Time Capsule?

[Pantalaimon]

So, I've been mulling over the idea of having an event cache that compiles a Geocaching time capsule. I would hold an event, people could stop by, find the large container that would ultimately become the time capsule, leave their time capsule item, and take some sort of souvenir button, or magnet, or something. People would also have the option of mailing items to me for inclusion in the time capsule.

 

Then, after the event is over, and all the items are inventoried and vacuum sealed, and the capsule is sealed, I would bury it on private land, and put a permanent cache above the time capsule for people to find, stating that buried on this location is a time capsule that will be opened in 5? 10? 25? 50? 100!!? years.

 

My questions are these:

 

1. Do you believe a time capsule event cache should be approved? The problem, in my mind, in that I intend to bury the capsule, albeit on private property with permission. The whole "burying" concept raises the alert level on caches, me thinks.

 

2. Do you believe a cache in commemoration of the time capsule somewhere below it would be approved? Again, there's the whole tacit approval of something buried going on.

 

3. I think its probably a bad idea to have the commemorative cache right above the actual time capsule. I fear the ultimate pirating of the capsule. But, that begs the question of how far away I make the cache from the capsule, and who I tell the coordinates to. I suppose I could be the only one who knows, and I can leave the coordinates to the appropriate person in my will.

 

Any other ideas/comments/suggestions/thoughts/insults/querys/jokes/etc you can think of, I'd be glad to hear them.

 

Pan

Edited August 18, 2004 by Pantalaimon

[+Renegade Knight]

Private land isn't forever. People move, people die, kids sell the farm and developers dig it all up and put in boxes.

 

Unless you put that on public land where you have a reasonable chance of it being there 50/100 years from now it could get lost in that everyone forgets about it and finds it on accident someday.

 

An easment can take care of that. One that expires in 50/100 years. However whoever owns the land or the easment at the time is who gets to dig it up. Such an easment would lower the value of the property. (Or increase it if you put in things like Jimmie Hoffa and clues to the Real murdere that OJ has been chasing down at golf courses all over the country)

 

There is nothing wrong with the idea, just some items in the execution that need to be worked out. That it's buried is the least of them.

Edited August 18, 2004 by Renegade Knight

[Pantalaimon]

Funny how out of two identical threads, the locked one gets more hits.

 

Edited August 18, 2004 by Pantalaimon

[+greende]

I like the idea. As RK said, though, private land ma be a problem. Hopefully someone with more ideas than me will help solve this. My 2 cents.

[Keystone]

I believe this would be a case of first impression for the cache review team. I will not offer any definitive opinion unless and until we need to discuss it.

 

Here are a couple of off the cuff thoughts:

 

1. Would you set up the cache page for the time capsule cache when it's hidden?

 

2. If yes, what would you use for the "placement date" of the time capsule? A cache placed today implies that you can go out today and find it at those coordinates.

 

3. If you use a future date, please note that the system as currently designed does not offer dates on the "hide a cache" form past the year 2007.

 

4. If you use a future date, how would you handle the people who complain about a cache showing up in their search results that they could not hunt for? I recently fielded a complaint of this nature. There is an existing cache page set up as the final stage of a long, involved quest that requires finding several other caches. Some of the other legs of the quest have not even been set up yet, and the sponsoring owners have moved on to other things. I received a complaint about the "ending" cache. One of the two sponsoring owners replied, saying that he still hoped to hide the other caches involved in the quest that ultimately leads to this cache. I wound up disabling the final cache with a note saying it wouldn't be available for a long while yet.

 

P.S. It was I who deleted your duplicate thread. Deleting threads gives my power-hungry little mind a big head rush. Thanks for the thrill.

Edited August 18, 2004 by Keystone Approver

[Pantalaimon]

Sale of the private land is a fair point. I guess getting permission to bury a time capsule on public land appeared a little daunting at first though. But, RK's right, that may be the only way to go.

 

Pan

 

P.S. Thank you to whoever deleted my duplicate thread. - P

[Pantalaimon]

In response to KA:

 

My plan would be to have only two caches, as follows:

 

1. Event cache for depositing stuff into the time capsule. Date of cache would be date of event.

 

(Time capsule is then buried)

 

2. Permenant cache somewhere directly ABOVE time capsule, normal ammo-box, that talks about the time capsule on the web page, but which is a normal cache people can find. Date of cache would be release date, as per normal.

 

Pan

[Pantalaimon]

... then somewhere down the road (10 years) another event cache would be held for the cracking open of the time capsule.

 

So, maybe there would EVENTUALLY be three caches, but the final event would not be created until close to the time of opening, if the world/geocaching/I still exisit.

 

Pan

[+fly46]

Why bother burrying the TC?

Have an event to fill it, then mail it off to Jeremy and let it sit at Groundspeak to be open, aptly, five years from the 5th aniversary. That way, you don't have to worry about air tightness, and five years from now, they can open it on video and sell copies of the tape to help fund the site!

 

Oh, and have it open for people to mail things in, too. I think it could be really neat to have someone open it in 5 years and have my TB pop out or something.

[Keystone]

Pan, thanks for the clarification. I like the idea of having a cache that people can find today, and which then talks about the time capsule as sort of a bonus cache.

 

Given that the bonus cache won't have its own cache page, perhaps the less you say about it to the reviewers, the better.

[Pantalaimon]

3. If you use a future date, please note that the system as currently designed does not offer dates on the "hide a cache" form past the year 2007.

I can imagine how people would be peeved if I created an event day for 20 years in the future, and they have to have that on their closest cache page for the next 20 years.

 

With that said, can't I create the event for 2007... and then move it forward every date by editing the page.

[+greende]

There are some good ideas here. I think Pan has thought things out quite well. I also, however like the idea of having Jeremy & his crew keep it. I hope this thread doesn't die before some resolution takes place.

[+Nurse Dave]

Pan, thanks for the clarification. I like the idea of having a cache that people can find today, and which then talks about the time capsule as sort of a bonus cache.

 

Given that the bonus cache won't have its own cache page, perhaps the less you say about it to the reviewers, the better.

Ya, I don't get the problem. You're not buring an actual cache that will be listed as a cache on gc.com. So you have an event. No biggie. You place an actual cache on private land with permission. No biggie. You bury a box on your buddy's land. GC.com has nothing to say about that.

[CacheNCarryMA]

The NY Times Millenium time capsule has an interesting website addressing time capsule ideas and strategies. Edited August 19, 2004 by CacheNCarryMA

[+sept1c_tank]

Why bother burrying the TC?

Have an event to fill it, then mail it off to Jeremy and let it sit at Groundspeak to be open, aptly, five years from the 5th aniversary.  That way, you don't have to worry about air tightness, and five years from now, they can open it on video  and sell copies of the tape to help fund the site!

 

Sounds like a good feature for Today's Cacher.

[+bigredmed]

Given how fast this sport is evolving, I might suggest that a better time capsule would be a 5 year deal. People in the area would sign in with their cache names and real names. Local organizations would be listed and members/officers would be listed. Websites, and other info for your area and geocaching in general would be listed.

 

You could allow people to send a sig item for your capsule and then put it in a safe deposit box or other storage place for 5 years. During the time, a list of participants and what they sent could be in the active cache. At the 5 year mark, you could pull the stored items and put those out.

 

Even with caches that have been out 2-3 years, we have cachers that are listed in the logs that don't cache anymore, we have people who have changed their cache names or who they cache with. These old caches are themselves an archive of the sport. Yours could be too.

[Pantalaimon]

The idea of a safe deposit box intrigues me. As does the thought of sending the time capsule to Groundspeak. I'd just want to make sure it was welded shut so no one can open it in the interim.