Hints - What Do You Look For?

[+tirediron]

Okay... when you (and I know we only EVER use them as a last resort! ) have to decode the hint what do you want to see? Are you looking for the answer, that is something like: "The cache is located under the north-west corner of the last park-bench" or something that gives you more of a clue like "Look for a lone tree, and then what used to be".

 

Personally, if I do break out the hint before the find (I always read them after, do others do that?) then it's 'cause I ****ing well need the hint, and while I don't mind thinking a little bit, I do want something that's useful.

 

Nothing irritates me more than decrypting: "No hint needed"

[+ZackJones]

If the cache description doesn't state what I'm looking for (ammo can, tupperware, etc) then I hope to find it in the hint.

 

What I have seen and like are progressive hints such as:

 

This will get you close:

 

This will get you closer:

 

Total Spoiler:

 

The only problem I have with hints like that is when paperless caching Cachemate decrypts them all at once and once a hint is decrypted it's hard not to read it

 

Zack

[+rusty_tlc]

I just went through a mental debate with myself on this very topic.

Here is what I came up with:

Rusty's hint rule #1: If the cache location is easy to get to make the hint a clue. ie The cache is hidden under a stump the hint is "Stumped?"

Rusty's rule #2 : If the cache is hard to get to provide enough information to find the cache if the searcher is within 18'. ie The cache is hidden in a boulder field the clue is "Look for a small elderberry bush, take three paces due south, the cache is under a rock shaped like a bran muffin.

 

My logic is as follows, I wouldn't mind going back several times to a cache that was easy to get to and solving a difficult hide. I'd be really ticked off if I had to hike 7 or 8 miles up a mountain, looked and looked, still didn't find the cache, and decoded a clue like "Think about Rudyard Kipling."

[+briansnat]

I want to see details that narrow down where to look. Things like "under stump next to maple sapling", "Under small boulder next to two large boulders" and similar stuff. An easy riddle would be OK, but I don't want a cryptic reference, or difficult puzzle in the hint. It's a hint fer cryin' out loud and is supposed to make it easier to find once you've exhausted all possibilities.

 

What I don't want to see are things like "Too easy for a hint" (if I needed to decrypt the hint, apparently it wasn't that easy), "Take the right fork in the trail" (if I'm at the cache I apparently, already took the correct fork), or "park next to the police station" (I'm at the cache, so why are you telling me where to park now?).

Edited July 13, 2004 by briansnat

[+Markwell]

What I really want to see:

 

Cnex va gur cnexvat ybg arkg gb gur erq ohvyqvat. Bgurejvfr lbh'yy or gbjrq. V fher ubcr lbh qvqa'g pbzr sebz gur rnfg. Vg'f abguvat ohg n svryq bs cbvfba bnx jvgu gvpxf naq puvttref.

 

[+Markwell]

D'oh - Brian and I - thinking alike again...

[+Anonymous']

If I do need the clue I don't like it telling me exactly what the spot looks like where the cache is hidden. I want some challenge.

[+Ambrosia]

I just went through a mental debate with myself on this very topic.

Here is what I came up with:

Rusty's hint rule #1: If the cache location is easy to get to make the hint a clue. ie The cache is hidden under a stump the hint is "Stumped?"

Rusty's rule #2 : If the cache is hard to get to provide enough information to find the cache if the searcher is within 18'. ie The cache is hidden in a boulder field the clue is "Look for a small elderberry bush, take three paces due south, the cache is under a rock shaped like a bran muffin.

 

My logic is as follows, I wouldn't mind going back several times to a cache that was easy to get to and solving a difficult hide. I'd be really ticked off if I had to hike 7 or 8 miles up a mountain, looked and looked, still didn't find the cache, and decoded a clue like "Think about Rudyard Kipling."

Exactly.

[+Team DEMP]

I'm at the cache location and I can't find it. I want a hint that will direct me how to find it, unless the goal of the person placing the cache was for folks NOT to find it.

 

I've made the effort to get there (sometimes a big effort and sometimes less of an effort), and I've searched, and I can't find it. I want to know where to concentrate my search on.

 

As Brian posted, hints related to getting there shouldn't be completely encrypted, such as parking, trails to take, etc. At least the labels for those caches should be decrypted. And telling me anything other then a hint to help me find the cache as part of the encrypted hint just plain old sucks.

Edited July 13, 2004 by Team DEMP

[dampeoples]

I like hints that give you an idea where to look, not silly riddles.

[kayaker22589]

I like to think up hints that sound cryptic until the person gets to the location.

[+Robespierre]

As a cache owner, I want my caches found. I don't really want an unsuccessful hunt. One of my hints is a short poem which puts you close. One has no hint. One is a stump hint. My micro has a 3-word hint, then a larger one. I had a new cache which had several dnf's because of cover, so I put a bllue plastic strip in a tree about 200' away.

I logged a dnf the other day, and the hint corrected me to the right trail, but then left me alone. I zeroed out 3 times, but never found it. I really don't want a red x on the ground....but maybe something else.

[+Runaround]

Give me something useful. It doesn't need to be the "X marks the spot" type clue but it should be someting I can use to find the cache. If you can narrow the search area down to within 10-15 feet, it's a good hint.

 

I remember one that read "Think of a title of a writing by HP Lovecraft." Since the guy wrote more than a 100 novels plus poems and other works and I've only read one or two of them, the clue was useless.

[+RichardMoore]

Then there was the infamous "You shouldn't need a hint, but if you do E-mail me."

 

Personally, I wish that cache owners would realize that someone may be decoding the clue with a pencil and paper in the rain/snow/mosquito heaven. I want the clue to be short, not a full paragraph with a lot of information that you don't need.

[+tirediron]

Cool... some really good points. I think RMs about keeping it short is one that I hadn't thought of; "Doesn't everyone use Cachemate?". Thanks for all the input!

[+Shop99er]

Best hint we ever got was

 

"There's a guardrail and a sign. It's not on the sign".

 

Ya gotta love someone like that.

[+drat19]

I'm with Robespierre, I want my caches to be at least somewhat of a challenge (even my 1/1.5's), but I still want them found. I know how much *I* hate going away empty; I figure searchers probably feel the same. Still, I don't want my encrypted hints to necessarily make them "gimmes" either.

 

The best hint I ever came up with (and I've used it on multiple of my hides where it's applicable) is: "Alex Haley". I've received comments from finders of those caches pretty much EVERY TIME: The over-30 crowd told me, "Loved the hint", while the under-30 crowd told me, "I don't get the hint."

 

-Dave R.

[+wimseyguy]

Drat19 the age reference thing hit home for me. I had one hidden very near the #10 trail marker (it's archived now folks so don't go running for a notepad). I used Ravel's Bolero as the clue. Cachers old enough to remember the movie got it and liked it, younger cachers gave me a WTF email.

On my hides-easy downtown micros don't get any.

If it was a moderate hike that could be repeated if necessary I'll nudge you in the right direction.

When I finally hide one that takes you way out there I'll give it up pretty easily in the hint.

What you do with encrypted info is your business once you look up the coords.

But please-don't waste encrypted pixels, bandwidth, or ink telling me where to park, which trail to take, or taunting me once I'm near GZ. I wouldn't have looked if I didn't need the assist after an appropriate amount of time spent looking for your cache already. That will get you a WTF email and then some.

[+cachecows209]

I'm a young guy and iit bugs the crap out of me when I see hints that are for the older crowd that even my dad says...that was before MY time. ... wow thats old Anyway I know there are many young at heart oldies out there who are just as good if not better than younger geocachers becuause they're patient!! Furthermore I like the clues like "think black" if its magnetic or one of my personal favorites...on my easiest hide..."climbers paradise" see if you can figure it out. Not that hard

[+drat19]

I'm a young guy and iit bugs the crap out of me when I see hints that are for the older crowd that even my dad says...that was before MY time. ... wow thats old

That's pretty funny (really). The funnier thing is that I didn't even THINK of the age thing when I originally came up with that clue...I guess I just took for granted that "everyone" would get the historical reference (in this case it was a reference to 1977). It was only after I got some Emails back that I realized that one's age/historical/cultural perspective would matter. (I suspect the same would be true of Wimseyguy's above-referenced clue, which was 1979).

 

-Dave R.

[Captain Chaoss]

It was only after I got some Emails back that I realized that one's age/historical/cultural perspective would matter. -Dave R.

My brothers former wife proved that tome when she didn't know who the Beetles were.

 

Kids these days, what do schools teach anyway ?

[+The Jester]

The only problem I have with hints like that is when paperless caching Cachemate decrypts them all at once and once a hint is decrypted it's hard not to read it

That's why I downloaded Hint Decoder 1.1 so I could copy/paste the hint I wanted decoded without getting everything.

 

I like using "Nudge", "Hint", "Clue" - each one giving more and more info. On one of my multi micro caches one of them told what container you were looking for.

 

What I like is a hint first: something to direct my thinking/search. Maybe then a real clue , but not always a flat give-away.

 

A recent one I disliked (on an island you needed to take a ferry to - about $20 a trip) was "You can e-mail me if you need a hint". It would be nice if he also paid for the extra trip! (Hmm... Now where is that thread about useless hints?)

 

Hints that reference obscure info only help if you know something of the topic - No I don't know whats-his-name's jersey number or 'Bare Naked Ladies' first hit.