Editing D or T rating on active caches

[Team Honeybunnies]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

I know at least one team has had a cache swing back and forth with the seasons, and finally got things lined up to get the WRC when the stars aligned, before it swung back again.

Guilty as charged… and maddening! Doubly so, because I had to replace that cache with a new one in my D/T bookmark so we could be of the right age well-rounded year round. The cache in question is Tischer Creek Cache, GCMRQH. The cache owner religiously changes it from 5/3.5 to 5/4.5 every winter. I really wish he wouldn’t, because this is an incredibly good cache in a beautiful place. But, we just sucked it up and found another that won’t change (hopefully). It’s part of the game chasing the D/T grid.

As an aside, I disagree with people dimissing the hard water walking that takes place every winter for those T5s. TBC was eye-witness to me taking a swamp water fart bath for one of Mathman’s caches last winter, and thought perhaps the world would be less a Honeybunny. I’ve walked on ice where water was oozing through, I’ve manufactured log ladders and scuttled across on my belly,and I’ve been within feet of open water making retrieves. Far, far more objective hazard than paddling a perfectly good canoe to an easy retrieve. I’ve also taken the smiley on island caches that I drove to. It’s a mixed bag for sure, but don’t assume it’s easier.

[cheezehead]

Ok, look at it from this perspective. I’m 6’3″ and can reach a good 3 feet above my head. I place a cache in a tree and give it a D rating of 1.5.(and there are no branches to climb and the base of the tree I can just get my arms around it)
Now for someone that’s verticaly challanged, should the cache be a D5 cuz they have to use something special to get it?

[seldom|seen]

@gotta run wrote:

Keeping in mind that stats are meaningless, it’s not about the numbers, yada yada yada…

This is very frustrating when COs put out a whopper of a D5 puzzle and we bust our humps solving it, only to see the CO decide a few months later to put in hints and cut the D in half. 😥

Yeah yeah, it doesn’t matter, but I like having those 5s on the grid, what can I say? So it would be nice to lock those at a point in time.

I wonder if that suggestion has been on the groundspeak feedback feature.

Good thing I don’t play much or worry about challenges like the Well Rounded ones, or I could see this being frustrating.

Owning so many caches, there are times when I adjust mine a little if there is something very off with the ratings based on find logs. Sometimes a puzzle that looks like a 2 to me ends up being a 4 or a 5.

But, because I know lots of caches DO take part in those challenges, I DO try to leave my ratings stand as I publish them, no matter what the seasonal effect might be. I also try to minimize that effect by making most winder friendly. If they aren’t I will try to make that known in the listing. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to continually adjust ratings based on seasonal changes. Pick an averaged T rating and stick with it. “What about an island cache?”, you ask. Well, I also don’t think there are very many TRUE 5T/5D caches around, ones that REQUIRE special equipment. Even Broken Dam and Nifty Fifty can be had without scuba gear.

To GR’s point though, his contention has nothing to do with seasonal T ratings, but more to do with adjusting the puzzles D rating after the cache has been published for a while, and gets Lonely at which point a CO owner might elect to add some hints and drop the difficulty. It’s probably a separate topic actually. But since we’re here, this happens a lot in the area with many of the more difficult puzzles because area CO’s want more visits. Again personally, I don’t really care if mine only get 2-3 visits, ever. Those 2 or 3 will be remembered. But I can empathize with others who make a puzzle and want more solves and can understand the conundrum this creates.

If you bust your head on a 5D puzzle and are the only one to crack it in 6 months, only to discover some time down the road that a new batch of clues are added – clues which outright spell out the solve – and the D rating is cut in half leading to lots of new finds, well it will certainly cheapens your 5D effort, Well Rounded Cacher slot notwithstanding. it’s the same feeling you get when you see logs on difficult cachers where you know not everyone had to go the distance to get the smiley.

At that point you simply have to step back and appreciate the game for what it is, a very fluid ever-changing, never-know-what-to-expect experience, rewarding you primarily for what YOU got out of it. So, if you solved a D5 and no one else did, you still solved a D5. I know, I’m speaking to the choir, soloist actually, who finds himself telling me this same thing quite frequently 😉

[-cheeto-]

@seldom|seen wrote:

At that point you simply have to step back and appreciate the game for what it is, a very fluid ever-changing, never-know-what-to-expect experience, rewarding you primarily for what YOU got out of it. So, if you solved a D5 and no one else did, you still solved a D5. I know, I’m speaking to the choir, soloist actually, who finds himself telling me this same thing quite frequently 😉

This hits home with my perspective.

The cache owner is free to do what they want with their cache. Everything built around that (challenges and what-not) does not have to be of their concern. If they choose to be concerned about it then great but do not assume they care about your challenge grid.

I once built a puzzle cache based on other people’s caches. Actually I built 3 of them. Won’t ever do it again. CO’s change cache names, sizes, locations, difficulty, terrain — you name it, people will change it.

It’s a game. Don’t let it be anything other than that…

[Lostby7]

@seldom|seen wrote:

…I also don’t think there are very many TRUE 5T/5D caches around, ones that REQUIRE special equipment. Even Broken Dam and Nifty Fifty can be had without scuba gear.

…I may or may not have used SCUBA on Broken Dam… 😉

[gotta run]

@seldom|seen wrote:

At that point you simply have to step back and appreciate the game for what it is, a very fluid ever-changing, never-know-what-to-expect experience, rewarding you primarily for what YOU got out of it.

Wow, you have mellowed in your old age, old man!

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Todd300]

Wow. I didn’t realize that this would become an interesting topic to discuss when I posted it. I rather enjoyed reading all the different perspectives on this subject.

I know I will never get the WRC for the simple reasons that I don’t have the equipment to do T5’s and there are not any D5’s near me. If I go after a D5 out of town and walk away with a DNF, most likely I won’t be back for another shot unless I’m back in that area for another reason.

Thank you all for posting your thoughts on this subject. – Todd

[seldom|seen]

@gotta run wrote:

@seldom|seen wrote:

At that point you simply have to step back and appreciate the game for what it is, a very fluid ever-changing, never-know-what-to-expect experience, rewarding you primarily for what YOU got out of it.

Wow, you have mellowed in your old age, old man!

Yes, soloist, I have. It’s been one hell-of-a year for me and this sport. You know how it started and as it’s coming to a close know how it is ending. What else is there to do but look for all the bright spots in between!

I also have a cache or two built around other caches and it can be a little problematic when names change or caches get archived, but I learned to roll with it. I do have to agree with -cheeto- on this one as well in his summary of ownership. You’ll never please everyone and it only takes one miffed cacher to soil your reputation. I think anyone that’s been at if for a while, especially if you are vocal, develops some thick skin… or is that Roacia?

I have been letting go of my frustrations. Meditation helps. It is still hard for me to let caches go and harder still to see caches that I’ve adopted out get archived for inactivity (Bueler… Beuler…?).

Thanks to any cachers who provided incentive to keep me at it in 2010. Lots to look forward to next year, including some new fun tribute caches and a rather lonely cache I’ve got my eye on…

[-cheeto-]

@seldom|seen wrote:

and a rather lonely cache I’ve got my eye on…

That reminds me…

[gotta run]

@-cheeto- wrote:

@seldom|seen wrote:

and a rather lonely cache I’ve got my eye on…

That reminds me…

Does that mean we actually have to place the cache sometime? 😛

On the Left Side of the Road...

[labrat_wr]

@gotta run wrote:

@-cheeto- wrote:

@seldom|seen wrote:

and a rather lonely cache I’ve got my eye on…

That reminds me…

Does that mean we actually have to place the cache sometime? 😛

No wonder I couldn’t find it….. 😯 😯 😀 8)

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[gotta run]

It’s not so much thick skin as is the fact that my eye no longer hurts from having a thumb stuck in it.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Walkingadventure]

water wings?

Following the signals from space.

[Author]

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