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“As the cache owner, you are also responsible for physically checking your cache periodically, and especially when someone reports a problem with the cache (missing, damaged, wet, etc.)”
If the owner doesn’t have the time or inclination to replace a MIA cache, the cache should be archived.
On the Left Side of the Road...I did that but the problem is when I copied text into there I exceeded the word count. Mabye that means I need to be less verbose… 😆
Also, their picture upload didn’t work at all, so it was back to hosting pictures elsewhere and then including img tags in the HTML, which of course took up more text.
Either way, it seems a little disjointed.
On the Left Side of the Road...I believe it’s because they’re still a little bit of an oddball, and they take a bit more work to put together. That’s not meant to be a disparaging comment, it’s just a fact–you can put out a regular cache with just a container and log book, whereas a letterbox takes more to put together.
Right now 5 of our 80 owned caches are letterboxes. Four are hand-carved stamps and one is an “antique” stamp from an old schoolhouse stamp set.
What I will say is that the drawback of the “hybrid” is that you have to be extra careful to leave good instructions. Geocachers are used to finding swag and I’m always afraid a stamp will inadvertently be taken but so far not. And on the other hand, letterboxers aren’t real familiar with the swag-trading so we’ve found that our letterbox caches tend to get depleted.
On the Left Side of the Road...We never understood the allure of FTF until the first time we opened up that log book and it was blank…aha, now we know….
On the Left Side of the Road...@Trudy & the beast wrote:
The second cache should never have been placed without the owners CONSENT.
Hear hear! This is actually quite common in some areas I am told. It gets down to conceit–“there’s no way WE could possibly have missed this cache, so it’s obviously not there.”
And if the cache isn’t there, and you don’t find it, it’s a DNF, because you DID NOT FIND the cache.
If anyone would try that one one of our caches that would go missing, I’d delete their log in a heartbeat. But then again, I have been told I’m not always the most polite and forgiving type.
On the Left Side of the Road...How many mosquitoes are there? How much time have we invested to get to the cache/how long did we have to walk to get to the cache? Is it a railside cache that “should be right there?” Did we spend hours solving the puzzle and now we need to find the cache? Is it the Xth cache of the day and the kids are cranky? Are we just on a mission to get this one no matter what?
So our criteria is really “How important is it?” Some aren’t worth more than a cursory search, other times we have spent an hour or more, and multiple trips too.
On the Left Side of the Road...😆
On the Left Side of the Road...@-cheeto- wrote:
How about posting a cache with only a picture on it. The coordinates (last 3 digits) are the X & Y axis measurements in pixels of the picture.
We know the one you mean…
On the Left Side of the Road...@Team Deejay wrote:
The second type are what I call “read my mind” puzzles. These puzzles utilize some sort of unrecognizable pattern which can only be discerned by external hints or other assistance from the cache owner. The best way to recognize one of these is, when presented with the solution, your first reaction is “why would I ever try that?” Another symptom is a puzzle where you MUST have a geochecker link, because the puzzle could produce many possible logical answers, depending on the path chosen. In my opinion, if the puzzle cannot be solved by anybody without assistance (and you have many of the best solvers around up there), it really doesn’t merit the space it is occupying. Again, we are not talking about hard puzzles, but puzzles where the solution does not follow from any sort of logical approach.
HOOOOOOOOOO Boy!!! That is so ripe for comment…that I just cannot without getting myself in trouble…must….not….add….2….cents….in….agreement…..AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
On the Left Side of the Road...Well, I’ll never forget you trying to hold your cup of coffee while sitting in the dump box of the 6×6 while I had to give ‘er full throttle over the ice shoves to make sure we didn’t get bogged down in the snow… 😆
This topic could really read “when is it time to archive A cache?” Anyone with lonely caches has to make that decision. Our “Cliché Caché” at Navarino has been found a whole 8 times in just over a year even though dozens of people walked right by it while at the Navarino event looking for the easier temp caches.
But, we couldn’t care less. This cache is out there to let those who want a long walk and a real challenge have just that.
So if your point is to put out a cache–puzzle or otherwise–to serve a certain constituency, for a certain time, then so be it, though it would be beneficial to state that somewhere in the listing. Otherwise, we assume a certain reasonable level of permanence with caches and are surprised to read about caches out there for about a year (or less) that have supposedly run their course.
On the Left Side of the Road...http://wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7554
On the Left Side of the Road...@marc_54140 wrote:
I can see this topic has run it course, and not likely to attract any more serious input.
Maybe we need a new thread on when to archive an old thread.
On the Left Side of the Road...@marc_54140 wrote:
Although they are good enough to stay forever, why keep them when the number of cachers seeking them dwindles to such a low number?
So, I’m still looking for some good ideas on how to determine when a puzzle cache has run it’s course.
It sounds like you answered your own question Marc! If your intent is cache activity, when the number dwindles is the answer. Again maybe offering fair warning or a “LTF” (last to find) opportunity is fair.
On the Left Side of the Road...This really gets back to the attitude/philosophy behind geocaching being all about the numbers. This does relate to the topic, bear with me.
Whenever these questions of archiving come up, it’s couched in the context of sooner or later there’s a need to do something fresh in the area. “We have to drive farther and farther to get caches.” So the mood in the geo-community seems to be that there is an implicit need to cycle caches in and out to give the local community new caches to find. Why? If there was value in putting a cache out to begin with, why not leave it out there “permanently?” Otherwise why put it out in the first place?
The nearest counterpart to geocaching, letterboxing, has boxes you can find that are 100 years old.
Anyway, back firmly on topic, if you’re going to archive a cache, I think it’s a good idea to post a log beforehand giving those who have solved the puzzle fair warning to hurry up and find it.
On the Left Side of the Road...@Ry and Ny wrote:
@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:
As someone who enjoys puzzle caches, here’s my MO. We don’t have many true puzzles down here.
This to me is the key. My $0.02 pissy rant:
Telling me to look at a plaque and subtract xxx from the year of the event is not a puzzle.
In this day and age of the Internet and databases that solve any ROT or substitution cypher is not a puzzle. If you’re not using a Vigenere cipher or higher with a hint at the keyword, it’s not a puzzle.
Telling me to subtract 2 from the number of windows in the nearby landmark is not a puzzle.
Well, this is a bit OT, but…why are these not good puzzles? First of all, with the ciphers, yes you can find online decoders (even for Vigenere), but you first have to recognize that it is a substitution cipher, and if you are new to puzzles, you will not. Even though the gc hints use ROT 13, if you use other ROT shifts many will not get the puzzle.
So if nobody puts these out, how will new cachers learn to solve them?
And for “simple” puzzles, sometimes they are meant to be simple. Or meant to be just hard enough to keep the traffic to the cache down. Or meant to ask people to subtract stuff from data on signs to get them to read the signs. Or any number of other reasons that were valid to the placer. At least it took some thought and planning.
On the Left Side of the Road... -
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