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Listing A Cache Not Placed Yet


Dosido

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Out in my area, we've had a few instances of people hunting for a cache even before it's placed.

 

This seems to be kind of silly to me. Shoudn't the protocol be that the cache actually be in place prior to listing the cache?

 

In the latest instance, there was someone looking for the cache last night around 11pm - I got a skydiver alert email around 6:30 this morning, and the note on the cache page says that the owners were planning on placing the cache at 7:45 this morning.

 

I don't want to cause anyone grief (this was the owner's first cache placed), but is it typical that people are listing caches before they're placed?

 

Brian

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There is a checkbox on the report a cache page labeled "Yes, this cache is currently active." If you uncheck that box, the cache will not go to the approvers for listing, but you will be assigned a waypoint ID (GCXXXX). This is nice to have before placing the cache, so you can put it on the logbook and the cache container.

 

But to answer you original question...No, you shouldn't have an active cache page without the cache actually being there.

Edited by Stunod
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Always have the cache where it's supposed to be before you submit the cache listing. Sometimes it'll take a day or so to get approved. Other times, if you're lucky it's less than five minutes.

 

And some FTF fools, like me sometimes, will hunt as-of-yet unapproved caches based on other clues, such as the placement of a travel bug in it ("lets see... it moved 35.4 miles southwest from GC1234, so it must be in this park somewhere...")

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Scope out the spot. Get the cache ready. Submit the cache with a note that the cache has not been placed to the approver. COMMUNICATE with the approver. When the approver OKs the cache place it and get back to him that it is placed and when to release. We have had a couple of instances lately where people went balistic when their cache was not approved. They ranted, raved, and caused a BIG scene because they spent time, money, etc. and were not approved. All could have been avoided if communication was better and tempers were not raised.

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not to be off topic, well i guess it isnt actually.

 

once i found a cache that had not yet been even submitted for approval. I was looking for another cache in the area, well i was in the wrong spot, but lets just say the cache owner was shocked by this find. a week later the same thing happened to me again with the same cache hider. yes PLEASE hide it first.

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If you wanna enter the page first and place the cache afterwards; make sure when you write the page to look at the check-box about if the cache is active, and also in the field where you can write a note to the reviewer (approver) to write with big letters "DO NOT APPROVE THIS ONE!!!" and do a small explain... In that case are you sure that the approver doesn't approve it <_<

 

But if you first make a page and doesn't write that or tell them the cache is non-active might the cache be approved before it is placed. And one big problem might be that someone will be at the cache location before you.. The other problem might be that the cache location was no good, and you want to move it somewhere else, but the distance between the cache page co-ordinates and the real co-ords are to big.. Then can't you edit the cache page co-ords by yourself...

 

There is a cache location that I can see from my window and the guys who placed that one read on the website that it took at least 48 hours to get a cache approved. So they made the cache page first and waited a couple of days with placing the cache. Unfortunally was the cache approved within some minutes, the weekly mail from GC.com to local cachers with new caches (is it on thursdays?) was also sent out a couple of minutes after this. This meant that several cachers where there the next day and couldn't find it. And I can tell you, people was really upset about this.. But the guys said something like "But the website says 48 hours..."

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We have a cacher in our area that has done some really crazy stuff. He has placed caches and then forgotten them. After like 1 year he finds a set of coordinates in his GPSr, and makes a new cache on these coordinates and states "I think we placed a cache hear, but I don't really remember. If you find a cache, please let us know of the content and also the name of the cache if we wrote it on the box"...

 

<_<

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We have a cacher in our area that has done some really crazy stuff. He has placed caches and then forgotten them. After like 1 year he finds a set of coordinates in his GPSr, and makes a new cache on these coordinates and states "I think we placed a cache hear, but I don't really remember. If you find a cache, please let us know of the content and also the name of the cache if we wrote it on the box"...

 

<_<

you have GOT TO BE KIDDING B)B)

 

that is a laugher

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very funny that people do things like not hideng till approval. HAH. I can imagine all the FTF people out looking for a nonexistant cache.

Difficulty: 6 (impossible)

mission impossible, the unplaced cache

The song of cachers who have been skunked:

 

The Impossible Dream

 

To dream the impossible dream,

to fight the unbeatable foe,

to bear with unbearable sorrow,

to run where the brave dare not go...

 

To right the unrightable wrong,

to love pure and chaste from afar,

to try when your arms are too weary

to reach the unreachable star!

 

This is my quest --

to follow that star

no matter how hopeless,

no matter how far --

To fight for the right

without question or pause,

to be willing to march into hell

for a heavenly cause!

 

And I know

if I'll only be true

to this glorious quest

that my heart

will be peaceful and calm

when I'm laid to my rest.

 

And the world will be better for this

that one man, scorned and covered with scars,

still strove with his last ounce of courage

To reach the unreachable stars!

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I always place my caches first....until this weekend. I placed two multi caches. One I completed, but the other, I ran out of time and didn't place the actual cache.

 

The local approver has been taking a few days to approve caches, so I got home and listed them anyway, figuring they wouldn't be approved for at least a day and I'd have the entire next day to place the actual cache. Woke up early the next morning and saw both were listed, so I had to head out the door in the wee hours to make sure the cache was in place before any earlybirds decided to hit it. I'll never do that again!

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Here is my question:

Since you are submitting the cache for "approval" - you probably should not place it before approval is given.

 

If they disapprove it, then you have to go out and get it, plus any damage to the environment (or whatever) the approver was trying to avoid is already done.

 

Shouldn't the mechanism change to be:

(1) Scout out your area but do not place the cache

(2) Submit the cache for approval

(3) When approval is given go place the cache

(4) Make the cache page visible to all - active

 

Otherwise, you can have P.O.ed folks who placed caches and then had them denied. (ala' Subigo and some others that got really vocal and/or destructive.)

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Is a note to a reviewer requesting to hold off on approval really necessary when you can leave the "the cache is active" checkbox unchecked until it is in place?

Sometimes you might want to know if your idea is going to be approved before you actually place the cache. So you could create the page, post a note asking the approver to review it but not approve the cache yet if there's no problems, and e-mail you that placing the cache is okay.

 

Then you can go out, complete the hide, and contact the approver again to complete the process.

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Is a note to a reviewer requesting to hold off on approval really necessary when you can leave the "the cache is active" checkbox unchecked until it is in place?

It depends. If you are holding off on placing and releasing a plain vanilla traditional cache, there's not much harm done in having it approved and then disabling it afterwards, with a note saying "cache will be available on Saturday after 12 noon." The disabled cache won't show up in pocket queries, and it will have a blue line through it in the online search results. Still, this is pretty unusual... when folks see a new cache, they'll naturally want to go out and look for it.

 

But what if you're placing a complex puzzle cache in an area where competing for the FTF is a major sport? Everyone will be able to see your cache page and can do a lot of the preliminary work to solve the puzzle, before the physical container is in place. You might not want it to happen that way.

 

In contrast, as I think was stated above, you can uncheck the "Cache is Active" box BEFORE submitting your cache for review, and it won't show up in the approval queue. This allows you as much time as you need to polish your cache page and place the cache.

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wasn't this protocol also put in to aid with the approval process for park districts that require you to show them the cache page before they will approve the cache for placement?

 

You scope the cache, submit for tentative approval, print out the cache page, go to the park district office, show them the cache page, get their approval, place the cache, come back to gc.com and tell the approvers it is now in place, and then...

 

Bam, it's active...

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I just wanted to write this questions to the people that wants to write the cache page first, get it approved and then place their cache:

 

When you are caching: Do you first log your visit on geocaching.com, write which bugs you took, and then finally go out and try to find the cache and bugs in the nature? :blink:

 

I have at some occasions wrote the page first, but in those cases have I clearly stated with really BIIIIG letters that I shouldn't be approved. I also maked sure that the cache was temporary disabled (so it wasn't active)...

But that I did because of a special reason...

 

But if you are not sure they will approve it; why not mail the approver/reviewer first and ask them if they would approve a cache at "N..../W..." and explain the cache and why you are worried about it shouldn't be approved or so...

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