Care and Feeding of your Cache

[Guest Elwood]

just curious as to a cache that for 6 months of the year will be burried under snow?

the cache is in a container that should survive the winter ok , i'll check that personally next spring, but until then what is your recomendation, should i remove and archive it til spring, or just leave it and see how it weathers the winter?'

this is in reference to "elwood scroll #1".

Elwood

[Guest cache_ninja]

IMHO

 

-45 days is way too short. plenty of people on here as well have said that it shouldnt be a function of time, and if it is, many caches go unfound for quite awhile...if people have alot of caches, its going to be mildly annoying to get an e-mail every 45 days. for instance i dont want to have to potentially deal with 20 e-mails every month and a half during the winter demanding i click some thing on each cache page...thats sucks, IMHO.

 

- i really dont even understand the point of having people click to restore health, just to see if they are paying attention? that does nothing to verify that the cache is even there. its potentially confusing for newbies or anyone as well. "gee i see its at 100% health that must mean the cache is still there, im going to go look for that one", when in fact, it doesnt mean it still exists, it doesnt even mean the cache owner has checked on it. the health thing just seems invariably misleading.

 

-if this goes into effect, i reiterate the calls for the updating of the FAQ, we get enough redundant questions as is, i can imagine the confusion over a newbie coming to a cache page and seeing its "public". ie "huh?, i thought they were all public? are some private?"

 

--" 0% health will cause an email to cache owner. After 45 days, cache becomes "public" - folks are given the choice to adopt the cache.":

this step is unnecessary, and may be potentially confusing to people. again whats the point? if someone is going to "adopt" a cache, they have to go out and check if its still there anyway right? that essentially is retrieval no? why not just have it automatically go into retrieval mode, with the understanding that if they find it, they have the option to adopt it if they so chose. this makes more sense to me. and just put a warning on the cache when its in retrieval mode...there is no need for the "adopt a cache mode". just send the owner an e-mail after a certain number of "not founds", and automatic e-mail, if they do not reply, warn them their cache will go into retrieval mode and may be adopted etc.

 

 

[This message has been edited by cache_ninja (edited 05 August 2001).]

[Guest adventuretom]

Though I can see winter and snow as a problem in some areas it has no effect here. We have a very insignificant winter and no snow in the part of North Carolina I live in. There is no reason cache hunting can't be 12 months a year. It is never too hot or too cold. Therefore I would think twice about making a health meter seasonal. I like the idea of the owner checking in on the geocaching page to say he/she is still maintaining the cache. You can do that even if the snow is 12 feet deep.

[Guest Elwood]

adventuretom,

it wouldnt surprise me to see 12 feet of snow on the road to elwood scroll #1

 

[This message has been edited by Elwood (edited 05 August 2001).]

[Guest adventuretom]

gine it would make it real hard to find a cache under all that snow!

[Guest mudbug65]

quote:

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Originally posted by arffer:

Your concern regarding geocaching.com's right to place a bounty on dead caches, if such a policy ever comes into existance, can be handled through the terms of use we all agree to when we register to use geocaching.com. All that needs to be added is that anyone registering a cache with geocaching.com agrees to allow their cache to be 'removed' and/or adopted if its health status ever reaches 'dead'

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Rather than ammend the geocaching terms of usage to make cache confiscation/theft a "legal" activity, why not give cache owners a choice.

 

Put a couple of checkboxes on the form we fill out to list a new cache. Checking the first box will give geocaching.com the right to adopt/retreive a cache when it's status reaches "dead". Checking the second will tell geocaching.com to immediately archive the cache instead. This way the cache OWNERS wishes will be carried out regardless of the reason for their loss of contact with the web-site.

[Guest PharoaH]

quote:

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Originally posted by jeremy:

The ultimate goal is to create a list that is fresh. Although you can never guarantee a cache is there the fresher the data the better the game.

Jeremy

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I think you're on to something here. What I really want to know before I go find a cache? I want to know that its still there! I would rather have a way for the cache owner to log in and mark the last time the cache was checked up on. Some already do this by adding a note to the log. You already show the date "last found on", why not show the date "last maintained on", "checked up on", or "replenished on".

 

If you really want a freshness rating, then why not try a 1 to 5 rating based on what people log. You could then display the freshness based upon the last 3 visitors comments. It could look something like this:

 

1 Star - Alert!

Cache needs immediate attention of owner.

-- I'm pretty sure it's missing

-- Damaged and in need of archiving

-- Moisture/fire/flood, animals, vandals, etc.

 

2 Stars - Aged

Cache is reaching its "End of life"

-- Cache owner should visit this cache soon

-- Cache container is damaged

-- Cache "goodies" are depleted (nothing left but a used golf ball, etc.)

-- contents are damp

-- log book is full or missing

 

3 Stars - Cache is average.

-- Contents are dry

-- Goodies available for trade

 

4 Stars - Cache is good

-- Contents are dry

-- No "junk"

 

5 Stars - Like new.

-- Good variety of goodies inside.

-- Dry and in excellent condition

[Guest PharoaH]

quote:

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Originally posted by mudbug65:

There's a cave near my home that has had a "cache" located deep inside it for at least 25 years. (A wide mouth jar with a log book and a few pencils) The trail leading to it is long, extremely rugged and only someone in very good physical condition w/ intimate knowledge of the area is able to locate it.

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Ever consider taking someone else to visit it? I'm not in good enough shape yet, but I would be interested in the spring.

[Guest Snowtrail]

The star rating is good, although I would add something about a trail becoming visible to the cache. I've been to two so far that had a direct bee-line that left no guesses.

 

The total sum of the star ratings could help determine the 'freshness' of a cache.

 

The only thing that might complicate things is the events. If I have a geocacher holiday party scheduled for December, I'll get warnings and such becuase nobody is "finding" my cache before then. Just something else to think about when setting up time expirations and warnings.

 

When I found out that one of our popular multi-cache owners had moved out of state, I put a message on the board. Several people stepped up to adopt this cache. This is a community! It takes a village to raise a cache.

 

I like the older caches myself. There are several at the beach that nobody has found yet. I hope to be the first on two next month...

[Guest WJJagfan]

What would happen with virtual caches? Unless something should change drastically the cache should always be healthy. Yes, no?