Geocaching Australia

Munzee's are celebrating their first year but I'm starting to think it was a fad that took off fast but fizzled out just as quickly.

Why? Well most of the Munzee's in my area (SE suburbs Melb, Vic) have on average, only been found 5-6 times in the past year. Whereas most Geocache's have been found ten times that amount in the same period. I'm still finding lots of Munzees that have been deployed months ago yet I'm the first to find.

I've also noticed something else. Munzees have become the lowest common denominator compared to most cache's. It seems I'm finding most Munzees at nondescript intersections, tram stops, and on the back of street signs. I can honestly say I've only found half a dozen Munzee's at a cool spot or a decent view. And I 've found 79 of the things to date.

I guess what I'm saying is that Munzee's are, and will continue to be, the poor cousin to Geocaching. Where it takes a bit of effort to find a good location and come up with a good container for a Geocache, munzees will continue to be plastered all over the landscape and all they will mean is a chance to earn 5 points for a capture. No effort, no reward, no satisfaction.

They're just something to do when there are no caches around.
I don't see them as needing to compete, just as a diversion.
If I'm somewhere where there are no caches, but there are some munzees, I'll grab them.
It's all fun.

If you compare geocachings first year to munzees first year, 100,000+ deployments I dont think it has fizzled that much It is true however that Munzee is meant to be fast and about the numbers, so they will on a whole always be the poor cousins as while there are some great ones out there, a lot of players play just for the points.

While I still deploy Munzees like I cache mostly and Id like to think 90% of mine are there for a very good reason, I dont judge Munzees individually like I would caches, and I hunt Munzees with a different mind set. It is not caching, is a similar geo-location game. In dense areas where you dash from one to the next I have great fun as long as there is some variety. In less dense area I still find the quality is comparable to caching. Depends on who you have hinding.

100 Munzees on the back of guardrail stretched over a few km is not fun... but then, Munzee didnt invent that concept

I don't think you can compare the early days of geocaching with the early days of munzee. For example, the number of GPS receivers in people's hand in 2000 was way less than the number of smartphones in 2011.

I agree with Twodrews that will always play second fiddle to geocaching, but it is better run than the other alternatives (I'm looking at you Waymarking).

True, true.

It will never replace geocaching for me as the scope for creativity while wider then some people perceive is still very limted compared to caching. There is something about finding a box you cant replace with a QRC

Some good points raised here. Yeah, Munzee is about the numbers, I forgot that. But with every mint tin cache I find, a little piece of the geocacher inside me dies too. I can't help thinking that caching is racing to the bottom as well.

Trouble is, I'm a numbers hound (as much as I hate to admit it) and I'll keep chasing those crappy mint containers just to add another smiley to my tally. And I'll always feel dirty afterwards...

I know what you'll say. Lead by example! Plant caches that you'd like to find yourself! Well I'm doing that, but the people who plant those mint tins are not the same people who go looking for challenging caches. I have a multi in development right now that I bet will be found only ten times a year if I'm lucky.

One day I'll wake up to myself and realise the numbers game is for fools...

This getting a little off topic, but I think TwoDrews is at the point I was at about 18 months ago. I rectified it to some extent by focusing my geocaching energies to finding the oldest geocaches in my area. My numbers are down (less than 10 in May and June), but that was the way I was caching when I started in 2003.

Munzees. They're a lot like micros in geocaching. I can see them around for the long haul - unlike the battery in phone when I'm playing.

I think Munzees are great, and believe they are the natural successor to all nano and most urban micro-caches. I agree finding a dozen around a shopping centre car park is a bit pointless, but there are plenty of caches like that too, and the points element on Munzees adds to the interest which isn't there for the caches - particularly when they do specials, double points etc, and you get points for your own being captured.

I find nanos very frustrating, trying to get the logbook in and out without tearing it, and Munzee is just cleaner, quicker and at least as much fun in urban areas. I can rarely get out bush any more and most of my caching is in urban areas on work trips. If all the smaller caches were replaced with Munzees, geocaching could go back to what it once was - about finding a box in the bush at a place of interest, and swapping worthwhile contents.

My kids both prefer Munzeeing to geocaching - you'd think that the chance of finding toys etc. would make them prefer caches, but no, they've realised there's never anything of interest in caches, and they like finding the codes on structures, which doesn't usually require foraging, and doing the capture with the phone.

The only problem at the moment is that in Victoria we've got hardly any Munzee players. I've planted quite a few that haven't been found yet. Go over to Perth and it's quite an active scene, but there's plenty in Melbourne that were last found 6 months ago.

Visitors to the Surfcoast might find a few popping up down there from now on

Scenic views almost guaranteed. There might be a geocache nearby too, or there might not

Tried deploying my first couple today. First one worked okay. I scanned it in situ and it deployed. Old fashioned me was going to give it some decent coords using a real GPSr but it all happened so quickly I wasn't sure what was going on. I did take an averaged set of coords which I guess I can enter manually now but will see how it goes.

The second one said it deployed but then the map didn't show and I didn't get any other message. When I looked it up it wasn't where I said it was and I eventually found it at that very busy spot off the coast of west Africa where mystery caches and munzees it seems go to die.

I tried moving it back home but it wouldn't let me move it more than "500 feet" (Yanks!) So I undeployed it and I can't do anything now except go all the way back and redeploy it, it seems. Hmmm. I don't like it. Don't like the website much either. I guess it will grow on me. Or I'll stick with geocaching.

I've deployed 7 so far and haven't really had any issues at all (other than me not knowing how to drive the website), some have even been off-line deployments which did their thing once we got back into phone coverage.

As with caching, I have found it is worth firing up the Munzee app on the phone and letting it settle awhile before doing the deployment. On the ones where I do that, when I check the map/satellite photo later on, they are spot-on.

Now all I need is some finders !

Come on down..you know you want to...exceptional caches, Munzees with views, beaches..what more could you ask ?

To assist, I have even prepared a bookmark list of GC Caches along the foreshore, which not entirely by accident, coincides with at present count, 12 Munzees as well as the 4 traditionals, 4 multis and an earthcache that make up the list on this ~7km GPS geek trail

Quasar wrote:I think Munzees are great, and believe they are the natural successor to all nano and most urban micro-caches. I agree finding a dozen around a shopping centre car park is a bit pointless, but there are plenty of caches like that too, and the points element on Munzees adds to the interest which isn't there for the caches - particularly when they do specials, double points etc, and you get points for your own being captured..

I was thinking the other day, while out with my tube of Liquid Nails, that Munzees could also be viewed as occupying a similar niche as the late, lamented Virtuals, with the registering of the capture playing the role of the answer to the question, or the photo as proof you were there.

juc_cacher wrote:

Quasar wrote:I think Munzees are great, and believe they are the natural successor to all nano and most urban micro-caches. I agree finding a dozen around a shopping centre car park is a bit pointless, but there are plenty of caches like that too, and the points element on Munzees adds to the interest which isn't there for the caches - particularly when they do specials, double points etc, and you get points for your own being captured..

I was thinking the other day, while out with my tube of Liquid Nails, that Munzees could also be viewed as occupying a similar niche as the late, lamented Virtuals, with the registering of the capture playing the role of the answer to the question, or the photo as proof you were there.

Yes, they are a lot more streamlined than geocaching - the scan is the proof you were there, and you can log them on the fly much more easily and don't have a stack of logs to put in when you get home. There are virtual Munzees too, which I think is a bit silly but can be useful in some places. You can buy virtuals but I think they should have stuck with just having a few with each premium membership to limit the supply.

If it genuinely is about the location, let's have more Munzees in nice scenic spots. I'll definitely seek yours out if I'm down the Surf Coast but I don't get down there very often unfortunately so it may be a while!

Quasar

Is it just me, or have there been big problems with their website the last few days ? I haven't tried to capture or deploy, but the site and forums have been on and off the air with varios serious database-looking erors.

There are some pretty bad problems with the Munzee site - the team is working overtime to fix. They are doing a server move on Tuesday, hopefully after that things will settle.