Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

For all your general chit chat, caching or not.
Goldenwattle
10000 or more caches found
10000 or more caches found
Posts: 389
Joined: 07 October 12 1:59 am
Location: Canberra

Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Goldenwattle » 02 May 16 2:31 am

I have just returned from a trip away and I noticed that some cachers are setting ALL their geocaches at 1.5 stars difficulty, no matter how hard they are. I find this really annoying. A micro cache hidden in a very difficult place on machinery is still 1.5 star difficulty for instance, despite most people not being able to find the cache. To me it takes away some of the enjoyment of caching, going to a cache and finding it's not what it is advertised as. If I can't find the cache I could presume it is missing and leave after a few minutes, as it's 1.5 star difficulty for instance; whereas it's really a 3 or 4 star difficulty and it's likely to not be missing and is well hidden, and I need to spend more time searching. How can the searcher know whether it's worth spending more time searching, as it is a difficult, well hidden cache and more searching is needed, or it really is 1.5 star difficulty and if it can't be found in a reasonable time, it likely is missing and it would be a waste to continue searching.
For those that collect statistics on how many difficult caches they have found, they can't with these caches, because even if it were a 5 star difficult hide, it would be listed as 1.5 stars, and the statistics would show that.
What are other's opinions on this? Am I the only person annoyed and frustrated by this practice?

User avatar
caughtatwork
Posts: 17013
Joined: 17 May 04 12:11 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by caughtatwork » 02 May 16 9:30 am

I filter based on T and D ratings so I can look only for those that I will enjoy. I haven't spotted many that are very wrong. A different of 0.5 to 1 either way is well within the subjective guidelines.

I think I would become irritated if the rating were consistently wrong and I ended up looking for difficulty 4 caches which were marked as difficulty 1.5. However at the end of the day if I found a particular cacher who was consistently setting their cache values inaccurately I would look to ignore all caches from that cacher.

There are tens of thousands of caches around so there are plenty of opportunities to find caches.

MavEtJu
Posts: 486
Joined: 07 January 15 9:15 pm
Twitter: @mavetju
Location: Caringbah
Contact:

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by MavEtJu » 02 May 16 10:48 am

Goldenwattle wrote:I have just returned from a trip away and I noticed that some cachers are setting ALL their geocaches at 1.5 stars difficulty, no matter how hard they are.
Isn't that one of the artificial limitations of the Groundspeak app, that it doesn't show any caches which D/T are higher than 1.5?

Edwin

Tuena
6500 or more caches found
6500 or more caches found
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 November 06 11:38 am

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Tuena » 02 May 16 11:00 am

I just had a look at that app - shows full range of D/T ratings.

MavEtJu
Posts: 486
Joined: 07 January 15 9:15 pm
Twitter: @mavetju
Location: Caringbah
Contact:

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by MavEtJu » 02 May 16 11:12 am

https://support.groundspeak.com/index.p ... ndly&id=12 says:

Geocaching® App with Basic Membership:
Difficulty/Terrain D/T: Traditionals: D1.5/T1.5 and below

Edwin

Tuena
6500 or more caches found
6500 or more caches found
Posts: 541
Joined: 17 November 06 11:38 am

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Tuena » 02 May 16 11:35 am

Oh! I'm premium material.

MavEtJu
Posts: 486
Joined: 07 January 15 9:15 pm
Twitter: @mavetju
Location: Caringbah
Contact:

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by MavEtJu » 02 May 16 11:47 am

Tuena wrote:Oh! I'm premium material.
Yeah me too, but I still loath what Groundspeak does do to their non-premium members. And as such people are downgrading their D/T ratings, which will skew the reliability for everybody else.

Goldenwattle
10000 or more caches found
10000 or more caches found
Posts: 389
Joined: 07 October 12 1:59 am
Location: Canberra

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Goldenwattle » 02 May 16 12:03 pm

MavEtJu wrote:
Goldenwattle wrote:I have just returned from a trip away and I noticed that some cachers are setting ALL their geocaches at 1.5 stars difficulty, no matter how hard they are.
Isn't that one of the artificial limitations of the Groundspeak app, that it doesn't show any caches which D/T are higher than 1.5?

Edwin
That's what one of the cache owners wrote to tell me why they only list all their caches at 1.5 star difficulty, after I wrote in a log saying the rating was wrong and needed to be raised. Another cacher (in the same area) who also appears mostly to do this, has one particularly VERY difficult cache that I was only able to log, because a local turned up and gave me a hint. Only three other people have been able to find that cache (one when the local was there, so the local saw where it was hidden. And apparently they know where several others are in town too, because they listed their locations and asked if I had found them. Small towns :lol:!). The local said they had seen literally dozens of people searching for it. As only seven people have logged DNFs (as against now four finds), I questioned them on the numbers they said they have seen, and they said the numbers of people they mentioned was correct. So that also reinforces that MANY people don't log DNFs.
If only Groundspeak would give the finders a chance to rate the difficulties of a cache and display an average score on the cache listing, this would get around these stubborn cache owners having their own little protest and achieving nothing but annoying other geocachers.

biggles1024
2500 or more caches found
2500 or more caches found
Posts: 99
Joined: 15 June 12 9:42 am
Location: SE Melbourne

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by biggles1024 » 02 May 16 1:12 pm

Incorrectly stating D/T ratings is annoying and for the reasons given in the OP, but I find that incorrectly stating the container size even more irritating because container sizes and not subjective, and yet there are CO's in my area who consistently state the wrong size. Container size, like D/T ratings, influences where we look for caches and if CO's are wanting their caches to be found, it is in their best interests to get it right.

Goldenwattle
10000 or more caches found
10000 or more caches found
Posts: 389
Joined: 07 October 12 1:59 am
Location: Canberra

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Goldenwattle » 02 May 16 1:51 pm

biggles1024 wrote:Incorrectly stating D/T ratings is annoying and for the reasons given in the OP, but I find that incorrectly stating the container size even more irritating because container sizes and not subjective, and yet there are CO's in my area who consistently state the wrong size. Container size, like D/T ratings, influences where we look for caches and if CO's are wanting their caches to be found, it is in their best interests to get it right.
Container size would be more correct, if when a cache is being set up for publication, when the cache owner came to set the size, a set of questions appeared very similar to what is stated on the site (and which many people it is likely have never bothered to find or have read) and asking if the cache is similar to these examples and the person has to click on yes before they can proceed. Some people would still lie, but it would alert many others to what a micro, small, etc really is, and I would speculate that cache size accuracy would improve with new listings.

But what is it with some people that they can't take advice and make corrections, eg to cache size when their mistake is pointed out? I often think that if I employed people these are not the type of employees I would want; those that can't learn and improve. I have made corrections from advice I have received and considered. It's no big deal to accept advice, but it seems that some people won't take any advice. The mintie tin is 'definitely' a small, as is the film canister :roll: ! Even better the 'regular' sized mintie tin :shock: #-o

canary
8000 or more caches found
8000 or more caches found
Posts: 123
Joined: 31 December 05 6:58 pm
Location: Hazelbrook, NSW

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by canary » 02 May 16 4:44 pm

Let me guess.

You have been to Bathurst?

Let me know if I need to choose another town.

Goldenwattle
10000 or more caches found
10000 or more caches found
Posts: 389
Joined: 07 October 12 1:59 am
Location: Canberra

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Goldenwattle » 02 May 16 5:43 pm

canary wrote:Let me guess.

You have been to Bathurst?

Let me know if I need to choose another town.
:o :lol: :D \:D/ Got it! Canberra through Crookwell to Blayney, Bathurst, and back through Carcoar and Cowra. For those that haven't been there check out some of the caches. And what is it with so many micros :roll:!

User avatar
ziggiau
3000 or more caches found
3000 or more caches found
Posts: 825
Joined: 26 September 14 11:13 pm
Twitter: ziggiau
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by ziggiau » 03 May 16 12:39 pm

MavEtJu wrote:Yeah me too, but I still loath what Groundspeak does do to their non-premium members. And as such people are downgrading their D/T ratings, which will skew the reliability for everybody else.
Or the other side of that is true too - make caches just out of the reach of newbies by making it a D2/T2 and then without having to make them premiums you've eliminated a whole chunk of players.

User avatar
caughtatwork
Posts: 17013
Joined: 17 May 04 12:11 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by caughtatwork » 03 May 16 1:50 pm

ziggiau wrote:
MavEtJu wrote:Yeah me too, but I still loath what Groundspeak does do to their non-premium members. And as such people are downgrading their D/T ratings, which will skew the reliability for everybody else.
Or the other side of that is true too - make caches just out of the reach of newbies by making it a D2/T2 and then without having to make them premiums you've eliminated a whole chunk of players.
Of hide your geocache, list it at Geocaching Australia with any difficulty and terrain and exclude all of the players :mrgreen:

User avatar
Richary
8000 or more caches found
8000 or more caches found
Posts: 4189
Joined: 04 February 04 10:55 pm
Location: Waitara, Sydney

Re: Cachers setting ALL their hides difficulty at 1.5 stars

Post by Richary » 03 May 16 7:14 pm

I think if the D/T is drastically wrong and the CO refuses to fix it then a NM log would be justified, at least even if they log maintenance it is there in the record for the reviewers to see. It is also plain dangerous if you list a T1.5 when it is much higher - people will think it is within their capabilities when it may not be.

Post Reply