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This thread makes me want to create a sticker.
Not necessarily for signing cache logs. Just because I don’t have a custom sticker.
@Zemmy wrote:
hmmm. Off to “Find” all gotta run caches.
after all, he won’t tell……
laughing out loud…
@Team Deejay wrote:
I will note that Alex is only in second place with regard to number of caches on the list. I will leave it as a puzzle to figure out who is in first.
For once only a single cache of mine made the list. And it’s adopted from Peach.
It was a good summer with all of my caches getting found.
Except for that one new one…
My son has gotten very good at hiding the fact that he has found the cache. He’s now taken to removing the container and hiding it as well to extend my hunt. I think Sagasu taught him that.
He had me going for well over 10 minutes at a cache this summer.
And of course he’s almost always the one who HAS TO find it.
We’ve never really yelled (or hooted) unless it’s something cool we haven’t seen before or it was a really tough hunt.
@Team Deejay wrote:
The main point I wanted to make is that if one of these new people writes you to ask for the coordinates of your puzzle or multi cache, please consider giving it to them. I have done this myself several times with my own mystery caches, even though they are easy field puzzles. Helping these guys get started is good for the longterm health of the game.
I will respond with an “it depends”. Yeah I would certainly be open to meeting with someone new or pointing them in the right direction. However, I have said no to requests for coords on certain puzzle caches. It’s not fair to anyone to hand them out. Especially the previous finder who you know worked at the puzzle and was proud of their solve.
If it wouldn’t matter if they had the coords i.e. the location is too saturated (there on topic again) then I will point them in the same direction it sounds like you do as a reviewer.
It also depends on how the hypothetical newbie approaches me. Courteous respectful people are treated differently than disrespectful, rude people.
Unfortunately I have seen more of the latter in recent times but there are glimmers of hope.
When I commented on doing “crappy caches” I certainly did not mean to offend anyone. I own some myself and have been told in logs as such. Your point is well taken though that there are real people behind these cache listings with feelings who have put in an effort (it’s not easy as this thread points out) to help out the game and place caches to find. So again, my apologies if I offended.
-cheeto-
@zuma wrote:
As to the original thread, I dont see a problem with a lot of caches in an area, as long as it is a nice area, the more the better. On the other hand, there is not much merit in ever increasing numbers of caches placed in boring or even poor locations, but to each their own.
We all have the freedom to choose our type of caching, and that is what is great.
As to the topic that the thread was stolen to, I dont see the connection between “quality” and obtuse puzzles that S|S tried to make. To me, an obtuse puzzle or a puzzle that tries to get me to google a topic that I have no interest in at all, is not a “quality” cache. If other folks like doing those, then great, go get em, but dont try to tell me that those are “quality” caches, cuz I have done enough of them to know otherwise.
To me, a “quality” cache is a cache that takes me somewhere worth being. Take me to a lake, a creek or a beautiful woods. Show me great architecture or teach me something about the interesting history of the area. Those are great caching experiences. Sitting by a computer and googling arcane and boring factoids and then going to find a nano in a less than spectacular location, is not what caching is about for me and it is quite a stretch to define those types of caches as “quality.”
But, cache the way you want. It is great that we all find something to enjoy about caching, and it is great we have that freedom. “Quality” caches, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I see “quality” primarily defined as where the cache took me, and nothing else.
z
generalizing again.
Let’s not let that generalization hide all the truly QUALITY seldom|seen puzzle caches. (to keep this on topic, these are of course some of the puzzles the OP posts about when he comments on puzzle cache saturation in Wisconsin)
If you would like a QUALITY s|s puzzle cache experience that’s not just “googling nonsense to find a nano in a less than spectacular location” might I suggest:
Urban Myth | My Blood e-Valentine – GC205QP
Tributary | Exploding Cheeto’s Inevitable – GC1XPME
War & Peace | Winnebago War – GC1R3PT
Chronicles | Last Trolley Ride – GC1QDHR
Phenomenal | Solid, Liquid, Gas… Plasma? – GC1NJ1F
Roter Eulenflug – GC14T4W
Pareidolia 🙂 Big Smiles Every One – GC1K9ZF
Tributary | Pickled Tinker – GC1JTAV
Postmarked | “Truthiness” – GC1GH7C
Chronicles | You Turn Me On – GC1F8MF
Start Yer Yakin’ | Join the Club – GC1ER0H
Camelback Cinema | The Passings of Mr Pink – GC1DC1G
PUC | I’ll Come Bouncing Back – GC1C9JB
Dark Knight | Super-Serums – GC1B4ZH
Postmarked | Faithful to my Master – GC18ZD5
Pace Yourself, Again! – GC1822E
Boxed in a Corner – GC10966Again to each his own.
When I balance visiting that awesome look-out or stream or wooded path with learning about art, science, math, history, culture, geology, politics, and so much more that goes into puzzle caches I feel I am having a blast. I enjoy exercising my mind and my body.
Just like with traditionals, there are less than quality puzzles as pointed out. There are less than stellar places posted for me to visit. However, when you are hunting caches do you not visit those places anyway? As you rack up your numbers or clear that area? It’s inevitable. We’ll all do crappy caches. I can be honest here. Some of the s|s caches are obtuse and suck. (sorry alex) However, there is a parallel here. You hunt some sucky caches to eventually find that awesome nature experience you are looking for. I hunt some sucky caches to find that awesome historical learning experience I am looking for.
As we discuss the finer points of puzzles versus traditionals, quality vs quantity, saturated vs unsaturated we can all agree that there are good caches out there and bad. If you want a few quality s|s caching experiences you will not be let down by any in the list above. I would probably list more but I personally haven’t done them all and there are still other quality s|s caches in my future.
the fine print:
– I have not done GC205QP and am just advertising it because it sounds really cool.
– Unfortunately GC1B4ZH is disabled right now due to reconstruction.
– Yes I am partial to GC1XPME. The location is definitely not a nano and is a spectacular location.
– I am also partial to GC1F8MF. One of the best Alex has ever crafted and I certainly know the time and energy that went into it.Congrats on the big 1,000th find!!
@Todd300 wrote:
With the exception of cemetery or other marker puzzles that can be solved easily in the field in minutes, I’m not a fan of puzzle caches. I avoid them like the plague for the most part and usually filter them out when I export my caches to my GPS. Basically only traditionals and select multis are on my GPS when I go caching. In other words, just load and go.
Do I think that’s my own loss? No. Just because there is a puzzle cache out there does not mean I have to find it. I’m not the only one that feels this way too.
Feel free to hunt and log my traditionals and multi’s if and when you pass through Appleton.
I have hidden & published 1 traditional for every Unknown/Puzzle cache. With nearing 100 caches hidden that’s a few traditionals.
One thing I pointed out in a personal email to gotta run and not on this thread thus far is if you look at many parks in a puzzle laden area like Appleton you will see a good mix of puzzles with non-puzzles. Therefore many of our public spaces please both the puzzle cachers and traditional cachers. Whether by design or at random this brings balance to “saturation”.
I would never take a park that could hold multiple caches and fill it completely with puzzle caches. Nor would many other cache hiders. Not even seldom seen (a puzzle cacher who has also published over 60 non-puzzle caches)
As for the point about missing out. We can agree to disagree. I like expanding my knowledge of our world and learning new things. You like seeing new places. Geocaching is a hobby that can please both of us.
@GetMeOutdoors wrote:
@-cheeto- wrote:
You can’t apply universal logic all the time.
Blrp Blip geh urt… Sorry brain going a little haywire processing the self-defeating statement. 🙂 Sorry, found it amusing.
lol, never noticed that until I just read your response. too funny. I guess I know what I meant at the time but the thought is now gone…
Maybe it is time for a puzzle rating.
Most certainly would be welcomed by many!
Puzzle saturation can affect the future of caching. Consider this: How are new cachers to begin to figure out where to place a new cache, when there are so many hidden ‘bombs’ out there?
Also, who says placing a geocache should be easy?
You earn a placement count just like you earn a find count, no?
But another, more important point is how these caches are tying up otherwise good locations for other, and future, caches.
At the same time many “good locations” are freed up by cachers leaving the game, new trails being built, new parks being finished, etc.
There are many excuses for not being able to place new caches. Even in the “heart of puzzle country”. Puzzle caches is just one. Why look at all the new places that new cachers like WI.Hibiscus and Hitman4 have found and they’ve been there all along!
I have been able to publish new caches without issue both puzzles and traditionals in Appleton and surrounding towns and cities.
I watch the newly published caches within 30 miles of downtown appleton and a majority are not puzzles which tends to backup gotta run’s observation.
I have one universal response for those of you who ignore puzzle caches: it’s your own loss. It adds so much more to the past time than just walking on a trail in the woods and hopping out at the next dead-end guard rail. To be honest, if there was no such thing as a puzzle geocache I would have quit long ago.
I disagree with marc and his logic. I do not believe for a second that a geocacher places a geocache with the sole purpose for hundreds of people to find it. They want to read interesting posts and stories. They want to read about an experience. Not posts like “My 31st of 40 today as I made my way through Appleton”. Almost every log on my puzzle caches from those in town and from those from out of town are very much different from this. They talk about the experience. I would rather have 5 people visit any 1 of my puzzle caches and experience something new than 100 people log my Burger King guard rail cache.
I do not believe that puzzle cache saturation is a problem. Sorry.
I think I’ve seen something mentioned on the geocaching website forum that the PQ’s run on a different server and it is not 100% current. Meaning they probably have 2 different databases and have a process that keeps their PQ server updated from the one you enter your finds into via the website.
Fairly common to do things this way for performance reasons.
@Bassanio wrote:
Don’t all rock bands have an accordion player? They should. This is very cool and something I’d love to happen upon. Thanks for sharing!
Bruce
All the great ones do.
Congrats guys!!
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