a·me·lio·rate /əˈmēlyəˌrāt/
Verb: Make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better.
🙂

There is a very small percentage of cachers who just plain “don’t get it”. They are as clueless and/or careless in everyday life as they are in the caching world.
Unfortunatly, anyone can play.

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

Unfortunatly, anyone can play.

And this is why cache owners need to be active and monitor their cache logs.

Captain and Mate – It’s sad to see a cache get pulled because of the actions of irresponsible players but I commend you for being the responsible (and active) cache owner and addressing the situation.

If we cannot do anything about the idiots that may come along, the best we can do as a community is address issues that may arise with the caches we own and not be afraid to pull a cache if necessary.

Sounds like a wonderful place. I’d love to have the chance to visit here some time. Might I suggest making this a premium members only cache, rather than archiving it altogether?

@Trekkin and Birdin wrote:

I wasn’t trying to call out a specific cache, but his comments were of a shoulder shrug nature. He knew it was placed to be easily found, and couldn’t understand how some people were in such a hurry. Very nice guy, and I enjoyed talking with him about the wonderful work he’s doing, too.

We want to emphasize that we appreciate the info. passed on to us by T&B in this forum. We’re concerned that the cache in question may have caused some problems, but are trying not to overreact. We appreciate the kind remarks others have made here and hope this cache still has some life left.

Getting back to the original topic, we agree with Cheeto that we all need to be vigilant and take appropriate action regarding our hides when necessary. As for how to head these sorts of problems off in the first place, we’re not sure, since you can’t fix stupid in most instances. In any case, we can all try to spread the word whenever possible to promote responsible caching behavior.

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

Unfortunately, anyone can play.

Yep.

Thank you T&B for bringing this up. It’s actually a topic that has been weighing on my mind for some time now. I believe the future of geocaching could potentially be in danger if we, as a geocaching community, fail to step up and address some of concerns that outsiders have with our game.

A couple steps we, as individuals, could do to help keep the game great would be to maintain our caches from start to finish, tactfully raise legitimate concerns about cache placement (not quality. Quality is purely subjective) with cache owners either via log, or PM, and set a good example as cache placers by being conscientious and responsible in our placement.

However…I truly believe the greatest amount of responsibility for keeping the game great and viable for the future lies with the managers of the game’s largest website, Groundspeak. They write the guidelines and can ultimately decide the appropriateness of certain types of hides and practices. I have personally spoken with officers, land managers and have had a friend speak with a local mayor and school district officials about cache placements. While all have been generally supportive of geocaching in general, their concerns have sat with me for some time.

Two officers that I have spoken to basically thought that geocaching was a nuisance as both had questioned geocachers in the past, one at an electrical box and one was at a cache located just outside of a building. A friend who asked about a potential cache placement in a small local park in Augusta was advised to place the cache at a larger park outside of town to avoid raising suspicions in the smaller park. Not even a questionable hide, just a too much in the open, so law enforcement suggested a safer place. A DNR guy told me he denied a request because there were “too many” caches there already. The examples go on and on.

I don’t believe geocaching will die from within, people leaving the game for whatever reason since there is such a wide variety of caches that appeal to all sorts, but instead could potentially be killed from outside influences as the game grows and grows and more and more people start playing. I could see the DNR pulling the plug on all hides on DNR managed property due to density problems, placement issues, complaints from hunters etc… I could see villages, cities, counties getting tired of bomb scares, officers questioning geocachers at questionable locations, etc…and making it illegal to place caches on municipal property. The game as we know it could potentially be permanently compromised if the geocaching community fails to be proactive. If Groundspeak and local associations were to work closely with law enforcement and local governments, I just have a feeling that things would end up changing.

Personally, as a start, I would support a change that would eliminate caches being placed on municipally owned structures (signs, bridges, buildings, etc…), caches not allowed to be placed less that 50 feet from a roadway, and caches prohibited from being placed on private property unless proof can be given that the property is owned by the placer. (tough for the reviewers I know but…) Anyway, this is just one man’s opinion. 🙂