Is geocaching dying?

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Yurt
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Is geocaching dying?

Post by Yurt » 08 June 10 7:37 pm

That made you click on the thread didn't it?

A little tongue in cheek perhaps but I've noticed how caches that are not drive-bys in our area tend to undergo a frenzy of activity to grab the FTF then they're found by the usual suspects over the following weeks and then fade away with them only being found every few months or so. We've been getting to a few at the edge of our radius lately and they've involved a bit of a bushwalk usually. That means some haven't been found in ages. And yet they are in amazing spots. It's only a few hundred metres to get to some of them but still they lie idle. I'm guessing if people in the main are chasing numbers then they don't want to expend too much time and energy on these.

That probably explains why multis and mystery caches are rarely found around here. We've got a mystery cache in one of the most beautiful spots in Sydney that's only been found four times in the six months since placement. Even the nearby GCA cache has been found twice as often!

I dunno, maybe it depends on the cachers in your area. I note that Canberra has heaps of mystery caches which are found quite often even in remote areas.

What do you think?

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Pandora
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by Pandora » 08 June 10 7:54 pm

I haven't been on the scene long enough to comment, other than to say, when I did a search for caches near we I live, I was really surprised there weren't many at two Sydney suburbs we were going to. I don't know if they have actually dropped off, or it has always been the case though.

I am quite keen to place my first cache, but am waiting until I get a bit more experienced before placing one, as I've only found 2 so far. :)

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blossom*
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by blossom* » 08 June 10 7:58 pm

I think Mystery caches are too hard for me to solve :evil: I often print them out to have a good look. But my brain never seems to click on the needed info so they remain unfound :(

I've only found 25 "mystery" caches and nearly all of them weren't really mystery ones at all, just misclassified. (That's out of 680 total)

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Gowza
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by Gowza » 08 June 10 8:06 pm

While I am not a particularly 'old hand' I tend to think that paperless caching might have something to do with it. When I started I was using an eTrex - which still appear to be quite popular - and so printed listings and planned more meticulously where I was going to do a run. With my Oregon and it's pocket queries I have been known to load waypoints and go with only a cursory glance. In the field I might discover a cache to be a multi or mystery and move on in favour of a traditional. To the same token I have been seeking out mystery caches of late for something different (with limited success!!!) and enjoying the challenge.... Each to their own I suppose.

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Richary
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by Richary » 08 June 10 8:35 pm

I tend to agree with Gowza. Without going into it too deep a number of my finds are what you would term opportunistic. Work takes me to somewhere the other side of town and I finish the job with time to make a find or two before I have to head home. Obviously even though I have GSAK on the laptop unless it is a very simple and quick multi I am going to ignore it in favour of a couple of easy traditionals.

Mysteries are a different kettle of fish. If I can solve them relatively easy then I will do so, and have the solution ready if I am going that direction (as by then they are traditionals). There are some that just leave me scratching my head though and unless I get a nudge in the right direction from someone I tend to not get around to them as there are enough others.

Recent weekends have ended up in spots with more traditionals than multis (that I haven't done anyway), but I have nothing against a good multi. Also I would rather do a nice enjoyable bushwalk with great views to find 1 or 2 in a day, than 20 boring drive bys.

I agree with Yurt's original comment though, my two local multis get very few finds (and my one mystery even less). Both multis are a fairly short walk from the initial sign where you need to get some numbers which is clear in the notes, but still they get very few finds.

I must admit multis where you have no idea what you are up against can be annoying, and maybe that has put some people off them. Am I looking for one micro before the final, or 10? And is it close by or going to put me on the other side of town? So I have always tried to guesstimate the distance and time needed in my listings, I have one in Adelaide that requires you to visit 6 points, aand I have made that clear that it will take a few hours and you will drive about 11km. The people who do complete it seem to enjoy the experience.

When I was living in Adelaide I was caching with children for some of that time as well. All the kids wanted was to find the box and look at the McCrappy toys to swap. A 6 part multi with young kids just wouldn't work. I had to leave those ones for when I didn't have the kids with me, and also try to pick caches that were big enough to have swaps. I doubt the 5 year old would have been impressed with a nano!

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Gowza
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by Gowza » 08 June 10 8:56 pm

Good point on the ambiguous multis.... One immediately springs to mind which, while it was enjoyable, required me to basically drive 2kms one way, 3kms the other, 4kms back the first way, 5kms back the other way and so on for seven waypoints.... Good cache but nothing about this in the description!

It also appears that in some cases traditionals, that are essentially drive bys, don't get a great deal of traffic as there are not many other caches nearby...

Canberra looks like an interesting case... There appears to be a really strong caching community going on down there... not sure how (or even if) this changes the dynamics of caching... Insight anyone??

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Geodes
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by Geodes » 09 June 10 5:08 pm

I don't think it's dying - but it's certainly evolving and changing.
Yurt wrote:..... I'm guessing if people in the main are chasing numbers then they don't want to expend too much time and energy on these.

That probably explains why multis and mystery caches are rarely found around here. We've got a mystery cache in one of the most beautiful spots in Sydney that's only been found four times in the six months since placement. Even the nearby GCA cache has been found twice as often!
I don't think it's necessarily about the numbers - although they're undoubtedly a factor for many people. In my case, I spent quite a while trying to keep the Melbourne suburbs clear - but over the last year, it's gotten out of hand and I eventually decided that I didn't really like doing inner suburban and CBD caches very much at all - especially as they're mostly micros and nanos. They're usually in places I've been to before and often they're in places I didn't really need to see the first time I was there so, while I may occasionally do a bit of an inner suburban sweep, I don't really want to spend much time on any of them and I'll skip any that look as though they'll hold me up.

As for country caches - there are so many to chose from these days that I tend to plan a day out based on the road trip rather than the caches and my latest caching aim is to try to get a lot more (widely spaced) "dots" on my finds map as I've become a bit envious of those teams whose finds maps show that they've seen a lot of the country. With this in mind, I like caches that are easily planned - which may exclude multis if it's not evident about what I'm going to be in for - and definitely includes drive-bys. I do think that "dots" on major routes look less impressive than those off the beaten track, so I do try to get away from the main routes when I can easily incorporate such diversions, but I don't like backtracking and I prefer caches that are on a route that leads somewhere else.

It's not (totally) about the numbers and I'll often pass up on several caches clustered closely together as I only need one of them to show up as a dot on my map - I'll usually approach a township by spiraling in to it and getting the perimeter caches in preference to those in its centre.

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rogerw3
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Re: Is Geocaching dying?

Post by rogerw3 » 09 June 10 6:20 pm

:-k
If you think that some metro caches are being ignored, you should try some of the Blue mountains caches, there seem to be a number of regulars that do them and then only occasionally do they get found, at least the ones away from the tourist spots.
And yet there are some really amazing places to go to, for instance on Monday I went to GCKM2V Hanging Rock, yes I know it is not a GCA cache and what is more it is in a National Park (but well placed and very unlikely to cause any problems) anyway in my case it involved a 18km walk so that mean you will not get many caches per day, but the location is truly amazing and worth every effort in getting (you don't have to walk ALL the way).
Today I was planning on doing GCKM2W Hay Hay Its... but the weather turned against me so did not go, the 40 odd km walk really mean I should wait for summer and longer daylight. But again this is an incredible part of the world and there are many such all over Australia, so cachers do yourself a favor and don't cache for the numbers only, sometimes it is even more rewarding if you only do one cache in your day.

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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by CraigRat » 09 June 10 6:22 pm

I basically filter out puzzles and multis nowadays, all my caching is sporadic and opportunistic.

There are lots of people out there like me who just don't have the time or the drive to cache at every spare moment. I don't think i'm in the minority either.

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nibbler
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by nibbler » 09 June 10 7:21 pm

I may be a little different to others. I basically geocache when I am on holidays because it always takes you to places you may not otherwise find on your own.
Multi's do a few...puzzles not my bag and I may be wrong but many rely on previous knowledge or hints from other puzzles so avoid happily
Have found that lately there are a lot of what I would say IMHO pointless caches with no real value from a history or beautiful place view. This may be turning people off alittle. But I dont see geocaching dying
:)

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tronador
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Re: Is Geocaching dying?

Post by tronador » 09 June 10 11:01 pm

rogerw3 wrote::-k

And yet there are some really amazing places to go to, for instance on Monday I went to GCKM2V Hanging Rock, yes I know it is not a GCA cache and what is more it is in a National Park (but well placed and very unlikely to cause any problems) anyway in my case it involved a 18km walk
:shock:
Which way did you go???? :shock: Nothing wrong with an 18km walk but there is a shorter way to this cache. I walked from the locked gate and it's only 7km return. Unless of course you were out on a day walk and picked this up along the way??

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GJMMelb
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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by GJMMelb » 09 June 10 11:08 pm

nibbler wrote:I may be a little different to others.
We're a bit different again ... We have only been caching since September last year and havent even cleared our 10km radius yet lol - still 91 to go lol .... :shock: :shock: :shock:

BUT ....we are different in that we do actively seek out puzzle caches now and out of 275 total caches found we have done 51 puzzles which is roughly 18.5% of our caches - yep we're weird lolol .... we also have some solved puzzles waiting for us to be in the given areas. (This is NOT TO SAY we can solve all puzzles BY ANY MEANS but we do enjoy (( :!: SOME :!: )) of them unlike a lot of people lol............ it's also why 7 of the 10 caches we have hidden are puzzles!! ) We actually decided to go to Phillip Island for our holiday during the April School Holidays coz there were so many Puzzle caches there!! :lol:

Having said that we also sometimes plan a day (haha make that 1/2 a day if lucky :D ) along the way to some destination and usually grab mostly traditionals and the odd multi on the way (especially if it is really close to a tradtional) as we usually have time constraints especially with it getting dark so early at the moment and so dont always do all the multis. Therefore 169 of our 275 caches are traditionals. I think that we will again do more multis once the weather warms up (but not too warm!!) and it stays lighter longer so we have more time. We also sometimes plan a day around ending up at solved puzzle/s.

Now having said all the above - we do want to try to clear the 10km radius so will concentrate on that over the next little while with the odd puzzle trip lol.

It's what is so GREAT about this game - you can do what you want to do, when you want to, and you dont have to do every cache or in any particular order!!

GJMMelb

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rogerw3
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Re: Is Geocaching dying?

Post by rogerw3 » 09 June 10 11:11 pm

tronador wrote:
rogerw3 wrote::-k

And yet there are some really amazing places to go to, for instance on Monday I went to GCKM2V Hanging Rock, yes I know it is not a GCA cache and what is more it is in a National Park (but well placed and very unlikely to cause any problems) anyway in my case it involved a 18km walk
:shock:
Which way did you go???? :shock: Nothing wrong with an 18km walk but there is a shorter way to this cache. I walked from the locked gate and it's only 7km return. Unless of course you were out on a day walk and picked this up along the way??
Not if you walk from Leura train station! You can double the distance then.

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tronador
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Re: Is Geocaching dying?

Post by tronador » 09 June 10 11:15 pm

rogerw3 wrote:
tronador wrote:
rogerw3 wrote::-k

And yet there are some really amazing places to go to, for instance on Monday I went to GCKM2V Hanging Rock, yes I know it is not a GCA cache and what is more it is in a National Park (but well placed and very unlikely to cause any problems) anyway in my case it involved a 18km walk
:shock:
Which way did you go???? :shock: Nothing wrong with an 18km walk but there is a shorter way to this cache. I walked from the locked gate and it's only 7km return. Unless of course you were out on a day walk and picked this up along the way??
Not if you walk from Leura train station! You can double the distance then.
=D> Nice! =D> Blackheath would have been closer.

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Re: Is geocaching dying?

Post by Rabbitto » 09 June 10 11:44 pm

GJMMelb wrote: BUT ....we are different in that we do actively seek out puzzle caches now and out of 275 total caches found we have done 51 puzzles which is roughly 18.5% of our caches - yep we're weird lolol ....
We still rarely go to an area without trying to complete all caches of all cache types within that area and our Traditional cache percentage still sits at 68.6%, which I imagine may be one of the lowest within the '000s finders. I know that Team Rubik is lower at 60% which is a jolly good effort. I think that most others would fall into 70%+ bracket. Is there a caughtatwork graph for this somewhere?

As a back up to the theory that modern day cacher is scared of a multi (there, I said it), two new caches were released not too far away from my work a month ago. One was a traditional and one was reasonably simple multi. Both caches could be grabbed with one park of the car. I wandered past on the way home on the second day after the release. I was 6TF on the traditional and 3TF on the multi. Could not believe that three out of the first five cachers just chucked away an extra cache find with very little extra effort because it was a .... :-# .... multi.

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