 3 2 Quote
+geodarts Posted January 26 Posted January 26 (edited) Several years ago a friend noted a new cache that was placed in a parking lot simply because there was not another cache there. He wrote that the game as we know it was over. I can’t argue but I try to avoid those that you describe. In my profile I ask, “Am I the only one who thinks there are around 3 million containers too many and that repetitive trails are . . . . . repetitive rather than being powerful.” Yet here we are. Some of the caches listed on my profile gives a reason why. We are no longer in the days when I looked forward to new caches because they would almost always take me to places that were worth exploring. They are still there but a pocket query might not find them. Edited January 26 by geodarts 1 1 Quote
Keystone Posted January 26 Posted January 26 Hi, I'm a Moderator, so I guess this question is addressed to me? I've been geocaching since 2002 and I still enjoy finding "old school" types of caches the most. I'll also find easier caches, especially when traveling in a new area where my time is limited. Yesterday I went for a hike in a park near my home, to introduce a muggle friend to the park's great trail system. I never would have known about the park if it weren't for geocaching. The average D/T rating of the caches in the park is 3.5/3.0. Finding those caches meant crossing streams, retrieving caches hidden high up in trees, hiking up and down steep hills, and solving for multi-cache locations. There are 123 caches rated 1.5/1.5 or lower that are closer to my home than this park is. It was easy for me to drive past them. I use filters and other search tools to locate the kinds of caches I'd like to find, and I don't need to worry about the ones I don't care to find. A good search technique begins with looking for big green spaces on the map that have cache icons far from the nearest road - parks, forests, nature centers, etc. I'm not sure what the OP is asking me to do as a Forum Moderator or as a Community Volunteer Reviewer. The website publishes all caches that meet the Geocache Hiding Guidelines. I don't have a quota to fill. 3 3 Quote
+lee737 Posted January 26 Posted January 26 There are plenty of great caches, and reasonable caches too. Old and new. Just look for them. It is OK to ignore the road litter..... These are images from two caches we found in metropolitan Sydney yesterday.... 1 Quote
+lee737 Posted January 26 Posted January 26 and.... check out the little track around the cliff - 600' of this, after descending a slippery rocky gully above, then climbing up to a slippery ledge, then climbing a homemade wooden ladder for 15' onto the ledge.... 2 Quote
+barefootjeff Posted January 26 Posted January 26 4 hours ago, ringling said: When Geocaching started it was quite a challenge and a great exploring adventure a wonderful way to be outdoors. For me it still is. I'm not as adventurous as lee737, but these are a few of the places geocaching took me to last year: I don't have any quotas to fill and often go on long trips away just for one or two caches that catch my attention. It's taken almost 12 years to get close to 2000 finds and for that milestone, now imminent with my find count reaching 1997 after yesterday's Sydney Geoquest Block Party, I'm planning to reattempt a cache on Big Nellie Mountain that I DNFed in 2023 when our group took a wrong turn and I couldn't scale the almost vertical rock face. The drive to the parking waypoint will take the best part of four hours, with a stop-off at Bulahdelah to do a new multi there and check on my own cache on Alum Mountain (GC9ZM7G), so it'll be a full day adventure for just a couple of smileys. I still enjoy the 1.5/1.5 traditionals as they're often in interesting places, but it's the more challenging ones like these that are the lifeblood of the game for me. 3 Quote
+MartyBartfast Posted January 27 Posted January 27 I just had a look at the map around the OPs own cache hide and this is what it looks like, definitely pretty saturated with micros every 1/10 mile by the look of it. I think the OP just needs to be more selective in their choice of targets and go for those single isolated caches. 4 1 Quote
+JL_HSTRE Posted January 27 Posted January 27 Geocaching is a poster child of what happens when you don't gatekeep a hobby and instead run it as a business. First it's rare, then it's common, then it's cheap. Nothing gold can stay. As someone who grew up with the internet in the 1990s, the body of the post also being in the title of the post, and the post being signed with the geocachers name certainly makes this feel like an internet post from 2000. Which really fits the "kids these days need to get off my lawn" tone. 2 Quote
+GeoElmo6000 Posted January 27 Posted January 27 2 hours ago, MartyBartfast said: I just had a look at the map around the OPs own cache hide and this is what it looks like, definitely pretty saturated with micros every 1/10 mile by the look of it. My lemonade from lemons take: if I ever wanted to start a daily streak, this would be a great place to start one 3 1 Quote
+MartyBartfast Posted January 27 Posted January 27 2 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said: My lemonade from lemons take: if I ever wanted to start a daily streak, this would be a great place to start one True, for me I would use it for my 150 in a day target, which I will do on foot, finding and signing every log myself. In the UK the shortest route I've found so far is about a 27 mile hike. 1 Quote
+igator210 Posted January 27 Posted January 27 8 hours ago, MartyBartfast said: I just had a look at the map around the OPs own cache hide and this is what it looks like, definitely pretty saturated with micros every 1/10 mile by the look of it. I think the OP just needs to be more selective in their choice of targets and go for those single isolated caches. Desert caches present their own unique challenges. First, the sun is brutal on any container. Plastics rarely last more than a year. You don't really have to worry about waterproofness, so buying high quality containers turns into a money issue. Even ammo cans get beat up by the sun. Second, there isn't a lot of great hiding spot for anything larger than a pill bottle. Lots of flat land and nothing but scrub for miles. I'm not a big fan of power trails, but I understand why they pop up in the desert. At least the power trails give the area something to hunt. Otherwise you might not get anything in some of those areas. Quote
RuideAlmeida Posted January 27 Posted January 27 Ohhhh!... only if a cache quality depended mostly upon the owners... 1 1 Quote
+cerberus1 Posted January 28 Posted January 28 On 1/26/2025 at 11:08 AM, ringling said: Dear moderator it is so sad that geocaching has become a fill your quota game. When Geocaching started it was quite a challenge and a great exploring adventure a wonderful way to be outdoors. Since its conception in 2000 it sadly has become a joke. The throw a used pill bottle out every 10th of a mile is a disgrace to the geocaching world as we knew it. When I ask someone whether they ever heard of geocaching, they sometimes do say it's similar to what you suggest. Most my interaction are nurses lately, and they're fascinated that there's cache locations other-than 1.5/1.5. I explain that when we joined it was called the 'Language of Location", and that's how we choose to play. I skip by the hundreds of 'place 'em because there's room' caches to go where I enjoy. A cliff drop, rock/tree rope climb, awesome views, unique areas, and a decent walk is what I like to do. So it may be a game for some, but it's a fun hobby for me, and I'm getting antsy to get back out... 3 2 1 Quote
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