"one Time Find" Caching

[+Imalookin]

I am rather new at Geocaching and I am slowly learning some great guidelines. From what I have learned thus far, every cache is maintained by a specific person. I am currently planning on setting up a few in my area.

 

But, my question is....

Is there any protocol for setting up an unwatched cache?

 

My personal reason for this question is that I enjoy road trips that I rarely repeat. But I would really enjoy setting some caches along the way.

 

Could a system of "One Time Find" caching be set up? Maybe provide special markings on the website posting and emphasis the need for the finder to remove the entire content of the cache and that the cach must be marked as "Found and Removed" on the website ASAP? These types of caches would be useless for log books. But they would still be good for starting hitchhikers. And they might make for more interesting locations.

 

I can see a problem that some of this type cache may not even be sought or found and therefore provide for some caches to be abandoned.

 

Though this issue has probably been tried and tested...hense the agreed status thus far that all caches must be managed. But since it is still a fairly new sport and we have many a smart person involved, I was hoping there might be some brainstorming. Looking forward to any form of feedback. Thanks.

[+CYBret]

Check the guidelines for hiding a cache and the Listing Requirements. That'll be a great place for you to start.

 

What you're describing has been called a "Vacation Cache" and they're no longer approved. You really need to be available and responsible for your cache. Also, the listing requirements state, "When you report a cache on the Geocaching.com web site, geocachers should (and will) expect the cache to be there for a realistic and extended period of time. "

 

Give yourself some time to kick the tires on this game--get the hang of what hides are like, what you like about the hides and dislike, and then jump in with your hides! Also feel free to ask for help...or at least opinions...we've got plenty of those around here.

 

Bret

[+Renegade Knight]

Caches need to be maintained and should have a life span. How long hasn't been exactly defined yet.

 

It's been proposed that one time find caches be set up on a single cache page so that logs for the cache could be captured in one spot and at the same time you don't generate approvals for the one time caches (approvers have a busy job with normal caches). That idea was nixed.

 

The long and short of it is that one time caches are not listed on this site. Your local organization would probably let you post them in the forums though that would not have the same effect as this site.

 

There are other issues like when 4 people look for it after its gone because the 5th hasn't logged yet.

[bug and snake]

Kinda hard to implement but interesting in concept.

Can you imagine setting out to find that kind of cache only to find that it was 'collected' earlier? Frustrating to say the least. And, how would you know it had been collected as opposed to having been too well hidden for you to find? Would the finder have to leave some kind of indication that the cache had been removed? Would that then be a cache in its self? Is that my own tail I see in front of me? Is THAT what I have been chasing?

[+Navdog]

I do caching under my own name. I also cache under the moondog3 name with some friends who live over a hundred miles away in Central Oregon. When we first started caching a few years ago, we would create personal cache challenges. On my way out of town, I would hide a cache for my friend to find at his leisure. After he found it he would take it and hide it somewhere else. Then on my way into town for a visit the next few weeks, I would try to find it. Then we would repeat the process over again. It was a lot of fun.

[+Imalookin]

Wow, One day after the post, and there is plenty of feedback. Bret, you were right, lots of opinions around here. And all good ones!

 

Navdog, thanks for the info on you and your buddy's roving road trip cache. Though, I don't have a person I can work that with now, it really opens up my confidence in maintaining a cache that would be on route to visiting my family that I do at least once a month.

 

Bug and Snake, you really pointed out the spiraling conundrum vortex of confusion that I was suggesting

 

I will enjoy working on some finds and get some ideas. Though I have already convinced a friend to help me brainstorm for my first hide. When I post, maybe I should indicate that it is my first. That way people might go easy on me. I will try to make you Proud of me!

[+Ltljon]

Check the coords for the areas you had in mind. There very well could already be caches there anyway.

[Keystone]

Caches need to be maintained and should have a life span. How long hasn't been exactly defined yet.

I wish to point out that the guidelines now state that a temporary cache is one which is set up with the intention of it being available for a period of three months or less. See the Cache Permanence topic. (The majority sentiment within the community was for a "bright line" standard here, and now there is one.) But, even for a cache with a known lifetime of four months, the rules still apply as described in the topic entitled Placing Caches on Vacation / Beyond Your Maintainable Distance. A high percentage of maintenance issues arise during the first month of a cache's lifetime, such as adjustments to inaccurate coordinates.

[+Doc-Dean]

I would recommend just placing caches in your home area, maintaining a cache and checking up on it is part of the fun.

When you travel you will likely find plenty of caches to hunt to keep you busy.

 

 

[+Polgara]

This is already being done by a friend of mine in the North East forum, search word "Finders Keepers".

 

THey are called "Finders Keepers". My friend does this by designing a card with the info on it to find this -one time find- cache, and drops it in another cache that is active on GC.com. THe next finder of the listed cache then has the opportunity to go search and keep the Finders Keepers cache.

 

So far, my friend hasn't been granted the privilege of making this official through GC.com so its just maintained through the forum thread.

Edited December 6, 2003 by Ce'Nedra

[+Sparky-Watts]

This has answered some questions I've been kicking around the past day or so about a cache I wanted to start. After reading something similar in another thread, I was planning to start a one-time cache with a TB in honor of my father that I lost to cancer earlier this year. I had planned to place the TB in a "one-time" find cache at his birthplace on my land in Eastern Kansas, about 200 miles from here. I don't get down there often enough to maintain a full time cache, and really don't want the area used for caching (personal reasons, nothing to do with caching in general). I was hoping to have a laminated pic of my dad attached to a travel bug and see how far he could travel, since Dad loved to travel. I have scouted the area, and the nearest cache is 11 miles away. But I really want the TB to start where he was born. Would it be possible to have a cache that I may only be able to maintain every 5 or 6 months? And would it be considered poor ethics to archive the cache once the TB is picked up? I see the arguments for and against both, so I guess I'll just see what happens. It may be up to a year, because I also want to release the TB on his birthday, in November.

[+Imalookin]

THey are called "Finders Keepers".  My friend does this by designing a card with the info on it to find this -one time find- cache, and drops it in another cache that is active on GC.com.  THe next finder of the listed cache then has the opportunity to go search and keep the Finders Keepers cache.

That's an idea. The note card in another cache eliminates the problem of many people trying to find it.

 

Some Ideas to increase the chance of the cache being found would be to place the cache near (ie. within the same city, etc.) to the cache that the card is placed in. I have noticed from the logs that many cachers will hit multiple caches in a day as they are on business trips and such. If the Finders Keepers was nearby, it would most likely be hit by a "Quantity Cacher" (there is probably a better name). Also, if a person pulls the card and later decides not to hit the Finders Keepers, they could always place it back in another cache.

 

Thanks.

[+Renegade Knight]

..."Quantity Cacher" (there is probably a better name). ...

Cache slut per this link. SGPS