Do you normally give additional hints???

[ChiefPig]

I just got a multi-cache approved. The first stage is a micro and the final stage is a regular container.

 

I can't decide whether to give a clue or not. I'm afraid the clue might ruin the challenge. I think the cache location is pretty obvious but I'm also afraid that it just might be obvious to ME cause I know where it is. Right now, there is no clue provided. Maybe after several DNFs, I will add a clue. Is this the wrong approach? My first hide is pretty easy to find so I wanted this one to be more challenging but still findable.

[+Touchstone]

I've seen that approach on a couple of occassions. In fact, I saw one cache description that made it quite clear that no hint would be forethcoming for a few weeks, in order to give people a bit a challenge first.

 

It seems to be personal preference. I know one thing for sure, I'd rather have no hint than a bad hint

[stonefinder]

My first cache that I hide I left a small hint but after a while people were having trouble finding it, so I went back and found that the undergrowth had grown so big that I changed the hint to make it a little less difficult

 

have vista will travel, I always know were I am because I have my vista

[+briansnat]

I always use a hint. To me the point of placing a cache is for it to be found, not to stump the hunter. Sometimes my hint will take a 3 star difficulty and turn it to 1.5 stars, but I go on the assumption that most people won't decrypt the cheater until they are at their wits end (OK, maybe I'm naive).

 

If you don't want to provide a hint on your page, you can offer additional hints via e-mail and only provide the hint after the person has posted at least one not found. This way you can preserve the challenge, but allow people to eventually find it.

 

"You can't make a man by standing a sheep on his hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" - Max Beerbohm

[+Alan2]

Like Brian, I like it when people find my cache and aren't stumped. So my hints are pretty specific. But no one is forcing anyone to read it so if you want to spend a lot of time looking, go fer it.

 

Personaly I always look at the hint. For me planning the "assault" mapping, setting routes, looking at topo maps and getting to the area and enjoying the drive/hike/walk/view is most important. I don't like trashing around in the tick infested bushes we have here in the Northeast. But that's me.

 

ALso, there are hints and there are hints. Getting one like: "Five feet from the big tree, start searching on the left." might work in the Kansas prairie or Arizona desert, but when you get a hint like that here in the dense forests of the N.E., you want to strangle the hider!

 

Alan

[+Ed & Julie]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ChiefPig:

 

I can't decide whether to give a clue or not. I'm afraid the clue might ruin the challenge. I think the cache location is pretty obvious but I'm also afraid that it just might be obvious to ME cause I know where it is. Right now, there is no clue provided. Maybe after several DNFs, I will add a clue. Is this the wrong approach? My first hide is pretty easy to find so I wanted this one to be more challenging but still findable.

---

 

I always post at least 2 clues...usually 3. something like:

[hint 1} nudge

[hint 2] big clue

[hint 3] total give away

 

The cacher can then decrypt in the field and get the level of assistance they need. I too am a firm believer that the cache SHOULD be found. You are hiding it from the casual civilian...but the cacher (with the gps and clues) should find it, or what's the point?

 

Happy caching!

Ed (of Ed & Julie

[ChiefPig]

OK, I think I have decided to put a small hint on the cache page. I am a hint peeker myself

[+leatherman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ed & Julie:

I always post at least 2 clues...usually 3. something like:

[hint 1} nudge

[hint 2] big clue

[hint 3] total give away

I too am a firm believer that the cache SHOULD be found. You are hiding it from the casual civilian...but the cacher (with the gps and clues) should find it, or what's the point?

---

 

Kodaks4 introduced a three stage hint like this. It's pretty helpful.

I've used cryptic clues before. However I edited them to ensure the fun factor. DNFs are not cool, unless that's the theme of the cache. 4 star difficulty or something.

 

POWDER!!!!!!

Honored to providing inmate labor for Admin brick manufacture since 2002.

[+MountainMudbug]

I can understand not having hints if you truly want to increase the challenge, or if the find really is easy enough without a hint.

 

I always decrypt and print out the hints - I don't relish squatting in a shrub, slapping mosquitoes, and decoding.... I don't read the printout until searching the area. I typically need all the help I can get, so any hints are definitely appreciated by me

[+flask]

it depends on how hard i want the cache to be. some caches i want to be found easily, and some i want you to WORK for. i have a couple that are locally famously challenging, and i am only inclined to give hints to those who bring a substantial amount of effort to the table.

 

if i want you to find it easily, i'll give a hint.

 

quod est, est.

[+gallahad]

I haven't hidden enough caches to affect a firm decision regarding hints. My gut feeling is that any cache which might be classified as "traditional" (in the sense that it's pretty much like any other cache and fairly easy to locate) I wouldn't leave a hint. Otherwise, I might encrypt a hint so that those who wished to use it could; others need not decrypt.

Personally, I prefer not to use the hints, even when I'm stumped, until I've made at least two attempts at a find. As far as I'm concerned, reading the hints spoils the challenge of the game.

 

"Today's truth remains valid only as long as it withstands the test of tomorrow's discoveries" - George Hicks

[+Kealia]

All but one of my caches has a hint on it solely because they are decent little hikes and I don't want people having to leave empty handed.

 

I have a multi that has hints broken down as:

[Nudge]

[Hint]

 

 

My thought was that anybody who did all the legs deserved a find, but others who wanted to just get a bump in teh right direction could decrypt as much/little as they wanted.

 

The one without a hint didn't need one in my eyes. It's a fairly easy hide in some tree branches about head height. The only thing that makes it a little bit hard is that MOST caches here are in the stumps/hollows of trees so cachers are used to looking down. This is a fairly short hike (.25 mile) so I don't feel horrible if it's not found; it's short enough to go back and try again. The first few finders had no problem finding it, but the last pair had to post DNFs for it and posted a "What's with no hint?" on their log .

 

Finally, I have a 4-star micro that started with a relatively vague hint to narrow the search area. I didn't want to decrease the rating because there are very few micros like this near me (ok, within 25 miles) and I knew it wouldn't be for everybody.

Based on the logged DNFs for it I've since made the hint better to avoid people searching around an active railroad like they were. (My coords were also off after verifying them twice so that didn't help either).

 

dadgum those Redwwods!

We hatez them!

 

How's that for a reply?

[+OB Jets]

Havent seen the three step hint process down here, but i like it. If you give a hint make it worth while. On one of my 1st trys the hints given made little if no sense to me at the time, but when i went back out to try that one again and dang if the hints didnt just SLAP me in the face. The DNF*s with the kids in tow are no fun. Objets

[enfanta]

On one of my caches I included something like, "The following encrypted hint does not reveal any hiding places." The hint was more a guideline on how to find the caches. I put that in so folks wouldn't decrypt the (long) clue just to find out something they maybe already knew.

 

Ode to a Pigeon: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, You Lookin' at Me? YOU LOOKIN' AT ME?! (b. katt, 7/14/03)

[+briansnat]

quote:

---

I always decrypt and print out the hints - I don't relish squatting in a shrub, slapping mosquitoes, and decoding.... I don't read the printout until searching the area. I typically need all the help I can get, so any hints are definitely appreciated by me

---

 

If the hint is a short one, meaning no more than two or three sentences, I'll decrypt it in the field. If I see a paragraph or two, I'll decrypt it ahead of time and just fold over the cache page so I don't see it.

 

"You can't make a man by standing a sheep on his hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" - Max Beerbohm

[opie744]

We like an hint and only use it if we are getting ready to leave empty handed. If no one can find it then its not even fun for you, the cache' owner. My 2cents is why put it out there when no can find it.

I like that 3 stage hint, haven't run into that yet.

[ChiefPig]

Well, hint or no hint, my new hide has been listed since Sept 29 and NO ONE has taken the FTF. Hmm, I think the geocachers in my area are a bit slow. If that was NOT my cache, I would have taken the FTF on the 29th or 30th!

[+Gliderguy]

I have used a 3 part type hint on my hardest cache. If the trip did not take 5 hours of round trip hiking I might not have given the hint. I make it clear in the main body of the description that the complete hint is good enough to find the cache WITHOUT a gps once you get to a very signifigant and unique landmark. My only DNF's never made it to this landmark - 2 DNF's out of about 25 attempts. The landmark is within 500 feet of the cache. The first hint is an approximate bearing and distance off of the landmark (only accurate to within 10 degrees and 20 feet or so) , the second is a specific rock formation, and the third even tells you which side and part of the rock formation. The reason I go through such lengths is it is often impossible to get a useable GPS signal at the actual cache location. A good cacher will back off and get a bearing/distance, but I want to make sure someone who has just hiked around 3 miles laterally and a half mile vertically to get to my cache thinks of this.

 

If the cache is a VERY tough multi you could also give an additional microcache location that is strictly a "hint cache". Smart cachers can skip the additional hint leg(s), but if someones get stumped they don't have to go all the way home to solve the main cache.

 

That kind of gives me an idea for a brains vs brawn type cache. A very cryptic puzzle solve to go directly to the main cache, or a serious hike to go through a several leg multi before finding the final cache.

 

It could be a 1/5 or a 5/1, your choice...