Accuracy of Newly Placed Caches

Spruce Mooses · Post by **Spruce Mooses** » 04 July 06 11:42 am

We waited for 40 caches found before we placed any, and since then 2 of my caches have been wrong co-ords - one being a dd mmm problem and one being a slip of a finger and putting the cache a whole km out as caughtatwork found out on a very cold and wet day. (and that placement was after 200 finds!) The easy way to overcome this problem is to describe the area the cache is in in the description, (in my case, the top of Camels Hump, or In the Gisborne Botanical Gardens. That way people know where they are going before they even need to fire up the GPS!

My issue is the way the cache is placed, and the container it comes in. There are lots of new ones that are just not in appropriate containers, with poor logs and not very well hidden, or are hidden amongst a pile of rubbish. I'm always afraid of what I'm going to put my hand on in those kind of hides.

I like PBL's list of tips for a first cache placement. I think that would get people thinking a bit before they place.

After all this, I would like to congratulate the Wombat Warriors on their first cache. It was a good hide in a good spot. If only all first hides were this good!

Webguy · Post by **Webguy** » 04 July 06 12:02 pm

I know I have posted this elsewhere, but it does cover a lot of this stuff...

http://geocaching.diveoz.com.au/Geocaching/guide.asp

It's my take on the subject matter at hand. You may or may not agree with everything that is in there.

Hounddog · Post by **Hounddog** » 10 July 06 12:33 pm

May I but into this debate?

I had only found 2 caches when I placed our first. Since then we have placed a few more. I like to think we got at least 1 of them right.

Freddo · Post by **Freddo** » 10 July 06 2:40 pm

Likewise we had only found three caches, and two dnf, when we placed our first cache on day 2 of our caching experience.

Imagine Sallymander's surprise the next morning, day 3, when she spotted Liz and Bruce at the cache site, Hidden Suburban Jungle. There has since been over 100 more visitors, but L&B are the only cachers to have been busted.

Early days then back in January 2002. Still I think the same rules apply. Average the co-ordinates, check the datum, double check what you have uploaded to gc.com.

I have learnt by doing bad things. Some of my beta checkers have cursed the name Damn Freddo

.

squall'n · Post by **squall'n** » 10 July 06 11:24 pm

i dont c a problem , unless the cacher does'nt know what thay r doing

SNIFTER · Post by **SNIFTER** » 11 July 06 11:20 am

The only problem I come across is that a newie is so keen to place a cache that the only thing they seem to come up with is a film cannister(free) a bit of scrap paper(probably free) and ask you to bring your own pen. NO that is NOT placing a cache. It really makes me mad.

The Ginger Loon · Post by **The Ginger Loon** » 11 July 06 11:44 am

Film canister? Take away container more likely...

Our experience is much the same as Freddo's.

Day 2: with 3 finds under the belt and the cache placed? Dark Side of the Moon.

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 11 July 06 7:08 pm

After 9 days and 4 cache finds i placed 2 of my own caches, one Gc and one GCA, now you tell me, were they ok cache hides or rubbish ones?

Sure after a few cache finds you might start to pick up a few more tricks or ideas but in the end you could have a new cacher place his first hide after finding one cache and it would be better than another cachers hide after he has found 100. it all comes down to the individual as does everything else in life.

Yet when finding a cachers first cache hide i do think its a good thing to make comments as to how good the hide is and perhaps what could be done to improve it, never criticise the hide

Postman Pat · Post by **Postman Pat** » 11 July 06 7:29 pm

If you put a number of finds before you can place a cache what about the people the live in a cache free area they are not going to travel hundreds of klm's just to get the experience or the numbers just to place a few around their home town but having said that everyone that I have talked to have been very free with good advice. May be we could advertise mentors or people willing to be contacted to get advice from because If you are new to the sport you my feel relutant to speak up incase you embarase your self or do or say something stupid. Or even if you need someone to bounce ideas of and if people are busy they may not have the time to reply as fas as some would like, so you are not sure if you are talking to the right people or if they have the time to spare although most would reply as soon as possible

Damo. · Post by **Damo.** » 11 July 06 7:40 pm

GIN51E wrote: Yet when finding a cachers first cache hide i do think its a good thing to make comments as to how good the hide is and perhaps what could be done to improve it, never criticise the hide

I agree. I had a few criticism of my first cache by one of the early finders which were simply their opinion of the site. None of the following 70 or so finders offered any similar suggestions.

I did recently find a cache which had been hidden by someone with only two finds. This was their second hide and instead of criticism I just left a pen in the cache and sent off an email to explain that Travel Bugs usually had a trackable 'dog tag' attached (they hadn't found any yet but had one in the cache, clip-on Koala with a piece of paper saying "Travel Bug".)
Oh, and didn't bother going to find the next one they put out.

They haven't placed or found any or logged in for over a month. Guess some others may not have been as kind as me with feedback regarding the quality of the hide.

zactyl · Post by **zactyl** » 12 July 06 2:36 am

I put the coords of my last cache in the middle of a canal...

Had a 6 satellites fix, but they were all in a line... and I know that's no excuse for bad coordinates.

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 12 July 06 7:25 am

zactyl wrote:I put the coords of my last cache in the middle of a canal...
Had a 6 satellites fix, but they were all in a line... and I know that's no excuse for bad coordinates.

Speaking of in a line, Ginger Loon and I had a shocker on Sunday with the satellites... First off it was just my unit, I was thinking it was the trees we were under, then once it locked on, it held lock. Until I got back to the car which had a clear view of the sky, and lost lock again, then Ginger's unit decided to play up. As for the satellites, they were in a line, but we were loosing lock on a regular basis, and had to re-initalise a few times. Had a word with Dave Rat, and he had one or two moments as well with his GPSr. Anybody else exprience it?

Team Falling Numerals · Post by **Team Falling Numerals** » 12 July 06 10:50 am

We had an experience on Sunday (about lunchtime'ish) where we were trying to take a reading at a friend's place. There was some cloud cover but the reading was just plain wrong. Gave up as we had limited brain capacity after an evening of talking filosofy!

Those pesky Russians!

Mr Walker · Post by **Mr Walker** » 12 July 06 2:44 pm

Deliberately waited a while here before commenting, and there have certainly been some very experienced cachers reply, with pertinent comments.
I did wait a while before placing my first cache, but that didn't help me get much more experienced, given the paucity of caches in my area. All went well until the last stage of my second multi when i transposed a number incorrectly and put the final coordinates about 100 metres away from where they were meant to be. Thanks to feedback from those seeking the cache, who were luckilly locals, I was able to correct this almost immediately. I also sent the corrected coordinates and an explanation on to a couple of other teams who were part way through the multi.
Even the experts sometimes provide less than perfect coordinates, for a variety of reasons, but this can usually be corrected if people let you know promptly. I have found a couple of sites out in the open country side which have taken several visits to refine coordinates to an acceptable level of accuracy. This is one good argument for only allowing people to place caches within a territory they get to regularly.
When I started placing caches i was very careful to read the guidelines and meet all the expectations. This didn't stop reviewers rightly holding up approval until they were sure I had put a log book and writing instument in the cache. Hopefully, they still do the same, although i guess the sheer volume of new cachers/caches may make this quite time consuming.
On the other hand, there is now a lot of advice/comments on the forums which would really help any newcomer if they were aware of them.
Finally, while there may be excuses for inaccurate coordinates, one would hope that new cachers would be enthused enough to provide quality caches, including appropriate containers. While not essential, it does add to the overall atmosphere and durability of the game. When caching alone I rarely swap anymore, but i often take young relatives with me and they enjoy quality swaps.

TeamTandoori · Post by **TeamTandoori** » 12 July 06 8:07 pm

I think that as long as the co-ords are around 10 meters its fine adds to the fun of the hunt....
when I do hide a cache I use the Averaging tool on the gps to get a good reading .
Now ive only found about 60 caches, hidden 10 or so only one of my hides was noted as being a few meters out and thats because i made a reading from 4 to3 meters out cos of tree cover. I have found caches more that 20 meters out and so have others.
All of other the caches I've hidden are spot on and reports say they are spot on.
maybee newcommers should learn to read their mannels on taking readings and have a friend find before publishing? I DID

Geocaching Australia

Accuracy of Newly Placed Caches

should there be a minimum find before being able to placing a cache

accurasy of newly placed caches