Opinions needed – Hints for Events

[EnergySaver]

I’m in the process of planning my half of the hides for a joint picnic event next Spring with EcoRangers. I want to provide good “Emergency Hints” for my locations, since some of them could take a looooooooong time to find if your not in the right spot. So some of my Hints might be on the order of 8 to 10 words.

So the question …
Should I stick with the standard Encrypted Hints, as they are used on geocache listings? Or explore another method that would require less field decoding … such as giving arrivals a page of 50 “hints” as a numbered list, then revealing which “hint number” is right when giving out that caches coordinates? This would mean that the majority of the hints are “fake”, to just keep the user in the dark, unless they choose to use the hint sheet.

What do you think … Would you rather stick with STANDARD ENCRYPTED, at the expense of eating field time decoding … or would you welcome a HINT CHART?

[GeoPink]

Then again there are those of us who always end up looking at the hints and can now just read them without actually deciphering…

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later,
Team GeoPink
Co-conspirators to make the world a better place…

[Folk Trakers]

Hey, another person who can just read the codes even while encrypted! It’s become a second language for Mrs. Traker.

[EnergySaver]

See, that’s another reason to change the rules … keep people that speak geocrypt from cheating. I’m thinking that I would make just “a little work” to find the right Hint Code. Instead of just saying use Hint #47 for this one … I say if add the last 3 digits of North and last 3 digits of West and compare to the list … so N43 29.250 W87 41.212 becomes 250+212 or the Hint with code 462 next to it. Fast to solve in the field, but yet not right in front of your geo-nose.

[rpaske]

It’s your event, you should be able to plan what you will.

That being said, I take a quote from the Wisconsin Geocaching site.
–Our purpose is to plan geocaching events in Wisconsin that are open to everyone who wishes to sign up and participate. In turn, the events we plan are designed for:
Meeting people
Communication
Education
Having fun!—

Nothing there about making hints difficult to decipher.

But, it’s your event. You should be able to do what you want.

[EnergySaver]

Thanks rpaske, for bringing up the “do want you want comment”. I Agree, as I plan on doing what I want … or less mean sounding, do what I think will be best for the event and the people that attend . The more I play around with it, the more I like the idea I suggested … currently I have a list of all the hints of the 50 caches closest to the event … it actually makes for funny reading and does a great job of masking my “real” hints. Actually, my biggest fear is that I screw up and forget which ones are for my hides.

Having said that, I’m still open to the opinions of others. No fears rpaske, I will have the final say, I’m just willing to let others sway my reasoning.

P.S. – If any of you are out in the woods and you see little “Reserved” signs in hollow trees, those are not the Keebler Elves, those are my hiding spots, get away from them please.

[This message has been edited by EnergySaver (edited 11-02-2004).]

[rpaske]

Thank you for thanking me. How about bright orange arrows pointing to the cache? There would be no confusion and cachers would have time to chat.

[EnergySaver]

quote:

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Originally posted by rpaske:
Thank you for thanking me. How about bright orange arrows pointing to the cache? There would be no confusion and cachers would have time to chat.

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The park people would not let me do the arrows. But I’m thinking they wouldn’t mind if I just cut down all the trees that don’t have caches within 50 feet.

[djwini]

now that’s my kind of caching.
oh, not really, i do like to search a little. but i like having a clue if i get stuck. i can add the two coords and look at a list, no problem. just makes another thing to carry along with me.
djwini

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