How many hides is too many?

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rogerw3
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by rogerw3 » 17 February 11 4:35 pm

blossom* wrote:
rogerw3 wrote::twisted: :?:

Actually I have been thinking about this for some time now. I do have a substantial number of caches, both GCA and GC and I have come to the conclusion that I will archive any cache that has not been found for 18 to 24 months.
I figure that all the local likely suspects will have found the cache by then and if no one else has come to it in that time frame, the spot (or nearby spot blocked by my cache) should be left for somebody else to use if they wish.

:( :-k
You need to wait for me to find them first! Perhaps I need a concerted effort (and some suggestions as to the best approach to some of the more remote ones) You don't have any of your "VIEW" series near cliff tops do you!! 8-[


No of course not would I do that? I know how easily little Blossom*s are blown off the edges of cliffs! If you want I can give you a list of the ones where you will not fall off the face of the earth! :twisted: :-"

team waldron
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by team waldron » 17 February 11 4:39 pm

I've been caching for 5 years and if someone hasn't placed a cache in the spot in that time, then it's fair go.

I have been thinking about this issue but whenever I talk to "numbers" people they tell me to just hide them.

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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Team Ladava » 17 February 11 8:50 pm

A rather timely thread as I archived an unpopular 4 point multi this week. I seems anything more than 2 points is of no interest to the current generation of paperless numbers chasers. I will probably replace a couple of the waypoints with traditionals or short multis.
When I looked at my ‘favourites’ list I find the majority are multis as so often teams have taken a lot of time and effort to provide a quality, well researched, informative and enjoyable cache. I guess it’s what you want to get out of the game/sport/obsession.
Speaking to one of the pioneering cachers a couple of years ago he felt that 40 caches was the figure he could comfortably maintain and I have to agree it is pretty close.

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Zalgariath
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Zalgariath » 17 February 11 9:32 pm

Team Ladava wrote:A rather timely thread as I archived an unpopular 4 point multi this week. I seems anything more than 2 points is of no interest to the current generation of paperless numbers chasers. I will probably replace a couple of the waypoints with traditionals or short multis.
When I looked at my ‘favourites’ list I find the majority are multis as so often teams have taken a lot of time and effort to provide a quality, well researched, informative and enjoyable cache. I guess it’s what you want to get out of the game/sport/obsession.
Speaking to one of the pioneering cachers a couple of years ago he felt that 40 caches was the figure he could comfortably maintain and I have to agree it is pretty close.
This is funny isnt it? Even though I may (somewhat rightfully :-$ ) be accused of bring a little obsessed with my streak and numbers, nearly all my Recommended / Favs are Puzzles, and Hard Multis, with the rest being Trads usually in amazing locations. And I reckon most people are probably close to the same.

I know and appreciate the fact there needs to be a layer of "good everyday" type caches to make these other ones stand out, and call me selfish but Id much rather have a awesome location taken up by an older Multi/Puzzle Final with a good container that is found twice a year but worthy of the effort then a soggy micro in the same place.

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Zalgariath
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Zalgariath » 17 February 11 9:34 pm

rogerw3 wrote::twisted: :?:

Actually I have been thinking about this for some time now. I do have a substantial number of caches, both GCA and GC and I have come to the conclusion that I will archive any cache that has not been found for 18 to 24 months.
:( :-k
Looks like first thing I'll have to do when I get home is spend a few days in the mountains catching Rog Caches so they stay alive another year! :twisted:

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Richary
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Richary » 17 February 11 9:39 pm

Yes I think it's time for a camping weekend in the western Blue Mountains to do some of those. blossom* you are welcome to tag along with anyone else who wants to come if clifftops make you nervous.

If you can maintain your hides, then however many you can maintain is OK. Though I agree also with the comments about saturating an area and not leaving a good spot for anyone else.

As for the earlier comments about maintaining old caches, I like to see some of the history preserved. Of course we could post a NA log and wait for the process to take it's course, then go and claim the spot for ourselves and call it Whatever Mark 2, but that probably involves 6-12 months of waiting for the archiving process to happen. So if it's a particularly worthy and historical hide I don't see a problem with replacing the container.

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rogerw3
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by rogerw3 » 17 February 11 9:56 pm

Zalgariath wrote:
rogerw3 wrote::twisted: :?:

Actually I have been thinking about this for some time now. I do have a substantial number of caches, both GCA and GC and I have come to the conclusion that I will archive any cache that has not been found for 18 to 24 months.
:( :-k
Looks like first thing I'll have to do when I get home is spend a few days in the mountains catching Rog Caches so they stay alive another year! :twisted:
I don't have any problem with that, as long as a cache gets a visit every so often, then it is worthwhile to keep it going. If on the other hand there is no interest in a given cache, I am quite prepared to archive it and I think 18 months or so is long enough to give everybody a chance to have a go at it.

As far as to how many caches is too many, as many as you (the CO) feel comfortable with, I haven't actually worked out exactly how many I have, around 130 or so between GCA and GC, I will add a few more as and when I find the right location, but due to the fact that most of my caches see little traffic maintenance so far as not been a big issue.

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Hoojar
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Hoojar » 18 February 11 10:53 am

rogerw3 wrote::twisted: :?:

Actually I have been thinking about this for some time now. I do have a substantial number of caches, both GCA and GC and I have come to the conclusion that I will archive any cache that has not been found for 18 to 24 months.
There are some caches out your way that have gone much longer periods without being found. I see no reason to archive them though, they are still excellent caches and more often than not only get found by keen bushwalkers. I've got lots of caches out that way on my hit list, I just need more weekends in the year!

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Happy Chappies
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Happy Chappies » 18 February 11 11:00 am

Hoojar wrote:
rogerw3 wrote::twisted: :?:

Actually I have been thinking about this for some time now. I do have a substantial number of caches, both GCA and GC and I have come to the conclusion that I will archive any cache that has not been found for 18 to 24 months.
There are some caches out your way that have gone much longer periods without being found. I see no reason to archive them though, they are still excellent caches and more often than not only get found by keen bushwalkers. I've got lots of caches out that way on my hit list, I just need more weekends in the year!
Totally agree. If your cache is out on its own then I see no reason to archive unless it's problematic in some other way. Most likely if you archive it it won't get replaced anyway unless it's somewhere particularly notable (in which case you'd assume there'd be more caches anyway)....

However, if you're in an area of massive cache density that's a very different issue. It still amazes me how there are a lot of pockets around - both urban and rural - that have relatively few caches (or none!), yet people will go and place a cache in a park 'just because' in an already saturated area when they could travel a few kms and take people to a new spot rather than the same olds ones.

(Having said that I'm guilty of just putting out one cache in a glut area - but simply because it was the only spot that had the features I needed!)

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calumphing_four
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by calumphing_four » 18 February 11 9:06 pm

fluffyfish wrote:
caughtatwork wrote:
fluffyfish wrote:
Happy Chappies wrote:
caughtatwork wrote: I keep looking at my caches (which the majority are still there) and think, hmmm, I think I should archive them and free the location up for someone else to hide a cache. I think I'll instigate my own policy of hiding a cache, let it stay for 12 months, then archive it. That will then free up some space for others to hide caches.
I'm a bit the same (albeit with only 16 caches out there) - and keep monitoring to see when I think they've run their course. ie: fewer finds, people don't get all that excited about it, etc. Some of my caches I'm very attached to (either due to the effort in setting up and/or the wonderful logs I continue to receive on them), but I must admit there are probably 3-4 that are just plodding along after the initial few months of activity.

Mind you, one thing that keeps haunting me is the thought of archiving some decent, thoughtful caches and have them be replaced by a newbie's eclipse tin in a grass plant. Not that we can do much about that!

Back on the original topic, it's kind of interesting that GC make you find so many caches for your 'favorite' points, but no such rule in regards to your own hides - Guess that would open up huge cans of annelids.
Yeah I wonder what would happen if you could only place a cache for every 10 you find?
Holy moly.
I've found 2,000+ so I could hide 200 caches.
Wheeeeeeeee!
Now where are those nano caches I bought 200 of?
Just imagine how many times you will need to change the log sheet. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
If you make each one a multi, or even the simplest of puzzles (such as add 1 minute), you'll find you wont need to change log sheets for a very, very long time. :)

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Dik:
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Dik: » 19 February 11 10:44 am

calumphing_four wrote: If you make each one a multi, or even the simplest of puzzles (such as add 1 minute), you'll find you wont need to change log sheets for a very, very long time. :)
Yeh. And if you really don't want people to find it list on GCA.
8 finds in 5 years. 20Second Cache

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hgl
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by hgl » 19 February 11 11:22 am

Dik: wrote: Yeh. And if you really don't want people to find it list on GCA.
8 finds in 5 years. 20Second Cache
This is not an area I usually cache, but now I'll have to make an effort :)

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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by hgl » 19 February 11 12:03 pm

Team Ladava wrote:A rather timely thread as I archived an unpopular 4 point multi this week. I seems anything more than 2 points is of no interest to the current generation of paperless numbers chasers. I will probably replace a couple of the waypoints with traditionals or short multis.
Please don't, I think the good multi's are the best part of the game - yes they are not as popular, but they are much more satisfying to do. I am currently working on large multi's in Sydney CBD and Adelaide CBD - and yes they take a lot of time to do - but they are worth it!

Maybe we need to do more to advertise good multi's? Any ideas?

Cheers
Craig

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blossom*
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by blossom* » 19 February 11 4:39 pm

The thing about the multis that take a long time is that you have a restricted audience.

If I'm visiting Adelaide for a few days hoiday, I can't do something that takes a lot of different visits and time to do. In fact, I did try a multi in Bendigo when we were there for a week with disappointing results. We worked all week on it and on the last day we figured we had all the info needed but despite a fair amount of time, we failed to find it. Now if this had been at home, I could have gone back over it all, phoned a friend and gone back for a few more tries but of course, we couldn't. So in the end, it was all a bit sad :( So if you can't follow through on the longer and more difficult ones, it's a bit disheartening to attempt them.

Similarly, if I decide to go to an area of Sydney for a day's caching and there are multis there that will take more than one visit, or may be rather difficult so you expect it to need a few visits, I'm unlikely to get back there again to finish it off. An hour's drive there and another hour back is just not generally worth doing twice or more just for one cache. I do have a few of these hanging around unfound and i suspect I will never finish them - by the time I go back, I've lost the paperwork.

So the people who are likely to do a multi that takes several visits will be likely to be only those who live relatively close. In this way, you kind of automatically cut the audience back to the numbers that were around back in the ealy days - which may be a nice thing sometimes I reckon :D

On the other hand, there are some caches that take a whole day to do which I will plan a special trip for just becasue they involve a great bushwalk. But the bushwalk may be the real drawcard becasue if I log a DNF, I need to feel it was still a great day's outing.

Don't be too hard on cachers who don't have the time to travel long distances to do long or difficlut multis

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Richary
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Re: How many hides is too many?

Post by Richary » 20 February 11 12:44 am

I agree with blossom* - if I am interstate I won't usually look at multis as there are often enough trads to keep me occupied for the few days. And not knowing how long they might be is another turnoff. Any multis I have placed I try to give an indication in the listing as to how long it might take.

That said, I have a very easy multi placed close to home where we had an event today. Got more finds in one day than it has ever got. There are obviously too many number hounds out who just want an easy trad. But that's their problem, I will still place and chase a good multi rather than do a boring one in a suburban park that has nothing to recommend it.

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