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Ban Micro Caches


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I don't see the point in banning or limiting something that you are not forced to be a part of.  The existence of micros is not a mandate for you to find them.

What they said...... :)

You know, I don't like micros sometimes, and when I see one pop up, i think "oh joy, another fricken micro that'll have me looking like a fool in a public area." But then, somehow I'll always end up going and looking for the dang thing.

 

I love that there is an ignore list, but I haven't used it yet. I just cant bring myself to ignore any cache. Even if I go out and DNF it and hate the location, I'll still end up back there looking for it again.

 

I'm weak that way, I guess.

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Like momma always said, "Opinions are like ________  They're everywhere." 

 

With that said, I feel you should place as large a container as you can in an area.  Why put an waterproof match container along a trail when there's plenty of cover for an ammo box?

Cuz of this ---> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was part of my original complaint about Micros. Because they are cheaper “(by orders of magnitude) people are less likely to care where and how they are placed. I have a cache series of 14 I just started. They will ALL be in regular or large caches. I just bought 5 ammo boxes for $43. (3 are rare 800 round large cans). I then spent $98 at Dollar General to fill them and other future cans. That is over $141 so far and it will only bring me to 7 of 14. So before some of you whine about the junk that gets put into regular caches ask yourself the question when was the last time you put something nice into one. When was the last time that you specifically went to a store to buy items to put into caches?

 

You people with 1,000+ finds I can see how after a while you will get cynical. I also will bet the majority of you do not have kids that do it with you for the most part. My series of 14 is going to change a little from what I originally planed. After reading all the negative replies from so many of you I have decided to keep it KID/CHILD centered. There a few of us out here who are trying to keep the “sport” from degenerating down to the lowest common denominator. (micro in a parking lot)

 

Mathatalist

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I'm one of those people that often finds micros to be frustrating. I have nothing against a micro when I get there and find that it has been very creatively hidden or is the perfect solution to the "problem" of how to hide a cache someplace. What I don't like is when I find micros that are boring or that could just have easily been a larger size. I know a lot of people talk about how its the hunt that is the important part for them, but I happen to enjoy looking through what other people have left, leaving something of my own, and being able to write more in the log book than just my name and the date.

 

So getting back to what I was saying, creative hiding or camouflage is one of the most important factors to me, whether the cache be a micro or not. It just seems like a micro, by default, should be something more interesting than just a film canister or a bison capsule. I tend to think of something like an ammo box or medium tupperware as being the "base" size of a cache, and any variation on that being done for a good reason, such as to make the container more interesting.

 

I also don't like it when an area becomes so saturated with micros that there's no room for anything else. I like a little variety, but sometimes the nearest dozen or two dozen caches to any given point will all be micros. This is especially frustrating in a park setting where there could easily be a variety of caches and experiences if only two or three people hadn't run through, flinging caches to either side.

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I have one problem with micros. (But I guess it could apply to any cache.) I cache alone. I wish people would consider the lone cacher when placing micros. It looks much more suspicious for a single person to be hunting in a "public" area than even two persons searching. Two people can always stop and pretent to be conversing or looking at other things. A single person looking about in bushes or near buildings always attracts attention. Given that fact, I limit my hunt for micros, in public places, to about 10 minutes. (Although cemeteries allow much more time to hunt.) I have far more DNFs at micros than I do at regualr caches because of the "strange person" issue. I still seek micros, but I am always trying to be incognito.

Thanks, and please consider the plight of us lone cachers when placing your hides.

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I have one problem with micros.  (But I guess it could apply to any cache.)  I cache alone.  I wish people would consider the lone cacher when placing micros.  It looks much more suspicious for a single person to be hunting in a "public" area than even two persons searching.  Two people can always stop and pretent to be conversing or looking at other things.  A single person looking about in bushes or near buildings always attracts attention.    Given that fact, I limit my hunt for micros, in public places, to about 10 minutes. (Although cemeteries allow much more time to hunt.)  I have far more DNFs at micros than I do at regualr caches because of the "strange person" issue.  I still seek micros, but I am always trying to be incognito. 

Thanks, and please consider the plight of us lone cachers when placing your hides.

I agree that I feel more self-conscious when caching alone, and have a hard time focusing on the search with muggles around, but I don't blame that on micro caches, since I've encountered a surprising number of smalls and regulars (but no LARGE as of yet) in urban muggle-heavy areas. I actually consider employing stealth as a challenge, and when the kitchen gets too hot, I'm willing to give it up and return later. I often cache at night to avoid muggles, but I've encountered law enforcement as a trade-off, which can be a topic for another thread. :)

 

I'm also not sure if micros exist purely to boost the numbers for power cachers. Most standard micro hides like film cans inside lamp post covers and magnetic key holders under park benches are likely hidden by novice cachers when the novelty of the game hasn't worn off yet. It'd be nice to see some of them archived when the novice becomes more experienced and feels ashamed of such boring hides, but making a general policy to BAN 90% of them isn't a good idea, IMHO.

 

Besides, when the owner of the listing only sees "TNLNSL, TFTC" in the logs, he ought to contemplate the quality of the hide.

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...making a general policy to BAN 90% of them isn't a good idea, IMHO...

And of course, that brings up the question of which 10% stay and which 90% go. Would there be a governance board established to invoke a rating system? Or would there be a vote across the entire GC community? Who really wants to take time out of their caching activities to deal with this?

 

As for me, I don't include micros in my PQs, so they don't exist. There - I've eliminated 100% of them from my world. Now, off to the woods I go...

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I say no. As others say, "if you don't like them, don't do them"... I for one do like micros. It makes it much more challenging to find. Also if you were to place the largest cache that can be placed there, then you might as well make it virtual! :rolleyes:

Non-existant = largest? <_<

 

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying... but in terms of the actual CACHE, virtual are definitely not the largest.

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I confess that I hid my first micro in the woods the other day. Actually, it was in the woods, but not on the woods -- there once had been a regular size cache there that soon disappeared and I thought the container I used was perfect for the cache location. So I did something that I had sworn I would never do, and if it had been banned, would geocaching have been better off?

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I don't think micros should be banned, but folks really ought to relax on placing them just for the sake of placing a cache. My area was once micro free, but it is now becoming micro heaven. I can't see how someone finds fun searching under bleachers in a ballpark or a hide-a-key stuck to a stop sign. Its not like these are handicap friendly and they certainly aren't creative.

 

You want to place a micro? Take me to a spooky desolate road and place it on a guardrail, or somplace unique or perhapse exciting. Or, maybe something with a view or a historical spot.

 

Oh wait...I forgot, its all about numbers <_<

Edited by Team Shibby
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Due to my fear of snakes, I no longer like bushwhacking where larger caches can be found. That leaves me urban areas where micros dominate.

 

I grow to like them a lot, even the "uncreative ones". Oh, I'm not really into numbers, mind you. The most I ever find in one day was 5 or 6 because I like to take it slow and savor the hunt. So please don't ban them.

 

In my relatively short time geocaching, I find on average (there are always exception) the larger caches are mostly uncreative while the micros are highly creative so I can't buy the argument micros are lame.

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Micros are like AIDS in a sense. They seem to be easy to acquire in an area of the country. But once they are there, you cannot get rid of them. And they continue to infect the rest of the area over a period of time until "quality" caching in that area is no more. Micros will lead to the demise of travel bugs, White Jeeps and such. Leaving a disposable camera so people who find your cache can take a picutre of them getting there, and neat ideas like that will be onei n a million. Logging a logbook with just your screenname rather than your experience getting there. How can we stop this? We can hide more "regular" caches, and hide so many regulars to try to "convert" that area back to normal. With a big enough movement, caching can return to a place where regular caches are the norm.

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I don't know about you, but I am TIRED of seeing all these micros.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of seeing the same old rant pop up once or twice a week in the forums. If you don't like it, hide good, full sized caches, and eventually other people will follow suit.

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Micros are like AIDS in a sense. They seem to be easy to acquire in an area of the country. But once they are there, you cannot get rid of them. And they continue to infect the rest of the area over a period of time until "quality" caching in that area is no more. Micros will lead to the demise of travel bugs, White Jeeps and such. Leaving a disposable camera so people who find your cache can take a picutre of them getting there, and neat ideas like that will be onei n a million. Logging a logbook with just your screenname rather than your experience getting there. How can we stop this? We can hide more "regular" caches, and hide so many regulars to try to "convert" that area back to normal. With a big enough movement, caching can return to a place where regular caches are the norm.

I see Team Alpha Omega, in his "infinate wisdom" is equating micros with a fatal disease B) .

 

 

Most of the time, the cache location is more of an issue than the cache being a micro. I like quality caches, be it micros, small caches up to large ammo cans.

 

Since TAO only has a few finds to his name, I doubt, he has had a chance to see most variations of micros. Good examples include Fake reflectors, fake pine cones, fake pedestrian crossing boxes, hollowed out bolts, magnetic strips, fake fire alarms.

 

I imagine his vision of micros is Altoids tins, and 35mm containers hidden under lampposts.

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Well, since y'all brought this back up to the top.

 

I was recently on a trip and every cache I went to was extremely small or a micro... and this was out in the woods where hardly anyone goes! I can understand if it was a multi...

 

My input would be... the size of the container should probably go along with the environment but it's only a game.

 

Dave

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We found a couple neat micros over the past weekend. They took us to a very nice park, saw some waterfalls, a unique suspension bridge. One of them was one of those nano someone sells on the internet. Didn't take long to find, maybe a couple of minutes. The scroll log was so small though I had to put on my reading glasses. ~Yeesh!~

 

I mention this because these were nice caches that took us to a nice spot. They were realitively easy to find, while presenting the challenge of being able to retrieve and return them without being spotted. Of course, there was no trades, but I've seen trades in micros plenty of times.

 

See, it's not micros that should be banned. It's junk caches that have little or no redeeming value. (I'll spare you my rant on junk caches as I've repeated it enough times.)

 

So, spare the micros. Ban junk caches!

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Last weekend, while traveling out of town, I found an Altoids tin stuck to the back of a sign. Boring hide, right? Except this micro took me to an amazing public garden that I'd never have known about. It was such a great experience, I came back the next day to spend more time looking at all the palnts.

 

You're right. That micro never should have been there. How dare the cache hider even think of taking me to this neat place? B)

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Our (remaining) cat is 17. She is doing great, but my wife and I live in fear of the day that her age catches up with her.

Our outside cat (not really ours, but a stray we adopted) was murdered last night by my neighbor when she put a poisoned can of food on her porch and then covered our yard in moth balls to make sure she came to HER yad and not ours B)

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Our (remaining) cat is 17.  She is doing great, but my wife and I live in fear of the day that her age catches up with her.

Our outside cat (not really ours, but a stray we adopted) was murdered last night by my neighbor when she put a poisoned can of food on her porch and then covered our yard in moth balls to make sure she came to HER yad and not ours :mad:

Now thats just wrong. Call the cops, or the ASPCA. Press charges of cruelity to animals! B)

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After you place full sized caches and find them muggled and destroyed repeatedly the desire to replace them with full sized caches only to be destroyed or stolen again the more sense it makes to place much harder to find micros. It's not about the money it's more about keeping muggles out of them. In our area we are also asked by those giving permission to place caches, to please NOT use ammo cans.

Edited by Hobbies Anonymous
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I have said it before and I am going to say it again,. The reason people hide micros in areas the can support a large cache is because they are just to cheap to spend the money it takes to hide a large cache, They rather use a free film can, and a 2 cent log to hide a cache and they do not care about what damage their cache placement may inflict on the environment. They use the excuse that a micro is more challenging to find, well a large cache can also be a challenge to find. A large cache is always more of a challenge to place.

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Our (remaining) cat is 17.  She is doing great, but my wife and I live in fear of the day that her age catches up with her.

Our outside cat (not really ours, but a stray we adopted) was murdered last night by my neighbor when she put a poisoned can of food on her porch and then covered our yard in moth balls to make sure she came to HER yad and not ours B)

I keep my two cats inside so that they are safe, If they go out it is their backyard and on a leash, yes cats can be trined to use a leash,

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...the more sense it makes to place much harder to find micros.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just make the cache harder to find versus making it smaller? I've seen regular sized caches last for years and have plenty of finds that are in fairly active parks or right next to a sidewalk. It's not rare either.

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...it's more about keeping muggles out of them. ...

You make a key point. It is about placing a cache in a location that will not be found by a muggle on accident. That's a skill that is learned through experience. It's not really about cache size. Avoiding muggles is the key. Not continuing bad placments in smaller containers in hopes the muggles will go away.

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Our (remaining) cat is 17.  She is doing great, but my wife and I live in fear of the day that her age catches up with her.

Our outside cat (not really ours, but a stray we adopted) was murdered last night by my neighbor when she put a poisoned can of food on her porch and then covered our yard in moth balls to make sure she came to HER yad and not ours :blink:

I keep my two cats inside so that they are safe, If they go out it is their backyard and on a leash, yes cats can be trined to use a leash,

We keep ours inside too. All of them. All the time. This one was a neighborhood stray we were trying to get to "adopt" us to get her OFF of the street.

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There should be a "hiding limit" for cachers. Like one hide per member per month. To stop the 30 micros in one area. To totally throw off the balance of large/regular/micro each is good in small doses, but if you overload an area with too many, you have made an impact on caching in your area. No ONE CACHER, should be able to change the face of caching in their community. Leave some hiding spots for the rest of us, and let us decide what we like so we can hide it. The more variety the better.

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All things being equal, I would rather find a regular-sized container over a mico.

 

I would rather find a well thought out cache over a lame cache (no matter the size).

 

Unfortunately, geocaching is evolving into a sport of lame micros (at least in my area).

 

There are enough "number whores" to keep the Wal Mart Lampost cache the most hidden, most found caches. Newbie cachers are finding lame micros, and hiding lame micros. These easy caches are easily found and found often, so the newbie is encouraged to place more and more like it (yeah, it's a generalization, but very accurate in my area).

 

Filter, filter, filter and ignore. You have to become picky and choose only the caches that sound interesting to you. Unfortunatly, you never know how good (or lame) the cache is until you get there.

Ed

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There are enough "number whores" to keep the Wal Mart Lampost cache the most hidden, most found caches. Newbie cachers are finding lame micros, and hiding lame micros. These easy caches are easily found and found often ...

 

Filter, filter, filter and ignore.

I don't like solutions that merely mask a problem.

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