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I almost never even go on the WGA site and read forums…but I figured I would add my 2 cents worth. I always think of it this way: for each thing I dislike about geocaching there are ton of people who like it and for each thing I like about it, there are that many more people who dislike that aspect. That’s just the way it is. A hobby is supposed to be fun and fun means different things to different people. If seeing stats is fun to someone, who am I to deny them that?
I just checked and I have 80 hides with at least 10 favorite points. Mine are equally distributed. When I put out caches I usually do them in series. I usually prepare up to a year ahead of time. Being a big music fan I use the idea of an artist putting out an album. I try to make each cache container fit the theme of the cache and each cache in the series all connect together. The bottom line for me is that each hide is something you remember. In other words when you see the name of the cache you remember exactly what it was. I think the container itself is the #1 reason for favorite points. Secondly are caches with a physical challenge, people really remember anything with water involved. The other big factor I see in my hides with the highest favorite points, is if it is a one of a kind cache. Something people have never seen. My top point cache is a short but unique multi. The next several are very unigue traditionals.
For next year I have come up with idea that actually may please everyone. It will be both easy and hard at the same time, it will do very little damage to nature and everyone will have a stamper…..well kind of. It will be Where’s Waldo? series. 11 regular sized containers hidden as park and grabs throughout the area. Each cache represents a character such as Waldo. Inside each cache is a supply of picture cards with the character on it. Cachers will sign the log and take one pic with them. The stampers will be with the 11 characters who will be in some sort of custome and caching in the area the 2 days. In order to get your sheet stamped you will need to spot those characters and give them the correct picture in order to get stamped.
Ok John, here comes a post from another surprise guest. As a hider at the Bash I wanted to give my point of view on some of the comments. It is really hard ….check that…impossible to please everyone. When I hide caches I know that not everyone will like what I do. There are lots of people who love difficult hides which involve smaller containers quite often. Judging by how many favorite points those hides receive, its hard to ignore placing them. Now the problem that comes along with hiding difficult hides is the area they are placed really gets tore up and I hate seeing that. I have moved a couple of mine from this years Bash already to let the area heal, which it will and quite rapidily. So you see it is a balancing act for us on the committee to come up with ideas that will be fun for most people. If we made them all easier in spots that wouldn’t be in “nature” many people would complain. As far as code words, I wish we could come up with a mini stamper. I would also like to say something about archiving hides. Over the past several years I have begun a practice of archiving my hides after 2 years. This is a way of rotating spots to reduce damage to a particular area and also providing fresh hides for people to find. The alternative is keeping hides in place and then resorting to squeezing new ones in , in less desirable locations. After 2 years most hides trickle down to a couple finds every month or so. The biggest problem in our area currently is over saturation. I think the majority of people would prefer less hides If they were quality.
For me the online log is the most important part of this sport. If I couldn’t cronicle my experiences I wouldn’t even participate. I enjoy going back and reading what I was doing 1 year, 2 years….5 years ago on a particular day. What was the weather, how many times did I fall down, how cool was the cache…ect. As a hider of over 160 caches in the past 5 years I can say that I know who is going to log a nice log and who will cut and paste. To be honest when I get the found emails I can go do down the list and delete the ones that are cut and paste. I wish there was a setting that would delete those before they got to my email. I take great pleasure in the “real” logs and those are the people I continue to place hides for. …..the others….to be honest I don’t care if they find my hides or not, because I have no clue if they enjoyed them or not.Thankfully there are enough people who take the time to say something, to keep me hiding caches!
As a follow up to my last post. One example of how going to find a cache with coords only can work better: I arrived at a cache once where 2 very seasoned cachers had been looking for quite some time. I walked up and proceeded to climb on top of a trash can and reach up into the top of a bus stop, as the cachers were telling me”It can’t be there its a 1 terrain”
just then I produced the cache!…..yes it was a flat terrain that a wheel chair could be rolled up to…..the cache just happened to be 8 feet up!For me personally I only put the WF attribute on my finds if the hide will not be covered in any snow at all. So a guard rail to me is NOT winter friendly…there is a 50-50 chance it will covered in snow. 1 foot off the ground to me is also NOT winter friendly….not in Wisconsin at least.
I have made an effort the last several years to try and place all my hides
in WF locals. I do have a few on the ground but they are ginormous ammo cans and I didn’t even call them WF. I used to look for the WF attribute as a clue but I never do anymore due to the fact that everyone has their own interpertation. For that matter I don’t look at terrain/difficulty or even hints for the same reason….caching with just coords seems to work better for me as I have no pre-concieved ideas going in.I guess I didn’t realize how isolated the highway was out there. 10 cars in 8 hours would not be a safety risk then. I have done a bunch of caches lately that are way more in harms way as far as traffic. I guess that would illiminate one of my issues with it.
I had 2 reasons for not liking the series. #1 I feared the odds were that someone was going to get hit by a car at some point, making that many stops on a highway and that would be very bad for our sports reputation.
#2 I am really into stats. to me running out there to get a quick 1000 finds was like Barry Bonds breaking the HR record on steroids.Mr G…I know, what the heck am I doing on here? I hardly ever go on here but I wanted to say something about the new feature and to be honest I stumbled upon the forum by accident. I was really looking to see if there was a way to view the ranking of caches with the most favorite votes in the state….to see how mine ranked. Yep I’m a brutely honest person and i like it when people enjoy my hides…what can I say?
11 votes for “Iceberg!” thats awesome!….I guess I have a posse!Well since I usually go against the grain and have my own way of thinking
of things which is opposite what mostly everyone else thinks, I won’t disappoint on this topic either. I think the 10 to 1 ratio is about right.I try to find something positive about EVERY cache I find and I usually do!
My favorites will easlily be 1 out of every 10. I guess I don’t understand why people would continue to geo-cache if you are only enjoying or liking
1 out 50 caches. There is way to much critisizing and complaining about caches, wether it be how they are hidden, how easy, how boring ect…a cache hide is what YOU make it as the finder.I will gladly use all of my 393 favorites up, I think its a great tool for me as a hider to know what people like and don’t like…or rather what they remember and don’t remember.
My “IceBerg” cache has 11 favorite votes and i would never have guessed that would be the favorite choice amongst all my hides.As far as favortism and posse votes…yes I’m sure that will occur but if you find a cache hidden by a friend, doesn’t that make it more special and memorable? It does for me….and that makes it a favorite.
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