Debate 3 - Should you let on if your Multi has a trap?

For all your general chit chat, caching or not.

You SHOULD let on if your Multi has a trap

Strongly Agree
0
No votes
Strongly Agree
11
23%
Agree
1
2%
Agree
10
21%
No Difference
0
No votes
No Difference
7
15%
Disagree
0
No votes
Disagree
8
17%
Strongly Disagree
10
21%
 
Total votes: 47

Rabbitto
4000 or more? I'm officially obsessed.
4000 or more? I'm officially obsessed.
Posts: 793
Joined: 01 April 04 2:01 pm
Location: Rowville, Victoria

Debate 3 - Should you let on if your Multi has a trap?

Post by Rabbitto » 08 November 05 10:52 pm

You have designed a long distance Multi-cache. Between two of the waypoints there is a river. The obvious road to the next waypoint meanders along the river for about 15km before people find out that they are about 250m short of the cache. They will need to completely retrace their steps to find the correct road to the cache which is on the other side of the river. Should you warn people about the correct road to take?

Is it all the thrill of the hunt and trying to second guess the hider is what makes geocaching fun?

or

Does it merely put people off by making a costly and lengthy detour?

The polls are open...

Rabbitto
4000 or more? I'm officially obsessed.
4000 or more? I'm officially obsessed.
Posts: 793
Joined: 01 April 04 2:01 pm
Location: Rowville, Victoria

Post by Rabbitto » 08 November 05 11:02 pm

Sorry if the choices appear twice, I edited my post and the poll disappeared. I put them back in and...

Buggered if I know :(

User avatar
Chwiliwr
10000 or more caches found
10000 or more caches found
Posts: 900
Joined: 10 April 05 10:39 pm
Location: Leeming Western Australia

Post by Chwiliwr » 08 November 05 11:12 pm

It is too difficult sometimes to tell which side of a river a cache is on when out in the field. In the case given 15km is a bit long to travel to find that you are on the wrong side and you run the risk of the cacher not continuing and putting them offside.

You could alway add in a waypoint on the other road to entice them onto the right road instead of giving them a clue.

SNIFTER
500 or more caches logged
500 or more caches logged
Posts: 764
Joined: 05 April 03 5:40 pm
Location: Share Hounddogs Kennel in Sydney

Post by SNIFTER » 08 November 05 11:29 pm

Hounddog and I were only 3 km from a cache but.....we had to travel over 70 km to get to it. There may have been a road but we didn't have a 4x4 then.

User avatar
caughtatwork
Posts: 17015
Joined: 17 May 04 12:11 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Post by caughtatwork » 08 November 05 11:36 pm

I would be extremely unhappy.

With the price of petrol what it is I'm sure people would prefer not to be spending time and money on what 'you' know to be a wild goose chase.

I think that this cache would only be placed like this if the hider was going out of their way to annoy another cacher. The hider may think it funny, but I would expect that most cachers wouldn't see the funny side at the time. Possibly not even after the time.

I couldn't see any valid reason for doing this without warning the cacher that the obvious route is not the best route.

To do it without a note implies that the hider wants the cacher to take the wrong road, end up near but not close enough, then waste time retracing their steps. Not a very nice thing to do.

Also keep in mind that not everyone would be in a position to 'gain a clue' by using mapping software either on a laptop or GPSr. So while mapping may help by giving you a clue as to where it may be, those without maps in the field are blindly following the arrow and are even more apt to get frustrated.

User avatar
TeamAstro
5000 or more caches found
5000 or more caches found
Posts: 625
Joined: 01 April 04 10:57 pm
Location: Adelaide
Contact:

Post by TeamAstro » 08 November 05 11:49 pm

A perfect way to annoy people, esp the ones in the car that would rather be doing something else!! We all know we can find these sort of caches, but really, what’s the point of wasting petrol. I guess we would all get caught once on this user’s multi – but not twice.
Clear skies, Astro.

Wyoming Wombats
Posts: 180
Joined: 09 December 04 3:30 pm
Location: Wyoming

Post by Wyoming Wombats » 09 November 05 7:26 am

One of my caches is sort of like this. The only difference is you may waste a drive of about one kilometre. If people are observant they walk to the cache which is only 400m away. Most people that have done this cache have tried from the wrong end. <P>Was very tempted to put in a spoiler but it's fun watching the logs saying "Was on the wrong side of the creek".<p>As far as your example is concerned, I would be <u><B>extremely</B></U> pissed off if that happened to me. Not only is the cost of petrol now an issue, time constraints are usually my way of deciding which caches to pick up. I don't mind a 30k drive followed by a 3km walk if I know I have the time to do it. A waste of an hour when I could have been doing something else would not endear me to the setter.

User avatar
Cached
2500 or more caches found
2500 or more caches found
Posts: 3087
Joined: 24 March 04 4:32 pm
Location: Launceston, Tasmania
Contact:

Post by Cached » 09 November 05 8:19 am

Think the Dubbo guys are the experts in this.

If all you rely on is the arrow, you're sure to be lead astray. Use a map people!

User avatar
setsujoku
3500 or more caches found
3500 or more caches found
Posts: 1422
Joined: 28 December 04 5:46 pm
Twitter: BGNWP
Location: Athelstone, SA
Contact:

Post by setsujoku » 09 November 05 8:23 am

The other option, would be to add another star onto the difficulty of the cache.

If you know that people would take the 15km drive, un-necesarily, then adding that extra star could show that you have to do some extra thinking at each point.
It could in fact save some people from doing the drive, if they just thought it through properly, and used a map like cached said.

president & 1st lady
1250 or more geocaches found
1250 or more geocaches found
Posts: 482
Joined: 17 March 05 9:29 pm
Location: Dubbo, NSW

Post by president & 1st lady » 09 November 05 8:27 am

Dubbo people are great at this!!! :evil: (Mix, Bronze,......that means you!) We have been caught like this several times, and not just on multis. If it's an issue, up the difficulty rating. I rather like the places you can end up when you take the wrong road, found some great spots like this.

We have just recenlty started using maps - that solves this problem. :)

1st lady

Darth Fellatio
Posts: 14
Joined: 13 July 05 3:57 pm
Location: The Dark Side

Post by Darth Fellatio » 09 November 05 8:32 am

caughtatwork wrote:........................

With the price of petrol what it is I'm sure people would prefer not to be spending time and money on what 'you' know to be a wild goose chase.


....................................
Perhaps you should really be considering whether Geocaching is an appropriate use for this precious and limited resource (Petrol) :twisted:

president & 1st lady
1250 or more geocaches found
1250 or more geocaches found
Posts: 482
Joined: 17 March 05 9:29 pm
Location: Dubbo, NSW

Post by president & 1st lady » 09 November 05 8:39 am

Darth Fellatio wrote:
caughtatwork wrote:........................

With the price of petrol what it is I'm sure people would prefer not to be spending time and money on what 'you' know to be a wild goose chase.


....................................
Perhaps you should really be considering whether Geocaching is an appropriate use for this precious and limited resource (Petrol) :twisted:
What other use is there? :twisted:

1st Lady

Geof
450 or more roots tripped over
450 or more roots tripped over
Posts: 1232
Joined: 10 August 04 12:26 pm
Location: Yarra Ranges

Post by Geof » 09 November 05 10:06 am

Think the Dubbo guys are the experts in this.

If all you rely on is the arrow, you're sure to be lead astray. Use a map people!
I must say I enjoyed the challange of finding the right road into one of theirs just following the arrow(1). Sure thing it took half the day and cost me a puncture tyred but sometimes it's just fun to explore :P .

Before I was a cacher I did 1000s of KM of just exploring :) . Thats what lead me to place my first cache(2) and my dash(3) cache where they are and list them as they are. These I would say are 2 of my 3 nicest "location location" caches. The price of fuel has slowed exploring down but I still do it from time to time.

Personaly I think 10km of muggles, traffic lights & traffic jams :evil: is worth 50km in the bush :) .

1 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 2c7b8fd5f2

2 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 92f7ac6278

3 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 93db375ecc

president & 1st lady
1250 or more geocaches found
1250 or more geocaches found
Posts: 482
Joined: 17 March 05 9:29 pm
Location: Dubbo, NSW

Post by president & 1st lady » 09 November 05 11:33 am

Geof wrote:
Think the Dubbo guys are the experts in this.

If all you rely on is the arrow, you're sure to be lead astray. Use a map people!
I must say I enjoyed the challange of finding the right road into one of theirs just following the arrow(1). Sure thing it took half the day and cost me a puncture tyred but sometimes it's just fun to explore :P .
1 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 2c7b8fd5f2
Yes, this one came to mind for me too!! We had two trips to find this cache, but the challenge made the find so much sweeter!

1st lady

Post Reply