Parking Coordinates

[+sbell111]

(You typed other stuff up here)

 

Of course not, otherwise you would be agreeing with me. I'm not sure what your caching experience is, but haven't you ever gone after a cache where your approach was unique? Maybe you found something interesting along the way because of your way in? Maybe you were really satisfied with the hike and felt really good about that smiley next to your name in your log.

 

Well imagine that same cache now has parking coordinates a couple hundred feet away, and everyone else just drives up, hops out to log the cache and then drives away. Yep, they don't even have to make the same return trip to the car that you did. I would call that cheapened.

 

(You typed other stuff here)

I don't know what his experience is either, but I know what mine is. I still disagree with you.

 

A person places a cache to show you what he wants you to see. If you explore beyond that, more the better. Your argument that suggested parking places will cheapen the cache experience, is not correct in my opinion.

 

As already stated, one needs not use suggested parking (or hints, or maps, or cars, or public transportation, or a GPSr) to play this game. One is free to pull up the newest cache in the state and walk out their fron door to find it on foot. This would certainly make each cache a memorable experience.

 

Jeremy has already stated that an additional coordinate field will be made available. This field will be for other uses than just parking, but it can be used for suggested parking also. (I assume that one of the other uses would be to share cool things in the area of the cache.)

 

In my opinion, the bottom line is that this is a non-issue. A field is coming. This information is now available (in the description area) and will be available in the future presumably in a format one can load to a GPSr. It will not cause the end of the game (or even much of a change to it).

[+sbell111]

I, too, tend to go caching using public transport. And the caches I have set are all urban ones, mostly aimed at tourists and out of towners. Since I don't drive, I have Clue Zero about where one should park to do the caches in question. I'd love to see more urban caches provided with public transport information, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

(You made additional comments here, but they were not related to my response.)

The additional coordinate field previously discussed could probably be used to identify the coords of the nearest subway/tube/M station. This wouldn't help one know what stop to get off to find the cache (without additional research), but it would help locate public transportation in a strange city once the cache hunt is over.

[martmann]

I don't see where anybody but Cachew Nut, has mentioned putting a field on the cache hide form for parking coordinates, (unless responding to a Cachew Nut post). So I'm not sure why you keep mentioning it as if the original poster wanted that. (or anybody else).

 

It is mentioned in the link Markwell gave above, and in this thread as well.

Markwell made the post you reference AFTER you brought up a field for Parking coordinates, I assume to clue people, like me, in as to why you brought the "field" issue up out of thin air. Just because it was in another thread doesn't mean it is what the original poster of this thread (or any other poster in this thread) has even alluded to.

 

As far as the field issue goes though (since you brought it up), If it did have a "Not Required" next to it, I think most people would realize that it wasn't required, (although I am constantly amazed at how many people think they need to post a second "Found it", to pick up or drop off a TB, because they never saw the "post a note" option that is plainly in the same list as the "Found it" option).

They would also need to mark a waypoint while out in the field, to have something to fill it out with, making it less likely that they just fill it out because they think they have to.

 

I understand your reasoning better now, but still don't completely agree with it. I was mainly wondering why you dropped it out of thin air without a reason (or the now present link) as to what brought it up, since this thread wasn't going that direction at all.

 

And lots of things discourage me more than parking problems, just not enough to stop.

[+Team Spoonhead]

Just to jump back in on my own topic - I think that encrypted parking coords might be the best compromise. When I leave my home state of MA, I have had great difficulty in some cases finding the way in to certain caches in other states. In some cases I have emailed the owner PLEADING for directions after driving around unfamiliar roads looking for unfamiliar landmarks! For my part, I have often responded to local logs from out-of-towners seeking assistance because I have been in their situation. One of the earlier posters compared encrypted parking coordinates to the encrypted hint and surmised that cachers who wanted them (such as myself usually caching in a narrow window) could decrypt and cachers who did not (and feel that driving around endlessly in unfamiliar localities is part of the fun) could ignore. That makes sense to me! Thank you all for all your input, opinions, and perceptive commentary.

[+cache_us_if_you_can]

When I do post parking, I post it like this.